When Buffy is confronted with the knowledge that her life will be ended sooner rather than later, her basic reaction is to go through the famous steps laid out by thanatologist Elizabeth Kubla-Ross, M.D. First she denies her destiny; if she simply walks away from her role as the Chosen One, she can beat death. Then she gets angry that she should have to sacrifice so much: she didn’t ask to be the Slayer! Then, she is overcome with sadness at everything she will never experience—represented by the dress her mom surprises her with, which she wears to go face the Master, and her fate, when she finally accepts her situation.
IT’S A MYSTERY: How does Xander know where Angel lives, since it’s never been revealed to the audience? When did Giles get his phone number and what last name does Angel give to the phone company?
BLOOPERS: When the Master pushes Buffy into the pool of water after biting her, she lands facedown with her arms under her body. But when Xander and Angel show up, her arms are floating straight out from her body.
OF SPECIAL NOTE: This is the first episode to be rated “TV-14.”
Joss Whedon says that even though he was confident the series would be picked up for a second season, he opted against a season-ending cliffhanger: “And I’ll continue to do that every season, because I hate loose ends. Like when My So-called Life left me hanging just when Brian revealed he had written Jordan’s letters for him.”
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY: “The clever season finale takes place on prom night, giving new meaning to the phrase ‘high school Hell.’ Buffy and company don’t make it to the dance; they’re too busy keeping the mouth of Hell from spilling its contents into Sunnydale High. Bloodsucking brutes aside, the series’ real delight is watching these appealing teens balance school, home, and the saving-the-world thing.” (TV Guide).
SEASON TWO
SEASON TWO REGULAR CAST
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers)
Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris)
Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg)
Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase)
Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles)
David Boreanaz (Angel)
13. “When She Was Bad”
(SEPTEMBER 15, 1997)
Director: Joss Whedon
Teleplay: Joss Whedon
Recurring cast: Dean Butler (Hank Summers); Andrew J. Ferchland (Colin/the Anointed One); Robia La Morte (Jenny Calendar); Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder); Kristine Sutherland (Joyce)
Guest cast: Tamara Braun (Tara); Brent Jennings (Absalom)
Music: “It Doesn’t Matter” (during drive to school with Joyce), by Alison Krauss and Union Station, from So Long So Wrong; “Spoon” (as Buffy first enters the Bronze) and “Super Relax” (during the dance) by Cibo Matto, from Viva! la Woman
Plot: Buffy’s back from spending the summer with her father in Los Angeles but something is not quite right. She’s acting bitchy and cruel and seems bent on driving everyone away. She almost succeeds when her behavior ultimately puts the lives of her friends in danger.
THIS WEEK’S EVIL PLAN: Resurrection. If the Anointed One can get back the bones and perform a ritual using the blood of the people who were present in the library at his death—Jenny, Giles, Willow, and Cordelia—then he will be able to revivify the Master.
INTRODUCING: A new season, a new vampire population, including a preacher-type called Absalom. Gone are the Master’s minions, and in their place are the Anointed One’s followers, who have come to Sunnydale to do his bidding. Also gone is the Anointed One’s reverberating voice from Season One.
Buffy returns to Sunnydale sporting a shorter, Jennifer Anistonequse hairstyle, and Xander has lost the bangs and gone for a shorter, more mature look. A new school lounge. This season Buffy and her friends relax in a bilevel campus lounge, complete with couches and a soda machine.
ANALYSIS: Buffy may have physically survived her encounter with the Master, but she hasn’t gotten over it. Her uncharacteristically bitchy attitude is driving a wedge between her and the people she loves most. But it isn’t until she’s confronted with the cold reality that her actions have put her friends’ lives in danger that she finally starts to snap out of her emotional straitjacket. She goes on a vampire-killing spree, which ends with her weeping on Angel’s shoulder. The tears signal the return of the old Buffy, minus a big chunk of invincibility and her former Slayer innocence.
While her basic self-involvement remains the same, Cordelia’s character has softened around the edges, making her more dimension and less of a caricature. The question of whether Cordelia knows Buffy is the Slayer is answered when Cordelia comes up to ask if Buffy fought any demons over the summer.
