Erica The Vampire Slayer: Analysis

Season 1, Episode 12: Erica The Vampire Slayer

Analysis

During Season 1, there are a few common messages which crop up time and again in Erica's encounters with Dr. Tom. Of course, each time he sends her back to a different regret, but at the heart of it she learns similar lessons to put into practice back in the present day.

One of these is the importance of being true to yourself - knowing who you are and doing things in accordance with that. However, what if you don't realise that you're much more than you think you are?

All too often, we write ourselves off and, largely through a lack of confidence, dismiss any notion of us being able to do something which appears hard or difficult or that we think we would be unable to do. Maybe part of it is fear of failure - after all, if you don't try, you can't fail.

If you don't try though, then you might never know what you're missing out on, and how much more you could be. Instead, like Erica, we put ourselves into a comfort box, where we stick to what we know, what we like, what we're good at, what we feel safe doing. All the time missing out on truly discovering ourselves.

I know I do it all the time. Assuring myself that I know what I am good at, and what I'm not good at - and passing it off as humility and self assurance. However, often it is a fear or lack of confidence which is the actual root of my reluctance to do certain things.

Before I'd even sat behind the wheel of a car, I'd already convinced myself that I wasn't going to be able to drive. I had already decided that it was something I would struggle to do. And I did. I comforted myself in the fact I had been right, but had I actually only conspired to make life harder for myself?

I never used to believe in the importance of confidence, its fragility, and the way it can make such a huge difference in doing things. I had always been a stellar student in education, never struggling - and always being able to drop things I wasn't so good at.

Until it came to driving, when I knew I had no option but to continue to the bitter end, to see it through, to continue doing something hard and difficult that I didn't enjoy, just to see whether I could do it. And I did. Only then gaining confidence in my ability.

I guess, as Friedkin pointed out, that the most important thing is that we try. Nobody can be good at everything, and there will always be things that are beyond us. Things that, as hard as we try, we can never properly master. However, how do you know until you've given it a go?

Enter Dr. Tom, lending Erica a hand to break out of her box and see just whether she could embrace, and enjoy, larping. In the end, she decided it wasn't for her - although she had given it her all and taken part - expanding her box and knowledge of herself at the same time.

The idea to have him as a mime was very clever too. Freaky looking costume, but it allowed him to get across him point in a different way.

Without a doubt, the Vampire LARP and the encounter with IF is the most bizarre of Erica's time travels in Season 1, even more so than visiting the hippie commune. I have to admit, such fantasy things aren't my kind of thing, but then again I've never tried.

It's not something I'd think of doing though - and it's pretty alien to Erica as well. Having said that, IF is definitely one of my favourite minor characters of the season. OK, he's a bit bonkers and bit geeky, but he's also a genuinely good person - who even takes his break-up in good, stake-pierced, heart.

Erica also seems genuinely pleased, maybe relieved and free of guilt, when he assures her they will still see one another and be friends again. I'm not sure how he could ever be worked into a future storyline, but I'd like it if he were.

Her experience back in 2001 allows Erica to return with a "do-over" to prove that she can fire Linda. I guess it is a very difficult situation to be in, and not one I've ever found myself in. It requires you to not play to emotions, but be calm and polite and I think Erica does a good job second time around. Firm, but fair.

It also means she is able to erase the memory of her "Weekend Warrior" course with Thomas Friedkin. How to describe him? The karate chopping, the dancing, the jumping around, the box, how to say her name, pushing him over. Barmy.

Mind you, I also thought he was unnecessarily cruel in dismissing Erica from the class. Surely his job is to convince people who think they can't do something into believing they can? "Can't" is an indication of someone lacking self belief, "won't" is someone who just won't co-operate.

Erica's list of managerial qualities certainly sounded similar to mine, which is worrying if I'm ever charged with leading some elephants over the Alps. However, as Dr. Tom stresses to her, she should find her way of doing things playing to her strengths.

We also get to see the fallout of the breakdown of Ethan and Claire's relationship in this episode, with an angry exchange between the two, before Erica arrives to complicate things.

As much as Claire has done wrong, you do wonder whether she has always felt threatened by Erica's presence, and not surprised with what has happened in the end.

Ethan's weakness in relationships is also highlighted, which struck a chord with me and how I have acted in the past. It is easier not to fight back sometimes, but then you end up getting walked all over. You can't do all the compromising and sacrificing yourself.

It was good of the writers to repeat the "that's not a good enough reason" line which Ethan tells to Erica in the present day before she tells him it back in 2001. The awkwardness of their kiss is typical, too, of the awkward phase they are in moving from friends to more.

Ultimately, as Erica concludes, this episode seems to be all about how we should learn that, deep inside of us, we have strength and power that we don't realise.

We are able to accomplish things we would never dream of. Sometimes we just need to be pushed, or to push ourselves. To take a chance and to try.

After all, while you can't fail if you don't try, you also can't succeed.