Never Kill A Boy On A First Date
4V05
"She is the strangest girl!" - Giles, Owen
In the middle of a late-night sparring session at the cemetery, Buffy and Giles discover a ring with a mysterious engraving in it. The scene shifts to the Master Vampire's lair, where the Master explains that the Anointed One -- the Master's greatest warrior and the Slayer's greatest foe is due to rise from the ashes of five dead. The next day, Buffy is asked out by a handsome, poetry-loving classmate named Owen who she is smitten with. Buffy's good mood is spoiled by Giles, who's connected the engraving in the ring to a violent prophecy which is about to be fulfilled... that night. Buffy very reluctantly joins Giles at the cemetery, but nothing happens there. Meanwhile, an airport van crashes and although the five passengers -- including a burly, tattooed man who's been ranting incoherently -- survive the wreck, they die when the van is overtaken by vampires.
The next day, Owen and Buffy decide to try again, much to Giles' (and a very jealous Xander's) chagrin.
As Buffy prepares for her date, Giles comes over with the news: five people were killed the night before, just as the prophecy described, and one of them -- the tattooed man -- was wanted for murder. This leads Giles to believe that he is the Anointed one. Buffy insists on going on to the Bronze with Owen, but Willow and Xander agree to go along with Giles to the Sunnydale Funeral Home so he can check the bodies for clues. Giles is greeted by vampires, and though Willow and Xander try to help him, they realize this is Buffy's domain. They run off to the Bronze to fetch her, but she's already hooked up with Owen. Unable to blurt out their news, they merrily suggest to Buffy a jaunt to the funeral home.
Once they get there, they're shocked to find Owen has followed them. As Buffy looks around for clues, the tattooed man -- now a vampire -- arises from a gurney and tears the place apart. Buffy kicks him, knocking him on a gurney, which hits the cremation oven and slides him right in. The next day, Owen is pumped up about the previous night's adventures and can't wait for the next date. Realizing she almost got him killed, Buffy reluctantly gives him the "let's be friends" speech. Giles commends her on her maturity, and reminds her that she did prevent a disaster. But all is not resolved. We see the Master in his lair, welcoming the Anointed one: it is an eight-year-old boy from the van accident, who smiles to reveal a mouth full of fangs.
More Information
A somewhat doom-laden episode is spiced up with some interesting contrasts, and a number of very amusing scenes which compensate for the absence of an involving plot. Highlights include Xander trying to throw a spanner in Buffy's plans as she prepares for her date with Owen. The episode takes an age to get started: nothing of note happens in the first half of the episode, although we are granted an insight into the sorry state of Buffy's love life. It's hard to form any sort of relationship when you're likely to be called away at any moment to tackle the forces of evil. It seems that only people who are privy to Buffy's double life can get close to her.
The siege situation, where the team are defending the funeral home against hordes of the undead, is reminiscent of Assault on Precinct 13 and, more pertinently, the classic 1968 horror movie Night of the Living Dead. Sadly, director David Semel doesn't manage to fully exploit the full dramatic potential of the situation. Better staged is the vampire attack on the crashed bus which is very atmospheric. This is an episode that concentrates on underlining Buffy's responsibilities as the Slayer. Giles explains that he too has had to make sacrifices. In following the family tradition as a Watcher he had to abandon his cherished plans to become either a fighter pilot or, rather bizarrely, a grocer.
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