Superstar

"Superstar" is the seventeenth episode of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the seventy-third episode altogether. It was written by Jane Espenson and directed by David Grossman. It originally broadcast on April 4, 2000.

Jonathan Levinson is amazing! He created the Internet, writes best-sellers, leads the basketball team into victory after victory, starred in The Matrix - and even fights vampires better than anyone, including Buffy. But something just isn't right.

Synopsis
Buffy and the gang slay vampires in the graveyard, but when they discover a nest of the vampires that is too much for them all to fight, they go to Jonathan for help. At Giles place, Jonathan checks out weapons and even practices hand-to-hand with Buffy. Willow uses her computer to try and find a way to attack the vampire nest, but Jonathan quickly finds a better way to enter. With a plan in mind, Jonathan passes out weapons and tells everyone where to go. In the crypt, Jonathan slays the majority of the vampires, leaving Buffy to feel inadequate, as she allows one vampire to get by her.

As they leave the crypt, Jonathan poses for some pictures. He senses Spike hiding in the shadows and the two go face-to-face. Buffy's at a lack for her usual puns, but Jonathan steps in to knock Spike's confidence down. While putting pictures of Jonathan up on a wall, Willow and Tara talk about the fight earlier that night and Buffy's relationship with Riley. At Riley's dorm room, Buffy tries to play basketball, but she is too uncomfortable being around Riley to let him get close. Jonathan comforts Buffy and he tells her that she's really just mad at Riley because he doesn't know her as well as she'd like him to. He tries to convince her to forgive Riley because deep down, her expectations are too high. All the while, Jonathan is encountered with overzealous fans, and signing autographs for them.

Colonel George Haviland is the new commander at The Initiative, but Jonathan takes over and explains the plans to find and destroy Adam. One fan, Karen is spying on Jonathan's house, but is attacked by a demon and barely manages to run away.

Jonathan talks to Riley about his relationship with Buffy, and then he shoots at apples atop of the heads of Initiative commandos -- blindfolded. When Jonathan takes the stage to sing at The Bronze, Buffy and Riley take the dance floor. Xander and Anya are inspired to go somewhere to have sex when he starts to play the trumpet. Buffy lets Riley know that she forgives him and wants to move on with their relationship. Karen goes to The Bronze for Jonathan, and when she is taken back to his place, Karen describes the demon's appearance to them all. Jonathan seems to act weird when she draws a symbol she saw on the demon, but he dismisses it as a harmless monster and promises to take care of the matter. Adam realizes right away that something is wrong with the world, and that Jonathan isn't supposed to be as popular as he currently is. When twin blond girls call for Jonathan to come to bed, he drops his robe to reveal a symbol on his shoulder that is just like the symbol Karen drew. On her way to her dorm room, the demon attacks Tara. She chants a spell and manages to escape with her life. The next morning, Tara identifies the demon by the symbol on its head, and Buffy suddenly has even more reason to question Jonathan.

Buffy stops by Xander's, and only finds Anya and plenty of things on Jonathan. Buffy questions how Jonathan could be so perfect. He is credited for all the great things that have happened in the world, when it seems pretty impossible for him to do them all. Riley encourages everyone to follow Buffy's lead. They look at Jonathan's swimsuit calendar to see the monster's mark on Jonathan's shoulder. He arrives and explains to everyone that he has a history with the monster and every time he faces it, he is overcome by a great deal of confusion. Buffy and Jonathan go look for the demon, and get some information on the demon's location from Spike. Willow discovers that Jonathan did an Augmentation Spell to make himself a paragon. The downside is that a demon is created that would be everyone's worst nightmare and if it is destroyed, the spell is reversed. The gang has a hard time dealing with the prospect of a world without Jonathan.

In a cave, Jonathan tries to prevent Buffy from falling into a deep pit, but the demon interrupts them. Jonathan leaves it up to Buffy to fight the demon. Her fighting skills improve greatly as the fight goes on, and then Jonathan pushes the demon into the pit and his own life is saved by Buffy. After the demon falls into the pit, everything goes back to normal and Jonathan is back to being ignored. Buffy talks with Jonathan and asks him how he did what he did. At counseling after his attempted suicide, another guy informed Jonathan about the spell, but he unfortunately skipped the demon part.

Buffy and Riley are kissing on his bed, until she moans, "Jonathan".

Starring

 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
 * Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
 * Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
 * Marc Blucas as Riley Finn
 * James Marsters as Spike
 * Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

 * Emma Caulfield as Anya
 * Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson
 * Amber Benson as Tara Maclay
 * Bailey Chase as Graham Miller
 * Robert Patrick Benedict as Jape - Adam's Lackey
 * John Saint Ryan as Colonel George Haviland
 * George Hertzberg as Adam

Co Starring

 * Erica Luttrell as Karen
 * Adam Clark as Cop
 * Chanie Costello as Inga
 * Julie Costello as Ilsa

Trivia

 * The immediate prequel to this episode is Jane Espenson's Buffy comic, Jonathan.


 * When Jonathan is playing the trumpet in The Bronze, he is actually syncing the notes, fingering it as instructed by a family member.


 * Jonathan's singing voice is supplied by Brad Kane, who played Tucker Wells in the episode "The Prom".


 * The opening credits have been modified to center on Jonathan performing several heroic acts (such as defusing a bomb). The end of the sequence is a shot of Jonathan with a flowing cape, similar to the last shot of the opening sequence from the Angel series (but taken from the opposite angle), rather than the usual power shot of Buffy.

Quotes
Buffy - "Giles, do you have a Jonathan swimsuit calendar?" Giles - "No... Yes.... It-it was a gift."

Riley - "These spells, they really work? I mean, can you really turn your enemies inside out? Or... learn to excrete gold coins." Anya - "That one's not so much fun." Willow - "They work, Riley, but they take concentration. Being attuned with the forces of the universe." Xander - "Right, you can't just go librum incendere and expect --" [The book catches on fire; Xander closes it rapidly.] Giles - "(wearily) Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books."

Xander - "[about Jonathan] So, we're saying he did a spell just to make us think he was cool?" Giles - "Yes." Xander - "That is so cool."

Buffy: Anya, when you were a demon, you granted wishes, right? Anya: Vengeance wishes on ex-boyfriends. I'd wish he was a dog, or ugly, or in love with President McKinley or something. -- a very'' obscure reference, meant as an in-joke directed at writer Jane Espenson, will be made to this quip in "Lessons", when Halfrek suggests that it's best they don't talk about "Mr. Czolgosz." Leon Czolgosz assassinated President McKinley. The joke was a little too obscure; Espenson didn't catch it.

Continuity

 * This episode introduces the world without shrimp and the world entirely of shrimp. This will be referenced again in "Triangle" and again by Illyria in the season 5 Angel episode "Underneath".


 * When the comment 'scampered away like a bunny' is made Anya doesn't react. Jane Espenson notes that it's because at this point they hadn't decided to make Anya's fear of rabbits a running gag.


 * Jonathan reveals Adam's weakness (his uranium power source), which will be exploited by the Scoobies to defeat him in "Primeval".

Music

 * Royal Crown Revue - "Hey Sonny / Serenade in Blue / Trapped" - performed by Jonathan