Buffy: Season One Overview

BUFFY-
Season Appearances- 12 (B101 +10, B102 +9, B103 +8, B104 +9, B105 +7, B106 +1, B107 +9, B108 +5, B109 +6, B110 +2, B111 +2, B112 +12)
Season Score- +80 (Average: +6.66)
Overall Appearances- 12
Overall Score- +80 (Average: +6.66)

Buffy has a very strong season, which could be attributed to the fact that she’s the main character, but more likely a tribute to the great character that Whedon has created. She has quite a few great episodes mixed with some very decent ones. The first half of the season, virtually up to The Pack is awesome, dominating until she has a slight drop off near the end, where she doesn’t slay quite as much and plays something of a back-up role to another character. Her best episode is the season finale in which you see Buffy become the Slayer she will become, managing the most points of anyone this season, and the most points so far. She shows all sides of her character this season: a dangerous slayer; a brave warrior; a good friend; a rebel & a strong willed girl. She’s at her best when interacting with the other Scoobies and when slaying the vamps of Sunnydale. An awesome season to which all other characters can aim up to.

XANDER-
Season Appearances- 12 (B101 +3, B102 0, B103 +9, B104 +8, B105 +4, B106 -7, B107 +1, B108 +7, B109 +5, B110 +5, B111 +2, B112 +7)
Season Score- +44 (Average: +3.66)
Overall Appearances- 12
Overall Score- +44 (Average: +3.66)

Xander has a pretty good opening season, with his performance in The Pack being a real let-down as her could have had over 50 points. He has a slow start before having a good set of episodes in The Witch and Teacher’s Pet. He then ends up being consistent with some strong performances at the end. His best stuff comes from his humour and his exchanges with Willow or his pining for Buffy. He does though show some of his bad side which is his stubborness and hate for Angel.

WILLOW-
Season Appearances- 12 (B101 +2, B102 +4, B103 +2, B104 +4, B105 +1, B106 +1, B107 +5, B108 +6, B109 +5, B110 +4, B111 +3, B112 +5)
Season Score- +42 (Average: +3.5)
Overall Appearances- 12
Overall Score- +42 (Average: +3.5)

Willow is consistently good for most of of the season, she never really stands out above the others but is always near the top. Her best episode is the one that centres on her, I Robot…You, Jane, but she provided crucial back up for many other episodes. Her best stuff comes from her interactions with Buffy and Xander as well some fantastic character moments, such as her stage fright.

GILES-
Season Appearances- 12 (B101 +3, B102 +2, B103 +2, B104 +4, B105 +3, B106 +2, B107 +1, B108 +8, B109 +2, B110 +3, B111 +2, B112 +4)
Season Score- +36 (Average: +3)
Overall Appearances- 12
Overall Score- +36 (Average: +3)

Giles plays a supporting role for most of the series acting as the adult figure and expositional master.  He consistently manages only a few points in each episode. He does manage to have a stand out episode in I Robot..You, Jane. His points came from his humour and ability to provide Buffy with the stability she needs. Also, his interactions with the Scoobies and Ms. Calender are great.

ANGEL-
Season Appearances- 7 (B101 +2, B102 +1,  B104 +1, B105 +1, B107 +8, B111 +2, B112 +4)
Season Score- +19 (Average: +2.7)
Overall Appearances- 7
Overall Score- +19 (Average: +2.7)

Angel really only plays bit parts for most of the season, with the one big episode, Angel. He did manage to snag himself a point for each appearance which is quite good for the amount of screen time he had in this scene. His points mainly came from his interactions with Buffy, as that is who he mainly spent time with, although he has a moment with Giles near the end.

CORDELIA-
Season Appearances- 10 (B101 +1, B102 +1, B103 +2, B104 +1, B105 +1,  B107 -1,  B109 +3, B110 +3, B111 +4, B112 +4)
Season Score- +19 (Average: +1.9)
Overall Appearances- 10
Overall Score- +19 (Average: +1.9)

Cordelia has a strange opening season. Her first half is filled with small point counts, where she mainly has funny lines. But in the last 4 episodes, she grows as a character and manages not just funny lines, but some deep stuff as well and manages to be a more important character in the battle against the Master. This season gives us an idea of what she will become in next season.

MS.CALENDER-
Season Appearances- 2 (B108 +5, B112 +2)
Season Score- +7 (Average: +3.5)
Overall Appearances- 2
Overall Score- +7 (Average: +3.5)

Ms. Calender only has two appearances and does pretty well to make her mark on them. Her introduction, I Robot..You, Jane is great for her fighting with Giles. We get to see more of her next season.

THE MASTER-
Season Appearances- 6 (B101 /, B102 +1, B105 +1, B107 +1, B110 +1, B112 +2)
Season Score- +6 (Average: +1)
Overall Appearances- 6
Overall Score- +6 (Average: +1)

The big bad of season one has a pretty limited role. Even though he manages to kill Buffy, you never get that feeling that he is a huge danger. And as you can see, his appearances aren’t altogether that memorable, only managing a point an episode for the most part.

PRINCIPAL FLUTIE-
Season Appearances- 4 (B101 +2, B102 /, B104 +3,  B106 +1)
Season Score- +6 (Average: +1.5)
Overall Appearances- 4
Overall Score- +6 (Average: +1.5)

Flutie is fairly memorable for such a small time in the series. He has some fantastic lines and is a wonderful character. He probably couldn’t last though, so his death is for the best.

PRINCIPAL SNYDER-
Season Appearances- 2 (B109 +2, B111 +2)
Season Score- +4 (Average: +2)
Overall Appearances- 2
Overall Score- +4 (Average: +2)

Sunnydale High’s second principal is a total contrast to it’s first. He does however manage a similar points tally, which can be attributed to his some strong lines and interactions with the Scoobies.

JOYCE-
Season Appearances- 7 (B101 +1, B102 -1, B103 +1, B107 /, B109 /, B110 +1, B112 +1)
Season Score- +3 (Average: +0.42)
Overall Appearances- 7
Overall Score- +3 (Average: +0.42)

Joyce only has small parts in the episodes she appears in, so lots of points would be hard but she manages at least to net one point most most of the time. Her points come from trying to mother Buffy…something of a hard task.

AMY-
Season Appearances- 1(B103 +2)
Season Score- +2 (Average: +2)
Overall Appearances- 1
Overall Score- +2 (Average: +2)

Only the one episode for Amy, which is a pretty decent one. She has a fairly typical high school character but manages to seperate herself enough.

HARMONY-
Season Appearances- 2 (B102 +1, B111 /)
Season Score- +1 (Average: +0.5)
Overall Appearances- 2
Overall Score- +1 (Average: +0.5)

Very small parts for Harmony, but you see a small amount of what she will become later on.

DARLA-
Season Appearances- 3 (B101 0, B102 -1, B107 -2)
Season Score- -3 (Average: -1)
Overall Appearances- 3
Overall Score- -3 (Average: -1)

The Darla that appears in this series is not the one that we will see in the future. She has has some things that just don’t seem Darla-ish, that being the use of guns and generally the way she acts…lacks presence.

EPISODE RANKING-
These rankings are based on total character points for each episode, this doesn’t reflect which episode is the best, although it gives you an indication.

1. B112 Prophecy Girl +41
2. B108 I Robot…You, Jane +31
3. B104 Teacher’s Pet +30
4. B105 The Witch +26
5. B101 Welcome To The Hellmouth +24
6. B109 The Puppet Show +24
7. B107 Angel +22
8. B110 Nightmares +19
9. B105 Never Kill A Boy On The First Date +18
10. B102 The Harvest +17
11. B111 Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight +16
12. B106 The Pack -2

EPISODE THOUGHT RECOUNT (out of 100)-
B101: 81
B102: 66
B103: 81
B104: 73
B105: 72
B106: 52
B107: 84.5
B108: 69
B109: 74
B110: 72.5
B111: 62.5
B112: 93

Season Score- 75 (not an average)

SEASON THOUGHTS-
A very solid starting season the Buffy. You can tell the showmakers were still ironing out the kinks but for the most part the show established what it set out do, be entertaining, funny, emotional & action-packed. This season does only have the one classic episode which is Prophecy Girl, but episodes like Angel and Welcome To The Hellmouth also show how strong the show can be. Unfortunately, most of the other episodes were fairly average, moster-of-the-week types in which the character’s had to make up for the generally weakish plots. Also, this season contains most least favourite episode ever, The Pack, so makes this season is a little worse because of that but overall the season is solid.

B112- Prophecy Girl

Written by: Joss Whedon
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Mark Metcalf, Kristine Sutherland & Robia LaMorte.

Xander is practicing lines on Willow in the Bronze, wanting to ask Buffy to the Spring Fling. Cordelia is in a car making out with Kevin, as Buffy slays a vampire nearby. An earthquake is felt all over town, and the Master revels in it.

The next morning, Buffy is meeting Giles in the library, where no significant damage has been done from the earthquake. Buffy explains the vampires are rising in number and getting braver, but Giles is distracted by his thoughts. After biology class, Willow finds an excuse to leave, leaving Xander to ask Buffy to the dance. Xander takes Buffy’s rejection badly, and walks off to wallow in misery.

Miss Calendar interrupts Giles’s study in the library, telling him that she sees apocalyptic portents and demands to know what is happening. She tells him brother Luca, a monk in Cortona, is e-mailing her about the Anointed One. Giles asks her to get more information about this, promising he will explain everything later. In the school hall, Kevin and Willow promise to help Cordelia set everything up in the Bronze for the dance. Willow sees Xander wallowing in his misery, and offers sympathy. When Xander asks her to the dance, she refuses to be his second choice.

That evening, as Buffy enters the library she hears Giles telling Angel that the prophecies say that she will face the Master and die. Buffy, shocked, yells that she is quitting, leaving the cross Angel gave her on the table. She goes back home, and tries to convince her mother to go away for the weekend. Joyce, instead, gives her a white dress, and tells her to go to the dance.

The next day, at school, Cordelia and Willow find the AV club, all dead, slaughtered by vampires, as “Three Little Pigs” cartoons play. Buffy, having heard, shows up in her dress at Willow’s. Buffy goes back to the library, where Giles has explained to Miss Calendar that Buffy is the slayer. Buffy reinstates herself as the Slayer, knocks Giles out when he tries to stop her and goes to kill the Master. Outside of school, Collin leads her to the Master’s lair.

