Almost 30 years ago, Buffy the Vampire Slayer did “Obsession” in this action-packed episode. The season-two episode “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” sends a love spell across Sunnydale, and it plays the whole thing for laughs. The 1987 thriller Obsession, by contrast, treats the same premise with genuine horror.
Xander (Nicholas Brendon) is at the center of the episode, which revolves around him breaking up with Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) on Valentine’s Day. In a bid for revenge, he coerces a local witch into casting a love spell on her and intends to reject her advances afterward. His plan is clear from the start: “I intend Revenge. Pure as the drive in snow.”
The Spell Works on Everyone Except Cordelia
The scheme unravels quickly. A spell strikes every woman in Sunnydale except Cordelia, and they all rush to pursue Xander. The comedy rests on the assumption that men are perpetually eager for sex, and that Xander faces no genuine peril since the women pursuing him could not truly harm him.
The film Obsession goes down a darker road. There, Nikki (Inde Navarrette) chases after a desire for love and turns abusive, pushing herself toward self-harm and murder. This contrast between the two works raises a question: what if the comedy in the episode springs from a premise that is genuinely frightening?
Willow’s Advances Turn Violent
Xander’s own bed is where Willow makes her first unwanted move. She shows up there, offering him sex, then forcibly kisses his neck and ear without waiting for an answer. Xander looks clearly uncomfortable throughout it all, and he answers with these words: “I don’t want to use force!”
Later, weeping, Willow lifts a red axe against him, crying out “all you had to do was love me!” Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a much bigger threat. For most of the episode, she is turned into a rat, because she must be put out of action so she cannot kill Xander in a fit of desire.
The Love Spell Is Real Magic
The magic in Buffy exists. A witch provides the spell, and Xander believes it will work. His experience with monsters and magic tells him it is real. He feels guilt over carrying out the spell, pressuring a classmate to cast it with the clear intent of harming Cordelia.
The main character of Obsession wishes upon an object that appears to be a novelty item. He has no reason to believe it will work. This gap between his action and his expectations makes him harder to blame than Xander.
Nikki’s Abuse Escalates Quickly
Bear gets terrified out of sleep by Nikki, who yells at him when he attempts to leave without her and tapes the front door shut to stop him from getting out of the house. She controls his feelings when he wants to spend time with friends without her. The abuse only grows worse, moving from harming herself to killing someone else.
Carmen Maria Machado, in her book In the Dream House, writes about the film Gaslight, stating, “[abusers] just need to want something, and not care how they get it.” The supernatural tools that Bear and Xander both utilize to get what they want absolutely compromise the autonomy of their targets, Nikki and Cordelia.
Bear’s Guilt Carries More Nuance
In Obsession, Xander’s guilt is obvious in Buffy, whereas Bear’s gets a more layered portrayal. Bear wrestles with Nikki’s autonomy but still goes through with spending the night with her, entering a relationship with her, and having sex with her. Given Nikki’s instability, her manipulation, and her eventual violence, it’s possible Bear didn’t have much of a real choice, unable to resist Nikki out of fear.
Xander makes a different choice. He rejects advances from Buffy when she suggests that they have sex, specifically because he knows her advances aren’t genuine and he doesn’t want to take advantage of her.
The Harm Done Is Not Justified
Pointing to Bear’s position on Nikki in Obsession does not make the harm she causes righteous or excusable. Such reasoning follows the logic that Bear “asked for it.” Both films examine the terror of obsession from two sides:
- The horror of being consumed by it
- The horror of becoming its object
The All-Consuming Nature of Obsession
This installment delves into the consuming quality of the fixation, and how terrible it is to be caught up in it. When the spell finally ends, Buffy expresses gratitude to Xander for not going along with her advances while she was under its influence. She feels a bit awkward about it, and so does he, but that choice confirmed that Xander truly respects Buffy and her right to turn him down.
This episode comes from season 2, episode 16 (“Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”) of the show. It is based on the film Obsession (1987). The main characters include Xander (played by Nicholas Brendon), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The love spell was meant for Cordelia, but instead it affected the whole town.
The episode is funny, but it is only funny if you presuppose that Xander isn’t in any real danger. Almost 30 years later, Obsession presents a counter-narrative, playing out the true horror of Xander’s situation. The comparison asks viewers to look at the same premise from two very different angles — and to decide which one feels closer to the truth.
See the video the story is built around at Collider.
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