The Footprints of Monsters: Symbolism and Biology of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER’S “The Pack”

Hyenas get a bad rap.

A really bad rap.

They’re looked at as thieves, scavengers and parasites.

Right next to Vultures, they’re the lawyers of the animal kingdom.

It’s sad, really, because they’re really fascinating animals with a complex social structure and behavior patterns like the “noble” wolf (who has to deal with other demonization attempts as well).

But still, they are more often than not forced to play the villain, most prominently in Disney’s The Lion King.

The Forces of Geek legal team

They also got to play the role of possessing hostile spirits for an early episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 



Buffy is a show that’s praised across the net for much of its symbolism, themes and unique spins on old concepts, and rightly so.

That did not save it from having a few rotten eggs in the bunch, especially early on, and The Pack was one of them. This episode stings particularly hard for anyone who’s watched Animal Planet at any point in their lives, because the way it treats hyenas is just awful.

I liked Angel better anyway…

Symbolism

A hallmark of bad episodes is striking things with a ham fist.

Early on, Buffy’s main theme was bringing hell to high school, exaggerating the dilemmas of high school into demonic horrors that struck a social nerve with the audience: A mother tries to relive her youthful successes in a literal manner (The Witch), I slept with my boyfriend and now he’s a completely different person (the majority of Season 2), and giving steroids to the swim team turned them into Fish People (Go Fish).

Sunnydale High: We leave no metaphor unexploited

This took another concept many teenagers experienced: the changed testosterone can do to young men. Not just physically (those are obvious), but mentally and emotionally as well.

“Testosterone is a great equalizer. It turns all men into morons. He will, however, get over it.”

A fun line, but that portion of the Aesop comes on a little hard.

It also deals with Bullying, likening a group of bullies to a pack of animals, hounding down a helpless victim. That is something most people can relate to. The social dynamic of high school are one of the great reminders that humans are not so removed from the great apes

The episode’s emotional dilemma has one of the leads, Xander Harris, among the possessed people. He goes from a general outcast character to leader of the pack—which is a nice setup for future bouts of inner confidence. It also strikes the core group home as it comes off as a betrayal, but in a way that’s very human and understandable.

GILES

Xander’s taken to teasing the less fortunate

BUFFY

Uh-huh.

GILES

And, there’s been a noticeable change in both clothing and demeanor? 


BUFFY

Yes. 


GILES

And, well, otherwise all his spare time is spent lounging about with imbeciles. 


BUFFY

It’s bad, isn’t it?

GILES

It’s devastating. He’s turned into a sixteen-year-old boy. 

Course, you’ll have to kill him.

And now I’ve just shared the only really good lines in the episode.

The possessed people become more and more animalistic over time, eventually devolving into werewolves without makeup.

The story is further bogged down by some cringe worthy lines and a “pack” of bullies which really isn’t given much to work with, nor would they be able to convey more if given the opportunity.

Biology

In this episode, we have the spirits off Hyenas possessing people after they accidently trigger a spell circle with a “predatory act” (which, of course, is bullying) that one of Sunnydale’s many supernaturally inclined malcontents set up beforehand.

Once the spirits are in, they alter the behavior and teach the host certain behaviors supposedly carried over from the hyena. These include continued preying on the week (socially at first and then later physically), heightened abilities akin to those of hyena (smell, strength, etc. because human’s invest all their protein values in the brain) and a pack mentality. 

It also does an extreme disservice to actual hyenas. 



Even in the episode, when Willow (pre-band camp Alyson Hannigan) is researching the animals, the video clip switches from Hyena’s feeding to Wild Dogs.

That’s a huge error.

Really huge.

Sure, they’re both African predators that run down prey, but they are fundamentally different animals. The African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) is smaller, hunts in larger packs with greater coordination, and is faster where the hyena is stronger. But that’s not the worst of it.

lycaon pictus

The African Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta), which is what everyone thinks of when they picture a Hyena, is genetically far removed from Lycaon pictus. Their names point it out, but here’s the real kicker that’ll blow your minds: Hyena’s aren’t dogs. They aren’t even Caniforms (dog-like animals). They’re Feliforms (cat like animals).

Crocuta crocuta

That’s right: Hyena’s are more closely related to house cats than they are to Fido. Aside from other hyenas, their closest living relatives are mongooses.

It’s an understandable mistake, but it’s still thinking that a cat is a dog.

The society off the Hyena’s in the episode (a group of genetically unrelated individuals including 2 apparent breeding pairs answering to a strong, unattached alpha male) is one of the most bizarre things about the episode. If they were actually running on the alpha male concept as pop culture knows it, the alpha male would beat up the subordinate males and take the females for himself like a lion would.

Outside factors may force them stick together, but not in the configuration shown.

But these aren’t lions, they’re hyenas. And hyena social structure is a very different thing from Lions. Their society is matriarchal. There is no Alpha male. In fact, in Hyena society, males are the lowest ranking on the social totem pole. Even the lowest female is higher than the highest male. The Females rule their clans are matrilineal, with the cubs of the highest ranking female sharing her rank in general terms.

So having an Alpha Male for the lead antagonist? Critical failure.

Oh, but it gets worse: Hyena hunting patterns are not like those displayed (always staying in a pack). They’ll just as often split up and hunt solo as they will work together. It all depends on what they find.

And they do hunt. Though portrayed as scavengers and cowards in most media, they are first and foremost hunters and powerful ones at that.

The episode hardened the nails of some of the Hyena-possessed students (the women, of course), but in the wild, Hyena’s kill with bone crushing bite power. That’s not an exaggeration. They crack open bones with their jaws and lick the marrow out. The reason there aren’t many fossil animals in Africa in the age of mammals beyond isolated skulls is because Hyenas and their relatives ate all the other bones. 

A grand wasted opportunity.

Finally, I’ll mention the laugh. In the show, it’s used as an intimidation tactic and possibly to coordinate movements among the pack. In reality, Hyena’s don’t laugh because they’re cruel or taunting. It sounds like laughter to us, but Hyena’s aren’t people. Their social signals are very different. They only do it when they’re scared—like when they’re being chased by a lion or another hyena. 

In other words, their “laugh” is a cry of terror, fear and nervousness. It’s not funny at all.