Buffy the Vampire Slayer
"Buffy vs Dracula"

Airdate: September 26, 2000

She doesn't look very enthralled to me. Maybe a little hungry, though.

Over the years, Buffy has had a number of fine traditions: shirtless men, men in chains, really ass-kicking fights, and yes, even incredible storylines. Unfortunately it's also had its bad traditions, and foremost among them, the one where the season premieres tend to suck. The series premiere is an exception, as is the second season premiere, "When She Was Bad". Not amazingly beautifically stellar episodes, but still fun and enjoyable. Unfortunately these were followed up by the third season premiere, "Anne", and the fourth season's "The Freshman". Neither of these are episodes I wish to dwell upon, because I'm doing my level best to repress them.

Fortunately, some traditions -- unlike the one where your grandmother always buys you socks and underwear for Christmas -- are sometimes broken. This is the case with "Buffy vs Dracula", the thoroughly enjoyable premiere for Buffy's fifth season. Maybe it's because this year I went in with my expectations suitably low and the "it'll get better" mantra going through my head, or maybe it's just because after a long Buffy-less summer, I can find happiness in almost any new episode, but I really had a fun time with this one.

As the episode's title suggests, Buffy meets a new foe in Dracula, a real sword and sorcery showman whose aim doesn't seem to be to kill the Slayer so much as to seduce her. He enlists as his aid a thoroughly enthralled Xander, who just gets weirder and twitchier as the episode goes on, but he's also got his share of opposition in Riley and Giles (and Tara and Willow, to a somewhat lesser extent). Buffy appears to be under his spell, while Giles is trying to figure out how to tell her that he plans to head back to England, and poor Riley's all insecure 'cause his girlfriend's been thoroughly thralled by the Dark Prince. The play between Buffy and Dracula is very reminiscent of that between Buffy (the other Buffy, I mean) and Lothos in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer feature film, actually. And though I do know what Joss thinks of his movie... I also think the movie did it better.

He may have been Dracula's butt-monkey, but he looked mighty good, even while under the control of the Dark Master... bater.

Anyway, while Riley consults Spike -- who knew Dracula way back when and says the bugger still owes him money -- and then checks out the spooky haunts with Giles, Xander the Uber-Enthralled takes Buffy to meet with Dracula (a la the Anointed One taking Buffy to the Master), and she ends up kicking the enthrallment and kicking Dracula's ass. Giles is nearly licked to death by the mandatory trio of hot vampire chicks and is saved by Riley, and Dracula's spell over Xander is broken when the vamp dies. Buffy tells Giles how she needs him now more than ever -- as she's trying to delve into her Slayer roots -- and he seemingly decides to stay in Sunnydale, never telling Buffy that he ever planned on leaving.

This episode has a lot of up sides, but I think I'll deliver the down sides first. This whole Dracula thing isn't working for me. I think it might have had something to do with Rudolf Martin, who had all the charisma of a fallen log. Also, I would like to point out his incredibly overstated make-up job, silly costume, and what the hell was the deal with that hair? While I suspect that much of this Dracula's image is just poking fun at the myth, it's often played too seriously and with a surprising lack of camp. I was also annoyed by Riley's lack of common sense: in Spike, he had a source who not only knew Dracula but apparently knew him personally in times past. That makes Spike someone who's not only familiar with Dracula's Jedi mind tricks, but probably also familiar with how to foil them, and how to kill the big show-off. And yet while his girlfriend goes off to get the whammy put on her by Dracula's Forever Knight voodoo eyeballs, he doesn't even think to go back to Spike to get the vital stats on the bad guy.

And I swear I'm not just saying that because I want to see more of James Marsters. Honest.

Luckily, to compensate, the up sides were very up. Nicholas Brendon in particular delivered a hilarious performance, complete with creepy giggle, bug-eating, and weird-ass behavior. Anthony Stewart Head also distinguished himself yet again, and even Marc Blucas endeared himself to me now that he's become average-Joe with some pretty good lines and lost the whole "Me Commando, you Slayer, we snog" act that was foisted on the poor fellow last season.

I was impressed. I was happy. I was wishing there'd been more Spike, but I settled for the few moments of sexy lounging. So of course they had to go and ruin it all by taking the last couple minutes of show and devoting them to a plot development that I already strongly dislike: Buffy's little sister, Dawn. I must say I object. We've got plenty of interesting characters already. I really don't see any reason to add a cute pre-teen who happens to be a long-lost relative of a main character. Adding those sorts of unnecessary and annoying characters is what really awful fan fiction is for. But I will give Dawn a fair chance... I'm just disturbed by next week's promo, which seems to be for an episode devoted entirely to the new character. And here I was hoping they'd learned their lesson with that last season.

-- Lisa Kincaid

Buffy the Vampire Slayer airs at 8/7c, Tuesdays on the WB.

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