Writer:

Douglas Petrie

Director:

Michael Lange

Regulars:

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase

David Boreanaz as Angel

Seth Green as Oz

Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Stars:

Eliza Dushku as Faith

Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers

K. Todd Freeman as Mr. Trick

Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins III

Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

Jack Plotnick as Allan Finch, Deputy Mayor

Cast:

Christian Clemenson as Balthazar

Alex Skuby as Vincent

Wendy Clifford as Mrs. Taggert

Buffy and Faith's stodgy new Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, sends the Slayers in search of an ancient amulet. After finding it, they discover Balthazar, a demon Wesley had informed them was dead. In order to fight Balthazar, they break into a sporting goods store, where Faith explains her "Want, take, have" philosophy. Buffy and Faith are caught by the police, but use their Slayer-strength to escape. While hunting for Balthazar the next night, Faith accidentally kills a human, the Deputy Mayor. Faith disposes of the body and tries to wash the blood off her hands, but when Buffy tries to talk to her about what she has done, Faith informs her that she doesn't care. — Short synopsis by Fluff.

• Balthazar is a fictional demon, but there is a strong resemblance to Pearl, the disgustingly fat vampire in Blade.

• "El Eliminati" is a fictional cult. It is possible that Petrie may have named the cult after what conspiracy theorists call the "Illuminati," which is supposedly a group of antichrist world leaders whose primary goal is to form a one world government to have complete control of the entire world, destroying all religions and governments in the process.

• In the scene in which Buffy "drowns," the way they cut the sound out for a few seconds is similar to a scene in "Saving Private Ryan," when from the point of view of Tom Hanks' character the sound went out (reportedly some audience members thought their own hearing was faulty).

An Eliminati

Staked by Buffy in a cemetery.

Two Eliminati

Staked by Faith in a cemetery.

An Eliminati

Staked by Buffy in the sewers.

An Eliminati

Shot with an arrow by Faith in an alley near the warehouse.

An Eliminati

Staked by Buffy in an alley near the warehouse.

Allan Finch, Deputy Mayor

Staked by Faith in an alley near the warehouse.

An Eliminati

Beheaded by Giles in the warehouse.

Balthazar

Electrocuted by Buffy in the warehouse.

Vincent (An Eliminati)

Staked by Mr. Trick at City Hall (presumably).

Total: Ten

Xander: "I'm not gonna waste the perfect comeback on you now. But don't think I don't have it. Oh yes, it's time will come!"

Buffy: "Is he evil?"
Giles: "Not in the strictest sense."

Buffy: "Whenever Giles sends me on a mission, he always says 'Please.' And afterwards I get a cookie."

Buffy: "I hate it when they drown me."

Wesley: "Remember the three key words for any slayer: preparation, preparation, preparation."
Buffy: "That's one word three times."

More quotes from this episode...

Faith: "We're Slayers, girlfriend, the chosen two."

Faith: "Hey, girlfriend, bad time?
(We just hate when people say "girlfriend" like that.)

• The Mayor: "I just love the 'Family Circus.' That P.J. He's getting to be quite a handful." — "Family Circus" is a comic panel by Bil Keane; P.J. is one of the characters. It originated in 1960, and is today the most widely syndicated comic panel in the world, appearing in more than 1500 newspapers.

• Mr. Trick: "I like 'Marmaduke'...nobody can tell Marmaduke what to do. That's my kind of dog." — "Marmaduke" is a comic panel about a troublemaking Great Dane of the same name, written by Brad Anderson since 1954.

• Finch: "I like to read 'Cathy.'" — Cathy Guisewite has been writing this comic about the trials and tribulations of a single career woman since 1976.

• Faith: "This isn't a Tupperware party. It's a little hard to plan." — Tupperware is a brand of plastic food-storage containers. There are people who sell Tupperware, and sometimes these people hold "parties" at which they display and sell their wares (pardon the pun).

• Buffy: "The count of three isn't a plan. It's Sesame Street." — "Sesame Street" is an incredibly successful children's television show, famous for such things as teaching children to count. It is now in its 29th season on PBS.

