Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" is episode 16 of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot synopsis

Summary

Cordelia decides to dump Xander when her friends mock her. Xander retaliates by attempting a love spell.

Expanded overview

On her night patrol through a cemetery, Xander shows Buffy the silver necklace he intends to give Cordelia for Valentine's Day. Buffy teases him for his girl while reassuring him of the gift. Xander is under no illusions as he is convinced that dating Cordelia is more perilous than slaying.

On Valentine's Day, Harmony and her followers insult Cordelia for going out with Xander. Xander notices that Amy Madison avoided homework by hypnotizing the teacher. He offers to speak to her as Buffy and Willow remember Amy's "amateur psycho" mother. Giles appears and asks to speak with Buffy when Jenny Calendar sees him and tries to make up. Giles decides that Buffy is more important; they leave for the library.

There, he warns Buffy of Angelus' vicious history around St. Valentine's Day. Giles decides Buffy does not need to know the details and offers to patrol on her behalf. At the same time, Spike shows Drusilla a necklace that is immediately topped by Angelus' gift: a fresh heart that he found in a "quaint little shop girl".

Whiling that night away alongside her mom, Buffy receives a gift and an ominous note from Angelus. Meanwhile, Willow confesses to being a groupie of Oz and his band. Cordelia is again ignored by her clique when Xander approaches. After sadly praising him first for his clothes, then for the necklace, she breaks up with him. Xander is outraged at her timing.

Xander is humiliated the next morning when everyone at Sunnydale High is laughing at the way he was dumped and Buffy is too focused on Angelus to offer him any support. He spots Amy and blackmails her into casting a love spell so he can break up with a lovelorn Cordelia and "put her through the same hell." Amy agrees to do the spell, but needs a personal item of Cordelia's for it. In the library, Buffy convinces Giles to tell her of Angelus' atrocities.

Xander goes up to Cordelia demanding the necklace back, and she pretends to get it out of the locker pretending she doesn't like it, but doesn't let him know that she is still wearing it. That night, Xander and Amy perform the spell.

The next morning, Xander talks to Cordelia, attempting to find out the effect of the spell but finds her unaffected. Xander enters the library as Giles is still giving Buffy information on Angelus. Xander is despondent and this time Buffy consoles him on what happened with Cordelia, and suggests that they get together to "comfort each other". Xander literally cannot believe his luck, especially when Buffy hints she might even give him a lap dance. The two then nearly kiss when interrupted by Amy, who wants to discuss the 'failure' of the spell. Xander tries to tell her that he's no longer interested, but Amy tells him they can just hang out... and Xander realizes that Amy and Buffy are both acting the same way towards him. Then a Harmony groupie wants to study with him at night. He runs home, only to find Willow hiding under his sheets, a surprise for which he gives high marks. She offers him her virginity and he flees.

The next day, Sunnydale High girls are pleased to see Xander in the hallways; the boys, less so. Xander confesses to Giles, who is appalled at his foolishness. Jenny enters the library intent on conversing with Giles, but soon finds herself distracted by Xander's presence. When the Watcher looks for Amy to reverse the spell, he has to drag a moaning Ms. Calendar away. Xander blockades the door, only to find Buffy, only wearing a trench-coat (theoretically), willing to give him more than a heart attack. When he refuses to undress her because she is under the influence, she becomes enraged, thinking he is toying with her. Amy walks in seeking Xander too, so Buffy punches her hard in the face. Amy turns Buffy into a rat, sending her scurrying behind bookcases. Buffy-rat hurries out of the library when a confused Oz punches Xander for making Willow cry on the phone all night. Giles sends Xander home.

On his way out, Xander sees Harmony and other girls attacking Cordelia. He takes her outside only to find an axe-wielding Willow leading other Sunnydale females. Xander and Cordelia flee to Buffy's house, only to find Joyce pawing over him. They run up to Buffy's room but Angelus appears in Buffy's window and drags Xander out. Drusilla saves Xander from becoming Angelus' substitute present for Buffy and offers him immortality. She is distracted by Willow and her gang, and Cordelia pulls Xander back in the house. The mob breaks into the house with knives and sticks (except for Drusilla, who cannot enter, lacking an invitation). Cornered in the basement, Xander reveals to Cordelia that he meant the spell for her (leaving out that he meant it for revenge). She is touched.

Meanwhile, Giles had convinced Amy to reverse her spells, though they have to do without Jenny's help. Thankfully, Buffy-rat did not eat the cheese on a mousetrap in the school basement, but Buffy does find herself with a "slight case of nudity." And just as they are about to kill the young couple, the spell is lifted from the obsessed women in the Summers' basement. Thinking quickly, Cordy commends their scavenger hunt.

The next morning, all has returned to normal, but Willow still refuses to talk to Xander due to her already loving him prior to the spell. Buffy is impressed by Xander's reaction to her seduction. And after Harmony insults Xander again, Cordelia finally faces up to her friends and walks away, locked in arms with Xander.

Acting

Main cast

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
• Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
• David Boreanaz as Angelus
• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest starring

• Seth Green as Oz
• Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
• Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar
• Elizabeth Anne Allen as Amy Madison
• Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall
• Lorna Scott as Miss Beakman
• James Marsters as Spike
• Juliet Landau as Drusilla

Co-starring

• Jason Hall as Devon MacLeish
• Jennie Chester as Kate
• Kristen Winnicki as Cordette
• Tamara Braun as Frenzied Girl
• Scott Hamm as Jock

Arc Significance

• We learn in this episode that Amy has begun practicing magic like her mother did.

Production details

Music

• The Average White Band - "Got The Love"
• Christophe Beck - "Buffy Rat"
• Christophe Beck - "Mob Rush"
• Christophe Beck - "Twice the Fool"
• Four Star Mary - "Pain"
• Naked - "Drift Away"

Translations

• German title: "Der Liebeszauber" ("The Love Spell")

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Buffy the Vampire Slayer#Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

• "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered" at TV.com