Willow and Xander show up at the library, where they hear that Buffy has gone off to see the Master. Xander leaves, only to show up at Angel’s apartment where he forces Angel to lead him to the Master’s lair. Xander and Angel approach the lair, as the Master and Buffy fight and taunt each other. The Master tells Buffy that it is her blood which will free him, as he drinks from her and leave her to drown in a shallow pool. At the library, Willow and Ms. Calendar decide that the Hellmouth is underneath the Bronze, and leave. However, as they leave, they see an army of vampires approaching the library. Cordelia rescues them in her car, and drives the car straight into the library. Xander and Angel reach Buffy, and Xander performs CPR (as Angel couldn’t do it himself, because vampires do not breathe). When Buffy regains consciousness, she heads to the surface to kill the Master. Cordelia, Willow, Giles and Jenny fight off vampires trying to enter the library, and just as Giles realises that the Hellmouth is directly underneath the Library, a tentacled creature rises through the floor. Buffy throws the Master into the library, where he is impaled on a jutting piece of wood and his soft tissues disintegrate, leaving only his skeleton and the world turns back to normal. They all go to the dance at the Bronze together.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+12)

• +1/ Her cool slow-mo battle with the vamp, she does break a nail though.
• +1/ Buffy rejecting Xander, she does it pretty well, would’ve been pretty awkward.
• +2/ Buffy finding out about the prophecy that predicts her death-
  Buffy: So that’s it, huh? I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, next one’s called! Wonder who she is. (to Giles) Will you train her? Or will they send someone else?
  Giles: Buffy, I…
  Buffy: They say how he’s gonna kill me? Do you think it’ll hurt?
  Tears are flowing freely from her eyes. Angel tries to hug her, but she puts up her hands and quickly steps away.
  Buffy: Don’t touch me! (to Giles) Were you even gonna tell me?
  Giles: I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to. That there was… some way around it. I…
  Buffy: I’ve got a way around it. I quit!
  Angel: It’s not that simple.
  Buffy: I’m making it that simple! I quit! I resign, I-I’m fired, you can find someone else to stop the Master from taking over!
  Giles: I’m not sure that anyone else can. All the… the signs indicate…
  Buffy: The signs? (throws a book at him) READ ME THE SIGNS! (throws another one) TELL ME MY FORTUNE! YOU’RE SO USEFUL SITTING HERE WITH ALL YOUR BOOKS! YOU’RE REALLY A LOTTA HELP!
  Giles: No, I don’t suppose I am.
  Angel: I know this is hard.
  Buffy: What do you know about this? You’re never gonna die!
  Angel: You think I want anything to happen to you? Do you think I could stand it? We just gotta figure out a way…
  Buffy: I already did. I quit, remember? Pay attention!
  Giles: Buffy, if the Master rises…
  Buffy: (yanks the cross from her neck) I don’t care! (calms down) I don’t care. Giles, I’m sixteen years old. I don’t wanna die.
• +2/ Buffy deciding to face her destiny and when Giles refuses to let her, she knocks him out-
  “When he wakes up tell him… I don’t know. Think of something cool, tell him I said it.”
• +1/ Confronting the Master, we see the Summers’ courage as she tries to fight him.
• +1/ Her new lease on life as she easily takes out vampires.
• +1/ Confronting the Master again-
  “You have fruit punch mouth.”
• +2/ Defeating the Master.
• +1/ The aftermath of the Master’s defeat. Deciding to go eat after his defeat.

XANDER- (+7)

• +1/ Practicing asking Buffy out on Willow-
  Xander: You know how I feel about you. It’s, uh, pretty obvious, isn’t it? There’s never been anyone else for me… but you. And we’re good friends, and it’s time to take the next step.
  Willow is listening to him dreamily.
  Xander: Would you, um… date me? Oh that’s good! Date me! It’s terrible, right?
  Willow: (comes back to earth) Huh? Oh, no! Oh, yes, ‘date me’ is silly…
  Xander: See, what I should do is I should just start with talking about the dance. (clears his throat) Y’know, Buffy, Spring Fling just isn’t any dance. It’s a time for students to choose, um… a mate and then we can… observe their… mating rituals and tag them before they migrate. Just kill me!
• +1/ Asking Buffy out, he gets rejected though-
  Xander: Um… You know, Buffy, uh, Spring Fling is a… time for students to gather and… Oh, God! (takes a breath) Buffy, I want you to go to the dance with me. You and me, on a date.
  Buffy: (speechless) I-I don’t know what to say.
  Xander: Well, you’re not laughing. So that’s a good start. Buffy, I like you. A lot. And I know we’re friends, and we’ve had experiences…We’ve fought some blood-sucking fiends, and that’s all been a good time. But I want more. I wanna dance with you.
  Buffy: Xander, you’re one of my best friends. You and Willow…
  Xander: Well, Willow’s not looking to date you. Or if she is, she’s playing it pretty close to the chest. (laughs nervously)
  Buffy: I don’t want to spoil the friendship that we have.
  Xander: Well, I don’t want to spoil it either. But that’s not the point, is it? You either feel a thing or you don’t.
  Buffy: I don’t. Xander, I’m, I’m sorry. I-I just don’t think of you that way.
  Xander: Well, try. I’ll wait. (smiles weakly)
  Buffy: Xander…
  Xander: Nah. Forget it. (gets up) I’m not him. I mean, I guess a guy’s gotta be undead to make time with you.
  Buffy: That’s really harsh.
  Xander:  Look, I’m sorry. I don’t handle rejection well. Funny! Considering all the practice I’ve had, huh?
• +1/ Recruiting Angel, despite his hatred for him.
• +1/ His banter with Angel as they try to find Buffy-
  Angel: (quietly) This way. (looks at Xander) What?
  Xander: You were looking at my neck.
  Angel: What?
  Xander: You were checking out my neck! I saw that!
  Angel: No, I wasn’t!
  Xander: Just keep your distance, pal.
  Angel: I wasn’t looking at your neck!
  Xander: I told you to eat before we left.
• +3/ Reviving Buffy with CPR.

WILLOW- (+5)

• +1/ Willow absolutely loving that Xander is practicing his lines out on her. (see Xander point 1)
• +1/ Worried that nerds aren’t cool anymore.
• +1/ Not giving in to her affection and wanting to wait for Xander properly instead of being Xander’s second choice. That’s very strong of her.
• +2/ The realisation for her that the world she now lives in can be horrible-
  Willow: I thought I could take anything. But, Buffy, this… this was different.
  Buffy: It’ll be alright.
  Willow: I’m trying to think how to say it… to explain it so you understand.
  Buffy: It doesn’t matter as long as you’re okay.
  Willow: I’m not okay. I knew those guys. I go to that room every day. And when I walked in there, it… it wasn’t our world anymore. They made it theirs. And they had fun. (a tear rolls down her cheek) What are we gonna do?

GILES- (+4)

• +1/ His side of the big prophecy scene, Giles is completley at a loss and can’t comfort Buffy. (see Buffy point 3).
• +2/ Deciding to fight the Master himself-
  Giles: Buffy, I’m not gonna send you out there to die. Now, you were right. I-I’ve waded around in these old books for so long, I’ve forgotten what the real world is like. I-it’s time I found out.
  Buffy: You’re still not going up against the Master.
  Giles: I’ve made up my mind.
  Buffy: So have I.
  Giles: I made up my mine first! I’m older and wiser than you, and just… just do what you’re told for once! Alright?
  Buffy: That’s not how it goes. I’m the Slayer.
  Giles: I don’t care what the books say. I defy prophecy, and I am going. There’s nothing you can say will change my mind.

ANGEL- (+4)

• +1/ His part in the prophecy scene. Angel, like Giles, tries to comfort Buffy, but he can’t. (see Buffy point 3)
• +1/ Xander accusing Angel of looking at his neck in an edible way. (see Xander point 4)
• +1/ Helping in Buffy’s revival.
• +1/ Commenting on Buffy’s dress after the Master’s defeat.

CORDELIA- (+4)

• +1/ Actually bonding with Willow a bit, managing to be fairly nice to her.
• +1/ Saving Willow and Ms. Calendar with her car.
• +1/ Biting a vampire herself to show him what it’s like.
• +1/ Cordelia actually wanting to go with the Scoobies to the Bronze even gloating about saving the day with her car.

THE MASTER- (+2)

• +1/ Getting all excited about the earthquake-
  “Whadaya think? 5.1?”
• +1/ His first battle with Buffy. He’s actually menacing and dangerous. His second battle isn’t quite so good.

JOYCE- (+1)

• +1/ Buying Buffy her spring fling dress, how very nice.

MS. CALENDAR- (+2)

• +1/ Finding out that Buffy is the Slayer-
  “The part that gets me, though, is where Buffy is the Vampire Slayer. She’s so little.”
• +1/ Helping in the big battle and looking to make Giles dance at the Bronze.

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +80
XANDER- +44
WILLOW +42
GILES +36
ANGEL- +19
CORDELIA- +19
MS. CALENDAR- +7
THE MASTER- +6
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
PRINCIPAL SNYDER- +4
JOYCE- +3
AMY- +2
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +80
XANDER- +44
WILLOW +42
GILES +36
ANGEL- +19
CORDELIA- +19
MS. CALENDAR- +7
THE MASTER- +6
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
PRINCIPAL SNYDER- +4
JOYCE- +3
AMY- +2
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

EPISODE THOUGHTS-

Great finale episode. Buffy has the strongest episode of any character so far. She has to deal with so many things emotional, not to mention her pending death but she decides to face up to her destiny. It says alot about the leading character if she is prepared to die in only the 12th episode. Xander & Willow also have solid episodes, with Xander aksing out Buffy and bringing her back to life while Willow dealing with the world she know lives in. Giles and Angel each provide some strong back-up as they try to comfort Buffy and deal with the Master in their own ways. We also get some decent performances from Cordelia and Ms. Calendar which when all wrapped up makes a fantastic episode. The plot is logical, fast-paced and entertaining. It also shows what this show is becoming. This is the first of many classic episodes as we lead into the rest of this brilliant series.

93/100

B111- Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight

Written by: Joss Whedon (story), Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden (teleplay)
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Armin Shimerman & Mercedes McNab.

Cordelia is talking excitedly with Harmony and her friends about the May Queen competition when Buffy bumps into them, spilling various Slayer paraphernalia. Buffy makes up an excuse about borrowing it from Giles for a history project.

In English class, Cordelia comments that in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is self-involved and whiny. She likens it to a bicycle rider she ran over; the girl whined about her pain and ignored Cordelia’s traumatic experience. The teacher was agreeable to the viewpoint. After class, Cordelia arranges to talk with the teacher the next day to talk about her paper.

In the boys’ locker room Mitch, Cordelia’s boyfriend, is attacked by a baseball bat. Cordelia is outside campaigning for May Queen, while Xander and Willow mock Cordelia, referring to a past Buffy did not share. Buffy feels left out and explains that she was the May Queen at her old school. The conversation ends when they hear that Mitch was beaten and taken to the hospital. Buffy slips into the boys’ locker room to find the word “LOOK” spray-painted on the lockers.

At the library, the Scoobies are stumped. They suspect a ghost. Meanwhile, Harmony asks Cordelia about Mitch’s condition; Cordelia explains that he is alright but looking too bruised for the prom pictures. In a flashback, we see Cordelia and Harmony talking about Mitch’s recent break-up with Wendy, and whether Cordelia would like to be his girlfriend. In the present, Harmony is pushed down the stairs and injures her ankle by the invisible force, as Buffy approaches. Principal Snyder arrives, and Buffy’s friends must distract him from Buffy, who runs off to follow an invisible source of laughter. The invisible thing bumps into Buffy before escaping. This is not a ghost. Xander suggests a cloak of invisibility worn by the Greek gods. Buffy dismisses the theory because of the pettiness of the crimes. As the Scoobies disperse, Buffy follows the sound of a flute. In the library, Giles is surprised by Angel, who offers to get a book of prophecies, the Pergamum Codex. Another flashback sequence sees Cordelia and Harmony discussing a lecture and ignoring another girl, Marcie. In the present, Cordelia wins the May Queen award. Looking over Willow’s list of missing kids, Buffy suspects Marcie when she sees she played the flute. Tracking Marcie, Buffy finds her hideout just as Marcie finds Mrs. Miller, Cordelia’s literature teacher, and chokes her with a plastic bag. Cordelia, arriving a short while afterwards, saves Mrs. Miller. An invisible hand writes “LISTEN” on the blackboard.

