The sociological and philosophical study of Buffy the Vampire Slayer can benefit not only from the consideration of social and  economic factors which shape the narrative and the production of Buffy,  but also from taking the show as a mythopoetic text that can aid us in  philosophical reflection on vexing situations of modern life. Along  these lines Buffy and the concept of the Hellmouth provide a powerful  metaphor for the study of Los Alamos, New Mexico: another place where  contact with supernatural forces constantly threatens to open into an  apocalypse which will destroy humanity. Not only is Buffy writer Drew  Goddard a native of Los Alamos, which may well help to account for the  particular conjunction of religion and seemingly ultimate power he  portrays in Caleb and the First Evil in season seven, but it is also  the case that the kind of world-destroying power always battled against  in the show can be seen as an expression of nuclear destruction—as is  evidenced by the nuclear blast-like crater that is formed by the  closing of the Hellmouth at the end of the series. Another layer of  the metaphor is season four’s Initiative which portrays the U.S. government’s clandestine program to weaponize demonic forces. This  paper combines twelve years of historical and ethnographic study of Los  Alamos with analysis of Buffy episodes and scholarship including  articles by Wilcox (‘Very Special Buffy’ and ‘Monomyth’) and from the  South collection on Buffy and Philosophy in order to consider the  parallels of Los Alamos and the Hellmouth.