Buffy vs. Dracula
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| “Buffy vs. Dracula” | |
|---|---|
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
 |
|
| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 1 |
| Guest stars | Rudolf Martin (Dracula) Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn) Amber Benson (Tara) Kristine Sutherland (Joyce) |
| Written by | Marti Noxon |
| Directed by | David Solomon |
| Production no. | 5ABB01 |
| Original airdate | September 26, 2000 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Restless" | "Real Me" |
"Buffy vs. Dracula" is the first episode in season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Buffy faces the infamous Count Dracula, who has come to Sunnydale to meet her and make her one of his concubines. In the process, he turns Xander into a Renfield of sorts and Giles performs the scene of the three sisters, much like Jonathan Harker in the original novel. However, after a brief spell during which Buffy is mesmerized by the Count and bitten in the neck, she regains her usual composure and kills him. He reforms from a mist, but is killed again. Attempting to reform yet again, Buffy reminds him that she's still there, and Dracula slips away in his mist-form.
[edit] Expanded overview
Unable to sleep, Buffy goes out to patrol the cemetery and after staking a vampire, she returns to bed. At the beach, Buffy and Riley play around and the gang attempt some relaxation under the sun. After Willow uses magic to ignite the barbeque, a storm starts suddenly, forcing them all to seek shelter from the rain. Two men deliver a large crate to a residence, but when they drop it, a clawed hand breaks through the wood and attacks the men.
Giles has Willow begin to scan the pages of books so that they can be resources for the gang to use. He then announces to her that he's going back to England because it seems he's no longer needed by anyone in Sunnydale. Buffy has dinner with her mother then goes out to patrol. After staking one vampire, she is confronted by another. However, this is no ordinary vampire. He is the infamous Count Dracula.
Buffy talks with the legendary vampire, and when she tries to stake him, he is able to disappear. Xander and Willow arrive to see Dracula before he turns into a bat and flies away. The gang talks about Dracula, all of the women focusing on how amazing he is. Riley and Xander both express their jealousy towards the Dark Prince. Willow makes a lame attempt to attract attention to Giles and his usefulness, but the gang seems oblivious to it all.
Anya talks adoringly about Dracula and as Xander is walking home alone, he runs into the vampire himself. Using his mysterious charms, Dracula persuades Xander to be his aid and lure the Slayer to him. Riley goes to Spike for information regarding Dracula. Spike reveals that he knows Dracula, but warns Riley that Dracula is too dangerous for the former commando to take on alone. Buffy awakens to find Dracula in her bedroom. She is helpless against his powers and unable to stop him from biting her. When she wakes the next morning, she spots the puncture marks in her neck and hides them with a scarf around her neck.
While munching on donuts, the gang talks about their plan of attack on Dracula. Buffy seems distracted and after hearing about the truths of Dracula, she leaves abruptly. Riley follows her and forces her to take off the scarf to show the puncture marks on her neck. Everyone is shocked to see that she has been under the control of Dracula. Since Xander is under Dracula's power, he has a strange hunger for spiders and attempts to defend the powerful vampire to his friends. Xander volunteers to have Buffy stay safely at his place, Willow and Tara use magic to protect the Summers's home, and Giles and Riley go after Dracula.
Anya complains about not going after Dracula herself, until Xander locks her in the closet. Xander takes the willing Slayer to his "Master" in hopes of getting immortality in return. After being left alone with Dracula, Buffy tries to take control and stake him, but he is easily able to make her put the stake down. Riley and Giles discover Dracula's castle that mysteriously appeared in Sunnydale and enter carefully. Dracula talks to Buffy of all the things he will do for her while she struggles to regain control of herself.