Also for the first time, we see Buffy’s parents together and hear their mutual concern for their daughter. It’s revealing to see they both feel incapable of communicating with her, and are powerless to help Buffy through whatever is troubling her.
THE REAL HORROR: Realizing how much your best school friend has changed over summer vacation. The distance between Buffy and her friends is an extreme example of classmates who grow apart over the course of a summer because they don’t have the common denominator of school. But in her case, the time spent away from Sunnydale has exacerbated the unresolved issues brought about by her confrontation with the Master. For most teens, it’s simply that without the forced bonding of school, many otherwise close-seeming friendships drift apart.
BLOOPERS: When Buffy is in the car with her mother on the way to school, she is wearing a pink top. But in the next scene at school, she’s wearing a white tank top. The pink top shows up again later, in what is supposed to be the next day.
OF SPECIAL NOTE: David Boreanaz is now a series regular. Brent Jennings, who plays the vampire preacher, has had some previous experience with creepy kids, having co-starred in the movie Children of the Corn.
Nicholas Brendon is more noticeably bulked-up at the start of the second season. Part of the reason for so many new looks is that the original half-season was filmed and completed toward the end of 1996, and the new episodes for the second season didn’t begin shooting until the summer of 1997.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY: “This is a thoroughly entertaining season-opener that has humor, wit, and style. The performances are stellar. Sarah Michelle Gellar is wonderful in the lead, displaying the full 12–20 range of adolescent angst. All of the regular players … are well cast and believable in their roles” (Hollywood Reporter).
14. “Some Assembly Required”
(SEPTEMBER 22, 1997)
Director: Bruce Seth Green
Teleplay: Ty King
Recurring cast: Robia La Morte (Jenny Calendar)
Guest cast: Michael Bacall (Chris); Melanie MacQueen (Mrs. Epps); Ingo Neuhaus (Daryl); Angelo Spizzirri (Eric); Amanda Wilmshurst (cheerleader)
Plot: The bodies of three high school girls are dug up from their graves by two would-be Dr. Frankensteins. But their creation is more than a science experiment—it’s a literal labor of love.
THIS WEEK’S MONSTERS: A quite literally “born-again” high school jock and his ghoul brother. After getting killed in a rock-climbing accident, Daryl Epps is brought back to life by his genius brother Chris, but Daryl’s libido has gone berserk for female companionship.
INTRODUCING: Giles and Jenny Calendar’s budding romance. The flirtation finally graduates into a real date: take-out followed by a night out at the Sunnydale High School football game. Angel’s jealousy over Buffy’s friendship with Xander also surfaces.
ANALYSIS: After Buffy’s emotional catharsis of the previous episode, things between her, Willow, and Xander appear to be back on an even keel, though they are still adjusting to the new dynamic brought about by Xander’s revealing his feelings for Buffy in the first-season finale, “Prophecy Girl”.
This season Giles will also be seen outside the context of just being a Watcher and surrogate parent. His attraction to Ms. Calendar forces Giles out of the library and into the world, which he finds almost as frighteni
ng as the monsters Buffy fights—and a lot less familiar.
If Giles is a father figure for Buffy, then he’s Willow’s and Xander’s favorite uncle. Intentional or not, it’s an interesting commentary on the rootlessness of teenagers today that neither Willow nor Xander ever seems to have any family commitments. And they seem freer to come and go than Buffy, who often has to sneak out her window to go patrolling for vampires. In Buffy’s case, her mom is a single parent trying to run a new business. But both Willow’s and Xander’s parents are still married, and yet seem to have even less interaction with them than Buffy’s mom does with her.
THE REAL HORROR: Losing a family member who dies. While in Sunnydale, death is sometimes just the beginning; in the real world death is permanent. It leaves in its wake guilt, depression, fear, and loss. Supposedly the only animal aware of its own mortality, man must somehow confront on a daily basis the knowledge that he and everyone he loves will die someday. Considering the powerful emotions caused by the death of a loved one, it’s easy to see why the Frankenstein story has remained so compelling, pertinent, and timeless. Being able to overcome death, whether through magic, religion, or science, reflects a primal human desire.
