beginning | blinding torment | boils | lies | making me bitter | evil compounds evil | blah blah bity blah

 

 

 

 

 

I saw a dummy, it gave me the wig. There really wasn't a story there.

season one  >  the puppet show

 

Puppets are evil.  We all know this.  But sometimes, could they just be misunderstood? This is the question put forth by the daring scribes at Mutant Enemy for this very touching episode, set against the stark, cruel backdrop of the high school talent show.  

 

Syd's a dummy.  Syd can move on his own and influence the very fragile person he's talked into carrying him around.   Syd crawls into Buffy's room in the middle of the night.  Syd creeps out Buffy. But, really, all Syd wants? Besides to cop a feel?  Is to kill the last of seven demons so he can get his reward of eternal rest.  Syd, it turns out, is a demon hunter!  Which seems to be the male equivalent of a slayer, only much less cool.  

 

Cursed by a demon, he is stuck in the body of a dummy until he takes the heart of the 7th demon.  No easy task, for this demon, running amok amidst the students of Sunnydale High, looks human.  Talks human.  Dresses human.  Kills humans for their internal organs.  Ah. There, see?  That should give him away.  Sadly, Buffy's puppet-prejudice has her chasing the wrong creep for much of the episode, causing Sunnydale's mortality statistics to skyrocket once again.

 

The creep factor is also heightened. It could be anyone. It could be me.  It's not, though.

 

When she's not avoiding her Talent Show duties or almost getting Giles  killed, she's bonding with the dummy over their special lives and discovering that hey, they're not so different after all. In the end, goodness and light prevails.  Buffy beats up the bad guy. Willow and Xander untie Giles' head from the chopping block.  And Syd stabs out the heart of the demon.  All before the hilarious curtain call. Avant garde, indeed, Senior Snyder.

 

 

That's the kind of wooly headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten.

 

 

 

next episode | previous episode | back to season one