8A) "I, Robot...You, Jane." POP CULTURE TIME/LITERATURE CORNER: I, Robot is the name of a short story collection by the great science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, which Amazon.com describes as "one of the great classics of science fiction...[In this book,] Asimov set out the principles of robot behavior that we know as the Three Laws of Robotics. Here are stories of robots gone mad, mind-reading robots, robots with a sense of humor, robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world, all told with Asimov's trademark dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction." The phrase, "I, Robot...You, Jane" is also a parody of the phrase, "Me, Tarzan...You, Jane," which is a famous line from the 1930s Tarzan movie series based on the classic books by Edgar Rice Burroughs.--Lady Starlight, Mon, 07/22/02 at 12:53:26, paraphrased by Rob
Tarzan is the story of a man who has lived alone in the jungle, ever since he was a baby, and his parents were killed by wild animals. He was raised by gorillas, and can speak very little English. When he first meets the upper class British young lady Jane, that phrase is how he identifies the two of them. "The reference to Tarzan is interesting. Tarzan appears 'savage' but is really 'noble,' to use the terms as Edgar Rice Burroughs would have a century ago. Over the internet, Moloch appears understanding and delightful but is really a controlling monster. Robots often take on the role of the noble savage in fiction...but here artificial life is shown in a rather unique way--not coldly impersonal or yearning towards humanity but savagely predatory."--Matching Mole, Mon, 07/22/02 at 14:11:26, with some additions by Rob
"I, Robot was also the title of an episode of The Outer Limits, a science-fiction anthology series, in 1964 and remade in 1995. Both starred Leonard Nimoy. The story was about a robot on trial for killing his creator. The inventor was trying to change his programming to allow for military use. It seems the robot had been 'corrupted' by reading books. After exposure to [the poetry of] Whitman [and others], he had lost all taste for violence."--Tost, Wed, 07/24/02 at 17:49:39
The aforementioned Outer Limits episode was based on a short story by Eando Binder. The robot's name was Adam Link, which was perhaps an inspiration for the character of Adam, a human/demon/robot hybrid, in Buffy's fourth season. Adam Link was named thusly, because he was the link "betweeen the old form of beings--humanity--and the new form--sentient machines." The difference, though, was, while Buffy's Adam is a character of horror, Binder's Adam was a creation of hope.--Information taken from posts by d'Herblay on Thurs, 07/25/02 at 01:59:15, cjl on Fri, 07/26/02 at 09:19:22 and 10:38:59, and Arethusa on Fri, 07/26/02 at 10:29:22
Another important thing to note is that "the title is an order, not a comment. 'You Jane.' Putting Willow in her place. Moloch promises to empower her, to love her. He really is commanding her, enslaving her."--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02 at 09:04:06
Teaser
8B) Italy, 1418. (00:00:14) HISTORICAL CONNECTION: "This was...the time when the Renaissance (knowledge, inquiry, recovery of ancient texts etc) took off, but it was also the time when the Italian city states started falling under the rule of tyrants. A pretty appropriate time for us to first see Moloch."--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02 at 09:46:11
8C) Thelonius. (00:00:54) POP CULTURE TIME: The fact that this monk was named Thelonious is a pun, by the writers, on the famous Jazz musician, Thelonius Monk.
8D) "It is Moloch. The Corrupter." (00:00:54) BIBLICAL CONNECTIONS: "I was kind of surprised the writers used the name Moloch for the demon, because his MO, so to speak, is nothing like that of the Canaanite god they got his name from. 'Moloch' in...[I, Robot...You, Jane] seduces adults, not children [as he does in the Bible], saying he wants nothing from them but their love; as soon as he has that he kills them. They may be young adults, but he deals with them directly. And his preferred method is to break their necks. The Moloch or Molech of the Bible (1st reference I can find is in Leviticus 18:21, which says, 'And of thy seed thou shalt not give to make them pass/cross over to Molech....') demands the sacrifice of children from their parents. Later there are more specific mentions of making children go through the fire for Molech. The name means 'king/ruler' (same root as Hebrew melech & Arabic malik).--Anom, Tues, 07/23/02 at 15:07:54
LITERARY CONNECTIONS: Moloch was also mentioned in the great work of British poetry by John Milton, Paradise Lost:
"First, Moloch, horrid King, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears;
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell." (Book I, lines 391-405)--Thanks to ponygirl for this reference.
