Superstar

[Updated May 1, 2013]

For all that S4 gives us a generally favorable view of magic, Superstar demonstrates that magic can be carried to excess. The episode is another take on identity, this time Jonathan’s attempt to magic himself an entirely new one at the expense of everybody else. There’s no doubt that what he did was wrong. An authentic self isn’t constructed out of thin air, it’s the process of a lifetime of work: "Buffy: Jonathan you can't keep trying to make everything work out with some big gesture all at once.  Things are complicated. They take time and work."

Jonathan’s world was a pastiche of fantasy and real life. It’s possible he got the motivation from this dialogue in Earshot (also written by Jane Espenson):

“WILLOW Fantasies are fun, aren't they Jonathan?
JONATHAN Uh... I guess.
WILLOW We all have fantasies that we're powerful, more respected. Where people pay attention to us.
JONATHAN Uh... maybe.
WILLOW But sometimes the fantasy isn't enough, is it Jonathan? Sometimes we have to make it so people don't ignore us. Make them pay attention.”

Jonathan’s spell here is certainly consistent with the season theme that others try to force you into becoming a different person than you are. In this case, Jonathan got tired of the identity he felt others forced on him and decided to push back. He ended up trying to force others to conform to him: “Buffy: I think that Jonathan may be doing something so that he's manipulating the world and we're all like his pawns." For all that we like Jonathan, and sympathize with him, he’s no better than Maggie Walsh once he does the spell. The consequence is even the same – the creation of a monster which must be defeated. Hint.

Fear of change can block some people from even trying to defeat the monster:

“Riley: "So if this is the world he created, what's the real world like?"

Willow: "I'm scared.  Everything's going to change."

Giles:  "Well, actually it'll remain pretty much the same except Jonathan won't be Jonathan - not our Jonathan, anyway."

Xander: "No! No! No!  World without sunshine!  World without joy!"

 

Adam, ironically enough, tells us how to see through efforts to manipulate the world:

“Adam: "These are lies." [He turns off the TVs.] "None of this is real. The world has been changed.  It's intriguing but it's wrong."

The vampire looks back and forth.

Vampire: "Feels ok to me."

Adam: "You're under his spell just like the others.  I seem to be the only one who is not."

Vampire: "Really?  And what makes you so special?"

Adam: "I'm aware. I know every molecule of myself and everything around me.   No one - no human, no demon - has ever been as awake and alive as I am. You are all just shadows."

A real adult sees through the efforts of others to impose their identity on us and finds her own authentic identity. Buffy was the first to realize Jonathan’s deception because, deep down, she knows her true self. Self-awareness. “Riley: … She sees things that the rest of us don’t.”

Note Jonathan’s mention of the incident from A New Man where Buffy recognized FyarlGiles: “I mean you have this amazing connection with him… and then at the one moment when it matters the most he looks into your eyes and he doesn't even see that it's not you looking back at him."

Trivia notes: (1) The opening credits are hilarious. The last scene – Jonathan’s power walk wearing a cape – was taken from the credits of Angel the Series. There are so many funny background props in the episode that I can’t possibly list them all. (2) When Jonathan recognized that Giles was playing the Nimzowitsch Defense, he was referring to an actual chess opening. However, the chess board in the scene doesn’t show the real thing. (3) Jonathan aiming at the apples on the soldiers’ heads is from the story of William Tell. (4) “Witch Doctor”, the first song we hear playing in the Bronze, was a 1958 hit by David Seville of Alvin and the Chipmunks fame. The title of the song naturally suggests what Jonathan is doing in this episode. (5) When Xander accused Anya of moaning Jonathan’s name, he said she wasn’t “fluffing up the old ego”. “Fluff” in this context refers to a woman (usually) on the set of a porn movie who gets the male star hard when necessary. (6) Jonathan sings “Serenade in Blue”, a 1942 song by Harry Warren with lyrics by Mack Gordon. The actual singer was not Danny Strong (Jonathan), but Brad Kane, who played Tucker Wells in The Prom. (7) The US women’s soccer team did win the Women’s World Cup in 1999, the summer before this episode aired. But Jonathan didn’t coach them. (8) The movie marquee advertising “Being Jonathan Levinson” plays off the movie Being John Malkovich. (9) Anya’s “alternative realities are neat” seems to be a reference to The Wish.