"Lie to Me" and the Appeal of Immortality

“Lie to Me” was an important episode to watch, as it explored the motives and allure to what we currently know to be “goth culture.” In the vampire nightclub, lonely youth gathered in costume to watch Dracula films. It can be deduced that from these bits of popular culture, these lost “youth of the night,” wanted to be turned into the immortal. Angel, aptly named, as he is the “good” vampire, is extremely suspect of Ford and his “goth” peers’ actions. He acknowledges the hardships in the “life” of the un-dead and is furious with the young woman in the nightclub for not only glorifying their way of life, but for seeking to become a vampire. Ford’s case is certainly more interesting as his reason for wishing to transform into a vampire is to conquer his pending mortality. Because he his dying of brain cancer, Ford looks to old Dracula films as hope for escaping what will destroy his physical body. He wants to remain “young and beautiful” forever, thus he hopes that exploiting Buffy and offering her as a trade to Spike and his vampire cronies will give him immortality. When Buffy ultimately learns why Ford wishes to become a vampire, she pities him momentarily, but still argues that what he is doing is selfish and wrong. She calls his actions a “mass murder” and chastises him, despite the fact that he is dying of cancer. Life isn’t easy and it doesn’t get easier, Gilles admits. Buffy obviously feels sorrow for her childhood friend’s desperate situation, but as the slayer, she has to be pragmatic. I found this episode to be incredibly poignant because the viewers were confronted with an emotional power and maturity in Buffy. Even during the desperate time of being trapped in a basement before Spike’s arrival, Buffy is able to speak eloquently and attempt to dissuade Ford and his followers from actualizing the worst possible mistakes they could make. She wants them to move past their “goth” fantasy and realize that the life of the vampire is not, in fact, “charmed,” as the “goth youth” perceive it to be. The vampire and gothic culture continue to be popular with youth today. Shows and books such as Trueblood and Twilight have a mass following. “Lie to Me” sheds light on why the “goth” culture remains popular. I don’t want to oversimplify people’s motives for being drawn to vampire culture, but I think it is important to consider that the followers, such as those youth in “Lie to Me,” romanticize what it means to be “un-dead.” There is a fear of getting older, of course. When you’re young and beautiful, one feels immortal. We don’t want to lose our youthful beauty and charms. Aging, even as a twenty-year-old, is a concept with which it is hard to cope. Vampires are like the religious promise of afterlife, in that becoming a member of the un-dead will promise an interminable youth. For those of us who are young and afraid of no longer being as we are, there is an undeniable force drawing us to a way of life that promises to preserve our youth.