In Buffy the Vampire Slayer season one, the eleventh episode begins with Cordelia and her boyfriend Mitch walking down the halls of Sunnydale High School discussing their plans for the upcoming prom. Cordelia has her heart set on being May Queen and is trying extra hard for everyone to like her despite already being the most popular girl in school. However, it is difficult for her to enjoy being crowned queen when an invisible, resentful girl is attacking her and her friends. As a result, Cordelia turns to Buffy and her partners in crime for help because she knows that they are always around when something out of the ordinary happens. They discover that the culprit of these attacks is a girl named Marcie who turned invisible because no one noticed her and decided to take her anger out on the most noticed girl of all. Because she was ignored by so many, including teachers, Marcie goes truly mad with no sense of right or wrong. The episode largely focuses on the social issue of bullying and the psychological damage that comes with being labeled popular or unpopular.
The monster in "Out of Mind...Out of Sight" is not quite like the monsters seen in other episodes. First of all, the monster is invisible so it does not appear grotesque, hairy, or deformed like how some people would envision a monster. Others may also associate the behavior of monsters with being savage, out of control, impulsive, and holding no moral standard. However, in this episode, the monster is very human since it is a girl that used to be one of Cordelia's classmates. Because Marcie is human, she has a soul and knows what is right and wrong, but it is overshadowed by the madness of being invisible to everyone around her. She goes to extremes to hurt the popular kids of the school such as beating Mitch with a baseball bat in the locker room or pushing Cordelia's friend Harmony down the stairs. Marcie also tried to suffocate her English teacher since she never called on her in class and always asked Cordelia to answer questions. Throughout the whole episode, Marcie does this to people who are friendly with Cordelia until there is no one left but Cordelia herself to punish. At the end of the episode, Marcie kidnaps Cordelia along with Buffy and plans to surgically deform Cordelia's face. Clearly, Marcie has been severely hurt and emotionally damaged by being so alone that she thinks she is doing Cordelia a favor by giving her "a face no one will ever forget" and shows no remorse for the things she has done.
As the episode progresses, it shows that Marcie's insanity is growing more and more to the point where she is muttering to herself, "They've got to learn," and she thinks she is teaching them a lesson. This introduces the idea that bullying can affect people in many different ways and in Marcie's case, she was holding a grudge and believed that she had to take revenge on anyone who excluded her. After she attacks each person, she leaves a message behind which in the end says, "Look, Listen, Learn." Giles also jokingly comments to Buffy, "How are you going to hunt someone you can't see? You may have to start working on listening to people." At the end of the episode, Buffy defeats Marcie by carefully listening for her and punching her into a curtain so that she could finally see her. This shows that sometimes people do not always have to be seen to be heard, but in Marcie's case, it was too late for her to redeem herself. Instead of seeking for help, she used her invisibility to bully others and make them feel how she did.
One concept that really stands out in this episode is the idea of popularity vs. unpopularity and the affect it has on people within both sides of the spectrum. During the entire episode, Cordelia and Buffy have not exactly seen eye to eye and do not get along very well. However, they eventually have a heartfelt conversation and Cordelia opens up about how despite being so popular, she still feels lonely. She said, "Sometimes I will be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone." Cordelia continues by saying that none of them really know her and that anyone will just agree with her without even knowing what she said. Curious by this, Buffy asks, "Well if you're so lonely, why do you work so hard to be popular?" Cordelia replies, "It's better than being lonely by yourself." In contrast, Marcie was lonely because no one around her paid any attention to her. There are several flashbacks throughout the episode showing that everyone ignored her and when they did take notice of her, they would say something rude. From both Cordelia's and Marcie's points of view, this shows that no one can assume what the other person is going through no matter how popular they are. In many cases, people appear happy on the surface but are really hurting on the inside.
Bullying is still a major issue today in schools, especially cyberbullying which can also be associated with this episode even though it was created before social media became popular. With cyberbullying, the victim cannot see who the bully is and they are more vulnerable because it is hard to stop them from attacking. Marcie was the monster of the episode because she took her pain of bullying out on other people through revenge in a much more harmful, and almost psychotic way. She took pleasure in hurting each victim and even laughed throughout her attacks. Many teenagers today struggle with bullying and depression and do not know that it is okay to seek help. Of course, no one knows what Marcie's home life was like or if she could get counseling at school, but she chose not to seek out help when she truly needed someone which caused her pain to be so much worse for herself and others. This episode teaches the lesson that no one should assume what the other person is going through no matter how popular or unpopular the person is and that bullying, even for revenge, is never an option. Sometimes keeping emotions built up inside can become more monstrous than any creature.
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer season one, the eleventh episode begins with Cordelia and her boyfriend Mitch walking down the halls of Sunnydale High School discussing their plans for the upcoming prom. Cordelia has her heart set on being May Queen and is trying extra hard for everyone to like her despite already being the most popular girl in school. However, it is difficult for her to enjoy being crowned queen when an invisible, resentful girl is attacking her and her friends. As a result, Cordelia turns to Buffy and her partners in crime for help because she knows that they are always around when something out of the ordinary happens. They discover that the culprit of these attacks is a girl named Marcie who turned invisible because no one noticed her and decided to take her anger out on the most noticed girl of all. Because she was ignored by so many, including teachers, Marcie goes truly mad with no sense of right or wrong. The episode largely focuses on the social issue of bullying and the psychological damage that comes with being labeled popular or unpopular.
The monster in "Out of Mind...Out of Sight" is not quite like the monsters seen in other episodes. First of all, the monster is invisible so it does not appear grotesque, hairy, or deformed like how some people would envision a monster. Others may also associate the behavior of monsters with being savage, out of control, impulsive, and holding no moral standard. However, in this episode, the monster is very human since it is a girl that used to be one of Cordelia's classmates. Because Marcie is human, she has a soul and knows what is right and wrong, but it is overshadowed by the madness of being invisible to everyone around her. She goes to extremes to hurt the popular kids of the school such as beating Mitch with a baseball bat in the locker room or pushing Cordelia's friend Harmony down the stairs. Marcie also tried to suffocate her English teacher since she never called on her in class and always asked Cordelia to answer questions. Throughout the whole episode, Marcie does this to people who are friendly with Cordelia until there is no one left but Cordelia herself to punish. At the end of the episode, Marcie kidnaps Cordelia along with Buffy and plans to surgically deform Cordelia's face. Clearly, Marcie has been severely hurt and emotionally damaged by being so alone that she thinks she is doing Cordelia a favor by giving her "a face no one will ever forget" and shows no remorse for the things she has done.
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