Welcome to the Hellmouth

"Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the season premiere of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is the first episode overall. It was written by Joss Whedon and directed by Charles Martin Smith.

Synopsis


A boy breaks a window at Sunnydale High School at night and crawls in, followed by a seemingly reluctant girl. The girl hears an unidentified sound and fears something is there. The boy calls out but gets no response. When the girl is satisfied they are alone, her face morphs into that of a vampire, and she bites the boy. The girl, we will later find out, is Darla.

Buffy has a nightmare the morning of her first day of school. Her mother drives her to the school and encourages her to think positive. Inside the building, Principal Flutie tells her she will start with a clean slate. He reconsiders that after realizing that Buffy burned down her previous school's gym because "it was full of vampi—&hellip;asbestos."



Buffy exits the office and bumps into another student, spilling the contents of her handbag over the floor. Xander sees that and helps Buffy, introducing himself. She leaves without her stake, which Xander pockets because he called out to her, but she had already walked away. In history class, Buffy is helped by Cordelia, who afterward tests her "coolness factor," allowing Buffy skipping the written as Buffy had just moved to Sunnydale, California from Los Angeles. To Buffy's horror, Cordelia humiliates an awkward Willow at the water fountain. Inside the library, Mr. Giles places a book titled Vampyr in front of Buffy after realizing who she was. A stunned Buffy makes a hasty exit.

Buffy, Willow, Jesse McNally and Xander meet during a break, and Xander returns the stake. Buffy claims it is standard self-defense in Los Angeles. Cordelia appeared and told Buffy she won't get to meet Coach Foster because gym was canceled "due to the extreme dead guy" in Aura's locker. Buffy asks whether there were marks on the body, freaking out Cordelia. Buffy forces her way into the locker room, examines the body, and finds the characteristic puncture wounds of a vampire on the neck.



Buffy returns to the library and confronts Giles, who informs her that he is her Watcher. Buffy refuses to accept her calling as a Slayer, since it had gotten her expelled from previous school and cost her her social life. After they leave the library, Xander emerges from behind the shelves, having overheard the strange conversation.



That night, en route to her first visit to the Bronze, the cool hangout in Sunnydale, Buffy meets a mysterious, handsome stranger, who warns her that she is living on a Hellmouth that is about to open, and that "the Harvest" is coming. He also gives her a large silver cross. It isn't revealed until the next episode that the stranger's name is Angel.

In the Bronze, Buffy meets Willow and encourages her to seize the moment because tomorrow she might be dead. She finds Giles and tells him about Angel. Giles tells her to learn to hone her skills to sense vampires anywhere. Buffy uses her fashion sense to pick out a vampire in the club and is alarmed to see Willow leave with him. She loses them and is surprised by Cordelia, nearly staking her. Cordelia immediately calls her friends to tell them about it. While Buffy looks for Willow, Jesse chats up Darla at the Bronze. Buffy is stopped by Xander, whom she convinces to help search for Willow.

Meanwhile, under the streets of Sunnydale, The Master is woken by lesser vampires from a long sleep to prepare for the Harvest. He sends Luke to fetch young blood.

Willow's new acquaintance takes her to a crypt in a cemetery, where they are joined by Darla and Jesse, whom she has bitten. Buffy and Xander arrive. Buffy kills Willow's vampire. Xander and Willow help Jesse, who has been weakened, flee. Luke takes Darla's place in the fight so she can help catch the kids. Luke throws Buffy in a stone coffin and is about to move in for the kill.

Continuity

 * Buffy begins to have prophetic dreams.


 * Joyce drops Buffy off at school and tells her "Try not to get kicked out". Buffy promises, but eventually does get expelled.

Production

 * The script for the episode was written on August 26, 1996. Six revisions were made following this, with the last being January 17, 1997.


 * The scene with Buffy and Giles at the Bronze was Anthony Stewart Head's audition scene.


 * The high school used for external and some internal scenes in the series is Torrance High, the same school used for the acclaimed series Beverly Hills 90210.


 * The Master's real name was never mentioned on screen but in the shooting script for the episode he was named Heinrich Joseph Nest and was also said to have been six hundred years old.


 * When Buffy is in her room deciding what to wear to the Bronze, the Sprung Monkey’s “Saturated” is played in the background. Incidentally, Sprung Monkey appear on stage at the Bronze. They first perform “Believe,” followed by “Swirl” and “Things Are Changing.” The original score is written by Walter Murphy.


 * The Master was originally supposed to rise from a pool of blood and be covered with the blood for the entire episode; this was abandoned after being discovered to be too difficult to create.


 * Certain scenes, such as the argument between Giles and Buffy in the library, and Buffy's first meeting with Angel, were re-shot eight months after the first episode was recorded. Joss Whedon decided to make Buffy less angry and more vulnerable, much to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s dismay. Whedon jokingly teased her they were going to re-shoot the scenes a third time.