Alan Ginsburg, a famous New York poet and one of the founders of the beat movement in the 1950s, also invoked the name of Moloch in his epic poem, "Howl":
What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments! ....
Moloch who entered my soul early! Moloch in whom I am a consciousness without a body! Moloch who frightened me out of my natural ecstasy!"
In this poem, Ginsburg invokes Moloch "partly as a protest against the megalomaniacal building schemes of New York City's leaders in the 1940s and 1950s...Ginsburg was horrified that New York's elected (and unelected officials) were willing to sacrifice our neighborhoods to erect taller and taller office buildings/skyscrapers, tearing apart communities that were the very soul of the city."--cjl, Thurs, 07/25/02 at 22:00:41 For more on Moloch and his connection to cities (and German film), see 8W.
WORSHIPPING MOLOCH: "...[U]nlike most sun deities, Moloch was completely malevolent. 'In the 8th-6th century BCE, firstborn children were sacrificed to him by the Israelites in the Valleye of Hinnom, south-east of Jerusalem' (in a place known as Gehenna - which is later used as an analogy for hell in the Bible). 'These sacrifices to the sun god were made to renew the strength of the sun fire. This ritual was probably borrowed from surrounding nations, and was also popular in ancient Carthage. Moloch was represented as a huge bronze statue with the head of a bull. The statue was hollow, and inside there burned a fire which colored the Moloch a glowing red. Children were placed on the hands of the statue. Through an ingenious system the hands were raised to the mouth (as if Moloch were eating) and the children fell into the fire where they were consumed by the flames. The people gathered before the Moloch were dancing on the sounds of flutes and tambourines to drown out the screams of the victims.'"--Majin Gojira, Tues, 07/23/02 at 06:21:05, source: http://www.pantheon.org
For more on Moloch as "the Corruptor," see 8H.
8E) "Pray that this accursed book is never again read..." (00:02:17) FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE: "This line is reminiscent of a theme of forbidden knowledge...Moloch...[as the 'Corrupter'] could symbolize the kind of knowledge that is corrupted, wrong on many levels...[the same way a computer's files can become corrupted.]" An example of a "corrupt" book might include Adolf Hitler's treatise, Mein Kampf. This sparks the question whether any knowledge should be forbidden or censored. If any book ever deserved to be supressed, Mein Kampf, which promotes anti-Semitism, racism, and the destruction of minorities, certainly is a likely candidate. But when should undesirable knowledge become forbidden knowledge? --Etrangere, Mon, 07/22/02 at 13:57:46, with additions by Rob
The answer to this question has been delved into in many works of science fiction and speculative fiction. Most of them seem to suggest that knowledge that could ultimately lead to the destruction of humanity should be deemed off-limits, as should scientific experimentation with the forbidden. One of the first such works is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in which a man's attempt to create a living being from assorted parts of human corpses proves to be disastrous. A more recent example of man messing with some aspect of science that he has no business messing with is in Michael Crichton's blockbuster novel (later turned into a successful movie franschise by Steven Spielberg), Jurassic Park, in which scientists clone actual living dinosaurs from DNA found in the blood of ancient fossilized mosquitos trapped in amber. Again, the results are disastrous. A real-life example would be the debate, in the 1940s, over whether the atomic bomb should be created.
