The Harvest

This article is about the episode, for the ritual see Harvest

"The Harvest" is the second episode of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is the second episode overall. It was written by Joss Whedon and directed by John T. Kretchmer.

Synopsis
This episode picks up where the series premiere left off. Luke is about to finish off Buffy, who is trapped in a stone coffin, but is repelled by the silver cross that a mysterious stranger had given her earlier that evening.

Buffy escapes the mausoleum and saves Xander and Willow from vampires in the graveyard. Darla has taken Jesse, however. She and Luke inform The Master that there is probably a Slayer in town. The Master decides to use Jesse as bait.

Giles and Buffy give Xander and Willow a brief introduction to the world of vampires, demons, and Slayers. Willow accesses the city council's plans for Sunnydale's tunnel system. In a flashback, Buffy realizes that there must be an access to it in the crypt. Xander is hurt when Buffy declines his help and follows her anyway.

Willow is researching the Master in the computer lab when Cordelia trash-talks about Buffy and insults Willow again. In a fine show of nerd revenge, Willow convinces Cordelia to press the DEL key to "deliver" her assignment. It ended up erasing her hard work. The dark stranger appears just as Buffy is about to enter the tunnel system in the crypt. He is named Angel. He gives her directions to The Master's lair, but only wishes her luck after she is out of earshot.

Xander catches up with Buffy. They find Jesse, who leads them into a trap. They barely escape, with Xander pulling Buffy out of a manhole. Underground, The Master is unhappy about their escape and punishes the vampire Collin by poking his eye out. Luke drinks the Master's blood, turning Luke into the Vessel. Every soul Luke now takes will give the Master more strength to break out of his confinement.

Buffy and Xander return to the library. Giles explains that the Master arrived 60 years ago to open the Hellmouth, a portal to another reality, but was swallowed by an earthquake. He is now hoping to escape with the help of a Vessel in a once-in-a-century opportunity called "The Harvest." To prevent the Master from escaping and opening the Hellmouth, they must kill the Vessel. Xander suggests that the vampires will be at the Bronze.

On her way there, Buffy swings by her house to get weapons, and is promptly grounded by her mother, who has been called by the Principal about Buffy skipping classes. Buffy grabs her weapons from a secret compartment of a chest and climbs out of the second-floor window.

Luke and other vampires burst into The Bronze and start the killing. Buffy arrives in time to save Cordelia. She also notices the Vessel mark on Luke's forehead. Xander ends up staking Jesse with unknowing help from a fleeing man. Willow pours holy water on Darla when she is about to bite Giles. Buffy tricks Luke to win her fight, making him believe an outside light is sunlight from Daylight Savings Time, and then staking him while he has his back turned. With Luke dead, the Master's plan fails and he weakens again, but is not destroyed. The other vampires flee. Outside The Bronze, Angel realizes that Buffy has done it. "I'll be damned," he says.

The next morning, Cordelia exemplifies the denial most Sunnydale residents undergo after paranormal encounters. Giles warns the budding gang of more battles ahead, which they accept more nonchalantly than he would like as Buffy, Willow and Xander go off and discuss to see how Buffy could get herself get kicked out of school while Giles looks on after them as they walk on, while saying to himself "The Earth is Doomed"- *A line that is similarly repeated in the last episode "Chosen"*.

Continuity

 * Giles's line "The earth is doomed" will later be spoken again, except later he will say "the earth is definitely doomed" after Buffy, Willow and Xander discuss going to the Mall after destroying The First Evil's army.


 * While discussing possible actions that could get Buffy kicked out of school, Willow suggests that she blow something up; although Buffy dismisses the idea in favor of something that won't get her sent to prison, she goes on to destroy Sunnydale High itself in order to defeat the Mayor.

Production

 * Joss Whedon noted in the commentary for this episode that he felt horrible for giving Eric Balfour so many lines with "s" in them, which he had to recite while in "Vamp-face". He had such a difficult time getting the lines out around the prosthetics that new ones were designed for vampire characters required to speak frequently; the older style ones were given to vampire lackeys with few or no lines in future episodes.

Broadcast

 * "Welcome to the Hellmouth"/"The Harvest" were originally presented as one two-hour long feature. However, they are split up into two separate episodes on the DVD release, as well as in syndication.


 * "The Harvest" (along with “Welcome to the Hellmouth”) reached a Nielsen rating of 3.4 on its original airing.

Pop Culture References

 * The Master's line "You're all weak" is a reference to Mark Metcalf's famous line in Animal House.

Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors

 * Harmony asks Cordelia if they are going to the Bronze tonight. She replies yes, that it's Friday night and there's no cover charge. However, there is clearly a cover charge when they go and they are in school the next day.
 * When Buffy has thrown Luke away from her, she wears her crucifix necklace, but when she exits the crypt, it has mystically disappeared. When she returns to the library, it's suddenly back on.

Music

 * Sprung Monkey - "Right my Wrong" - in the background when Buffy talks to Principal Flutie at the gate
 * Dashboard Prophets - "Wearing Me Down" - at the Bronze, to which Cordelia exclaims “Ooh! I love this song!”
 * Dashboard Prophets - "Ballad For Dead Friends" - when Luke leads the vampires to the Bronze

Characters

 * Adam
 * Angel
 * Colin
 * Cordelia Chase
 * Darla
 * Robert Flutie
 * Rupert Giles
 * Xander Harris
 * Harmony Kendall
 * Luke
 * The Master
 * Jesse McNally
 * Willow Rosenberg
 * Buffy Summers
 * Joyce Summers

Organizations and Titles

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

Species

 * Demon
 * Old Ones
 * Human
 * Vampire

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
 * Holy Water