Help

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"Help" is the fourth episode of seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the hundred twenty-sixth episode altogether. It was written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner and directed by Rick Rosenthal. It originally broadcast on October 15, 2002.

Cassandra "Cassie" Newton, a student at Sunnydale High School, goes to the new counselor Buffy with an alarming prediction: She is to die on Friday. Buffy scrambles to save her, but fate prevails when Cassie suffers heart failure.

Synopsis

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Amanda: That's what I did. I stuck up for myself. The other day after class, I jumped him in the parking lot, and I slammed his stupid-ass insecure face right into the pavement.

Once the lights are turned out at a funeral home, Buffy, Xander and Dawn climb out of caskets. They chat about Buffy's nervousness about her new job and the struggle she may face while trying to mix her Slayer job with being a counselor. In one of the caskets, the three find a deceased woman who soon rises as a vampire, and is promptly staked.

At the high school the next day, Buffy talks with various students who all have their own problems ranging from trouble with bullies and violence to boredom. Willow and Xander walk together and talk about Buffy's struggles and Willow's worries about her role in dealing with the impending Hellmouth danger. Willow walks off on her own and proceeds towards Tara's grave.

Buffy talks with more students, including her own sister. But one girl named Cassie Newton stuns counselor Buffy when she matter-of-factly informs Buffy that she's going to die next Friday. Buffy has tons of questions, but Cassie doesn't have many answers. She doesn't understand it, but Cassie just knows that she's going to die and that there will be lots of coins. As she leaves for Mr. Corrigan's trigonometry class, Cassie compliments Buffy's shirt and warns her against the danger of spilling something on it. Buffy reports this to Principal Wood, but he's not as helpful as she'd like. After spilling coffee onto her white shirt, Buffy gets suspicious and sends Dawn to befriend Cassie. Dawn catches up with Cassie and they talk about Cassie's friend Mike Helgenberg, who has continuously asked Cassie to the dance, and been rejected every time.

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Cassie composing poetry.

Willow investigates Cassie on the computer and finds Cassie's own site with tons of sad, morbid poetry. Dawn returns home from school and thinks the reason for Cassie's problem is Mike, but Buffy and the others don't pay much attention. Willow finds a website on Cassie's father that shows his troubled past with the law and alcohol. Buffy and Xander go visit Cassie's father and confront him with their suspicion that he may get drunk and hurt his daughter.

Mr. Newton confidently denies the accusation, and then goes on about how his ex-wife only allows him to spend one weekend a month with his daughter. Buffy then finds out that Mr. Newton's weekend with Cassie is the weekend just gone. Therefore, not only does he not have the chance to hurt Cassie, but if Cassie's prediction is true, then he will not see her again before her death.

Satisfied that Mr. Newton is not involved, Buffy and Xander leave and bump into Cassie, who was waiting for them outside of her Dad's house. Although she appreciates Buffy's efforts to find the cause, she knows there's nothing Buffy can do to stop her death. Xander asks her if she's planning to kill herself, which Cassie denies. She talks about all the things she wishes she could do -- going to the dance, going to college, falling in love, as well as many other things. But she knows she never can. She makes it clear to Buffy and Xander that although she doesn't want to die, it's just what is going to happen on Friday.

Meanwhile, a group of guys in red cloaks walk around a circle and burn pictures of Cassie on a tray in the middle. Still motivated to help Cassie, Buffy reads poetry from Cassie's site and continues to investigate with the rest of the gang. Buffy goes to the school basement and asks Spike if he knows anything about Cassie. Because he "hurt the girl," he's punishing himself and trying to stay away from the voices. He doesn't have any information for her and Buffy leaves him, thinking her presence hurts him more than when she's not there.

Upstairs, Principal Wood and another administrator search through student lockers for anything suspicious. Buffy catches Mike in the halls and drills him to see if he may have intentions of hurting Cassie because she rejected him. He makes it clear that he doesn't mind that much, and has already moved on to thinking about Dawn. A bunch of coins fall from one of the lockers, drawing Buffy's attention. Buffy takes one of the coins and the number of the locker where they came from and talks to the student the locker belongs to. After some violent prompting, the student confesses that some of his friends want to hurt Cassie.

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The Cult of Avilas prepare to summon their master.

