Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S3/E12 Helpless

Buffy reaches her 18th birthday and she must undergo the Cruciamentum test according to Slayer tradition. She must kill a vampire without her powers. Said vamp escapes...

"Quentin: We're not in the business of fair, Miss Summers; we're fighting a war.
 * After-Action Patchup: After discovering Giles had secretly injected her, Buffy threatens to kill him if he touches her again. At the end of the episode, after Giles has been fired for helping her, Buffy allows him to clean the wound on her forehead.
 * Air Vent Escape: Buffy escapes Karlik at one point by sliding down a laundry chute.
 * Ankle Drag
 * Armchair Military

Giles: You're waging a war. She's fighting it. There is a difference."

"Willow: You can vote now! You can be drafted! You can vote to not be drafted!"
 * Ax Crazy: Kralik was criminally insane even before he became a vampire.
 * Bad Liar: Giles; tragically Buffy trusts him so much she doesn't even notice.
 * Barrier-Busting Blow
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Buffy has always said I Just Want to Be Normal, but on losing her superpowers Buffy starts worrying how she'll be able to cope, knowing there are demons out there and being powerless to fight them off.
 * Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs

"Buffy: Actually, I do have a date. Older man. Very handsome. Likes it when I call him 'Daddy'.
 * Brought Down to Normal
 * Bully Hunter: Averted when Buffy sees a boy at school roughing up Cordelia and tries to do her usual thing, only to be knocked down and Cordelia to end up driving him off with a barrage of girly punches. It's then that Buffy really starts to panic.
 * Call Back: Angel tells Buffy of how he first saw her, depicted in "Becoming, Part 2". Buffy refers to her stake as "Mr. Pointy", no doubt in memorandum of Kendra doing the same thing.
 * Captain Obvious: Oz re ice. It's cool. And it's water, but it's not.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Kralik's pills.
 * Clothing Reflects Personality: Buffy shuns her trendy vampire-attracting clothes for the Dungarees of Doom when going to fight Kralik.
 * Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: "Hide and seeek, hide and seeek..."
 * Comically Missing the Point: Angel is casually (trying to, at least) ask Buffy if she has a date on her birthday.

Angel: (looking relieved) Huh. Your father. [beat] It is your father, right?"

"Willow: Aha! A curse on Slayers. Oh, no. Wait. I-it's lawyers."
 * Buffy coldy tells Giles, "I don't know you," Cordy takes her literally and believes some demon has given her amnesia, as well as wondering from their serious expressions if the world's supposed to end again and whether or not she should bother studying for an exam if that's the case.
 * Continuity Nod: To the flashback in "Becoming, Part One" when Angel first saw Buffy.
 * Disappeared Dad: This episode marks a change from Buffy's father simply being estranged from Joyce, to one who refuses to turn up even when Buffy needs him
 * Evil Lawyer Joke: The Scoobies are hitting the books to find out what could be affecting Buffy.

"Buffy: I guess that... I just have some... energy to burn."
 * Expy: A Wicked Cultured cannibal Serial Killer in a straitjacket. Hmm, sounds familiar.
 * Fight Off the Kryptonite: Oz and Xander suggest this is why Buffy is getting weaker, then get into a geek argument over which type of Kryptonite is involved.
 * Foreshadowing: Buffy gripes about being the responsible Slayer while Faith is out having fun -- in "Bad Girls" after Giles is replaced by a less competent Watcher, Buffy starts exploring her delinquent side with Faith.
 * Friendship Moment: A subtle one where Buffy asks Cordelia for a lift, having point-blank refused to get one from Giles. Not understanding the context but seeing Buffy is in pain, Cordelia agrees without questions or snarking.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: After a rather... tense training session with Angel, Buffy is sat down with Giles revising the effects of crystals, and is rather fidgety. At one point she twiddles a rather long and thin crystal, and when Giles asks her if she's alright she responds:

"Buffy: The important thing is that I kept up my special birthday tradition of gut-wrenching misery and horror.
 * Giving Them the Strip: Buffy escapes Kralik by slipping out of her red coat when he grabs it. Unfortunately the vampire uses that same coat to trick Buffy's mother (see Playing Possum).
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Giles finding Hobson's body; he just runs out of the room retching.
 * Holy Burns Evil
 * Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Buffy doesn't want to celebrate her birthday because bad things will happen. Of course bad things happen anyway.

Oz: Bright side to everything."

"Willow, can you give me a hand here?"
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Malcolm Reed is the Watcher who gets turned into a vampire mook.
 * Hypocritical Humor: Xander enjoys Buffy's weakness because he can do manly things like open peanut butter jars for her, then finds he can't open the jar either.

"Vampire: I'll kill you for that!
 * I Have Your Mother
 * I'll Kill You!: Buffy sends a vampire on an amusing Pratfall down a children's slippery slide.

