Prophecy Girl

"Prophecy Girl"

"Prophecy Girl", the first season finale, is the twelfth episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.

Plot synopsis

Xander is practicing lines on Willow in the Bronze, wanting to ask Buffy to the prom. Cordelia is in a car making out with Kevin, as Buffy slays a vampire nearby. An earthquake is felt all over town, and the Master revels in it.

The next morning, Buffy is meeting Giles in the library, where no significant damage has been done from the earthquake. Buffy explains the vampires are rising in number and getting braver, but Giles is distracted by his thoughts. After biology class, Willow finds an excuse to leave, leaving Xander to ask Buffy to the prom. Xander takes Buffy's rejection badly, and walks off to wallow in misery.

Miss Calendar interrupts Giles's study in the library, telling him that she sees apocalyptic portents and demands to know what is happening. She tells him brother Luca, a monk in Cortona is e-mailing her about the Anointed One. Giles asks her to get more information about this, promising he will explain everything later. In the school hall, Kevin and Willow promise to help Cordelia set everything up in the Bronze for the dance. Willow sees Xander wallowing in his misery, and offers sympathy. When Xander asks her to the dance, she refuses to be his second choice.

That evening, as Buffy enters the library she hears Giles telling Angel that the prophecies say that she will face the Master and die. Buffy, shocked, yells that she is quitting, leaving the cross Angel gave her on the table. She goes back home, and tries to convince her mother to go away for the weekend. Joyce, instead, gives her a white prom dress, and tells her to go to the dance.

The next day, at school, Cordelia and Willow find the AV club, all dead, slaughtered by vampires, as "Three Little Pigs" cartoons play. Buffy, having heard, shows up in her dress at Willow's. Buffy goes back to the library, where Giles has explained to Miss Calendar that Buffy is the slayer. Buffy reinstates herself as the Slayer, knocks Giles out when he tries to stop her and goes to kill the Master. Outside of school, Collin leads her to the Master's lair.

Willow and Xander show up at the library, where they hear that Buffy has gone off to see the Master. Xander leaves, only to show up at Angel's apartment where he forces Angel to lead him to the Master's lair. Xander and Angel approach the lair, as the Master and Buffy fight and taunt each other. The Master tells Buffy that it is her blood which will free him, as he drinks from her and leave her to drown in a shallow pool. At the library, Willow and Ms. Calendar decide that the Hellmouth is underneath the Bronze, and leave. However, as they leave, they see an army of vampires approaching the library. Cordelia rescues them in her car, and drives the car straight into the library. Xander and Angel reach Buffy, and Xander performs CPR. When Buffy regains consciousness, she heads to the surface to kill the Master. Cordelia, Willow, Giles and Jenny fight off vampires trying to enter the library, and just as Giles realises that the Hellmouth is directly underneath the Library, a tentacled creature rising through the floor. Buffy throws the Master into the library, where he is impaled on a jutting piece of wood and his soft tissues disintegrate, leaving only his skeleton and the world turns back to normal. They all go the dance at the Bronze together.

Arc significance

• Crossover with Angel: The Pergamum Codex will be mentioned again in Orpheus.

• Buffy walks willingly to her death, deciding it is worthwhile to die to save the world. She will make the same decision in season 5.

• Buffy refers to her history of "flunking the written." She was bad at history in an earlier episode. It will be a running gag and plot device, although she will do very well on the SATs.

• Xander will be instrumental in bringing Buffy back to life again in Bargaining, Part One.

• This is the first of three times that Buffy is bitten by a vampire. She is bitten by Angel in Season 3 and by Dracula in Season 5.

Writing and acting

• Xander's quips on animal mating rituals in the first scene may be related to his experience in Teacher's Pet.

Production details

• The entire first season was shot before the first episode aired, but Whedon did not know if there would be a second season.

• Alyson Hannigan said they filmed a bloodier scene where Willow and Cordelia find the AV club dead.

• There was no CGI budget for this episode, so the monster rising from the Hellmouth had each tentacle operated by a person. It was made by special effects studio "Optic Nerve."

• This is the first Buffy episode to be directed by Joss Whedon, who referred to it as one of his ten favorite Buffy episodes.

• This same monster is the second puppet used on Buffy, following Sid the Dummy.

Quotes and trivia

• This is the first, but not the last, time the phrase "game face" is used to describe a vampire's demonic appearance.
• This is the first episode in which Cordelia is seen to drive, and her driver's plate saying "QUEENC" is introduced.
• Buffy dies again after nightmare-dying in Nightmares.
• The tentacled monster is a horror cliche started by H.P. Lovecraft.
• Xander refers to Giles's British attitude as Locutus of the Borg.
• Xander is listening to Patsy Cline's I Fall to Pieces.
• Buffy is listening to Jonatha Brooke and The Story's Inconsolable.
• Willow, the Master and Angel all compliment Buffy's white dress ("I like your dress"). Angel's line was not in the original script.
• This episode was rated TV-14.
• In a scene which was scripted but never filmed, it rains stone on Sunnydale High after Buffy rejects Xander.
• Brother Luca's lost message was a reference to Isaiah 11:6.
• Angel’s “I have no breath” statement seems to contradict with vampires' talking, smoking and panting after strenuous exertion on the show. However, Spike and others will make similar statements (see Becoming, Part 2. One may also argue that Angel never learned how to do CPR and was too embarrassed to say so.
• The scene in which The Master drowns Buffy in a pool of sewer water and says, "By the way, I love the dress" is similar to the Charmed episode From Fear to Eternity, where Barbas drowns Prue in the pool and says "Nice coat."

External links

• Buffy Body Count guide for this episode
• Buffy Guide
• Buffy Trivia Guide
• All Things Philosophical
• TV.com Summary
• BBC Episode Guide
• Wikiquote
• Stake&Cross Summary
• Stake&Cross Quotes
• Buffy World Summary
• Buffy World Statistics
• BBC Trivia Guide
• Angel vs. Buffy Summary
• Music Guide
• Buffyology Summary