As Willow looks over Marcie’s yearbook, she sees it is full of the generic “Have a nice summer!” greeting, showing nobody actually knew Marcie. She is horrified to find her own greeting to Marcie, “Have a great summer!”. Giles realizes that Marcie became invisible because nobody ever noticed her. In a flashback sequence, we see Marcie being ignored in class, and becoming invisible. As the Scoobies realize that Marcie really is after Cordelia, the latter walks into the library asking Buffy for protection. They decide to use Cordelia as bait, and to have Buffy bodyguarding her. As Cordelia is getting dressed, she confides in Buffy that she is lonely too, but being popular “beats being lonely by yourself.” Marcie lures Willow, Xander and Giles into the boiler room, where she closes the door and opens the gas, then grabs Cordelia as she is changing. Buffy follows Cordelia and finds her unconscious. Marcie surprises Buffy, kicking her and knocking her out.

Buffy wakes up, finding herself tied to a chair near Cordelia, similarly indisposed. They see the word “LEARN” on a curtain, and Marcie explains that Cordelia is the lesson, or will be when she makes a mockery of Cordelia’s face by surgery. Buffy kicks the instrument tray at Marcie and frees herself from the ropes. Angel rescues the Scoobies, and shuts off the gas. Buffy concentrates, listening to Marcie, knocks her into a curtain before knocking her out. Two FBI agents arrive to haul Marcie away. Cordelia comes by the day after the coronation to thank them for helping her, much to their surprise, though her reaction when Mitch arrives shows she is not ready to renounce her popularity. Meanwhile, Marcie is taken to a school full of invisible students by the FBI. She sits down in class and opens her textbook. The title reads “Assassination and Infiltration”, to which the now-homicidal Marcie chuckles and says, “Cool.”.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+2)

• +1/ Having to explain her cache of weapons to Cordelia-
  “Uh, for history class. Mr. Giles has this, like, hobby of collecting stuff… which he lent me… for show and tell. D-did I mention it’s for history class?”
• +1/ Using her newly acquired training technique of being aware of what’s around you to defeat the invisible Marcie.

XANDER- (+2)

• +1/ Laughing at Cordy’s past antics.
• +1/ Telling the group what he’d use the ability of invisibility for-
  “Well, I wouldn’t use my powers to beat people up, but I’d use my powers to protect the girls’ locker room.”

WILLOW- (+3)

• +1/ Laughing with Xander about Cordy’s past antics.
• +1/ Managing to get Snyder off Buffy’s back so she can investigate-
  Willow: (loudly) Sue? What did you say? Mitch was gonna sue the school?
  Snyder: (diverted by Willow) Sue? Who?
  Xander: Well, his dad is the most powerful lawyer in Sunnydale.
  Snyder: Hold on. What have you two heard?
  Xander: His dad, the lawyer. You haven’t heard of him?
  Willow: Other lawyers call him ‘The Beast’.
• +1/ Willow trying to show she cared for Marcie-
  Willow: Oh, my God! (reads) ‘Have a nice summer. Have a nice summer.’ This girl had no friends at all.
  Giles: Uh, once again I teeter at the precipice of the generation gap.
  Buffy: ‘Have a nice summer’ is what you write when you have nothing to say.
  Xander: It’s the kiss of death.
  Buffy: You guys didn’t know Marcie Ross?
  Xander: Never met her. Why?
  Buffy: ‘Cause you both wrote it, too. (points to Xander’s signature)
  Xander: ‘Have a nice…’ Yeesh!
  Willow: Where am I? (Buffy points) Oh. ‘Have a *great* summer.’ See, I cared!

GILES- (+2)

• +1/ Talking to Angel about his predicament, one of the only times their pretty civil-
  “A vampire in love with a Slayer! It’s rather poetic! In a maudlin sort of way.”
• +1/ Being too technical for the Scoobies as he explains what has happened to Marcie.

ANGEL- (+2)

• +1/ A sign that Angel hates the fact that he is a vampire-
  Giles: (a bit embarrassed) There’s an… invisible girl terrorizing the school.
  Angel: That’s not really my area of expertise.
  Giles: Nor mine, I’m afraid. Uh, it’s fascinating, though. By all accounts it’s a, a… a wonderful power to possess.
  Angel: Oh, I don’t know. Looking in the mirror everyday and seeing nothing there. (cut to Giles’ reflection) It’s an overrated pleasure.

CORDELIA- (+4)

• +1/ She’s so self-involved that it’s hilarious-
  “That is such a twinkie defense. Shylock should get over himself. People who think their problems are so huge craze me. Like this time I sort of ran over this girl on her bike. It was the most traumatizing event of *my* life, and she’s trying to make it about *her* leg! Like *my* pain meant nothing.”
• -1/ Constantly complaining and ignoring Marcie, I hate popular girls like that.
• +1/ Her speech after winning May Queen-
  “Thank you for making the right choice, and for showing me how much you all love me. Being this popular is not just my right, but my responsibility, and I want you to know I take it very seriously.“
• +1/ Coming to Buffy for help-
  Cordelia: Somebody is after me! They just tried to kill Ms. Miller? Uh, she was helping me with my homework. And Mitch! And Harmony?! This is all about me! Me, me, me!
  Xander: Wow! For once she’s right!
  Buffy: So you’ve come to *me* for help.
  Cordelia: (nods) Because you’re always around when all this weird stuff is happening. And I know you’re very strong, and you’ve got all those weapons… I was kind of hoping you were in a gang.
• +2/ Explaining how being popular isn’t always as good as it seems, it’s one of her best lines and shows that there is a smart person buried in Cordelia somewhere-
  Cordelia: Bummer for her. It’s awful to feel that lonely.
  Buffy: Hmm.  So you’ve read something about the feeling?
  Cordelia: Hey! You think I’m never lonely because I’m so cute and popular? I can be surrounded by people and be completely alone. It’s not like any of them really know me. I don’t even know if they like
  me half the time. People just want to be in a popular zone. Sometimes when I talk, everyone’s so busy agreeing with me, they don’t hear a word I say.
  Buffy: Well, if you feel so alone, then why do you work so hard at being popular?
  Cordelia: Well, it beats being alone all by yourself.

SNYDER- (+1)

• His idea of comfort for Harmony after her fall-
  “Don’t sue.”

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +68
XANDER- +37
WILLOW- +37
GILES- +32
ANGEL- +15
CORDELIA- +15
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
MS. CALENDAR- +5
THE MASTER- +4
PRINCIPAL SNYDER- +4
JOYCE- +2
AMY- +2
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +68
XANDER- +37
WILLOW- +37
GILES- +32
ANGEL- +15
CORDELIA- +15
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
MS. CALENDAR- +5
THE MASTER- +4
PRINCIPAL SNYDER- +4
JOYCE- +2
AMY- +2
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

EPISODE THOUGHTS-

Not a big fan of this episode. Don’t like the plot line at all, an invisible girl…meh. There is some good things though. The Cordelia character getting some depth, Angel getting some depth and the Scoobies having a couple of nice moments. But overall, the episode lacks the sharpness of a normal episode.

62.5/100

B110- Nightmares

Written by: Joss Whedon (story) & David Greenwalt (teleplay)
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, Charisma Carpenter, Mark Metcalf & Kristine Sutherland.

The episode begins with Buffy having a nightmare about going to The Master’s lair and being choked by him. Her mother shakes Buffy awake, and, as Buffy wakes up, she is excited to be spending the coming weekend with her father. Buffy confides to Willow that she thinks she might have something to do with her parents’ divorce. In a class, when the teacher asks Wendell to read from the text book, Tarantulas crawl out of it. Buffy sees Billy standing in the door way, saying he is sorry.

The next day, as the Master explains to Collin, the Anointed One, how wonderful he finds fear, Buffy is nervous about being picked up by her father after school, and her mother calms her down. At school, Willow and Xander are worried about the spiders, and want to talk to Giles about it. Giles mutters that he “got lost”, seemingly in the stacks of books, and we assume that something that he fears happened to him. Giles has no information on the spiders, and suggests talking to Wendell. Wendell explains that he loves spiders, but says that the spiders hate Wendell because Wendell’s brother killed his pet spiders when he was off to camp. He explains that the spiders crawling out is a recurring nightmare for him, but this is the first time it happened. In the meantime, Cordelia lets Buffy know about a history test that Buffy has not studied for. Buffy has a hard time even finding the class, and the test is over in what feels like little time, and Buffy has not even filled in her name. She once again sees Billy, outside the class. As break-time begins, Laura takes a smoking break in the basement, where she is assaulted by an ugly man saying “Lucky nineteen”.

Buffy and Giles interview Laura in the hospital, where they hear about “lucky nineteen”. Outside, they are shocked by the doctor saying that she got off easy, until the doctor explains about Billy, who has been in a coma from assault with the same M.O.. Back at school the Scoobies are trying to come up with an explanation, as a greaser kid’s mother embarrasses him in front of his friends. As they are talking, Xander finds out he is in his underwear. As Buffy goes into the library to consult with Giles, he says that he has forgotten how to read. He has, however, managed to find a newspaper with a picture of Billy in an article. The article says that Billy has been in a coma for a week, which contradicts Buffy having seen him. Giles theorizes she might have been seeing Billy’s astral projection.

Buffy’s father shows up, and asks to talk to her. Outside school, he tells Buffy that her parents’ divorce is indeed her fault. Furthermore, he claims to be bored by their weekends together and decides to call the whole thing off. As Buffy is crying, he scolds her. Xander and Willow show up in the library, and they realize Wendell’s, Giles’s and Xander’s mishaps were all based on their nightmares, which seem to be coming true for everyone. Buffy finds Billy’s astral body, and the ugly man who assaulted Laura finds both of them.

As Buffy and Billy run away, the Scoobies decide to find Buffy and explain the situation to her. As Buffy and Billy run away from the ugly man, Billy explains to her that he was responsible for his baseball team losing, and that it is a bad thing to lose at games. As Buffy and Billy find themselves in the cemetery at night-time, Willow finds herself starring in the Madame Butterfly opera. Willow is overcome by stage fright, and runs away. Xander is chasing a chocolate bar after chocolate bar until he finds one he has not had since his sixth birthday, only to be assaulted by a knife-wielding clown. Back at the cemetery, the Master buries Buffy alive.

Still chased by the clown, Xander teams up with Willow and Giles. He decides to confront the clown, punching him and feeling liberated. As Willow, Xander and Giles find Buffy’s grave, Giles claims it is his nightmare, letting Buffy die. Buffy crawls out of the grave — a vampire. They all decide to wake up Billy from his coma to stop the nightmares. In the hospital, they find Billy’s astral body near Billy’s comatose body. As the ugly man finds him, Buffy confronts him. After knocking him out, she forces Billy to face him. Billy wakes up and everything is back to normal.

