Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Teacher's Pet (1.4) Blog

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Blog

Teacher's Pet

When you reminisce about the time one of your teachers in high school was absent, you expect a substitute teacher to take their place until they come back. Now what if, and bear with me, that substitute teacher was a human size prey mantis in a human disguise? In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Teacher's Pet (1.4), the basic plot is a new substitute teacher (who is a prey mantis; also called a "She Mantis" on the show) comes to town to prey on teenage boys to eat, mate, and decapitate them to implant prey mantis eggs into the victims separate heads.

Ms. French in her human form

Monstrous Femininity

Obviously, the She Mantis is the antagonist in the show, displaying monstrous femininity. And before I get into detail, let me tell you a quick fun fact! Fun Fact: when the female prey mantis selects a mate, the female prey mantis would eat their mate either after or even during the mating processes. And that concludes Angel's quick fun fact of the day! Anyways, back to Buffy. Ms. French (the She Mantis) is very clever when trying to capture her prey. By using her sex appeal in her human from, she goes after her teenage male students, while pretending to be oblivious to the constant staring and gawking and manipulating her male students by asking them to "help her with a science project." Lead them to her house where she drugs them and gets them ready for the mating process. With that being said, Ms. French is 100% a predator, which is interesting to see because usually it a male character that pry on underage school girls. Adding on the fact her victims (spoiler alert) Xander and Blayne are, not only scared out of their minds, but by the look on their faces, they don't give consent. Blayne even stated clearly, "I don't want to die like that," that implying the mating process where Ms. French bites their head off. 

Breaking The Stereotypes

Xander Harris, portrayed by Nicholas Brendon

We all know as viewers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show doesn't keep the "traditional" stereotypes when it comes to horror and gender. For instance, in this episodes, the victims are male instead of female. However that doesn't stop the producers in adding the virgin/virginity theme. The plot twist, I was quite frankly not expecting, was when the Scooby Gang discovered that the She Mantis feeds off of virgins. And of course when we think of virgins, it a girl that holds that title. But lo and behold, Xander is the virgin. Making Xander the virgin is a turning point where it can become socially acceptable to be a man and still be a virgin as men are known for having sex with women and be praise because of that stereotype. Furthermore on the topic of Xander, he plays another role when it come to breaking the stereotypes by becoming the damsel in distress. Xander becomes very enthralled with Ms. French to the point that he doesn't realizes what was going on and how much serious danger he's in. Buffy even tried to warn him about Ms. French's intention, but Xander dismissed her as being jealous.

Willow doubting Buffy's accusations that Ms. French is a prey
mantis

What I noticed about this particular episode was that even though Ms. French was the antagonist, some of the main characters doubted Buffy's accusations that it was Ms. French that killed their biology teacher (that's how she ended up in Sunnydale in the first place) and was responsible for Blayne's disappearance. It's that stigma that females can't be villains or evil and if they are, their appearance and personality are disgusting; vile some might say. While the male counterparts are seen as charming, cunning, and (dare to say) handsome. Ms. French displays those characteristics and more to capture her prey. But what can I say, looks can be deceiving. I mean, would you expect your professor to be a human size prey mantis?