Buffy vs. Dracula

"Buffy vs. Dracula"

"Buffy vs. Dracula" is the first episode in season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode attracted 5.8 million viewers.

Plot synopsis

Summary

Buffy faces the infamous Count Dracula, who has come to Sunnydale to make her one of his concubines. In the process, he turns Xander into a Renfield of sorts, and Giles becomes enthralled with the three sisters, much like Jonathan Harker in the original novel. However, after a brief spell during which Buffy is mesmerized by the Count, she regains her usual composure and defeats him.

Expanded overview

Unable to sleep, Buffy goes out to patrol the cemetery and after staking a vampire, she returns to bed with Riley. The next day, Buffy and Riley play around at the beach, until Willow magically ignites the barbecue, and a sudden storm forces them all to seek shelter from the rain. Two men deliver a large crate to a residence, but when they drop it, a clawed hand breaks through the wood and attacks one of the men.

Giles has Willow start scanning books so that they can be resources for the gang to use. He then announces that he's going back to England because it seems he's no longer needed by Buffy nor the Scoobies.

While patrolling, Buffy is confronted by a vampire who condenses from mist: he introduces himself as Count Dracula. When she tries to stake the legendary vampire, he disappears. Xander and Willow arrive to see Dracula before he turns into a bat and flies away. The women discuss how amazing Dracula is, and Riley and Xander both express their jealousy towards the infamous Dark Prince. Willow makes a lame attempt to attract attention to Giles and his usefulness, but the gang seems oblivious.

As Xander is walking home alone, he encounters Dracula. Using his mysterious charms, the vampire persuades Xander to be his aid and lure the Slayer to him. Riley asks Spike about Dracula, but the former commando is warned that Dracula is too dangerous for him to take on alone. Buffy awakens to find Dracula in her bedroom. She is helpless against his powers and unable to stop him from biting her. When she wakes the next morning, she hides the puncture marks in her neck with a scarf.

While munching on donuts, the gang discusses their plan of attack. Buffy seems distracted and after hearing about the truths of Dracula, she leaves abruptly. Riley follows her and forces her to take off the scarf to show the puncture marks on her neck. Everyone is shocked to see that she has been under the control of Dracula. Since Xander is under Dracula's power, he has a strange hunger for spiders and attempts to defend the powerful vampire to his friends. Xander volunteers to have Buffy stay safely at his place, Willow and Tara use magic to protect the Summers's home, and Giles and Riley go after Dracula.

Anya complains about not going after Dracula herself, until Xander locks her in the closet. Xander takes the willing Slayer to his "Master" in hopes of getting immortality in return. After being left alone with Dracula, Buffy tries to take control and stake him, but he is easily able to make her put the stake down. Riley and Giles discover Dracula's castle, remarking how they've never noticed it before, and enter carefully. Dracula talks to Buffy of all the things he will do for her while she struggles to regain control of herself.

Xander tries to stop Riley from going after Dracula, but Riley quickly knocks him out. Giles finds himself victim to the Three Sisters who effectively keep him distracted. Dracula offers his blood to Buffy, and she hesitantly takes a drink. A flash of memories allows Buffy to break his control over her. Riley rescues Giles from the sister vampires, and they go to save Buffy. Buffy and Dracula fight in a vicious battle, and finally Buffy stakes him. After they leave, Dracula comes back from the dust. Buffy is there and stakes him, knowing he would come back. Dracula attempts to reform again but is reminded by Buffy that she is "standing right here". He slips away in his mist-form.

Buffy talks to Giles, telling him that she wants to be the Slayer again, to learn about her duties and her future. She asks Giles to be her Watcher again, and Giles is pleased. Buffy comes home and announces to her mom that she's going out with Riley. As she enters her room, she finds a girl there going through her stuff. Joyce tells Buffy that she should take her sister with her if she goes out.

Production details

Writing

The vampire who was going to show Buffy a darker side of herself was originally envisioned as "just another vampire who rode a horse and was all cool", says writer Marti Noxon. "I kept saying, 'Like Dracula'" - until Joss Whedon said, "Why not Dracula? He's public domain."

Noxon says the scene in which Dracula implies that Buffy would "make an amazing vampire" thematically resonates with the questions of identity with which Buffy struggles thoughout Season 5.

Music

• Vertical Horizon - "Finding Me"

Acting

Starring

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
• Marc Blucas as Riley Finn
• Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
• James Marsters as Spike
• and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

• Rudolf Martin as Dracula
• Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
• Amber Benson as Tara
• and Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers

Co-Starring

• E.J. Gage as Mover #1
• Scott Berman as Mover #2
• Marita Schaub as Vampire Girl #1
• Leslee Jean Matta as Vampire Girl #2
• Jennifer Slimko as Vampire Girl #3

Cultural references

• Buffy disagrees with Dracula's assessment of her because it sounds like "(she) paints clowns" - a reference to John Wayne Gacy.

• Xander compares Dracula to The Count from Sesame Street.

Quotes and trivia

• This is the third time that Buffy is bitten by a vampire. She was bitten by the Master in "Prophecy Girl" and by Angel in "Graduation Day, Part Two".

• Emma Caulfield joins the regular cast and is added to the opening credits in this episode.

• Rudolf Martin played Sarah Gellar's love interest Anton on All My Children. He later played Vlad the Impaler (the supposed inspiration for Dracula) in a TV miniseries, Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula, released in the same year.

• Excerpts from this episode appear on a television screen in the Russian vampire film Night Watch.

• "As of this moment, it's over; I'm finished being everybody's butt monkey" -- Xander

Continuity

The allusion Spike makes in this episode to him and Dracula being rivals is further explored in a comics miniseries, Spike Versus Dracula, in which the two vampires run across, and try to kill, each other through various decades. In the comic, Dracula is shown to resent the novel, feeling that it doesn't do him justice. When Dracula burns a copy that Spike had bought, Spike claims that Dracula owes him eleven pounds, a recurring line throughout the miniseries, and in this episode.

The line Dracula says to Buffy--"You think you know... who you are, what's to come"-- is almost the same line that Tara said to Buffy in her dream in "Restless".

Dracula and Buffy face each other again, with much similar results, in the Dark Horse comic Tales of the Vampires #3 "Antique" by Drew Goddard.

Arc significance

This episode can be seen as a new beginning for Buffy after defeating Adam and paves the way for the new season's main theme: Buffy's real self and purpose. She learns from Dracula that she's a hunter perhaps more than she's a slayer, and he whets her appetite for exploring herself and finding out more about the Slayer lineage and its purpose and roots.

The episode is also significant in that its final scene features the appearance of Dawn, the younger sister of Buffy.

Also, Dracula hints at the Slayer's origins in this episode, origins that will be fully revealed in the 7th season episode "Get It Done".

Translations

• Italian title: "Il morso del vampiro" ("The bite of the vampire")
• German title: "Buffy vs. Dracula"
• French title: "Buffy contre Dracula" ("Buffy Against Dracula")
• Spanish title: "Buffy contra Dracula" ("Buffy versus Dracula")

Timing

Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:

External links

• "Buffy vs. Dracula" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode