Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S3/E20 The Prom

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Buffy: No! You guys are going to have a prom. The kind of prom that everyone should have. I'm going to give you all a nice, fun, normal evening if I have to kill every single person on the face of the earth to do it.
Xander: Yay?

Angel breaks up with Buffy three days before senior prom. Xander finds out Cordelia is now poor. Someone is training hellhounds to attack people in formal wear.

Tropes:

  • Actor Allusion: One of the movies that Tucker used to train the Hell Hounds is Pump Up the Volume, which Seth Green and Juliet Landau were in.
  • Anonymous Benefactor: On her way out, Cordelia's co-worker tells her not to forget her dress. Cordy says she hasn't finished paying for it, but the girl says someone picked up the tab.
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: Jonathan says that they have one final award -- a new category, and there were a lot of write-in ballots -- and asks if Buffy Summers is there. He then reads a prepared statement from the prom committee: it turns that Sunnydale High's students were actually aware of Buffy's actions when protecting them from the evils of the Hellmouth the whole time. Thus, Buffy is presented with the Class Protector Award.
  • The Bait: Buffy attempts this at the school, trying to lure the hellhounds away from the gym. They give chase, but stop and turn around when they hear Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" coming from inside. D'oh.
  • Ballroom Blitz: Averted thanks to our heroine.
  • Beautiful Dreamer: Albeit with Messy Hair.
  • Becoming the Mask: Because Anya is now a teenage California high school girl she has all the same urges, like the desire to go to the prom accompanied by an attractive male.
  • Brain Food: Giles says that the hellhound is a sort of "demon foot soldier," and that it feeds off the brains of its victims. Buffy has a Eureka Moment when she realises that whoever controls the hellhound would need to feed it, so she asks around the butcher shops for someone buying animal brains.
  • Break Her Heart to Save Her
  • Breather Episode: Subverted; the plot doesn't revolve around the Ascension, but Angel breaking up with Buffy sets up both the next season as well as Angel's own spinoff.
  • Buffy-Speak: Buffy waking up at Angel's place with some serious bed-head. She notes that they got carried away with the "whole post-slayage nap thing."
    • Giles being told to chill and let the Scoobies enjoy "a night of prom-y fun".
    • Buffy notes that every time she brings up prom, Angel gets grouchy. He tells her it's nothing. "No," she observes, "you have something-face."
  • Call Back: Buffy's reference to "Choices," saying that Angel shouldn't listen to what the Mayor said about outliving Buffy, because he's the bad guy and bad guys are not to be trusted. Angel reluctantly says the Mayor was right.
    • When Jonathan mentions all the weird things that have happened in Sunnydale, two of the students in the crowd shout out "Zombies!" (Dead Man's Party) and "Hyena People!" ("The Pack")
  • Can't Have Sex Ever: Angel tells Buffy she deserves "someone who can make love to you". Buffy protests that she doesn't care about sex or having children.

Angel: Today. But you have no idea how fast it goes, Buffy. Before you know it, you'll want it all, a normal life.

  • Catapult Nightmare / Man On Fire: Buffy and Angel are in a church getting married. As they exit the church, Angel is fearful of the sun, but it is Buffy that burns up and dies -- not him -- when they come in contact with the sun's light. Angel awakes from the nightmare in a cold sweat.
  • Changed My Mind, Kid
  • Class Clown / Assumed Win: At the awards ceremony, they begin to announce to the class clown award. Xander rubs his hands together in anticipation. He doesn't get it -- an obnoxious kid wearing a polka dot vest and a hat made of balloons collects his prize.

Xander: [disgusted] Please. Anybody can be a prop class clown.