IT’S A MYSTERY: If the surface of the main story line about human reanimation is scratched ever so slightly, it exposes more glaring plot loopholes in this episode than in any other. First of all, when and how exactly did Chris manage to steal the body of his brother? If, as Willow points out, formaldehyde destroys the brain tissue, Chris would have had to steal the body before it was preserved … And nobody noticed the body was missing? And Daryl is so concerned with a few facial scars that he prefers to live in a basement? Has he never heard of plastic surgery and intensive therapy?
BLOOPERS: The pictures that Eric takes of Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia could not have been the same photos he took earlier at school because none of the poses match what was seen onscreen.
OF SPECIAL NOTE: Although Sarah Michelle Gellar performs quite a bit of her own fighting, she does use stunt doubles for the more acrobatic moves. Her stunt double for the first three seasons was Sophia Crawford, who can be seen, minus the Buffy wig, as “Katya Steadman” in the “Dragonswing II” episode of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.
Anthony Stewart Head now provides the narration for the brief series prologue, which also has a new score.
15. “School Hard”
(SEPTEMBER 29, 1997)
Director: John T. Kretchmer
Teleplay: David Greenwalt
Story by: Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt
Recurring cast: Andrew J. Ferchland (Colin/the Anointed One); James Marsters (Spike); Robia La Morte (Jenny Calendar); Juliet Landau (Drusilla); Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder); Kristine Sutherland (Joyce)
Guest cast: Alan Abelew (Brian Kerch); Alexandra Johnes (Sheila)
Music: “1000 Nights” (Willow and Buffy doing homework) and “Stupid Thing” (Spike watching Buffy at the Bronze), by Nickel, from Stupid Thing
Plot: Not only does Buffy have to organize Parent-Teacher Night under the critical eye of Principal Snyder, she also has to contend with a new vampire in town, who is planning to make the Night of St. Vigius the Slayer’s last.
THIS WEEK’S UNHOLY HOLIDAY: The Night of St. Vigius in honor of a crusading vampire who slaughtered his way across Eastern Europe and into Asia. On that night, the vampires’ strength is at their greatest, and they plan to flex their momentary muscle by killing the Slayer.
INTRODUCING: “Vampires, a Love Story”—starring Buffy’s new nemeses, Spike and Drusilla. Spike was known as “William the Bloody,” but earned his current nickname because of his penchant for torturing victims with railroad spikes. She is emotionally and physically fragile and totally dependent on Spike. Relocating to Sunnydale from their previous home in Prague, Spike hopes the mystical energy of the Hellmouth will act as a curative and restore Drusilla’s fragile health. Together they bring a sort of Goth/punk quality to the show.
ANALYSIS: the introduction of Spike and Drusilla sets up a new series arc. Although he may not be as powerful as the Master, Spike seems more dangerous because he’s not as bound by tradition as the Master was. An unpredictable vampire offers a whole new set of potential risks for Buffy. Spike refers to Angel as his “sire” and “mentor,” which sets the stage for later revelations about their history together—including that it was Drusilla, and not Angel, who made Spike into a vampire.
When Spike and his horde crash Parent-Teacher Night, the ensuing showdown between Buffy and Principal Snyder is powerful and revealing. Buffy is no longer the nervous student trying to appease the disapproving principal. She’s his equal and then some. It’s an eye-opener for Buffy’s mom who like most parents, tends to see her child in the context of the family dynamic—not in how she relates as an individual to others out in the world.
Finally, the question of just who Principal Snyder is becomes even more mysterious when it’s revealed that he knows the attack was by vampires and not PCP-addled gang members but conspires with the police detective to cover up the truth. Again.
THE REAL HORROR: Parent-Teacher Night. It’s always just a little unnerving to have your parents meeting face-to-face with teachers who aren’t terribly enamored with you. There’s nothing like getting the parental “Wait until we get home” glare. Part of the uneasiness of parent-teacher conferences is that it’s the collision of two worlds teenagers instinctively try to keep separate, just as many adults tend not to completely share their life at work with their spouse at home.
BLOOPERS: When Buffy takes a break to go dance, she leaves her notebook open on the table where she and Willow were studying. But when Xander returns to get Buffy a stake, the books are gone and only her bag remains.
