Out of Control Fear

I'm a little behind on this one, but here goes:

One of the striking things about “Fear, Itself” was the nature of the fear that each character experienced. While each character had their own specific fears that Gachnar took advantage of, the characters needed to be isolated for this to work. The emotion ran high in this episode, and ultimately the reason the episode was successful as a frightening experience is because none of the members of the Scooby Gang trusted each other enough to work through it together. This is a fairly trite statement, but this is an important transition period in the “Buffy” story arc, as Buffy and Willow have gone to college, and struggle with how to continue their relationships with each other, as well as Xander and Giles.

This chaos is reminiscent of Castle of Otranto, in which most of the action consists of characters running around without any clear sense of the big picture of things. This confusion and sense of mysticism of everyday objects is also present in The Nutcracker. “Fear, Itself” as well as these two texts all have confusion regarding normally inanimate objects that become animated. In “Fear, Itself,” these are the party decorations, in Castle of Otranto, there are walking portraits, and in The Nutcracker, there are toys, but in all these cases, there is a distortion of reality that makes it difficult for the characters to interact with the world around them. This confusion and lack of control provides the eeriness of all three of these works.

Because of this, it is no surprise that the resolution of “Fear, Itself” comes after the characters have seized back their control and reunited. Gachnar is not the least bit frightening once he is out in the open, because the fear is really the fear of the unknown and unseen; it is the horror rather than the terror that is being emphasized here. This dynamic also leads to one of my favorite moments in the episode, when Giles says he will have to make a door, and Anya clearly expects him to create a door magically. Instead, he whips out a chainsaw, which is such a good reminder that we cannot forget to use our resources to get back the control we lack. Just because “Buffy” deals with supernatural monsters, now and then a chainsaw will do just as well as mystical solutions.