Some late 19th and early 20th century novels of "dystopian" societies even go so far as to "create worlds in which ignorance is bliss because reality is too terrible to contemplate...[The classic horror writer] H.P. Lovecraft...[for example,] was heavily influenced by 'The King in Yellow' by Robert W. Chambers and the works of Arthur Machen...In these stories there is a horrifying supernatural world hidden from the eyes of almost everyone...[and] just knowing about this underlying reality...[is] as bad as actually running afoul of it. The knowledge is seductive and destructive. Books play an important role in much of this fiction with Lovecraft's Necronomicon being the most famous...[Buffy] seems to take this both one step further and turn it on its head. Not only is the book dangerous but it is the embodiment of the demon. However once unleashed this knowledge does not automatically spell doom for all who encounter it. Knowledge is not inherently evil - it can be mastered rather than mastering you." This is how the Scooby Gang succeeds in this episode.--Matching Mole, 07/22/02 at 14:51:00, partly paraphrased and additions made by by Rob
8F) ...scanning the books into the Library's computer systems. (00:02:40) FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "In the library we see a few COMPUTERS with scanners, a jarring sight in the old-world library. WILLOW, XANDER and two boys scan in books at other terminals. They are DAVE, a shy, bookish kid, and FRITZ, a big, slovenly bruiser. Computer geniuses both."--"I...Robot, You...Jane" by Ashley Gable and Thomas A. Swyden, available from Pocket Books, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume 2
8G) "Scan it, Rupert. That's scan it." (00:02:51) FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "MS. CALENDAR, computer teacher, and Giles' polar opposite. She's maybe 30, pretty, hip, and irreverent...Ms. Calendar regards the flustered Giles with amusement." It is also interesting to note that, in the notes for this episode, Ms. Calendar's first name is "Nikki," although it is not said in this episode. When her name is later revealed on the show, it has turned into "Jenny."--"I...Robot, You...Jane" by Ashley Gable and Thomas A. Swyden, available from Pocket Books, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume 2, with some additions by Rob
8H) "The idiot box is TV." (00:03:11) THE CORRUPTOR: In this episode, Moloch is called "'The Corrupter,' much as the Internet, or television or any new and popular invention is seen as corrupting children. Giles himself draws the parallel to television calling the computer 'the idiot box' by mistake."--Ponygirl, 07/22/02 at 13:15:28 For more on Moloch as "the Corruptor" see 8D.
8I) "The printed page is obsolete..." (00:03:18) THE GILES/MOLOCH CONNECTION: Fritz's statement is "ironic because it's so wrong. Moloch longs to be physical again. He makes Fritz engrave 'M' on his body, to deepen the irony as it were. The word, the symbol of text on Fritz's body. His possession. Text, written on the body. Constructed (see 8W). Just as Giles associates books with sensuality (see 8SS). Giles, who is told he belongs in the 'Dark Ages' (where Moloch comes from, apparently) also longs for sight, smell, touch. Just as Moloch longs to walk, to touch, to kill, to love (see 8MM)...[Giles] talks longingly of the musty smell of books, of knowledge. Moloch also can't wait to leave the disembodied state, and become embodied. As soon as he can, he has a body made for him. Spirit, into flesh (sort of!)."--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02 at 08:09:32
8J) "Thank you, Fritz, for making us all sound like crazy people." (00:0333) BAD COMPUTER, BAD!: "Again...[we are shown i]nformation as a living thing. A living entity coming...[into consciousness] on a virtual net is quite a common theme in...[science fiction.]" In these stories, computers, and artificial intelligence, are sometimes shown as threats that will one day gain control over their creators. A recent example of this is in The Matrix films; an older one would be the computer, HAL, from the classic science-fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.--Etrangere, Mon, 07/22/02 at 13:57:46, with some additions by Rob See 8EE.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?: The character Fritz was, in most likelihood, named so as an homage to the classic German film director, Fritz Lang. See 8W.
8K) "See you tomorrow." (00:04:07) PUPPY LOVE: Here we get a perfect example of why Willow will soon be so susceptible to fall for "Malcolm"'s charms. Xander, as usual, shows his complete lack of interest in Willow as a possible romantic partner. For a moment, his "I love you" might reassure Willow, but when he doesn't respond to her "See you tomorrow," because he's too busy trying to catch Buffy's attention, the stage is perfectly set for Willow's tryst with the internet demon.
