The Puppet Show

S01E09

"I will be whole. I will be new," breathes a creepy voice as we see shots of a dancer warming up backstage. The camera pans past a juggler, a tuba player, a magician, and a gaunt young man with a ventriloquist's dummy sitting on his knee. The young man touches his forehead and looks disoriented. Perhaps he's disoriented by his dubious choice of "talent." Ecch, I hear a noise like forty cats being squeezed too hard around their middles. Turns out it's Cordelia singing "The Greatest Love of All." She carries on in an utterly tone-deaf manner as Giles, sitting in the nearly empty auditorium, looks horrified. And he's not the only one. Cordelia singing is the scariest part of this whole episode, and considering that the episode prominently features a ventriloquist's dummy, I think that's saying a lot. Giles cuts Cordelia off, and she's unhappy because she didn't do the "part with the sparklers," but he calls Lisa out anyway. Lisa sets up her music stand and begins to play her tuba. Willow, Xander, and Buffy trail into the auditorium, gleefully mocking Giles for his involvement in the school talent show. Apparently the school's new "Fuehrer" (Principal Snyder) assigned Giles to this choice duty, despite Giles explaining that his "vocational choice of librarian was a deliberate attempt to minimize" contact with students. Heh. Buffy snarks to Giles about his "destiny" and the gang agrees to "watch" and "mock" and "laugh" at the proceedings rather than helping. "I think we should leave Mr. Giles to this business he calls 'show,'" says Buffy as she starts to leave. But as she, Willow, and Xander leave, they run right into Principal Snyder, who has overheard their whole conversation. He's disapproving of them, calls them "antisocial types," and assigns them to participate in the talent show. Ah! A fate worse than death. As the gang protests, Snyder shuts them down, saying, "My predecessor, Mr. Flutie, may have gone in for all that touchy-feely relating nonsense, but he was eaten." I love Snyder. And how ironic that he too was eaten. I bet it's hard for principals of Sunnydale High to get adequate life insurance policies. Snyder leaves and the gang flops down into seats, groaning. The tuba player finally finishes her dirge-like tune and the guy with the ventriloquist's dummy is up . Willow, in a shocking display of perversion, says, "I think dummies are cute." Yeah, we know, Willow. After all, you have a crush on Xander. Buffy replies that dummies have given her "the wig" since she was small. When Willow inquires, "What happened?" Buffy replies, "I saw a dummy. It gave me the wig. There really wasn't a story there." Ah, classic Buffy quotage. How it makes my day seem just a little bit brighter. The guy on stage introduces himself as Morgan and then adds, "And I'm Sid," as he manipulates the dummy's mouth. Morgan is not succeeding in throwing his voice in any way, as his mouth moves quite obviously when he says this. Giles slowly shuts his eyes in pain. Morgan puts Sid through a few awful jokes as the Scooby gang looks on, grimacing. Suddenly, in a very different voice and without Morgan's lips moving, Sid the dummy says, "All right, time out." Morgan looks shocked as the dummy mocks him, and tells him not to ruin the act. Sid cracks an edible jockey shorts joke, and the surrounding students laugh; Morgan looks gratified. Giles tells the gang he's sure they can come up with something "equally exciting" (why would you even wish such a fate on yourself, Giles?), and onstage the dummy's eyebrows waggle.

In the dressing room, the dancer pulls on her sweater and closes her locker. She hears a door open and checks between the rows of lockers, calling out, "Hello?" A black-and-white camera shot stalks her ankles and she turns and screams. The creepy voice from the start of the episode growls, "I will be flesh!" I submit that you are flesh already, Creepy Voice, since you seem to have a larynx to speak with, but who am I to quibble?

