Welcome to the Hellmouth (Buffy episode)
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"Welcome to the Hellmouth" ("Welcome" for short), the first in a two-part series opener, is the very first episode of the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.
Plot synopsis
Buffy Summers begins her first day at Sunnydale High and reluctantly finds herself fighting vampires again in the seemingly tranquil town.
Summary
Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer (retired), arrives in Sunnydale hoping to leave her past behind and start afresh. But her plans are quashed when, on her first day at school, she meets Rupert Giles, her new Watcher, and then a blood-drained corpse turns up in the girls' locker room. All of this she tries to ignore, but is finally forced to face up to her destiny by warnings of the coming Harvest from the mysterious Angel, and the disappearance of new friends Willow and Jesse with two particularly pale individuals. Buffy manages to save Willow, but after a confrontation with the powerful vampire Luke, she is forced to leave without Jesse.
Expanded overview
Episode 1 of season 1 begins with a boy breaking into a local school with a reluctant girl, promising her trouble. Inside, she hears a noise and is afraid that something is there. He calls out and after no one replies, the girl "vamps out" and bites him. Opening credits roll.
Buffy is having a nightmare before her first day of school. Her mother drives her to the school and encourages her to think positive. She catches Xander's eyes.
Inside the building, Principal Flutie tells Buffy she will start with a clean slate. He reconsiders that after realizing that Buffy burned down her previous school's gym because "it was full of vampi-...asbestos."
Buffy exits the office and bumps into another student, spilling the contents of her handbag over the floor. Xander sees that and helps Buffy, introducing himself. She leaves without her stake, which Xander pockets. In history class, Buffy is helped by Cordelia, who afterwards tests her "coolness factor," skipping the written as Buffy had just moved to Sunnydale, California from Los Angeles. To Buffy's horror, Cordelia humiliates an awkward Willow at the water fountain. Inside the library, Mr. Giles places a book titled "Vampyr" in front of Buffy after realizing who she was. A stunned Buffy makes a hasty exit.
Buffy, Willow, Jesse and Xander meet during a break, and Xander returns the stake. Buffy claims it is standard self-defence in Los Angeles. Cordelia appears and tells Buffy that gym is cancelled "due to the extreme dead guy in the locker." Buffy asks about marks on the body, freaking out Cordelia. Forcing her way into the locker room, Buffy finds the characteristic puncture wounds of a vampire on the neck.
Buffy returns to the library and confronts Giles, who informs her that he is her Watcher. Buffy refuses to accept her calling as a Slayer, as it had gotten her kicked out of a school. After they leave the library, Xander emerges from behind the shelves, having overheard the strange conversation. Giles warns Buffy that something big will happen, soon.
That night, en route to her first visit to the Bronze, the cool hangout in Sunnydale, Buffy meets a mysterious, handsome stranger, who warns her that she is living on a Hellmouth that is about to open; the Harvest is coming. He also gives her a large silver cross. It isn't revealed until the next episode that the stranger's name is Angel.
In the Bronze, Buffy meets Willow and encourages her to seize the moment. She finds Giles and tells him about Angel. Giles tells her to learn to hone her skills to sense vampires anywhere. Buffy uses her fashion sense to pick out a vampire in the club and is alarmed to see Willow leave with him. She loses them and is surprised by Cordelia, nearly staking her. Cordelia immediately calls her friends to tell them about it. While Buffy looks for Willow, Jesse chats up Darla at the Bronze. Buffy is stopped by Xander, whom she convinces to help search for Willow.
Meanwhile, under the streets of Sunnydale, The Master is woken by lesser vampires from a long sleep to prepare for the Harvest. He sends Luke to fetch young blood.
Willow's new acquaintance takes her to a crypt in a cemetery, where they are joined by Darla and Jesse, whom she has bitten. Buffy and Xander arrive. Buffy kills Willow's vampire. Xander and Willow help a weakened Jesse flee. Luke takes Darla's place in the fight so she can help catch the kids. Luke throws Buffy in a stone coffin and is about to move in for the kill when the ending credits roll.
Writing and acting
- Xander with his skate board and problems talking to girls, Willow the math nerd in clothes that were picked out by her mother, and Giles the bespectacled librarian in tweed are all deeply stereotyped at this point. This makes it easier for the viewer to grasp the story's structure and is arguably a necessary simplification because the main concept of a female teenage superhero — the Slayer — was considered radical at the time.
