Season 3, Episode 9

Written by Marti Noxon

Directed by David Greenwalt

Original Airdate: 8 December 1998

"Bored now."
Willow

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

• Seth Green as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

GUEST CAST

• Mark Metcalf as The Master

• Emma Caulfield as Anyanka

• Larry Bagby III as Larry Blaisdell

• Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall

CO-STARRING

• Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson

• Nicole Bilderback as Cordette #1

• Nathan Anderson as John Lee Walker

• Mariah O'Brien as Nancy

• Gary Imhoff as Teacher

• Robert Covarrubias as Caretaker

SYNOPSIS

• On a nice Sunday afternoon, Buffy is fighting a demon. Once the slimy creature is slayed, she discusses with her friends their rough relationship situations. Both Xander and Willow are very willing to do anything to get their former significant others to forgive. In her room that night, Cordelia burns pictures of the entire Scooby Gang while listening to Xander's 60-plus messages on her machine.
  
  Cordelia tries to show that she's completely over Xander by returning to her old friends, but finds that her relationship with him has done permanent damage to her reputation. Before publicly humiliating her, Harmony introduces Cordelia to a new girl, Anya. Willow tries to talk to Oz, but he tells her to just leave him alone. Then, after being scorned again by her former friends, Cordelia runs into Anya and she tells the new girl that she's ready to show Xander just how over him she is.
  
  At the Bronze, Cordelia flirts with just about every guy there and flaunts it in Xander's face. He, Buffy and Willow fail to get over their moping, but find some consolation in chocolate. When Cordelia makes a run from the Bronze, Buffy follows to talk, but they are interrupted by a vampire. Buffy slays while Cordelia is shoved into a pile of trash for Harmony and the rest of the sheep to see.
  
  Cordelia reaches the conclusion that Buffy is the cause of all her troubles. After Anya gives her lucky necklace, she goads her into making a wish. Cordelia wishes Buffy has never came to town. Anya, now with a demonic face, turns to Cordelia and growls, "Done." In a flash of light, Cordelia is transported to an alternate universe. There, the Slayer never came to town, the Master was freed and all the people live in fear of his vampire minions.
  
  Everyone dresses in dark clothing since vampires are attracted to bright clothes, and the living must be in by curfew. Cordelia is back to her high popularity status, but she's not clued in on what this alternate Sunnydale is like. When the bell rings, everyone rushes home to be indoors before the sun sets. Cordelia, however, takes her time and unknowingly walks right into danger. She runs into Xander and Willow, clad in leather. They are vampires. Undead, the two make an interesting couple. Giles, Oz, Larry and a girl named Nancy save her. They are the new Scooby Gang.
  
  The Bronze has become vampire central. Willow and Xander meet there with the Master, and relay that Cordelia mentioned the Slayer before she was rescued. Cordelia wakes up at the library and tells Giles all about the stupid wish she made and that if he brings Buffy to Sunnydale, everything will be OK. Just then, Xander and Willow arrive. Giles is locked in the big cage and must watch as the two feed on Cordelia. Once Giles breaks loose from the locked cage, Larry and Oz arrive and they take Cordelia off to the incinerator, but not before Giles takes Anya's necklace from Cordelia's neck.
  
  Willow and Xander return with the good news, and Willow is rewarded with getting to play with the "puppy." The "puppy" is Angel. He's been chained up in a cage and kept for the torturing pleasure of the Master and his minions. Willow and Xander torture him by throwing lit matches onto his exposed chest. Meanwhile, Giles has discovered the meaning of the necklace. On his way home, he sees vampires loading people into the back of a truck. He frees the people, but is then caught himself. He's saved by a very different and slightly scarred Buffy Summers.
  
  The long-haired and very tough Slayer is filled in on the situation of Anyanka, a demon that grants the wishes of scorned women. She finds out that the Master is in town and goes off to kill him. Upon arriving at the Bronze, she doesn't find any vampires except for Angel. He tells her that he waited for her in Sunnydale, but she never came. Then the Master rose and chose to keep him alive so that he could suffer. Buffy frees him and they leave for the factory. There, the Master has set up a system to mass produce human blood for vampires.
  
