Out of Mind, Out of Sight

Written by : Joss Whedon, Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden Directed by: Reza Badiyi

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 stars : Clea duVall as Marcie Ross, Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder, Ryan Bittle as Mitch, Mercedes McNab as Harmony, Denise Dowse as Ms. Miller, Mark Phelan as Agent Doyle, Skip Stellrecht as Agent Manetti.

Original broadcast date : May 19, 1997

As Spring Fling approaches and Cordelia campaigns to be crowned May Queen, strange things start to happen to her friends. Her date and prospective consort is clubbed in the locker room by a seemingly hovering bat. A cryptic message, “look”, has been sprayed on the locker. Later, Cordelia’s floozy friend Harmony is seemingly “tripped” down the stairs. Harmony claims she was pushed, although there was nobody there to push her.

After going through a list of missing students, the Scoobies conjecture that the invisible aggressor is Marcie Ross, a girl so insignificant no one seems to remember going to school with. Buffy discovers her lair in the suspended ceiling over the music room, and finds her yearbook, where everyone, even Willow and Xander, have signed the same bland thing : “Have a nice summer!”

It turned out Marcie has grown invisible because no one ever noticed her, and is now taking advantage of her invisibility to wreak revenge on Cordelia and her friends, who treated her the worst. Her ultimate plan is to kidnap Cordelia just before the Spring Fling dance and mutilate her face so that “no one will ever forget” it.

A majorly spooked Cordelia appeals to Buffy for her help, and the Scoobies set out to try and stop Marcie. As Buffy stands guard while Cordelia changes in her May Queen dress in a closet, Giles, Xander and Willow go down to the boiler room from which the sound of someone playing flute is emanating. It turns out to be a recording, set as a trap: Marcie closes the door to the boiler room, locking the Scoobies inside with the gas valve wide openŠ

Marcie succeeds in kidnapping Cordelia, then Buffy, who she knocks out with an anesthetic. The two girls wake up at the Bronze, where Marcie is preparing her surgical equipment to operate on Cordelia. Marcie slashes Cordy¹s face, but Buffy manages to untie herself and stop Marcie before she destroys Cordelia’s face. Meanwhile, as Xander, Giles and Willow are suffocating to death, Angel breaks the door open and drags them outside. Having knocked out Marcie, Buffy is busy untying Cordelia when FBI men come in (can you say X-Files?) and take charge of Marcie.

As the episode ends, Marcie is escorted into the room and seated in front of a book. The teacher asks the students ­ all invisible ­ to open the book to chapter 11: Assassination and Infiltration. “Cool!” says an excited Marcie.

Summary by OttsFiveByFive.

Episode Ratings

Mac - “The metaphore was there, the plot really wasn’t.”

DJ Angelus -

“If your ignored too much you disappear and go on to exact revenge. I thought it was cool idea that we all could relate to to some degree.”

Quotes

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind Key: B=Buffy, G=Giles, X=Xander, W=Willow, C=Cordelia, A=Angel, PS=Principal Snyder, H=Harmony, MM=Ms. Miller

C: I am, of course, having my dress specially made. Off the rack gives me hives.

Mitch: Let me guess - blue, like your eyes. C: My eyes are hazel, Helen Keller.

C: Behold the weirdness.

C: Well, how about, color me totally self-involved. MM: Care to elaborate? C: With Shylock, it’s whine, whine, whine, like the whole world is about him.

W: Everyone looked down on him. C: That is such a twinkie defense. Shylock should get over himself.

C: Like this time I sort of ran over this girl on her bike. It was the most traumatizing event of *my* life, and she’s trying to make it about her *leg*. Like my pain meant nothing.

C: I have all these thoughts, and I’m pretty sure they all contradict each other.

H: ‘C’, for Cordelia? C: No, ‘C’ for Wilma, little brain.

C: Oh, I don’t think I need the loony fringe vote. B: Well, I don’t even like chocolate! Okay, that was the lamest come-back of our times.

B: Gee, it’s fun that we’re speaking in tongues.

X: Oh, so the good kind of moron would do that. The non-moron, I mean.

PS: There are no dead students here. This week.

B: Mitch wanted me to get his comb. He likes his comb. PS: I don’t think Mitch needs his comb right now. I think Mitch needs medical attention.

B: All I know is it’s a message. X: And? B: And monsters don’t usually send messages. It’s pretty much crush, kill, destroy. G: I have to say you’re right. B: I love it when he says that!

G: I’ve never actually heard of anyone attacked by a lone baseball bat before. X: Maybe it’s a vampire bat? I’m low on that one, huh?

X: What, so there’s homework now? When did that happen? B: It’s all part of the glamorous world of vampire slayage.

C: You should have seen him lying there all black and blue. How’s that going to look in our Prom pictures? How am I ever going to be able to show them to anyone? H: Well, they can do wonderful things with airbrushes these days.

C: I just hope they can prop him up long enough to take the picture.

G: A girl on campus with the ability to become invisible. X: That is so cool! W: Cool? X: Well, yeah, I would give anything to be able to turn invisible. Well, I wouldn’t use my powers to beat people up, I’d use my powers to protect the girl’s locker room.

X: Greek myths speak of cloaks of invisibility, but they’re usually for the Gods. Research boy comes through with the knowledge!

X: My mom’s making her famous call to the Chinese place. W: Do you guys even have a stove?

G: How exactly do you propose to hunt someone you can’t see? You may have to work on listening to people. B: Very funny! G: I thought so.

G: A vampire in love with a Slayer. It’s rather poetic. In a maudlin sort of way.

G: There’s an invisible girl terrorizing the school. A: That’s not really my area of expertise. G: Nor mine, I’m afraid. It’s fascinating, though. By all accounts, it’s a wonderful power to possess. A: Oh, I don’t know. Looking in the mirror every day and seeing nothing there…it’s an overrated pleasure.

C: Being this popular is not just my right, but my responsibility.

X: So, Giles said you’d be here. Why are you being here?

G: Once again, I teeter at the precipice of the generation gap.

B: I think I speak for everyone here when I say, “huh?”

C: This is all about me. Me, me, me! X: Wow, for once she’s right.

C: I know you’re very strong, and you’ve got all those weapons. I was kind of hoping you were in a gang.

G: You know, I don’t recall ever seeing you here before. C: Oh no, I have a life.

C: Is she really wearing Laura Ashley? X: So, homicidal?

C: Nothing is keeping me from the Bronze tonight! X: Can we just revel in your fabulous lack of priorities?

C: If I’m not crowned tonight, then Marcie’s won. And that would be bad. Se’s evil, okay, way eviler than me!

X: Can you say, “gulp”?

C: You were popular? In what alternate universe?

B: Okay, can we have the heart-felt talk with a little less talk from you?

G: She has gone mad. X: You think?

X: What happened? A: You tell me. W: I’m up, Mom.

A: It’s not like I need the oxygen.

B: There’s one thing I really didn’t factor into all this. You’re a thundering loonie!

Marcie: Hey moron, I’m invisible!

B: Where were you ten minutes ago when she was playing surgeon?

C: I guess I just want to say thank you. All of you. X: It’s funny, ’cause she *looks* like Cordelia….

X: Boy, where’s an invisible girl when you really need one?