Inca
Mummy Girl
Original Airdate: October 6, 1997
Writers: Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer
Director: Ellen S. Pressman
This episode,
following the classic “School Hard”, is a let down because of the season one concept
remnant of using horror movie icons for story ideas. However, it does tie into the theme of the
season: Buffy trying to achieve a sense of normalcy while balancing her duties
as the Slayer. So this works to bring in
a character, Ampata, dealing with similar issues,
but, her dilemma doesn’t quite mesh or develop as would be hoped.
Instead this episode
is another example of how Xander has awful luck with
women, with his ill-fated romance with Ampata. Granted, Ampata is
beautiful, but Xander and Ampata
fall for each other a little too easily, making the tragic romance angle forced. It’s especially frustrating when the show has
a far better tragic romance between Buffy and Angel. Maybe if they had
Ampata,
as a person, isn’t evil. However, her
need to feed off the life of others makes her so. But the juxtaposition of this against Buffy
hiding her slayer identity doesn’t fit.
Maybe if someone else, like that goofy guard, was taking lives to support
her, it would’ve clicked better. Perhaps
this idea worked better on paper.
It is implied that Ampata was a Slayer as well, which helps explain how she
could take on Buffy and not get a swift beat down. Unfortunately, her people took this as a sign
of witchcraft and killed her. This angle
could’ve been explored more in depth as it worked with the major themes of the
season. Slayerdom
has changed a lot in the five hundred years between Ampata
and Buffy. While Buffy can’t have a
totally “normal” life, she is far better off in modern
There are some
glaring plot holes through the episode.
How is Ampata able to get clothes? Certainly Buffy would be willing to let her
borrow some, but wouldn’t she grow suspicious if she asked everyday for them? Although it may be just because they are
teenagers who obviously spend a lot of time internalizing things, but wouldn’t
either Buffy or Ampata realize that they’re acting
similarly to cover up their secrets?
Plus, it’s ignorant
of the gang to believe that Ampata would be able to
decode that seal. Just because someone’s
from another country doesn’t mean that they are an expert on the history and
customs. This is one of those situations
where they’re acting dumb for the sake of the story. And let’s not get started on the ethnic
stereotype parade at The Bronze (why would The Bronze hold a school event),
even if
The biggest
contributions of this episode are the introductions of Jonathan and Oz. Oz has a more substantial role, but his
character is so far defined as having a crush on
While this episode
has a lot of sloppy moments in construction of the plot, there are still
elements of the season in place. This
theme, unfortunately for these episodes, wouldn’t kick in until the final third
of the season, where some real magic happens.
Score: 5/10