  • Continuity Nod: Joyce visiting Angel at the mansion to tell him she's worried about the effect he's having on her daughter. He lets her in, and they exchange awkward pleasantries. She notices the manacles on the wall from "Choices", and her jaw sets. Whoops.
  • Convenient Slow Dance: The Sundays' remake of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" starts up. Xander and Anya dance together; Wesley, following much cajoling from Giles, follows suit with Cordelia. Finally, Buffy turns and sees Angel standing in the door, tux and all.
  • Cringe Comedy
  • Damned By Faint Praise
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy
  • A Date with Rosie Palms: Oz complimenting Xander on his "interesting" choice of taking Anya to the dance. Xander pleads that it was down to either Anya or [gestures with his hand like Señor Wences] "the sock puppet of love". Not even touching that one.
  • Death Glare: Buffy scared her friends off to the Prom with one, when they refuse to let her fight Tucker alone.
  • Description Cut: Buffy speaks for everyone when she tells Giles to put the Ascention on the back-burner for now. One night of fun; "Not too much to ask." Cut to a creepy, dilapidated house, wherein an unseen figure is attending to hairy demons in cages.
  • Development Gag: Cordelia tells Wesley he'd look "way 007 in a tux". The shooting script for "Bad Girls" describes Wesley as "thinks he's Sean Connery but he's pretty much George Lazenby."
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: Angel telling Buffy that she deserves a real relationship, not this "freak show". This hits her like a slap in the face. He apologizes for that remark, and says this isn't an easy decision for him. Buffy explodes, demanding to know who gave him the right to make decisions for her.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Buffy asks Tucker what kind of sicko would want to ruin the happiest night of a senior's life. Tucker glowers and says he has his reasons. Cue a Flashback Echo of Tucker asking a girl to the prom, and her flatly saying, "No."
    • Buffy gets this -- she is moping about Angel then when her friends start getting scared about going to the Prom thinks if she can't be happy at least she can make them happy, and gives the page quote.
  • Distracted by the Sexy / Double Entendre
  • Elephant in the Living Room: Buffy, Angel, even Shipper on Deck Willow -- know perfectly well that a long-term relationship between Buffy and Angel is impossible, yet Buffy still clings to the fantasy until Angel forces the issue.
    • Jonathan's speech is a less heartbreaking version of this trope.
  • Enhance Button: Cordelia asks Xander to "zoom in" on the security tape of the hellhound. "They do it on TV all the time."
    • Moments later, Oz asks to pause on a shot of Tucker standing in the shop window. "Guys!!" shouts Xander, exasperated, "It's just a normal VCR, it doesn't -- oh wait. It can do pause."
  • Foreshadowing: Joyce telling Angel that he's getting in the way of Buffy's future, and if Buffy can't see that, it's his responsibility to do something about it.
    • We learn in this episode that Cordelia's father was guilty of tax fraud, reducing her family to near poverty. This change eventually leads to her migration to LA, where she will team up with Angel.
    • Tucker Wells has an even more obscure brother Andrew, who will appear in Season 6 as a member of three wannabe supervillains called "The Trio".
  • Great Offscreen War: Giles mentions that Hellhounds were bred "during the Machash Wars", about which no other information is given.
  • Heroic Vow: See page quote.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!
  • High School Dance
  • Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday

Oz: Once again the Hellmouth puts the "special" in special occasion.

  • Hypocritical Humor / Tsundere: Anya's rant about witnessing "a millennium of treachery and oppression from the males" of Xander's species, and how she has "have nothing but contempt for the whole libidinous lot of them," to which Xander rightly asks why she's talking to him. Shifting from foot to foot, Anya admits she doesn't have a date for prom.

Xander: And gosh, I wonder why not? Can't possibly have anything to do with your sales pitch.

Anya: [testy] Men are evil! [vulnerable] Will you go with me?

  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Angel realises he must leave Sunnydale so Buffy can have a chance at a normal relationship.
  • I Warned You
  • I'm a Humanitarian / Your Head Asplode: On the dance floor, Anya regales Xander with vengeance demon war stories. Specifically, that one time a scorned wife wished her husband's head would explode, except that she and Anya "were standing three feet from him at the time. What a mess." Xander looks like he's praying for a similar fate as Anya prattles on about another time when she made a victim cannibalize himself.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The final hellhound pounces on Buffy just as she unsheathes a knife. The pair roll around a bit, before finally we hear a yelp. The dead hellhound turns over, revealing that it fell on the blade.
  • Improvised Weapon: When confronted, Tucker tries to break a vase over Buffy's head, but she deftly blocks his attack. Undaunted, he then grabs a screwdriver and holds it in front of him like a switchblade. Buffy easily disarms him, then uses the extension cord from the shattered lamp to tie his hands. Later, Buffy snatches a red curtain from outside the gym and tackles one of the hellhounds, immobilizing it for a minute.
  • Innocent Cohabitation: Angel and Buffy fall asleep in the same bed after a hard night's slaying.
  • Ironic Echo
  • Lame Comeback: Back at Buffy's house, Buffy has just filled Willow in on her breakup. Willow dutifully calls Angel a "big dumb jerk person." Scratch that; he's a "super maxi-jerk" for dumping her right before prom. Buffy tells Willow it's okay, she doesn't have to vilify Angel on her account.