8L) "...the script in the book disappears." (00:04:45) FORESHADOWY GOODNESS: The text that disappears as it is scanned into the computer foreshadows the sixth season's Vilains, when Willow gains the knowledge of the Dark Arts books by literally dipping her hands into them and absorbing the text into her body.--Shadowkat, Mon, 07/22/02 at 13:06:27, paraphrased by Rob
By doing this, Willow internalizes text as power (what the ancient Greeks called logos) into her body. "So we see that from the very start it is Willow who is susceptible to the lure, the attraction of forbidden fruit and all bound up with acceptance and love."--Rahael, Mon, 07/22/02 at 14:11:57, partly paraphrased by Rob
FORGET ME DO?: In the fifth season premiere, Buffy Vs. Dracula, Willow scans "Giles's books into the computer...which struck me as a very bad thing to do, and suggestive that while we may try to forget...[I, Robot...You, Jane], the writers are way ahead of us!"--d'Herblay, Mon, 07/22/02 at 14:11:57
8M) "Where am I?" (00:05:00) AN INTERNETY DEMON?: "One thing I find interesting in this episode is the theme of words as a living thing. Moloch is a demon made of information. That what allowed him to be imprisoned into a book, then freed into the internet. This is probably a reference to 'memes,' what people consider...[to be an] information 'virus,' jumping from minds or books or...[anything] that can hold information. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is a very good cyberpunk book that deals with those ideas...[using ancient] religions...[in the context of] computers and information nets...[like I, Robot...You, Jane]. The fact that Moloch is the called the "Corrupter" deepens this comparison with the idea of a virus...[T]here could...also...[be] a metaphor...[present] for sexual illness, as Moloch uses love to corrupt other people...The idea of writing...[and] words bearing a potent power is something we find often in...[Buffy] after this. Witchcraft gets its power from books and incantations...[and in the fourth season's] Restless, Willow words her love for Tara by writing a Greek poem on her back. There is the same intimacy between words and flesh in the sixth season's Villains when...[Willow] sucks the books dry of their scripture...[and ingest them] into her body...[Later, in the present episode] Giles comments on the sensuality of a book by opposition with the coldness of computers (see 8SS)."--Etrangere, Mon, 07/22/02 at 12:43:16 See 8HH.
Act One
8N) "Okay, that's it, you have a secret, and that's not allowed." (00:06:14) DOUBLE STANDARDS?: Interesting that Buffy says this to Willow, considering that Buffy will make a habit of keeping secrets from her friends many times throughout the years, from Angel's return from hell to her own return from heaven.--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02 at 08:09:32, paraphrased by Rob See 4Q.
8O) "I met him online." (00:07:16) YOUNG LOVE, CYBER-STYLE: "The idea of robotic love is first breached in...[this episode.] Poor nerdy Willow doesn't know how to talk to boys. Xander, the only boy she can talk to is infatuated with her best friend, the perky, pretty, super-hero Buffy. Luckily for Willow, Buffy doesn't share his affections or life would truly be hell (see 8U). So Willow retreats to her computer and does what many of us unlucky in love types do - cruise the chat rooms and internet. Actually, she doesn't really need to cruise, all she needs to do is scan Malcolm into her computer and list him under the file named Willow and he conveniently contacts her. Malcolm - Giles states is a demon that tempts those who long for love and attention. Prays on young impressionable minds. Willow is an excellent target as are the other computer nerds. They all get validation and support primarily through their computer terminals.
"Malcolm is the perfect boyfriend, supportive, complimentary, interested in what Willow thinks and feels. And best of all he is safely contained behind a computer screen - she does not have to worry about the face to face rejection. When he asks to meet her - she understandably puts him off, even sort of panics, causing him to kidnap her instead. When faced with the real Malcolm, Willow freaks - this is not the kind supportive friend she'd written to, this is a monster. He asks for her love, tells her they should be together, that they understand one another. But she rejects him and he tries to kill her. Buffy luckily saves the day. At the end of the episode, Willow wonders if she is truly doomed, the only person to ever take an interest in her romantically is a robot. And the audience notes that Willow has a serious problem - she needs someone to take an interest in her - to feel special, to be important. Hence the reason she was attracted to Malcolm to begin with. The internet entity of Malcolm made Willow feel wanted, less alone. But when confronted with the robotic reality - she was understandably horrified."--Shadowkat, "Robot Metaphors in BtVS, Part 1: Creating Mr. & Ms. Perfect," The Collected Musings of Shadowkat