As Billy’s Little League coach shows up, it is obvious he is the inspiration for the ugly man, and that it was he who put Billy into a coma after they lost the game. He tries to run after Buffy confronts him, but is stopped by Giles and Xander and put into jail. The episode ends when Buffy and her father leave for their weekend together.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+2)

• +1/ We get to see her as a vampire. She actually looks pretty good, not Willow good, or Drusilla evil, but good anyway.
• +1/ The way she helps out Billy. You see a lot of the motherly traits she possesses and how she’ll use them in the future.

XANDER- (+5)

• +1/ Only paying attention in school when there’s a female teacher teaching and she is wearing tight clothing.
• +1/ He hates clowns.
• +2/ Standing up to the clown, which gets an extra point because i also hate clowns.
• +1/ Digging Buffy as a vampire-
  Willow: When Buffy was a vampire, you weren’t still, like, attracted to her, were you?
  Xander: Willow, how can you… I mean, that’s really bent! She was… grotesque!
  Willow: Still dug her, huh?
  Xander: I’m sick, I need help.

WILLOW- (+4)

• +1/ Her fear of spider’s.
• +1/ Getting all excited when Xander suddenly ends up only in his underwear.
• +1/ Having stage fright as a nightmare, which continued on from the last episode. Her get-up is interesting too.
• +1/ “I had to sing! Very bad to sing!”

GILES- (+3)

• +1/ Getting lost in his library, his very own library. One of the funnier nightmares.
• +1/ His other nightmare being that Buffy died. It cuts him up quite badly.
• +1/ Telling Willow to shut up when she asks to many negative questions.

CORDELIA- (+3)

• +1/ Being mildly nice to Buffy about history class…things are looking up for Cordy.
• +1/ Her first nightmare is tragically bad hair.
• +1/ Her second nightmare is being dragged onto the chess team, which is really hilarious.

JOYCE- (+1)

• +1/ Getting a little jealous about how much Buffy wants to see her Dad-
  “You just have to remember that your father adores you. No more than I do, by the way.”

THE MASTER- (+1)

• +1/ Actually showing some intimidation in his first meeting with Buffy. Finally.

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +66
XANDER- +35
WILLOW- +34
GILES- +30
ANGEL- +13
CORDELIA- +11
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
MS.CALENDAR- +5
THE MASTER- +4
PRINCIPAL SNYDER- +3
JOYCE- +2
AMY- +2
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +66
XANDER- +35
WILLOW- +34
GILES- +30
ANGEL- +13
CORDELIA- +11
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
MS.CALENDAR- +5
THE MASTER- +4
PRINCIPAL SNYDER- +3
JOYCE- +2
AMY- +2
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

EPISODE THOUGHTS-

I’m not exactly sure what I think of this episode. I like the idea of nightmares coming to life, and those nightmares for each character are actually quite true for each of them. Buffy’s being her dad’s abandonment and possible vampirism, Xander’s fear of clowns, Willow’s stage fright, Giles’ dealing with the death of Buffy and Cordelia’s humourous bad hair and chess team nightmares. Those moments are fantastic and the would’ve been great if the plot involving Billy and the large demon had been better.

72.5/100

B109- The Puppet Show

Written by: Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, Charisma Carpenter, Kristine Sutherland & Armin Shimerman.

The episode begins with a typical horror-movie shot from the POV of the villain, seeing a ballet dancer (Emily) as a demonic voice whispers “I will be flesh”. Cordelia is singing Whitney Houston’s Greatest Love Of All off key, as part of the try outs for the talent show. Giles stops her, obviously to stop his ears from hurting. Buffy, Xander and Willow join Giles, and mock him as he complains that the new Principal (which he refers to as the Führer) made him in charge of the talent show, despite his wishes, so he could have more contact with the students. As Snyder overhears the Scoobies making fun of Giles, he punishes them by forcing them to participate in the talent show. The next try-out is Morgan and his dummy, Sid, and Buffy confesses to being freaked out by dummies. Morgan’s act takes a sudden turn for the better when Sid suddenly develops a personality and starts making sarcastic comments about the act. The scene cuts to Emily, who notices the demon (unseen by the audience watching her) and screams.

The talent show rehearsals continue with Marc, an unsuccessful magician. Buffy, Willow and Xander debate what to do for the talent show, and settle on a dramatic scene, since it does not require any actual talent. Sid watches, and makes rude comments as Morgan explains the voice is an imitation of his father. Snyder explains to Giles that he will run a safer, more disciplined school, only to be interrupted by the discovery of Emily’s body, whose heart has been cut out with a knife. The Scoobies debate whether the killer is a demon or a human, eliciting Willow’s comment that a human murderer is scarier since it could be anyone — even her.

The Scoobies split up and begin interviewing people from the talent show to find the killer. In a quick montage of the interviews, they all point in the direction of Morgan and his dummy, Sid. They decide to check Morgan’s locker after school hours. As Buffy is busy breaking into Morgan’s locker, and finding nothing, Snyder finds her almost red-handed, and admonishes her for being in the school after hours. Morgan and Sid turn out to be hiding, watching Buffy. Sid tells Morgan that Buffy is “the one”, saying that her strength is evidence of it.

As Buffy goes to sleep, Sid waits until the lights are off and sneaks into her room. When she wakes up, he quickly scampers out. Naturally, Buffy has a hard time convincing the Scoobies that Sid broke into her room. Giles, on his part, suggests that the demon responsible might be needing the heart (and later, a brain) to keep a human guise, which means the demon could be anyone, once again. When a teacher confiscates Sid, Xander steals him so that Buffy can talk to Morgan alone. As Buffy searches for Morgan back-stage, Snyder is again displeased with her being where he does not think she belongs.

In the library, just as Willow finds references to another possible explanation — animated dummies might harvest organs to become humans — Sid is gone when Xander stops paying any attention to him. The scene cuts to Buffy, finding Morgan’s body, missing a brain, just as a chandelier falls on her. When she wakes up, Sid attacks her, and during their fight they realize they are both working for the same goal: to stop the demon.

Sid explains he is a demon hunter, cursed to dummy form until he kills the last of the Brotherhood of Seven, those demons which harvest a heart and a brain. Realizing the demon has what it needs, they theorize it will be moving on, and so it will be whomever is missing from the show. Sid suggests to Giles to form a “power circle” to find out who is missing, but Giles sees everyone there. When Sid is again missing, Buffy finds Morgan’s brain when she looks for him. Buffy, Willow and Xander discover Morgan had brain cancer — which is probably the reason the demon did not use his brain, and is now looking for someone smart. This means that Giles and Willow are in danger.

At the talent show, Marc the magician tricks Giles into strapping himself into a guillotine, ostensibly a magic prop, so that he can take his scalp off and get his brain. Buffy, Xander and Willow rush to rescue Giles, and with Sid’s help they manage to kill Marc — who was the demon all along — and save Giles just as the curtain goes up. Everyone assumes it is part of the show, though there is only minimal clapping. The episode ends with Buffy, Xander and Willow performing a scene from Oedipus Rex with remarkable lack of talent, and with Willow running away from the stage.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+6)

• +1/ Taunting Giles about their role-reversal-
  Buffy: Giles, unto every generation is born one who must run the annual talentless show. You cannot escape your destiny.
  Giles: If you had any shred of decency, you would have participated, or at least, um, helped.
  Buffy: Nah! I think I’ll take on your traditional role… and watch!
• +1/ Meeting Snyder for the first time-
  Buffy: Principal Snyder!
  Snyder: So. We think school events are stupid, and we think authority figures are to be made fun of.
  Buffy: No! No, we don’t. W-unless you do.
  Snyder: And we think our afternoon classes are optional. All three of you left campus yesterday.
  Buffy: Yeah, but we were fighting a demon…
  Snyder: Fighting?
  Buffy: Not fighting.
• +1/ Her reaction to Sid the dummy’s flirting-
  Sid: (puts his hand on her knee) Of course, if you want to snuggle up and comfort me…
  Buffy: (takes his hand off of her knee) So, that horny dummy thing really *isn’t* an act, is it?
  Sid: Nope!
  Buffy: Yuk!
• +1/ Defeating the demon at the end.
• +2/ Her part in their play with Xander & Willow.

XANDER- (+5)

• +1/ Reaction to Principal Snyder’s order to enter the talent show-
  “Can I just mention, that detention is a time-honored form of punishment?”
• +1/ Mucking around with Sid the Dummy, scaring Buffy in the process.
• +1/ Saving Giles from a guillotine.
• +2/ His part in the play at the end, he really gives it a go.

WILLOW- (+5)

• +1/ Willow’s reaction to Snyder ordering their participation in the talent show.
• +1/ Talking about murder-
  Giles: A demon is a creature of evil, pure and very simple. A person driven to kill is, is, um, it’s more
  complex.
  Willow: The creep factor is also heightened. It could be anyone. It could be me! (gets looks from them all) It’s not, though.
• +1/ Not realising she’s the smartest kid in school apart from Morgan-
  Willow: What could a demon possibly want from me?
  Xander: What’s the square root of 841?
  Willow: 29. Oh, yeah.
• +2/ Her part in the play at the end. She freezes up and ends up running off the stage.

GILES- (+2)

• +1/ Avoiding Cordelia by using Xander’s trick-
  Giles: Oh! I’m sorry. Um, your hair, uh…
  Cordelia: There’s something wrong with my hair? (pulls it behind her ears)
  Giles remains silent, but continues to stare.
  Cordelia: Ohmigod! (quickly leaves)
  Giles: (to himself) Xander was right. It worked like a charm.
• +1/ Giles offering Cordelia some advice-
  Cordelia: I, I can’t go out there. All those people staring at me and judging me like I’m some kind of… Buffy! What if I mess up?
  Giles: Cordelia, there, uh, there-there’s, uh, uh, an adage, uh, that, uh, if you’re feeling nervous then, uh, you should imagine the entire audience are in their underwear.
  Cordelia: Eww! Even Mrs. Franklin? Uhhh!
  Giles: Perhaps not.

CORDELIA- (+3)

• +1/ Cordelia’s singing during talent show auditions. It’s really quite funny.
• +1/ Cordelia being interrogated by Xander about the killings-
  Cordelia: It’s just such a tragedy for me. Emma was, like, my best friend.
  Xander: Emily.
• +1/ Getting a bout of stage fright before the talent show and asking for Giles’ advice, which she doesn’t like. (see Giles’ point 2)

PRINCIPAL SNYDER- (+3)

• +1/ Meeting the Scoobies for the first time-
  “My predecessor, Mr. Flutie, may have gone in for all that touchy-feely relating nonsense, but he was eaten. You’re in *my* world now. And Sunnydale has touched and felt for the last time.”
• +1/ “Kids today need discipline. That’s an unpopular word these days, ‘discipline’. I know Principal Flutie would have said, ‘Kids need understanding. Kids are human beings.’ That’s the kind of woolly-headed, liberal thinking that leads to being eaten.”
• +1/ “There are things I will not tolerate: students loitering on campus after school, horrible murders with hearts being removed. And also smoking.”