OF SPECIAL NOTE: Mrs. Summers’s name, Joyce, is spoken for the first time. Principal Snyder’s first name is also mentioned for the first time—when the detective, at the end, calls him Bob.
Joss Whedon has said the decision to fry the “Annoying One” was made because a person is supposed to stop aging when they become a vampire and Andrew Ferchland was getting noticeable older and bigger.
Making their debut on BtVS is the band Nickel, who performs “I Did a Stupid Thing Last Night” as Spike cases the Bronze.
Throughout the first season, Buffy burning down her previous school’s gym was mentioned repeatedly. But in this episode, when talking to biker-girl Sheila, Buffy indicates she has actually burned down more than one building.
16. “Inca Mummy Girl”
(OCTOBER 6, 1997)
Director: Ellen Pressman
Teleplay: Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkmeyer
Recurring cast: Seth Green (Oz); Jason Hall (Devon); Kristine Sutherland (Joyce)
Guest cast: Gil Birmingham (Inca guard); Ara Celi (Inca princess); Joey Crawford (Rodney); Samuel Jacobs (the real Ampata); Henrik Rosvall (Sven); Danny Strong (Jonathan); Kristen Winnicki (Gwen)
Plot: A mystical seal is broken, enabling a five-hundred-year-old mummified Inca princess to come to life as a beautiful sixteen-year-old. The only catch is, to stay alive she has to literally suck the life out of others. Naturally Xander falls for her, unaware of her deadly secret.
THIS WEEK’S THREAT: An Incan princess bent on reliving her lost youth. Sacrificed to a mountain god when she was just sixteen, the princess has been entrapped in her mummified form by a holy seal. Once freed, she is intent on making up for lost time—even if it means killing innocent people to keep herself from reverting to mummy form.
INTRODUCING: Oz—Sunnydale High School student by day, guitarist in a band by night. Unlike most of the boys in school, he seems singularly unimpressed with Cordelia but becomes instantly smitten with Willow when he sees her dressed as an Aleut at the Bronze’s cultural-diversity dance.
ANALYSIS: Other than pouting because she has to try and find a murderous mummy instead of going to a dance honoring Sunnydale’s exchange students, Buffy seems more like herself than she did in the previous Sea
son Two episodes, although she’s still prone to sudden spells of mortality-related brooding and self-pity.
More emphasis is placed on the characters’ romantic lives—or lack thereof—this season, so teenage angst is more on display than it was in the first season. Not only is the group having to come to terms with the ramifications of Buffy’s near-death, they are also coping with changing interpersonal dynamics caused by the tangled romantic webs they’re all weaving.
Although Xander is clearly still in love with Buffy, he’s also open to looking for love elsewhere. So when Ampata shows interest in him, he’s thrilled; she’ll never be Buffy, but she could be his. Unlike his lustful crush on Ms. French—the preying mantis of Episode 3—his feelings for Ampata are romantic and soulful, which makes the revelation that she’s really a murderous five-hundred-year-old Incan princess that much more tragic.
THE REAL HORROR: Having chronically rotten taste in the opposite sex. Xander’s recurring tendency to fall for the wrong girl continues with a flourish, but his plight is nothing new. Like a lot of teenagers—and adults, for that matter—he can’t have who he really wants, and doesn’t want who he could have, so he ends up with someone he shouldn’t. He’s so anxious to find someone, he rushes in without knowing who the person really is. Of course, in the world of the Slayer, this is not only emotionally frustrating, but potentially fatal as well. Once again, Whedon is heightening reality to a horrific level.
IT’S A MYSTERY: How do they explain to Ampata’s family in Peru and the local authorities that she’s dead and in a trunk in Buffy’s room?
BLOOPERS: When the mummy’s guard attacks Xander and the fake Ampata on the bleachers, her bag is kicked away during the struggle. But when she stands up to run, it’s back right in front of her.
Right before killing the mummy’s guard, the faux Ampata was standing at the mirror in the bathroom putting on lipstick, but later that same night she tells Buffy she has no lipstick.
The first time Buffy opens the trunk, the real Ampata’s mummified head is laying on Buffy’s right side. When she opens it the second time with Giles, it’s on her left side.
The Girl's Got Bite: The Original Unauthorized Guide to Buffy's World Page 17
