The Pack

"The Pack" is the sixth episode of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is the sixth episode overall.

Synopsis


The students of Sunnydale High are on a field trip, this time to the zoo. Buffy is confronted by a group of bullies that pick on her because she was kicked out of school and her violent tendencies that started it. Buffy shrugs their insults off and they target another student, Lance, likening a visit to the zoo as a family reunion to him. When Principal Flutie interrupts, Lance doesn't rat on them, so they decide to include him in their exploration of the off-limits hyena exhibit. Buffy is met with Xander and Willow who express their enjoyment at the zoo while Buffy doesn't find it so as it was done at her old school. Xander reminds her that going to the zoo is not only fun for seeing animals, but for missing school. Buffy then changes her mind.

Upon seeing the bullies enter the exhibit with Lance, Buffy tries to intervene to make sure everything is okay but Xander offers to do it himself as it is a non-slayer related problem. Just as Xander enters, Buffy and Willow realise Xander would not be able to deal with it and try to enter the exhibit but they are stopped by the zookeeper who tells them the the hyenas are on quarantine. He also tells them that according to ancient myths hyenas would call peoples names in order to fool and devour them.

At the exhibit, the male half of the bully gang try to throw Lance into the pit where the vicious hyena is. Xander comes just in time and saves Lance. But, just as he arrives it is realized they are standing on a tribal hyena symbol, making all students, save for Lance, get possessed by the evil spirits of hyenas.

The next day at the Bronze, Willow is eagerly waiting for Xander. Buffy acknowledges Willow's strong interest in Xander while Willow then brings up Buffy's interest in Angel as she is curently wearing his leather jacket. Buffy admits to finding him very attractive but says she couldn't start a relationship with someone who's nearly never there and who's main interest is fighting vampires. Willow then annouces someone has arrived, Buffy looks in hopes that it is Angel but it turns out to just be Xander. Xander is acting strangely and takes some of Buffy's food without asking, growing very hungry and is not impressed with Buffy's croissant. He also takes notice that Buffy has bathed, which she replies that she regularly does. They see the bullies from the Zoo acting make fun of someone a table away and Xander laughs at their cruel joke.

At Sunnydale High, Giles trains Buffy and excuses her as he needs the feelings to return to his arms. Principal Flutie chases a small pig runs through the school halls, causing chaos until Buffy picks it up. Principal Flutie then introduces the pig as "Herbert the Pig", the new school mascot for the razorbacks. At the quad, Willow is tutoring Xander in geometry and he, believing he will never understand it, leaves Willow behind. As Buffy returns Herbert to his cage, Xander walks past, putting fear into Herbert.

Buffy's class is at the Gym. Coach Harold announces that because it's raining all regular gym classes have been postponed, meaning they have to play dodge ball. Buffy and Willow are placed in the same team while Xander is in the opposing along with the bullies. During the game, Xander and the bullies beat everyone on Buffy's team, including Willow which Xander does harshly. Buffy is the only one left, so instead of targeting her, Xander and the bullies throw their balls at Lance who is at their team, and Buffy goes over and helps him up.

Willow confronts Xander about is recent behavior. Xander says it's because he's changed and so have his feelings for Willow. As Willow looks excited, Xander rudely claims he will drop geometry so he will no longer need her tutoring, thus not having to look at her. Xander and the bullies behind him laugh as Willow is saddened. Buffy approaches Xander, asking if he has something to say to her, the girl he is attracted to. Xander just laughs even louder at them and leaves. Xander and the bullies, now known as "the pack", are hungry. They take the hot dogs from other students (claiming they're "sharing"). Still hungry, they enter the faculty room where Herbert is in his cage. They close the blinds and Xander announces "Let's do Lunch".

Willow cries about what Xander said. Buffy says something is wrong with Xander but Willow thinks something is wrong with herself, telling Buffy that Xander is not as rude to Buffy as he is to her, his attraction apparently grown to sniffing her. Buffy deduces something is weird and decides to consult the expert on weird.

Buffy tells Giles of Xander's change in behavior, clothing, treatment to others and his new friends. Giles, however, brushes it off as normal teenage male behavior caused by testosterone, saying he is likely to "prey on the weak". This phrase takes Buffy back to her conversation with the zookeeper and so she believes his change is the result of their trip to the zoo. Giles still doesn't believe her claim of it being supernatural which would make him "look stuff up". This changes when Willow arrives and tells them the pack has eaten Herbert, prompting Giles to "look stuff up".

Principal Flutie confronts the other bullies and orders them to his office. At the library, Giles believes this is the work of the primals, an African sect that worshipped animals so much they believed they could reach a sacred state by placing the spirits of animals into them. Buffy goes to the faculty room where Herbert was and his met by Xander. Buffy jumps Xander but he just makes remarks about how Buffy likes dangerous men like Angel, giving him more motivation to acting violently. Buffy tries to tell him what happened but he ignores her. She pushes him off, but he holds her back onto a vending machine and sexually assaults her. While this happens the other bullies start to become more and more animalistic and wild at Flutie's office. They corner the principal and eventually devour him alive.

Buffy manages to knock Xander out with a desk and drags him back to the library where he is locked into the book cage. Giles returns from a teachers meeting and tells them about Flutie, also stating the official theory is that wild dogs got into his office. Buffy and Giles go to the zookeeper to get information on trans-possession while leaving Willow to look after Xander. Xander wakes and tries to sweat talk his way out of the cage. As Willow comes closer he makes a grab at her through the book slot but misses, losing any chance at getting her trust again.

