Whedon's World - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episode Guide

Sunnydale High are sponsoring a foreign student exchange programme for two weeks, which includes a welcome costume dance at The Bronze for the students that are arriving soon. One of the students, Ampata from Peru, will be staying with Buffy, which she is less than pleased about, as her mom organised it without telling her. The thought of a stranger living with her for two weeks freaks her out.

Buffy, Willow and Xander are on another school field trip, this time to the museum.

They are taken on a guided tour of the Incan burial chamber.

The highlight of the tour is a five hundred year old mummy, an Incan teenage princess who was sacrificed by her people for an offering to the mountain god Sebancaya, buried alive in eternal darkness of the tomb. The princess was only protected by a cursed seal which she holds in her hands, a warning to anyone who would wake her.

After the students leave, Rodney Munson, a troublesome boy, sneaks back to steal the seal, only he breaks it into pieces in the process, suddenly the mummy’s arms grabs him around the neck, pull him down and, with a kiss, sucks the life out of him.

The next day in school Buffy is training with Giles, trying to persuade him to let her go to the dance, after some whining, he gives in and agrees. Which is when Willow arrives with the news that Rodney Munson is missing. The gang decide to investigate, and they head to the museum.

When they get to the burial chamber they the broken seal just before a large warrior like man starts attacking them with a big knife. Buffy and the warrior fight, but mid-fight the warrior appears to be spooked by the mummy and runs off. Confused, the gang decide to go back to the library and do some research on the seal. They are about to leave Willow discovers something weird; the mummy in the tomb has braces on its teeth, just like Rodney. The real mummy is on the loose and Rodney has a new home.

Meanwhile, at the bus station a young South American boy is wandering around waiting for his ride, it’s Buffy’s exchange student Ampata. He hears his name being whispered, and walks in the direction of the voice only to come face to face with the mummy, the mummy grabs him around the neck and he suffers the same fate as Rodney.

Buffy and co get to the station about an hour late, and are greeted by a beautiful girl named Ampata who immediately interests Xander. Expecting a boy Buffy is confused but puts it down to a mix up and takes her home, Willow and a very smitten Xander follow.

When they arrive at the Summers’ house, Buffy settles her in while Xander flirts heavily with her, while Willow looks on. Unbeknownst to the scoobies, the warrior is lurking around outside the house.

The next day Buffy introduces Ampata to Giles, who asks if she can translate the pictures on the seal, she translates a part with a man holding a knife as a ‘bodyguard’, which leads Giles to believe the man with a knife at the museum was trying to protect the mummy. Ampata seems quite uncomfortable when Giles hands her the seal, but no one really notices.

Xander takes Ampata out to the bleachers while Buffy and Giles get into research mode to see if they can find any info on the mummy, Willow is a little preoccupied with Xander’s growing relationship, so Buffy does most of the research, while Willow is in her own little world.

Buffy and Giles discover that the mummy is capable of... feeding on the life force of a person, effectively freeze-drying that person and come to the conclusion that the bodyguard is not protecting the mummy but making sure that it remains in its tomb. Before they can inform Ampata and Xander the warrior guard appears and attacks Xander demanding that they give back the seal, he looks at Ampata and recognises her, Xander fights him off and they run back to the library.

Ampata begs Giles to destroy the seal before someone dies. She leaves the library and Xander follows her, Giles and Buffy agree they need to find the rest of the seal to determine the story behind the mummy. They plan to meet back at the museum later on that night, putting a hold on Buffy’s dance plans. Meanwhile Xander asks Ampata to the dance, thinking it over; she goes into the rest room. The guard is waiting there for her, telling her she must return to her mummified state, Ampata begs for her life, but the guard won’t have it and moves to attack her, but she manages to grab him and pulls him in for a kiss, and leaves him mummified. Ampata walks out into the corridor, looking more glamorous than ever, and agrees to Xander’s offer.

