We’ve been meaning to do a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer rewatch for a while. We were gonna do it before the new requel, but then that was cancelled. And yet it’s still on our list. We were going to get to it. It’s just that now the thought of doing it is getting sadder and sadder. Because every day that passes, watching it means looking at the screen and just… missing someone.
TV is a weird thing. We get attached to people we don’t know, and we mourn when they’re gone. That’s been the case with Michelle Trachtenberg, Nicholas Brendon, and now, Anthony Head. That feels like a long list for a show that was on our screens thirty years ago, not fifty. But here we are.
Still, when news of Anthony Head’s passing was first announced, I sat down in front of my TV and watched “Once More, With Feeling.” It’s just one of those episodes that I love, and I always remember it as a good Giles episode. Maybe I just liked hearing Anthony Head singing. And what were my options? An episode of Ted Lasso where he was being an asshole, aka every episode of Ted Lasso he was on?
No, I was safer with Buffy. It just made me think about that rewatch and about how TV leaves a mark on us.
As people remembered Anthony Head, I saw his Season 2 speech to Buffy about life all over. Sarah Michelle Gellar herself posted a bit of it on her Instagram tribute. And yes, it’s sad in a way; it will always be. But it also isn’t. Because every time we watch Giles, every time we watch that moment, we will be transported back to what we felt. We will find a little comfort. And isn’t that the best we can ask for in life sometimes?
Will I ever attempt that rewatch? Probably. Not now, though. I need a little time to feel like I can celebrate. But the good thing is, life always takes us there, later if not sooner.
