BTVS: Go Fish

You've Been Caught

In the season two episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Go Fish", the scenes unfold with multiple star swim team members who are being found with their insides ripped from their skin, and no one can seem to understand why. The Slayer herself tries to uncover the horrible wrong doings of these swimmers but hits many dead ends. They eventually come to the conclusion that the swim coach is slipping a steroid into the steam that the swimmers tend to soak in after their practices. Throughout this episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the idea of athletes receiving special treatment is focused on. It explores athletes having a type of prestige that allows them to get away with many things like authority turning a blind eye to the mistreatment of a women, steroid use, and the changing of bad grades. Just because you are a star athlete, does not mean that you are entitled to special treatment. Hopefully these stigmas will one day be shattered and the ability of star athletes getting away with their wrong doings will forever be retired.

There are multiple monsters who appear in this episode, some who are more considered your typical monsters then others. We have the "fish man" monster which ends up being the swimmers (Dod, Cameron, and Gage) who are being taken over by the drug that is in their system. They are big, green, scaly, sea creatures who have beady eyes and terribly disgusting teeth. They are quite vicious and savage and will eat just about anything they can get their disgusting hands on.

Next, we have a monster who is not as apparent as the previous "fish man". This monster goes by the name of Coach Carl. He is your typical coach and no one would look at him and label him "monster". What makes him so monstrous is the fact that he is knowingly exposing his kids to a steroid infused with fish DNA in hopes that they become stronger and faster in the pool. This is not the case and he can see the steroid taking worse turns and hurting the swimmers. He is risking their lives to help make school history which is a selfish act that is occurring and he is doing it for his own selfish reasons.

As the storyline continues and Buffy's group of friends start to find out about how these swimmers were being attacked from the inside out, they uncover the topic of steroid use that is going on within the swim team. The actions that the boys emanate show many signs that steroid use is present within the team. They walk around school like they are the kings, they have extreme rage and then deny that rage when it is brought to their attention. Steroid use is something that comes up way too often when it comes to high school sports and the way this episode picks apart the different effects that steroids have on your body is helpful to creating an announcement that they are not worth the grief and should be disregarded in all ways possible. 

Along with Coach Carl, there is Principal Snyder. He is comparable to Coach Carl in the same aspect that he will do whatever he can to help his swim team go the whole way to the top. A character by the name of Willow is substituting a computer class in their high school where she has the ability to grade her fellow peers. She gives a failing grade to Gage Petronzi who is the number two swimmer on the team. Principal Snyder makes it a point to intimidate Willow into giving Gage a better grade that way he can compete in States. Unfortunately, this type of monstrous act happens more then we think in the high school and college setting.  

I'd like to focus on the beginning of this episode to explore other monstrous behaviors that arise throughout. Cameron Walker shows great affection to Buffy and is constantly reiterating his intentions with her. He does not want to force her into anything she does not want to do. If we fast forward to the next morning, when Cameron is driving Buffy to school, he does the complete opposite, coming onto her even though she did not give him the ok. When a physical altercation bursts out, Principal Snyder is viewing the encounter that only shows Buffy beating up the star swim team member. As things continue, Buffy is slut shamed because she "led on" Cameron and she was wearing promiscuous clothing. Cameron ended up not only getting away with the contempt he showed Buffy, but he also was seen as targeted by Buffy because he had fame and prestige in their school community. This particular altercation between the two brings up the topic of slut shaming and the fact that many star athletes can get away with disrespecting a woman because she "asked for it" by the way she was dressing or coming off through her actions. 


This episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is no exception to the idea of confronting social issues that every person deals with at some point or another. Not only tackling the idea of athlete favoritism and steroid use, the characters also bring slut shaming to the attention of the viewers. What should come from this episode is that just because you are a star athlete does not mean you deserve special treatment. All students should be treated based on the hard work they put in, in and out of the classroom. If you make a mistake, you must reap the consequences that that mistake entails.