Hobson:
Hobson:
Debut -- Helpless (Season 3)
Died Same Episode
Hobson is one of the guys who's come to help Quentin Travers make the Cruciamentum preparations. He tells Quentin that they have a few hours left...I'm guessing that means until the test is supposed to begin or something. It really wasn't clear, it's just like, they gave Hobson a line, you know? Anyway, Quentin tells Hobson to take shifts with Blair in keeping watch or giving pills or whatever to the wacky vamp Zackary Kralik.
The best thing that Hobson gets to do is take a nap. I think. Because if he hadn't taken a nap, Kralik would've drained him and turned him into a vampire. As it is, Hobson does die, and sure, it probably was painful, heinous, and scary. It probably sucked. But at least he wasn't a vampire. I mean, that's probably worse, right?
Anyhoo, Giles discovers Hobson's body and I think we see part of a bloody arm -- again with the arms! I love this show! -- so suffice it to say it was probably a gruesome death.
Also, I had to wonder just what was up with Hobson, how did he get this crappy job? Like, what line of serfdom or something was he born into that he had to deal with this? Even his clothes looked feudal..if that makes sense. Oh well.
Blair:
Debut -- Helpless (Season 3)
Died (?) Same Episode
Blair's the other unlucky bloke who's helping out with the Cruciamentum rite of passage. He gets stuck doing the masonry-type stuff, or bricklaying, you know, making a wall of bricks so when you open a door seeking exit all you get is..freaked out.
Anyhoo, Blair's got the misfortune of feeding Kralik his pills. He gets suckered into inching closer to Kralik when Kralik throws a fit saying that he can't find the pills. Next thing he knows, Blair's being choked. He wakes up in vampire form, gets to listen to Kralik go on about how he worried that he might've drained him too much, he does that sometimes. Yeesh.
Then he gets to accompany Kralik for a night out on the hellmouth, where he scares Buffy and gets to go on a joyride. Actually, he grabs Buffy's leg as she's trying to escape through a hole in a gate, and that's the part that reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird, when Jem's trying to skedaddle from the Radley place, you know? Anyhoo, Buffy slips away and he tries to get her as she's getting into the Gilesmobile, and he manages to hang onto the door for a ride. It sorta reminded me of the classic Marty McFly skateboard-a-rama that we saw in Back to the Future. Uh, anyway, Buffy eventually knocks him off, and we don't see him again until she goes back to the Sunnydale Arms (did someone say "arms"). Here, he's doing a decent job of going after Buffy, but she manages to do the "I'm shoving a bookcase on top of you just like some vamps did to Willow in Becoming part 1."
After that, the scene gets kind of dark, and I couldn't make out what the hell she was beating his head with. But I'm going to say that he died, because it seems safe to assume that. I don't think she would have left him alive, but feel free to let me know if you could glimpse the scene any better.
The ABCs of Sunnydale