Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B- | 9 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT The Prat Pack
By Couch Baron | Season 1 | Episode 6 | Aired on 04.06.1997
In a very nice cut, we see Willow in the library, watching a program on her computer that shows hyenas feeding. Buffy drags an unconscious Xander into the library and tells Willow to help her put him in the cage. Willow asks what happened. Buffy says she hit him. Willow: "With what?" Buffy: "A desk." Heh. Why couldn't we have seen that? Buffy says, "It's safe to say that in his animal state his idea of wooing doesn't involve a Yanni CD and a bottle of Chianti." So she's waiting for her "honey" Angel to "woo" her with a Yanni CD? Now that's an image I could do without. Willow wonders what to do about Xander, but Buffy says she's more concerned about the Prat Pack. Giles walks in and tells them the Prats were sent to the principal's office. Willow thinks that's good, but quickly realizes that something went wrong. Buffy: "They didn't hurt him, did they?" Giles, after a pause, manages: "They -- ate him." Willow sits down with a great look of shock. Buffy, all business, wants to know how to transpossess someone. Giles figures out that it's possible to transfer the demon spirit to another human, but Buffy points out that that doesn't really help them. Wouldn't Giles be a lot more familiar with this, given "The Dark Age"? Buffy remembers the zookeeper, and surmises that he might not have quarantined the hyenas because they were sick. I have to say, as much as I love Giles, there were a lot of times in the first season where Buffy ran rings around him in the deductive reasoning department. I'm glad they smartened him up later. They make to go, but Buffy realizes that someone has to watch Xander. Willow volunteers. Buffy's not sure about that idea, but Willow firmly says she'll be all right. Hmm. They really needed more Scoobies back then.
We come to the only scene in the episode that still scares me. A young mother walks at night with her baby on her back. She comes across the Prat Pack, lying on the ground, surrounded by some bushes. Feyon and Balk Lite are lying together, which isn't the pairing I was expecting. They open their eyes, which are all iridescent, and start growling. The woman is pretty paralyzed with fear. She shifts right into Blake, who looks really scary in this light. He drools at the prospect of fresh meat. The woman finally finds the strength to move, and backs up slowly. The Prat Pack look ready to pounce, but she moves farther away, and they let her go and settle back down to sleep. Creepy.
Xander comes to, and groggily calls Willow's name. He asks why he's locked up, and Willow says it's because Buffy said he's sick. He snits about Buffy. Willow says she's saved both of their lives. Xander: "Before she came here, our lives didn't need that much saving, did they." Willow's too smart to buy such a specious argument, isn't she? Or is she? Xander plays to her weaknesses, saying that things were simpler when it was just the two of them. He says he knows there's something wrong with him, but that he wants her to help him, not Buffy. Who's a clever little hyena? Willow defends Buffy again, but Xander wonders why she left Willow alone with him. Willow says it's because she knows him better than Buffy does, and she wanted to see if he was still Xander. Xander: "You know I am. Look at me." Willow relents, moving forward. Don't do it! He grabs for her through the book drop, but she's prepared and avoids him. She smiles, satisfied. "Now I know." Psych! You go, girl! Xander goes nuts.