| Episode No. | Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1, Episode 2 |
|---|---|
| Directed by | John T. Kretchmer |
| Written by | Joss Whedon |
0:03 : On initial airing, the episode was missing the ‘In Every Generation’ intro, due to the episode being paired with the first to create a two-hour movie event. Separated on subsequent airings and upon release on home media, the intro was re-added to all Season 1 episodes later.
0:11 : Due to the original airing, The Harvest doesn’t have a ‘Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘ recap.
1:02 : Buffy uses a tree branch to dust the vampire. Note, due to budgetary reasons with the pilot, we don’t see or hear the vampire dust. We do hear his body thud to the ground though.
1:26 : This episode didn’t have it’s own set of opening titles until it’s repeat airings. The opening credits lose the extra bar at the beginning and this set of credits is used all season [See The Opening Credit Sequences].
2:32 : Giles fills in most of the information on Vampires for the first time, as well as their origins. He’s inadvertently referring to Maloker, the first vampire, as revealed in Season Nine.
3:26 : Considering the Old Ones are mentioned quite often in this two-partner, they’re never referred to again on this series with so much reverence. It isn’t until Season 5 of Angel that the term is explored more fully.
4:35 : We see that the Master, having been trapped now for forty years, is getting impatient. He even, unusually, threatens his beloved Darla, although at this point her character has no backstory.
6:14 : Giles doesn’t believe the police of Sunnydale would believe their story about Jesse. The police of Sunnydale are deeply stupid.
6:29 : Xander asks if vampires can fly. In most versions of vampire lore they can, as well as shapeshift into other forms. Dracula shows these abilities in later Seasons. Ironically, in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie (1992), vampires are shown hovering. In the television realm of Buffy, they cannot.
7:19 : Luke talks of the last time he was caught unaware. He references a ‘he’ – which means it couldn’t have been a Slayer. However, the novelisation of the episode corrects the pronoun to ‘they’.
7:56 : Willow Rosenberg: computer hacker extraordinaire! Willow’s excellent legal (and illegal) computer skills are first mentioned in this episode.
8:35 : Buffy has a quick flashback of her battle with Luke from Welcome to the Hellmouth, complete with a monochrome clip. This proves, apparently, that she is so mentally challenged.
9:38 : Giles’s hatred of technology is brought up for the first time. This will prove important in I Robot, You Jane.
11:19 : Please note Buffy jumps the fence while facing the wrong direction. It’s doable, but very hard to see why she would do it that way.
13:23 : Buffy senses Angel before he speaks when they meet in the mausoleum. Giles did tell her to ‘hone’ in Welcome to the Hellmouth…
13:55 : Buffy, and the audience, learn Angel’s name for the first time.
17:00 : Buffy lists a bunch of items that can kill vampires, mentioning crosses, stakes, holy water, sunlight, fire, beheading and garlic.
18:17: Mercedes McNab, most famous at the time for her roles in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), originally auditioned for the role of Buffy. She first makes an appearance in the unaired pilot presentation before being added to the main series here. She goes from co-star to series regular on Angel over the course of eight years as Harmony becomes more important.
19:20 : The student who joins Cordelia and Harmony’s conversation about Buffy is named Adam, and is played by Jeffrey Steven Smith. He reappears in The Pack.
21:22 : All those vampires in the dark, growling. Do their eyes glow a bit too much here? More budgetary concerns, this time on make-up and prosthetics.
21:37 : Surprise! Jesse is a vampire. We don’t know who sired him, but presumably it was Luke.
27:27 : As Willow researches, the VAMPYR book is closed on the table next to her. Heavy reading! And if they had read it here, they could have solved a lot of problems!
28:32 : Giles explains the existence of the Hellmouth to the teens. This is the first mention of what it is and what it does. It’s a portal to a demon dimension, sealed, waiting to be reopened. Dark powers gravitate towards it.
29:11 : While drawing the vessel symbol on the white board, Anthony Head reveals that he, and therefore Giles, is left-handed.
32:55 : “I love this song.” The song Cordelia dances to in this episode as Jesse stalks her is by Dashboard Prophets and is called “Wearing Me Down.”
34:00 : Dashboard Prophets‘ “Ballad for Dead Friends” is the song playing as Darla approaches the Bronze with the vampires. It was later released on the second Buffy soundtrack album, Radio Sunnydale.
36:37 : Giles tells Xander that his friend Jesse is dead and that the creature is the thing that killed him. This is the first instance of someone definitively saying that the demon inhabits the human form.
38:10 : “Here’s a pretty one.” Darla pays Cordelia a compliment as she hands her to Luke for draining. Cordelia and Darla won’t meet again until Angel Season 3. Cordelia knows her by then and delivers an epic right hook.
38:45 : Buffy hits the vampire in the chest with a pool cue. He mustn’t dust very quickly. In fact, we don’t hear it, we hear a thud.
39:57 : Buffy throws the cymbal and it beheads the vampire. We don’t hear the dusting, but we hear the cymbal crash against the wall.
41:07 : Darla runs, thus ensuring her survival, at least until later this season. Originally Julie Benz‘s ‘Vampire Girl #1’ would have been killed here.
41:21 : Jesse is dusted, by complete accident. Then he’s gone. Never mentioned in the series again. Ever. He only has one mention in the Season Nine story Welcome to the Team.
42:01 : Luke dusts absolutely spectacularly. So that’s where the budget went!
45:20 : The shot of Buffy staring at the vampires is the final shot of the opening titles for the first two seasons.
42:36 : Angel watches the vampires flee and whispers ‘She did it’ in surprise. Oh, Angel, ye of little faith. And why didn’t he help?
43:48 : Giles says they’ve foiled the Master, but he may try again. It’ll happen in Prophecy Girl.
43:55 : Giles says that the next threat they face may be much different. Indeed, apart from Angel and Never Kill A Boy on the First Date, the rest of Season 1 deals with one-off demons and evils until the finale.
44:15 : Willow suggests that if Buffy wants to get kicked out of school she should blow something up. Buffy will blow the whole school up in Graduation Day (Part 2).
44.22 : One of Giles’s best lines in the series, repeated to great effect in the series finale seven years later: “The Earth is doomed.”
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