8P) "On line for what?" (00:07:18) IDIOM TIME: "Not long ago this would have been a blatant mistake. A girl from California would never have said (standing) on line for (standing) in line. This used to be a peculiarity of speech of a part of the NE US centered on NYC. But, recently it has spread due to television. It still sounds strange coming from a westerner."--Cactus Watcher, Tues, 07/23/02 at 10:07:58
8Q) "I'm thinking of you." (00:07:42) FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "Willow is totally charmed. Buffy slightly less so."--"I...Robot, You...Jane" by Ashley Gable and Thomas A. Swyden, available from Pocket Books, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume 2
8R) Buffy's record. (00:08:30) BIRTHDAY GIRL: "When Buffy's bio appears on the school office computer her birthday reads 10-24-80 and her class, sophomore. An instant later in the computer lab, her birthday is 5-6-79 and her class is senior. In Bargaining, her tombstone has her born in 1981, and usually we think of her birthday as mid-winter from the air times of her birthday episodes. Buffy says she's a Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius to Riley at one point, putting her birthday just before January 20." Seeing that Buffy needed to be born in 1981 in order to graduate from high school in 1999, as she did, we can assume that her birthday is around January 20, 1981.--Cactus Watcher, Tues, 07/23/02 at 10:07:58
THE WILLOW/MALCOLM CONNECTION: Here we have yet another peek into the dark side of Willow, and the fact that she may be more like Malcolm/Moloch than most people would think. Moloch's accessing of confidential files such as Buffy's school records is exactly what Willow does with her computer hacking into the school and local government systems. Like Moloch, "she too is a seeker of knowledge, ever curious about the world." Oz will warn her about these tendencies to flirt with forbidden knowledge (in this case, witchcraft), as will Tara, in the sixth season. In a way, it is precisely her desire for forbidden knowledge that drew her to Malcolm--"distant, unknowable, mysterious"--in the first place--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02 at 08:09:32, with additions and paraphrasing by Rob
8S) "...and then you find out that he...has...a hairy back?" (00:09:13) FORESHADOWY GOODNESS: "Exactly one season later, Willow unhesitatingly commits herself to a real boyfriend whose back is the least of his problems with hair...[Oz, the werewolf]."--cjl, Sun, 07/28/02, at 09:33:25
8T) "And anyways, that stuff doesn't matter when you really care about each other." (00:09:22) WILLOW'S PHILOSOPHY: This is yet another character trait of Willow's that has remained consistent throughout the run of the show. Despite some dark periods of her life, on the whole, Willow has always tried to find the good in situations, and more specifically, believed that love overrides other concerns. In Angel, she was the only one to fully support Buffy in her relationship with Angel, even after learning he was a vampire (see 7JJ). In her relationship with Oz, Willow also looks past the werewolf thing, because she cares for him, and, hey, it's only a once-a-month dealie. Willow's ability to look past one's body and possibly one's past misdeeds and see the soul of the person is something that has lasted through all her relationships. One could argue that that was a great deal of what led her to begin her relationship with Tara. Although she had not shown any lesbian tendencies before meeting her, Willow fell in love with Tara's soul, and did not let the fact that she had never had these sort of feelings for a woman before stop her.
8*1) "This isn't my report! 'Nazi Germany was a model of a well ordered society'?" (00:09:51) See 8W.
8U) "I'm not interested in Willow like that." (00:10:55) THE GUY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH: Although Xander, at this point in the story, has still not acknowledged the possibility of any romantic feelings for Willow, it is clear that he has become very accustomed to being, as Buffy puts it, the "Belle of the Ball." He is Willow's main man, and he likes that, and feels threatened by the idea of Willow getting a new guy. At the same time, of course, Willow's position as Xander's "main girl" is constantly threatened by Buffy's presence. Of course, the major difference is that Buffy is an unattainable dream to Xander, and he and Willow both know that (see 8O). The fact that Willow actually found somebody profoundly disturbs his universe, just as his "tryst" with Natalie French in Teacher's Pet disturbed Willow. In this scene, of course, we also yet again see Buffy being able to read Xander like a book...except for that little thing about him being head-over-heels in love with her (see 4EE).
