The Freshman

"The Freshman" is the first episode of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the fifty-seventh episode altogether. It was written and directed by Joss Whedon. It originally broadcast on October 5, 1999.

While Willow blossoms in the college environment, Buffy has a difficult time adjusting - getting lost, getting kicked out of a class for talking, meeting her Celine Dion-loving roommate Kathy, and getting soundly beaten by the leader of a campus vampire gang that steals from its victims.

Synopsis


Buffy and Willow are on stake out in a cemetery while also discussing which classes Buffy should take for her first semester at college. They are so engrossed with this that they don't notice when the vampire they are waiting to awaken quietly slips away when he sees they are carrying an arsenal of vampire-killing gear.

The day before classes shows Buffy being handed fliers by the various campus groups, fraternities, and general student protesters. Buffy meets up with Willow and Oz and reveals that she feels overwhelmed and disoriented by the new experience. Willow, on the other hand, is very excited by the new surroundings. Oz is not fazed at all -- he even seems to know several people that walk by.

Buffy and Willow tour the campus library, and discuss Giles enjoying his free time now he's no longer a Watcher or a librarian and that Xander is still away on his summer cross-country trip. Buffy and Willow go to the campus bookstore for supplies. When Buffy tries to get the "Intro to Psychology" texts she knocks them off the shelf onto the head of Riley Finn. Riley introduces himself as a teaching assistant for Professor Walsh's Psych 105 "Intro to Psychology" class.



Buffy arrives at her new dorm room in Stevenson Hall. She has already moved in and her new roommate Kathy is in the process of doing so. Kathy tells Buffy that she can tell that she is cool and thinks the upcoming year will be "super fun". As she says this to Buffy she hangs a poster of Céline Dion much to Buffy's chagrin. During the night Buffy has trouble sleeping because Kathy snores, laughs, and smacks her lips in her sleep.

The first day of classes, Buffy gets caught talking in class and is humiliated in front of the class and ejected from it by the professor when she tries to find out if the class enrollment is still open. Later, with Willow and Oz, she attends Psych 105 taught by Professor Maggie Walsh and TA'ed by Riley Finn. Professor Walsh jokingly states that those students not in her good graces will come to know her as "...the evil bitch monster of death." Students who stay in her favor will come to know her simply as "Maggie."

That night she meets another freshman student named Eddie. They are both lost. Buffy and Eddie discuss their need of a "security blanket" in their unfamiliar surroundings. Eddie tells Buffy that his security blanket is the novel Of Human Bondage, which he has read ten times and keeps by his bed. Buffy and Eddie then go separate ways and Eddie runs into a group of vampires. The vampires kill Eddie and turn him into a fellow creature of the night. They also go to his dorm room, steal all of his belongings, and leave a fake note supposedly signed by Eddie saying that he couldn't handle school and he had to leave.



The next day, Buffy looks for Eddie in Psych class but does not see him. She goes to his dorm room to find the note and empty room. She notices that the novel Of Human Bondage is still in his nightstand. She knows that he would not leave that behind and suspects something is wrong. Buffy visits Giles to find a half-naked female visitor in his apartment. The woman visiting Giles is Olivia (she refers to Giles as "Ripper" at one point). Buffy tells Giles of the mysterious disappearance and Giles is reluctant to help. He reminds Buffy that he is no longer her Watcher, nor does she have one anymore and now she's growing up she has to learn how to handle these things herself. Buffy sadly leaves, while Giles reminds her he'll always be there if she really needs him.

That night Buffy runs into Eddie in a deserted part of campus. Eddie tries to attack Buffy and she stakes him without trouble. The group of vampires that turned Eddie are watching though and the leader of the group, named Sunday, attacks Buffy. Buffy is soundly thrashed by Sunday while the others watch. Her confidence shattered and her arm sprained, she runs. Buffy is shaken by the fight and goes home the next day for some comfort from Mom and familiar surroundings. She finds her mother surprised to see her home so soon and has converted Buffy's room to storage space for her gallery.

When Buffy returns to her dorm room, she finds all of her belongings missing and a note similar to that found in Eddie's room. Buffy goes to The Bronze and runs into Xander. Xander reveals that his car broke down in Oxnard and his tour of America didn't happen. He spent a month and a half washing dishes at the fabulous "Ladies' Night" club earning money for repairs (which came to a merciful end when one of the male strippers fell sick, although Xander says "not a power on this Earth [can get me to tell that story]"). Xander also says that he now lives in his parents' basement and has to pay rent. Buffy tells Xander that she is overwhelmed by the new college experience and wonders if she can hack it. Xander pumps her up by telling her of course she can and that she is his hero.



Buffy and Xander find the vampire lair, which is a condemned fraternity house. Buffy elects to watch the vampires while Xander rounds up Willow and Oz, but is discovered and is forced to fight. When Sunday breaks the Class Protector Award she was given at her senior prom, Buffy is angered enough to regain her confidence and soundly trounces the vampires, taking out Sunday with a backhand throw of a broken tennis racket.

Later, the gang recover Buffy's things from the lair when Giles approaches laden with weapons. He apologises to Buffy for turning her away, and is ready to fight the evil. Instead, he's just asked to help carry the boxes. Buffy realizes that college is actually turning out to be like high school, so she at least knows what to expect.

Tom, one of the few surviving vampires from Sunday's lair, runs away from the scene when he is suddenly stunned with a tazer. Three masked men dressed in camouflage fatigues approach the vampire with guns of some sort.

Production

 * The original storyline for the character of Sunday was that she was a former Slayer turned vampire.


 * Starting with this episode, Buffy was filmed in 16x9 widescreen; this would be the case for the next three seasons. However, Joss Whedon never intended for it to be shown this way, so while the widescreen version is shown on Sky One in the United Kingdom, all American showings are in 4x3. DVD releases of the final four seasons have followed the same pattern, with European (Region 2) discs displaying the episodes in 16:9 widescreen format and North American (Region 1) discs not. Netflix has the widescreen versions of Seasons 4-7.


 * Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) and David Boreanaz (Angel) are no longer series regulars and have been removed from the opening credits.
 * This is the first time in the series that an actor has been removed from the opening credits.

Deleted Scenes

 * This line where Sunday is dissing Buffy's umbrella, was cut due to length:
 * Sunday: "What better way to say, 'I am the very most of geek'."

Other

 * The yearbook seen in this episode, the Sunnydale High Yearbook, was released as a tie-in product after this episode aired.

Quotes
Xander - "Some friends of Buffy's played a funny joke. They took her stuff, and now she wants us to help get it back from her friends who sleep all day and have no tans."

Willow - "It's just in high school, knowledge was pretty much frowned upon; you really had to work to learn anything. But here, the energy, the-the collective intelligence, it's like this force, t-this penetrating force, a-and I can just feel my mind opening up, you know? A-and letting this place just thrust into and-and spurt knowledge into... that sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in."

Xander - "Buffy, this is all about fear. It's understandable, but you can't let it control you. 'Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to anger.' No wait, hold on. 'Fear leads to hate. Hate leads to the dark side.' Hold on, no, umm, 'First you get the women, then you get the money, then you...'okay, can we forget that?"

Willow - "He said he wasn't coming back until he'd driven to all fifty states." Buffy - "Did you explain about Hawaii?" Willow - "Well, he seemed so determined."

Giles - "I'm not supposed to have a private life?" Buffy - "No. Because you're very, very old and it's gross."

Xander - "Basically, I got as far as Oxnard and the engine fell out of my car, and that was literally. So, I ended up washing dishes at 'The Fabulous Ladies Night Club' for about a month and a half while I tried to pay for the repairs.  No one really bothered me or even spoke to me until one night when one of the male strippers called in sick and no power on this earth will make me tell you the rest of that story. Suffice to say I traded my car in for one that wasn't entirely made of rust, came trundling back home to the arms of my loving parents, where everything was exactly as it was except I sleep in the basement and I have to pay rent.  How's college?" Buffy - "Male strippers?" Xander - "No power on this earth!" Buffy - "OK. College is good." Xander - "OK, uh, once more with even less feeling."

Xander - "Do we hug?" Oz - "I think we're too manly."

Dav - "Does this sweater make me look fat?" Sunday - "No. The fact that you're fat makes you look fat. That sweater just makes you look purple."

Xander - "Buffy, I've gone through some fairly dark times in my life, faced some scary things, among them the kitchen at 'The Fabulous Ladies Night Club.' Let me tell you something, when it's dark and I'm all alone and I'm scared or freaked out or whatever, I always think, 'What would Buffy do?' You're my hero."

Continuity

 * This episode marks the first appearances of Marc Blucas as Riley Finn, Lindsay Crouse as Maggie Walsh, and The Initiative. Riley will be a recurring character at the beginning of the season but will be made a series regular from "Doomed" (4x11) up until "Into The Woods" (5x10). He will make one final guest appearance in the episode "As You Were" (6x15). Maggie Walsh will act as a recurring character throughout the season. The Initiative will also contribute largely to the main story arc of Season Four.


 * Buffy claims, "Can't wait till mom gets the bill for these books. I hope it's a funny aneurysm," foreshadowing Joyce Summers' death in the fifth season episode(s) "I Was Made to Love You" (5x15) (at the end of which Joyce is actually discovered dead)/"The Body" (5x16) (replay of the moment of Buffy's discovery of her mother's body, and the aftermath).


 * This episode aired the same night as the series premiere of Angel, "City of" (1x01). The two episodes share a very brief crossover moment: In this episode Buffy answers the phone but doesn't hear anything; in "City of," Angel calls Buffy but is unable to say anything, so he hangs up.


 * In addition, when Buffy briefly believes that she sees someone at The Bronze who looks like Angel, it is actually David Boreanaz at first.


 * Buffy references Mr. Pointy, the stake left to her by former friend and late Slayer Kendra Young.


 * While Sunday is beating up Buffy, she says "Oh, and this." Holding Buffy's Class Protector Umbrella from "The Prom."


 * This is the first episode not to feature Sunnydale High School, which was blown up in "Graduation Day, Part Two."


 * When Xander first sees Buffy, he asks how college is going, she replies "College is good." Xander jokes back saying "Once more, with even less feeling." This foreshadows "Once More with Feeling" where he summons a music demon for fun.

Music

 * David Bowie - "Memory of a Free Festival Part 1"
 * Moby - "Everloving" (Promo)
 * Sound Stage Music Library - "Freaky soul"
 * Splendid - "You and Me"
 * Stretch Princess - "Universe"
 * The Muffs - "I Wish That I Could Be You"