More talent show preparations. Someone hangs a disco ball while the magician, in an inexplicable brown and black patchwork vest, searches for his rabbit. The juggler passes by and then we see Xander, Willow, and Buffy practicing what Willow refers to as a "dramatic scene." Xander is reluctant to spend the last shred of his pride on this endeavor, and Willow tries to pep talk him saying, "A dramatic scene is the easiest way to get through the talent show, because it doesn't require an actual talent." Hey kids, don't be so hard on yourselves! I mean, Buffy has that talent for, umm, well. But hey, look at Xander, he's really very good at, umm, hmm. Well, perhaps the dramatic scene is a good choice after all. They sit, and Buffy, wearing a tiny scrap of leopard-print fabric that I guess one could categorize as a minidress, comes to join them. Xander suggests Willow play piano, but Willow won't do it "in front of people." From across the stage the dummy wolf-whistles and leers, "Mmm, mmm, mmm. Look at the goodies!" Willow hops up and compliments Morgan at how well he's doing with throwing his voice. Sid pipes up, "I'm the one with talent here," and over Xander's protests invites Willow to "do a little rehearsin'" of their own. He then adds, "Once you go wood, nothin's as good!" Buffy's heard enough and tells Morgan to lay off the "horny dummy" schtick unless he wants Sid "ending up as a Duraflame log." That's the Buffy I want to see more of in season five.

Snyder and Giles enter the auditorium. Snyder is giving Giles a long-winded lecture about discipline (is Giles into that scene? Oh wait, he's talking about discipline in a school sense) and concludes, "I know Principal Flutie would have said, 'Kids need understanding. Kids are human beings.' That's the kind of woolly-headed, liberal thinking that leads to being eaten." Snyder continues on about the "bad element" and then focuses his attention on Buffy, Willow, and Xander, onstage rehearsing their dramatic scene. So the new principal of the school is suspicious of the Scooby gang? Is that the point? Because I don't think it's been established enough yet. Still, I miss Snyder's weaselly presence.

In the girls' locker room, a girl screams loudly and other students gather behind her in alarm. Later, Giles exits the locker room as a body is strapped onto a stretcher. He then ducks under the police tape and approaches Willow, Xander, and Buffy who look very somber. He announces that the victim was Emily, who Willow identifies as "dancer Emily." "Oh man, I hate this school," says Xander. Giles reveals that the girl's heart was removed, but doesn't seem sure that a demon was the attacker, because a knife, not claws, was used to remove the heart. They conclude that the evidence indicates the murderer was a "regular human," but Buffy isn't convinced. Speaking in hushed tones, since they are still all right in the middle of a hallway and it's so important to conceal Buffy's secret identity, although apparently not important enough to have this conversation in the library, Willow suggests that if a human is to blame, the murderer could be anyone. Giles suggests that the gang talk to all the talent show participants to see if they can discover any information.

Buffy speaks with the tuba-playing girl, who says she didn't know Emily well due to the "dancer/band rivalry." Buffy nods sympathetically, and I giggle.

Giles speaks with the magician boy, still in ugly vest, who says that Emily was happy to be in the show. He tries to get Giles to pick a card and says the last time he saw Emily she was talking to someone.

Xander and Cordelia walk through a bunch of cheerleaders practicing a routine. Because it's all about her, Cordy says, well, "It's just such a tragedy for me." Like an open book, that girl. I mean, I know she got "layers" later on, but that just made her like a half-closed book that falls all the way open as soon as you look at it. Did I mention that it's 110 degrees here today? I've been out in the sun and I think I'm getting a little loopy. Cordy continues, "Emma was, like, my best friend." "Emily," Xander corrects her, wearing a look of strained patience.

The tuba-playing girl is telling Buffy that Morgan is strange, and that he rubs his head a lot and moans.

More stories of Morgan's strangeness from the magician and the juggler.

