NEVER KILL A BOY ON THE FIRST DATE
SEASON 1 EPISODE 5
This episode starts pretty hilariously on a really awful looking vampire fighting Buffy in the graveyard. After she kills him, Giles critiques her; this is definitely a Buffy/Giles episode, and it really cements the bond between them as Slayer and the Watcher.
This also marks the reappearance of the Master, who has hatched a new plan involving the coming of a new vampire called the Anointed One. This is the first time we've seen him since The Harvest, and though he doesn't really do anything in this one, he's a nice addition.
So this episode introduces Buffy's attempt at a love life, the hunk of the week being nerdy book-loving Owen Thurman. It's really strange that she's into this guy, and I'm not a huge fan of this subplot. And what's up with Buffy's skirts? They keep getting shorter and shorter. Not at all realistic of a high school, my suspension of disbelief is ruined!
Xander: So Buffy, how'd the slaying go last night?
Buffy: Xander!
Xander: I mean...how'd the laying go?...no I don't mean that either.
And cue Xander's jealousy of Owen, as well as Cordelia's competition with Buffy to get with him. It really doesn't make sense that BOTH of them would be into him. But Buffy secures a date, then has to ditch it to stop the coming of the Anointed One. Meanwhile, the vampires attack a bus full of people, including a mother and son and a crazy religious hick. The southern hick guy is probably one of my least favorite actors on the show. He's pretty awful.
The next day, Buffy and Owen reschedule the date while Xander enviously looks on (and he has a Tweety watch). As Buffy gets ready, Giles shows up thinking the prophecy has come to pass after all after reading about the bus accident. So Buffy goes on the date and Giles heads to the funeral home to check out the bodies of the bus crash, where he's ambushed by vamps and has to hide. Xander and Willow head to the Bronze, where Angel is also busy being jealous (David Boreanaz is hilarious when he's jealous), seeing the date take place.
Buffy takes off to the funeral home with them, and Owen secretly follows. So begins a pretty cool and atmospheric romp through the funeral home where Willow and Xander try to keep Owen occupied while Buffy finds Giles hiding in the autopsy room. So they find the crazy hick and he is, shock of all shocks, a vampire, who chases after them singing gospel songs. He also says "pork and beans" over and over. It's strange.
The whole thing culminates in a fight in the autopsy room where Owen is knocked out. The incinerator gets turned out as Giles is also knocked out, and Buffy shoves the hick vamp right in, immediately burning him up, with Owen regaining consciousness right after. The next day, Xander is clearly pretty glad the relationship is going to crumble, but to Buffy's surprise, Owen wants to go out with her again. She realizes that he's just into her because he's an adrenaline junkie and likes danger. So she reluctantly turns him down, and has a heart to heart with Giles. She finds out that when he was little he wanted to be a fighter pilot, a really odd thing for his character to want in retrospect, but the conversation is very sweet; the first of many great exchanges between the two of them.
Twist ending! The Anointed One wasn't the religious guy on the bus, it was actually the little kid, who is now a vampire!
All in all, this is probably one of the weaker story arc episodes of the season. It's not bad, but the Owen thing is not my favorite plot, nor do I really like the whole Anointed One story. The good things about this one lie in the funny character interactions, mostly coming from Xander's jealousy, and Giles's uppity-ness. But it's definitely not a bad episode.
**
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