Blog #2 (BtVS)

Season 2, Episode 11 "TED"🤖

Buffy the Vampire Slayer discusses a great slew of real-life misfortunes that occur in regard to gender, sexuality, and so much more. In season two episode eleven, titled “Ted,” the main topic that is heavily depicted is that of domestic violence and toxic masculinity being the cause of said violence. To make a 40-minute episode short, Joyce, Buffy’s mother, has been pretty much single since her separation from Buffy’s father until she meets Ted. Ted seems to be the perfect man to everyone except Buffy. We ultimately find out that Ted is a robot that was created by a human Ted in the 1950’s and that he has been programmed with very toxic traits that lead him to his own destruction, alongside the programming that causes him to marry and kill women over and over. 

 

1. Joyce, Buffy, and Ted having dinner.

During Ted’s initial introduction to Buffy and her friends, there is sense of “too good to be true” that follows him. He has the perfect computer software for Willow and food that Xander can’t help but scarf down. Ted appears to be a bit of a narcissist right off the bat. He already speaks for Joyce and refers to them as “we” which can be viewed as him taking her voice in a sense. This is a reoccurring action in most scenes that have Ted and Joyce present. When Buffy, Joyce, and Ted are eating dinner he continues to lead the conversation and cuts Joyce off more than once in this scene alone. Even in the final scenes of Ted when he is trying to take Joyce with him and she makes excuses like that of getting her clothes packed or talking to Buffy, he grabs her and ignored her wishes by feeding her replies that seem to disregard her requests. 

 

2. Ted and Joyce embracing after he comes back to life.

Ted also has a consistent use of language that ties into not only his narcissistic tendencies, but also his programmed ideals of a patriarchal household. Ted calls Buffy “little lady” throughout the entire episode, hardly even using her name at all. He even goes on to call Joyce by “Joycee” which just feels wrong. There is even a really gross scene once Ted “comes back to life” where he calls himself “daddy” to Joyce and I don’t know about you, but I definitely felt nauseous after that. The way in which he used the name “daddy” for himself is often used in today’s society as a sexual nickname for the male in heteronormative sexual encounters which implies that he is the alpha and the woman is the lesser of the two. I think this ties in heavily with his 1950’s programming where women weren’t taken as seriously. In the 1950’s women did have the right to vote and own land and all of the basic fighting of the suffrage movement, but there was (and still is) a strong patriarchal societal hold over women. Women still needed men. 

3. Xander, Willow, and Buffy discussing Ted in the hallway.

In the only scene that Angel is in this episode, he reminds us just how old he is. Angel tells Buffy that maybe Joyce needs a man in her life and while he didn’t mean an abusive robo-boyfriend, there was still that male-dominated vibe. Angel is definitely not toxic male in this show (at least not until he loses his soul again) but does possess a very societally acceptable portrayal of masculinity. While he is still considerably older than Ted, the male driven mentalities are present in both men.

4. Ted, once completely revealed as a robot.

There is a minor theme that is discussed very briefly in the scene where Ted has gone into Buffy’s room and searched it. In this scene he finds her diary where she depicts her life as The Slayer. He tells her that if she tries to mess with his relationship with her mother any further that he will have her committed to a mental institution. This topic of women having different mind sets makes them hysterical and unable to make logical decisions is briefly depicted in this scene blatantly, however I believe that this act of power over Buffy that Ted has is just a more obvious act of the mental abuse that coincides with physical abuse. There isn’t a lot of obvious mental abuse per say in this episode, but more manipulation that still falls under mental abuse. 

I think that this episode is a very important one especially in the earlier seasons of the show. The episode really presents Ted in that patriarchal toxic male way, which we do not see from every male in this show. I think that making a character for Joyce to fall in love with that was really out for no good also brought her to the light in a different way. Before this we never visualize Joyce as a sexual character, she was just a mom. This really made her wants and desires come through. All-in-all I’m glad Buffy kicked his robo-ass.

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1. https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Ted

2. http://persephonemagazine.com/2011/06/ladyghosts-of-tv-past-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-s2-e11-ted/

3. https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Ted

4. http://theuncannyfans.weebly.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-season-2-episode-11-ted