Buffy enters the empty auditorium and sees Sid sitting alone on the stage. Sid says he and Morgan have to "figure out who's gonna be ," and Morgan walks out from the wings, demanding to know how they'll do that. He spots Buffy and trails off, explaining that he was practicing his routine. Buffy asks if Morgan noticed anything strange going on with Emily the day before, but Morgan carries Sid down to his suitcase and responds that he didn't notice anything. As Buffy talks to him, he grabs his head and groans in pain. Sid then snaps at Buffy to leave Morgan alone, and Buffy tells Morgan to speak to her himself. Morgan addresses Sid directly, telling him everything's okay, and then stuffs him in the suitcase. As Buffy apologizes, Morgan responds, " No! I'm -- it's him! He's --" but then leaves in a hurry. Buffy looks confused.

The gang enters the library as Xander complains about having to talk to Cordy. I feel you, Xander. Willow and Buffy say that their interviews lead to Morgan, and Giles has to agree. Willow and Xander want to set up a "complex sting," but Buffy says they've only proved that Morgan is a "grade-A large weirdo." As Giles hurries off to work on talent show business, the tables are turned and Buffy takes great delight in admonishing him to check his priorities. The gang is excited to think that the murder may get them out of the talent show, but Giles explains that they need to evade the scrutiny of Principal Snyder, and for that reason "the show must go on." He tells Buffy to check Morgan out some more, and Buffy sulks off to do so.

Buffy is all stealth-girl down a row of lockers. I guess she's being so careful to make sure that her knee boots don't squeak on the waxed floor that she doesn't notice someone is spying on her from a nearby classroom. She finds Morgan's locker, makes a few fake passes at doing the combination, and then just punches the lock in. I love gratuitous displays of Buffy's Slayer strengths. She pokes through the contents of the locker and is totally startled when her arm is grabbed by Principal Snyder. He tells her school is out and she should get gone. He's suspicious of Buffy, and she tries to dissemble that a friend asked her to get something out of "his case." She opens Sid's suitcase, but it's empty. We see that it's Sid and Morgan who are spying on Buffy from behind the classroom door. Snyder tells Buffy to go home.

Morgan and Sid are on the deserted stage. Sid sits upright in a chair, and the only light is a spot shining directly on him. Morgan protests that he can't "do it" but Sid responds, "It's the only way." Apparently Sid thinks "she's the one" and then says, "Just this one more, and I'll be free." Morgan protests that he can't help Sid.

Joyce, in a silky bathrobe, knocks on Buffy's door and asks her how the talent show is going. Buffy is appalled to hear that her mother plans to attend the performance and begs her to stay away. Joyce asks if anything else is bothering Buffy, and I'd say it was the fact that she's wearing a bulky padded bra under her tank top despite the fact that she's supposed to be in her sleepwear, but Buffy insists nothing is wrong. Joyce tells her to get some sleep, so Buffy crawls into bed and shuts off the light. After the room is darkened, we can see that Sid is lurking outside her window on the sill. I don't know what's scarier, a Peeping Tom dummy, or the fact that Buffy actually sleeps on those heavily crocheted pillowcases. Buffy is peacefully sleeping, but opens her eyes when she hears the patter of tiny feet running across her room. We see a small shadow go by, and Buffy checks under the bed. She sits back up, and suddenly Sid is right on the bed to her. Buffy screams and pushes him away. Joyce flips on the light, and Buffy tells her that something is in her bed. Joyce checks and finds nothing, and Buffy apologizes for getting her up over a nightmare. Joyce leaves, telling Buffy she shouldn't go to sleep with the window open. "I didn't," says Buffy after Joyce leaves.