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +64
XANDER- +30
WILLOW- +30
GILES- +27
ANGEL- +13
CORDELIA- +8
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
MS. CALENDAR- +5
THE MASTER- +3
PRINCIPAL SNYDER- +3
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +64
XANDER- +30
WILLOW- +30
GILES- +27
ANGEL- +13
CORDELIA- +8
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
MS. CALENDAR- +5
THE MASTER- +3
PRINCIPAL SNYDER- +3
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

EPISODE THOUGHTS-
An OK episode. Once again, the character’s carry this episode. The plot is rather lame, especially because of the horny, talking dummy, but the Scoobies manage to make it at least fun. Buffy, Xander and Willow all are very solid, Giles a little less so but he has his moments with Cordelia. We are also introduced to Snyder, who is at his best in this episode. Solid show.

74/100

B108- I Robot… You, Jane

Written by: Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head & Robia LaMorte.

The episode begins in a castle in Cortona, Italy, in 1418. We see Carlo, a young Italian man, looking at Moloch, a lizard-looking demon, his master. Moloch promises Carlo everything if he gives Moloch his love, and as Carlo promises his love, Moloch kills him. In a church, a few priests form the sacred circle of Kayless to trap Moloch in a book. The book is sealed in a box, with the head priest expressing his hope that the book will not be read, or the demon Moloch will once again walk the world. The scene cuts to Buffy opening the box in which the book is kept, and is told by Giles to put it in a pile. Ms. Calendar and Giles trade jibes about the need for modern technology. As the class leaves, Willow tries to convince Xander to help her scan. As he leaves, she scans in the book Moloch is trapped in. As Willow leaves, the text “Where am I?” is displayed on the computer screen.

A week later, at school, Buffy questions Willow about her missing a few classes. Willow confides she has an online relationship with a boy named Malcolm. As Buffy tries to warn Willow about the dangers of rushing into a relationship with someone she has not seen, Fritz (a computer geek) is instructed by Moloch, via the computer he is working on, to keep watch on Buffy. Ms. Calendar questions Fritz about the unusual amount of time he and Dave are spending on the computer, and receives an ambiguous answer. Later, when Xander asks Willow if she will accompany him to the Bronze, she passes, wanting to talk to Malcolm. Buffy accuses Xander of jealousy, and Xander denies vehemently, claiming he is just worried about Willow, because they have no idea if Malcolm is who he says he is. The scene cuts to Fritz mumbling “I’m jacked in” as he scars himself in the form of the letter “M”. As Willow is late on the next day, Buffy finds that she blew off classes to talk to “Malcolm”. When Buffy asks for Dave for help finding out Malcolm’s real identity, his angry response causes her to think that he is Malcolm. When Buffy asks Giles for help, he confesses he cannot help her much as he finds technology to be intimidating. His only idea is for Buffy to follow Dave. As Buffy follows him to the CRD building, a security camera points at her, and a message appears on a computer screen Fritz is looking at: “kill her”.

When Buffy goes back to Giles and Xander, Xander unexpectedly knows that CRD is “Calax Research and Development”, a hi-tech company which shut down. When Xander assures Buffy that it is suspicious since he would know if CRD re-opened, they decide to break in. When Ms. Calendar interrupts them, Xander and Buffy leave. Willow becomes suspicious of Malcolm after she learns that he knows Buffy was kicked out of her old school, and logs off the conversation. Back at the library, Giles’s and Ms. Calendar’s verbal sparring leads them to discover that Moloch’s book is empty.

Outside of school, Dave tells Buffy that Willow wants to talk to her in the girl’s locker room, as a plot to electrocute Buffy. Dave changes his mind at the last minute, and his warning combined with Buffy’s slayer reflexes save her. When Moloch hears of it, he begins writing Dave’s suicide note on the computer, and Fritz kills Dave. Buffy, Xander and Giles reconvene in the library, where Giles gives the exposition on how books were used to imprison demons, but if the books were read, the demons were set free. Together, they realize that Moloch has gotten into the internet – the scanning of his book being close enough to “reading” it to set him free – and is wreaking havoc from there. When Buffy tries to delete the “Moloch” file, his face appears and tell her to stay away from Willow, and Buffy realizes Malcolm is Moloch.

Buffy and Giles explain that there is no limit to the amount of damage a demon in the internet can do. After they find Dave’s body, Xander and Buffy go to Willow’s house, and Buffy tells Giles to ask Ms. Calendar for help, hoping that between his knowledge of demons and her knowledge of computers, they can reimprison Moloch. Willow is kidnapped by Fritz. At the library, Giles is surprised that Ms. Calendar understands demons, as she is a “techno-pagan”. Buffy and Xander, guessing that Moloch had Willow kidnapped, rush off to CRD. Buffy calls Giles, and they co-ordinate plans. Inside CRD, Moloch’s robotic body is prepared, and he is happy to see Willow. Moloch kills Fritz as a demonstration of his power. Buffy and Xander break into CRD as Giles and Ms. Calendar start preparing the binding spell. The binding spell does not complete, but casts Moloch out of the internet and traps him inside his robotic body. Moloch crashes through a wall and backhands Xander, but Willow hits Moloch with a fire extinguishier. As Moloch tries to kill Buffy, he punches an electrical power line and dies.

The next day, Buffy, Willow and Xander joke about how the Hellmouth is screwing with their love lives, laughing about how none of them will ever find true happiness, then looking decidedly unenthused at the thought.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+5)

• +1/ Buffy trying to find out everything she can about Willow’s new boyfriend, it’s great to see Buffy all cheery and nosy.
• +1/ Buffy suggesting that Willow’s boyfriend could have a hairy back-
  Willow: Why does everything have to be about looks?
  Buffy: Not everything, but some stuff is. I mean, what if you guys get
  really, really intense, and then you find out that he… has… a hairy back?
• +1/ Over-reacting with Xander about Willow’s new boyfriend-
  Xander: Okay, but I can also say that I’m an elderly Dutch woman. Get me? I mean, who’s to say I’m not if I’m in the elderly Dutch chat room?
  Buffy: (making light) I get your point! (gets his point) I get your
  point. Oh, this guy could be anybody. He could be weird, or crazy, or
  old, or… He could be a circus freak. (panicked) He’s probably a circus
  freak!
• +1/ Buffy tailing Dave, her outfit is hilarious.
• +1/ Comforting Willow about her crappy love-life-
  Buffy: Let’s face it: none of us are ever gonna have a happy, normal
  relationship.
  Xander: We’re doomed!
  Willow: Yeah!

XANDER- (+7)

• +1/ Getting a little Jealous over Willow’s new boyfriend and missing her company-
  “But you’re gonna be missin’ out. I’m plannin’ to be witty. I’m gonna make fun of all the people who won’t talk to me.”
• +1/ Over-reacting about Willow’s new boyfriend-
  “Yeah. I mean, we read about it all the time. Y’know, people meet on the ‘Net, they talk, they get together, have dinner, a show, horrible ax murder.”
• +1/ Actually providing useful during research when he knows about the research lab.
• +1/ Explaining to Ms. Calendar why he and Buffy spend so much time at the library-
  “To read makes our speaking English good.”
• +1/ Reassuring Buffy about her hair after her near electric shock-
  Buffy: Tell me the truth: how’s my hair?
  Xander: It’s great! It’s your best hair ever!
• +1/ His first punching.
• +1/ Reassuring Willow of his equally depressing choice in partners.

WILLOW- (+6)

• +1/ Willow all smitten because of her new boyfriend-
  Buffy: (curiously) Does he go here? What’s his name? Have you kissed him? What’s he like?
  Willow: (amused) No, Malcolm, no, and very nice.
• +1/ Having to defend herself from Buffy’s concern about an online boyfriend.
• -1/ Blowing off classes to talk to Malcolm, how very unWillow-like.
• +1/ Finally noticing something strange about Malcolm.
• +2/ Standing up to Molloch, even under the possibility of death, shows a lot about Willow. She has already grown in 8 episodes into a much stronger person.
• +1/ Attacking Molloch with a fire extinguisher, great to see.
• +1/ All depressed about her love life.

GILES- (+8}

• +1/ Giles lacking knowledge about technology-
  Giles: Uh, when I’ve examined it, you can, uh, uh, skim it.
  Ms. Calendar: Scan it, Rupert. That’s scan it.
  Giles: (gives her a sarcastic look) Of course.
• +1/ “I’m, I’m just gonna stay and clean up a little. I’ll, uh, I’ll be back in the middle ages.”
• +1/ Preferring an Ogre to a computer, how very Giles-
  “I-I-I really don’t know how to advise you. Things involved with a computer fill me with a childlike terror. Now, if it were a nice ogre or some such I’d be more in my element.”
• +1/ Fighting Ms. Calendar about technology-
  Ms. Calendar: This isn’t a fad, Rupert! We are creating a new society
  here.
  Giles: A society in which human interaction is all but obsolete? In
  which people can be completely manipulated by technology, well, well… Thank you, I’ll pass.
• +1/ Calling Ms. Calendar dreadful, he’s so petty.
• +1/ Having to work with Ms. Calendar to solve the Molloch problem. They work pretty well together too, well, apart from the fighting.
• +2/ His explanation of his love of books-
  Ms. Calendar: Honestly, what is it about them that bothers you so much?
  Giles: The smell.
  Ms. Calendar: Computer’s don’t smell, Rupert.
  Giles: I know! Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there
  is. A certain flower or a, a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences…
  long forgotten. Books smell. Musty and, and, and, and rich. The
  knowledge gained from a computer, is, uh, it… it has no, no texture,
  no, no context. It’s, it’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then, then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um… smelly.

MS. CALENDAR- (+5)

• +1/ Fighting with Giles’ for the first of many times this episode-
  Ms. Calendar: Oh, I know, our ways are strange to you, but soon you will join us in the 20th century. With three whole years to spare!
  (grins)
  Giles: (smugly) Ms. Calendar, I’m sure your computer science class is
  fascinating, but I happen to believe that one can survive in modern
  society without being a slave to the, um, idiot box.
  Ms. Calendar: (annoyed) That’s TV. The idiot box is TV. This (indicates a computer) is the *good* box!
• +1/ Her retort to Giles’ Middle Ages remark-
  “Did you ever leave?”
• +1/ Their second fight about technology-
  “Oh, you are a *big* snob. You, you think that knowledge should be kept in these carefully guarded repositories where only a handful of white guys can get at it.”
• +1/ The revelation that she’s a techno-pagan. Makes her a much more interesting character.
• +1/ Working with Giles’ to rid Molloch from the internet.

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +58
XANDER- +25
WILLOW- +25
GILES- +25
ANGEL- +13
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
CORDELIA- +5
MS. CALENDAR- +5
THE MASTER- +3
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +58
XANDER- +25
WILLOW- +25
GILES- +25
ANGEL- +13
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
CORDELIA- +5
MS. CALENDAR- +5
THE MASTER- +3
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

EPISODE THOUGHTS-
I must be one of the few people who don’t mind this episode, I mean, the plot is stupid but the character’s are great. Everyone has a very solid episode. Buffy takes somewhat of a back-up role but is still very solid, Xander is strong, Willow leads the episode pretty well and Giles & Ms. Calendar’s interactions are fantastic. This would’ve been a good episode if the plot was just a little better.