 * The scene where Angel warns Buffy about the Harvest was David Boreanaz's audition scene. According to Boreanaz, it was shot at two in the morning in "some god awful street."

Broadcast

 * Creator Joss Whedon hoped to include actor Eric Balfour in the title credits to shock viewers when his character dies. Unfortunately, the show could not afford the extra set of title credits at the time. However, Whedon’s wish was granted in season six (“Seeing Red”) with Amber Benson’s character, Tara Maclay.


 * On the original airing of this episode, The WB provided a teaser briefing the history of past Slayers. It revealed horrific events in towns that were halted when a particular woman arrived. This teaser, however, does not appear in syndication or on DVD.


 * "Welcome to the Hellmouth" received a Nielsen rating of 3.4 upon its original airing.

Deleted Scenes

 * This exchange was cut because of length:
 * Mr. Flutie: - "Oh! Buffy! Uh, what do you want?"
 * Buffy: - "Um, is there a guy in there that's dead?"
 * Mr. Flutie: - "Where did you hear that? Okay. Yes. But he's not a student! Not currently."
 * Buffy: - "Do you know how he died?"
 * Mr. Flutie: - "What?"
 * Buffy: - "I mean - how could this have happened?"
 * Mr. Flutie: - "Well, that's for the police to determine when they get here. But this structure is safe, we have inspectors, and I think there's no grounds for a lawsuit."
 * Buffy: - "Was there a lot of blood? Was there any blood?"
 * Mr. Flutie: - "I would think you wouldn't want to involve yourself in this kind of thing."
 * Buffy: - "I don't. Could I just take a peek?"
 * Mr. Flutie: - "Unless you already are involved..."
 * Buffy: - "Never mind."
 * Mr. Flutie: - "Buffy, I understand this is confusing. You're probably feeling a lot right now. You should share those feelings. With someone else."

Pop Culture References

 * Cordelia mentions James Spader, an American actor best known for his roles in Pretty in Pink, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Mannequin, Crash and Stargate.


 * John Tesh, an American television and radio presenter, is also mentioned.


 * Buffy mentions DeBarge, a 1980's pop group.


 * When storming the Bronze, Buffy references The Wild Bunch, a 1969 Western where all the remaining characters are killed in the final shootout.

Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors

 * In the first classroom scene where Buffy shares Cordelia's textbook. The teacher asks them to turn to page 63, but Cordelia turns to somewhere near the beginning of the book.


 * In the scene where Buffy and Willow first talk, Buffy's hair moves back and forth behind and in front of her ear.


 * The spines on the stack of books change from showing to not showing as Buffy and Giles hand them to each other in the library.
 * In the scene were Buffy yells at Angel "What I want is to be left alone" in the backalleys near the Bronze, if you look at her mouth you can see that she says something else. This may have been due to the fact that the entire season was filmed, edited, and then broadcast.
 * When Angel and Buffy meet for the first time in the alley, he says "Truth is, I thought you'd be taller. Or bigger muscles and all that." He has seen Buffy before this interaction, at the moment she was called to be the Slayer (Becoming, Part One), so he should not be surprised by her physical appearance.
 * When Buffy stakes Luke, her stake stays embedded in his back and turns to dust as he does, although this stake makes numerous other appearances in later episodes.

Music

 * Sprung Monkey - "Saturated"
 * Sprung Monkey - "Believe"
 * Sprung Monkey - "Swirl"
 * Sprung Monkey - "Things Are Changing"
 * Sprung Monkey - "Right My Wrong"
 * Mindtribe - "Losing Ground"

Other

 * Brian Thompson, who plays the vampire Luke, returns to the series in season two as a different character, the Judge, in "Surprise" and "Innocence".


 * This episode featured a young Carmine Giovinazzo, who later found fame as Danny Messer on the TV series CSI: NY.

Characters

 * Angel
 * Aphrodesia
 * Aura
 * Chris Boal
 * Cordelia Chase
 * Darla
 * Robert Flutie
 * Rupert Giles
 * Xander Harris
 * Luke
 * The Master
 * Jesse McNally
 * Willow Rosenberg
 * Buffy Summers
 * Joyce Summers
 * Thomas
 * Unidentified Cordette

Organizations and Titles

 * Order of Aurelius
 * Cordettes
 * Scooby Gang
 * The Slayer
 * Sprung Monkey
 * Watcher

Species

 * Demon
 * Incubi
 * Succubi
 * Human
 * Vampire
 * Werewolf
 * Zombie

Events

 * The Harvest

Locations

 * The Bronze
 * The Church (Order of Aurelius)
 * The Hellmouth
 * Mausoleum (Order of Aurelius)
 * Summers' residence
 * Sunnydale High
 * Sunnydale High School library

Weapons and objects

 * Cross
 * Stake
 * Vampyr book

Antagonists

 * The Master
 * Darla