Season One Episode Reviews

1X1    Welcome to Hellmouth 
Plot:  Buffy moves to Sunnydale, makes friends, and fight vampires.

Pretty good as pilots go, a little expositionary but that's okay.  I really like how Buffy meets Xander, Willow, Giles, and Cordelia.  I like how she starts out cool but instead befriends the dorks because they're better people, and thus becomes unpopular herself.  I like Giles' screwed up introduction to Buffy where he comes off looking like some kind of pervert, I like Principal Flutie's curious administrative mannor.  Has a pretty slow pace but it's neccessary.  Willow finally dancing with a boy at Buffy's advice who turns out to be a vamp was a bit of a painful coincidense.  Also a nice but brief scene with Buffy and Giles about them being the secret protectors of the clueless humanity.  Also noteworthy is the teaser, which gives a hint of what kind of unconventional show this will be; a couple sneaks into the school to make out, but the girl turns out to be a vamp rather than a vamp attacking the two of them.  Nice little twist.  Angel makes a painfully brief and cryptic appearance that makes me curious about him.  That's good!  Kinda lame cliffhanger.

1X2    The Harvest 
Plot:  Buffy must prevent The Master's minions from freeing him.

A nice action packed vampire episode.  I like how Xander and Willow find out about Buffy's secret and then join her.  There's a nice scene between them about the secret from the rest of the people which compliments the Buffy-Giles one last episode.  I like this theme, but it was quickly dropped as more and more people found out about Buffy.  The backstory about Earth formerly being inhabited by demons who left for another dimensions and vamps are descendents of them trying to bring them back is really interesting; however this never again gets referenced, vamps bringing back their ancestors I mean.  The hell dimension is revisted though.  Another great unexpected plot twist; Buffy and Xander rescue Jesse, who becomes a vamp!  Total twist on the conventional, plus it looked like Jesse was going to be a recurring character.  The ending was a nice action climax where even Willow and Xander get to put up a fight.  Another soon dropped theme is brought up with Giles saying people forget what they can't explain re: Cordelia saying the vamps at the Broze were a gang, which is pretty silly.  Other dumb thing:  Buffy fights Luke in front of dozens of people but retains her secret identity.  Right...

1X3    The Witch 
Plot:  A cheerleader witch will do anything to make it on the team.

One of the better early stand-alones.  Moved a bit slow but had some neat little things in the curses.  The best thing was all the plot twists that show what a great show this is; you think Amy is the evil witch to get on the team, then you find she orders her mom around, but THEN you find its really the old mom who swapped bodies to relive her youth.  Very cool!  Makes a boring conventional idea a lot more interesting.  I also like the introduction of magiks to the show, specifically that Giles is adapt at them.  I also like that Buffy was almost killed by magik, something that she can't fight.  Amy (the real one) was a nice character who of course appears later.  The last scene was nice and X-Files-y.  Unfortunatly this episode got preachy at times bout parents/kids, especially when Joyce out of the blue starts forcing interests on Buffy.  Please!

1X4    Teacher's Pet 
Plot:  The substitue teacher is a preying mantis out to seduce Xander; Angel warns Buffy about a vampire.

Pretty cheesy but still entertaining; the Xander seduced bit was pretty stupid, and the mantis idea is definitely one of the lamer ideas of this series.  I did like how there were two villians, the mantis and 'Fork Guy' it gives the episode more material, this would have been a lot lamer with just mantis lady!  However Angel's big warnings over Fork Guy were ridiculously absurd considering what a blow over he was, in fact he seemed weaker than normal vamps!  This episode really begins the Buffy-Angel romance which is nice, he gives her his jacket etc.  This episode is also the first to start the good humor; Willow miming answers to Buffy using Xander in science class and Principal Flutie telling Buffy he's here if she needs a hug but not a real hug because they're "sensitive to wrong touching".  Hah!  I don't know why Cordelia is a title character in the first season, once again she has little non-important scenes.  Hell, Angel is more important than her at this point!

1X5    Never Kill a Boy on the First Date 
Plot:  Buffy tries to go on a date and stop The Master from creating The Annoited One.

This was certainly one of the lamer vamp episodes.  It was pretty by the numbers without any cool plot twists (aside from the end where Collin is the Annoited One not the guy they fought), but then what was the point of the guy they fought if he wasn't the One?  Pretty dull on a whole, and the Buffy dating thing was really uninteresting except for her denial of her destiny.  This episode did have some great one-liners though, like Buffy bumping into Cordy and saying her "are wider than I thought!", Buffy responding about dating and Slaying saying "I read the back of the box", and The Master giving a long winded speech than snatching a bug out of the air.  'Nuther Angel appearance that goes nowhere.

