Dead Man's Party
Written by: Marti Noxon Directed by : James Whitmore, Jr.
Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase, Seth Green as Oz, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles.
Main guest stars : Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers, Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder, Nancy Lenehan as Pat, Jason Hall as Devon.
Original broadcast date : October 6, 1998
Buffy has just returned home, and her interaction with her mother is uneasy. She even asks Joyce¹s permission to go find Willow and Xander. Busy hanging an ugly Nigerian mask on the wall, Joyce reluctantly lets her daughter go but not before Buffy comments that the mask seems to want the room to suffer.
Buffy stumbles on a stealthy Xander using “Nighthawk” as a walkie-talkie nickname. Shocked by the sight of Buffy, Xander is unable to react as a vampire crashes through a large crate and attacks. Buffy takes on the fiend, and eventually Cordelia, Willow and Oz show up to give a hand. After they¹ve all been thrown to the ground, Buffy finally succeeds in staking the vampire, and gets back up to face her friends, who are staring at her as if they¹d seen a ghost.
The next scene sees Buffy and friends walking up the door of Giles apartment, wondering if the Watcher will be angry at her for running away. But an astounded Giles simply invites them inside. As an incredibly elated Giles prepares tea, Buffy finds out from her friends that the charges for murder have been cleared, but that she¹s still expelled from Sunnydale high. Buffy looks forward to putting her summer in L.A. behind her and resuming her normal activities, but when she asks Xander and Willow if they want to go out, she finds out they have other plans and don¹t know how to fit her in their lives again. Willow, though, promises she¹ll make the time, but she later skips her appointment with Buffy.
The Slayer¹s return to Sunnydale is made even worse by a very bad meeting with Principal Snyder, who gleefully informs Joyce that he has a “tingling” feeling at the idea of keeping Buffy out of school.
As Buffy walks home, alone, after waiting in vain for Willow, she meets Pat, a woman who¹s been morally supporting her mother while she was gone. Inside, Joyce suggests that it might be a good idea to invite Buffy¹s friends over to dinner, and then confesses that she already went ahead with the invitations. A resigned Buffy goes to the basement and climbs on a stool to fetch the company plates on a shelf. As she searches through the junk on the shelf, a dead cat falls off the top, which she and her mother bury in the backyard. That night, in Joyce’s room, the eyes of the mask start to glow. There¹s movement in the fresh grave in the backyard, and the dead cat emerges, mewling.
As she goes back to sleep, Buffy dreams of Angel once more, and is woken up by the school bell which turns out to be the alarm clock. At breakfast, Joyce presents to Buffy the idea of enrolling in a private girls¹ school. While Buffy protests, her mother opens the kitchen door and the dead cat from the night before runs inside.
Giles arrives at the Summers house with a cage and takes the cat to the library to study it. There, after Cordelia and Oz comment on the animal¹s look and smell, the Scoobies decide to throw Buffy a big welcome home party.
That night, Buffy is setting the table when Pat arrives. There¹s a second knock on the door, and Buffy answers only to have Devon and the rest of the Dingoes haul their musical instruments inside.
At the rather loud and populated party, Buffy is ignored by Willow, whose attention is drawn to the band and her boyfriend guitarist - and by Xander, who¹s busy sucking face with Cordelia. Going to the kitchen, she overhears her mother telling Pat that she¹s not sure that Buffy¹s return made things better. Distraught, Buffy goes up to her room and starts packing, planning to run away again. Willow catches her in the act and angrily accuses Buffy of giving up, saying that she has her own problems and would¹ve liked to have Buffy to confide in during the summer.
While all this is going on, an accident victim, a burn victim, and other recently deceased people are brought back to life, seemingly by the glowing Nigerian mask. In the library, Giles discovers that the mask indeed raises the dead, and rushes to his car to go warn the Scoobies at the Summers house. On the way, though, he¹s attacked by some zombies, which slows him down.
In Buffy¹s room, Joyce hears her daughter and Willow arguing, and gets quite angry when she learns Buffy was planning on running away again. As she puts pressure on her daughter to decide what she wants, a tearful Buffy runs downstairs, followed by Joyce and Willow, who refuse to let her off the hook so easily. Just then, the music conveniently stops, allowing her mother to make a huge scene in front of the dwindling crowd of partyers. As Buffy tries to justify her running away after Angel¹s death, Xander happily joins in on the verbal abuse, telling Buffy to “stop acting like an idiot”. Buffy angrily suggests that he was the one acting like an idiot, using the name “Nighthawk”. Just as it looks as if they¹ll come to blows, dead zombies crash the party, attacking people and forcing the Slayer and friends to try and barricade themselves where they can.
Willow, Buffy, Xander and Joyce lock themselves in Joyce¹s room, along with Pat, who dies on Joyce¹s bed, only to be instantly reanimated as a zombie. As the gang tries to fend off this latest menace, downstairs, Oz and Cordelia sneak out of the closet they¹ve been hiding in, and stumble upon Giles. He informs them that if a zombie puts on the mask, he becomes the powerful demon the mask represents.