The zookeeper tells Giles and Buffy he ordered the hyenas sometime ago, and from day one there was something odd about them. He found they were a viscous breed worshiped by the primals. He has the know-how on trans-possessing them so Buffy needs to get all the possessed students to the exhibit. They realize the other students will return to Xander, endangering Willow. The pack call out Willow before breaking into the library and attacking. They manage to free Xander but are fended off by Buffy. The pack attacks a family of three, but Buffy arrives gets their attention, making them chase her back to the zoo.

At the exhibit, Giles meets the zookeeper who is wearing the tribal garb. He realizes it was the zookeeper who wanted the hyena spirits drawn into him all along and the possession of the students was just a case of wrong place, wrong time. The zookeeper then knocks Giles out. Willow arrives, not knowing what Giles discovered, and agrees to let the zookeeper hold a knife to her neck, being the necessary "predatory act".

Buffy arrives with the pack on her tail on the symbol. The zookeeper chants and the hyena spirits are taken out of them into him. He then tries to attack Willow but Xander, having snapped out, saves her while the four other students run off in confusion. The zookeeper becomes evil and Buffy, trying to stop him from hurting anybody, accidentally knocks him into the hyena pit, where he is subsequently devoured.

The next day, Xander is shocked to have eaten a live pig, claiming to have no memory of the possession. He asks if he did anything else embarrassing but Buffy chooses not to tell him. As Buffy and Willow leave, Giles reveals in private to Xander that he knows he is just pretending. He promises Xander that his secret will dies with him.

Continuity

 * Xander's feigned amnesia about his activities while he was possessed is later uncovered in "Phases."


 * Buffy is wearing the leather jacket Angel gave her.


 * Principal Flutie is killed and eaten in this episode. He is later mentioned in Season Seven's "Beneath You" by Buffy when she asked Robin Wood if he heard about what happened to Mr. Flutie.


 * Xander assaults Buffy and says to her "you like your men dangerous and mean" referring to Angel, but using the plural "men". This foreshadows a pattern that will be explored throughout the series about Buffy's romantic life, as in season 4 with Parker but most prominently in her relationship with well-known vampire Spike.

Individuals

 * Adam
 * Joey Anderson
 * Mr. Anderson
 * Mrs. Anderson
 * Heidi Barrie
 * Herbert the Pig
 * Kyle DuFours
 * Principal Bob Flutie
 * Rupert Giles
 * Xander Harris
 * Tor Hauer
 * Coach Herrold
 * Rhonda Kelley
 * Lance Lincoln
 * Willow Rosenberg
 * Buffy Summers
 * Dr. Weirick the Zookeeper
 * Unidentified young woman
 * Unidentified young man

Organizations and Titles

 * The Pack
 * Primals
 * Scooby Gang
 * The Slayer
 * Watcher

Species

 * Human
 * Hyena
 * Pig

Locations

 * The Bronze
 * Sunnydale High
 * Sunnydale High School library
 * Sunnydale Zoo

Weapons and Objects

 * Knife

Miscellaneous

 * Masai ceremonial garb

Body Count

 * Herbert the Pig, devoured by Xander Harris, Kyle DuFours, Tor Hauer, Rhonda Kelley and Heidi Barrie
 * Principal Robert Flutie, eaten alive by Kyle DuFours, Tor Hauer, Rhonda Kelley and Heidi Barrie in his office
 * Doctor Weirick, devoured by his own hyenas

Production

 * Despite being credited as a series regular, Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) is absent from this episode.


 * This is the first time that a series regular has been absent.


 * All sequences shot at the zoo were filmed at the Santa Ana Zoo.


 * This is the second episode where no vampires appear. ("Witch" being the first)

Broadcast

 * "The Pack" earned itself a Nielsen rating of 2.4 on its original airing.

Deleted Scenes

 * One line was cut
 * Xander - "Welcome to the jungle."

Pop Culture References

 * Buffy's line to Giles in the library, "I cannot believe that you of all people are trying to Scully me," is a reference to the skeptic character of Dana Scully from the TV show The X Files.


 * In the library, Giles consults the Malleus Maleficarum, an actual historical text on Witchcraft


 * Kyle's line "and therein my friend lies the fun" is paraphrasing the line "and therein lies the rub" from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Music

 * Sprung Monkey - "Reluctant Man" (Plays when The Pack enters The Bronze.)
 * Dashboard Prophets - "All You Want" (Plays when Buffy and Willow enters The Bronze.)
 * Far - "Job's Eyes" (Plays as The Pack walks through the courtyard.)
 * Walter Murphy - original score

International Titles

 * French: Les Hyènes (hyenas)
 * Portuguese: A Matilha
 * Finnish: Hyeenalauma

Other

 * The majority of the hyena documentary footage shown in the episode is actually about African Wild Dogs, not hyenas.


 * In the episode Xander is deferred to as the unofficial leader of the pack, which is a small irony considering the show's feministic roots and the fact that hyena packs are matriarchal.


 * During the dodgeball game, the pack defeat the opposing team easily, leaving Buffy as the last one standing, but instead of attacking her, they hit Lance who is on their team, showing how hyenas will generally avoid confronting powerful animals and preying on the weakest one amongst them instead.