69/100

B107- Angel

Written by: David Greenwalt
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Mark Metcalf, Kristine Sutherland & Julie Benz.

The Master is displeased that Buffy is killing his vampires. Deeming Darla’s request to deal with Buffy too personally motivated, the Master decides instead to send “The Three,” a trio of warrior vampires, to take the Slayer out. The Three ambush Buffy on her way home from pre-fumigation night at The Bronze. Angel, whom Buffy at first suspects is the (only) one stalking her, shows up at a critical moment, but is wounded helping the Slayer break out of a dicey triple hold. Buffy abandons the fight and helps Angel run to her house, where she yells at him to get inside. With The Three safely on the other side of the door, Angel explains that a vampire can’t enter someone’s home unless it’s invited in. Buffy recalls hearing that, but tells Angel she’s never had to put it to the test before.

As Angel removes his jacket and shirt so Buffy can dress his wound, the griffin tattoo on his back is revealed, and Buffy is visibly affected by both his beauty and his proximity. Buffy thanks Angel for his help and asks how he happened to be so close by. Angel, who actually had followed the Slayer from The Bronze, though pleasantly flirtatious, remains evasive. When Buffy’s mother comes home from working late, Buffy flies to the front door to be sure Joyce is safe and that no vampires get in, then tries to coax her to go up to bed immediately. Angel foils Buffy’s attempt to keep his presence a secret by putting his shirt and jacket back on and coming into the hall to meet Joyce. Buffy claims Angel is a college student tutoring her in history. Once the mildly skeptical Joyce goes upstairs, Buffy pretends to send Angel off, but instead sneaks him up to her bedroom.

Angel says he doesn’t want to get her in more trouble, but Buffy replies firmly that she doesn’t want to “get him dead”—to which Angel makes no response. They discuss the room’s one bed and Angel insists on taking the floor, whereupon Buffy sends him to the window to see whether the “fang gang” is still lurking so his back will be turned while she changes. Still trying to figure him out, Buffy asks why Angel, not being The Chosen One, elects to fight vampires. At his non-committal reply, she wonders what his family thinks of his career choice, then looks around at him when he says, “They’re dead.” “I’m sorry,” Buffy says, but the conversation is suddenly in murky waters. When she quietly asks if it was vampires, he replies with apparent difficulty, “It was.” Buffy further theorizes that hunting vampires is some kind of “vengeance gig” for him, but with a hint of desperation, Angel changes the subject. Buffy accepts the gambit and they settle down for the night in their respective spots.

When the gang hears about events the next morning, Xander rather illogically protests that Angel is trying to seduce Buffy by saving her life and getting stabbed. Giles identifies the armored vampire trio and reassures everyone that The Three are no longer a threat, since they must offer their lives to the Master in penance for failing their mission. Back at the Hellmouth, the Master allows Darla to execute The Three, as an object lesson in the use of power for Collin, The Anointed One.

Returning to the library later that day, Buffy begins weapons training. She is disappointed when Giles requires her to start with the quarterstaff rather than the “cool” crossbow, but easily defeats her Watcher staff-to-staff and progresses to crossbow training much sooner than he anticipates or wishes. Returning home, Buffy brings some supper for Angel, who has waited out the day in her room. Awkwardly attempting small-talk, Buffy asks Angel how he passed the time. Unobtrusively setting aside the food, Angel replies that he did “a little reading”, a lot of thinking. Buffy notices her diary askew and, suddenly very agitated, begins to explain away entries that reveal her crush on Angel. Clearly amused, but also somewhat at a loss, Angel stops her and explains in turn that Buffy’s mother moved the diary while straightening up; Angel swears he didn’t read it.

As Buffy takes a moment to deal with her embarrassment, Angel returns to his own agenda and confesses that he doesn’t think he should be around her. Completely forgetting the diary incident, Buffy tries to deal with this new shock until it finally registers that Angel has also confessed that all he wants to do is to kiss her. Shocked again, Buffy barely listens as Angel continues to mutter miserably that he’s older than she is and that he should go. Buffy looks at Angel with speculation and hope, and her sudden attention rivets his. They take that last half-step toward each other. Angel bends his head to Buffy’s upturned face. At first hesitant and sweet, their kiss quickly grows heated and passionate. Suddenly, Angel pulls back with a snarl of distress and Buffy sees his vampiric visage for the first time. She screams in shock and Angel dives out the window, escaping into the darkness without another word. At Buffy’s shriek, her mother rushes in and asks what happened, but Buffy glances out the window and says only that she “saw a shadow.” Bringing her friends up to speed before school the next morning, Buffy wistfully wonders why Angel seems good to her. Emphatically, Giles insists there are no good vampires—a vampire, lacking a soul, is not even a person. Xander urges Buffy to slay Angel.

Returning to his apartment, Angel becomes aware of an intruder, but seems little surprised to see the Master’s favorite vampire, Darla. She taunts him, telling him humans will never accept him for who he is, but he replies that he is no longer accepted by vampires, either. Meanwhile, Giles researches Angel’s history and notices the peculiarity that even though this vampire was previously well-known as the vicious killer Angelus, Angel apparently has shunned the company of other vampires since coming to America and, stranger yet, has completely stopped preying on humans. Meanwhile, deep in the Master’s lair, Darla insists that she be allowed to kill Buffy. The Master concedes upon hearing Darla’s diabolical plan to use Angel as her weapon. Later that evening in the library, Willow is having a hard time tutoring Buffy in the history of the Civil War, since they are both distracted by gloom over boys—Buffy because she doesn’t want to slay Angel and Willow because she wants to attract Xander. Lurking in the stacks, Darla eavesdrops before going to Buffy’s house, where she cons Joyce into inviting her in by claiming to be yet another study buddy of Buffy’s.

Prowling around Buffy’s house himself, Angel hears Joyce’s cry and rushes in just as Darla begins to drink from her. Daring him to drink too, Darla shoves the now unconscious Joyce into Angel’s arms and escapes out the back door. Deeply tempted by Joyce’s warm blood, Angel helplessly vamps, but resists the impulse to drink long enough to be discovered, in flagranté, by the returning Buffy. Horrified, frightened and furious to find Angel apparently feeding from her mother, Buffy literally throws him out of the house, then calls for an ambulance. At the hospital, Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander try to help “anemic” Joyce reconstruct events, and she says her last memory is of inviting Buffy’s “study friend” inside. Buffy misunderstands, thinking Joyce means Angel rather than Darla. Leaving her mother in the care of friends and doctors, Buffy races to the library, takes the crossbow from the weapons locker, and storms out into the night. At Angel’s apartment, Darla works him into a fury, telling him how easy it was to poison Buffy against him, exhorting him to kill or be killed.

Meanwhile, Giles talks further with Joyce and learns enough to realize that it was Darla, not Angel, who bit Buffy’s mom. With Xander and Willow in tow, he rushes to find Buffy to warn her of the trap. Alone in the dark, Buffy tracks Angel to the deserted Bronze and engages him in combat. Angel soon tackles and disarms Buffy, but she retrieves her weapon and fires before he can recover his balance. To Angel’s surprise, the Slayer intentionally shoots wide and her bolt thunks into the wall beside his head. When she demands an explanation for his actions, particularly why he spared her but not her mom, Angel mockingly recounts highlights from his Angelus days. When the Slayer asks what changed, Angel more quietly tells her the story of the beautiful Gypsy girl he once ate, whose family cursed him in retribution. The Gypsies gave him a soul that would wrack him with guilt, eternally tormenting him for the evil he had wreaked during a century and more of unbridled vampirism.

Angel doesn’t try to justify himself, but the Slayer begins to understand that he is unique among vampires, and that this is what she had sensed from the beginning. When he denies biting Joyce, yet confesses wanting to, as well as wanting to kill Buffy herself, the Slayer lays aside her crossbow and slowly offers her throat to a now utterly motionless Angel. Suddenly, Darla emerges from the shadows and starts to taunt them, boasting to Buffy that she, Darla, was the vampire who turned Angel all those decades ago. When Buffy levels her crossbow, Darla pulls out a pair of handguns and fires. Hit, Angel crumples to the floor. Buffy dives for cover behind the bar and looses a bolt that hits Darla’s chest but misses her heart. Hearing gunfire, Giles, Willow and Xander rush in and distract Darla, shouting to Buffy that it was Darla who bit Joyce, not Angel. As Darla gleefully blazes away, keeping the Slayer and her friends pinned down, the wounded Angel suddenly lunges toward the wall and yanks out the crossbow bolt that missed his head earlier. Looming up from behind, Angel stakes Darla through the heart with Buffy’s bolt, dusting his maker in the witness of all.

In their Hellmouth lair, Collin consoles the Master for his loss of Darla at Angel’s hands. Once again at the Bronze, now post-fumigation, Willow, Xander and Buffy comment on how much, and how little, has changed since their last outing. Spying Angel across the crowded room, Buffy goes to thank him—and to tell him goodbye. Helpless in the heat of their burgeoning passion for one another, their banter trails to silence and they deeply kiss one last time. As she reluctantly pulls away, Buffy doesn’t notice that the cross she’s wearing—the one Angel gave her weeks ago at their very first meeting in the alley right out back—was severely scorching him, branding the skin of his chest all during their embrace. Angel, who neither vamped nor flinched as he slowly kissed the Slayer, faintly winces but never says a word as he watches her walk away.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+9)

• +1/ Buffy talking about life with Angel-
  “I can just see him in a relationship. ‘Hi, honey, you’re in grave danger. I’ll see you next month.'”
• +1/ Trying to pass off Angel to Joyce as a college student.
• +1/ Easily defeating Giles with a quarterstaff, damaging his ego in the process.
• +2/ Her reaction to thinking Angel had read her diary-
  Buffy: My diary? You read my diary? That is *not* okay! A diary is like a person’s most private place! I… You don’t even know what I was writing about! ‘Hunk’ can mean a lot of things, bad things. And, and when it says that your eyes are ‘penetrating’, I meant to write ‘bulging’.
  Angel: Buffy…
  Buffy: And ‘A’ doesn’t even stand for ‘Angel’ for that matter, it stands for… ‘Achmed’, a charming foreign exchange student, so that whole fantasy part has nothing to even do with you at all…
• +1/ Kissing Angel.
• +1/ Moping about Angel to Willow, you gotta feel for her.
• +1/ Her taunting of Darla, good ol’ Buffy.
• +1/ Not being able to walk away from Angel, rather kissing him.

XANDER- (+1)

• +1/ His dancing is hilarious, also very bad.

WILLOW- (+5)

• +1/ Giving Xander a crushed cockroach so he can get a free drink at the bronze.
• +1/ Wanting to talk about Angel in the middle of research, how very best friend of her.
• +1/ “So he *is* a good vampire! I mean, on a scale of one to ten, ten being someone who’s killing and maiming every night, and one being
  someone who’s… not.”
• +1/ On telling Xander about her affection for him-
  “No, no, no, no. No speaking up. That way leads to madness and sweaty palms.”
• +1/ On the benefits of Angel’s vampirism-
  “And it is kinda novel how he’ll stay young and handsome forever, although you’ll still get wrinkly and die, and… Oh, and what about the children? (Buffy looks at her) I’ll be quiet now.”