Back upstairs, Pat proves Giles right by putting on the mask, hypnotizing Buffy with the mask¹s glare and knocking her down. Pat then attacks Willow, but Buffy tackles the demon, crashing through the window onto the lawn. Pat tries the hypnotic glare again, but Buffy, doing the math, shields her eyes and blinds Pat with a shovel. The demon and the zombies disintegrate.
In the house, the gang reunites and makes up. The next day, Giles confronts Principal Snyder about letting Buffy back in school; he even seems to threaten the smaller man with physical violence. Meanwhile at the Expresso Pump, Willow tells Buffy how she¹s been toying with witchcraft all summer. The show ends with the two friends jokingly calling each other names, i.e. “runaway”, “witch”, “delinquent”, “tramp”
Summary by OttsFiveByFive.
Episode Ratings
Mac -
“It probably should’ve been the season opener. And the party scene with Buffy, Joyce, Xander, Oz, Willow and Cordelia? Wow, great jobs by all.”
DJ Angelus -
“A homecomming only the hellmouth can give a person.”
Quotes
Key: B=Buffy, G=Giles, X=Xander, W=Willow, C=Cordelia, O=Oz, A=Angel, J=Joyce, PS=Principal Snyder
J: I thought I’d hang a few pieces in here. It cheers up the room. B: It’s angry at the room, Mom. It wants the room to suffer. J: You have no appreciation of primitive art.
B: I’d like to find Willow and Xander. J: Will you be slaying? B: Only if they give me lip.
J: Can I make you a sandwich or something before you go? You must be starving. B: I was, until that four-course snack you served me after dinner.
B: Didn’t anyone ever warn you about playing with pointy sticks? It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an eye.
C: Come in, Nighthawk - everything okay? B: Nighthawk??
B: What if he’s mad? X: Mad? Just because you ran away and abandoned your past and your friends and your Mom and made him lay awake every night worrying about you? Maybe we should wait out here.
X: Check it out. The Watcher’s back on the clock. And just when you were thinking career change, maybe becoming a Looker or a Seer. G: Thank you, Xander.
B: I got in a few hours ago, but I wanted to go see my Mom first. G: Yes, yes, of course. How did you find her? B: Well, I pretty much remembered the address.
O: Hey, so you’re not wanted for murder anymore. B: Good. That was such a drag.
X: So, where were you? Did you go to Belgium? B: Why would I go to Belgium? X: I think the relevant question here is why wouldn’t you? Belgium!
C: So, were you living in a box, or what? B: It’s a long story. X: So, skip the heartwarming stuff about kindly old people and saving the farm, and get right to the dirt. G: Perhaps Buffy could use a little time to adjust before we grill her on her summer activities. B: What he said.
B: You guys seem down with the slayage, all tricked out with your walkies and everything. C: Yeah, but the outfits suck. This whole Rambo thing is so over. I’m thinking more sporty. Like Hilfiger, maybe. W: Still, we were getting pretty good. We dusted 9 out of 10. O: < whispering > 6 out of 10. W: …6 out of 10. B: Thank you for the offer, but I think I just want to get back to my normal routine. You know, school, slaying - kid stuff. In fact, I’m jonesing for a little brainless fun.
X: I’m kind of tied up. C: You wish.
B: Oh, come on. Friends don’t let friends browse alone.
G: You know you’ll have to talk to Principal Snyder before… B: On it. Mom is making an appointment with His Ugliness. I know she can break him.
J: But you can’t keep her out of school. You don’t have the right. PS: I have not only the right, but also a nearly physical sensation of pleasure at the thought of keeping her out of school. I’d describe myself as tingly. J: Buffy was cleared of all those charges. PS: Yes, and while she may live up to the not-a-murderer requirement for enrollment, she is a troublemaker, destructive to school property and the occasional student. And her grade point average is enough to… I’m sorry. Another tingle moment.
PS: I’m quite sure that a girl with the talents and abilities of Buffy will land on her feet. In fact, I noticed as I came in this morning, that Hotdog-On-a-Stick is hiring. You will look so cute in that hat.
J: Don’t worry about school, honey. If we can’t get you back into Sunnydale, maybe we can swing private school. B: Private school? You mean like jackets and kilts? You want me to get field hockey knees?
B: What about home-schooling? You know, it’s not just for scary religious people any more.
Pat: Between your situation, and reading “Deep End of the Ocean”, she was, uh, just a wreck. You can imagine.
Pat: You go be with your Mom. You two need to rebond.
B: Mom, Willow and everybody aren’t company-plate people. They’re normal-plate people.
B: Next time, I get to pick the Mother-Daughter bonding activity.
