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Season 3, Episode 2
Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by James Whitmore Jr.
Original Airdate: 6 October 1998
""Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It
raises the dead." Americans!"
Giles
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
SYNOPSIS
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After Buffy's return to Sunnydale, she has a hard
time fitting in. She goes to her mother to see if she can go out and
find Willow and Xander. She startles Joyce who is trying to put a nail
in the wall, and instead she puts the hammer through the wall. She then
hangs up a very scary looking mask over the hole. After a slew of
attempts to keep her at home, Joyce finally lets her leave to find her
friends.
Buffy accidentally sneaks up on Xander while he's patrolling and just as
he's trying to digest the shock of her return, a vampire crashes through
a large crate and attacks them. While Buffy tries to fight him, Cordelia
calls Xander on a walky-talky to check in with him. Eventually the rest
of the gang shows up and attempts to help. Once everyone has been thrown
to the ground, Buffy stakes the vampire and then watches as her friends
just stare at her.
They go to Giles' place first where Buffy is reluctant to bother him,
fearing his reaction to her leaving. Xander indicates that he's afraid
Giles will be mad by suggesting that everyone wait outside while Buffy
talks to him. To their surprise, he simply welcomes her back. Inside,
Buffy finds out that the charges for Kendra's murder have been cleared,
but she still has to get back into school. After putting off talking
about her summer activities, Buffy plans to get back into her old
routine of school and slaying. When she wants to get together for some
quality friend time with Willow and Xander, she finds she's a third
wheel in their relationship and that they both have other plans. Willow
does say she'll cancel hers though.
Buffy waits for Willow, but she never shows up, and she's forced to walk
home, alone. When Buffy gets home, she meets a woman named Pat who was
watching over her mother and trying to be a good friend while Buffy was
away. When inside, Joyce suggests to her that she invite her friends
over for dinner and then informs her that she already did. Buffy has no
choice but to agree and then goes downstairs to get the "company
plates." While sifting through the junk on the shelves, a dead cat falls
off the top shelf, which she and her mother later bury. That night, in
Joyce's room, the eyes of the mask start to glow. Then, the cat, now
buried outside, crawls out of it's dirt grave and runs away.
Meanwhile, Buffy has a very strange and incomprehensible dream. She's
walking around Sunnydale High and she's worried that "they" will be
there. Angel shows up and tells her that she should be scared. Then the
school bell rings in her dream, while her alarm clock goes off in the
real world. Her mother presents ideas of alternatives to Sunnydale High
since Snyder is stuck on keeping her out of it including banning her
from school grounds. Her mother opens the kitchen door and the cat they
just buried comes running inside. Giles is called to come and pick it
up, and he takes it away to the library to study what it might be.
While Giles and the Scooby Gang study the dead, but moving cat, they try
to come up with ideas for Buffy's party that night. Finally, after some
discussion, and a majority vote against Giles, they decide to have a big
party for her. At the party, Buffy is ignored by Willow who's gawking at
Oz and his band, and is left feeling alone when Xander attempts to
converse with her while Cordelia is all over him. Then, she finds that
her mother isn't even sure that she's happy with Buffy being back and
that since her return, Buffy has made a lot of things much more
difficult. Buffy's solution to all of this is to run away again, but
she's stopped by Willow, who has her own problems. Over the summer, her
life got pretty complicated and she didn't have a best friend to talk
to.
When Joyce breaks into the conversation, Buffy decides she doesn't know
what she wants and tries to get out of the house. Her mother stops her
and makes a huge scene in front of a slowly dying crowd of partygoers.
Everyone jumps in on the action of beating up on Buffy verbally. She
refuses to explain what happened with Angel, and tries to give good
reasons as to why she had to go away. Suddenly, a group of zombies come
crashing into the house and everyone scatters. People are attacked and
the Slayer and her Slayerettes do everything they can to stop them. They
find that their staking technique has no effect on these monsters and
they have to resort to a final solution: running away.
While all this is going on, Giles has discovered that the mask in
Joyce's room raises the dead and he goes to stop them. On the way, he
hits a zombie and gets out of the car to check it out, thinking he hit a
human. When he discovers how wrong he is, he rushes back to the car,
only to find that his keys are on the pavement outside. Then, after
hotwiring the car, he's off.
At the house, the gang rushes upstairs and barricade themselves in
Joyce's room with Pat. As Buffy and Xander try to hold the door closed
and keep the zombies out, Willow finds out that Pat is dead. A zombie
breaks into the room, sending Xander flying into the wall and knocking
down the mask. Buffy starts to fight the zombie, but he won't go down
easy. Downstairs, Cordelia and Oz, who were hiding in the stair closet,
come out, armed with ski poles. Giles finds them and they find out that
if one of the zombies puts on the mask, it will become a monster that is
much worse than a regular zombie.
While everyone is fending off zombies, Pat wakes up, a full zombie now,
and puts the mask on. She tries to eat Willow, but Buffy stops her and
falls out of the window with Pat. While trying to avoid the hypnotizing
glare of the Pat zombie, Buffy is knocked down. Back inside, Giles tells
Oz to go and warn Buffy that she has to go for the eyes. As he's about
to, Pat catches Oz in her glare, but Buffy gets up and puts a shovel
into Pat's eyes, making her and all of the other zombies disappear.
Everyone reunites inside and Buffy makes up with her friends and mother
after she's saved all of their lives yet again. The next day, Buffy and
Willow are hanging out at the Espresso Pump and Willow is telling her
all about the witchcraft she worked on all summer long. They joke about,
calling each other names, and it becomes obvious that the relationship
is back on track.
TRIVIA
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When this episode was released on video in
the UK, the shots of Giles hot-wiring his car were edited out. This was
to meet the 15 certificate rating, which contains an 'anti-imitation'
clause, so imitable actions can't be shown.
CONTINUITY
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Buffy mentions that it's all fun and games
until someone loses an eye, which could be a reference to Xander's
injury in Dirty Girls.
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Buffy is no longer wanted for Kendra's
murder, but is having difficulty regaining entry to Sunnydale High after
she was expelled, both of which happened in
Becoming (Part 2).
GOOFS
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Buffy sets the table for six, but Joyce
invited eight people to the dinner party.
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When Xander asks for a vote on how to
celebrate Buffy's arrival home, Willow raises her hand with a pencil in
it. In the next shot, the pencil is gone.
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Buffy goes up to her room to pack and
leaves the door slightly ajar. In the next shot, the door is wide open.
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Why is there no noise in Buffy's room from
the massive party downstairs?
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The wallpaper changes pattern in shots
after Buffy and Pat fall out of the window.
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Xander and Cordelia are in the kitchen
fighting a zombie. They pin the zombie down and Xander tells Cordelia to
hurry and go help Buffy, as he holds the zombie down. When Cordelia
reaches the front door, Xander is already helping Buffy hold the door
shut as if he has been there the whole time.
Anne |
Dead Man's Party |
Faith, Hope and Trick |
Beauty and the Beasts |
Homecoming
Band
Candy |
Revelations |
Lover's Walk |
The Wish |
Amends |
Gingerbread
Helpless |
The Zeppo |
Bad Girls |
Consequences |
Doppelgangland |
Enemies
Earshot |
Choices |
The Prom |
Graduation Day (Part 1) |
Graduation Day (Part 2)
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