Band Candy
Band Candy
-- Quotes --
Buffy's S.A.T. is coming
up, so Giles helps her study for it at the cemetery while waiting for any
vampires to rise from their graves. At City Hall, Mayor Wilkins enlists
Mr. Trick's aid for an upcoming tribute to a demon. Mr. Trick just so happens
to know a man who can help them.
The next morning, Principal
Snyder enlists students to sell candy in order to raise money for Sunnydale
High's marching band, and Buffy and the gang are at the top of Snyder's
recruitment list. After Buffy convinces her mother to buy some candy, she
revives their long-standing debate over whether or not she can get a license
and start driving. Joyce remains uncomfortable with the notion of her daughter
behind a steering wheel. Buffy then heads off for the library, telling
her mother that she has some more training to do with Giles. Joyce is not
pleased with how much time Buffy has to spend working with Giles. At the
library, Buffy trains briefly with Giles before leaving early, explaining
to him that her mom wants her home early. Buffy then visits Angel at the
mansion, bringing along a container of blood from the butcher shop. When
Buffy finally goes home, she is surprised to find both her mom and her
Watcher waiting for her in the foyer. They both have figured out that Buffy
lied to them in order to go someplace else, although Joyce suspects that
place was the Bronze. Unhappy with the way she's being treated, Buffy expresses
how she can't fulfill both of their demands for the amount of time they
want to spend with her. After Buffy goes to her room, Giles and Joyce relax
on the couch, curiously eating one candy bar after another. Elsewhere,
these same candy bars are being packaged in a factory. Overlooking the
whole process is none other than Giles' old rival, Ethan Rayne.
Buffy, Cordy, Xander,
Willow, and several other students sit in study hall on Friday, waiting
for their supervisor to arrive. The staff member assigned to study hall
this day happens to be Giles, who is uncharacteristically late. While the
students wait, Xander and Willow engage in a forbidden game of footsie
under their table, apparently still hung up over each other after their
kiss on Homecoming week. Principal Snyder talks one of the teacher, Ms.
Barton, into filling in for Giles. Buffy is both surprised and dismayed
to learn that Giles never showed up, but she and the rest of the students
are even more surprised when Ms. Barton speaks to them loosely and freely,
going so far as to refer to their principal as "Commandant Snyder". After
school, Buffy goes to Giles' apartment to find out where he was, but that
soon becomes irrelevant when she notices that her mother is there as well.
Giles explains that he and Joyce have been working out a schedule to make
it easier for Buffy to spend enough time with the both of them. Joyce then
stuns her daughter by handing her the keys to her jeep, telling Buffy to
drive herself home. After Buffy grabs the keys and leaves, Giles lights
up a cigarette, dropping the charade that he and Joyce were putting on
for Buffy when she arrived just now. Not one to pass up on an opportunity
like this, Buffy picks up Willow in the jeep and drives off to the Bronze,
displaying a horrific driving ability along the way. At the Bronze, Buffy
and Willow immediately notice the vast number of adults present, which
is unusual for any given night at the Bronze. Even stranger is that all
of the adults are acting like rowdy teenagers, including Principal Snyder,
who acts like he's just one of the Scooby Gang. While Buffy and Willow
try to decipher this phenomenon, Giles and Joyce drink, smoke, and listen
to old LP's before heading out into town. Giles and Joyce stroll by the
store windows, one of which showcases a coat that catches Joyce's eye.
Giles breaks into the window and steals the coat for the new "girl" in
his life. A cop tries to stop them, but Giles makes short work of the cop
and takes his gun before leaving the scene with Joyce. Back at the Bronze,
Buffy decides that they need to get out and find some answers. As Buffy,
Willow, and Oz leave the Bronze and get into the jeep, Snyder follows them
into the car. Since time is definitely an issue, Buffy lets him tag along.
Meanwhile, adults all over town are acting like teenagers, just like the
people at the Bronze. Two guys even get into a drag race, and one of them
smashes into Buffy's jeep. After everyone gets out of the car, one man
runs by and steals Snyder's candy bar. Buffy realizes that there must be
something wrong with the candy. Buffy instructs Willow and Oz to get Xander
and Cordelia and head to the library, while she and Snyder drive to the
candy bar factory.
Buffy and Snyder arrive
at the factory, where a huge mob of adults are gathered around the entrance
to get more candy bars. On her way to the entrance, Buffy is distracted
by the sight of Giles kissing Joyce right in front of her eyes. Unable
to deal with them at this moment, Buffy knocks out the workers and enters
the factory, with Giles, Joyce, and Snyder following closely behind. Inside,
Buffy finds Ethan, who wastes no time in running away. He tries to lose
them in the maze of candy bar boxes, but Buffy eventually finds him. Back
at the library, the rest of the gang tries to find some useful information,
but they can't do much without a good lead. Buffy learns from Ethan that
his job was mainly to divert the adults from the main objective, which
is to pay tribute to a demon named Lurconis. Oz and Willow discover that
Lurconis feeds on babies. Unbeknownst to any of them, a group of vampires
walk into the hospital nursery and steal four of the infants there. Buffy
and the others are too late in getting to the hospital. However, Giles
is able to recall that Lurconis means "glutton", and that they should be
able to find him in the sewers. They go down into the sewer tunnels and
find the babies, along with Mr. Trick, the other four vampires, and the
Mayor. As soon as Buffy and Giles arrive, Mayor Wilkinson immediately flees
the scene. While Buffy fights the vampires, Giles and Joyce move the babies
out of harm's way. During the battle, Buffy throws one of the vampires
into a large pool. A large rumbling soon follows, and Lurconis, a huge
serpentine creature, emerges from an opening next to the pool and devours
the hapless vampire. Mr. Trick challenges the Slayer to a fight, but her
Watcher intervenes and attempts to take on the vampire. Mr. Trick easily
tosses Giles into the pool and escapes. With Lurconis coming back for seconds,
Buffy detaches a fuel line and ignites the open end on one of the torches
that the vampires set up, creating a giant blowtorch. As Lurconis emerges
from the opening once again, Buffy roasts the demon, sending it back into
its dwelling. Afterwards, Mayor Wilkinson expresses his disappointment
in Mr. Trick's failure, warning him not to make the same mistakes again.
The following Monday morning,
all the adults in Sunnydale are back to normal. Buffy laments to Giles
after school about the disaster that was her S.A.T. They meet up with Joyce
by the jeep, which is still wrecked. Buffy is relieved that she was able
to stop Giles and Joyce before they went a little too far with their carefree
romance... or so she believes.
~Episode Summary by: Alan Hufana