'Teacher's Pet': A Review of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 1, Episode 4

We begin "Teacher's Pet" with Xander daydreaming. Pretty much most of what you need to know about the main theme of the episode is set up right from the start. Xander is striving for a traditional, patriarchal masculinity. He wants to save the damsel in distress—here, it's Buffy—and pull off an awesome guitar solo as well.

Buffy is so far from being the damsel in distress, it's probably meant to be amusing that Xander's fantasy is so removed from reality. However, his dream of macho power relies on dis-empowering Buffy, which I find disturbing.

His fantasy is shattered when Buffy tells him that he's drooling, giving a nice contrast between the daydream and the real world. We'll have to wait and see whether the rest of the episode provides a sufficient challenge to Xander's ideas of masculinity.

Xander Drools, Buffy Rules

At the Bronze, our local douche-bag Blaine is bragging to a friend about how many times he's "scored." Xander offers no challenge to Blaine, and instead tries to fit in by pretending Buffy and Willow are his dates. In a classic Xander move, he hides his insecurity with humour, joking about his non-existent "conquests."

Xander is framed in this scene as better than Blaine, because he's not showing off about his sexual experience, but he's far from perfect because he still tries to fit into this narrow definition of manhood by clutching at Buffy and Willow.

When Angel appears and starts talking to Buffy, Xander's jealousy is there for all to see. He says angrily that Angel is a "very attractive man" and wonders: "how come that never came up?" The writers probably intended this line to show how insecure Xander is about his own attractiveness, and his jealousy that Buffy is with another man. But we can't rule out the possibility that Xander is, in fact, attracted to Angel himself. We all feel jealous from time to time, but with Xander, it's one of his least attractive qualities.

Fertilise my eggs, baby.

At school, there's a new teacher slow-motion walking towards the gang. Hi there, Miss French. The "tribal" music which accompanies her somewhat cliched entrance is described by Jenny Owen Youngs (Buffering the Vampire Slayer) as "unfortunate." I completely agree with this assessment, because the association of tribal cultures and "primal urges" is problematic and I don't really want to know what's going on in Xander's pants, thank you very much.

Also, quick question: why are there no girls attracted to Miss French? Is it because she needs a male to fertilise her eggs? Do the pheromones only work on cis guys?

Anyway, Blaine cuts in while Xander is still struggling for words, and the gang goes to biology class. Miss French provides a helpful explainer on all things mantis, saying that the females are larger and more aggressive than the male. Although she is the villain of the episode, it's nice to see an inversion of the "dominant male/submissive female" trope we see so often in our culture.

In the cafeteria, Xander and Blaine do some more male posturing, and Buffy puts her friend firmly in his place. While I'm very glad that Buffy bursts Xander's bubble, I could have done without the reference to Miss French's possible "surgical enhancements."

Nonetheless, Xander still goes to meet Miss French (with his Jansport rucksack—I had one of those!) who persuades him to come back to her house. When a teacher abuses her position of power and trust this way, that's bad enough without her being a mantis.

Xander's triumph is expressed in a little cutaway to his guitar solo. I'm a sucker for funny cutaways, though I can understand why people find them irritating at times.

No, Xander, No!

Buffy, having worked out Miss French's secret, tries to warn Xander, but he's having none of it. He thinks Buffy is jealous of him, which is pretty self-centred. However, it's necessary for the plot that he continues without hindrance. Also, because we know Buffy's right, we are meant to be angry at Xander for being blind to the truth.

I also get very angry at Xander for lashing out at Buffy. In his mind, Buffy has rejected him for Angel, so he gets petty. "What kind of a girly name is Angel, anyway?" he says, while I fume.

At the lair of the mantis, Xander compliments Miss French's "chest... dress"—a rather obvious joke. He also calls shawarma "a big meat hive," perhaps foreshadowing of the famous Avengers post-credits scene? He uses humour to deflect and defend, in a very Chandler-like way, but finally confesses he is a virgin. By now it's too late to turn back—he's been drugged and Miss French's hands are really... serrated.

The Virgin Thief

In the basement, we see that Blaine has completely lost his cool guy facade, showing us that his masculinity is just a performance, which I like.

Meanwhile, Giles reveals that Miss French is a Kleptes Virgo, or Virgin Thief, similar to the sirens from Greek mythology. I have always found that seductive women in stories like The Odyssey somewhat difficult, because they rely on the idea that a woman is a sexy distraction who can make a man lose his judgment and lead him to ruin.

However, having Buffy and the mantis as the players with power in this episode can also be viewed as a good subversion of typical storytelling tropes. Buffy gets out the bug spray and the bat sonar to defeat the mantis and all is right with the world.

Willow tells Xander that he is doing "the right thing, the smart thing" by staying a virgin at his age. I appreciate that Willow doesn't shame Xander for being a virgin, but it's clear that virginity for Xander is not a conscious choice. Also, virginity itself is a problematic concept for both men and women because of its hetero-normative origins.

Xander admits to his friends that he was an idiot. We can all agree on that, Xander. Being captured and almost eaten by the mantis was his punishment for his macho masculinity and naivete. He sees the error of his ways. But he hasn't learnt all of his lessons about toxic masculinity yet.

Dr. Gregory and Homework

While Xander is the focus of this episode, Buffy gets some nice moments too. Even though she hasn't done her biology homework, the teacher, Dr. Gregory, believes in her and offers encouragement. It's so lovely to see a supportive adult, but he's taken from us too soon by the mantis. RIP, Dr. Gregory.

Buffy remembers what he taught her, though, and harnesses the POWER OF HOMEWORK to help save the day. Although the "homework is cool, kids" message is kind of cheesy, I'm happy that the show is saying it's good for a woman to be clever and resourceful.

Buffy also gets to tell Giles what to do, showing her initiative and leadership skills. However, he puts the bat sonar tape in on the wrong side, which includes a recording of him saying "It's extremely important to file." Oh, Giles, you have my heart.

The Leather Jacket

Angel makes a couple of appearances in this episode, and gives Buffy his leather jacket. I generally get annoyed by the "man gives woman his jacket" trope, but the fact that Buffy wears it when she's in slay-mode is pretty cool, and the contrast with some of Buffy's more feminine items of clothing is nice.

At the end of the episode, Angel appears again, and says the leather jacket "looks better" on her. Sexy stuff.

Mark Field's theory in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor and Morality is that Xander's story is an exploration of Buffy's own fears about her sexuality. She's attracted to Angel but isn't sure how to express it. Sex for teens is a big, scary unknown, which could be represented by the big, scary mantis.

The mantis is also aggressive in her sexuality, which contrasts with submissive Buffy in Xander's fantasy. Buffy needs to find a middle ground where she and her partner can be on equal terms. We'll talk more on Buffy's relationships in episodes to come...