Helpless

"Helpless" is the twelfth episode of the [Episodes of [Buffy the Vampire Slayer|third season]] of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the forty-sixth episode altogether.

As Buffy turns 18 the Watchers Council makes her take a test.

Plot
Buffy and Angel go a few rounds of fighting until Buffy pins him and holds a bread-stick to his heart. Afterwards, Buffy reveals her plans to go to an ice show with her father for her 18th birthday. That night in the library, Giles quizzes her on crystals, demanding that she focus her attention on them. Later, while on patrol, a vampire nearly kills her with her own stake as her powers unexpectedly fail her.

Back at the library, Buffy tries at a target, but misses terribly. When Giles walks in, she asks if he knows what might be happening to her. Meanwhile, Quentin Travers, the head Watcher, is setting up a "test" for the Slayer, assisted by two men named Hobson and Blair. She is to be locked up in a building, without any powers and defeat a powerful and insane vampire--Zachary Kralik. Giles meets with the head Watcher, and expresses his ambivalence about this test - it is supposed to strenghten Buffy, but also seem cruel to him. At home, Buffy is disappointed to find that her father cancelled their date at the ice show, because he chose work over his daughter. While she tries to get Giles to take her to the ice show, Giles has Buffy stare into another crystal to "find the tiny flaw at the center." When she falls into a trance, he injects her with a syringe filled with muscle relaxants and adrenal suppressors.

In the school yard, Buffy tries to rescue Cordelia from an aggressive suitor, but he knocks her down. At this point, Buffy really begins to worry, and enlists the help of her friends to figure out what's wrong. Buffy visits Angel and he gives her a book for her birthday. She tries to sound enthusiastic about it, but losing her powers has really begun to bother her. He tells her about how he saw her before she was the Slayer and how he loved her from the second he first saw her.

At the Sunnydale Arms, where Kralik is being held, the vampire manages to rip the seams of his strait jacket. While Blair is getting his pills and water, Kralik kills him and turns him into a vampire. When Blair wakes up, he frees Kralik.

Giles goes to find Quentin at the Sunnydale Arms building, but instead finds Kralik free and Hobson dead. While walking home alone, Buffy is first confronted by two men looking for a lap dance and then Kralik. Blair chases her until Giles drives by and picks her up. At the Summers' home, Joyce hears a noise out front and goes to check it out; she then finds Kralik wrapped up in Buffy's jacket.

Giles tells Buffy that she's lost her strength due to the injections he'd been giving her, and about the rite of passage. Buffy is very hurt and tells him she doesn't know him anymore--that he should stay away from her or she'll kill him. Giles assures her that the test is invalidated because of what he has told her. Cordelia shows up and drives Buffy home, where she finds a picture of her mother in the hands of Kralik.

Quentin seeks out Giles at the library. Giles explains that the test should be canceled because Buffy has been told of it. Quentin replies that it is too late for that because Buffy has already entered the field of battle. Giles expresses himself about the Council's orders and leaves to find Buffy, hoping to help her.

At the Arms building, Blair attacks Buffy, but she pushes a bookshelf over on top of him and escapes. Kralik finds and chases her until his need for his pills becomes unbearable. Buffy steals them away, and slides down a laundry chute, where she finds her mother tied up. Kralik breaks through the door, looking for his pills and water. After he swallows the pills, he's surprised to find out that Buffy poured holy water onto the pills. After he explodes, Buffy tries to free her mother, but cannot because the knots are too tight. Blair reappears and lunges at Buffy, but Giles also shows up and stakes him.

Back at the library, Quentin congratulates Buffy on her accomplishment, and then Buffy tells Quentin that he should leave town before she gets her powers back. Quentin tells Giles that he's fired because he's grown too close with the Slayer--he has a father's love for Buffy and this is useless to the council. The next day, Buffy celebrates her birthday with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and her close friends. When Buffy, minus her strength, can't open the peanut butter jar, Xander offers to help, but he can't do it either.

