S2E21: Becoming, Part 1 – Acathla, the Hero's Journey, and the Sweetest Slayer Blood

<p>The world&#39;s about to end. Finals are still happening. And somewhere in 1996 Manhattan, a malnourished vampire is eating rats out of a dumpster while a demon in a porkpie hat tells him he needs a sense of purpose. Alan and Jarrod dig into &quot;Becoming, Part 1&quot; — the episode that took an already-shallow Angel and gave him a backstory big enough to launch his own series.</p><p>We talk Acathla and the medieval-knight-stabbed-him-in-the-heart-but-not-really problem (the sword is over on the <em>left</em>side, Joss), Drusilla&#39;s new post-recovery swagger and her cold, throat-slitting flex on Kendra (&quot;the blood of a slayer&quot;), Whistler as Angel&#39;s first mentor in textbook Joseph Campbell fashion, and Max Perlich&#39;s deep-cut résumé from <em>Gleaming the Cube</em> to <em>Gilmore Girls</em>. Plus: the Orb of Thessulah-as-paperweight running gag, the Darla flashback that retcons Angel&#39;s siring with full Anne Rice energy, the worm&#39;s-eye-view cinematography in the museum that briefly makes Buffy look like a real movie, the deja-vu floppy-disk recovery that puts the gypsy curse back on the table, Buffy&#39;s iffy LA Valley Girl flashback, and Sarah Michelle Gellar&#39;s slow-motion sprint to Kendra&#39;s body that&#39;s been burned into Alan&#39;s memory since 1998.</p><p>We also unpack the central thematic gambit — that the Buffyverse uses <em>beginnings</em> (Angel&#39;s siring, his ensoulment, Buffy&#39;s call) to talk about <em>endings</em> (Buffy and Angel, the school year, the world) — and why the Vox and AV Club rankings have this two-parter as some of the finest hours the show ever produced.</p><p>#WhoWatchesTheRewatchers #BuffyRewatch #BecomingPart1 #BuffyS2E21 #BtVSSeason2 #BuffyPodcast #Acathla #AngelOriginStory #Whistler #JosephCampbellHerosJourney #DrusillaSwagger #KendraTheVampireSlayer #MrPointy #OrbOfThessulah #DarlaTheVampire #JulieBenz #MaxPerlich #GleamingTheCube #SarahMichelleGellar #SunnydaleHigh #GypsyCurse #VampireMythology #ScoobyGang #BuffyAndAngel #SlowMotionRun</p>