Season One Basic Overview


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The Season in Pictures





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THE EPISODES

Buffy attempts to lead a "normal" life free of Slayer duties, but her Watcher finds her and shows her she can not escape her destiny.
The pilot episode opens with a teenage boy and girl sneaking into Sunnydale High at night. Sneaky girl is obviously concerned with getting caught, but Sneaky boy seems awfully confident in his abilities to get them up to the roof of the school, where you can see the whole town, without getting caught. However, the girl is furthur worried when she thinks she hears something in the corridor. The boy assures her it's nothing, to which she questions, "Are you sure?" The boy answers that he's positive and the girl sighs and say, "Good." She then turns around and we see that her face has become horribly distorted. She grabs the boy and leans in to bite his neck...

[Opening credits]


Images fade into each other. Graveyards, vampires, pools of blood, and other horrible sights. Buffy tosses and turns in bed. The image of a hideous vampire flashes on the screen, and Buffy wakes with a start, obviously shaken. From downstairs, Buffy's mother calls for Buffy to get ready so she won't be late. Buffy looks around her room, still full of boxes from the move, and mutters, "Nope, wouldn't want that."

Well, Sunnydale High looks normal. Stereotypical California girls and skater guys mill around outside. Buffy observes this from the car, as her mother gives her some last minute advice, ending with, "And Buffy? Try not to get kicked out." Buffy nods and heads up to school. We see Xander skating down the street, when his attention is caught by Buffy. As he gawks at her, he slams into the railing of the cement steps leading up to the school. Poor Xander!

He is soon joined by Willow, who is dressed like a sterotypical "nerd" (again with the stereotypes!). He asks her for help in math, and she agrees to help him. As the two enter the school they are joined by Jesse, who comments on the new girl. The boys agree she's "pretty much a hottie", but Jesse admits he doesn't know anything more about her.

Meanwhile, Buffy is sitting in Principal Flutie's office. He welcomes her to Sunnydale High and proceeds to rip up her transcripts, telling her she has a frest start in Sunnydale. Then he sees the fact that she burned down the gym--and rapidly begins to tape the papers back together. She tries to defend herself, making up a story that the gyms was filled with vamp--er, asbestos. He gives her a subtle warning and sends her on her way.

She leaves the principal's office and bumps into a pair of students walking down the hallway, where her bag falls and things scatter everywhere. Xander immdiately comes to her rescue, so to speak, introducing himself and helping her gather her spilled possessions. She thanks him quickly and walks away, hurrying to her next class. He notices she forgot something, and, picking it up, yells, "Hey! You forgot your...stake." She doesn't hear him and keeps on walking.

Buffy sits in history as the teacher explains about Black Death. She tells them to open their books to a map, and Buffy realizes she needs materials for all her classes. Luckily, the girl next to her leans over to share her book with her. Buffy smiles gratefully.

When class is over, the girl introduces herself as Cordelia Chase and suggests she head to the library to pick up her own textbook. She then proceeds to explain the goings-on at Sunnydale High..."if you hang with me and mine, you'll be accepted in no time." She explains that they have to test Buffy's coolness first. She rattles off some questions, and Buffy answers to Cordelia's liking, who happily announces that Buffy passed. They come to a stop at the water bubbler, where the seemingly friendly Cordelia begins to insult the girl there, Willow. Buffy looks confused at Cordelia's sudden change in attitude and excuses herself to head for the library.

When she arrives, it seems that no one is there. She calls out, but no one answers. Suddenly, the librarian "appears" beside her. Buffy is startled, but manages to regain her composure and ask for books. The librarian says, "Buffy Summmers," to which she replies, "Good call. Guess I'm the only new kid, huh?" The librarian grins and says, "I know what you're after." He reaches under the library checkout desk and plops a dusty old book entitled "Vampyr" onto the desk. Buffy is seriously freaked out, and tells him that that's not what she's after. He apologizes and puts the book away, asking if she still wants her textbooks, but she is already gone.

In the girls' locker room, the usual gossip is going on. Today's topic: Buffy Summers, aka "New Girl". But as one of the girls opens her gym locker, the boy (from the teaser)'s body falls out. The girl screams as all the other girls look on in horror.