That night, Xander turns up at Buffy’s house to pick Ampata up, and they leave for the dance. Willow is at The Bronze by herself dressed up as a cute Eskimo waiting for Xander to arrive. Xander and Ampata turn up but they are too into each other dancing and Willow is left on her own at the table. At the same time Oz the guitarist of the band ’ Dingoes Ate My Baby’ playing that night, notices Willow wondering who she is with interest. On the dancefloor, Xander and Ampata lean into each other for a kiss, Ampata realises her hand shrivelling up, breaks from Xander’s embrace and runs to the back of the Bronze. Here she sees a boy, Jonathan, sitting on his own and takes him into a backroom. She is about to kiss him when Xander walks in on them, Jonathan runs off. After a short time of comforting her she kisses Xander losing control she starts draining the life out of him.

Meanwhile, Giles goes to Buffy’s house to tell her that the warrior guard’s mummified body was found in the rest room. They look through Ampata’s belongings, which are definitely not those of a 16 year old girl. Amongst other things, Buffy finds a shrivelled body in a trunk and everything falls into place. On the way to the Bronze Giles realises it was the seal keeping Ampata in her tomb all along. After dropping Buffy off at the Bronze to find the gang, Giles goes back to the museum to find the rest of the seal to put it back together in order to stop Ampata.

Back inside the Bronze, Ampata stops the kiss as she cannot take Xander’s life despite her deteriorating condition. At the museum Giles starts putting the seal back together, Ampata must sense this and she heads back to the museum to stop him.

Buffy and Willow find Xander on the floor gasping for breath. They take him with them to the museum where Giles is putting the last piece of the seal together when Ampata attacks from behind. Buffy gets there just in time to stop her severely hurting him.

Buffy and Ampata fight and Ampata manages to throw Buffy into an open tomb and close the lid. With Buffy temporarily out of the way, Ampata grabs willow by the neck, before she can take her life, Xander steps in and tells Ampata if she wants a life she will have to take his. Desperate and running out of time, she grabs Xander. Buffy, however, has freed herself from the tomb and pulls Ampata away from Xander. Her arms remain in Xander’s hands as the rest of her body crumbles to the ground. Freaked out by the whole thing, Xander drops her arms and immediately leaves the museum with the others.

Pauline 09/10/2003

When She Was Bad

Willow and Xander are enjoying a stroll past the cemetery desperately trying to relieve the boredom of a summer without vampires or Buffy. Fooling around they lean in and almost kiss but just as their lips are about to lock they find the face of a vampire between them. Where vampires go so does Buffy and she returns in the nick of time to dust the vampire. Things are back to normal in Sunnydale.

It doesn't take them long to bring Buffy up to date, quiet summer, buried the Masters bones, that's it.

The next day it's first day back at school and nothing much has changed there either, Cordelia can't stop talking about herself, Principal Snyder is rueing the day most children were born, Giles is being a fuddy duddy around Ms Calendar and the scoobies are taking bets on how long it will take Giles to mention books.

After school Buffy gets straight back into training and shows that she has not been slobbing around on her LA vacation when she completely destroys the bad wooden vampire. Meanwhile, in a disused factory the Anointed One and company plan for the arrival of another one of their special friends.

Clearly not quite over her experience with the Master Buffy dreams that, whilst at school, Giles turns in to the Master and tries to kill her while Willow and Xander look on. She wakes to find Angel in her room and is not as welcoming as he would have liked. Of course he's the bearer of cryptic bad news, the Anointed is gathering a posse, things could get bad. Buffy doesn't seem too concerned. Hurt by her coldness Angel tells her he missed her and leaves the way he came, through the window. Buffy turns to return the compliment but it's too late, he's gone.

The next day the scoobies are chatting in the hall planning a trip to The Bronze when Cordelia interrupts them. Although Cordelia starts by making an effort to be friendly Xander and Willow exchange glances when Buffy happily trades put down's with Cordelia, and wins.

That night at The Bronze Willow and Xander await a tardy Buffy and discuss the mean streak she seems to have been sporting since she came back, whilst in the cemetery the Anointed's team of vampires gather around a grave and start to dig.

Finally arriving at The Bronze, Buffy, dressed to kill in a small strappy number, bumps straight into Angel who is concerned that he may have done something to upset her. Still with the put down's she tells him she's over him and marches straight over to Xander. Dragging him on to the dancefloor she begins to dance seductively around him, in front of Willow and Angel who can only look on.

