Killed By Death

In retrospect, it seems strange that the Buffy production team should have followed up the intensity of ‘Passion’ with this one-shot tale of dark fantasy; Jenny’s death is only mentioned in passing by Joyce in one scene with Giles, and there’s no real attempt to deal with the emotional fall-out. It’s forgivable, however, when we reflect that the next time the series had to deal with the death of a major (good) character in ‘The Body’, it was done so perfectly. Instead, we begin with Sunnydale in the grip of a flu virus to which Buffy is no more immune than anybody else, and a brief skirmish with Angelus (which was in any case probably at least 50% contractual given his appearances this season in episodes where he isn’t the main villain) puts her in hospital.

‘Killed by Death’ is in some ways a brave episode. The death of children, particularly in hospital, isn’t something for any drama series to take lightly, as it’s bound to upset somebody at some point. The episode gets around it by making it a personal issue for Buffy- Der Kindestod killed her cousin and she was powerless to help. In some ways it’s also a corrective to ‘Passion’, as it puts a heroic Buffy firmly centre stage throughout, culminating in the hilarious child’s picture at the end of the episode- Buffy triumphant, but we know that what Joyce sees as a bloodthirsty child’s drawing reflects what actually happened. That’s not to say that the other regulars don’t get their moments- there are a lot of group and character scenes which add to the enjoyment of the episode, particularly Xander and Cordelia’s “watch my back” scene and Xander and Angelus facing off, but also Buffy’s interaction with Willow, which is now working on an almost subliminal level. It’s just a shame that the “watch my back” scene wasn’t read by anybody involved on the costume side, as the whole point is ruined by the fact that Cordy is wearing a cardigan and a dark skirt which if anything obscure her bottom- surely it ought to be emphasised? And the fact that Giles brings Buffy a brown paper bag of grapes is a wonderful example of how the series understands English understatement as a way of expressing emotion.

It has to be said, however, that Kindestod is a difficult villain to try to evaluate. In one way a straightforward gross-out demon, he doesn’t have much personality- which may be part of the point, considering that he’s meant to be a personification of child death. The emphasis is on the damage he does, rather than why he does it, and on Buffy’s need to avenge the death of her cousin Celia. It’s perhaps something the production team realised when they made his modus operandi quite so repellent, and to be honest it does make him memorable. Richard Herd has a nice little cameo- it’s nice to see the show getting character actors to play that kind of role- which gives me the opportunity to tell you about the one time I met him, in the gents at the SFX convention in 2003. I was leaving and he was one of about 20 people charging their way in; I’d forgotten that I was in London and that people don’t allow you to get past unless you shove. “You’ll never get out!” he said, although in the end I realised that I probably didn’t want to prove him right by still being there and asserted myself. I’m sure Buffy had something to do with that.