Dawn and Cassie walk away from the school as Cassie reveals how she knows Buffy sent Dawn to befriend Cassie but it doesn't matter as the two are now clearly real friends. Just then a student named Peter approaches, and Cassie (knowing she won't see Dawn again) tells Dawn that nothing that is about to happen is her fault. Peter asks Dawn about the dance, but only to be a jerk, not to really ask her out. When an irritated Dawn turns back towards Cassie, she is gone, Peter having successfully distracted her.

At the school that night, the cloaked group gathers again around a circle of coins and one of the boys turns out to be Peter. He checks with the others to make sure the school is secure and that no one can get in or out. Then, he pulls a bound and blindfolded Cassie out to the circle and holds a meat cleaver to her neck. She is to be a sacrifice to a demon that will provide the boys with "infinite riches."

As Peter starts the ritual, Buffy suddenly rips off a cloak, unveiling herself to the group and then smacks him around a bit. She doesn't think the ritual was a success, but Avilas, a large demon, appears behind her, proving her wrong. Buffy fights with the demon and Spike shows up with a flaming torch to help seeming to have at least temporarily regained his sanity as he doesn't want Cassie to get hurt.

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Fate.

Buffy uses the torch to burn the demon while Spike cuts Cassie free from her bonds. Cassie tells him, "Someday she'll tell you" which shocks Spike and he retreats away. Desperately, Peter moves towards the fried demon and wants to know where his money is. The burned demon leans up and bites Peter on the shoulder once before exploding into dust.

Buffy and Cassie walk away together, leaving Peter to deal on his own. A crossbow booby trap set by one of the cloaked boys nearly kills Cassie, but Buffy catches the bolt. Buffy is happy that she seemingly stopped Cassie's prediction, and tells the girl that one person can make a difference, to which Cassie responds that Buffy will. Just then Cassie gasps and unexpectedly falls to the ground, dead.

The next day, the Scooby Gang gather at Buffy's and solemnly talk about how Cassie died because of a congenital heart defect. She was always going to die, no matter what happened. Buffy feels as if she failed Cassie, but a devastated Dawn corrects her, saying Buffy didn't fail, since she tried to save Cassie, and it was because of her that Dawn and Cassie were friends. Buffy returns to work, knowing that while she will always try her best, sometimes she just can't help.Template:Clear

Continuity

• Willow visits Tara's grave for the first time. She leaves some small stones on the tombstone, a Jewish tradition to recognize that the dead are remembered.

• Willow's outfit changes when she and Xander are walking in the cemetery.

• While Cassie informs Buffy that she herself will die next Friday, she tells Buffy she just "knows" things. At one point she tells Buffy she will go somewhere "dark and underground", which alludes to the finale when Buffy enters the Hellmouth for her final stand against the First.

• Also when Cassie tells Spike, "She'll tell you. Someday she'll tell you", it alludes to the series finale yet again when Buffy says to Spike that she loves him.

• Cassie's speech above is similar to a speech made by Buffy in Becoming, Part Two: "Do you think I chose to be like this? Do you have any idea how lonely it is? How dangerous? I would love to be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys or, God, even studying! But I have to save the world. Again.", and one made by Angel in the Angel episode "War Zone": "What do I want? Love, family, a place on this planet I can call my own. But you know what?...I'm never gonna have any of those things."

• Cassie Newton's death is one of only two in the show's huge body count that were due to natural causes. The other was Joyce Summers in "The Body".

• This is the first appearance of Amanda, who would later be activated as a Slayer. ("Chosen")

Body Count

• One vampire woman, dusted by Buffy
• Avilas, burned by Buffy with a torch
• Cassie Newton, died because of a congenital heart defect

Behind the Scenes

Deleted Scenes

• This scene was cut where Anya counsels a woman instead of helping her seek vengeance:

Anya: "What a creepazoid. It's like he didn't just forget your birthday, but the day on which, in keeping with modern American tradition, one's life is celebrated. One's very self. He didn't celebrate your self."

(But later...)

Anya: "But anyway, this boyfriend of yours - it sounds like maybe he was just trying to do what you wanted."

(And later still...)

Lulu: "Thanks, you've been a big help." [she exits. Anya smiles until she realizes something...]

Anya: "Wait..."

Pop Culture References

• Cassie's full name is an obvious reference to the mythological Cassandra. In the world of Greek/Roman mythology, she was a seer whose visions always came true. However, after rejecting the advances of the god Apollo, he placed a curse on her that ensured that her prophesies would never be heeded. This is reflected in Cassie's various predictions, which are in time realized, regardless of the surrounding people's doubts and disbelief.

