Episode 13
-The Viewers – Groups & individuals
– Being a Scooby - Conclusion –
Spicy extras for Nick Brendon fans -
Dan
Vebber, who wrote Lovers Walk, also penned The Zeppo. There are definite similarities between
the two episodes. Both are character-centric,
and like Spike, Xander makes a journey from dejection to self-confidence. Only Xander does it his way. He tries to be helpful, not destructive; he
takes a low-key approach, not a disruptive one. In fact, no one even notices his Big Adventure. At the end of Lovers Walk, Spike
raucously roars off in his DeSoto, singing at the top of his lungs. But at the end of The Zeppo, Xander quietly gives up the fancy wheels and doesn’t
have word to say. He’s not about
the heat; he’s about the cool. And the
lessons Xander learns, and the confidence he gains, are much more real and
lasting.
The Zeppo is an odd offering, and a challenge for
the viewer with an analytical eye. For
one thing, ME is openly and deliberately toying with us. The entire episode, most particularly the
Buffy-side of the story, is presented with tongue firmly planted in cheek:
So, now that we’re
very clear on our perspective as Viewers, let’s muddy it. Xander is a character on BtVS and clearly
part of the Buffyverse. But in The
Zeppo, he almost makes the crossover into our Universe. Like us, he watches the “usual” storyline
from the sidelines – he’s “fray-adjacent,” as Buffy suggests he should be. He’s “show adjacent,” just as we are. And as Everyman, he has always been our
on-screen representative. When he
beckons Angel forward at The Bronze, with those large, backward sweeps of his
arms, I find myself leaning forward – Xander is the only character we might
actually find in our home, and only Xander can invite us into an episode that
requires our participation. Don’t be
like Giles, gentle Viewer, on whom Xander’s Jimmy Olsen joke is lost. See the parody behind the serious
presentation, and join in the fun.
So
Xander, who can’t seem to beg or buy full acceptance into a group in this episode, is a part of the biggest
group of all: The Viewers. Groups, their missions and their defining
characteristics are mentioned over and over. There’s the Sisterhood of Jhe, and the Scooby gang. There’s The Watcher’s Council, which has
thrown Giles out on his ear, and The Spirit Guides, who also won’t give Giles
the time of day. Then there’s Xander’s
blonde, car-crazy date for the evening, who tries to add Xander to her club of
boyfriends with cool cars. And of
course, there’s Jack O’Toole and his merry band o’ corpses.
Groups and
individuals are both presented as being made up of parts. The word “part” is used many times, and we see,
and hear talk of, the cutting of parts and pieces from the whole (e.g.,
Cordelia is the “surgeon” of mean, Jack is going to slice Xander into
pieces). What defines a group is
paralleled with what defines a person, and what we learn is that a group needs
all of its parts to succeed, and a person too, must integrate and accept all
aspects of himself in order to learn and grow and succeed.
WHAT DEFINES A
GROUP: A group is defined by its
characteristics as well as its mission.
Many references to qualities like cool or courage or physical ability,
and to “business” and “busy”ness underscore this message. Some examples of groups that are defined by
both characteristics and mission:
WHAT DEFINES A
PERSON: After Xander successfully begs
his jock classmate, Doug, to throw him a football, he says: “All right!
It’s all me!!” Xander is
helpful, loving, klutzy, and funny. He
wants acceptance, love and sex. There’s
all that, and more. It’s all him. His characteristics and his goals define
him. But is he a Scooby?
Cordelia
postulates that what makes one a Scooby is the superpowers. That leaves Xander out, as surely as being
alive leaves him out of Jack’s gang.
But what we learn by the end of the episode is that what Scoobies have
in common is not superpowers, but their bravery and their devotion to the
Slayer’s mission: Doing good and saving
the innocent. Does Xander fit in? Hell, yes.
He meets the criteria – no problem.
He proves it during his journey.
First he saves Faith from the Jhe Sister, when he could have driven on
by the dangerous scene. Then he saves
Buffy & the gang (and by saving them, he also saves the world) when he
stares down Jack O’Toole and his ticking bomb.
Xander’s not willing to die to be part of Jack’s gang of hell
raisers. But he’s willing to accept
death to further the Slayer’s mission.
It’s an unmistakable indication that Xander has what it takes to be part
of the Buffy’s entourage: Courage and
Commitment. He is one of them.
The Scoobies need
Xander, whether they know it or not – as even a monster needs a heart (two
demons are defeated by stabbing them in the heart), or even a dead guy needs a
head (two of them lose their heads). As
Xander tells Jack, you’re really dead when you don’t hang together, when you’re
“little bits being swept up by the janitor” dead.
We
see many images of consumption in this episode. There are many references to food and
eating, there’s the sex, there’s the constant use of the word “open”, and
there’s the images of cutting. What we
consume, what we allow in, what we internalize, is reflected in the face we
show to the external, the shared world.
By the end of the
episode, Xander has stopped allowing Jack’s or Cordelia’s or Buffy’s or the
Scoobies’ opinions of him to define who he is.
They think they know him, and in many ways, they do. But what is really important is that he now
knows himself. Xander interrogates Oz
about why Oz is cool, wondering if it is Oz’s guitar playing, or the short,
non-committal phrases he uses. But
later, we see Oz’s secret, when he arrives to lock himself in the cage:
Giles (looking at
his watch): “Uhm, you’re cutting it a
bit close.”
Oz: “Well, you know me.”
But the point here
is that Oz knows himself; he can cut it close because he knows exactly when
it’s time for the cage. And note that
Oz, despite those three days a month when he totally loses his cool, is still
cool because he has understood and accepted that part of himself. That’s the secret of being cool, and it’s a
secret that Xander discovers for himself.
In an episode full
of quantifying and counting, Xander has understood what really counts. There may be a man with a gun behind the
counter (like the Armenian shopkeeper who shot Bob), but Xander has a life to
lead before that counter ticks off its last second, before the man with the gun
(who waits for all of us behind the counter) takes his shot, and we continue to
change for awhile (like Jack’s progressively more decayed friends) even after
death.
And he’s not dead
yet, so Xander is hardly through growing and changing. Images and mention of change (e.g., “new and
improved” demons, Jack kicking Xander’s ass into a “brand new shape”) tell us
that Xander isn’t done changing yet – in fact, like the rest of us, he never
really will be. But Xander has become a
man. He’s completed all the ritual
rites of passage in one night: He defeats a male foe, he saves a damsel, and he
has sex with said damsel. He’s shaky
when he first claims, to Cordelia, that he’s an “integral part” of Buffy’s
group. But by the end of The Zeppo,
he’s integrated and accepted his own characteristics, he’s discovered his own
uniqueness, and in doing so, he’s proven himself integral indeed.
Early in the
episode, Xander mentions Michael Jackson’s song, You Wanna be Startin’ Somethin’
to Jack O’Toole. Let’s end with a quote
from the last verse of that song:
Lift your head up high
And scream out to the world
I know I am someone
And let the truth unfurl
No one can hurt you now
Because you know what's true
Yes, I believe in me
So you believe in you.
Spicy
Extras for Nick Brendon fans