Guest Starring: 
     
 Kristine Sutherland: 
 (Joyce Summers) 
   
 Mark Metcalf: 
 (The Master) 
   
 Brian Thompson: 
 (Luke) 
   
 David Boreanaz: 
 (Angel) 
   
 Ken Lerner: 
 (Principal Flutie) 
   
 Julie Benz: 
 (Darla) 
   
 Eric Balfour: 
 (Jesse) 
   
 
 
  2. The Harvest.  
   
  Buffy prevents the harvest by defeating the vampires at 'The Bronze', but not before the Master discovers that she is the Slayer.  
   
  Great quotes:  
   
 
Luke.
  • Buffy: "God I'm so mentally challenged!"
  • Xander: "Vampire slayage."
  • Principal Flutie is less than impressed with the Brits: "In Brit-ain they've got that royal family and all sorts of problems."
  • Xander re-assures Jesse by telling him: "It's cool, Buffy's a superhero!"
  • Giles on the internet: "It may be you could wrest some information from that dread machine."
  • Xander: "Yesterday my life was like 'pop quiz', today it's 'o-oh rain of toad'."
 
  Fantastic moments:  
   
 
Xander.
  • Cordelia talking idly about her lifestyle with her vacant friends in the bronze is great, she says she like older boys better because they have cars and that "I have to have the most expensive thing, not 'cos it's expensive but because it costs more."
  • The big battle in the Bronze is well directed and has lots of decent action and comedy.
  • I loved Giles' anti-Christian rail at the start of the show, "Contrary to popular belief the world did not begin as a paradise." Religion will continue to be a thorny issue.
  • I love the story Buffy tells Xander as they prowl through the tunnels about the Left Tackle with the "...really thick neck..." she killed. Then Xander apologises for not bringing anything useful by telling her that "...the part of my brain that would normally tell me to bring that stuff if still telling me not to come here!"
 
  Duff Bits:  
   
 
  • The first use of computers to do something totally improbable, Willow uses the internet to look up a plan of the city's sewers.
  • It's the daytime when Buffy goes to the mausoleum, has Angel been waiting there all night for her? Did he come there through the sewers? If so why?
  • Angel's character is a little annoying at this stage. Why doesn't he help Buffy instead of hiding in the shadows?
 
  Dean's comments:  
   
 
The Master.
This is a great second part which continues the themes of the first without let-up. The writers are showing their wit already in the way that Buffy deals with Luke in the Bronze at the end. Once again the dialogue is sharp and witty although this time less actually happens. As an opening for the whole series, these two episodes set it up remarkably well, the relationships that we see here will continue to develop and grow for the next 7 years. More of the mythology is introduced too, Giles talks about how Jesse is no longer a real person and that he has become "...the thing that killed him." while Buffy uses holy water, beheading, stakes and (sort of) sunlight to kill vampires. Vampires cannot fly in this series' mythology while it appears that dead people vanish as well as dead vampires (there are no dead bodies on the stage of the Bronze at the end). I am interested to look at what happens to Jesse's character over the course of
Buffy kills Luke.
this pilot 2-parter; he starts out as a total looser before finally getting a dance with Cordelia. What did he have to do to attain this air of 'cool'? Become a vampire of course. This is one of the central themes of the series, that teenagers are trying to be something they're not in an attempt to fit in and be accepted. Becoming a vampire was Jesse's way of doing that.
 
   
 7/10 
 
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