Overall Rating: 6.75 Matt: 6.5 Eric: 7.0 Writer: Tracey Forbes Director: David Solomon Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Seth Green as Oz, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles. Main guest stars : Adam Kaufman as Parker Abrams, Marc Blucas as Riley, Paige Moss as Veruca, Lindsay Crouse as Maggie Walsh, Eric Matheny as Main Caveman, Stephen M. Porter as Jack the pub manager. Original broadcast date : November 2, 1999 My one-line description: Beer is the great equalizer of sexes… It turns us all into Neanderthals. Buffy is fighting vampires in the graveyard when Parker arrives and gets caught in the line of fire. She orders him to get down, and dusts the vampires. He thanks her for saving his life, and asks for forgiveness for how he treated her… Buffy jerks awake in her Psychology class and spots Parker sweet-talking yet again to another girl. Meanwhile, Professor Walsh is talking about Freud’s theory of the id, the ego and the superego. The id, she says, works only on the pleasure principle – it wants. Buffy, upon hearing this, slips back into her vampire-slaying daydream, only this time Parker has his shirt open, and bears some roses and a quart of ice cream. Later that day, Willow and Buffy are studying outside when Xander flicks a lighter in the Slayer’s face, offering to listen to her life drama. Apparently, he’s rehearsing to be a bartender – he’s just got the job at the campus pub. When the girls inform him that he’s not old enough, he pulls out a fake ID card – complete with mustache, making him look somewhat like Alex Trebek. In his ideal vision of his new job, he lights cigarettes and listens to people’s problems. Buffy doesn’t want to indulge him, but Willow does – she invents a story about being pregnant by her step-brother who’d rather be with her best friend, yaddah yaddah. Buffy cuts it short, stating that it’s class time. As the group heads toward campus – with Xander looking very much like the third wheel – Buffy once again theorizes about why Parker doesn’t want to be with her. That night, Xander starts his job at the pub, drowning under angry students demanding more drinks than he can make. Buffy arrives and (of course) spots Parker sweet-talking a girl (of course). She bumps into Riley, who confirms Willow opinion about Parker, that is, that he’s a major girl-chaser who "sets’em up and knocks’em down". Xander tries his problem-listening routine on a cute girl, but she happens to have a very well-educated male friend with whom Xander can’t compete. They guy buries him in intellectual babble and deliberately embarrasses him. Xander tries to take revenge by asking the guy for ID, but Jack, the pub owner, asks him to just give him the pitcher of Black Frost he asked for. Spotting Xander, Buffy tells him that she was wrong about Parker, and that she’s a slut and an idiot. Xander wants to comfort her, but is called back to work. Buffy turns to leave, but is accosted by four good-looking guys – including the one who made fun of Xander – and they offer to buy her a beer, which she accepts. The group quickly gets very drunk, Buffy included. Across town at the Bronze, Willow is telling Oz that she copied class notes for him, since he missed Psychology. But Oz’s attention is quickly drawn elsewhere; a band takes the stage, and he seems oddly fascinated by the female singer. Willow tries to draw him back, asking if he knows the singer. He indicates he doesn’t, but keeps staring, as a very disturbed Willow looks on. The next morning, in Buffy’s room, a jealous Willow is going on about Veruca, who she says dresses like Faith and has a voice like an albatross. But Buffy isn’t quite listening to her. Sitting way too close to the TV, she’s marvelling at the bright colors and tiny little people (huh?). Willow gets alarmed, especially when Buffy confesses she had "another night of badness". Willow assumes that means she slept with Parker again, but Buffy says it was four smart guys – causing Willow to be even more horrified. But the Slayer goes on to say that they just had beer, which was "foamy and comforting". Then, getting up, she tries to leave for class – until Willow points out that she’s still in her PJ’s. In Psychology class, Buffy notices a girl in front of her eating a sandwich; extending her hand, she snatches the sandwich and bites into it, eliciting an angry stare from said girl and a worried glance from Willow. To the redhead’s question as to whether she’s OK, Buffy answers "Sure, why wouldn’t I be?" Somewhere, someone is brewing a rather ominous potion, which drips into a keg of Black Frost… That night, Buffy goes back to the pub and once again gets completely hammered with her new friends. The conversation is no longer very intellectual – we hear remarks like "You stupid", "No, you stupid!" A very tense and worried Xander, cleaning the bar, looks on, so preoccupied that when a depressed girl comes up and asks him for a light, he just holds up a no-smoking sigh to her. At the dorm, Willow runs into Oz, who informs her that he’s going to play with Shy, Veruca’s band. She tells him she’s not interested, and they go their separate ways. At the pub, Xander turns on the jukebox, which fills Buffy with a childlike fascination. He tells her that he’s cutting her off. "Want beer!" Buffy drunkenly shouts, but Xander sends her home, saying that "Beer bad". Willow goes to the Grotto, the campus student lounge, and spots Parker. She goes over to him and berates him for his behaviour with Buffy. An innocent-looking Parker wonders why people can’t come together and create something beautiful for one night, and then move on. He then says he’s sorry if he hurt Buffy, and compliments Willow on being such a good friend to her. The redhead’s resolve seems to waver… Back at the pub, the guys are now dead drunk, and heavily tip Xander – apparently they can’t count money anymore. One of them goes to the restrooms, and emerges as a cave-man – bare-chested, long-haired, strong-jawed. The other guys also transform into cavemen, and start wreaking havoc till Xander chases them away with his lighter. He runs to see Jack, the manager, and tells him what’s happened. But Jack just says that it serves them right, acting like they’re better than everyone else. He’s the one who spiked the beer to play a practical joke on them, and he says that it’ll wear off in a couple of days. However, Xander suddenly grows very worried about Buffy and leaves… Outside, the cavemen are climbing tress, beating each other over the head with sticks, and laughing at each other. One of them gets hit by a car, and the others smash the car with their clubs. Then they see a couple of girls, and start chasing them. Xander arrives at the dorm with Giles, who is angry that Xander served Buffy the beer. They enter the room – and find a dishevelled Buffy drawing little people on the wall with her lipstick. At the Grotto, Parker is just finishing up his sweet-talk to Willow, taking her by the hand and telling her how much he’s enjoyed their conversation. Willow looks quite seduced, until she asks him a question – "How gullible do you think I am?" She laughs at him, saying that men haven’t changed since the dawn of time. And just then, men from the dawn of time burst into the place – the cavemen. Willow and Parker both get knocked out. Back in Buffy’s room, Giles and Xander watch, distraught, as Cave-Slayer swings on her swivel chair. Then Buffy tells Xander she wants beer, but Giles won’t permit it – so she pushes him aside and leaves. Xander and Giles split up to look for her. At the Grotto, the cavemen have discovered how to make a fire – but they haven’t figured out how to stop it, and they flee in terror as it spreads, trapping Willow and Parker and other people. Outside, Xander spots Buffy just as she smells the flames and goes down to see what’s going on. She grabs a fire extinguisher, vaguely knowing that it’s supposed to do something – she throws it in the fire, which of course doesn’t do much good. Then she sees Willow, still unconscious, and her instincts kick in. Grabbing her friend, she takes her up to a window and helps her to get out. By that time, Parker has come to and is still caught in the fire. She clobbers him with a stick, then drags him out through the window. Outside, Xander has locked the cavemen into a van, and Buffy is obviously interested in them – until Parker comes up, thanks her for saving him, and asks for forgiveness. After a moment of thought, Buffy whacks him unconscious again. Xander then asks Buffy what she’s learned about beer. "Foamy!" answers the Slayer. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.