Buffy Goes Dark Essays on the Final Two Seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Television Edited by LYNNE Y. EDWARDS, ELIZABETH L. RAMBO and JAMES B. SOUTH Foreword by David Lavery McFarland &. Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London Table of Contents Foreword by David Lavery 1 Preface: At Sixes and Sevens in Sunnydale 5 Section 1. Auteurs (Writers, Directors, Producers) Marti Noxon: Buffy s Other Genius DAVID PERRY 13 Understanding the Espensode DAVID KOCIEMBA 23 Section 2. Characters (Lovers, Fans and Heroes) Evil, Skanky, and Kinda Gay: Lesbian Images and Issues ALISSA WILTS 41 "It's complicated ... because of Tara": History, Identity Politics, and the Straight White Male Author BRANDY R.YAN 57 The Candide of Sunnydale: Andrew Wells as Satire of Pop Culture and Marketing Trends IRA SHULL AND ANNE SHULL 75 Section 3. Story (Flesh, Style and Purpose) Buffy and the Death of Style MICHAEL ADAMS 83 vi Table of Contents "Set on This Earth Like a Bubble": Word as Flesh in the Dark Seasons RHONDA V. WlLCOX 95 Bodies and Narrative in Crisis: Figures of Rupture and Chaos in Seasons Six and Seven GREGORY ERICKSON AND JENNIFER LEMBERG 114 Reality Bites: Buffy in the UPN Years LYNNE Y. EDWARDS AND CARLY HAINES 130 Section 4: Seasons (At Sixes and Sevens) "Just a Family Legend": The Hidden Logic of Buffy's "Chosen Family" AGNES B. CURRY AND JOSEF VELAZQUEZ 143 Yeats's Entropic Gyre and Season Six ELIZABETH L. RAMBO 167 Season Six and the Supreme Ordeal PAUL HAWKINS 183 Kiss Kiss, Stake Stake: Storytelling and the Philosophical Pleasures of Season Seven JAMES B. SOUTH 198 Appendix: Episode Guides for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel 211 About the Contributors 219 Index 223.