• Xander: "Harvard...Yale...Wesleyan...some German Polytechnical Institute whose name I, uh, I can't pronounce." — Harvard and Yale are prestigious Ivy League schools. The Wesleyan reference is most likely to Wesleyan University in Connecticut. We're not sure what German school Xander is referring to; the most popular suggestions we've gotten from readers are Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York (which Xander could have interpreted as German), and Berlin Polytech (which could have been written in German on the stationary).

• Buffy: "Strike one, no amulet there." — This is a simple baseball reference, a game in which a player gets three strikes before he/she is "out." But you all knew that, right?

• Buffy: "Game over." — Arcade and video games often display the words "Game Over" when...well, when the game is over.

• Buffy: "How about verifying that your nearly extinct cult was out in magnum force last night?" — This may be a reference to the 1973 film Magnum Force, the second in Clint Eastwood's string of "Dirty Harry" movies.

• Buffy: "I had to lather, rinse, and repeat about five million times to get the sewer out of my hair." — Most, if not all, shampoo bottles (at least in the U.S.) use these words (lather, rinse, and repeat) as their "directions." We believe this is a conspiracy to get you to go through the shampoo twice as fast and spend more money.

• Buffy: "...and one big demon in desperate need of a stairmaster." — Stairmaster is the company who first introduced the stairclimber in 1983; they now are a prominent manufacturer of exercise equipment (mainly stairclimbers).

• Mr. Trick: "It's called an Uzi, ya chump." — An Uzi is a compact 9mm submachine gun. We have seen it referred to as the weapon of choice for American crack peddlers.

• Giles: "Tell you what. Let Captain Courageous here go, and I'll tell you what you need to know." — Captains Courageous is a Rudyard Kipling novel, first published in 1897, about a pampered millionaire's son who falls off an ocean liner, is picked up by a fishing boat, and is forced to adapt to their ways and learn about the real world. It was made into a movie starring Spencer Tracy in 1937, as well as a couple of more recent TV movies.

• The Zeppo — Faith asks Buffy if she has ever had sex with Xander, since they spend so many sweaty nights working side by side. Her curiosity is obviously sparked by the fact that she had sex with Xander last week.

• Revelations — Buffy asks Giles about Wesley, "Is he evil?...The last one was evil." This is a reference to Gwendolyn Post, who posed as Faith's watcher. Wesley says that he heard about that incident.

• Prophecy Girl — After one of the Eliminati tries to drown Buffy, she says, "I hate it when they drown me." This is a reference to when The Master drowned her (though he succeeded, albeit temporarily).

• In the first scene, when Buffy and Faith are fighting vamps in the cemetery, there is a big mound of dirt. We could not spot any open graves nearby, or any other obvious reason why this would be there.

• When telling Wesley about the three vampires she and Faith killed in the first fight scene, Buffy says, "One of them had swords. I don't think he was with the other two." All three of the vampires were dressed in the same Eliminati uniform, so why would she think they weren't together?

• In both the underground fight scene and the warehouse fight scene, there's some not-so-great editing with SMG and Sophia Crawford (her stunt double). It's fairly obvious that it's Sophia, especially if you pause on some of the facial shots.

• Here's a really nitpicky one: after Buffy stakes the second Eliminati in the alley (right before Faith kills Finch), she turns to look at Faith. The editing is slightly less than perfect, so it's a quick, jerky turn.

• Giles' first entry into his Watcher's Diary included the comments: "Slayer is willful and insolent...her abuse of the English language is such that I understand only every other sentence."

• There is some controversy over Willow's early admissions. We have been told that schools such as these will only grant early admission on the condition that you don't apply to other schools (we don't know firsthand because Harvard never wooed us). Perhaps the writers don't know that, or perhaps we are to assume that Willow is such the exceptional genius that they're willing to bend the rules for her. After all, a nameless computer corporation had been "monitoring" her and recruited her in "What's My Line, Part One."

• The warehouse featured in this episode is on a street named Devereau.

• Another store downtown is Meyer Sport & Tackle (assuming that they had insurance and don't go out of business).

• Joyce is on a diet.

