Lessons

"Lessons" is the first episode of the seventh and final season of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot synopsis

Summary

Dawn finds vengeful spirits in the new Sunnydale High; Giles is rehabilitating Willow in England.

Expanded overview

Istanbul: A dark-haired girl is running through the arched hallway, looking over her shoulder and panting from the exertion of running so fast. She slips down an embankment. She's being chased. A man on the street sees her through his front door, and closes it rather than help her. Two people in hooded cloaks are chasing her. After trying various alleys looking for an escape route, she finds herself trapped in a dead-end. She sees a drain pipe next to her and tries to use it to scale the building. The people chasing her grab her foot, but she manages to escape their grip and easily climbs up to the roof. There, another hooded figure is waiting and pushes her off the building. She screams, but she lands on the ground alive, on her back. Two hooded figures hold her down, and she fights back with all her might. A third figure raises an arched, shiny, silver dagger and stabs her.

Buffy is in Sunnydale training her sister on how to fight vampires. She instructs Dawn that fighting and slaying are about power. They discuss the fact that Sunnydale High has just reopened. Meanwhile, Willow is studying with Giles in Westbury, England. She studies magic and meditation with a coven of Wiccans that Giles knows. She is learning control, but feels frightened and distraught because she "killed people".

Xander is working construction at the new high school which Dawn is to attend. He notes that the principal's office is right over the Hellmouth. Buffy follows Dawn into the school where she meets Principal Robin Wood. She goes into a bathroom, where she finds a mysterious talisman. Upon seeing the talisman, she sees a dead girl who threatens her. She says Buffy was unable to protect her, and that she will not be able to protect Dawn either.

Anya is still in the vengeance business, and is drinking coffee with her fellow vengeance demon Halfrek. "Hallie" tells Anya that the other demons are noticing a lack of quality in her work, and that "something big is coming".

Buffy tries to warn Dawn, but winds up only embarrassing her. Dawn then sees a similar dead student. She hurries to the bathroom where she meets Kit Holbum, who has also been seeing things. They are about to leave the bathroom when the floor caves in and they wind up in the high school basement. Willow, back in England, has felt a disturbance in the force and had a vision. She saw "the earth's teeth" -- the Hellmouth. She tells Giles, who has taught her that everything is connected, that not everything that is connected to the earth is good.

Dawn and Kit run into another student in the basement, Carlos Trejo, who says he saw a dead janitor. They are soon confronted by the three dead people. The dead people tell them that everyone dies at Sunnydale, and they will be no different. Dawn calls Buffy on her new cell phone. Buffy descends into the basement to help Dawn, but cannot find her. Instead, she finds a deranged Spike holed up in a small room.

He has scratches around his heart which he explains as attempts to "cut it out". He is rambling incoherently, but tells Buffy that the dead students are not zombies or ghosts, but "manifest spirits" raised by a talisman. Buffy calls Xander, telling him to find and destroy the talisman. She then hears Dawn screaming, and runs to her rescue. She fights the spirits off as Xander wrestles with one to destroy the talisman. Xander breaks the talisman and the spirits disappear.

Buffy then sends Dawn, Kit, and Carlos off to class. Principal Wood is impressed that Buffy was able to convince Kit and Carlos to socialize and go to class (Saying that they are the only two students with school records as large as Buffy's had been). He offers her a job working as a counselor at the school, and she gladly accepts. She wants to be able to keep an eye on her sister, the school, the Hellmouth, and the new principal.

Spike is now huddled in a corner in his basement room. He says that he had a speech to Buffy prepared, but she would not understand. Warren Mears is seen pacing around him. He begins to give a speech about how great he is. He turns into Glory, Adam, Mayor Wilkins, Drusilla, and then the Master - i.e. the previous major villains of the series in reverse order. These each speak to Spike about a plan to go "back to the beginning". The Master says, "It's not about right. It's not about wrong." Then he transforms into Buffy and tells Spike, "it's about power", the same thing Buffy had said to Dawn.

Acting

• Kali Rocha filmed all of her scenes for this season in one day, including those in "Selfless".

Starring

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

Special guest star

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest starring

• DB Woodside as Robin Wood
• Alex Breckenridge as Kit Holburn
• Kali Rocha as Halfrek

Co-starring

• Mark Metcalf as The First/The Master
• Juliet Landau as The First/Drusilla
• Harry Groener as The First/Richard Wilkins
• George Hertzberg as The First/Adam
• Clare Kramer as The First/Glory
• Adam Busch as The First/Warren Mears
• David Zepeda as Carlos Trejo
• Jeremy Howard as Dead Nerd
• Ken Strunk as Dead Janitor
• Rachael Bella as Dead Girl
• Ed F. Martin as Teacher
• Simon Chernin as Student
• Jeff Denton as Vampire

Writing

Arc significance

• This is the first of multiple episodes to begin with the murder of a Potential Slayer, until their pivotal stand in "Chosen".

• "Lessons" reintroduces the First Evil, this season's Big Bad. The First makes an initial probe of Sunnydale's mettle under Buffy's reign by tormenting Angel in the season three episode, "Amends".

• It is discovered Anya has been "slacking off" as a vengeance demon and is getting pressure from her superiors about it.

• The character of Principal Wood is introduced, later to be revealed as Nikki Wood's son.

• Having worked at Doublemeat Palace during season six, Buffy is now employed at Sunnydale High, where Principal Wood creates a counseling position for the express purpose of luring the Slayer.

• Spike has returned to Sunnydale with his newly regained soul, but no one there knows it. Buffy struggles with her impatience at Spike's apparent madness and continues to have mixed feelings about him even after she learns he has a soul in "Beneath You".

• This is the first time Buffy has seen Spike since he attempted to rape her in the Season 6 episode "Seeing Red".

