The Puppet Show (Buffy episode)
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"The Puppet Show" is the ninth episode in the first season of Buffy, and is the first to feature Principal Snyder, played by Armin Shimerman.
Plot synopsis
Buffy and her friends are forced to participate in the school's talent show, where bodies begin to pile up.
Summary
Giles has been put in charge of Sunnydale High's annual talent show by the new student-hating Principal Snyder. Buffy, Xander and Willow find it all very amusing until they too are forced into participating by Snyder, who sees them, especially Buffy, as troublemakers. Things get worse, however, when a member of the cast is found with her heart removed, leading Giles to suspect there is a demon at work harvesting organs. Buffy first suspects Morgan, a fellow student who has been experiencing extreme headaches, but when he turns up minus his brain the suspicion moves to his creepy dummy. Sid turns out to be hunting the demon himself and helps Buffy track it down, saving Giles just before he becomes the demon's next victim.
Expanded overview
The episode begins with a typical horror-movie shot from the POV of the villain, seeing a ballet dancer as a demonic voice whispers "I will be made whole". Cordelia is singing Whitney Houston's Greatest Love Of All off key, as part of the try outs for the talent show. Giles stops her, obviously to stop his ears from hurting. Buffy, Xander and Willow join Giles, and mock him as he complains that the new Principal (which he refers to as the Führer) made him in charge of the talent show, despite his wishes, so he could have more contact with the students. As Snyder overhears the Scoobies making fun of Giles, he punishes them by forcing them to participate in the talent show. The next try-out is Morgan and his dummy, Sid, and Buffy confesses to being freaked out by dummies. Morgan's act takes a sudden turn for the better when Sid suddenly develops a personality and starts making sarcastic comments about the act. The scene cuts to the ballet dancer from the beginning sees the demon, but the audience does not, and shouts.
The talent show rehearsals continue with Marc, an unsuccessful magician. Buffy, Willow and Xander debate what to do for the talent show, and settle on a dramatic scene, since it does not require any actual talent. Sid watches, and makes rude comments as Morgan explains the voice is an imitation of his father. Snyder explains to Giles that he will run a safer, more disciplined school, only to be interrupted by the discovery of the ballet dancer, Emily's, body, with her heart cut out with a knife. The scoobies debate if it was a demon or a human, eliciting Willow's comment that a human murderer is scarier since it could be anyone — even her.
The scoobies split up and begin interviewing people from the talent show to find the killer. In a quick montage of the interviews, they all point in the direction of Morgan and his dummy, Sid. They decide to check Morgan's locker after school hours. As Buffy is busy breaking into Morgan's locker, and finding nothing, Snyder finds her almost red-handed, and admonishes her for being in the school after hours. Morgan and Sid turn out to be hiding, watching Buffy. Sid tells Morgan that Buffy is "the one", saying that her strength is evidence of it.
As Buffy goes to sleep, Sid waits until the lights are off and sneaks into her room. When she wakes up, he quickly scampers out. Naturally, Buffy has a hard time convincing the scoobies that Sid broke into her room. Giles, on his part, suggests that the demon responsible might be needing the heart (and later, a brain) to keep a human guise, which means the demon could be anyone, once again. When a teacher confiscates Sid, Xander steals him so that Buffy can talk to Morgan alone. As Buffy searches for Morgan back-stage, Snyder is again displeased with her being where he does not think she belongs.
In the library, just as Willow finds references to another possible explanation — animated dummies might harvest organs to become humans, Sid is gone when Xander stops paying any attention to him. The scene cuts to Buffy, finding Morgan's body, missing a brain, just as a chandelier falls on her. When she wakes up, Sid attacks her, and during their fight they realize they are both working for the same goal — to stop the demon.
Sid explains he is a demon hunter, cursed to dummy form until he kills the last of the brotherhood of seven, those demons which harvest a heart and a brain. Realizing the demon has what it needs, they theorize it will be moving on, and so it will be whomever is missing from the show. Sid suggests to Giles to form a "power circle" to find out who is missing, but Giles sees everyone there. When Sid is again missing, Buffy finds Morgan's brain when she looks for him. Buffy, Willow and Xander discover Morgan had brain cancer, which is probably the reason the demon did not use his brain — and is now looking for someone smart, which means Giles is in danger.
At the talent show, Marc the magician tricks Giles into strapping himself into a guillotine, ostensibly a magic prop, so that he can take his scalp off and get his brain. Buffy, Xander and Willow rush to rescue Giles, and with Sid's help they manage to kill Marc and save Giles just as the curtain goes up. Everyone assumes it is part of the show, and clap. The episode ends with Buffy, Xander and Willow performing a scene from Oedipus Rex with remarkable lack of talent, and with Willow running away from the stage.
Production details
- Xander's mock-voicing of Sid saying "redrum!" is a reference to The Shining, and is "murder" spelled backwards. The line, incidentally, was Nicholas Brandon's unscripted addition, said to elicit a laugh from the crew.
Music
- Whitney Houston - "Greatest Love Of All" - Cordelia sings this song for a talent show audition.
Quotes and trivia
- Principal Snyder: "That's the kind of woolly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten."
- Xander refers to "Keyser Söze", the made-up enemy in The Usual Suspects.
- In the dramatic scene, Xander plays Oedipus, Buffy plays Jocasta (Oedipus's mother and wife) and Willow plays the priest of Zeus.
- The last scene, the dramatic scene, was not aired in repeats until Buffy left the WB.
- Cordelia will sing "The Greatest Love of All" again in Angel (TV series), season 4, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem".
- "Grade A large" (Buffy's characterization of Morgan's weirdness) refers to a standard size of chicken eggs. Oddly enough, it is one of the smaller sizes.
- The following lines were edited out:
- Buffy: Pretty good. I never heard 'Flight of the Bumblebee' on the tuba before.
- Lisa: Most people aren’t up to it.
- Buffy: And I don't think we'll be featuring Xander's special gift...
- Xander: Okay, some people are jealous that they can't burp the alphabet.
- Buffy: ...so we're back to drama. We'll just do it quickly. Get in, get out. Nobody gets hurt.
- The scene that rolls beside the credits at the talent show was originally aired only once, and now appears only on the DVD.
- Joss Whedon said they had to film the credits-scene featuring Xander, Buffy, and Willow more times than any other scene that year due to the excessive laughter from the extras. He stated:
- Willow's running-off at the end, petrified, was not in the original script - it seems that this was Alyson Hannigan's unscripted addition to the episode.
Continuity
Arc significance
This is the episode introducing Principal Snyder after his predecessor, Principal Flutie was eaten in "The Pack", and showing him as a constant foil. For two and a half seasons, or so, he will continue to torment Buffy, and make slaying harder for her. Willow's stage fright, which is later touched on in "Nightmares" and "Restless" is shown. This is the first time Xander and Cordelia have an extensive conversation, possibly foreshadowing their relationship in season 2. This episode is also remarkable at having two so-called "sucker baits", misleading suspects (Principal Snyder and Sid), marking the beginning of a tendency to use this detective-book cliché on the show.
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
External links
- [Buffy Body Count guide this episode]
- [Buffy Guide]
- [Buffy Trivia Guide]
- [Buffyworld Summary]
- [All Things Philosophical]
- [TV Tome]
- [BBC Episode Guide]
- [Buffyworld Statistics]
- [Stake and Cross Guide]
- [Buffy vs. Angel Guide]
- [Buffy vs. Angel Music Guide]
- [TV Tome Episode]
- [BBC Trivia]
- [Stake and Cross Quotes]
- [Buffyology Episode Page]
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