AlsExGal

... and I mean literally! James Marsters said during an interview that the way his character is introduced is the classic stage entrance method he was taught at Julliard, but I digress.

Joss Whedon meant for Spike and Dru to be vampire equivalents of Sid and Nancy. Spike is so named because he is known for driving railroad spikes through his victims. He has killed two vampire slayers in the past and has it in mind to kill the current one - Buffy. He's been obsessed with slayers from the moment that he found out about their existence. You can see his obsession in his posture and facial expression as he watches Buffy dancing at The Bronze.

Where does Spike choose to kill the slayer? At the Sunnydale High School Parent Teacher night. The title comes from the fact that this episode is supposed to be like the movie "Die Hard" from about ten years before.

On top of being important for introducing the character Spike, this episode is so pinnacle for establishing some character points and relationship dynamics. One of my favorite scenes is when Buffy tasks Xander with getting a stake out of her purse, and his shock and terror at discovering a tampon as he digs through her bag. It's subtle indicator of the fear the genders have of each other in youth, but it conveys the awkwardness so perfectly.

Principal Flutie got eaten by "the pack" in a previous episode, and his replacement is the authoritarian Principal Snyder. Snyder hears the Scoobies making fun of the school talent show and orders them to participate. This is not to teach them any kind of empathy. Instead, he's just a big bully. Actually he's a pretty diminuative bully, but I digress. Giles is already in charge of the talent show - I'm pretty sure he's not a willing participant either.

Backstage after rehearsals a girl is found dead with her heart missing. Buffy immediately suspects either some organ harvesting demon or maybe it's a just your run-of-the-mill human murderer. Complications ensue.

I actually liked this "monster of the week" episode. It showed growing chemistry and camaraderie among the main characters, and the final scene of their talent show performance was hilarious and realistic for a high school performance. Joss Whedon said it took longer to shoot than any other scene of the show they had done up to that time. Nobody could stop laughing. The actors were very good at bad acting apparently!