By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, natural disasters are one of the few threats our titular hero doesn’t face when she is busy slaying vampires, demons, and other forces of darkness. However, it turns out that one of her most memorable foes is inspired by two sets of volcanoes. In the Buffy episode “Inca Mummy Girl,” the Inca princess in question is inspired by a mummy found on a volcano in Peru, while the mountain god demanding her sacrifice is inspired by another Peruvian volcano.
If you need a quick refresher, here goes: in “Inca Mummy Girl,” Buffy and the Scoobies must deal with a soul-sucking mummy who takes the form of a sexy exchange student. The mummy has a pretty sad story about being thrust into a life she never asked for, but that didn’t change the fact that she was an existential threat to everyone in Sunnydale and beyond. Buffy and he crew had to stop her, but what neither they nor most fans realize is that this compelling character is based on Mummy Juanita, an Incan girl whose body was discovered in 1995 on the dormant volcano of Ampato.
This real-life mummy was discovered two years before Buffy premiered, and “Inca Mummy Girl” portrayed the monster-of-the-week very sympathetically thanks to the body found in the volcano. Researchers determined that the girl was as young as 12 and was sacrificed by her people as a way of appeasing the gods. In the episode, the mummy girl is a princess who was chosen by her people as a sacrifice…someone who would willingly exchange her young life for the lives of others.
The Slayer is moved by her tale, seeing the princess as a kindred spirit whose life and eventual death were chosen by forces beyond her control. Interestingly, this Buffy episode never actually mentions the volcano itself or Mummy Juanita as inspirations for this memorable character. Because of this, fans might never guess that a second volcano helped shape “Inca Mummy Girl” into one of the better early episodes of the show.
While he never appears onscreen, “Inca Mummy Girl” mentions Sebancaya, an Incan mountain god to whom the mummy girl is meant to be sacrificed. This character is based on Sabancaya, another volcano in Peru. Interestingly, while Ampato is a dormant volcano, Sabancaya is an active one, which makes sense…after all, it’s the volcanoes capable of destroying everything around them that typically receive the most sacrifices from ancient people looking for relief.
One reason why fans love “Inca Mummy Girl” is that the villain is very different from the usual vamps and demons, one that our favorite characters can sympathize with but must ultimately stop. This Buffy villain is a bit like an active volcano herself: beautiful, majestic, and capable of going off and killing countless people at the drop of a hat. And considering this is a franchise that has featured actual gods as villains, we can’t help but wonder if the Incan gods are real in this universe and if Buffy made powerful foes that day by dusting their princess.
That could be more of a threat than even the Slayer can handle. But we can only guess how Buffy herself would respond: “if the lavapocalypse happens, beep me.”