• Cassandra is seen reading the Kurt Vonnegut novel Slaughterhouse-Five, which mirrors the plot of the episode. In the novel, the main character knows in advance when he is going to die.

• Willow wrote a "Doogie Howser" fanfic. Actress Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris have known each other for many years. After Buffy, Alyson went on to star in How I Met Your Mother with Harris.

• After Buffy and Xander leave Cassie's dad's home, Cassie is seen wearing a White Stripes t-shirt.
• Xander: "It's not the friendliest jingle, is it? It's no 'I like Ike' or 'Milk, it does a body good.'"
  "I Like Ike" was the campaign slogan of General Dwight David Eisenhower during the presidential elections of 1952 ("Ike" was his nickname). He won, becoming the 34th president of America, and staying on for a second term. "Milk, it does a body good" was the slogan of America's National Dairy Board in the 1980s.
• Willow places stones on Tara's tombstone.
  This is a Jewish custom, to honor the dead and indicate that someone has been to visit the grave.
• Buffy (to Cassie) "... you can join the French Foreign Legion, or anything you want."
  The French Foreign Legion is a military formation serving as a branch of the regular Armed Forces of France, but it differs from other military units by accepting foreigners from any country in the world into its ranks. The Legion was founded in 1831 and is composed exclusively of unmarried male volunteers aged between 18 and 40; about 8500 in all. All Legionnaires must sign a contract for 5 years unconditional service upon joining the Legion; only after that may they leave. The Legion has been involved in several wars involving Algeria, a sometime part of the French Empire.
• Willow (about Cassie): "Do you really think she's some kind of pre-cog?"
  This seems to be a reference to the 2002 Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise movie Minority Report, in which 3 "pre-cogs" (precognitive), telepaths able to foresee future murders, were used to prevent the crimes before they happened.
• Willow (about Cassie): "Have you Google'd her yet?"
  Google is perhaps the most popular and powerful search engine (a site into which certain keywords can be entered, and the site will bring back lists of websites which contain or are relevant to those keywords) on the internet. It is loved by many for continuing to provide useful results in a simple interface. Founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, with one million dollars initial investment from friends, family and other investors (including one of the founders of Sun Microsystems), Google is currently one of the few internet businesses reporting a profit. The name is derived from Googol, which is the figure 1 followed by 100 zeroes.
• Cassie: "I'd love to ice skate, at Rockefeller Center."
  Completed in 1934, Rockefeller Center is a collection of 19 commercial buildings occupying 49th to 52nd Streets, Fifth to Seventh Avenues in Manhattan. It is named after the multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller, who had it built. An ice-skating rink was opened there on Christmas day in 1936, which attracts over a quarter of a million skaters each year.
• Principal Wood: "Thank god it's Friday. I can't believe I just said that."
  "Thank god it's Friday," abbreviated as "TGIF," is a common American saying, which obviously represents relief that the end of the work week (or school week) has arrived. The phrase lent itself to the restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday's, and ABC used it to advertise their Friday night lineup for quite some time.
• Buffy: "I bet it's because you forgot the boombox playing some heavy metal thing, like... Blue Clam Cult?"
  This is a reference to Öyster Cult Blue Öyster Cult, a heavy metal band formed in New York in the late 1960s, best known for their hit "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."

Music

• Robert Duncan - original score

Other

• This episode has two actors, Glenn Morshower, as Mr. Newton, and D. B. Woodside as Principal Wood, who would later star together in 24.

• Actor Zachery Tyler Bryan, who guest stars as Peter Nicols, is best known for his role of Brad Taylor on Home Improvement.

• This is the second time that Buffy refers to herself as "Buffy, the vampire slayer," the first time being in "Anne".

Quotes

Willow: "I'm over you, sweetie."

Cassie: "You think I want this? You think I don't care? Believe me, I want to be here! Do things! I want to graduate from high school and I want to go to the stupid Winter Formal. I have this friend and it'd be fun to go with him, to dance and hear lame music, to wear a silly dress and laugh and stuff. I'd like to go. There's a lot of stuff I'd like to do. I'd love to ice skate at Rockefeller Center, and I'd love to see my cousins grow up and see how they turn out, because they're really mean and I think they're going to be fat. I'd love to backpack across the country or ... I don't know ... fall in love? But I won't. I just never will."

Willow: "Have you Googled her yet?"

Xander: "Willow, she's seventeen!"

Willow: "It's a search engine."