  Most of the surviving humans of Sunnydale have been captured and are locked up while the Master gives a speech about his plans. A girl, one of Harmony's followers, is chosen out of the crowd to go first. By inserting tubes into her body, she is drained of all her blood. As the Master is about to drink, Buffy shoots him with her handheld crossbow but the bolt is intercepted by Xander. A fight breaks out and the people are set free. While trying to save Buffy from Xander, Angel takes a crossbow bolt to the chest and dusts.
  
  At Giles' apartment, he summons Anyanka. She's furious because he's a man. She grabs him by the throat and begins to choke him. Giles eventually rips the necklace off of her neck. Back at the factory, Buffy stakes Xander and Oz runs over and pushes Willow into a broken piece of wood, killing her. Many other minions are slayed, and then finally the Master descends from his stage to fight. He snaps Buffy's neck and she falls to the ground, dead.
  
  Giles breaks the necklace, hoping that the world that they have come to know could be better if Cordelia's wish was broken. Another flash of light, and Cordelia is back at school, making her wish. Anya grants it, but nothing happens. Cordelia continues to make wishes, and Anya continues to attempt the wish. Her powers are gone, and no one knows nothing of the alternate reality.

TRIVIA

• Emma Caulfield makes her first appearance as Anya in this episode. She becomes a regular cast member on the show from season five through to season seven. There also seems to be some confusion over her false name in this episode. The Sunnydale High Yearbook lists her name as 'Anya Emerson,' but onscreen later it's referred to as 'Anya Jenkins.' Either way, both surnames are fabricated.

CONTINUITY

• Willow and Xander are the Master's favourite vampire lackeys in this episode. This shows that they would be great, but evil, without Buffy, but both live in the Slayer's shadow in the real world. Reversely, we see how Buffy could have been without the support of her friends. She is hardened and cynical, much like Faith.

• Buffy comes from Cleveland in this episode's alternate timeline, and Giles talks to her Watcher, presumably Merrick, on the phone, mentioning a Hellmouth and hinting at the demonic activity in Cleveland. In Chosen, he reveals that there is a Hellmouth in Cleveland as well.

• Harmony jokingly mentions that Cordelia should date Jonathan in this episode, which Cordelia actually briefly did way back in Reptile Boy.

• Willow references Amy, who was last seen in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered and would soon be seen in Gingerbread.

• Anyanka will attempt to regain her powers in Doppelgangland and the vampire version of Willow from this episode is accidentally brought into the original reality in that episode.

• Although it's not confirmed,  it seems that the Master escaped during the Harvest and was not stopped by anyone. Angel is a captive, but Darla or Luke are not present. Fan speculate that one of them sired Xander or Willow, but this is conjecture.

GOOFS

• Cordelia cuts a photo of Xander up to his chin, but the picture we see her burning shows his chest.

• In the new reality, Cordelia is talking to her friends about going to the Bronze. You can see a boom mic briefly above their heads.

• We know Anya's necklace is her demon power centre. So why would she give it to Cordelia? In future episodes where she makes wishes reality, she never gives the necklace away.

• Anya gives Cordelia her necklace, and then Cordelia finds herself in the other dimension and discovers the necklace has gone. But later, Giles takes the necklace from around Cordelia's neck.

• How did Anyanka get her necklace back? She gives it to Cordelia to make her wish. Giles then takes the pendant off Cordelia's neck and uses it to identify Anyanka the vengeance demon, whom he summons. Anyanka appears wearing the necklace. How did she get it back?

• If the Master is free, then the Hellmouth should be open. Yet Giles and the White Hats are working in the library.

• When the Cordette is put on the tray in the Master's machine, her arm is folded across her stomach. In the next shot her arm is lying down at her side.

• When Willow and Xander finish drinking Cordelia's blood they throw her dead body aside, but when it hits the floor it makes no sound.

• Why did the vampires construct a wooden cage to hold their prisoners? Wood is hardly vampire-friendly.

• When Anya and Cordelia sit in the Bronze, Anya's position in relation to Cordelia moves between shots.

Anne | Dead Man's Party | Faith, Hope and Trick | Beauty and the Beasts | Homecoming

Band Candy | Revelations | Lover's Walk | The Wish | Amends | Gingerbread

Helpless | The Zeppo | Bad Girls | Consequences | Doppelgangland | Enemies

Earshot | Choices | The Prom | Graduation Day (Part 1) | Graduation Day (Part 2)