Continuity

• The teaser follows the trend of season premieres taking place in a graveyard since "When She Was Bad", in which Buffy, Willow and Xander reunite in a cemetery. In "Anne", Willow, Xander, and Oz patrol a cemetery in place of an absent Buffy. The next year, in Season 4's "The Freshman", Buffy and Willow decide on what college courses to take in the graveyard. Season 5's "Buffy vs. Dracula", shows Buffy needing that extra dose of slaying-in-the-graveyard before bedtime. With Buffy dead, Season 6's "Bargaining, Part One", shows Giles, Spike, Xander, Tara, Anya, and the Buffybot patrolling in the cemetery under the leadership of Willow. Finally, in this episode Buffy trains Dawn in the techniques of vampire slaying.

• During season six, Willow's problems with magic are depicted as similar to drug or alcohol addiction, where going cold turkey is perhaps the best solution. By season seven, however, magic has become an essential part of Willow's being, like water or warmth, and we are told that she will never be able to live without it. It is imperative, therefore, that Willow learn to balance her power—too little and she'll freeze or die of thirst; too much, and she'll drown or burn to a crisp. Until the very final episode, Willow struggles for this control in the face of increasing pressure from those around her to over- or under-use her powers.

• This episode marks Dawn's first day at Sunnydale High. The First comments to Spike, "We're going back to the beginning." The first episode of Buffy depicted the Slayer's first day at the old Sunnydale High. (This is just one of many references to the old days of Sunnydale High.)

• Willow's addiction to magic in season six has led to the culmination of her months-long rehabilitation in this episode. Certain key episodes showing Willow's abuse of magic include "Tabula Rasa", "Smashed", "Wrecked", "Villains", "Two to Go", and "Grave".

• When the manifest spirit student says he wants Dawn to be his girlfriend, Buffy replies, "Wrong sister. I'm the one that dates dead guys." Buffy has had relationships with two vampires -- first with Angel (Seasons One through Three) and then with Spike (Season Six). However, Dawn (unknowingly) kisses a vampire in the Season Six episode, "All the Way".

• Although Spike is aware very early in Season Five ("Out of My Mind") that he has fallen in love with Buffy, during Season Six their violent relationship intensifies and becomes overtly sexual ("Smashed"). Buffy eventually breaks it off ("As You Were") and, not long after, a desperate Spike nearly rapes her in a misguided attempt to force the Slayer to resume their affair ("Seeing Red"). As Season Seven progresses, Spike and Buffy forge a true partnership as they gradually come to trust that each will be there for the other ("Showtime", "Touched").

• The regaining of Spike's soul is key in the series finale's battle, when Buffy asks him to wear an amulet (brought by Angel in "End of Days") that can only be wielded by someone both ensouled and possessing preternatural strength.

• The six villains Spike sees in succession each represents a Big Bad of a previous season of Buffy, beginning with season six and moving backward (Warren Mears, Glory, Adam, Richard Wilkins, Drusilla, and the Master). The entity impersonating them is the First Evil, originally encountered tormenting Angel in the season three episode, "Amends". The First Evil is able to take Buffy's likeness because the Slayer has actually died twice, once (for a few minutes) in the season one finale, "Prophecy Girl", before being revived with CPR by Xander, and again (for five months) in the season five finale, "The Gift", before being ritually summoned back by Willow at the start of season six ("Bargaining, Part One"). Likewise, The First can assume the likenesses of undead (i.e., dead) vampires such as Drusilla. On the letters page of Buffy Season Eight #6, Whedon responds to the question of how the First could have impersonated Warren if he'd never died, by saying, "He was legally dead for like a second. Amy didn't tell him 'cause she didn't want to upset him. I forgot, okay?!"

• This is the only time that Spike and the Master (as the First) are ever seen together.

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Cultural references

• Dumbledore: Willow remarks how confused she is that Giles is teaching her magic, like the fictional wizard character. Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school Harry Potter attends, in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of books and movies.

• Food channel: Buffy jokes where she learned how to make cereal. Correctly called The Food Network, the cable television channel airs food-themed programs, such as Emeril Live.

• The Grateful Dead: Buffy refers to the three spirits as the "Resentful Dead"

• The Twilight Zone: Dawn assures Buffy that she knows To Serve Man is a cookbook.

• Leon Czolgosz: In her "intervention" over Anya's lackluster vengeance, Halfrek suggests that it's best they don't talk about "Mr. Czolgosz." This is exceptionally obscure in-joke directed at Jane Espenson, who wrote a joke in Season Six about Anyanka making a male victim fall in love with President McKinley ("Superstar"). Leon Czolgosz assassinated President McKinley. The joke was a little too obscure; Espenson didn't catch it.

Production details

Music

• Douglas Romayne - "In Westbury Field"
• Douglas Romayne - "Istanbul"
• Douglas Romayne - "Just In Time"
• Douglas Romayne - "Lesson One"
• Strange Radio - "So High". The duo perform the song at The Espresso Pump.

Locations

• The scenes set in Westbury were actually shot at Anthony Stewart Head's house in Somerset, England. He owns the horse seen in the episode, and it is named "Otto".

Translations

• French title: "Rédemption" ("Redemption")
• German title: "Alles auf Anfang" ("Back to the Roots"/"Reset")
• Italian title: On TV "La consulente" ("The consultant" (A female one)) or, on DVD, "Lezioni" ("Lessons")
• Spanish title: "Lecciones" ("Lessons")
• Turkish title: "Dersler" ("Lessons")

Technical goofs

• The First (as Drusilla) touches and moves Spike's hair; however, it is made clear later in the season that The First is not corporeal, which means it is unable to physically touch anything.

External links

• "Lessons" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Lessons" at TV.com
• "All Things Philosophical on Buffy: the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series"