Walking out of The Bronze she is again confronted by Cordelia, who has also noticed and been on the receiving end of Buffy's new mean streak and she doesn't like the competition. After all Sunnydale is a small town, there's not the room for two bitches. Buffy is so not in the mood to discuss her new found attitude with Cordelia and soon turns her back on her. As Buffy goes on her way, Cordelia is dragged away by two vampires and soon finds herself in a small, dark room inside the factory with only the unconscious Jenny Calendar for company.

Swinging by the cemetery on her way home, Buffy notices a significant new vacancy. The Master's grave is empty.

Day dawns again and Willow and Xander express their concerns at Buffy's behaviour to Giles. Willow is convinced that she's possessed whereas Giles comes up with the more likely solution that she may just have some 'issues' she needs to work out. Buffy walks in on their conversation with the announcement that the Master is missing. Believing that the vampires have dug him up in order to bring him back she is not over happy with Giles for not mentioning that this was possible. Fortunately Snyder arrives to break up the fight and the scoobies go their separate ways.

In the library, Giles has been doing some research and discovers a ritual to bring back a vampire that requires the blood of the person that was closest to him when he died. As the scoobies are discussing the fact that this could mean Buffy they receive a message via a stone through the window telling Buffy to get to The Bronze or Cordelia gets it. Despite warnings that this is obviously a trap Buffy hotfoots it to The Bronze.

On her way there she bumps into Angel again and tries to pick a fight with him. Reminding her that she has a job to do Angel follows her to The Bronze where she finds not Cordelia but a lone female vampire. Back at the library Giles has figured out the ritual, it requires the blood of those who were physically close to the Master when he died, Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Jenny. Of course it's a trap but as the vampires gather round them they realise that the trap is for them, not Buffy. As the vampires move in Buffy, with a little help from Angel realises, the truth.

Leaving the vampire in the care of Angel, she arrives back at The Bronze too late, only Xander is still there and he's not too happy. They might not know where their friends have been taking but Buffy knows a vampire that does. She's soon tortured the information out of her and they find themselves at the factory.

The ritual has already started when the get there and their friends are hanging, unconscious, over the bones of the Master and the vampires are in full chant mode. Leaving Angel and Xander to rescue them Buffy jumps into their midst and the fight begins.

Angel soon jumps in to help and it's not too long before the vamps have been turned into piles of dust. Not happy with this Buffy turns her frustrations on the Master's bones, grinding them to talcum powder with a handy sledgehammer while the others look on. Only Angel approaches her, taking her into his arms he holds her while she sobs on his shoulder, her issues well and truly worked out.

The next day while Cordelia Moans to Ms Calendar that she will never get the blood and grime out of her clothes, Buffy worries that her friends might just have a reason not to be so friendly anymore. As she walks into class she finds things are pretty much back to normal.

In the factory the Anointed surveys the damage and comes to the conclusion that the slayer is not his favourite person in the world.

Cider

Some Assembly Required

While sitting on a gravestone in the cemetery waiting for the new vampire to rise, Buffy feels the presence of someone else with her, turning to face her stalker she quickly realises it’s Angel. After abruptly telling him he shouldn’t sneak up on people in a graveyard, they get onto the subject of Buffy’s seductive dance with Xander at The Bronze. Realising that Angel is jealous she confronts him with it, Angel strongly denies it and starts to walk away from her.

Meantime, the vampire has come out of the ground and a brief fight starts between him and Buffy, eventually Buffy stakes him and follows Angel, but falls into an open grave with an empty coffin at the bottom instead.

First impressions: new vampire, until Buffy notices new track marks on the grass that looks like someone has been dragged out of the grave.

The next day, Giles is working on a date proposal to Ms.Calender when Buffy and Xander enter the library, after Giles’s embarrassment and Buffy’s tactful tips on pick-up lines, Buffy tells him of the discovery of the missing body in the cemetery the night before. Giles first impression: grave robbing then voodoo zombie raising. Suggesting that they use the name on the gravestone ‘Meredith Todd ‘as their first lead, Buffy leaves the library to find willow to help with a computer search.

