The Pack

Season 1, episode 6

The Pack

Cast:
Buffy Summers: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Xander Harris: Nicholas Brendon
Willow Rosenberg: Alyson Hannigan
Rupert Giles: Anthony Stewart Head
Cordelia Chase: Charisma Carpenter
Principal Flutie: Ken Lerner
Lance: Jeff Maynard

Buffy and her fellow students from Sunnydale High are on a field trip to the zoo. Of course there are the usual animals that can be found in any zoo, but there also is a hyena exhibit. But it is closed for some reason.
After tormenting Buffy and a shy student named Lance, a few of Sunnydale High's most popular guys go into the hyena exhibit. Lance follows them, since they still have his notebook. Xander, worried about Lance, goes in as well.
As they wait for Xander to return, Buffy and Willow talk to a zookeeper. He claims the hyenas can understand humans, and call out to them, and when they come, they'll eat them.
Inside the hyena house, strange things are happening. The guys that went in, including Xander, have stepped into a mystical circle, and their eyes start flashing yellow.

When back at school, Xander starts behaving different. He's more confident, more agressive. When he sees Herbert, the new mascot for the Sunnydale Razorbacks, he reacts even weirder.
Herbert, the small piggy, gets eaten by hyena-possessed students. When Buffy confronts Xander with it, he reacts very violently. Buffy manages to lock him inside a steel cage, so he can't do any more damage. When it is discovered that the pack is responsible for eating the pig, they get called in Principal Flutie's office. He wants to reprimand them, but they won't let him. Instead, he gets eaten.

The whole school is horrified by the news about Principle Flutie. The official news is that a pack of wild dogs have eaten him, but Buffy, Willow, and Giles know the truth. Xander was with Buffy when the it happened, so he was not involved.

Giles searches for a way to return Xander back to normal. He figures out that the spirit of the hyenas must be taken from the students, and put back into the animals.

Willow watches over Xander while Buffy and Giles go to the zoo. There, they find the zookeeper, who's willing to help. He knows more about the hyenas, and tells them that all the students must return to the mystical circle in the hyena cage. They manage to get all the students in the circle, but then they realize they are missing Xander. Xander has escaped his cage, but Willow was smart enough to hide.

They finally get all the students, including Xander, in the circle. But then the zookeeper's scheme becomes clear. He wants to absorb all the hyena spirits himself. When he does, he grabs Willow to eat her. Xander protects Willow by diving on the zookeeper. Then Buffy fights the zookeeper, and throws him into the hyena cage, where he's eaten by the animals.

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