THE SENTIENT LIFE: FEAR ITSELF

There is an episode of Buffy, a Halloween episode, which only means something if you're a HUGE nerd like me, called Fear Itself. While I would LOVE to include the script here, because it's pure genius, I won't. You're welcome. But I highly recommend watching it on Netflix. It's season 4.

In the episode some frat guys accidentally and unknowingly summon the fear demon Gachnar, who uses your fears to fuel his powers, as they are setting up for their haunted house by painting a weird symbol on the floor from some Wiccan book.

All these college students who attend the party get trapped in the frat house by the demon they woke up, including our main characters, including Buffy The Vampire Slayer herself, Xander, Willow, and Oz.

We learn each characters fears as they wind through the spelled house getting separated from one another, because, well, what's scarier than being scared, alone? They think at first it's a ridiculously well planned haunted house party, but their familiarity with the supernatural quickly leads them to figure out something else is going on.

Anya (how I love thee)

Anya who likes Xander tries to meet him at the party only to find no door, no windows, no way in. She runs to Giles for help, he figures out

what they are facing: Gachnar. Giles and Anya run back to the frat house, Giles with a chainsaw to make a door.

They all learn and hear or know the main party is upstairs, so they all try running past or through their fears to the attic, hoping they will find a way out from up there.

They all find their way upstairs and notice the symbol on the floor the guys painted that accidentally summoned the demon. Xander accidentally says his name, Gachnar, which coincidentally summons the demon to appear in corporal form.

This big swirl of energy and light and darkness begins to overtake the room when all of a sudden out of the cloud of evil Gachnar shows himself in a rage and cry for them to bow down before him.

Gachnar: Fear Demon

The way the camera showed all this makes the audience believe he is huge and scary, but when it pans out and away, we see that Gachnar is in fact like 3 inches tall!

After mocking, in bad but funny taste, the fear demon, Buffy kills him by squashing him with her foot.

They all head back to Giles' apartment to eat candy. While the kids are being kids, Giles is reading from the book about Gachnar. How didn't he know he would be that small?! When suddenly Giles swears in Brittish, and the kids look at him wondering what now...

Giles struggles to tell them that under the terrifying picture of Gachnar in his book it says "Actual size".

Fear itself was 3 inches tall! It doesn't get more profound that that. Well, on Buffy it usually does, but you know what I mean. I love this message after the post below. A great reminder.