GILES- (+1)

• +1/ Talking with Joyce about Buffy, the start of their strange relationship.

ANGEL- (+8}

• +1/ Saving Buffy from ‘The Three’.
• +1/ Being a gentlemen in Buffy’s presence.
• +1/ Kissing Buffy.
• +1/ His discussion with Darla, you really get the sense of their past relationship.
• +1/ Being completely honest with Buffy about his past-
  Buffy: I invited you into my home and then you attacked my family!
  Angel: Why not? I killed mine. I killed their friends… and their friend’s children… For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.
  Buffy: What changed?
  Angel: Fed on a girl about your age… beautiful… dumb as a post… but a favorite among her clan.
  Buffy: Her clan?
  Angel: Romany. Gypsies. The elders conjured the perfect punishment for me. They restored my soul.
  Buffy: What, they were all out of boils and blinding torment?
  Angel: When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but it doesn’t get your soul. That’s gone! No conscience, no remorse… It’s an easy way to live. You have no idea what it’s like to have done the
  things I’ve done… and to care. I haven’t fed on a living human being
  since that day.
• +2/ Staking Darla, a big thing in the context of the the series and the universe.

CORDELIA- (-1)

• -1/ Going off at a random chick for wearing the same dress.

DARLA- (-2)

• +1/ Taking quite a lot of pleasure in staking ‘The Three’.
• +1/ Taunting Angel about his past and how he doesn’t fit in her life.
• -1/ Attacking Joyce.
• -1/ Provoking Angel so it looks like he was biting Joyce, very sly.
• -2/ I don’t like her use of guns, doesn’t fit her character and doesn’t fit the show.

THE MASTER- (+1)

• +1/The emotion he shows after he finds out that Darla has been killed, gives The Master some life to him.

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +53
WILLOW- +19
XANDER- +18
GILES- +17
ANGEL- +13
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
CORDELIA- +5
THE MASTER- +3
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +53
WILLOW- +19
XANDER- +18
GILES- +17
ANGEL- +13
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
CORDELIA- +5
THE MASTER- +3
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -3

EPISODE THOUGHTS-

I like this episode quite a bit but it feels like it lacks something that would make it an awesome episode. We get the backstory of Angel which immediately makes him a much better character and we also start to see the emotional roller coaster Buffy will ride for the next 3 seasons as she pines for him. The plot, which hinged around Angel and Buffy is very strong and paced well. In a bad point, while Darla was better as a character in this episode, I hated that she used guns, and that was probably the thing that sucked the most. Still, the best episode so far.

84.5/100

B106- The Pack

Written by: Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head & Ken Lerner.

It’s a terrific day to be out of school—except that Buffy and her Sunnydale High classmates are technically on a field trip to the zoo. A gang of four kids taunt and terrorize other students, and when one boy does not have the courage to tell Principal Flutie what they have done to him, they “reward” him by taking him with them to the Hyena House even though it is under quarantine. Xander follows to help him, whereas Willow and Buffy are stopped by a warden. He warns the two girls that the animals, fresh from Africa, are said to have special powers. They can even call your name.

In the Hyena House, the hyenas take a flashy-eyed look at the gang of four and Xander. Their eyes flash in return. Only the original victim is spared. None of them notice that they have been standing on a magic symbol of some kind.

Xander is now part of the gang, and his behavior has changed: he is insulting, cruel, tends to scratch himself and smell people. Even more ominous, the school’s new mascot piglet Herbert tries to flee when it smells Xander. During dodge ball, Xander hits Willow with an excessively hard throw. The game ends with Buffy the last remaining member of her team and Xander, the gang of four and the victim from the Hyena House on the other side. Instead of attacking Buffy, the pack goes for the boy until Buffy steps in. Later, Xander tells Willow in front of the laughing gang that he won’t be needing her help any more and is happy he won’t have to look in her pasty face ever again. Buffy watches the exchange, but when she confronts him, Xander walks off with the other four, still laughing. Guided by their noses, the five pay a visit to Herbert’s cage. Xander suggests lunch and the piglet squeals in terror.

Giles shows no inclination to believe anything is wrong with Xander except that he is a 16-year-old boy. His attitude changes when Herbert is found, eaten. After checking his books, Giles warns that they could be dealing with a case of possession. Buffy runs to find Xander, and finds the piglet’s cage totally demolished. Xander jumps Buffy, pins her to the floor and tries to assault her sexually. Buffy knocks him unconscious with a desk and locks him in the book cage in the library.

When Principal Flutie finds his pig dead, he knows that the original gang of four are involved and calls them into his office. There, they kill and eat him.

Returning from a teacher’s meeting to the library, Giles tells Willow and Buffy about what happened to Principal Flutie. Giles and Buffy go see the zoo warden who tells them that he is not surprised by the possession and knows about the magic involved, but is not sure how the students were affected: he hasn’t been able to figure out the ritual. Giles supplies the missing information: a predatory act is required, like when the original four students tormented the boy.

Meanwhile, in the library, Xander tries to sweet-talk his way out of the book cage, but Willow sees through his ruse. The other four pack members break into the library, free Xander, and then all five hunt Willow through the corridors of the school. Cornered in a class room, she is rescued by Buffy and Giles. The five turn away from Buffy, and find an easier target, a family in a car. Buffy drives them off there, too, and offering herself as bait, lures them back to the Hyena House where the warden in full war paint is supposed to perform a reverse of the possession spell with Giles’ help. Giles realizes that the warden had tried to call the power for himself, but couldn’t figure out how until he learned about the predatory act from Giles. The warden knocks Giles unconscious.

Willow reaches the Hyena House before Buffy, and the warden ties her up and puts a knife to her throat, telling her it is the “predatory act” that will trigger the ritual and save the boys. Buffy arrives with the others close behind, and stops in when she sees Willow in peril. The pursuing pack knocks her down, and the warden uses this predatory act to shout a spell that pulls the animal spirits from the five students into himself. His eyes flash and he tries to bite Willow. Xander, freed of the spell, sees Willow in danger and tackles the warden. In the fight, Buffy knocks the warden into the hyenas’ pen, where he is eaten. The gang of four flee. When everything is over, Giles staggers in.

The next day, Xander tells Willow and Buffy he does not remember anything, and they shrug the whole episode off with a smile. Giles, walking up to him from behind, points out that he cannot remember reading anything about memory loss during possession in his books, but promises to keep the embarrassed Xander’s secret.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+1)

• +1/ Saving the family from the hyena possessed students.

XANDER- (-7)

• +1/ Xander trying to save Lance from the bully group.
• -1/ His original coldness to Willow.
• -1/ Teaming with the other hyena possessed bullies.
• -4/ Being incredibly mean to Willow, it’s intolerable.
• -2/ Attacking Buffy, not nice.
• -1/ Not wanting Buffy’s help.
• -1/ Trying to hurt Willow.
• +1/ Saving Willow in the end, thankfully out of his hyena possession.

WILLOW- (+1)

• +1/ The bounds of her love for Xander-
  Buffy: But then again I’m not as hyperaware of him as, oh, say, for example, you.
  Willow: Hyperaware?
  Buffy: Well, I’m not constantly monitoring his health, his moods, his blood pressure…
  Willow: (grins) 130 over 80!
  Buffy: (amused) You got it bad, girl!
  Willow: He makes my head go tingly.

GILES- (+2)

• +1/ Getting absolutely hammered by Buffy during training.
• +1/ Reaction to Xander’s change of attitude- “It’s devastating. He’s turned into a sixteen-year-old boy. Course, you’ll have to kill him.”

PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- (+1)

• +1/ He’s a pretty nice principal, too bad he dies.

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +44
XANDER- +17
GILES- +16
WILLOW- +14
CORDELIA- +6
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
ANGEL- +5
THE MASTER- +2
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -1

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +44
XANDER- +17
GILES- +16
WILLOW- +14
CORDELIA- +6
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +6
ANGEL- +5
THE MASTER- +2
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -1

EPISODE THOUGHTS-
My least favourite episode of Buffy. It has a ridiculous plot line with the Hyena possession and there isn’t much in the way of character moments. The end is also crap as the zookeeper easily deals with Giles, which makes no sense and then Buffy kills the zookeeper, who is a human, something that isn’t brought up again. I prefer not to dwell on it.

52/100

B105- Never Kill A Boy On The First Date

Written by: Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter & Mark Metcalf.

The Master reads an ancient prophecy to his minions:

“And there will be a time of crisis, of worlds hanging in the balance. And in this time shall come the Anointed, the Master’s great warrior. And the Slayer will not know him, will not stop him, and he will lead her into hell. As it is written, so it shall be. Five will die, and from their ashes the Anointed One shall rise. The Brethren of Aurelius shall greet him and usher him to his immortal destiny.”

Buffy finally gets a date—sensitive hunk Owen shows an interest in her. To Giles’ exasperation, all Buffy can think about is impressing him with an uncharacteristic interest in the American poet Emily Dickinson. In the school cafeteria, Buffy has to fight off Cordelia to sit at one table with Owen, but it is worth it. He asks Buffy out on a date to The Bronze that very evening.

However, Giles has found out about the prophecy from the symbol on a ring they found in the cemetery. He is convinced that the Anointed One will rise that night, and so despite Buffy’s protests, they spend hours sitting on graves waiting for a vampire to rise. None does, however, and though Giles is certain that his calculations are correct, he calls their stakeless stake-out quits. Buffy rushes to The Bronze, only to see Owen dancing with Cordelia. Crushed, she leaves without trying to talk to him.

At the same time, in a van on the way to Sunnydale, a man stands up and begins to lecture the other passengers on God’s judgment, quoting prophecies. Suddenly, a vampire walks in front of the bus, causing it to crash. Other vampires swarm the wreck, attacking the passengers, including the religious man.

The next morning, Owen asks Buffy out on another date that night and even gives her a pocket-watch so that she doesn’t miss it this time. Buffy jumps at the opportunity, while Xander is left to stew in his jealousy.

When evening comes, Giles shows up at Buffy’s house, waving a newspaper that shows five people died when the van crashed, among them the suspected murderer Andrew Borba, the man who was quoting prophecies. Buffy insists on going to the Bronze, though, so Giles decides to check the Sunnydale funeral home himself. Unfortunately, there are vampires present to get the Anointed One, and they trap Giles in a room. Xander and Willow have followed him, though, and run back to The Bronze to get Buffy.

There, first Cordelia, then Angel tries to come in between Buffy and Owen. Finally, Xander and Willow managed to get her to come to the funeral home by pretending to be a couple that wants to do something daring on a double date. When Buffy figures out what has happened, she tries to dump Owen, but unfortunately, he tags along. Even worse, he is present in the funeral home when Borba rises as a vampire. In the fight, Owen is knocked unconscious. Buffy, angry that he has “killed [her] date,” kills Borba by sliding him into the furnace while still alive, or rather, still undead.

The next morning, Owen is extremely excited about what they have been through and wants more — this is what he likes about Buffy, he says, and almost being killed made him feel alive. She realizes that there is no way that she can have a relationship with him; sooner or later, he will get himself killed. With a heavy heart, she breaks up with him.