Xander tries to stop Riley from going after Dracula, but Riley quickly knocks him out. Giles finds himself victim to the Three Sisters who effectively keep him distracted. Dracula offers his blood to Buffy and she hesitantly takes a drink. A flash of memories allows Buffy to break his control over her. Riley rescues Giles from the sister vampires and they go to save Buffy. Buffy and Dracula fight in a vicious battle and finally Buffy stakes him. After they leave, Dracula comes back from the dust. Buffy is there and stakes him, knowing he would come back. Dracula attempts to reform again but is reminded by Buffy that she is "standing right here".
Buffy talks to Giles, telling him that she wants to be the Slayer again, to learn about her duties and her future. She asks Giles to be her Watcher again and Giles is pleased. Buffy comes home and announces to her mom that she's going out with Riley. As she enters her room, she finds a girl there going through her stuff. Joyce tells Buffy that she should take her sister with her if she goes out.
[edit] Production details
[edit] Music
- Vertical Horizon - "Finding Me"
[edit] Quotes and trivia
- Dracula and Buffy face each other again, with much similar results, in the Dark Horse Comic Tales of the Vampires #3 "Antique" by Drew Goddard.
- This is the third time that Buffy is bitten by a vampire. She was bitten by the Master in Season 1's "Prophecy Girl" and by Angel in Season 3's "Graduation Day, Part Two".
- Excerpts from this episode appear on a television screen in the Russian vampire film Night Watch.
- The Season Premiere attracted 5.8 million viewers.
- Rudolf Martin played Sarah Gellar's love interest Anton on All My Children.
- Rudolf Martin later played Vlad the Impaler (the supposed inspiration for Dracula) in a TV miniseries, Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula, released in the same year.
- This episode is the first to give Emma Caulfield first billing, as she now appears in the opening credits.
- As of this moment, it's over; I'm finished being everybody's butt monkey -- Xander
- You're in the thrall of the Dark Prince! -- Riley Finn
- The line where Buffy says she "doesn't paint clowns" when first meeting Dracula is a reference to John Wayne Gacy.
- The line Dracula says to Buffy--"You think you know... who you are, what's to come"-- is almost the same line that Tara said to Buffy in her dream in "Restless".
[edit] Translations
- Italian title: "Il morso del vampiro" ("The bite of the vampire")
- German title: "Buffy vs. Dracula"
- French title: "Buffy contre Dracula" ("Buffy Against Dracula")
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Spike versus Dracula
The allusion Spike makes in this episode to him and Dracula being rivals is further explored in a comics miniseries, Spike Versus Dracula, in which the two vampires run across, and try to kill, each other through various decades. In the comic, Dracula is shown to resent the novel, feeling that it doesn't do him justice. When Dracula burns a copy that Spike had bought, Spike claims that Dracula owes him eleven pounds, a recurring line throughout the miniseries, and in this episode.
[edit] Arc significance
This episode can be seen as a new beginning for Buffy after defeating Adam and paves the way for the new season's main theme: Buffy's real self and purpose. She learns from Dracula that she's a hunter perhaps more than she's a slayer, and he whets her appetite for exploring herself and finding out more about the Slayer lineage and its purpose and roots.
The episode is also significant in that its final scene features the appearance of Dawn, the younger sister of Buffy.
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: Fall 2000 - December 2000 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.01 Buffy vs. Dracula |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.01 Judgment |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: Haunted (by Jane Espenson) |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.02 Real Me |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.02 Are You Now or Have You Ever Been |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel book: Image |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel book: Stranger to the Sun |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.03 The Replacement |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: False Memories |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy Graphic novel story: Willow & Tara: Wannablessedbe |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.03 First Impressions |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel graphic novel: Long Night's Journey |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.04 Out of My Mind |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.04 Untouched |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.05 No Place Like Home |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.05 Dear Boy |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.06 Family |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: Autumnal |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel graphic novel: Autumnal |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.06 Guise Will Be Guise |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.07 Fool for Love |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.07 Darla |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.08 Shadow |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.08 The Shroud of Rahmon |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.09 Listening to Fear |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.09 The Trial |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.10 Into the Woods |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.10 Reunion |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.11 Triangle |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.11 Redefinition |
