Buffy vs Dracula

Buffy season premiers are always weak, and this season was no exception. As the episode title indicates, Buffy meets Dracula, who is more goofy than scary, especially the cheesy accent. Dracula makes Xander into his minion, causing him to eat bugs and other than that, not really do anything spectacular.

Riley goes to see Spike to ask about Dracula's whereabouts. Spike doesn't know. Riley and Spike argue. Riley leaves.

In a pseudo-dream sequence similar to one in the BtVS movie, Dracula visits Buffy's bedroom, hypnotizes her and bites her. In the morning, Buffy wakes up, covers the bite marks with a scarf and proceeds to try to hide the evidence of Dracula's visit. So, how did Dracula get in to her room, anyways?

In the meantime, Buffy heads over to Giles' house, where Riley discovers her bite marks and insists that she is under Dracula's "thrall". Buffy agrees to stay with Xander so he can keep her away from Dracula. Transparent plot set-up, anyone?

Tara and Willow find out that Buffy's mom invited Dracula in. Xander, being hypnotized minion guy, takes Buffy over to Dracula's lair. Buffy and Dracula argue about whether or not she is under his "thrall". Dracula seems to be winning. In the meantime, Giles and Riley show up. Xander tries to stop Riley. Three guesses as to who wins.

Dracula has the bright idea to "show Buffy her dark nature" by having her drink some of his blood. Buffy is pretty grossed out, and this breaks the "thrall". Buffy proceeds to kick Dracula's ass, and that's it for the exciting parts of the episode.

Oh wait, this is the only really important part. At the end of the episode, Buffy is about to leave for the movies when her younger and shorter identical twin shows up. Buffy's mom says "Buffy, take your sister with you!" Buffy has a sister? Surprise, surprise.

One of the funniest Buffy episodes in my opinion, featuring some very funny dialogue such as:

Xander comenting on Dracula's castle, "You know, I've lived in Sunnydale my whole life and never noticed that castle next to the graveyard."

When Xander confronts Riley, he says, "If you want my master, you'll have to come through me." Riley responds with, "Okay", and lays him out with one punch.

When Giles goes to find Buffy in the castle, he falls into a room containing The Three Sisters. Riley eventually finds him and pulls him out. Giles notices his shoe is missing and says, "I seem to have lost my shoe. Silly me, I'll just pop down and get it.", but Riley stops him. Not exactly a funny line up hilarious in context.

Earlier in the episode Buffy slays Dracula, turning him to dust, but it was just a gypsy trick he learned during his existence. After the fight at the end of the episode, she slays Dracula again, and the dust settles. The camera follows the main cast as they leave the room, then pans back to where the dust of Dracula is reforming. The dust takes shape and from off camera Buff's arm stakes Dracula in the heart, and he becomes dust again. Beat. The dust on the floor and tries to recompile itself, but off camera Buffy says, "I'm right here!", the dust desides better on it, and lays motionless on the floor.

These are some of the examples of Joss Whedon's superb ability to write funny dialogue. And this episode was the entrance of Buffy's younger sister Dawn (a.k.a Scrappy Doo), though far from an identical twin.