Giles tries to comfort her by telling her what a burden it was for him as a ten-year-old to find out his destiny was to be a watcher when he would rather have been a fighter pilot — or possibly a grocer. Both agree that at least the Master will be unhappy, too, because the Anointed One was destroyed.

But in his underground lair, the Master is overjoyed as he welcomes the real Anointed One — not Borba after all, but a young boy who was on the bus with him.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+7)

• +1/ Her reaction to Giles’ critique of her slaying- “Giles, don’t mention it. It was my *pleasure* to make the world safe for humanity again.”
• +1/ Her skittishness around Owen, I like seeing Buffy all nervous.
• +1/ Buffy having to miss her date with Owen so she can patrol, what a trooper.
• +1/ “Well, in that case I won’t wear my button that says, ‘I’m a Slayer. Ask me how!’
• -1/ Yelling at some random guy at school, just because she missed Owen.
• +1/ “He’s not any guy. He’s more… Oweny.”
• +1/ Beating up the psycho vampire a little more angry-like because he hurt Owen.
• +1/ Having to let Owen go due to his love for danger, which by hanging with Buffy would only get him killed. Buffy did the right thing, showing she can make the hard choice.

XANDER- (+4)

• +1/ Xander: So, Buffy, how’d the slaying go last night?
  Buffy: (gives him a stern look) Xander!
  Xander: I mean, how’d the *laying* go? (gets another look from Buffy) No, I don’t mean that         either.
• +1/ “Sure, he’s got a certain Owenosity, but that’s not hard to find.”
• -1/ His Tweety bird watch, who the hell wears is that?
• +1/ Xander suggesting that Buffy wear a snowsuit when on her date with Owen. Only a little jealous. Also, he tries to sneak a peek at Buffy dressing.
• +1/ Giving Owen advice about his date with Buffy-
  Owen: What, she doesn’t like to dance?
  Xander: Well, it’s a little too late to do anything about that. Uh, you should probably know that Buffy doesn’t like to be kissed. Actually she doesn’t like to be touched.
  Willow: Xander…
  Xander: As a matter of fact, don’t even look at her.
• +1/ Xander pretending his dating Willow so they can get Buffy away from Owen.

WILLOW- (+1)

• +1/ Willow pretending to be dating Xander at the Bronze. Willow must’ve been in heaven in that moment.

GILES- (+3)

• +1/ Giles’ critique of Buffy’s slaying- “Poor technique. Prioritizing, sub-par… Execution was adequate, but a bit too bloody for my taste.”
• +1/ Hiding in a morgue within a dead bodies casing. Pretty sly Giles.
• +1/ His comforting talk to Buffy after she let Owen go- “I have volumes of lore, of prophecies, of predictions. But I don’t have an instruction manual. We feel our way as we go along. And, I must say, as a Slayer, you’re, you’re doing… pretty well.”

ANGEL- (+1)

• +1/ Showing a slight bit of jealousy around Owen.

CORDELIA- (+1)

• +1/ Trying to snag Owen away from Buffy-
  Owen: Buffy, what about you?
  Buffy: What?
  Cordelia: No, no, no! She, uh, she doesn’t like fun.
• -1/ Trying to take Owen away while he is on a Date with Buffy, she doesn’t succeed.
• +1/ Seeing Angel for the first time- “Ooo! Hello, salty goodness! Pick up the phone, call 911. That boy is gonna need some serious oxygen after I’m through with him.”

THE MASTER- (+1)

• +1/ His reading of the anointed prophecies. Well delivered.

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +43
XANDER- +24
GILES- +14
WILLOW- +13
CORDELIA- +6
ANGEL- +5
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +5
THE MASTER- +2
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -1

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +43
XANDER- +24
GILES- +14
WILLOW- +13
CORDELIA- +6
ANGEL- +5
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +5
THE MASTER- +2
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -1

EPISODE THOUGHTS-
OK episode. Buffy is strong, as usual, and Xander provides some nice back-up but Willow isn’t involved as much as I’d like and the plot is just a little too basic. Also, Owen isn’t all that great, he is much too similar to Angel and it’s very obvious that he is just a substitute for the tall, dark & brooding stranger. The whole Anointed One deal isn’t all that interesting although we do get a little more of The Master. The psycho vamp isn’t entirely menacing either. Like most early episodes of Buffy, the episode’s are good because of the character interaction, not the plot.

72/100

B104- Teacher’s Pet

Written by: David Greenwalt
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter & Ken Lerner.

One evening at The Bronze, Xander suavely saves the Slayer from a menacing vamp, then mounts the stage to play his guitar solo and “kiss her like she has never been kissed before.” He is rudely awakened from this beautiful dream to find himself stuck in the hell known as biology class, and Dr. Gregory is about to call on him.

The only teacher who believes in Buffy, Dr. Gregory, is killed by a monster. The substitute teacher, Natalie French, turns every boy’s head, and seems to have a thing about insects, especially the praying mantis. Buffy and Willow just roll their eyes.

Angel shows up at the Bronze, warns Buffy that somebody wants to rip her throat out, gives her his jacket, and vanishes again. Cordelia finds the headless body of Dr. Gregory in the cafeteria locker. The Scoobies try to figure out if there is a connection to the Master, but don’t rule out that there is a second monster about. Buffy goes into the park and confronts a vampire who has a large claw in place of a right hand. The fight is interrupted by the police, and the vampire flees. While in pursuit, she sees the vampire come up behind Miss French, who just stares at him. To Buffy’s surprise, the vampire bolts in panic.

The next day, Buffy is sent to a counselor to help her get over seeing the dead body. This makes her late for the surprise test that Miss French gives the class — a test where she helps Xander with a question. Buffy looks through the window in the door, and Miss French turns her head 180 degrees to look at her. Later, Miss French asks Xander over to her house in the evening to work on a project.

Back in the library, Buffy figures that Miss French must be a praying mantis, and convinces the others. Buffy tries to warn Xander, but he brushes her off, saying that she is just jealous.

Miss French welcomes Xander with a drink, a fire in the fireplace, and a tight dress. The drink knocks him out just when she turns into an insect. Xander wakes up in a cage next to another student who tells him how she mates — deadly. Willow calls Xander’s mother and finds out that he isn’t home. Buffy gets Giles to record bat sonar, while Miss French chooses Xander to be her next victim. When the remaining Scoobies visit the house where Miss French is supposed to live, they find a nice old woman who is the real Ms. French, but retired in 1972. To quickly find Xander, Buffy tracks the one-handed vampire, who is so scared of the she-mantis that he knows just which house is the right one. Buffy breaks through the window when the mantis is about to mate with Xander. She slays the insect, using the bat sonar to weaken it.

Buffy, in Angel’s jacket, later meets him at the Bronze. He tells her to keep it, and Buffy is obviously smitten. The last scene shows Buffy putting Dr. Gregory’s glasses in his closet, but not noticing that there are she-mantis eggs attached to the bottom of a shelf.

From: Wikipedia

EPISODE COUNT-

BUFFY- (+9)

• +1/ Requiring Willow’s help to answer a science question in class, although she doesn’t use the clues well.
• +1/ Buffy’s reaction to Giles complaining about the weather- “Bright, sunny, beautiful, how ever can we escape this torment?”
• +1/ Taking down Xander after he thinks he’s attractive- “The younger man is too dumb to wonder why an older woman can’t find someone her own age, and too desperate to care about the surgical
  improvements!”
• +1/ Crying for the science teacher.
• +1/ Getting lost in the library.
• +2/ She takes charge for most of this episode, it’s a big sign of things to come.
• +2/ Buffy’s defeat of the praying mantis demon, it’s sly and powerful, I like it.

XANDER- (+8}

• +2/ The opening dream sequence. It’s hilarious. He plays guitar and seduces Buffy.
• +1/ Seeing Angel for the first time- “He’s a very attractive man! How come *that* never came up?”
• +1/ Seeing the Science substitute for the first time, he drools quite a lot.
• +1/ Thinking he’s attractive- “I wonder what she sees in me? It’s probably the quiet good looks coupled with a certain smoky magnetism.”
• +1/ His middle name is Lavelle, awesome.
• -1/ Not taking Buffy’s help. He’s actually quite cold.
• +1/ Seeing Miss French’s dress-
  Natalie: Should I change? Is, is this too…
  Xander: No, no, it’s, the most beautiful chest… dress I’ve ever seen.
• +1/ His reaction to a martini, many splutterings.
• +1/ Trying to talk about his ‘conquests’ to Miss French. He is obviously inexperienced and it shows, hilariously.

WILLOW- (+4)

• +1/ Trying to help Buffy during science class via mime. Pretty funny, especially since Buffy doesn’t get it.
• +1/ Her hugging Xander when he needs to pretend to be a ladies man, using it as an excuse to hug the one she loves.
• +1/ Telling Buffy of her affections for Xander- “No, no, no! See? Xander’s, I like his head! I-it’s where you find his eyes, and his hair, and his adorable smile…”
• +1/ Finding Xander’s virginity sweet.

GILES- (+4)

• +1/ Complaining about the weather- “God, every day here is the same.”
• +1/ For saying ‘Half a mo’, greatest British slang ever.
• +1/ Casting a blind eye over Willow’s computer hackage- “Right. Wasn’t here, didn’t see it, couldn’t have stopped you.”
• +1/ We get to see more Ripper-Giles, which is great.

ANGEL- (+1)

• +1/ He gives Buffy his jacket, how nice.

CORDELIA- (+1)

• +1/ Looking on the bright-side of tragedy-“I don’t know what to say, it was really, I mean, one minute
  you’re in your normal life, and then who’s in the fridge? It really gets to you, a thing like that. It was… let’s just say I haven’t been able to eat a thing since yesterday. I think I lost, like, seven and a half ounces? Way swifter than that so-called diet that quack put me on. Oh, I’m not saying that we should kill a teacher every day just so I can lose weight, I’m just saying when tragedy strikes, we have to look on the bright side. You know?”

PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- (+3)

• +1/ “Don’t say dead! Or decapitated, or decomposing, I’d stay away from D-words altogether. But you witnessed the event, so this way, please.”
• +2/ “We all need help with our feelings. Otherwise we bottle them up, and before you know it, powerful laxatives are involved. I really believe if we all reach out to one another we can beat this thing. I’m always here if you need a hug, but not a real hug! Because there’s no touching, this school is sensitive to wrong touching.”

SEASON COUNT-

BUFFY- +36
XANDER- +20
WILLOW- +12
GILES- +11
CORDELIA- +5
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +5
ANGEL- +4
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
THE MASTER- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -1

OVERALL COUNT-

BUFFY- +36
XANDER- +20
WILLOW- +12
GILES- +11
CORDELIA- +5
PRINCIPAL FLUTIE- +5
ANGEL- +4
AMY- +2
JOYCE- +1
THE MASTER- +1
HARMONY- +1
DARLA- -1

EPISODE THOUGHTS-

I actually don’t mind this episode, which is strange because most people hate it. Sure the she-mantis is really stupid and I don’t like the Miss French at all but I do find Buffy, Xander, Willow & Giles to be great in this episode. The pure character stuff is brilliant and while the plot is lacklustre you can just watch the character’s interact and still have fun.

73/ 100