Reviewed By: Monica Medina
Rating: 6/10
The Sunnydale High swim team throws a party at the beach in celebration of another victory, but Buffy isn't in the mood. She's gazing sadly out into the water when fellow student and swimmer Cameron Walker sits down next to her. Buffy thinks he’s putting the moves on her, but he says he just wants to be friends, no pressure. Of course, hanging with new friends doesn’t prevent Buffy from saving Jonathan from swimmer Dodd McAlvy. Dodd stalks off to the water and disappears. A few minutes later we hear a scream and some tearing sounds, and then some man-sized monster runs into the sewers, away from the steaming pile of what we assume is all that remains of bully Dodd.
So begins this fluffy filler episode, which is filled with enough whodunits to keep you guessing. As we twist and turn our way through this episode, we get to see Principal Snyder ask Willow to fudge a student’s grade in the computer class she's been teaching, in return for allowing her to continue teaching the class for the rest of the school year. Meanwhile, Buffy breaks Cameron’s nose after a close-encounter in his Mustang. Principal Snyder and Coach Marin blame the incident on her revealing clothing. While Buffy is trying to get some sympathy from Giles, Xander and Willow, they find out that Dodd's eviscerated remains were found that morning. When Cameron’s remains are found by Xander, along with a hideous fish-man-monster, Buffy suspects that someone is after the swim team members, and Gage, the third best swimmer, could be next. She decides to watch over Gage, but the swimmer notices and calls her on it that night at the Bronze. When Gage doesn’t believe her, he walks away and is promptly attacked by Angel. When Buffy runs to save him, she sees Angel spitting out the blood. Something in Gage's blood didn't agree with Angel, causing Buffy to consider steroids as the culprit.
Next day, Xander goes undercover, much to the chagrin of the girls, and joins the swim team to keep an eye on Gage. That night as Buffy takes over Gage-watching duties from Xander, she hears a scream from the locker room. She runs in to see Gage being attacked by the fish-man-monster that Xander saw. But even as she pushes the monster away, Gage continues screaming. In horrified shock, she watches as Gage tears off his skin to reveal another fish-man underneath. (Okay all together say– nyeck!) Coach Marin helps Buffy escape the two fish-men, but says he is unaware of the swimmers' steroid abuse. Suspicion falls on Nurse Greenleigh, when Willow finds evidence that the swimmers were drugged. Xander finds out the steam room is where the boys are getting exposed and is quite concerned because he spent time in there. Meanwhile, we find out who has really been exposing the boys to the "steroids" -- when Nurse Greenleigh begs Coach Marin to stop exposing the boys to the drugs. The Coach says they "just need to adjust the mix," and calls her a quitter. He then feeds Nurse Greenleigh to “the boys” when she won’t let up about stopping the exposure.
After unsuccessfully hunting the fish-men-monsters, Buffy decides to question the Coach about its composition. The Coach eventually admits to experimenting with some failed drug that the Soviets tried on their Olympic swimmers using fish DNA. After Xander saves Buffy from becoming a play-toy, Buffy trips the Coach into the sewer, where "his boys" mete out an act of poetic justice on the Coach. All's well that ends well, as the remaining team members (Xander included) undergo plasma transfusions to reverse the effects of the steam, and the fish-men head for the ocean.
Great Buffy Moment: Hands down, Xander going undercover in Speedos.... and the girls’ reactions -- especially Cordelia’s.
In A Nutshell: The fish-men-monsters were a bit disappointing, as was the failed Soviet drug storyline. However, there were enough comedic moments, especially from Buffy, to save this otherwise dry (as in hard-to-swallow) episode from complete ruination. Again the strength comes from the characters themselves, and the writers really use them well.