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Season 1, Episode 3
Written by Dana Reston
Directed by Stephen Cragg
Original Airdate: 17 March 1997
"I laugh in the face of danger! Then I… hide
until it goes away."
Xander Harris
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
SYNOPSIS
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Buffy decides to try-out for Cheerleading despite
Giles' attempts to persuade her otherwise. Willow's friend Amy is trying
out as well because her mother was a former cheerleading champion.
During the try-outs, a girl's hands catch on fire and Buffy puts them
out. No one has any idea what is going on though and cheer continues on.
As the results come in, Buffy finds herself as first alternate, Cordelia
is on the squad and Amy is the third alternate.
At Driver's Ed training, Cordelia crashes the car into a fence and then
almost gets run over by a truck. Buffy saves her and finds that
Cordelia's pupils are gone. In biology class, another member of the
cheerleading squad finds herself unable to speak because her mouth is
gone. In the library Giles comes to the conclusion that witchcraft is
the cause of all these weird occurrences. The gang suspects Amy and
decides to test and see if she is a witch. Amy realizes that they are on
to her and puts a spell on Buffy that makes her act as if she were
seriously drunk the next day.
At cheer practice, Buffy continues to act looped and throws the captain
across the gym. She is kicked off the squad and Amy takes her place. As
Xander and Willow rescue Buffy from doing any more damage, she faints in
their arms. When she awakens, her life is slowly fading away because of
the spell. Giles suspects she only has a few hours left and they head
over to Amy's house to find a spell to stop her. When they get there,
Buffy realizes that Amy's mother, Catherine, is the one who is the
witch. She apparently switched bodies with her daughter because she
wanted to relive the days of her youth. Giles finds the spell to stop
her and they quickly rush back to the science lab where they will have
the right materials for the job.
At the basketball game that night, 'Amy' senses that they are trying the
spell and hurries to stop them. The spell is completed just as she
arrives and mother and daughter switch back to their old bodies. Buffy
is revived and fights with Catherine. Catherine starts a spell to send
Buffy to Hell but Buffy knocks down the overhanging mirror from the
teacher's board and Catherine is affected by the spell. The next day,
everyone is back to normal and Amy and Buffy are retiring from
cheer-leading. Amy tells her that she's living with her dad and loving
every second of it. As they pass by the trophy case, we see Catherine's
eyes moving.
TRIVIA
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Elizabeth Anne Allen originally auditioned for the
role of Buffy, but didn't get the part. Joss was impressed by her talent
however, and awarded her the role of Amy Madison instead. She appears
for the first time in this episode, but doesn't return until the second
season.
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This is the first Buffy episode to show the
use of magic. Here, witches are portrayed as being pretty nasty which is
interesting as magic becomes a central theme to the series in future
seasons, and is performed by many central characters including Willow,
Giles and Tara. This episode shows the first case of a witch's eyes
going completely black when she is drawing on some particularly strong
magic.
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Some sources claim that this episode is called
'The Witch,' but the official video box sets list the episode under the
title it has here: 'Witch.'
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Check out the notice board in the first scene. It
reads "1996 Cheerleading Tryouts," despite the episode being screened in
1997 in America. This is because Buffy was held back and used as
a mid-season replacement show rather than starting as intended in the
autumn of 1996.
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Joss Whedon made this episode early in the series
as he wanted to let viewers know that the show wouldn't always be
dealing with just vampires.
CONTINUITY
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This episode has the first mention of the fact
that Xander's name is Alexander.
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At some point between this episode and
Prophecy Girl, Cordelia passes her
driving test and gets herself a car.
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Speaking of cars, Giles's ancient silver
Citroen first appears in this episode. It is destroyed in
A New Man.
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Giles shows his skill of magick for the
first time, and claims to have never done a major spell before. He's
lying, trying to conceal his past history with Ethan Rayne that's
finally revealed in The Dark Age.
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Buffy's cheerleader outfit is never seen
again on her, but Dawn wears it to impress RJ Brooks in
Him.
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She is never released from her trophy
prison, but Oz notices the eyes moving later in
Phases.
GOOFS
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When Willow fills the test tube with the yellow
liquid in science class, the tube is filled half way but in the next
shot, as she hands the test tube to Buffy, it is only filled a quarter
of the way.
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Why doesn't the driver of the truck that nearly
kills Cordelia try to stop? He even seems to speed up!
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Before the group performance in cheerleading
tryouts, Cordelia is seen putting a headband on. Then while she's
cheering it's no longer there. When Amy falls on her, Cordelia has the
headband back on.
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When Giles and Buffy arrive at Amy's house, his
car doesn't have a front license plate.
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Did Catherine Madison have the same last name
before and after her wedding? Her school cheerleading trophy says
'Catherine Madison' but she won this before she was married.
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The non-US credits named Nerf Herder as
Nerfherder.
Welcome to the
Hellmouth | The Harvest | Witch | Teacher's Pet | Never Kill a Boy on the
First Date
The Pack |
Angel | I Robot, You Jane |
The Puppet Show |
Nightmares |
Out of Mind, Out of Sight |
Prophecy Girl
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