Shots of Sunnydale High. On-stage, Magician Boy is practicing vanishing his assistant. He twirls the case, but when he opens the door, she's still there. Giles hurries across the stage, dogged by Cordelia, who is complaining about the act she has to follow. She tries to convince him that her song is "sappy" and shouldn't have to follow rock-and-roll but Giles just stares fixedly at the top of her head. When she asks him what he's staring at, he stutters, "Um, your hair, uh -- " Cordelia grabs her head and rushes away. "Xander was right," smiles Giles, "it worked like a charm." He then greets Buffy, who is stomping down the aisle, arms crossed and all dressed in black. She joins Giles, Willow, and Xander and explains that a very "alive" Sid was in her room the night before. The others look at her funny, and Xander tries to convince her it was actually a cat. Giles and Willow are also skeptical, but Buffy insists she knows what she (almost) saw and asks them to believe her since she's the Slayer. "The dummy Slayer?" queries Xander. If she is, Xander, you'd better watch out. Willow thinks Morgan is just crazy and says the way he acts is the best evidence. Morgan enters and takes Sid out of the suitcase. Buffy grits out that she'd like to talk to Morgan sans Sid for once. In a move that should surprise no one here, Giles pulls out a library book and explains that he's discovered a reference to a group of seven demons who take on human form. Every seven years the demons must take a human brain and heart to keep from reverting back to their demon form. Willow suggest that this could mean Morgan is still the culprit, but Giles observes that the demons are incredibly strong and Morgan is obviously "getting weaker every day." Across the room, Morgan grips his head in pain.

In history class, the teacher is lecturing about the Monroe Doctrine. And then we're hearing things from Buffy's perspective, I expect, because the voice fades out and her attention rests on Morgan, who for some reason has his dummy sitting on his lap. I sure don't remember being allowed to have toys in the classroom after kindergarten. Sid turns around and catches her mid-gaze, which startles Buffy, causing her to study her desk intently. And that's the last time the phrase "study intently" will be associated with Buffy. Cordelia, at the desk beside Buffy's, notices all the action and can't let it pass without a snide remark so she leans over to say, "Looks like someone digs you. That's adorable. You and the dummy could tour in the freak show." Buffy ignores her as Sid begins to whisper something to Morgan. The teacher asks Morgan a question, but he doesn't hear her right away, and Sid pipes up, "Morgan has other things on his mind." The rest of the class laughs, but the teacher has had enough and takes away Morgan's dolly. She hides Sid away in a cupboard and resumes her lecture, but from inside the cupboard Sid says, "I'm still watching you." The teacher reprimands Morgan and Buffy looks thoughtful.

After school, Morgan has returned to the same classroom to claim his dummy. Before the teacher retrieves Sid from the cupboard, she asks Morgan if everything is going fine for him at home and school. He unenthusiastically replies that everything is "great," but the teacher feels that he's been a little distant. Morgan's only reply is to grasp his head between his palms and mumble painfully. She advises him not to let "things get in the way" of his being one of the "brightest" kids she's ever seen. Morgan asks if he can get Sid back now, and the teacher completely ignores Morgan's freaky body language as she opens the cupboard, but behold! Sid is gone. Morgan is quite distressed and speaks to the teacher in a vaguely threatening way when he asks what she did with Sid.

In the library, Xander is playing with Sid as Buffy, Willow, and Giles enter, their arms full of costumes for the talent show. Buffy catches sight of Xander with Sid and demands to know where he got him. Xander reminds her that she said she wanted to speak to Morgan without Sid around so he took the dummy out of Mrs. Jackson's cupboard. Xander starts doing his own ventriloquist act with Sid, asking Buffy and Willow if they'd like to hear some "off-color jokes." Buffy advises Xander that he shouldn't be doing that because she's getting a little wigged out, and Xander knocks Sid's head against the table to prove it's just wood. Xander tells her to go find Morgan, and Buffy agrees after telling the gang to "watch the dummy." For some reason nobody asks Buffy to clarify exactly which dummy she meant. After Buffy has gone, Xander cracks me up by shaking Sid and making him say, "Redrum! Redrum!" Then Giles reminds Willow that they need to start researching, and Willow remarks, "Once again I'm banished to the demon section of the card catalog." I know I get a little too nostalgia-girl in some of these first season recaps, but I really used to love the fact that research was a major sub-plot on this show. It was like revenge for all us bookish, library-loving types. But that whole damn Initiative theme in season four wiped out all the research and musty tomes and all-nighters in the library and I miss it all, dammit! Giles and Willow go into the stacks to research, leaving Xander and Sid sitting at the table. Xander places Sid in a chair in the end of the table and, having second thoughts, turns Sid's head so it's not facing in his direction.