• Willow refers to herself as a Wicca for the first time (as opposed to a witch). We are not yet sure where they are going with this; since Wicca is often considered a religion, is Willow not considering herself Jewish anymore? Or does she consider herself both? Or is she just using the term loosely, as a synonym for witch? Only time will tell. Follow one of these links for more information on Wicca.

• Anthony Stewart Head and Alexis Denisof both did guest appearances on the TV series "Highlander." It's interesting that the method Giles used to kill the Eliminati vampire was beheading — which is the only way to kill an immortal in the "Highlander" series/movies.

• Here is the translation of the Mayor's incantation:
  

  Potestatem matris nostrae in tenebris invoco.... maledictum filium tuum ab omni periculo custodias nunc et in saecula!

  I call upon the forces of our mother in darkness, protect your unholy son from all harm...now...and forever!

• Curve - "Chinese Burn" (From Chinese Burn EP, Universal Records, 1997; and Come Clean, Universal Records, 1998)
  This is the song playing in the Bronze, during the whole scene.
  Official Site

Jeremy:

I enjoyed this episode, however, it did not live up to my expectations. Wesley, the new Watcher, is a good addition, and I know how many of you have been waiting to see Buffy and Angel back together. It was a small kiss, but a kiss nonetheless, right? The whole Faith corrupts Buffy interchange was good, but with the way Faith got Buffy out of Chemistry class I just hope the gay rumors don't start flying around Sunnydale like they are now in Capeside in Dawson's Creek with Jack. This episode also seemed to rip off too many other sources: Blade, Highlander, and Thelma and Louise. This episode seemed overhyped, but I can't wait to see what happens in "Consequences" next week, and then in the season finale when The Mayor "ascends." All in all a fairly average episode. (7/10)

Jamie Marie:

I am loving this episode. For one thing, we finally meet the new watcher, whom I love because I hate him. The chemistry between him, Giles, and Buffy is wonderful. And he really isn't that much worse than Giles used to be, before Buffy and friends tamed him. Also, I love when we get to see different sides of Buffy, since watching her do the exact same thing week after week can get a teeny bit annoying. Some people think that her behavior this week was out of character, but I disagree. The character of Buffy is not intended to be static and flat, nor should she be. We've gotten tastes of her other sides (in "When She Was Bad," for example), but it was time for another one. Everyone has a wild side, and it makes sense that Faith would be able to bring out Buffy's. Surely she's envied Faith at times (like when she has to memorize crystals while Faith just goes off wherever and whenever she wants), so all it took was a little pushing from Faith to get her to try it Faith's way. I loved the Bronze scene, from the dancing to the flirting with Angel. Even that was feasible for her character — she's a little high on life, in the party mood, and the only man she's ever really wanted appears. Every girl gets (or could get) in those moods. Of course, Buffy can't always be like Faith, so she had to get a good example of what can come from that kind of full-force-ahead attitude — and what a lesson it is! I can't wait for next week, and the future as well; this is the kind of experience that changes who you are. This episode could extend well into the future: will Buffy and Faith get caught? How will they relate to each other after this? Will Buffy be too cautious in her slaying now? Are Buffy and Angel ever going to give in to their desire? Is the whole school going to think that Buffy and Faith are a couple (what with that hearts-on-the-window scene, which from the average student's point of view is not about slaying vampires)? Will the Watchers Council find out how inept Wesley is? What exactly is the mayor going to do once he ascends? You get the idea. Also, Willow got a taste of being left out (a la Buffy in "Dead Man's Party" and Xander in "The Zeppo." The symbolism of Buffy's clothes were a good touch (over the course of the ep. she goes from pastel clothes to darker purples/browns/black, and back to a pastel blue at the end), and not too overwhelming (i.e. white to black). I also loved the music in the break-in scene, and in the "Wake-up call" scene, although the verbals in that one were a little cheesy. The only things I didn't love in this episode were Balthazar (I was disgusted in Blade, and I'm disgusted here), and Angel kissing Buffy — first he pushes her away, then he kisses her? It seemed out of place. I didn't love Joyce's and Cordelia's virtually pointless appearances, either, but perhaps that's a contractual thing. Overall, two thumbs up. (9/10)