J: Do you want to say something? B: Like what? Thanks for stopping by and dying? J: How about, good-bye stray cat, who lost its way, we hope you find it.
B: Am I dreaming? A: I’m probably the wrong person to ask.
J: I’ve been on the phone with the superintendent of schools. At least he seems more reasonable than that nasty little horrid bigoted rodent man.
J: As for private schools, Miss Porter’s accepts late admissions. I wrote the information down for you. B: A girl’s school? So now it’s jackets, kilts, and no boys? Care to throw in a little foot-binding?
J: I just wish you didn’t have to be so secretive about things. I mean, it’s not your fault you have a special circumstance. They should make allowances for you. B: Mom, I’m a Slayer. It’s not like I need to ride in a little bus to school.
J: I would think they would be happy to have a… a superhero. Is that the right term?
B: Welcome to the Hellmouth petting zoo.
G: Oh, my god. What a stench. B: You know, I wanted forest pine, or April fresh, but Mom wanted dead cat.
G: It’s, uh, striking… and Nigerian.
B: You know, I love art talk as much as the next very dull person, but we have work to do, Giles.
O: it looks dead, it smells dead. Yet it’s moving around. That’s interesting. C: Nice pet, Giles. Don’t you like anything regular? Golf, USA Today, or anything?
O: Well, I like it. I think you should call it Patches.
W: What about Buffy’s welcome home dinner tonight? I told her mom we’d help out, bring stuff. C: I’m the dip. X: You gotta admire the purity of it.
O: We should figure out what kind of deal this is. I mean, is it a gathering, a shindig, or a hootenanny? C: What’s the difference? O: Well, a gathering is brie, mellow song stylings. Shindig: dip, less mellow song stylings, perhaps a large amount of malt beverage. And hootenanny, well, it’s chock full of hoot, just a _little_ bit of nanny.
X: Well, I hate brie. C: I know - it smells like Giles’ cat.
X: Okay, so one vote from the old guy for smelly cheese night, and how many votes for actual fun, huh?
B: You seem to be avoiding me, in the one-on-one sense. W: What? This isn’t avoiding. See, here you are, here I am. B: So we’re cool? W: Way! That’s why, with the party, ’cause we’re all glad you’re back.
X: I guess a lot of people are glad to have you back. B: It seems like people I didn’t even know missed me.
Guy: You got the wrong casa, Mr. Belvedere.
B: I’m trying. W: Wow, and it looks just like giving up.
G: Unbelievable. “Do you like my mask? Isn’t it pretty? It raises the dead.” Americans!
J: You put me through the ringer, Buffy. I mean it. And I’ve had schnapps.
X: You can’t just bury stuff, Buffy. It’ll come right back up to get you.
G: Oh, good show, Giles.
G: Like riding a bloody bicycle!
C: Put yourself in Buffy’s shoes for just a minute, okay? I’m Buffy, freak of nature, right? naturally, I pick a freak for a boyfriend, and then he turns into Mr. Killing-spree, which is pretty much my fault… B: Cordy! Get out of my shoes.
O: Okay, I’m gonna step in now, being referee-guy. W: No, let them go, Oz. Talking about it isn’t helping. We might as well try some violence. < Crash! > I was being sarcastic!
J: Are these vampires? B: Uh, I don’t think so. < stake > No, not vampires.
X: Man, this sucker wobbles, but he won’t fall down!
J: What do we do if they get in? X: I kind of think we die.
C: How do we know it’s really you and not zombie-Giles? C: Cordelia, do stop being tiresome. C: It’s him.
O: The think the dead man’s party’s moved upstairs.
O: What happens if they get the mask? G: If one of them puts it on, they become the demon incarnate. C: Worse than a zombie. G: Yes, worse.
X: Generally speaking, when scary things get scared, not good.
B: Hey, Pat! Made you look.
O: Never mind.
J: So, is this a typical day at the office? B: No, this was nothing.
PS: Do we have an appointment? G: I’d like to have a word with you. PS: If that word is “Buffy”, then I have two words for you - “good” and “riddance”.
G: You had no grounds for expelling her. PS: I have grounds, I have precedent, and a tingly kind of feeling.
PS: Sorry, I’m not convinced. G: Would you like me to convince you?
W: I tried to communicate with the spirit world, and I *so* wasn’t ready for that. It’s like being pulled apart inside.
B: I am sorry. W: It’s okay. I understand you having to bail, and I can forgive that. I have to make allowances for what you’re going through, and be a grown-up about it. B: You’re really enjoying this whole moral-superiority thing, aren’t you? W: It’s like a drug! B: Fine. Okay. I’m the bad. I can take my lumps… for a while. W: All right, I’ll stop giving you a hard time… runaway. B: Will! W: I’m sorry! Quitter… B: Whiner. W: Bailer. B: Harpy. W: Delinquent. B: Tramp. W: Bad seed. B: Witch. W: Freak.
Credit: The Sunnydale Slayers