" Prophecy Girl " is the season finale of the WB Television Network's first season of the drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and the twelfth episode of the series. The episode first aired on June 2, 1997 with the series acting as a midseason replacement for Savannah . Executive producer/show runner Joss Whedon wrote and directed the episode.
The narrative features vampire Slayer Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) working to prevent vampire the Master (Mark Metcalf) from rising to power despite a prophecy predicting her death at his hands.
Due to the first season of the show serving as a mid season replacement, all twelve episodes were produced before the first episode aired. All following seasons commenced from September to October and received twenty-two episode pick-ups.
Plot
Xander is practicing lines on Willow in the Bronze, wanting to ask Buffy to the Spring Fling. Cordelia is in a car making out with Kevin, as Buffy slays a vampire nearby. An earthquake is felt all over town, and the Master revels in it.
The next morning, Buffy is meeting Giles in the library, where no significant damage has been done from the earthquake. Buffy explains the vampires are rising in number and getting braver, but Giles is distracted by his thoughts. After biology class, Willow finds an excuse to leave, leaving Xander to ask Buffy to the dance. Xander takes Buffy's rejection badly, and walks off to wallow in misery.
Miss Calendar interrupts Giles' study in the library, telling him that she sees apocalyptic portents. She tells him Brother Luca, a monk in Cortona, is e-mailing her about the Anointed One. Giles asks her to get more information about this, promising he will explain everything later. In the school hall, Kevin and Willow promise to help Cordelia set everything up in the Bronze for the dance. Willow sees Xander wallowing in his misery, and offers sympathy. When Xander asks her to the dance, she refuses realizing that it would not work out and he would still be hurting over Buffy.
That evening, as Buffy enters the library she hears Giles telling Angel that the prophecies say that she will face the Master and die. Buffy, shocked, yells that she is quitting, leaving the cross Angel gave her on the table. She goes back home, and tries to convince her mother to go away for the weekend. Joyce, instead, gives her a white dress, and tells her to go to the dance.
The next day, at school, Cordelia and Willow find the AV club, all dead, slaughtered by vampires, as "Three Little Pigs" cartoons play. Buffy, having heard, shows up in her dress at Willow's. Buffy goes back to the library, where Giles has explained to Miss Calendar that Buffy is the Slayer. Buffy reinstates herself as the Slayer, knocks Giles out when he tries to stop her and goes to kill the Master. Outside of school, Collin leads her to the Master's lair.
Willow and Xander show up at the library, where they hear that Buffy has gone off to see the Master. Xander leaves, only to show up at Angel's apartment where he forces Angel to lead him to the Master's lair. Xander and Angel approach the lair, as the Master and Buffy fight and taunt each other. The Master tells Buffy that it is her blood which will free him, as he drinks from her and leaves her to drown in a shallow pool. At the library, Willow and Ms. Calendar decide that the Hellmouth is underneath the Bronze, and leave. However, as they leave, they see an army of vampires approaching the library. Cordelia rescues them in her car, and drives the car straight into the library. Xander and Angel reach Buffy, and Xander performs CPR (as Angel couldn't do it himself, because vampires do not breathe). When Buffy regains consciousness, she heads to the surface to kill the Master. Cordelia, Willow, Giles and Jenny fight off vampires trying to enter the library, and just as Giles realizes that the Hellmouth is directly underneath the Library, a tentacled creature rises through the floor. Buffy throws the Master into the library, where he is impaled on a jutting piece of wood and his soft tissues disintegrate, leaving only his skeleton and the world turns back to normal. They all go to the dance at the Bronze together.
Acting
Starring
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
- and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
Guest starring
- Mark Metcalf as The Master
- David Boreanaz as Angel
- Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
- Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar
- Andrew J. Ferchland as The Anointed One
- Scott Gurney as Kevin
Production details
Music
- "Buffy Theme" - Nerf Herder
- "I Fall to Pieces - Patsy Cline
Cultural References
- The Master is well over 600 years old, even older than Dracula (Vlad the Impaler ruled from 1456-62), and seems to have gained the kind of hypnotic powers Dracula is famous for.
- Xander calling Giles Locutus of the Borg is a reference to Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the finale of the third season, Picard is assimilated by the Borg to provide a bridge between them and the humans. Early in the fourth season, Picard is restored to his human form, though he retains traumatic memories of the assimilation.
Continuity
- As seen in this episode and the early episode Angel, Buffy tends to favor the crossbow when heading to face a particularly dangerous vampire.
- The monster that comes out of the Hellmouth reappears in The Zeppo.
Arc Significance
- Buffy dies for the first time in this episode, not from the Master's bite, but from drowning in the pool of water after he feeds on her. This will have major repercussions for the future of the Buffyverse, as her death means a new Slayer, Kendra is called.
- Buffy is now essentially cut off from the Slayer line (no new Slayer is called after her second death), with Kendra, and later Faith, being the ‘active’ Slayer, although most of the characters assume in later episodes (esp. Season 7) that Buffy's death will still activate a new slayer. Nonetheless, Buffy is still referred to as the Slayer and not just a Slayer.
- The Master, the season's Big Bad, dies. Unlike lesser vampires, The Master's bones are left behind after his death.
- In this episode it is first revealed that the Hellmouth is actually directly beneath Sunnydale High School library.
Trivia
- Within this episode Buffy displays a similar look to that of her movie counter-part (played by Kristy Swanson), wearing a white formal dress and leather jacket, with her hair worn up.
Translations
- German title: "Das Ende der Welt" ("The End of the World")
- Italian title: "La profezia" ("The Prophecy feminine ")
Reception
“Prophecy Girl” pulled in an audience of 2.8 million households.
References
- ^ "Nielsen Ratings for Buffy's First Season." <http://home.insightbb.com/~wahoskem/buffy1.html>
External links
- "Prophecy Girl"
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