1X6    The Pack 
Plot:  Xander and others are possessed by Hyenas.

This is one of the worst eps.  It was just stupid!  I can imagine how horrible it looked on the screen too.  The zookeeper twist was pretty lame too.  There were a few neat twists; I couldn't believe they killed the principal!  A hint of things to come...  Eating the pig mascot was funny.  About the only good thing about this was the dark side of Xander; hurts Willow and tries to rape Buffy.  Not much else!

1X7    Angel
Plot:  Buffy learns Angel is a vampire and Darla taunts a confrontation between them.

Probably the best ep of the season, it really introduces the Buffy-Angel forbidden romance, which to me is the backbone of this series.  Lots of revelations about Angel, his past, his condition, Darla, etc.  Joyce gets bitten by a vamp and meets Giles.  This material with Angel is much more intersting than the comically gothic Master plot!  It's a shame that Darla was killed off considering how important she was to Angel, but then again that's the world of unexpected plot twists for ya.  As for Angel being a vamp, I knew ahead of time but even so it seemed pretty obvious that he was some kind of good vamp.  It all begins here!

1X8    I Robot You Jane 
Plot:  A demon is released on the Internet and lures Willow into a romance.

Another pretty bad one.  Too slow paced for my tastes.  The 'internet demon' concept could have been taken a hell of a lot further, the Willow 'romance' was a tad dumb (but cute!), and the robot was REALLY stupid.  I also fail to understand how he hypnotized the boys.  This episode is notable for introducing Jenny Calander, the technopagan computer lab teacher who is obviously a romantic foil for Giles.  She's a nice character, and gets a hilarious line when Giles returns an 'ear'ring:  "that's not where I dangle it".  Hah!  Also funny is the gang's realization at the end about their romantic lives.

1X9    The Puppet Show 
Plot:  A demon is killing kids in Sunnydale High during the talent show and a talking dummy is the main suspect.

Ugh!  This is a bad one.  Aside from the plot twist about Sid being a demon hunter, introducing Principal Synder, and Willow freezing during her play, there wasn't much worthwhile to this one.  The talent show crap was mainly just stupid, the investigation was uninteresting, and really the talking dummy thing was just stupid.

1X10    Nightmares 
Plot:  Everyone's nightmares become reality.

This was the first of the good stand-alone eps, the reality bending nightmare stuff was really cool.  Nice cameo by The Master which leads into the season finale well.  Nice to see Buffy's dad, and the nightmare scene where he cheerfully blames the divorce on her was really gut-wrenching.  I particularly liked how everyone's nightmares combined with each other to make the school a hellhouse.  I particularly enjoyed Willow having to sing at an opera and Xander being chased by a knife-wielding clown!  Buffy being buried alive and becoming a vamp was pretty cool as well.  Perhaps the ending was a tad lame, but I do like the twist that the baseball coach put the kid in the coma.

1X11    Invisable Girl 
Plot:  An invisable girl goes after Cordelia.

A semi-good standalone episode, particularly for giving Cordelia some screen time and devealopment.  This episode marks her entry into the 'Scooby Squad', unofficially at least.  In particular she has a nice speech about being isolated yet popular so she won't be alone, and Buffy identifying with her from her past.  Invisable girl was pretty neat but her 'origan' that people ignore her so she disapeears is really cheesy.  It's cause of the Hellmouth you say?  No!  They say it happens elsewhere!  The FBI angle was neat too, too bad nothing ever came of it.  Also a nice little subplot where Angel fetches a prophecy book for Giles.

1X12    Prophecy Girl 
Plot:  Buffy makes her fatal confrontation with The Master.

The best episode of the season, a nice epic outing, but compared to what's to come it's not that great and the ending is really anti-climactic.  Nice to see movements in the character relationships; Xander finally asks out Buffy and Jenny continues to hit on Giles.  I like Buffy freaking out at hearing of her impending death and her eventual turnaround.  I like Xander teaming up with Angel.  I like Buffy's initial confrontation with the Master.  I like Cordelia driving her car through the school hallways.  However the rest was ridiculously anti-climatic.  After episodes of building up the Annoited One?  He just shows Buffy through some tunnels.  Buffy's gonna die?  CPR saves her a few minutes later.  Master is released?  Buffy is then mysteriously impervious to him and easily beats him up.  Hell on Earth?  Just this big green monster which disappears when the Master dies.  Gah!  And the ending was way too sappy-happy for my tastes.  Where's the big plot twist?!