Buffy is searching for Morgan in the auditorium. She calls his name as she makes her way down the aisle to the stage. She goes backstage when she hears a noise, and some curtains billow in a sudden gust of wind. She walks towards it, but quickly turns around to see Principal Snyder at the top of the steps leading to the stage. Snyder asks if Buffy is "looking for something," and she asks him if he's seen Morgan. Instead of answering, he comes down the stairs, saying, "You know, with everything that's been going on recently, I'm not sure how safe it is for a girl like yourself to be here. Alone." Buffy, with a hard look in her eyes, says that she knows how to take care of herself. They stare at each other for a moment and then Snyder says, "All right then," as he goes back upstairs.

Back in the library, Xander peeks at Sid, still in the same chair, and then turns his attention back to his work. In the stacks, Willow reads to Giles from a book, "'On rare occasions inanimate objects of human quality, such as dolls and mannequins, already mystically possessed of consciousness, have acted upon their desire to become human by harvesting organs." Wait, "already mystically possessed of consciousness"? No more sleep for me. They put two and two together and realize that Emily's heart could have been used for that purpose. Back in Xander's section of the library, he gets up to fetch a book, and when he returns to the table we can see that Sid is gone, but Xander doesn't notice yet. He sits down again and begin to read, but chances to glance at Sid's chair a second later and jumps up on top of his chair, frightened, when he sees that it's empty. Xander's cry of "Whoa!" brings Giles and Willow out of the stacks. Xander points at the chair and says, "Sid's gone!" which startles Willow and Giles as they make scared noises and look on the floor. Giles even drops a book. I love it when he gets riled.

Backstage, Buffy is still looking for Morgan, and she hears some creaking. She looks around a bit, pushing some clothes on a rack out of the way, but sees nothing. She continues to make her way towards the noise, and then she trips on something. She looks down to find Morgan's body sans brain. As she slowly backs away, she whispers to herself, "Demon's got himself a brain." She backs up through a beaded curtain, but hears another noise and looks up to see a wrought-iron chandelier falling towards her. Because the WB had a special effects budget of about ten bucks a week the first season, we have to cut to a commercial, and then when we've returned we see that the chandelier has pinned an artfully arranged and not-at-all crushed looking Buffy to the floor. Buffy comes back to consciousness slowly and we get a few shots from woozy-cam. She hears little wooden footsteps pattering and sees Sid running across the catwalk above. She tries to lift the chandelier off of herself, but it's too heavy. I find it hard to believe that the girl who can bend a shotgun barrel in half would struggle with a chandelier, and what the hell was a chandelier doing up there in the first place? I know that California public schools probably don't have a lot of money to spend on theatre lighting, but I doubt they've resorted to candlelight. Buffy calls out, "Whoever's out there, I'm gonna hurt you! Badly!" Pause. "If you'll just give me a minute." She struggles with the chandelier some more, and when she looks over her shoulder she sees Sid with his knife held high. In the nick of time she turns her head to avoid being stabbed. Buffy manages to get one arm free and strikes out with it, knocking Sid down. She's able now to shift the chandelier enough to get her other arm free and extricate herself the rest of the way. Sid attacks her from behind while she's freeing herself, but she knocks him across the floor and into a wall. She frees herself the rest of the way and pins Sid against a wall with a move that looks most ineffectual and limp-wristed. Sid says, "You win. Now you can take your heart and your brain and move on." But as much as Buffy could use a supplemental brain, she declines the offer and says that they would have made "great trophies" for Sid, except that he "lost and now [he'll] never be human." "Yeah, well, neither will you," retorts Sid. "What?" they say in unison, having both confused each other thoroughly.