8V) "He could be weird, or crazy, or old, or..." (00:11:28) AN INTERNETY DEMON?: "[T]...he whole reaction to the Internet's potential as a tool for pedophiles wanting to lure minors...[to them,] along with other concerns, led to the passage of the Communications Decency Act, later overturned by the Supreme Court. Some of the testimony before Congress and the courts amounted to...[the] demonization of the Internet itself; Joss & Co. just took this literally."--Anom, Tues, 07/23/02 at 15:07:54
8W) The camera pans down to his arm where he's carving an "M" into it. (00:12:04) MOLOCH & THE GERMAN CONNECTION: This is a possible reference to the 1931 German film 'M' by Fritz Lang...[I]t is considered a classic of early noir concerning the hunt for a child killer...[,which t]ies in with the Moloch-as-corrupter-of-children theme of this episode. At some point in the film, Peter Lorre, who plays the murderer is marked with an M on his clothes. But M is also about the dangers of the mob mentality...[I]n their eagerness for justice the people hunting the criminal become murderers themselves. Lang was..." commenting on Germany at the time. He himself fled from the Nazis in 1934.--Ponygirl, Wed, 07/24/02 at 08:43:12
Not only does this tie in to the scene in this episode where the boy finds that his school report has been changed to one praising Nazi Germany, but this adds another dimension to the corrupted/forbidden love theme of the episode. The love Moloch demands is now shown to be "the love demanded by charismatic dictators, who want to think for everybody, who want the adoration of the crowd, who promise an 'ordered' society, part of which...[entails] the restriction of knowledge." In this case, this restriction involves "Malcolm"'s true identity and purpose. And this restriction is what Jenny Calendar speaks of when she talks of knowledge being restricted and held in the hands of a few, old, white guys. Despite the fact that Moloch promises "new, liberating knowledge" to his followers, this is but the "hollow promise of all totalitarian dictators who seek to control the minds of their subjects." In the end, he liberates no one but himself, and keeps all of his newfound knowledge to himself.--Rahael, 07/24/02 at 09:04:06, with additions and paraphrasing by Rob
"The acquiring of knowledge is part of ordering, creating boundaries. Moloch longs to turn from the nebulous, freeform existence he has (lying in wait within society?) and become flesh, body. He longs for the order of being in the world. He even makes reference to the knowledge of political leaders ("I know the secrets of your kings"). Thereby heightening the idea of Moloch not as a lover, but a political tyrant. Don't megalomaniacs create bigger and bigger statues of themselves?...Don't they ask their subjects to worship them? Love them?"--Rahael, Wed, 07/24/02, at 09:46:11
Moloch himself actually appears in another Fritz Lang film, Metropolis, a silent science-fiction film from 1929 still considered today to be among the best in the genre. It is about a giant city of the future--all of the rich people live on the top floors of these massive buildings, while the poor, downtrodden laborers toil underground to power the machine that keeps the whole city running. Early on in the film, "Freder (the son of the head industrialist of Metropolis), goes after the saintly...[and poor] Maria after she brings a group of downtrodden kids to see his lavish country club atop the Olympian spires of the city. He's totally smitten (we can tell--we spend about five minutes watching him clutch his heart in awestruck admiration), and he vows to track her down in the bowels of the city...
"...[While he's down there,] Freder visits one of the key steam turbines that keep the city running, just as a horrible accident sends the workers flying in all directions, screaming in agony. Freder (he's a romantic, but a bit of a nancy boy--kind of like William) swoons in disbelief, and he hallucinates that the steam turbine is the gaping maw of Moloch. In his delirium, a group of half-naked slaves marches into Moloch's maw (symbolizing the workers of the past) followed by row upon row of black-clad machinery workers (the slaves of today).
"The invocation of Moloch in this context is not done frivolously. It ties in with the major themes of the movie, and the image of the Biblical-era slaves returns when Maria, talking to the workers in the ancient cathedral in the catacombs under the city, tells them the story of the Tower of Babel. In this retelling, the architects and the workers both speak the same language, but the division of labor has rendered the planners incapable of empathizing with the pain of their workers, and the workers unable to grasp the larger goal of the tower. Unable to find common ground, the slaves revolt and destroy the Tower. 'Between mind and hand,' the narrative tells us (many times), 'there must be a mediator--the Heart.'...
"Anyway, just as in...[I, Robot...You, Jane,] the reputation of a young woman's purity is tainted by the construction of a mechanical being. In the movie, Maria's reputation for peace and niceness takes a beating when a mad inventor with a major grudge against Freder's big shot dad kidnaps Maria and...electrochemically grafts her image onto that of his slinky mechanical 'man.' The 'new' Maria is anything but pure of heart (talk about a Madonna/Whore Complex!), and she sets about destroying both the sons of the industrialists (by seductive dancing) and the downtrodden workers (by inflammatory rhetoric). It all ends well, as Freder and the real Maria rescue the workers' children from their parents' own revolutionary stupidity...In the final scene, the gruff but kind-hearted machine keeper and Freder's dad stand practically toe to toe, ready to come to an agreement, but neither one is ready to make the first move. The shuffling and hemming and hawing last for about a full minute. Every one in the audience is shouting, 'Oh come on, already! We all know Freder is the Mediator! GET ON WITH IT!' With Freder's help, they break the ice, and shake hands. The capitalists and the working class have their rapprochement.