Buffy finds Willow signing up students for the school science fair with Chris, an off the-chart-smart student from her science class that has always come first in previous fairs. Eric, a friend of Chris, is taking photo’s of random girls passing by including Cordelia. Buffy asks Willow to come to the library, and the head back with Cordelia in tow. Here Willow finds an article that states that Meredith Todd was killed in a car accident with two other girls

Later that evening the gang, minus Cordelia who has cheerleading practise, go to the cemetery to see if the other victims have been removed from their graves. They discover both graves are empty. At the same time Cordelia is leaving practise when she find’s herself being followed, worried and scared she hides in the school dumpster before realising that it’s stalker-boy Angel. As she tries to get out she discovers dismembered body part’s.

Angel and Cordelia’s tell the gang of their discovery, which rules out the zombie idea, but Angel believes that not all of the part’s of the three girls were thrown away, meaning someone has them. As the cuts on the body part’s looked professional, the gang decide to investigate who could be capable of doing something like this by searching the lockers of the smart students of the science club. After looking through several lockers they get to Willow’s friend Chris and discover books on surgery techniques of dismemberment and morbid text books, also, a copy of the article of Meredith Todd’s death that Willow found. In Eric’s locker, Buffy finds a mock design of body parts of different girl’s combined to make the ‘perfect girl’. Looks like they have found who is responsible.

Meanwhile in a secret lab, Chris and Eric are nearly finished with their creation, all they need is a head and Eric has three girls lined up : Buffy, Willow and Cordelia.

The next morning Giles decides to make his move on Ms Calender , who insists that he call her Jenny, but she makes the first move and asks him to the football game.

In their lab Chris and Eric realise that time is running out, and their body will become useless soon unless they get a head. Eric suggests that they can’t wait for a fresh dead body, they need to kill someone. Chris can’t do it and he pleads to a figure in the dark not to make him do it. That figure turns out to be Chris’s dead brother and former Sunnydale quarterback, Daryl Epps recently dead from a freak accident (are there any others in Sunnydale) who appears looking a bit like Frankenstein’s monster. Daryl begs Chris to do it reminding him that he promised to make him a perfect partner. Eventually Chris agrees and looking over the photo’s Daryl chooses Cordelia

That eveing at the football game Eric attempts to abduct Cordelia but Buffy shows up and scares him off. Buffy unties Cordelia and she hurries on to the field to join the rest of the cheerleaders for the game. Nobody notices Daryl sneaking around under the bleachers. When Cordelia stands near the bleachers to get a drink, Daryl grabs her and drags her back to the lab which turns out to be an abandoned science lab at the school.

Meanwhile Buffy finds Chris, and susses out their little game. They head back to the stadium, but it’s too late: Buffy forces Chris to tell her where they could have taken Cordelia, Chris gives in and tells Buffy the whereabouts of the lab.

Bursting into the lab just seconds before Eric decapitates Cordelia, Buffy immediately heads for Darly and they fight. As they fight a Bunsen burner gets knocked over starting a fire, but the gang arrive in the nick of time and while Xander rushes to save Cordelia , Willow and Giles get Eric out. Daryl dazes Buffy and prepares to smash a desk into her when he is distracted by a scream from Chris. Daryl puts down the desk then sees that his supposed headless partner is in the middle of the fire, hel walks into the flames to join her and Chris watches as he loses his brother for the second time.

After the fire-fighters and police have arrived, Jenny Calender suggests another date with Giles and Cordelia tries to express her gratitude to Xander for saving her life, he shrugs it off.

Later on patrol in the cemetery Buffy and Angel discusses their so called relationship, to which Angel finally admits to being jealous of Xander saying ‘he gets to be there when I can’t, he gets to see you in the sunlight’. For a moment they loving look at each other and turn to walk home; hand in hand.

Pauline 01/10/03

Principal Snyder has decided to put Sheila and Buffy, his two least favourite, troublesome students, in charge of the Parent-Teacher night .They have three days to prepare for this event, if either of them fail to do the job satisfactorily it will end in expulsion. Unfortunately for Buffy, Sheila has no interest in helping and simply brushes off the task. Buffy is left with only Xander and Willow to help her.