Starring

 * 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 Oz
 * Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

 * Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
 * Jeff Kober as Zachary Kralik
 * Harris Yulin as Quentin Travers

Co Starring

 * Dominic Keating as Blair
 * David Haydn-Jones as Hobson
 * Nick Cornish as Guy
 * Don Dowe as Construction Worker

Production

 * This story had the working title "18" as it is set around Buffy's eighteenth birthday.


 * David Fury reveals in the commentary of this episode that the name "Zachary Kralik" came from his own nephew's name.


 * Buffy lists some good things about being a normal girl in this exchange cut for length:
 * Buffy: "I mean, there's a plus side to being a regular girl. The whole not-bleeding-killing-and-dying experience."
 * Willow: "As for example."
 * Buffy: "Then there's buying outfits without worrying if they're good for bleeding-killing-and-dying in. There's a lot of good to it."

Other

 * Jeff Kober, who plays Kralik, returns to play Rack in Seasons 6.

Quotes
Kralik - "She's dead to me now. Mostly 'cause I killed and ate her."

Buffy - "Just feel better when I get my strength back." [tries to open a bottle of jar] Xander - "Give you a hand with that, little lady?" Buffy - "You're loving this far too much." Xander - "Admit it. Sometimes you just need a big strong man." Xander - "Uh, Will, gimme a hand with that?" Giles - "You're waging a war. She's fighting it. There is a difference." Quentin - "Mr. Giles, if you don't mind..." Giles - "The test is done. We're finished." Quentin - "Not quite. She passed. You didn't. The Slayer is not the only one who must perform in this situation. I've recommended to the Council, and they've agreed, that you be relieved of your duties as Watcher immediately. You're fired."

Angel- "I saw you before you became the Slayer." Buffy- "What?" Angel- "I watched you, and I saw you called. It was a bright afternoon out in front of your school. You walked down the steps...and...and I loved you." Buffy- "Why?" Angel- "'Cause I could see your heart. You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe ... to warm it with my own." Buffy- "That's beautiful. Or taken literally, incredibly gross." Angel - "I was just thinking that, too."

Continuity

 * This episode marks the beginning of Buffy's father's estrangement. Eventually Hank begins a relationship with his secretary and severs all ties with his former family.


 * Buffy is disappointed by both of her father figures in this episode - her father does not follow through on their tradition of attending the ice show, and Giles betrays her trust.


 * Giles reveals his parental feelings towards Buffy.


 * The book Angel gives to Buffy for her birthday is Sonnets From the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.


 * Buffy talks about getting Mr. Pointy, Kendra Young's stake, bronzed.


 * Head of the Watchers Council Quentin Travers is seen for the first time. He will reappear several times, usually in opposition to Buffy's methods and activities.


 * Giles being fired from the Council makes way for Buffy's own rebellion towards the Council and her decision to operate outside their authority. The separation of Council and Slayer - and Giles' own situation with the Council - will not be solved until "Checkpoint".


 * This episode shows for the only time what happens when a vampire drinks holy water.


 * The 12th or 13th episode of each season is traditionally when Buffy celebrates her birthday; her birthday takes place in episode 13 of Season Two ("Surprise"), episode 12 of Season Four ("A New Man"), episode 13 of Season Five ("Blood Ties") and episode 14 of Season Six ("Older and Far Away"). Buffy's birthday is not shown celebrated in Season One (it presumably occurred before the beginning of the half-long season) or in Season Seven.


 * Buffy says her father takes her to the ice show for her birthday every year, but there was no mention of the tradition a year earlier in "Surprise," in which Buffy spent her birthday hanging out with her mom, being manipulated by Ms. Calendar, going to a surprise party thrown by her friends and having sex with Angel. Presumably Hank took her on one of the few days surrounding the birthday, since if it didn't happen Buffy probably wouldn't any guilt over the prospect of canceling.

Music

 * Christophe Beck - "A Father's Love"
 * Christophe Beck - "Betrayal"
 * Christophe Beck - "Kraliks House"