Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Colonial Imaginary and “Pangs” The cult show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has often been heralded as groundbreaking and feminist; however, the show is not without its flaws. Throughout the show's seven-year run, the cast was predominantly white, with little cultural diversity represented. Various episodes paint the colonial imagination, from a hypersexual Inca princess who comes back to life to seduce men, to the primitive and aggressive African huntress. Perhaps the episode most rooted in the colonial imagination is the Thanksgiving episode, “Pangs.” In this episode, the spirit of a vengeful Native American is released when construction begins on a new Cultural Center. Centered on the history of Thanksgiving and Native Americans, “Pangs” embodies characteristics of colonial imagery, with a racial hierarchy depicted, a sense of otherness and dehistoricization among others. The episode "Pangs" emphasizes a sense of otherness by stereotypically representing Hus, Chumash Native Americans as savage and primitive. Starting from his appearance, he is dressed in what Western culture believes to be traditional Native American garb: a headdress, loincloth, and war paint. To further accentuate his otherness, Hus speaks in broken English and uses simple gestures to convey meaning. The writers made Hus a vengeful spirit, intent on righting the wrongs of his past by killing authority figures. This causes him and the other Chumash spirits in the episode to be depicted as savage. Furthermore, it is assumed that because he is Native American, he is wild; in an argument about whether to forgive Hus because of his past and what Americans did to Native Americans, Giles, Buffy's guardian, exclaims, "No,...middle of paper...ream: multiculturalism and the Media (London: Routledge, 1994) 119. “Inca Mummy Girl,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, WB, United States, October 6, 1997. “Pangs,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, WB, United States, November 23, 1999. Paula Butler, “Orientalism and the Imperial Imaginary,” Wmst. 210, Trent U, 3 February 2010. “Primeval,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, WB, United States, 16 May 2000. Works Cited Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, “The Imperial Imaginary” in Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (London: Routledge, 1994) 119. “Inca Mummy Girl,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, WB, United States, 6 October 1997. “Pangs,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, WB, United States, 23 November 1999. Paula Butler, “Orientalism and the imperial imagination”, Wmst. 210, Trent U, 3 February 2010. “Primeval”, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, WB, United States, 16 May 2000.