First Date

"First Date" is the fourteenth episode of season 7 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot synopsis

Buffy discusses the removal of Spike's chip with Giles; Giles doesn't believe that it was the right thing to do while Buffy is convinced that it was. At work, Buffy tries to hunt for clues about whether Principal Wood is good or evil in his office. When she is about to open a cabinet, Principal Wood finds her in his office and asks her out to dinner. Back at the house, Buffy expresses mixed feelings about the date, and is unsure over whether she is interested in him. Willow suggests that it would be good for Buffy to "move on." Xander enters and reveals that he too has a date that evening. Upstairs, Buffy is getting dressed for dinner when Spike appears in the hallway, and tells Buffy that he feels fine about her having a date with another man, although Buffy tells him he doesn't have to be noble. The two are on friendly terms with one another.

On Buffy's date, she and Wood are jumped by a group of vampires. Buffy slays most of them, and thinks that Wood has set her up until she sees him take out two of the vampires. At the restaurant, Wood reveals that he is a "freelance" demon hunter, and tells her about his mother—that she was the Slayer and was killed when he was four years old, after which he was raised by her Watcher. Buffy is struck by the idea that it is possible for a Slayer to have children. Meanwhile, Xander's date appears to be going well until he learns that she is a demon who has, like other demons, been motivated to work for the First.

Throughout the episode, the First again appears to Andrew in the guise of Jonathan, and attempts to get him to kill the potential Slayers staying in the house, using the gun that Willow brought to the house in "The Killer in Me", while she was Warren. There is a mislead in which the viewers are led to believe that Andrew is successfully persuaded by the First to kill the girls. However, it is revealed that Andrew is committed to helping Buffy and her friends, telling the First "I'm good now." In the second scene with Andrew and the First, Andrew is wearing a wire that Willow has set up and the others are listening to his conversation with the First through Willow's headphones. Andrew shows the First the gun and asks it questions about its intents and potential weaknesses. The First discovers that Andrew is wired and is not pleased, but not before telling Andrew that it isn't time to use Spike again for the First's purposes. The First appears to Willow, Dawn, Anya and Kennedy in the guise of a horribly maimed Jonathan, threatening them before disappearing.

Immediately after the First leaves, Willow receives a text message with a help code from Xander. Spike offers to go fetch Buffy. He finds her at the restaurant with Wood in a slightly romantic moment, and they all rush out to rescue Xander, driving in Wood's car, the three of them awkwardly together with Spike in the backseat. When they get to the seal beneath the school, they fight and kill the demon woman and find Xander not too badly hurt. They prevent the seal from opening again, but during the course of the fight, Wood finds out that Spike is a vampire and that Buffy cares about him very much, making him uneasy.

Back at the house, Spike tells Buffy that as the First is not ready to use him yet, he will leave town. Buffy tells Spike not to leave because she isn't ready for him not to be there. In the final scene of the episode, the First shows itself to Wood in the guise of his dead mother, who is the Slayer seen in the 1977 flashback in "Fool for Love", and tells Wood that it was Spike who murdered her.

Acting

Starring

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
• Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
• Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
• James Marsters as Spike
• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

Special guest star

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
• Ashanti as Lissa

Guest starring

• Danny Strong as The First/Jonathan Levinson
• Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells
• Iyari Limon as Kennedy
• Sarah Hagan as Amanda
• Kristy Wu as Chao-Ahn
• K. D. Aubert as The First/Nikki Wood
• D. B. Woodside as Principal Robin Wood

Production details

Music

• Patty Medina - "Still Life"
• Trembling Blue Stars - "Ammunition"

Translations

• Italian title: "Primo appuntamento" ("First date")
• German title: "Das erste Date" ("The First Date")
• French title: "Rendez-vous dangereux" ("Dangerous Date")
• Spanish title: "La Primera Cita" ("The First Date")

Continuity

Arc significance

• Buffy learns of Principal Wood's past and that his mother was a Slayer, though she doesn't know which one. She also discovers that Wood knows she is a Slayer, and that is why he hired her as a counselor.

• Buffy is struck by the idea that a Slayer can have children, a mark of a "normal life". The negotiation between the Slayer's duties and the desire for a normal life has been a constant motivation for Buffy from the beginning through the end of the series.

• We see Buffy and Spike treating each other like friends, and Buffy reveals that Spike's presence in her life and in the struggle is important to her.

• The First informs Wood that Spike killed his mother.

• Giles shows great frustration with Buffy and her methods, a theme that will continue right up through the final episode.

External links

• "First Date" at the Internet Movie Database
• "First Date" at TV.com

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