" Moloch, here and in...[I, Robot...You, Jane] isn't so much a God of capitalism, but a God of Hubris and Vanity, whose big dreams end up destroying lives."--cjl, Thurs, 07/25/02 at 22:00:41 For more on Moloch and his relationship to cities, see 8D.
Interestingly, a 1999 film that premiered at the Cannes festival, about the relationship between Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun was entitled Moloch.--Aliera, Wed, 07/24/02 at 09:45:52, paraphrased by Rob
The themes of this episode tie in with the third season's Gingerbread, which also deals with the restriction of knowledge. in it, "the demon-influenced townspeople...[take] away Giles' books, limiting the Scoobies' access to knowledge and...power to defeat the demon." This episode also draws direct parallels with the censorship of art and literature that occurred during Nazi Germany, and, futher, the demon is of German origin!--Arethusa, Thurs, 07/24/02 at 11:34:12, with some additions by Rob
AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF "M": " Here's another 'M' for you--the Master. And a little child...[who was sacrificed in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date, which ties into the child sacrifices to Moloch,] becomes the center piece of the season, in the shape of the Anointed One...And of course, we have the theme of Buffy having to sacrifice herself in Prophecy Girl, which is the event that Season 1 is hurtling toward. We know that the Master is lurking, plotting, seething underground, the sinister presence behind every episode in Season 1. He constantly encroaches on Buffy in her dreams. The theme of Moloch as a kind of monster of the factory, pressing the workforce to their death comes up again in...[Buffy. In the third season premiere,] Anne, there...[is an] underground factory, sucking the life out of its workers. But it also recurs in the shape of the Master in The Wish. His plan, if Buffy hadn't come to Sunnydale, we find out, is to set up a giant factory, to suck the blood out of humans and feed the Vampires. The image of the oppressive Master, preying on the workers - the Master turns out to have surprisingly modern/clinical ambitions for someone who is so old.--Rahael, Fri, 07/26/02 at 07:42:07
8X) "I do." (00:15:05) CONTINUITY CHECK: It is very important to note how much Giles and Buffy's relationship has grown in the short time they have known each other so far. In The Pack, only a few episodes before, Giles had disbelieved Buffy's original hunch that something was wrong with Xander (see 6Y). This is a mistake that Giles does not make again here. He has gone from his initial frustration with her untraditional slayage methods to respecting her and her instincts. He has learned how great Buffy is at reading people. If Buffy says something is wrong with Dave and Fritz, the fact that they aren't "sparklingly normal as it is" notwithstanding, Giles believes her wholeheartedly.
Act Two
8Y) "Third largest employer in Sunnydale, till it closed down last year." (00:16:55) SUNNYDALE HISTORY: This is just an interesting fact about Sunnydale's past that you might be able to put to good use in a heated Buffy trivia showdown with another fan. Remember: Calax Research and Development. ;o)
8Z) "Well, my uncle used to work there. I-in a floor sweeping capacity." (00:17:05) THE HARRIS FAMILY TREE: It is not clear whether the uncle Xander refers to here is his infamous Uncle Rory, whom he will mention on numerous occassions, and whom we get to meet in the sixth season's Hell's Bells, but we can assume that this probably is the first Uncle Rory reference, because (a) he's the only extended family member Xander mentions on a somewhat regular basis and (b) Uncle Rory is known as having had an assemblage of odd jobs...and behaviors!
8AA) "My spider sense is tingling." (00:17:30) POP CULTURE TIME: This is a reference to the comic book superhero, Spiderman. Buffy will again be compared to Spiderman in the sixth season's Flooded. --Sophist, Tues, 07/23/02 at 10:45:32 See 7L.
8BB) "To read makes our speaking English good." (00:18:15) GRAMATICALLY SPEAKING: I just thought that such a perfect example of bad grammar done right needed to be highlighted!
