Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Inca Mummy Girl - S02E04 Review

INCA MUMMY GIRL
SEASON 2 EPISODE 4

This episode should be familiar to you if you've recently watched (or read about earlier in the blog...self-promotion!) Season 1; it's basically Teacher's Pet Part II. Xander episode, same setup, pretty much the same payoff, but this is the better episode simply because it does carry slightly more emotional weight. And it introduces another important character!

We open up on the gang on a field trip to a museum (Xander's problems often spawn from field trips...) and Buffy's complaining about her mom taking part of the foreign exchange program, letting a guy stay with them for two weeks. Xander is not fond of this idea at all. Still some lingering feelings there, obviously. Willow talks to one of the delinquent kids vandalizing the exhibits, who she's apparently tutoring. This does lead to a pretty funny exchange.

Rodney: I think I have all 14 natural elements memorized.
Willow: There are 103.

They go to the mummy exhibit, and the admittedly creepy-looking mummy is holding a plate of some kind. After the exhibit, Rodney the thief accidentally breaks the plate trying to steal it, and the mummy awakens and sucks his life out. Afterwards Buffy is sparring with Giles and basically beats him into letting her go to the big dance of the week. Except this one is costumed. That's new, I guess. Willow walks in on Xander explaining to Buffy that he isn't in love with Willow. The look on her face is pretty heartbreaking; she's too adorable!

They notice Rodney's missing and retrace their steps at the museum, and they find a broken seal. Some crazy pony-tailed guy with a sword attacks and seeing the mummy, soon runs off. Willow notices the mummy has braces and that it's actually Rodney, mummified. Poor Rodney, he was my favorite character! Oh well. Buffy remembers she has to go pick up Ampata, the foreign exchange student.

Buffy: Maybe he can translate the seal?
Xander: Oh yeah fall for the old "let me translate the ancient seal for ya" come-on. You know how many times I've used that?

Ampata steps off the bus and pretty much immediately gets his soul sucked out by the mummy. Bad luck for Ampata. It's actually a pretty cool effect. So the mummy girl, who is now a full-on woman from all that soul-sucking, poses as Ampata. Xander is clearly smitten, flirting like crazy, and now Willow is the jealous one. That night Buffy and Ampata have a talk about where Ampata came from, and this is one of the things I really like about the episode. Ampata isn't evil, she's killing people but only for self-preservation; it's kind of a more sympathetic villain that hasn't really been explored yet.

The next day Cordy is talking with her new singer in a band boyfriend Devin (she has a new guy like every week). Afterwards Devin goes to gossip with the guitarist Oz, played by Seth Green, giving the least Seth Greeny performance ever. This is an important character...later. He does have a sweet stache though. Xander volunteers to flirt with Ampata all day while Willow continues to look all sad. Xander shows her how to eat a Twinkie, and it's actually a rather cute scene, until crazy bodyguard guy attacks again. He's a pretty awful actor, based off his one line of dialogue.

Later Willow suggests that Xander should take Ampata to the dance on a date to calm her down after the attack. This is a really touching scene; it's kind of the point where Will starts to get over Xander. The end of an era! I'm going to miss the love triangle! The bodyguard follows Ampata into the bathroom, and she sucks his soul right out. Soul-sucking apparently adds like three pounds of make-up to your face.

That night Buffy and Ampata are talking before the dance, and Ampata tells the story of the Inca Princess, which unbeknownst to Buffy is her own tale. The whole sacrifice thing parallels nicely with Buffy's life, helping to make Ampata more sympathetic. Devin and Oz's band, "Dingoes Ate My Baby" are playing a show at the dance, and Oz notices Willow, in her Eskimo outfit and all. It IS pretty cute.

Giles and Buffy team up and find out that Ampata is actually the mummy. While dancing with Xand, Ampata notices she's starting to mummify again, so she grabs a random guy to soul-suck. The guy's name is Jonathan, and he'll be popping up intermittently throughout the season, always getting into danger, so try to spot him!

Xander: Have you seen Ampata?
Willow: ...
Xander: What was that?
Willow: I shrugged.
Xander: Maybe next time you should probably say "shrug".
Willow: ..."Sigh".

Xander comes looking for Ampata who shoos Jonathan off. She starts to kiss him but doesn't want to suck his soul out because she actually likes him. She runs to stop Giles from putting the seal back together and the gang follows to the museum. They fight and it's not one of the better fights really. Ampata tries to soul-suck Willow but Xander says that if she's going to soul suck anyone it should be him. And she tries to, and this is where all sympathy goes out the window. But Buffy pulls her off and she breaks into a bunch of pieces anyway, so I guess all is well. Everybody sort of just leaves the museum without saying a word, which is kind of funny.

Buffy and Xander are talking the next day about Xand's horrible taste in women. It's definitely one of my favorite Buffy/Xander scenes, and it ends the episode on a rather sweet note.

Xander: You gave up your life.
Buffy: And I had you to bring me back.

Overall this is a really good Xander episode. It holds up way better than I thought it would, mostly because it's laced with some really good, sort of bittersweet scenes, like the ones between Xander and Willow. It also introduces a couple new characters that become important later on. Definitely better than an episode called Inca Mummy Girl should be.

***1/2