Buffy: For that? What were you trying to kill me for before?"

"Giles: I am deeply sorry, Buffy, (reaches out to her) and you have to understand__
 * Not Played for Laughs when Buffy finds out the truth.

Buffy: (shaking with rage) If you touch me, I'll kill you."

"Kralik: Why did you come to the dark of the woods? (opens Buffy's bag of weapons) To bring all these sweets to grandmother's house?"
 * Interplay of Sex and Violence: The entire teaser -- from Angel's and Buffy's romantic dinner turning into a UST-loaded sparring session, Buffy fiddling with a phallic-like crystal eager to get on with the slaying, to a vampire pinning Buffy under his body while trying to stick a wooden stake into her.
 * Little Dead Riding Hood: When Kralik first attacks Buffy, she's walking home wearing a red coat.

"Angel: I watched you, and I saw you called. It was a bright afternoon out in front of your school. You walked down the steps... and... and I loved you.
 * Love At First Sight / Romantic Hyperbole

Buffy: Why?

Angel: 'Cause I could see your heart. You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe... to warm it with my own.

Buffy: That's beautiful. Or taken literally, incredibly gross.

Angel: (grimacing) I was just thinking that, too."

"Giles: I don't give a rat's ass about the Council's orders. There will be no test."
 * Mars Needs Women: Kralik intends to change Buffy into a vampire so he won't be alone.
 * Mommy Issues / Freudian Excuse: Kralik. He's well aware of it.
 * Neck Lift: Kralik does this to Blair to prevent him calling for help.
 * No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Giles is fired as Buffy's Watcher; he won't be reinstated until "Checkpoint" in Season 5.
 * Out-of-Genre Experience: Has more of a horror movie feel as opposed to the usual action-y approach of the series.
 * Parental Substitute: After Buffy's Disappeared Dad fails to take her to the ice show, Buffy drops a big hint that Giles could take her instead.
 * Papa Bear: After Giles disobeys protocol by telling Buffy about the test and later coming to her aid, Quentin Travers admonishes Giles that he has "a father's love" for Buffy rendering him "incapable of clear and impartial judgement".
 * Playing Possum: Kralik lures Joyce out of the house by wrapping himself in Buffy's red coat and ambushing Joyce when she runs out to check why 'Buffy' is lying unconscious on the verandah.
 * Precision F-Strike

"Buffy: If I was at full Slayer power, I'd be punning right about now."
 * Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Lampshaded by Buffy.

"Buffy: (smiling) Satisfied?
 * Red Shirt: Both Blair and Hobson.
 * Room Full of Crazy: Buffy enters a room to find the walls covered in polaroids of her Bound and Gagged mother.
 * Rule of Symbolism: Buffy's first fight is in an Abandoned Playground, with all the 'leave childhood behind' metaphors that implies.
 * Self-Made Orphan: Kralik, and he intends to make Buffy just like him, saying to Joyce that when Buffy wakes up a vampire, "Your face will be the first thing she eats."
 * Screaming Woman: Buffy being chased by Kralik on the way home. Needless to say no-one stops to help in Sunnydale.
 * Spot of Tea: Quentin drinks tea from a china cup while calmly discussing Buffy's impending peril.
 * Tear Jerker: Giles injecting Buffy with the chemical that stripped her of her powers, planting a seed of distrust that wouldn't blossom until "Lies My Parents Told Me".
 * Too Kinky to Torture: Buffy tries to ward off Kralik with a cross. Kralik presses it to his body and enjoys the pain, telling her to move it lower.
 * Transhuman Treachery: This is the first time we see a turning on screen with one of the Watcher's employee's, Blair, becoming a vampire and instantly siding with Kralik upon awakening.
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: Lampshaded with Buffy and Angel's training fight.

Angel: I'm not sure that's the word.

Buffy: (taken aback) Okay. I didn't mean 'satisfied' like...

Angel: No, I, I wasn't trying to...

Buffy: (awkwardly) 'Cause we're not having satisfaction in the personal sense."

"Buffy: Before I was the Slayer, I was... Well, I, I don't wanna say shallow, but... Let's say a certain person, who will remain nameless -- we'll just call her Spordelia -- looked like a classical philosopher next to me."
 * Use Your Head: When Buffy finds herself pinned by the first vampire, she escapes by headbutting him.
 * Valley Girl: Angel points out that Buffy spent most of her life being normal, but that only makes Buffy worried.


 * Who Are You?: Buffy asks this of Giles when she finds out he betrayed her.
 * You Fight Like a Cow: Buffy and the vampire she's fighting at the beginning of the episode. Until her strength starts to fade along with her punning abilities; suddenly the vamp is the only one making wisecracks.