By Kyle McCloskey

Columnist

I started this column with the promise of exploring TV shows of the 90s (and earlier) that broke new ground and made possible the programming we appreciate today. That said, it’s fitting that the last article on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" that I write is the final aired episode before the dawn of the new millennium.

It’s also fitting that it is quite possibly the greatest standalone episode of the show’s entire run: Season Four’s ingenious “Hush.”

After hearing repeatedly that his show was too dependent on its quirky dialogue, Joss Whedon decided to explore what would happen to his characters if they suddenly found themselves voiceless. What follows is simultaneously a masterwork of silent comedy, an (actually scary) horror film, and an interesting meditation on the ability of words to get in the way of what you really mean to communicate.

The first fifteen minutes of the episode set up this noiseless conflict by showing how these characters don’t have the ability to share things even with vocal capabilities: Buffy can’t tell the boy she likes about her slayer-ness, Willow is annoyed with the UC Sunnydale Wicca group for talking only about bake sales and “empowering lemon bundts,” Xander can’t demonstrate to Anya (his current girlfriend and former vengeance demon) that he legitimately cares about her and not just “lots of orgasms,” and Giles can’t be bothered with any of them because his long-distance girlfriend is coming to visit. The entire Scooby Gang finds itself growing apart as a result of an increasing inability to communicate with each other, a trend that only continues through the rest of the series.

Enter the Gentlemen, easily the most terrifying set of monsters that ever emerged from the mind of Joss Whedon. They are a group of impeccably dressed, floating, bone-white men with horrifying frozen grins.

Whedon’s script describes them as “Nosferatu meets Hellraiser by way of the Joker.”

They steal the voices of everyone in Sunnydale, plunging the town into chaos. As the town begins to tear itself apart out of fear, the Gentlemen float through the streets searching for unsuspecting (and inaudible) victims. The scene where the Gentlemen pin a young college student to his bed, extract a scalpel, and reach for the youngin’s heart is absolutely horrifying (and easily scarier than any recent Hollywood slasher).

But that’s not to say the episode is a dismal and bleak affair (it’s not "Requiem for a Dream," after all). The scene of the Scoobies using an overhead projector to illustrate their plan of attack is one of the funniest moments of the show. Who would have guessed that the action of staking something repeatedly without a stake in hand could be so suggestive? Don’t believe me? Try it right now.

It’s impossible to discuss this episode and not mention its brilliant musical score. Shows like "Lost" get a lot of attention nowadays for having scores that rival most motion pictures, but the music here, written by Christophe Beck, is fantastic in its own right. The haunting vocal track combined with the shrieking violins heighten the tension remarkably. The episode also deserves a special mention for its clever use of "Danse Macabre."

So thus concludes the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" portion of this column. Assessment: it not only got rid of the stigmas that often plagued television (Boob Tube no longer!), Buffy paved the way for such shows as "Veronica Mars," "Lost," "Battlestar Galactica," "Alias," and "24." It is a show that is definitely worthy of the attention it gets (though some Whedonites might go too far). Stay tuned next time for another 90s classic: "The X-Files."

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