“Oh, I know this one! ‘Slaying entails certain sacrifices, blah blah bliddy blah, I’m so stuffy, give me a scone.’” – Buffy
So after the excitement of last week’s episode things are toned down this week as Buffy has to deal with a life force sucking mummy called Ampata who is preying on unsuspecting souls to maintain her human form. Things of course only get worse when Xander falls for her unaware of the secret she hides.
Episode title: School Hard
Original air date: September 29, 1997
“You were my sire, man! You were my … YODA!” – Spike
For some reason I thought this episode came later in the season but this current rewatch only highlighted how early in this season the showrunners were working on their endgame for the season as this week we get the first appearance of Spike and Drusilla, two characters who would go on to play major roles in not only this series but “Angel” aswell. Not that we could have ever known this by this first appearance when they seemed like another villain of the week, but unquestionably here the duo certainly make their mark with their debut.
Unaware of the threat of Spike and Drusilla this week sees Buffy once more struggling to balance her slayer duties and school life and once more putting her in the sights of Principal Snyder, who pairs Buffy with fellow problem student Sheila to prepare the school lounge for the parent-teacher night or risk being expelled. Of course this event will serve for the climax of the episode with Spike launching an assault on the school. Continue reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer S:02 Ep:03
Episode title: Some Assembly Required
Original air date: September 22, 1997
“Well, ‘body’ would mean flesh-eating demon. ‘No body’ points more toward the ‘army of zombie’ thing. Take your pick.” – Buffy
An interesting this week as not only does it give us a play on “Frankenstein” but also an episode which it could be argued is lead more by its villains than any member of the Scoobie gang as Buffy has to deal with a case of bodysnatching when she discovers an open grave while on patrol.
Episode title: When She Was Bad
Original air date: September 15, 1997
“Well, that works out great. You won’t tell anyone that I’m the Slayer, and I won’t tell anyone you’re a moron.”
After the surprise success of the first season it was of little surprise that the second season would get a significant boost in episodes with this season consisting of 22 episodes compared to the previous seasons 13 episodes.
Having vanquished “The Master” at the end of the first season, Sunnydale has been surprisingly free of vampire activity, while Buffy has spent the summer with her father in Los Angeles, leaving Xander and Willow to carry out her patrols. It’s of course not long before the pair encounters their first vampire of the series with Buffy perfectly timing her return to dust the vampire with her usual effortless cool. However it soon seems that not everything is fine with her as she continues to deal with the fallout from last season’s finale. Elsewhere the child like Anointed One and his followers plan to resurrect “The Master” using his skeletal remains.
So here we already at the end of the first season which isn’t surprising that its flown by so quickly especially considering that the show was a mid season filler and such only given a half season order of thirteen episodes, only to of course far succeed what anyone expected from the show and while many fans will often look to the later seasons when getting nostalgic about the show, it’s been a pleasant surprise to be reminded during this revisit of how many good episodes this first season had.
Continue reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Season 1 Wrap Up
Episode title: Prophecy Girl
Original air date: June 2, 1997
“I may be dead, but I’m still pretty – which is more than I can say for you.” – Buffy
So here we are at the end of season one after what only seems like a few weeks, with the original half season order this show was given when it originally commissioned as a late season replacement. This would of course be corrected with the following seasons which would all receive full 22 episode seasons. Perhaps because of the shortness of this season, this episode doesn’t have the feeling of a season finale as Buffy this week prepares to face the Master in a fight which she had been prophesised to die in.
Episode title: Out of Mind, Out of Sight
Original air date: May 19, 1997
“Y’know, I really felt sorry for you. You’ve suffered. But there’s one thing I really didn’t factor into all this. You’re a thundering loony!” – Buffy
It’s hard to believe but next week is the season one finale and while this first season has just flown by, this revisit has served to highlight flaws I missed previously like just how little we saw of “The Master” which is only the more strange when he’s supposed to be the season big evil. This episode does little to change that status as this week Cordelia finds herself being stalked by an foe with the power of invisibility as she campaigns for May Queen, while leaving Buffy with the issue of how do you hunt a foe you can’t see?
Episode title: Nightmares
Original air date: May 12, 1997
“I’m not worried. If there’s something bad out there, we’ll find, you’ll slay, we’ll party.” – Xander
Possibly one of the more overlooked episodes of the first season, for one reason or another “Nightmares” just never seems to get discussed in the same way that other episodes in the season do and there’s really no clear reason why. The plot itself is just as random as some of the other episodes of this season as Buffy and the students of Sunnydale High find their nightmares coming to life as the real world and the nightmare world suddenly start merging into one all which might have something to do a mysterious young boy named Billy.
Episode title: The Puppet Show
Original air date: May 5, 1997
“There are things I will not tolerate. Students loitering on campus after school. Horrible murders with hearts being removed. And also smoking.” – Principle Snyder
Ok this week we get to visit another episode which tends to be way down on the favourites list for most Buffy fans while also the lowest rated episode of the season, but at the same time one I still really enjoyed (not sure what this says about me) as this week someone is stealing the organs of students taking part in the school talent show and Buffy suspects that it might be a ventriloquist’s dummy called Sid.
Episode title: I Robot, You Jane
Original air date: April 28, 1997
“Hey! I got to hit someone!” – Xander
Let me start this week’s revisit by highlighting the fact that this is one of my all-time favourite episodes, an opinion it would seem not shared by the rest of the Buffy critic-universe. The first Willow-centric episode of the series in this episode she finds herself in an online relationship with a boy known only as Malcolm who she has been e-mailing with, unware that he is actually the demon Moloch the Corruptor whose soul has been released into the digital realm after the book holding him captive was scanned unwittingly by Willow.
Channel: Superhero 