Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (Buffy episode)
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| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
| "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"{{#if:{{{Image|}}}|<tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="2">Image:Buffyep28.jpg | |
| Episode No. | Season 2 Episode 16 |
|---|---|
| Guest star(s) | Seth Green (Oz) Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers) Robia LaMorte (Ms. Calendar) James Marsters (Spike) Juliet Landau (Drusilla) |
| Writer(s) | Marti Noxon |
| Director | James A. Contner |
| Production No. | 5V16 |
| Airdate | February 10 1998 |
| {{{Episode list|Episode chronology}}} | |
| Previous episode | "Phases" |
| Next episode | "Passion" |
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" is episode 16 of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.
Contents |
Plot synopsis
Summary
Cordelia decides to dump Xander when her friends mock her. Xander retaliates by attempting a love spell.
Expanded overview
On her night patrol through a cemetery, Xander shows Buffy the silver necklace he intends to give Cordelia for Valentine's Day. Buffy teases him for his girl while reassuring him of the gift. Xander is under no illusions as he is convinced that dating Cordelia is more perilous than slaying.
On Valentine's Day, Harmony and her followers insult Cordelia for going out with Xander. Xander notices that Amy Madison avoided homework by hypnotizing the teacher. He offers to speak to her as Buffy and Willow remember Amy's "amateur psycho" mother. Giles appears and asks to speak with Buffy when Jenny Calendar sees him and tries to make up. Giles decides that Buffy is more important; they leave for the library.
There, he warns Buffy of Angelus's vicious history around St. Valentine's Day. Giles decides Buffy does not need to know the details and offers to patrol on her behalf. At the same time, Spike shows Drusilla a necklace that is overwhelmed by a heart freshly torn from a "quaint little shop girl" by Angelus.
Whiling that night away alongside her mom, Buffy receives an ominous note from Angelus. Meanwhile, Willow confesses to being a groupie of Oz and his band. Cordelia is again ignored by her clique when Xander approaches. After sadly praising him first for his clothes, then for the necklace, she breaks up with him. Xander is outraged at her timing.
Xander is humiliated the next morning when everyone at Sunnydale High is laughing at the way he was dumped. He spots Amy and blackmails her into casting a love spell so he can break up with a lovelorn Cordelia and "put her through the same hell." Xander decides to take back the necklace for the ritual, unaware that Cordelia is wearing it as a keepsake.
In the library, Buffy convinces Giles to tell him of Angelus's atrocities.
The next morning, Xander finds Cordelia unmoved by his spell. He soon finds that it is working on every other girl. Buffy is interested in giving him a lap-dance, Amy wants to hang out and even a Harmony groupie wants to study with him at night. He runs home only to find Willow hiding under his sheets, a surprise for which he gives high marks. She offers him her virginity.
The next day, Sunnydale High girls are pleased to see Xander in the hallways; the boys, less so. Xander confesses to Giles, who is appalled at his foolishness. Jenny enters the library intent on conversing with Giles, but soon finds herself distracted. When the Watcher looks for Amy to reverse the spell, he has to drag a moaning Ms. Calendar away. Xander blockades the door, only to find Buffy willing to give him more than a heart attack. When he refuses to undress her because she is under the influence, she becomes enraged, thinking he is toying with her. Amy walks in seeking Xander too, so Buffy punches her hard in the face. Amy turns Buffy into a rat, sending her scurrying behind bookcases. Buffy-rat hurries out of the library when a confused Oz punches Xander for making Willow cry on the phone all night. Giles sends Xander home.
On his way out, Xander sees Harmony and other girls attacking Cordelia. He takes her outside only to find an axe-wielding Willow leading other Sunnydale females. Xander and Cordelia flee to Buffy's house, only to find Joyce pawing over him. Angelus then appears in Buffy's window and drags Xander out. Drusilla saves Angelus's substitute present for Buffy and offers him immortality. She is distracted by Willow and her gang, and Cordelia pulls Xander back in the house. The mob break into the house with knives and sticks. Cornered in the basement, Xander reveals all to Cordelia. She is touched.
Meanwhile, Giles had convinced Amy to reverse her spells, though they have to do without Jenny's help. Thankfully, Buffy-rat did not eat the cheese on a mousetrap in the school basement, but Buffy does find herself with a "slight case of nudity." And just as they are about to kill a young couple, the spell is lifted from the obsessed women in the Summers basement. Thinking quickly, Cordy commends their scavenger hunt.
The next morning, all has returned to normal, but Willow still refuses to talk to Xander. Buffy is impressed by Xander's reaction to her seduction. And after Harmony insults Xander again, Cordelia finally faces up to her friends and walks away locked in arms with Xander.
Writing and acting
Cordelia being Xander's spell target was what moved her back to Xander's arms was probably the only weak point of the episode. Although it would not be out of character for Cordelia to feel moved by an extreme gesture to curry her favor.
Production details
Music
- The Average White Band - "Got The Love"
- Christophe Beck - "Buffy Rat"
- Christophe Beck - "Mob rush"
- Christophe Beck - "Twice the Fool"
- Four Star Mary - "Pain"
- Naked - "Drift away"
Quotes and trivia
- This episode's title is a reference to a Rodgers and Hart song of the same name.
- This is one of Nicholas Brendon's favourite episodes. He found it hard not to laugh throughout the filming of the various seductive scenes.
- Buffy was turned into a rat during this episode so Sarah Michelle Gellar had more time to rehearse for her appearance on Saturday Night Live as a guest host. She has since hosted SNL twice more.
Continuity
Arc significance
Like Doppelgängland in the following season, this comic episode came soon after a Scooby Gang member turned bad. In this case, Angel had lost his soul. In both cases, the comedy takes advantage of the tension that had been building thus far into the season.
This episode is a metaphor for peer pressure. Some of its morals are: You can never please everybody/some people; Be careful what you wish for; and Be yourself.
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse: