What's My Line, Part One (Buffy episode)

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"What's My Line, Part One" is episode 9 of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.

Plot synopsis

Summary

Spike, wishing to end matters with Buffy, calls in the Order of Taraka, an ancient order of assassins working each in their own manner. A yet unidentified character imprisons Angel in a room which will be flooded with sunlight come morning. Buffy, searching for Angel in his apartment eventually falls asleep there. She is awakened by the same character attacking her and identifying herself as "Kendra, the Vampire Slayer."

Expanded overview

Buffy's fate as the Slayer is set in stone. As career week arrives, Buffy becomes bummed that she can't be anything but the Slayer. Spike is working on a cure for Drusilla. He gets a transcriber to decode a book stolen from Giles. Spike is working with the transcriber and Drusilla wants his attention. He blows up at her and she starts to pout. He apologizes and then kisses her very romantically. She forgives him and he goes to work on the book.

When they find that the book is in code, and the transcriber can't crack it, Drusilla looks to her tarot cards for an answer. When they find that the book needs a key, Spike and Dru dance together. When making her rounds at the cemetery, Buffy finds the transcriber and another vamp stealing something from a mausoleum. She kills the vampire and the transcriber gets away, back to Spike. When home, she finds Angel there warning her of grave danger, as usual. They chat for a bit, and Buffy reveals her childhood obsession with Dorothy Hamill.

Giles begins to worry about what happened at the cemetery. Then they show Spike with a gold cross on a pillow. He decides that if Drusilla is to survive he must get rid of Buffy. He calls for the Order of Turaka - bounty hunters of the most deadly kind. They will keep coming until Buffy is dead. Giles and Buffy go back to the mausoleum and Giles finds the name - "duLac" on the wall. He puts the piece together to find that Spike is using the book and the cross to bring back Drusilla. Giles then goes back to the library to try to find out what the book says. Meanwhile, the assassins are coming. Pretending to be normal they position themselves to kill Buffy but all in their own way.

Buffy gets out of helping with book deciphering to go and skate with Angel. Then one of the assassins shows up and attempts to kill Buffy. Angel gets there just in time to try and save her. Then Buffy cuts the would be assassin's throat with her skate. Angel looks at the guy's ring and tells Buffy to run and hide but she refuses. He acts shy because he does not want Buffy to see him as a vampire. But she says she didn't even notice. Meanwhile, a second slayer is also at the rink. She sees Buffy kissing Angel and prepares to kill them both. Back at the library Giles, Xander and Willow can't find Buffy. Giles begins to panic he knows what is in store for Buffy and Angel. He sends Xander after her and asks him to go with Cordelia since she has a car.

Angel goes for help. He goes to a bar where vampires hang out. Angel asks the bartender who sent the assassins and the guy refuses to answer. Then Angel smashes the his head against the bar and threatens to kill him. Angel says that since he hasn't killed in a while, it may take a while. Buffy gets really scared since Angel has told her that she is in really grave danger. She goes to Angel's place and falls asleep in his bed. This new slayer saves the bar boy from Angel and gets into a fight with him. She corners him and then locks him in a caged area where he can't get out. Only to be burned alive by the sun which will be coming up in a few hours.

Then this new girl named Kendra shows up at Angel's place ready to kill Buffy. They get into a major chick fight and when the fighting stops for a second, Buffy asks the girl who she is. She responds, "I am Kendra, the Vampire Slayer."

Production details

• The hold of the plane in which Kendra arrived in Sunnydale was used as a sewer tunnel in later episodes.
• The ice rink is called Iceland, it's found at 8041 Jackson Street in Paramount, California. This is around 25 miles from where Buffy was filmed. Sarah Michelle Gellar is a fan of ice skating in real life.

Music

• Vivaldi - "Spring" from "The Four Seasons".

Cultural References

• Dorothy Hamill - When Buffy talks about a “Dorothy Hamill phase”, she means ice-skating since Hamill was an American ice-skater who won a gold medal in the 1976 Winter olympics.
• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport - The software recruiter says to Willow “The jet was delayed by fog at Sea Tac but he should be here any minute.”.
• The Simpsons - Buffy says to Giles “Have a cow Giles.” She is playing on The Simpsons phrase used by Bart Simpson, "Don’t have a cow" (which means 'don’t get worked up').
• What's My Line? - Was an American game show which ran from 1950 to 1963. Contestants had to guess what unusual jobs or products were linked to mysterious guests from clues given by the host (John Charles Daly). The UK version featured the mystery guests miming their jobs.

Quotes and trivia

• Buffy fights two vampires, she dusts one before seeing the other run away, “One down, one… gone.”. The same situation plays out with two demons in "Earshot".
• The spectacled vampire, Dalton, also later appeared in "Surprise".
• It is revealed there are forty-three churches in Sunnydale.
• On the table in Angel's appartment there are two ashtrays, although he is never seen smoking.

Continuity

Arc significance

• Darla had asked Angel (in the episode "Angel"), if he thought that Buffy would ever be able to kiss his 'real face'. She did in this episode.
• This episode features the first appearance of Buffy's cuddly pig, Mr. Gordo.
• Willow and Oz finally properly meet, having almost done so in two previous episodes, "Inca Mummy Girl" and "Halloween".
• Willy’s Place is seen for the first time. The bar also appeared in many other episodes including "Amends", "The Zeppo", "Goodbye, Iowa" and "Family".
• The term, “Scooby Gang”, is used for the first time (by Xander), "C’mon, Cordelia. You want to be a member of the Scooby Gang you gotta be willing to be inconvenienced every now and then.". Previously Xander and Buffy had both used Scooby merchandise such as T-shirts, and a lunch box.
• Other than Buffy's brief death via the Master, This is the first time that a slayer is killed on the series. It will happen once more before the series finale.

Timing

• Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:

External links

• [Soulful Spike Society analysis of What’s My Line Part 1]

PLEASE DISCUSS CHARACTER ADDITTIONS/REMOVALS BEFORE MAKING CHANGES AT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Buffyverse#Buffyverse-box_character_inclusions)

This box cannot/shouldn't be including every Buffyverse character. Some suggested guidelines are:

"The people who appeared in the opening credits (Scooby Gang & Fang Gang/FG) appear in the box, and the most important villains/friends who had a significant emotional impact on multiple of those opening credits characters - as long as they have a significant episode count, and preferably if they appear in three or more seasons."

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