#since i didnt want to wait another month

Can’t tell you how excited I am to post this episode. There’s so much going on in this one, it’s gonna be great. (For the first episode and the intro to the project, go here)

In this installment we’ll be talking about: Jungian individuation, mythology as an unreliable frame, Willow as a hacker, descent into the underworld, the show’s themes and symbolism around rebirth, how the show both uses and subverts Christian ideas, and much, much more. If “Welcome to Hellmouth” was the first part of the thesis of the show, then “The Harvest” is the second half. Together, they do a fantastic job of setting up the thematic foundation of the show.

I also recommend checking out my notes and citations for this particular episode. There were many things I had to summarize or leave out for the sake of making the video as compressed as possible (the fact that it’s still an hour long should tell you just how much is going on in “The Harvest”). So if you think I say, glossed over some of the fine distinctions between Christian denominations, or want to know a bit more about the Epic of Gilgamesh, you can find that information in the notes. I’ve also included a few additional observations on the content of the episode itself. So if there was some aspect of the episode I maybe didn’t mention, you might find a comment about it (though I also may mention these things in future episodes). The notes are also where I’ve credited all of the non-Buffy visual material, so if you were wondering what a painting was called or where a clip came from, you can look it up there.

Enjoy!