Back in the library, Sid explains it all. "This is what I do. I hunt demons. Yeah, you wouldn't know it to look at me. Let's just say there was me, there was a really mean demon, there was a curse, and the thing I know I'm not me anymore. I'm sitting on some guy's knee, with his hand up my shirt." Buffy concludes that he thought she was the demon, and Sid defends his line of reasoning, but not before giving Buffy the hairy eyeball, saying that she is "strong, athletic, limber, nnnnnubile." Sid goes on to say that since the demon is in possession of a heart and a brain, he can keep his human form for another seven years. I have to admit that I'm beating back a few hundred Wizard of Oz jokes here. As the tea kettle whistles, Giles gets up to make himself a cuppa and says, "I must say it's a welcome change to have someone else explain all these things." Sid continues, "There were seven of these guys. I've killed six. If I can get the last one, the curse will be lifted and I'll be free. I'm sure it's someone in that stupid talent show." Buffy realizes that whoever is missing from the talent show is probably the culprit. All this talk of the show suddenly reminds Giles that the show is supposed to start any moment. Sid advises Giles before curtain to pull everyone into a "power circle" to give them a little pep-talk so they can see who is missing. Giles seems confused, but agrees on his way out the door.

Backstage, Giles warns everyone that it's fifteen minutes until curtain. Cordelia rushes up to him with a last-minute attack of stage fright, afraid everyone will judge her like she's "some kind of -- Buffy." Giles gives her the tried-and-not-very-true advice of picturing everyone in their underwear, which causes Cordelia to make a face and ask if Mrs. Franklin should be included. The scene made me think of the backstage scene in Willow's dream in "Restless," but when I checked the transcripts I saw there aren't very many similarities in terms of dialog. Giles then gathers everyone onstage for the "um, uh, power thing." Up above, on the catwalk, Sid and Buffy are waiting for the "power thing," and Sid asks Buffy how she got involved in all this. She tells him she's the Slayer, and Sid is all surprised. He waxes carnal about the Korean Slayer that he knew (biblically) in the thirties. Buffy changes the subject, asking what will happen to him when he kills the seventh demon and the curse is lifted. Sid replies that since his body is "dust and bones," when he says free, "you mean 'dead,'" finishes Buffy. Sid advises her not to "get sniffly on me, sis. I've lived a lot longer than most demon hunters. Or Slayers, for that matter." This gives Buffy pause and she looks down. Sid puts his little wooden hand on her knee and offers to let her "comfort" him, but Buffy declines, removing his hand. Down below, the power circle has assembled and Giles gazes at everyone in turn to see who is missing. He then says, "Well, that's that, then. Um, everybody get ready." The students disperse, and then Buffy jumps down to the stage to confer with Giles. Nobody was missing from the circle, so Buffy offers to go inform the others while Giles gets the show on the road, as it were. Meanwhile, Sid has disappeared from the catwalk. Buffy walks backstage calling for Sid when something drips onto her from above. She looks up, and the most fake looking brain (presumably Morgan's) this side of an Archie McPhee catalog drops down to the floor. Buffy squeals like a girly girl because in the first season she was occasionally afraid of things.

In the library, Willow is on the computer. I'm pleased to note it's running the Mac OS. Buffy mentions that she's "never going to stop washing [her] hands." Xander thinks that Sid pulled the wool over their eyes and is actually the demon, but Buffy disagrees and wonders why "would the demon have rejected the brain? I mean, I thought Morgan was the smartest kid in school." Willow points out that he had numerous sick days, and after a few keystrokes reveals that Morgan's emergency contact was a doctor in the cancer ward of the California Institute of Neurosurgery. Buffy reflects, "Whatever's out there still needs a healthy, intelligent brain." Xander takes the words right out of my mouth when he proclaims himself "safe." Buffy realizes that the demon will be going after the brainiacs, and Xander and Buffy give Willow an appraising look. Willow proves that the street-smarts section of her neocortex is pretty underdeveloped by asking, "What?"