Willow: But... that's the best friend's job. Vilifying and grousing.

Willow: I'm sorry. It must be horrible.
Buffy: I think "horrible" is still coming. Right now, it's worse. (her face contorts in pain) Right now, I'm just trying to keep from dying.
Willow: Oh Buffy.
Buffy: (sinks her head into Willow's lap) I can't breathe, Will. I feel like I can't breathe...

Xander: Zoom in? This is a video tape.

Anya: All I know is I really want to go to this dance and I want someone to go with me.
Xander: Be still my heart. Oh wait, it is.

  • Ominous Multiple Screens: Tucker's lair. In addition to being caged, his hellhound's head is held in place so it's forced to see the TV (a la A Clockwork Orange).
  • Out of Order: Due to the episode "Earshot" not being aired out of respect for the victims of the Columbine massacre, television viewers of this episode were unaware of Buffy stopping Jonathan from committing suicide. The fact that Buffy saved his life makes his presentation of the Class Protector Award to her even more significant.
  • Percussive Therapy: On prom's eve, Giles picks up on the fact that Angel isn't coming. He notes apologetically that this sort of thing is out of his depth, though he guesses the appropriate thing to do is offer Buffy ice cream. Aww. "Ice cream will come," Buffy notes stoically. But not tonight; "Great thing about being a Slayer; kicking ass is Comfort Food."
  • Person as Verb: Buffy makes a comment about stopping a crazy from "pulling a Carrie on the prom".
  • Rant-Inducing Slight
  • Reverse Psychology: As Willow is describing her prom dress to Buffy, Wesley's voice cuts through the air, saying that they can't trifle with a school dance with the Ascension on the horizon. Cordy laments that it's too bad, because he would look "way 007 in a tux." Buffy and Xander share a knowing look; Manipulative Bitch to the rescue! Wesley reconsiders it, then announces that on prom night he will be assisting Giles in "chaperoning duties."
  • The Reveal
  • Serious Business / Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: When arguing about helping fight Tucker rather than go to the Prom.

Oz: Buffy it makes sense to...
Buffy: [[[Death Glare]]] Have. A nice. Time.

  • Shout-Out: When Giles interrupts a conversation about the Prom to say they ought to focus on the mayor's Ascension, Buffy says, "Giles, we get it, miles to go before we sleep," a phrase from the famous Robert Frost poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Faith later quotes from the same line in a dream sequence in "Graduation Day, Part Two":
  • Sunnydale Syndrome: Averted in a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • Super Window Jump
  • Talk About That Thing: Down in the sewers, Buffy has picked a fine time (tracking a vampire) to talk to Angel about their relationship. When the vamp finally leaps out, Buffy peevishly stakes him ("Not now.") and carries on talking.
  • Tear Jerker: Angel breaking up with Buffy, and the scene where Buffy breaks down in Willow's arms afterwards.
  • Tempting Fate: For once this has a good result -- Buffy says she's given up on trying to get that one special high school moment. At the end of the episode she's recognised by entire student body and gets to dance at the prom with the man she loves.
  • Understatement
  • Vampire Dance
  • Waxing Lyrical
  • What Could Have Been: Tucker Wells was originally to have been the Big Bad of "The Trio" in Season 6.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic
  • You Are Too Late: Buffy closes in on Tucker, restraining him against a wall while belittling his evil plan. " Lucky for me you're an incompetent maladjust." She prepares to lock him in the other room, but upon opening the door, she sees three empty cages with TV screens in front of them. Tucker grins evilly. Uh oh.

Tucker: Gotta have a redundancy system. Any "incompetent" knows that.

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