Season 1, Episode 9

Written by Dean Batali and Robert Des Hotel

Directed by Ellen Pressman

Original Airdate: 5 May 1997

"There are things I will not tolerate: students loitering on campus after school, horrible murders with hearts being removed... and also smoking."

Principal Snyder

REGULAR CAST

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

• Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

GUEST CAST

• Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers

• Richard Werner as Morgan Shay

• Burke Roberts as Marc

• Armin Shimerman as Principal R. Snyder

CO-STARRING

• Lenora May as Mrs. Jackson

• Chasen Hampton as Elliott Terhune

• Natasha Pearce as Lisa Campiti

• Tom Wyner as The Voice of Sid

• Krissy Carlson as Emily Djiemanowicz

• Michelle Miracle as Locker Girl

SYNOPSIS

• Giles faces the task of running the annual Sunnydale High Talent Show at the instruction of the new Principal, R. Snyder. The gang teases Giles about this, until Principal Snyder forces them to be in it, leaving the gang in despair.
  
  Meanwhile, one of the show's entrants, Emily, is found dead with her heart cut out. Since there were no signs of a demonic presence, the gang suspects a serial killer. Giles learns about the Brotherhood of Seven, a group of demons who must obtain the heart and brain of a youth every seven years to remain in their human form. This causes some unrest in the gang as they scramble to find the killer before another person dies.
  
  Everyone suspects it's Morgan, a genius that seems to be talking to the wooden dummy he is using in the talent show. He is also suffering from headaches, which raises more suspicion. This is until Buffy finds Morgan dead on the floor with his brain ripped out. Buffy then suspects Morgan's dummy Sid, who attacks her.
  
  It turns out that Sid is a demon hunter, like Buffy. He has been imprisoned in a dummy's body and is hunting down the Brotherhood of Seven. He thought Buffy was the demon when he attacked her. They both team up to track down the demon, who is still in need of a brain.
  
  It turns out that Morgan had brain cancer so his brain is useless to the demon. Meanwhile one of the students, who is being a magician, asks Giles to try out his latest trick. He straps Giles into a guillotine, and prepares to chop of Giles' head to he can get a brain.
  
  Buffy arrives just in time to save Giles from the demon, whom is killed by Sid. Just at that moment the curtain opens revealing the gang in their present situation. " I don't get it," a confused Principal Snyder comments.
  
  Later on, Buffy, Willow, and Xander are acting out their dramatic scene in the show. They are terrible at acting and the piece really bombs when Willow runs of the stage in fright. Buffy and Xander fill the gap where their friend stood and continue on as if nothing happened.

TRIVIA

• The initial airing of this episode featured a scene played over the credits in which Buffy, Willow, and Xander perform a piece from the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex. The scene was not included in repeat airings on the WB Network, but can be seen on video releases. Willow runs off at the end of her stage debut, yet this wasn't in the script. Alyson Hannigan thought that stage fright would be suitable for her character. Willow's fear was then used by writers in Nightmares, Restless and to an even bigger extent, Once More, With Feeling, in which Alyson Hannigan hardly sings at all.

• This episode sees the first appearance of Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder. He appears in nineteen episodes of the first four seasons, and is an excellent addition to the show. Armin Shimerman was a series regular on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

CONTINUITY

• Snyder has certainly done all of his research into the school's history. He mentions Flutie's death at the hands of 'wild dogs' that happened in The Pack and also mentioned Amber Grove who went up in smoke in Witch.

GOOFS

• There are a few errors with the knife in the corpse's body when Buffy picks up Sid. It keeps disappearing.

• The "power circle" formed by Giles towards the end seems awfully quick for him to have determined so confidently that not one of the talent show participants was missing.

• After the demon is decapitated, Sid stabs him once and then as he pulls the knife out to stab him again you can see that the knife is clean, yet it should be bloody.

• Surely someone in the audience must have heard the loud fight going on just behind the curtain?

• At one point, there are two guys behind Buffy, one with a guitar. Sid whistles at Buffy, and in the next shot, the guys have suddenly gone.

• Willow is seen typing away at her computer in one scene but it doesn't appear to be switched on.

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