Just rewatched BtVS 2.10 "Ted"

AND OMG IT'S SO SCARY.

I've been having a slow, casual rewatch, which has filled me with joy. And I've noticed how much of an emphasis on horror there is in early Buffy. But omg this was TERRIFYING. When he threatens to slap Buffy, when he's at dinner talking about how he'll be around for a long time, when he shoves Joyce and then is coming through the house... OMG THE PATRIARCHY IS COMING FOR YOU. I always remembered the scene where he's in Buffy's room as scary, but I don't remember finding the rest of it as terrifying. But maybe I wasn't in the kind of mindset before - I've only watched it with friends since like 2004 - to be reminded subtly of some stuff my own father did...

And OMG Buffy's declaration. "This house is mine." FUCK YES. IT IS THE BEST. And she hits him with the frying pan, omg, it's so perfect. And I love that she's the young woman, the daughter of the house, saying "this house is mine", claiming her ownership and her right against a father, as much as she is the Slayer smacking down another manifestation of threatening masculinity.

I love this episode. So much.

AND it presages some of the questions that will arise around Faith. MY FAVOURITE.