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Season 3, Episode 18
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Regis Kimble
Original Airdate: 21 September 1999
"My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond
the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine.
Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too
busy with their own. The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that
pick on you. Everyone. If you could hear what they were feeling. The
loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's
deafening..."
Buffy
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
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Lauren Roman as
Nancy
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Larry Bagby III as
Larry Blaisdell
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Justin Doran as
Hogan Martin
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Wendy Worthington as
Lunch Lady
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Karem Malicki-Sánchez as
Freddy Iverson
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Robert Arce as
Mr. Beach
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Molly Bryant as
Ms. Murray
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Rich Muller as
Student #1
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Jay Michael Ferguson as
Student #2
SYNOPSIS
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On patrol, Buffy runs into two demons that she
fights and then kills one of them. While the other escapes, she comes
into contact with the demon she killed and its blood gets onto her hand.
The next day at the library, Buffy finds that they're making very little
progress with Mayor Wilkins and with stopping the ascension. Willow asks
Buffy if she's talked to Angel and then suggests that Buffy ask him
straight out what happened with Faith. Percy checks in with Willow to
reschedule their study session and then she talks to Buffy about the
Basketball game after school which everyone except Buffy is going to.
Buffy goes to Giles after she finds that her hand is itching where she
touched the demon and he reveals that because she came in contact with
one of the demons, she may be infected with an aspect of it. Xander and
Oz watch the cheerleaders at the pep rally and Xander reveals that he
still has a thing for Cordelia when he witnesses Wesley looking at her.
Buffy is constantly worried as she waits to find out what aspect of the
demon she'll be getting. She talks to Angel about it that night and he
tells her he'd love her no matter what she looked like.
The next day, as she's walking through the halls, Buffy finds out that
she can hear the thoughts of others. She talks to Giles about it, and he
goes right to work researching it while Buffy decides to put her new
ability to work. In class, she listens to the thoughts of her teacher
and classmates and answers the questions asked. Buffy also hears the
thoughts of Freddy Iverson, who writes editorials for the school
newspaper, who has a seriously negative opinion about everything at
Sunnydale.
That night, Buffy goes to the mansion to use her mind-reading abilities
to check up on Angel and find out the truth about what happened with
Faith. He figures out what she's trying to do, and he tells her that she
can't read his mind because he's a vampire. He reveals to her that what
happened with Faith meant nothing and that in 243 years, he's loved only
Buffy. At the library, Buffy tells her friends. Xander constantly thinks
about sex, Cordelia thinks about what she says before she says it, Oz
thinks extremely deep thoughts, Willow thinks about how she's left out
of things, and Wesley thinks about Cordelia. In the lunchroom, Buffy
hears someone think, "By this time tomorrow, I'll kill you all," and
then the voices become too much and Buffy passes out.
When she regains consciousness, she tells everyone to get organized and
find out who the potential killer is. Buffy goes home to rest, but
before she leaves, she overhears Giles' thoughts that she may go insane.
He and Wesley find out that its happened before, but the person is in
total isolation because they can't stop the power. Joyce is nervous
around her and doesn't want to stay in the same room with Buffy for very
long. Finally, Buffy reads her mind and finds out that she had sex with
Giles, twice, on the hood of a police car. Willow and the group go
around interviewing students and faculty that were in the Cafeteria to
see if they're potential killers.
Giles and Wesley have found a possible solution to curing Buffy, but it
requires the heart of the second demon. Angel hunts down the demon and
the next morning brings the heart to the Summers' home in a glass mixed
with other ingredients. He forces Buffy to drink it and then her body
goes into convulsions. Willow and the rest of the Scooby Gang were able
to locate all the students on the list except Freddy Iverson and they
all go looking for him.
Back at home, Buffy wakes up and is no longer able to hear thoughts. The
gang finally corners Freddy in his office and finds out that he's not
the potential killer. Buffy shows up just as they find a letter from
Jonathan apologizing for his upcoming actions of death on Freddy's desk.
The gang splits up to find Jonathan while he is up in the clock tower,
assembling a riffle. Buffy spots him from below and puts her Slayer
strengths to work as she flies up the stairs, onto the roof and into the
tower. Buffy talks to him and tells him that the reason why everyone
ignores him is because they all have their own problems that actually
matter more to them than his do. She takes the riffle from him and then
finds out that he was really going to commit suicide.
Xander checks the kitchen and stumbles upon the cook putting rat poison
into the food. She comes out and tries to kill Xander with a butcher
knife, but Buffy stops her and knocks her unconscious. Apparently, it
really bugged her that the students could eat so much junk food and not
gain much weight. Giles and Buffy recap what happened as they walk
around the school grounds. Giles asks her if she's up for some training,
and Buffy says she is if he isn't too busy sleeping with her mother.
Giles walks straight into a tree.
TRIVIA
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Anthony Stewart Head came up with the idea
of Giles walking into the tree at the end of this episode.
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Regis Kimble, who directed this episode,
also designed the title sequence for Angel.
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The original transmission of this episode
was in April but it was delayed until September because of the tragic
real-life shooting incident at the Littleton High School in Colorado.
This episode was due to air a week after the events. There was a mixed
reaction to the delay. Many Buffy fans were disgusted, as they
believed the point of the show was to highlight the problems of
loneliness and isolation in high schools. The WB pulled the episode
because of the exchange between the Scoobies in which Xander says, "Who
hasn't just idly thought about taking out the whole place with a
semi-automatic?" Most of the Buffy cast and crew supported the
decision.
CONTINUITY
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Joyce offers chicken and stars soup to
Buffy when she's sick. She offers the same soup to Dawn in
Blood Ties.
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Willow interrogates Jonathan again, just
like she did in Go Fish.
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Buffy discovers that Giles and Joyce had
sex on the hood of a police car (twice) in
Band Candy.
GOOFS
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I can't work out how Jonathan was going to
kill himself with that high-powered rifle considering it was so long and
his arms were so short.
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When Buffy and Angel are talking at the
mansion, Angel's necklace moves back and forth from inside his shirt to
outside as the camera switches angles.
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When Buffy first looks up at the clock
tower, the clock says 12:40, but when she looks back up a moment later,
it says 12:10. Shortly before this scene, it says 11:00.
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When Buffy fights the lunch lady in the
canteen the stunt double is clearly nowhere near the same shape or size
as the actress.
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When Angel is sitting on Buffy's bed, sun
is shining in but he doesn't burst into flame.
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If the demons were telepathic, why didn't
they anticipate Buffy's moves?
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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