Buffy goes out to the courtyard and meets up with Willow. She asks Willow if she'd be willing to tutor her and just hang out, to which Willow replies, "Sure, but aren't you hanging out with Cordelia?" Buffy asks, "Can't I do both?" and Willow replies, "Not legally."

They are joined by Xander and Jesse, and Buffy returns the stake to Buffy, joking, "All I can figure is that you're building a really little fence." Buffy makes up a lie aout how everyone in LA uses them for self-defense. After a few moments of talking, Cordelia comes up, demanding, "Are these geeks bothering you?" Buffy explains that they were all hanging out. Cordelia snorts and continues that gym was cancelled "due to the extreme dead guy in the locker". Buffy is strangely interested in this, and Cordelia labels her "morbid". Buffy gets up to go investigate, telling the others there's something she has to do.

Buffy makes her way the locker room, and examines the body, which is definitely a vampire's doing. She mutters unhappily and sets off for the library.

Walking in, she begins talking with Giles, the librarian, again. She tells him she came to start a normal life, and he counters that if she really wanted to, she wouldn't be here talknig about it. She reacts in an almost stunned way, as if she is just realizing she can't escape her responsibility. Giles proceeds to tell her that he thinks the town is built over a center of mystical energy aka a Hellmouth. They argue some more and Buffy gets angry and leaves. Giles follows her out just as Xander appears from behind a bookshelf and says, "What?!"

Meanwhile, Giles had caught up with Buffy in the hallway...


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1.02 The Harvest

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With the help of Willow, Xander, and Giles, Buffy tries to save Jesse, avert the apocalypse, and keep her mother in the dark about the other-worldly goings-on.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.03 The Witch

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Buffy attempts, once again, to lead a normal life. This time, it's by trying out for the cheerleading squad. Trouble is, the competition is killer.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.04 Teacher's Pet

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Xander falls prey to the seductive charms of a 'she-mantis' posing as the beautiful substitute teacher Miss French. It's up to Willow, Giles, and Buffy to save him with biology skills, weapons, bat sonar, and, of course, bug spray.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.05 Never Kill A Boy On The First Date

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Buffy attempts, yet again, to live a normal life. (*sigh.* I'm sensing a theme this season) by taking the moody Owen out on a date, making both Angel and Xander awfully jealous. But ancient prophecies seem to have it in for the Slayer's social life...and her life as a whole.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.06 The Pack

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Xander and some mean-spirited kids fall prey to hyena possesion after a field trip to the local zoo. A bizarre and disturbing array of crimes, hair-smelling, and food choices follow.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.07 Angel

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Buffy finally learns the truth about Angel, his curse, his feelings for her, and his O-positive lifestyle.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.08 I Robot, You Jane

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Willow attempts to find true love on the Internet, while Buffy and Xander worry that what she may have found an axe-murdering circus midget. (Honestly!) But Willow has instead found something a bit more disturbing...and a lot more dangerous. Demonic, even.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.09 The Puppet Show

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Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles are all forced to participate in the talent show in some capacity by the brand-spanking-new Principal Snyder. That evil administrative educator. But their problems become bigger than off-key singing and flubbed lines when someone--or something--begins murdering show participants...and stealing their organs.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.10 Nightmares

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The gang finds their worst nightmares becoming reality. Worth watching just to see a frizzy-haired Cordelia dragged off by the chess club.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.11 Out of Mind, Out of Sight ("The Invisible Girl")

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Marcie Ross just wanted to be noticed. Too bad it's never gonna happen. Not in the way she wanted, anyway. Time to find a new plan...one that involves the May Queen herself, Miss Cordelia Chase.


[Full guide coming soon!]


1.12 Prophecy Girl

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Giles discovers, via a prophecy from Angel, that Buffy is destined to die the following night. What is written comes to pass, but you can't keep a good Slayer down...


[Full guide coming soon!]



All episode summary blurbs, synopses, and comments therein are posted and written by me. If you want to post them on your site, you must get permission, or risk making me a very angry Misty. I do not, however, own these episodes, their plots, characters, or scripts, and these items are the sole property of Mutant Enemy, 20th Century Fox, and their writers. All WB print promos are from And You Thought YOU Were Obsessed With BtVS.