Season 2, Episode 11

Written by David Greenwalt and Joss Whedon

Directed by Bruce Seth Green

Original Airdate: 8 December 1997

Joyce "He redid my entire system at the gallery, freed up a lot of my time."
Buffy "To meet new people. And smooch them in my kitchen."
 

REGULAR CAST

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

• Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase

• David Boreanaz as Angel

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

SPECIAL GUEST STAR

• John Ritter as Ted Buchanan

GUEST CAST

• Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers

• Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar

CO-STARRING

• Ken Thorley as Neal

• James G. MacDonald as Detective Stein

• Jeff Pruitt as Vampire #1

• Jeff Langton as Vampire #2

SYNOPSIS

• Buffy comes home to find the door open and unlocked. She hears her mother cry out and then rushes in to save the day. However she stops when she finds her mother making out with some guy. Her friends then come inside while the guy, Ted, fixes mini pizza's for them. Joyce and Buffy go outside and talk. Buffy finds out a lot about what her mother has been doing lately. Buffy immediately gets bad vibes from this Ted and refuses to be nice to him. All her friends absolutely love Ted's cooking and Buffy is jealous. Later that night, Buffy goes out patrolling with Giles. She whales on a vampire and 'beats him to a bloody pulp' as Giles puts it. He tries to get her to talk but she won't.
  
  The next day, we see how Ted is affecting Buffy and she lets her friends know that there is something wrong with this guy. Xander however starts to make fun of how she's having parental issues. Then Ted shows up at school where he is installing new software. He also gives Willow the upgrades she wanted for her computer, as well as asking the crowd to go miniature golfing. Xander agrees for all of them. Later Buffy dresses Angel's hand. Buffy is ranting about how this guy drives her nuts and Angel tries to give her some sense in the matter. He convinces her to go and give this guy a chance.
  
  At the miniature golf course, Ted reveals how he feels about right and wrong: what is right must stay right and what is wrong is wrong. When Buffy hits a ball way out, Joyce says that they shouldn't count it, but Ted insists that they do. He acts more like a real father than he does her mother's boyfriend. Buffy goes to get the ball and cheats by putting the ball into the hole. Ted spots her and then starts yelling at her. He then threatens to slap her and she gets freaked out. The next morning she tries to tell her mother but she refuses to listen to the truth. Buffy leaves, still choosing not to eat Ted's food.
  
  The next day, Buffy asks Willow to check Ted out on the web. Xander then runs off to Cordelia and asks if she wants to make-out with him. She agrees. Buffy then goes to Ted's office to spy on him. She finds out that Ted is planning to marry her mother. That night, Ted makes dinner and Buffy asks if they are planning to get married. Her mother says no, but then Ted asks her how she would feel if they did. Buffy responds with, by claiming that she'd want to kill herself. She goes to her room, but really goes out searching for vampires. When she gets back to her room, she finds Ted sitting there having gone through her Slayer drawer and read her diary. They get into a fight and Buffy gets hit... hard. She hits him back and they start to fight. Her mother shows up just as Buffy starts to beat up on him. He falls down the stairs and her mother finds him, dead.
  
  Buffy is taken to the police but isn't charged with anything yet. The next day at school, Buffy is very upset with everyone staring at her. Her friends don't help much either. She goes home to find that her mother won't even look at her. Now that the Slayer can't slay, Giles goes out to try and do the dirty work. Meanwhile, Xander, Willow and Cordelia are out looking for evidence to prove Buffy didn't do anything wrong. Xander eats one of Ted's cookies and then starts getting all mellow and loose. Willow puts the pieces together and they head to the Science lab.
  
  Giles is at the park looking for vampires. Jenny then shows up to apologize for her behaviour since the Eyghon incident. A vampire then shows up and Giles goes to battle him. Jenny grabs the crossbow and aims, preparing to fire... In her room, Buffy mopes around. When she tries to leave her room, she finds her window nailed shut. Turning around, Buffy finds Ted, alive and well in her room. They get into another fight. He starts to strangle her and she grabs a nail file from her desk and stabs it into his arm. It turns out he is a robot. He shorts out a bit, then knocks Buffy out.
  
  Willow finds out that there are drugs in Ted's food that make people cooperative and mellow. They then head to an address Cordelia found and find out that Ted was married in 1957. He has a house under his lab. Xander finds four women, his ex-wives, in the closet. Giles, meanwhile, is still fighting with the vampire and is shot in the back with the crossbow. He pulls it out and stakes the vampire with it. Jenny then takes him to the hospital. Back at Buffy's house, Ted goes downstairs to comfort and take control of Joyce. He scares the hell out of her and then tries to take her with him back to his house. Buffy then wakes up and makes a noise in the kitchen. Ted goes after her and gets hit in the face with a frying pan. This reveals his robotic looks. Buffy hits him again and again until he can't fight back anymore.
  
  The next day we see Buffy and Joyce sitting on the front porch. Buffy tries to convince her mother that Ted isn't coming back without revealing he was a robot. Back at school, Buffy is ready to go back to work only to find that she can't walk into a room without sounding an air horn. Giles and Jenny have made up and are kissing in the library.

TRIVIA

• This episode was shot on Halloween, and as a result, Kristine Sutherland came dressed up in 50's clothing as Ted's first wife, and Sarah Michelle Gellar turned up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz with her dog Thor as Toto.

CONTINUITY

• At the beginning of this episode, Buffy, Xander and Willow refer to the events of the previous one. The Order of Taraka has apparently been called off, and Angel is still recuperating from the injuries he got from Spike and Drusilla.

• Cordelia refers to the events of The Dark Age, remembering how Giles helped raise Eyghon. Jenny says it's been three weeks since the events of that episode. Her relationship with Giles is back on track as of this episode.

• Xander tells Willow and Buffy that nothing is going to happen, similar to School Hard. Buffy tells him that due to the events of the previous episode, she'll let him off.

GOOFS

• When Buffy climbs into her room her nightstand is in darkness, though in close up shots it's illuminated.

• Buffy hits Ted who drops the diary. The diary then disappears from shot, though it should be on the floor.

• Xander opens Ted's cupboard door holding the torch in his right hand by his side. The shot cuts to a different angle and the torch is by his head.

• How did Giles really survive being hit by a crossbow?

• At the golf course, shadows flip from one side of the course to the other for no reason.

When She Was Bad | Some Assembly Required | School Hard | Inca Mummy Girl | Reptile Boy

Halloween | Lie to Me | The Dark Age | What's My Line? (Part 1) | What's My Line? (Part 2) | Ted

Bad Eggs | Surprise | Innocence | Phases | Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered | Passion

Killed by Death | I Only Have Eyes for You | Go Fish | Becoming (Part 1) | Becoming (Part 2)