1.2 The Harvest

Plot Synopsis (Display)

Highlights

• Principal Flutie catches Buffy trying to leave campus during school, and locks the gate. Believing she has capitulated, he says "That's the Buffy Summers I want in my school - sensible girl, with her feet on the ground". As he walks away, Buffy glances down, and the camera follows her feet as she jumps from the ground, and re-appears on the other side of the locked gate.
• Before the audience knows Angel's dark secret, and the havoc he will eventually cause, there are some clues towards the end of this episode. He is standing outside the Bronze as Buffy defeats Luke and prevents the Harvest, and says "She did it. I'll be damned". As he moves away, we see a notice on the door behind him that reads "Watch Your Step". Good advice!

Unusual Weaponry

Buffy breaks a branch off a nearby tree to stake a vampire she is fighting in the graveyard.

She somersaults off a pool table, picking up a cue as she flies over, and then uses it to stake a vampire standing off camera to her right, without even looking round.

Firsts

First description of the Hellmouth, which becomes a central theme through all seven seasons. "The Spanish who first settled here called it 'Boca del Infierno'. Roughly translated, 'Hellmouth'. It's a sort of, um, portal between this reality and the next."

First use of the term "slayage", by Xander as he and Buffy sneak through the sewers looking for Jesse.

Pop Culture References

Buffy: "Don't go Wild Bunch on me"
Reference to the 1969 film starring Willaim Holden and Ernest Borgnine, a famously violent movie.

Slayer Quips

Oh, I'm sorry. Were you in the middle of something?

What We Learn

• Willow is good with computers.
• Giles isn't.

Nitpicks

• Only a small one, but since Flutie locked the school gates after spotting Buffy trying to leave, how did Xander manage to get out and follow her?
• Just before Buffy enters the tunnel to the Master's lair, Angel advises her to "head east, towards the school" once she hits the sewers. If she's underground, how is she supposed to know which way is east?
• When Buffy tells Xander off for following him, he tells her he "couldn't just stay at home" - he wasn't at home, he was at school on his way to chem class when she left!
• Buffy stakes someone off camera to her right, using a pool cue, however when she lets go, the pool cue stays in place, and while she takes her jacket off it gradually moves up and away and we hear the recipient topple to the ground. There isn't even the familiar "dusting" noise as Buffy moves away. How long does it take these guys to disintegrate? Surely it's usually quicker than that? Or, perhaps Buffy has staked a human rather than a vampire??
• After Jesse has been pushed onto the stake Xander is holding, he turns to dust, but as the dust clears we can see Xander's hand in place, but no stake.