That night, out on the streets of Sunnydale a car roars into town, taking out the Welcome to Sunnydale sign as it screeches to a halt. A man steps out of the car, tall, bleach blond and wearing a long black leather coat and surveys his new home.

Entering the abandoned factory where the Anointed One and his followers are discussing their next big plan; on the night of St Vigeous, when a vampire’s power is at it’s peak, they will kill the Slayer, bleach blond gut introduces himself as Spike, announces that he and is consort, the strangely insane, Drusilla will be moving in.

The next day at school, Giles and Jenny warn Buffy of the coming of ‘Night of St Vigeous’, but Buffy is too preoccupied with organising and surviving through Parent-teaching night. Although she finds time to party in the Bronze later, where Spike puts the first part of his plan into action. Sending another vampire out for a feed Spike speaks loudly so Buffy will hear that someone is being attacked, Buffy runs outside just in time to save a girl from being food for the vamp. With a little help form Xander she eventually stakes the vamp, only to hear a clapping from a figure in the shadows, Spike. He warns her that he will be killing her on Saturday night, then disappears. Buffy and friends go to Giles to tell him of what has just happened.

Meanwhile Sheila is leaving the Bronze when she meets Spike, who lures her away.

At the factory Spike gives Drusilla a present: Sheila.

The next day Buffy makes her last minute preparations, before long parents are starting to arrive including Buffy’s mom, Joyce. Buffy tries everything to keep her away from Principle Snyder, worried what he might tell her what a trouble maker he thinks she is, despite her efforts, the meeting occurs.

Meanwhile in the library, Giles is researching Spike formally known as ‘William The Bloody’ and given his nifty nickname for torturing his victims with railroad spikes, barely 200yrs old, he has fought two slayers and killed them both in the last century.

Parent-teacher night finally over, Joyce returns to Buffy after her meeting with Snyder, not looking too pleased. She’s about to lay down the law with Buffy when Spike and his gang of vamps gate crash the school, two days before St Vigeous, but he just couldn’t wait.

There’s panic, but Buffy immediately takes control and groups the parents and teachers together into a room. Giles, Jenny and Xander barricade the library doors and Giles sends Xander through the back exit door of the library behind the book stacks to get Angel. Willow and Cordelia run to a nearby closet.

After reassuring her mom she can look after herself Buffy climbs through the ceiling panel and crawls to the library where she collects weapons. Leaving quickly, she soon starts to take out the vamps one by one. Sheila appears from nowhere, not knowing she is now a vampire, Giles spots her about to attack Buffy with an axe from behind and shouts out to her through the door, Buffy turns and knocks the axe out of Sheila’s hand, but Sheila manages to get away.

In the school corridor, Angel turns up with his arm tightly gripped around Xander’s neck, after a spot of reminiscing between Angel and Spike, (turns out Angel is Spike’s sire) Angel offers Spike Xander’s neck for a bite, but Spike has seen through Angels façade and attacks. Finding themselves outnumbered Angel and Xander run.

Sensing someone behind him, Spike turns to see Buffy, they start fighting neither getting the upper had until Spike manages to pin Buffy to the floor. He is about to take a bite when he receives a crashing blow at the back of his head, he looks up at his attacker. Joyce is standing above him with an axe. As Buffy gets up, a stunned Spike flees from the school with a derogatory comment about women.

It’s all over bar the clean up and outside Principal Snyder and his policeman friend, Bob discussing what they will tell the Media; they agree on the usual, gang-related, PCP.

Leaving the school, Joyce tells Buffy how proud she is of her and that she can sleep better knowing her daughter can look after herself in a crisis, and that her bravery out ways any problems she may have at school.

The next morning, in the warehouse the Anointed one is not happy with Spike as he did not kill the slayer and spoiled his plans for St Vigeous. Not caring, Spike picks him up puts him in a cage raising the cage into the sunlight which is shining down through a broken window.

All that’s left of the Anointed one is dust.

Pauline 02/10/03Pauline 01/10/03