8CC) "Buffy just makes trouble. That's why she got kicked out of her old school." (00:19:02) CONTINUITY CHECK: Of course, the facts that Moloch is citing here are the reasons that Buffy had come to Sunnydale in the first place. See 1J.
8DD) "I guess." (00:19:20) WILLOW SMART: Moloch was obviously not smart to insult Buffy, because he misjudges Willow. Despite the fact that she seemed to be won over by him and had been acting uncharacteristically due to her infatuation with him, does not mean that she has changed as a person inside. What Moloch does not understand is that Willow (a) is a fiercely loyal friend, and would instantly take offense to her best friend being insulted, by anybody, and (b) has an excellent memory, and clearly remembers that she had never told Moloch this information, which of course ties into (a), since she would never have spoken badly about Buffy. The way Willow realizes that something is wrong with Malcolm is very similar to how she realized in The Pack that Hyena-Xander was trying to use her to grab the keys to the cage. Willow is smart in being able to use her shy, innocent exterior against those who possibly want to do her harm. With Malcolm, her apparent googly-eyed love for him is enough to convince him that he can say anything to her, and she will not be mad. With Xander, she acts as if she is being won over by his wooing words, in order to test whether it is really him (see 6KK).
8EE) "I've shown you a new world, Dave. Knowledge, power..." (00:23:05) WHAT'S IN A NAME?: The name Dave could be a reference to a character in the book and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. The story is comprised of a series of sequences dealing with the growth of technology and mankind's evoution. The middle of the film mostly deals with an astronaut, named Dave Bowman, who is horrified to discover that the ship's computer, HAL, has gone insane and killed all of his other crewmates. This stands as a cautionary tale of what can happen when computers are given too much intelligence. Incidentally, the letters of the name HAL are each one letter lower than the letters comprising "IBM," which further underlines the message Clarke was conveying. Near the end, when Dave decides to destroy HAL, the computer attempts to reason with him, in very similar ways to what Moloch is currently doing to Dave. His monotone computerized voice, which calmly and blankly says, "What are you doing, Dave?" is very similar to "Malcolm"'s. See 8J.--Ponygirl, Mon, 07/22/02 at 13:58:28, paraphrased and additions made by Rob
The name "Dave" could also be an allusion to "David Cronenberg, the writer/director of Videodrome, a fantastic 1982 movie about being jacked into a new medium (in this case, cable TV) and how it alters human perceptions."--cjl, Fri, 07/26/02, at 07:02:22
8FF) "Still, if you'd been anyone but the Slayer..." (00:23:50) SLAYER STRENGTH: This is one of the rare times on the show when the fact that along with Buffy's superpowers comes an imperviousness to things that might kill regular humans, is clearly underlined. Another time we see Buffy surviving such a potentially deadly event is when she is struck down by a car in the third season premiere, Anne, and is able to get up and walk away without a scrape on her. Along with her body's high tolerance for pain comes a very high healing rate, which is why she is not always covered with bruises. In fact, this gets her in trouble in the second season's Ted, when the police have trouble believing that Joyce's boyfriend had slapped Buffy hard on the face, due to the fact that she has no marks or bruises (see 23HHH). Also see 32JJ and 35LL.
8GG) "In the dark ages the souls of demons were sometimes trapped in certain volumes." (00:24:24) HISTORICAL INACCURACY: "The opening scene identified the date as 1418. This is early in the Renaissance, hardly the Dark Ages." This is a case of Joss sucking at math, something which he is well aware of, and will use as a defense many times during the run of the show--Sophist, Tues, 07/23/02 at 10:45:32, with some additions by Rob
8HH) "Preys on impressionable minds." (00:24:41) FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE: "Knowledge is power, but the[n]...again Moloch seems more to be a metaphor for corrupted knowledge, the kind that takes adventage of 'impressionable minds': ideologies based upon false" reasonings, by the twisting of words to make the negative seem positive, similar to the concept of sophistry. Again this is akin to "the idea of 'memes'...[a] data virus that reproduces using the minds of people. Moloch uses the people he corrupted to service him..." and to help his power expand.--Etrangere, Mon, 07/22/02 at 13:57:46, with some additions by Rob See 8M.