Drinking alcohol in Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always been frowned upon, though the rules were relaxed slightly as the Scoobies got older. The general rule is: if you have a drink, something bad is going to happen to you. Here are some examples of this rule:
In Teacher’s Pet, Xander is the first of the Scoobies to drink alcohol. He has a sip of Martini given to him by Natalie French who is really a giant preying mantis in disguise. The drink has been drugged and he passes out. When Xander awakes he only narrowly escapes mating with and being killed by the mantis.
In Reptile Boy, Buffy and Cordelia go to a frat house party where they drink alcohol which has (again) been spiked. They pass out and awaken in a basement, ready to be sacrificed by Machida.
In The Dark Age, Giles gets busy with the whiskey and then his girlfriend gets possessed by Eyghon the Sleepwalker.
In Lover’s Walk, Spike returns to Sunnydale and gets extremely drunk, he awakes in the morning when sunlight touches his hand, which goes up in flames.
In Something Blue, Willow’s friends freak out a bit too much when they see she’s drinking - GASP! - low-alcohol beer. Willow later does a spell which makes her will be done, causing havoc for her friends (OK, so the alcohol/badness link isn’t as strong in this example but I like it because she’s only drinking a low-alcohol beer!).
Beer Bad: the episode title says it all. Buffy drinks beer and turns into a Neanderthal… blah blah blah. Unfortunately, the “isn’t alcohol terrible” motto was lost on me as I was forced to get very drunk to sit through the episode.
In Life Serial, Buffy and Spike go drinking together and Buffy is really ill. She then tells Giles about how she’s messing up (though in fairness this started before she was drinking!)
The Bronze serves alcohol but the rules are very strict about the age limit. Underage people have to wear a stamp on their hand so they won’t get served (Dawn in Family) and when Anya tries to get a beer in Doppelgängland, she’s asked for ID.
The rules are later relaxed and finally, in Older and Far Away, Buffy celebrates her 21st birthday, meaning she can now legally drink alcohol, though we saw her previously drinking beer in Dead Things.
May 27th, 2005 at 6:19 pm
Doesn’t Xander take more than a sip of the martini? I thought he downed the whole thing out of nervousness.
anniec
June 5th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
I thought that too!!!
July 30th, 2005 at 11:12 am
Correct me if I`m wrong, but I think that the “alcohol is bad”-rule is repeated in the episode A New Man on season four, when Giles gets drunk with Ethan Rayne and is turned into a demon the next day.
July 30th, 2005 at 3:04 pm
yep. great example. Giles is such a lush. I love how he drinks all through Something Blue, and The Yoko Factor. There’s a part when it comes out that Tara is Willow’s Girlfriend:
Xander: Tara’s your girlfriend!?!
Giles: (drunkenly) Bloody hell…
It always makes me laugh
November 19th, 2005 at 11:16 pm
i dont know if im alone on this one, but i hate this ep. it is probably the worst ep of buffy EVER!!!i think doublemeat palace is a better ep and that is saying just how bad it is.
November 20th, 2005 at 10:15 am
I don’t mean to sound dumb, but which one are you talking about emlem?
November 20th, 2005 at 10:16 am
I assume ‘Beer Bad’?
November 20th, 2005 at 10:20 am
I think the worst episode ever was Doublemeat palace but I actually think Beer bad is pretty good…diffrent,
November 20th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
I vote for Where The Wild Things Are for worst ep. zzzzzzz.
November 20th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
As You Were: Worst. Episode. Ever
November 20th, 2005 at 3:51 pm
Uuu.. Forgot about As You Were.
Not too high on my “dearest episode list” yuk..
November 20th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
Where the Wild Things Are. Yes, bad. Doublemeat, Yes, another bad. I always skip those. Another episode I can’t stand to watch is All the Way because I can’t stand that many teenagers in one episode and because when they kill that old man it makes me SO SAD.
November 20th, 2005 at 5:43 pm
Oh, and I love Beer Bad because there are so many things going on in that episode besides the beer thing: buffy daydreaming about parker at the beginning (it’s not fun to watch, but i know many of us have been there), the whole Willow-confronts-Parker, making fun of pretentious college kids, and oh so many good lines.
November 20th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
Plus Xander with a Tom-Selleck-moustache. That’s worth sitting through the episode alone.
November 20th, 2005 at 5:52 pm
haha yes really.
But the thing I laughed the most about was when Cave-manBuffy spinned on the chair and in the end when she knocks Parker down.
November 20th, 2005 at 11:20 pm
For some reason (and I honestly can’t figure out why), the episode Inca Mummy Girl has always bugged me. It seems good, I mean it introduces Oz, we see Willow in an eskimo suit, what more could you ask for? But I just do not like it for some reason.
BTW: At the risk of asking a stupid question: Jess, why do you hate As You Were so much?
November 21st, 2005 at 2:43 am
Is it because Empata is so annoying and not all that sympathetic? But Willow in the eskimo suit is worth the whole episode.
I find As You Were kind of boring, personally.
November 21st, 2005 at 4:53 am
As You Were is boring (and seems like it’s too short, even though it obviously isn’t), but I do like the first act of the episode. The way that Buffy’s life is shown here seems to best illustrate why she so unhappy with everything.
Aside from Normal Again, the worst episode, in my opinion, has to be Beer Bad. I don’t get these posts that support it, but everyone has their own opinions, thankfully.
November 21st, 2005 at 5:01 pm
Very true.
and As You Were really buggs me a lot because I hate Riley. Some may like him and that’s just fine, but he is so god darn needy. So that’s why I don’t like the episode; He comes back and everyone is so impressed with his situation, job and wife.
Really sickens me.
November 21st, 2005 at 11:11 pm
Riley is a lot of things, annoying, totally wrong for buffy, insecure about Buffy’s strength…but I would not call him needy. I don’t really see what he “needed” that most normal people don’t need. If anything, he needed things to be normal, so he could be Joe Regular, and ultimately that makes him wrong for the Buffy-verse and so he goes…but that doesn’t make him needy.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
I don’t like Riley so my vote for the worst episode would be As you were. I was so happy when he left and then I had to see his “mommy’s favorite, good-boy” face again…. Grrr…
Altough I do like Beer Bad (but only for some of the quotes: “Buffy want beer. Buffy strong. Buffy get beer!”) and Normal Again (which has a well-written script and a good-playing actress, the idea was a little bit sticky and crazy, but the ending… there was an exciting last 15 minutes!)
Anyway, I don’t know how you feel about it, but I don’t like neither season 7’s epi, Lies my parents told me…
July 31st, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Well, most episodes I dislike aren’t completely horrible. They all have good quotes or great moments.
I hate As you were because :
1 I hate Riley so much. Why did he have to come back ?
2 His love story with Sam isn’t credible at all.
3 I didn’t think the storyline with Spike as “the Doctor” was believable. It’s just not his style.
It’s worth watching because :
1 Buffy sings the Doublemeat medley tune.
2 Willow acts “bestfriendly” by hating Sam.
3 The Buffy quote : “My hat has a cow.”
I don’t like Listening to fear because :
1 Riley’s in it. (Ok, ok, petty.)
2 It sort of lacks energy in general.
3 The idea of a demon cleaning up Glory’s leftovers is kinda neat, but I think it could have been used better.
It’s worth watching because :
1 The Tara / Willow scene on the roof. (Especially the “Japanese commercials are weird” quote.)
2 Buffy’s crying scene.
3 The Willow / Jewish Santa / beer hat scene.
In fact, this episode has many good points, I just feel weird about it, like something’s missing.
I don’t like Go Fish and All the Way (a little bit to green for me, and I’m sixteen, so hum…) either.