Backstage, Giles, carrying two weights, tells Marc, the magic act kid, "if you, you calibrated the units of weight then you could calculate the, uh, specific maximum velocity achieved before the point of impact." Magic Boy tells Giles that he's "smart" and asks him to do him a favor." Da Da Dum.

Back at the library, Xander points out the obvious by asking Willow what the square root of 841 is. After answering correctly, she gets the point, but Buffy reassures her that they will keep her safe.

Backstage, Marc is demonstrating his guillotine on a honeydew melon and then tells Giles to lie down and he'll show him what he needs to do. Marc's assistant has mysteriously disappeared, and Giles has reluctantly agreed to stand in for her. Giles wants to know how the contraption works, but Magic Boy puts him off with, "A good magician never tells his secrets." As he's fiddling with the rope, we see that his hand has started to change to the demon form. I should have known Marc was evil as soon as I saw that ugly patchwork vest. Only a demon would be clueless enough to attend high school in a horror-show garment like that.

Back in the library, Buffy and Co. are still trying to puzzle out the identity of the demon. They finally remember that Giles is also in possession of a juicy chess-club brain, and they hightail it to the auditorium.

Backstage, Giles is all set to get his head cut open. Marc padlocks the restraint around Giles's head. Giles is starting to get nervous now and asks Marc what the trick is. "'Trick'?" repeats Marc quizzically. Marc grabs an axe and proceeds to swing at the rope restraining the guillotine. This must be the dullest axe blade ever, because even after the fourth swing the rope is still holding, albeit by only a thread. Marc has the axe raised high over his head for the final whack when Buffy tackles him from the side. They fight, and as the demon begins to manifest itself in portions of Marc's face, Buffy says, "Ew," and lets down her guard a little. Marc takes advantage of this to get a few shots in. The rope begins to stretch and fray and finally snaps. At the last possible second Xander grabs the end of the rope, thereby stopping the blade. I bet Giles wishes that he owed his life to anyone but Xander. Willow is on the scene now and quickly hurries to undo Giles's restraints. She wants to know where the keys are, but Marc has them. Xander kicks her a hatchet and she begins to hack at the lock. Meanwhile, Buffy and Marc are fighting some more. She gives him a vicious kick and he stumbles into the box that was to be part of his magic act. Buffy wonders aloud how to lock it, but Marc bursts through the wood in full demon form. We of course don't see the actual transformation because they already blew the special-effects budget on the fake brain. Demon Marc grabs Buffy by the throat and slams her against the wall. Willow finally breaks the lock, and Giles sits up in order to remove the restraints from his feet. Sid shows up from wherever he was hiding (probably trying to make it with one of the cheerleaders behind the bleachers) and jumps onto Demon Marc's back, stabbing. Demon Marc loses his grip on Buffy, and she punches him a few times before kicking him and causing him to trip so that he falls neatly into proper head-chopping position on the guillotine. Giles shouts at Xander to let the rope go and thwack: no more head. Willow cringes and everyone looks around and takes a deep breath. Sid has made his way over to Demon Marc's body and is poised with his knife at the ready above the demon's heart. Buffy asks what he's doing, and Sid explains that if they don't stab him through the heart the demon will rise again. Buffy offers to do it for him but Sid says he can handle it. He stabs Demon Marc and then raises his arms to do it again, but slumps over the demon's body as the curse is lifted. Buffy picks him up and cradles him in her arms. At that moment the curtain goes up, and in one of the most priceless BTVS moments, everyone looks out into the audience surprised. Principal Snyder, sitting in the front row, says, "I don't get it. What is it? Avant-garde?" And the screen goes to black.

By Ace

Although the last scene was a hard act to follow, Willow, Xander, and Buffy's rendition of their dramatic scene from Oedipus manages to take the cake. Words fail. It's the best amateur acting this side of Undressed.