THE HARVEST
SEASON 1 EPISODE 2
Picking up exactly where they left off with a rather weak conclusion to the Buffy vs. Luke fight, the second hour of the pilot is quite a bit better than the first. Now that the show has firmly established all of the main characters, it focuses on developing them more properly and their relationships between each other. Giles sets up the mythos of the series, complete with ancient evil called "Old Ones" and vampires being the half-breed between a demon and human.
We also get a lot more bad guy interaction here. Luke and Darla, having caught Jesse decide to set him up as bait to catch Buffy, while the guys go over vampire lore and plans to save him, culminating in the worst level of any video game: the sewer.
Buffy: I looked around but as soon as they got clear of the graveyard, they could have just....VOOM!
Xander: They can fly?
Buffy: They can drive.
Willow uses her crazy 90s hacking abilities (among other things decrypting the security system for the city council, whatever that means) and Buffy rushes out to save Jesse (during school, no less!), with Xander stupidly/heroically following her. Also, check out Xander's mushroom shirt. There are PLENTY more funny Xander shirts to come. At the entrance to the sewer Buffy meets Angel creepily lounging about. Angel seems super smug here, but after this he becomes infinitely more sympathetic. But even here you can tell that the two have really good chemistry.
In the middle of all of this is a silly scene in computer lab of Cordelia being really mean about Buffy, Willow overhearing her, and sabotaging Cordy's project by telling her DEL stands for Deliver on the keyboard. Cordelia is vapid, but that's a pretty big leap to assume that she's so stupid she doesn't know the functions on a keyboard.
I love this sewer scene; it's one of the times where the grainy film of much of the first season is used to the show's advantage. Buffy and Xand go over how to kill vampires and they eventually find Jesse and the trap is complete as the vampires come out of the darkness. The way their eyes glow is great, the vampires are legitimately creepy here. They seem way less human here than they do later on as they refine the makeup. Surprise! Jesse's a vampire! No, and he was my favorite! Oh well.
They escape the sewer and the Master punishes his lackey vampires, poking one in the eye off-screen so hard that he dies...I guess. It's actually sort of confusing. Poor Colin, he was my favorite vampire! Oh well. Afterwards the vamps have a creepy ritual to bind the Master to Luke, meaning all the people Luke feeds on get transferred to the Master, setting him free.
"I don't like vampires, I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good."
Giles explains the first of many, MANY apocalypses and the gang decide that Luke and his minions are going to attack The Bronze, because it's the only place that people go to. Buffy gets grounded for skipping school but sneaks out anyway and there's a great symbolic shot of Buffy opening a chest containing normal girly items and lifting the shelf out to reveal vampire-killing tools underneath.
Now that Jesse is a vampire, he becomes suddenly attractive to Cordelia, as one of the coolest 90s grungey songs plays, and the vamps make their attack. Luke eats a few superfluous extras before the gang arrives, Buffy sneaking in to get the drop on them, literally. She stabs a random vampire with a pool stick, who makes an audible thud...early on, sometimes the vampires disintegrate and sometimes they just kind of fall down. Luke and Buffy have their second big fight as the rest of the gang breaks in, Buffy decapitates a vampire by throwing a cymbal ("Heads up!") and Jesse kills himself on accident by running into Xander's stake. Willow throws holy water on Darla (giving her a case of the stock scream effects) while Giles doesn't do anything particularly cool.
Buffy tricks Luke into dying by giving him the old fake sunrise then stab in the back combo. Works every time! The Master is thwarted and not seen for several episodes actually. No one seems to question the fact that vampires attacked the club or even really care about all the dead bodies lying around. Sure, they don't know they're vampires, but it seems like a big deal.
This last scene is a nice thesis statement for Season 1; it shows all four core characters, the three kids walking away with Giles watching, simply saying: "The Earth is doomed."
I feel like the second episode is more exciting and does far more to establish the characters and plot than the first. It's a solid episode, and a satisfying conclusion to Welcome to the Hellmouth. Next time, however, we step outside of our vampire comfort zone.
***1/2
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