Band Candy

First televised November 10, 1998; première diffusion en france le 20 novembre 1999
Guest Starring Kristine Sutherland (JoyceSummers), K. ToddFreeman (Mr. Trick), Robin Sachs (Ethan Royne), Harry Groener (Mayor Wilkins), and Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder); Written by Jane Espenson,. Directed by Michael Lange; Edited by Nancy Forner

Intro: At the cemetery, Giles helps Buffy prepare for her SATs. A vampire attacks. Mr. Trick meets with Mayor Wilkins, who made certain deals to get where he is, and "this demon requires his tribute." Wilkins hires Trick to do a job; Trick will in turn hire someone.

Act 1: Buffy and the gang talk about the SAT. Snyder hands them all boxes of candy to sell to raise money for new marching band uniforms. Buffy's mom will buy twenty candy bars. Buffy wants to retake her driving test; Mom says no. Later, Buffy trains with Giles-who also bought twenty candy bars. Buffy visits Angel, who is working out. She gets home late-and finds Mom and Giles waiting for her. They argue (and eat candy). Ethan Rayne supervises packing and distribution of the candy at the warehouse.

Act 2: At science class, Xander eats a candy bar and plays footsie with Willow. The teacher isn't there. Snyder (eating candy) assigns another teacher to sub, but she lets class out early. Buffy visits Giles at home and finds him with Mom-they have agreed to lighten up on her schedule. Mom lets Buffy drive. Buffy and Willow head to the Bronze. Joyce and Giles listen to old rock music and smoke, then decide to go out to the Bronze. At the Bronze, Oz's band plays. Buffy and Willow see lots of grown-ups (including Snyder) acting childish. Trick meets with Rayne and inspects production. Buffy decides to go see Giles-Willow and Oz accompany her, and Snyder tags along! Giles steals a jacket for Joyce. Buffy runs her SUV into another car.

Act 3: A policeman catches Giles, but he beats him up and takes his gun. Joyce thinks Giles is "so cool." They kiss. Buffy notices that all the adults are on the streets; no one is at home. She suspects the candy is the cause. Willow and Oz will do research at the library. Buffy finds Mom and Giles kissing outside the candy distribution center. Buffy breaks inside and finds Rayne. Willow, Oz, Xander, and Cordelia continue their research at the library. Rayne says Trick is behind everything-he's helping him collect a tribute for a demon. The tribute is the children. Vampires invade the maternity ward and take the babies.

Act 4: Willow learns that the tribute is babies. Buffy goes to the maternity ward and finds the babies missing. Buffy, Giles and Joyce head to the sewers. A ritual is taking place; Wilkins is there. Buffy attacks. A snake demon eats one of the vampires. Buffy sets the demon on fire as Trick escapes. Wilkins isn't happy with Trick, though as Trick sees it, Wilkins has one less demon to worry about. The next day, the parents are back to normal. Buffy doesn't think she did well on her SATs, but at least she stopped Giles and Mom before they "did something." (Or did she?)

COMMENTS: This ostensible "humor" episode has a dark edge that gives it a special quality, finely combining the two aspects of the series into a single story. Both are slight comic book affairs drugged candy bars and demons demanding infant sacrifices but the performances win out. Anthony Head steals the show as a punkish teen delinquent, though Armin Shimerman-of whom we've never been particularly enamored here- also has some good moments as an insecure, tag-along follower trying desperately to impress. His character is developed best by his return to youth; others are not Illuminated as well. A more precise script would have deepened the characters, but instead viewers mainly get jokeyfirri. It's entertaining, jokey fun, but it could have been more.

Wilkins's interest in the children of Sunnydale is reinforced in this episode after being introduced in "Homecoming". These themes have greater significance in light of the season finale, as does the snake demon. Taken together, Wilkins is portrayed not just as a runof-the-mill bad guy who cut a few corners to get ahead arid makes life miserable, for the good guys (et cetera et cetera), but as someone who is evil to his core. This season-long are is a surprising change of pace from the first two seasons, in that the primary villain isn't a vampire. It's somewhat of a bold moveBuffy the vampire slayer*s main adversarv isn't a vamp i re. Again credit t~e producers for riot thinking that they are lied to a specific formula that must be repeated over arid over again.

Mr. Trick is a vampire. of course, and he makes yet another appearance here. But lie will not last the entire year. thereby shifting the focus to Wilkins. It's a clever plotting formula, actually: the viewer is introduced to Wilkins through Trick, who dominates in the early episodes: thenTrick goes away and Wilkins dominates.
Ethan Ra yne returns from two episodes in the second season, "Halloween," in which he owned Ethan's Costume Shop (whose clothes had magical powers) and "The Dark Age" which dealt with Giles's and Rayne's past. In both episodes, Rayne escapes, allowing him to return again. "Band Candy" is no different: Trick tells Wilkins that he paid Rayne for his work so as not to burn any bridges, thus setting up the possibility of Rayne's return at a later date.

The episode hints that Giles and Joyce had sex, something that Buffy doesn't want to think about. But it does make sense in a way: Giles has, for all practical purposes, becoming her father figure. (This theme is presented more directly in "Helpless"). In the scene at the end of act one in which Giles and Joyes are grilling Buffy as to her where abouts, the frame, is composed, and the scene is structured as if they were husband and wife-a kind of metaphor. Buffy, then, can be "wigged ouC on two fronts: the idea of tier mom being romantically involved with her teacher and friend, and, more subtly, the idea of her "parents" making love.
Finally, speaking of that "grilling" scene. it contained one of those wonderful Twin Pcaks-ish moments that happen cvery so often in this series (for instance at the beginning of "Surprise" in season two). As Joyce and Giles are upbraiding Buffy, they are munching away on candy bars. So the scene alternates between
Xander and Willow yelling, taking a bite, yelling sonic more, taking another bite, and soon, creating tense and humorous Trionients simultaneously. It's fun to imagine what director David Lynch could have done with a scene like that....