"Hush"
Airdate: December 14, 1999

I may have to abandon my atheistic stance on life, because as it turns out, you really can get a miracle if you pray hard enough.

Or maybe my wishes have been granted by some unseen demon. After all, that's what Buffy's all about. Wish-granting demons. Or something like that. The point is, in my darkest hour of depressed funk, when I was wondering if I'd ever get back the Buffy I'd once known, my prayers were answered and true eerieness descended once again upon Sunnydale. There were creepy monsters, there was kick-ass action, there were thrills and chills that made me shiver.

That's right. I've rediscovered my religion. I'm a born-again Buffy fan.

Alright, so I never really stopped liking the show, but it was in the doldrums there for awhile. And if no other episode this season has lived up to the shining standards that some of us more demanding fans set for our viewing, then "Hush" is the one to remind everyone of what they liked so much about Buffy in the first place.

Just when things are seeming a little normal for Buffy -- Riley's paying her the proper attention, slayage seems slow -- she gets one of her Slayer-type prophetic dreams. And not just any prophetic dream, but one with a really fucked up nursery rhyme. If that's not enough to set up the mood, I don't know what is. But the next thing we know, the monsters of the week -- a group of spooks called "The Gentlemen" -- have arrived on the scene, and they throw a blanket of silence over Sunnydale by stealing the voices of everyone in town.

Thus begins the much-hyped twenty-nine minutes of dialogue-free action. The Gentlemen (with the help of their psych-ward-escapee slaves whose exaggerated arm-swinging lope puts even "Beer Bad"'s ape boys to shame in the cheese department) have a nasty habit of collecting organs from unwilling, living donors. And let me tell you, there haven't been many creepier things on Buffy than a college student screaming without a sound while a group of ghouls autopsy him alive.

Of course, The Gentlemen have to be stopped, and the Slayer and her -ettes spring into action, even voiceless as they are. But they're not the only ones hunting for answers; the boys of The Initiative are out in force, too; in plain clothes, they try to keep the town's citizens from killing each other. But at night they stalk the town in their fatigues (thank you god for Marc Blucas in kevlar) seeking out the culprits.

It's this common enemy that brings Buffy and Riley together again, but they happen to meet up while kicking the crap out of the Gentlemens' minions, and the visual we get of Riley and Buffy turning to each other, each with weapons raised, is a revelation: for both of them, the cat's out of the bag. But when they finally triumph and regain their voices, they both recognize that they need to talk. Unfortunately, neither can find the words, and we leave them in Buffy's dorm, regarding one another in silence.

The entire episode is marked by dark, lush visuals and Christophe Beck's haunting score, and in the end it comes out like the bastard child of Sleepy Hollow and Dark City. The lack of dialogue is used as an amazingly creepy advantage and doesn't feel at all like the gimmick that all the heavy WB promotion made me fear that it would be. The performances delivered are intense and absolutely stellar. Anyone who might've believed that Buffy's only strength was it snappy dialogue has been proved horribly, horribly wrong.

Easily one of the best episodes of any season, "Hush" is just the thing to convert all your friends to your glorious faith. In the name of Whedon, Marsters, and the Holy Gellar, amen.

-- Lisa Kincaid

Buffy the Vampire Slayer airs Tuesdays on the WB.

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