Khalif Williams

I was watching an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Titled Earshot (Season 3 ep. 18), where Buffy obtains the ability to hear a person’s thoughts. In the episode, Buffy hears someone say that "This time tomorrow I'll kill you all".

Buffy sets out to find this person before they could hurt anyone. While rushing out of the school building to cover more ground, she looks up and sees a boy with a loaded a rifle from the school’s tower and without a second thought she scales up the railing, leaps up to the ledge, puts her feet underneath and kicks off, flipping up to the roof. She then smashes through a window coming face to face with the boy with the rifle.

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The scene between Buffy and Jonathan (the boy with the Rifle) takes place with Buffy believing that she is confronting someone who wants to commits mass murder; whereas Jonathan believes that Buffy couldn’t know what he is dealing with and going through, because her life is easy since she is pretty and athletic. Later Jonathan reveals to her that he came up to the tower to kill himself. This left Buffy in shock because both were blind to the sufferings of each other; it was personally one of the most relatable themes I’ve ever seen on television.

After seeing the exchange of words, I was shocked that he was going to kill himself instead of someone else. But even more so, that he was suffering and it went unnoticed; he felt like he was drowning and alone. This episode was relatable because often I get caught up in my pain and it feels like no one can see me. After hearing Jonathan say he was going to kill himself and seeing how shocked Buffy was, it made me go "wow… Sometimes we can be blind to others' pain." I think that’s what was most significant in this scene where both characters did not know what the other was dealing with. I’d encourage whoever may be reading this to not let your pain blind you. Know that your pain matters but you are not alone.

Most of us are angry

Most of us are strangely

More alike than we'd like to believe

Most of us are empty

Most of us are simply

More alive in the scenes of our dreams- Jhene Akio