I'm not entirely sure of some of the parallels. With the ghosts, Buffy is the young man and Angel is the doomed teacher. You seemed to imply the reverse.
Buffy, similarily, is forced to realize that Angel is a monster - much as Pete had become with Debbie. Without meaning to - she brings out the monster in him. Her love for him is in the end destructive.
Although, that's kind of a simple and declarative take - and not in and of itself. Because his baseline state in the episode is a mindless monster chained up in an abandoned mansion. So you could say that love makes him a monster, but also note that it is also the thing that got him out of the sewer in the first place.
Just as the melodrama of the relationship is counterposed by numerous scenes of them sitting around talking quietly and not doing very much.
Satire/undercutting of the melodramatic/gothic romance is set-up far earlier. You have stock examples like Buffy's cross burning Angel's chest when she kisses him - which is an undercutting though played dramatically. And there is a scene in What's My Line where they have a typical conversation in the room, but another camera angel shows the conversation in the mirror and Angel is not in it. Which was the storytelling making the point about the unsustainability of their romance in a very quiet but clear way.
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Buffy, similarily, is forced to realize that Angel is a monster - much as Pete had become with Debbie. Without meaning to - she brings out the monster in him. Her love for him is in the end destructive.
Although, that's kind of a simple and declarative take - and not in and of itself. Because his baseline state in the episode is a mindless monster chained up in an abandoned mansion. So you could say that love makes him a monster, but also note that it is also the thing that got him out of the sewer in the first place.
Just as the melodrama of the relationship is counterposed by numerous scenes of them sitting around talking quietly and not doing very much.
Satire/undercutting of the melodramatic/gothic romance is set-up far earlier. You have stock examples like Buffy's cross burning Angel's chest when she kisses him - which is an undercutting though played dramatically. And there is a scene in What's My Line where they have a typical conversation in the room, but another camera angel shows the conversation in the mirror and Angel is not in it. Which was the storytelling making the point about the unsustainability of their romance in a very quiet but clear way.