- Jesse was a close friend of Xander and Willow's, but that did not keep him alive. This set the tone for the series, which was never afraid to kill anyone but the core four Scoobies (although Buffy herself did die twice).
- The origin of Buffy's powers are not fully explored until the last season.
Main cast
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
- Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
Production details
- Sunlight appears to hit Angel's face when Buffy returned to the mausoleum in "The Harvest".
- The entire first season was shot before the first episode aired, but Whedon did not know if there would be a second season.
Music
- Sprung Monkey - "Believe"
- Sprung Monkey - "Saturated"
- Sprung Monkey - "Swirl"
- Sprung Monkey - "Things Are Changing"
- Mindtribe - "Losing Ground"
Translations
German title: "Das Zentrum des Bösen" ("The Center of Evil")Cultural References
- Bovril - Giles says, “I’d much prefer to be home with a cup of Bovril and a good book.” Bovril is the name of a thick yeast extract, which, when mixed with hot water, make a hot drink. It was formerly a beef extract.
- DeBarge - Buffy tells Thomas the vampire that he looks like DeBarge. She’s referring to the pop group consisting of five siblings who had a hit with ‘Rhythm of the Night’ in 1985.
- Epstein-Barr virus - Cordelia says to her friends in the Bronze “My mom doesn’t even get out of bed anymore. And the doctor says it’s Epstein-Barr. I’m like, pleeease! It’s chronic hepatitis, or at least chronic fatigue syndrome. I mean, nobody cool has Epstein-Barr anymore.” Epstein-Barr is a common virus which affects most people sometime during their lives.
- Neiman Marcus - Buffy says that Sunnydale is “two hours on the freeway from Neiman-Marcus.” Neiman-Marcus is an upscale department store.
- Sears Holdings Corporation - Cordelia tells Willow she’s seen the “softer side of Sears”, which is a department store.
- James Spader - Cordelia gives Buffy questions to test her "coolness", they include one about Spader, a brat pack movie star who featured in Pretty in Pink, sex, lies and videotape, Stargate, the 1996 David Cronenberg film Crash, and Secretary.
- John Tesh - Cordelia's questionnaire also involves Tesh, former TV host and musician.
- The Watchtower - Whilst she is picking out what to wear to go to the Bronze Buffy holds up a flowery dress saying, “Hello, would you like a copy of the Watchtower?” which is a reference to the Jehovah’s Witness magazine, published twice a month.
Quotes and trivia
- Before this episode was made, 20th Century Fox produced an Unaired Buffy pilot to sell Buffy to a network.
- The History of the Slayer WB promos for the show mentioned showed several previous Slayers.
- Although the credits merely list Persia White as Girl #3, Cordelia refers to her as Aura.
- Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon's production company, was the name he gave to his first typewriter when he was 15. The logo was created in 20 minutes when he was told he had to have one
- Joss Whedon supplies the voice of the Mutant Enemy mascot which says "Grr...Arrgh" heard at the end of almost every episode.
- The first ever band to play at the Bronze is Sprung Monkey.
- Brian Thompson is no stranger to playing a vampire. He played Bocworth the vampire in the 1989 movie Fright Night II, and was Eddie Fiori head of the Brujha clan of vampires in the 1996 TV series .
- 'Welcome To The Hellmouth' and 'The Harvest' exist in both original feature-length Pilot and two-part formats. (When in feature-length format, the title 'Welcome To The Hellmouth' is used for both parts).
- Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) originally auditioned for the part of Cordelia Chase and Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), auditioned for the part of Buffy. Julie Benz also tried for the part of Buffy but eventually landed the role of Darla.
Continuity
Arc significance
"Welcome" introduces us to the core cast (Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander), the setting (Sunnydale) and the show's mythology (vampires and the Slayer). It shows its differences from the earlier, eponymous movie. Buffy's reluctance to accept her calling and the burdens of her fate form a central theme of the series that is resolved only in the series finale.Buffy introduces to the viewers vampires' Modus operandi: "To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just gonna kill you."
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
See also
External links
- [BBC episode guide to Welcome]
- [The Buffy Body Count's guide to this episode]
- [Buffyology Episode Page]
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