(Plot synopsis from the
official Buffy website)
The students of Sunnydale High school are spending the afternoon
at the zoo. Besides the standard zoo animals, this facility has
a special new hyena exhibit, marked "Positively No Admittance."
This piques the interest of Sunnydale's obnoxious cool crowd,
who have already had their fun tormenting Buffy and a shy, bookish
student named Lance. After grabbing poor Lance's notebook, they
enter the forbidden hyena house, forcing him to follow. Xander,
worried about his timid classmate, decides to come to his rescue.
As they wait for Xander, Buffy and Willow meet an eccentric zookeeper,
who claims the hyenas can understand human speech — they
learn people's names, call out to them, and then eat them. Meanwhile,
the crowd in the hyena house starts to get rough with Lance,
but suddenly their eyes start flashing yellow — apparently,
they've stepped into a mystical circle on the floor and transformation
has taken place. We see the eyes of one student who never meant
to be there, and they're flashing yellow, too. It's
Xander.
Back
at school, Principal Flutie proudly introduces the students to
Herbert, the Sunnydale Razorbacks' new mascot. Not quite as menacing
as the team's namesake, Herbert is a actually a little pig. Xander
elicits a strange reaction from Herbert when the two exchange
a glance. Since returning from the zoo trip, he is more confident,
more aggressive, and generally not the same old Xander. His love-sick
puppy stares have turned to animal leers — he has even taken
to sniffing Buffy.
Willow brings the news to
Buffy and Giles that Herbert is dead— the pint-sized porker
has been eaten by the hyena-possessed students. Buffy tries to
confront Xander, but he becomes even more aggressive and pounces
on her. They scuffle for a while, but Buffy finally decks him,
and locks him into a steel book-return cage. When it is discovered
that the pack is responsible for Herbert's demise, Principal
Flutie is up in arms. He summons the group to his office to reprimand
them, but doesn't get the chance.
The news horrifies everyone
— Principle Flutie has been eaten! The "official"
story is that a pack of wild dogs did it, but Buffy, Willow and
Giles know the truth. Since Xander was with Buffy when the incident
occurred, she is relieved that he was not involved. Giles has
figured out that in order to restore order, the spirits of the
hyenas must be taken from the students and put back into the
animals. While Buffy and Giles go to the zoo, Willow offers to
watch over Xander. The zookeeper, well-versed in these matters,
offers to help with the "transformation," and says
that all the students must return to the mystical circle in the
hyena cage. But one member of their pack is missing — Xander
— and Buffy and Giles realize, to their horror, that they
will seek him out, leaving Willow vulnerable to their attack.
When they do just that, Xander breaks free from the cage, but
Willow hides. They escape the school grounds and Buffy leads
them all to the zoo.
While everything seems to
be going according to schedule, it turns out that the zookeeper's
plan is to absorb all the hyenas' spirits himself. He does, and
grabs Willow in order to perform a predatory act which is part
of the ritual. Xander, back to his old self, reacts to seeing
his friend in jeopardy and dives on the zookeeper, freeing Willow.
When the zookeeper goes after Buffy, she hurls him into the hyena
cage, where he is promptly devoured.
