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"The Freshman" is the first episode of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the fifty-seventh episode altogether. It was written and directed by Joss Whedon. It originally broadcast on October 5, 1999.

Synopsis

While Willow blossoms in the college environment, Buffy has a difficult time adjusting - getting lost, getting kicked out of a class for talking, meeting her Celine Dion-loving roommate Kathy, and getting soundly beaten by the leader of a campus vampire gang that steals from its victims.

Summary

File:401 TheFreshman1.jpg

Buffy meets Riley.

Buffy and Willow are on stake out in a cemetery while also discussing which classes Buffy should take for her first semester at college. They are so engrossed with this that they don't notice when the vampire they are waiting to awaken quietly slips away when he sees they are carrying an arsenal of vampire-killing gear.

The day before classes shows Buffy being handed flyers by the various campus groups, fraternities, and general student protesters. Buffy meets up with Willow and Oz and reveals that she feels overwhelmed and disoriented by the new experience. Willow on the other hand is very excited by the new surroundings and Oz is not fazed and even seems to know several people that walk by.

Buffy and Willow tour the campus library. During the trip they reveal that Giles is "unemployed" (since the Sunnydale High School library was destroyed) and that Xander left Sunnydale for the summer to do a cross-country trip. Buffy and Willow go to the campus bookstore for supplies. When Buffy tries to get the "Intro to Psychology" texts she knocks them off the shelf onto the head of Riley Finn. Riley introduces himself as a teaching assistant for Professor Walsh's Psych 105 "Intro to Psychology" class.

File:401 TheFreshman2.jpg

Eddie: Hmm, well, I'm lost and I have a map.

Buffy arrives at her new dorm room in Stevenson Hall. She has already moved in and her new roommate Kathy is in the process of doing so. Kathy tells Buffy that she can tell that she is cool and thinks the upcoming year will be "super fun". As she says this to Buffy she hangs a poster of Céline Dion much to Buffy's chagrin. During the night Buffy has trouble sleeping because Kathy snores, laughs, and smacks her lips in her sleep.

The first day of classes, Buffy gets humiliated in front and ejected from a class by a professor when she tries to find out if there is still room to sign up for it. With Willow and Oz she attends Psych 105 taught by Professor Maggie Walsh and TA'ed by Riley Finn.

That night she meets another freshman student named Eddie. They are both lost. Buffy and Eddie discuss their need of a "security blanket" in their unfamiliar surroundings. Eddie tells Buffy that his security blanket is the novel Of Human Bondage, which he has read ten times and keeps by his bed. Buffy and Eddie then go separate ways and Eddie runs into a group of vampires. The vampires kill Eddie and turn him in to a fellow creature of the night. They also go to his dorm room, steal all of his belongings, and leave a fake note supposedly signed by Eddie saying that he couldn't handle school and he had to leave.

File:401 TheFreshman3.jpg

Xander: Let's put this bitch in the ground!

The next day Buffy looks for Eddie in Psych class but does not see him. She goes to his dorm room to find the note and empty room. She notices that the novel Of Human Bondage is still in his nightstand. She knows that he would not leave that behind and suspects something is wrong. Buffy visits Giles to find a half-naked female visitor in his apartment. The woman is Olivia visiting Giles (she refers to Giles as "Ripper" at one point). Buffy tells Giles of the mysterious disappearance and Giles is reluctant to help, feeling that Buffy is old enough and experienced enough to handle it herself.

That night Buffy runs into Eddie in a deserted part of campus. Eddie tries to attack Buffy and she stakes him without trouble. The group of vampires that turned Eddie are watching though and the leader of the group, named Sunday, attacks Buffy. Buffy is soundly thrashed by Sunday while the others watch. Her confidence shattered and her arm sprained, she runs. Buffy is shaken by the fight and goes home the next day for some comfort from Mom and familiar surroundings. She finds her mother surprised to see her home so soon and has converted Buffy's room to storage space for her gallery.

When Buffy returns to her dorm room, she finds all of her belongings missing and a note similar to that found in Eddie's room. Buffy goes to The Bronze and runs into Xander. Xander reveals that his car broke down in Oxnard and his tour of America didn't happen.

File:401 TheFreshman4.jpg

Buffy 'drops in' on Sunday's lair.

He spent a month and a half washing dishes at the fabulous "Ladies' Night" club earning money for repairs (which came to a merciful end when one of the male strippers fell sick, although Xander won't go any further with the story). Xander also says that he now lives in his parents' basement and has to pay rent. Buffy tells Xander that she is overwhelmed by the new college experience and wonders if she can hack it. Xander pumps her up by telling her of course she can and that she is his hero.

Buffy and Xander find the vampire lair, which is a condemned fraternity house. Buffy elects to watch the vampires while Xander rounds up Willow and Oz, but is discovered and is forced to fight. When Sunday breaks the Class Protector Award she was given at her senior prom, Buffy is angered enough to regain her confidence and soundly trounces the vampires, taking out Sunday with a backhand throw of a broken tennis racket.

The episode ends with one of the vampires escaping Sunday's lair and being hit with a taser. Three masked men dressed in camouflage fatigues approach the vampire with guns of some sort.

Quotes and trivia

  • Willow: It's just in high school, knowledge was pretty much frowned upon; you really had to work to learn anything. But here, the energy, the-the collective intelligence, it's like this force, t-this penetrating force, a-and I can just feel my mind opening up, you know? A-and letting this place just thrust into and-and spurt knowledge into... that sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in.
  • Willow: He said he wasn't coming back until he'd driven to all fifty states.
Buffy: Did you explain about Hawaii?
Willow: Well, he seemed so determined.
  • Giles: (on Olivia being in his apartment) I'm not supposed to have a private life?
Buffy: No. Because you're very, very old and it's gross.
  • Xander: Do we hug?
Oz: I think we're too manly.
  • Dav: Does this sweater make me look fat?
Sunday: No. The fact that you're fat makes you look fat. That sweater just makes you look purple.
  • Buffy: Can't wait till mom gets the bill for these books, I hope it's a funny aneurysm.
-- foreshadows Joyce's death of an aneurysm in "I Was Made To Love You".
  • Xander: Buffy, this is all about fear. It's understandable, but you can't let it control you. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to anger... no, wait... Fear leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side... Hold on... no, um... first you get the women, then you get the money, then you- Okay, can we forget that?
Buffy: Thanks for the Dadaist pep talk, I feel much more abstract now.
-- Xander starts off referencing Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace but ends up in a Scarface reference.
  • Oz: "It's pretty much a madhouse, a madhouse."
-- a reference to Planet of the Apes.
  • This episode aired the same night as the series premiere of Angel, "City of". The two episodes share a very brief crossover moment: In "this episode, Buffy answers the phone but doesn't hear anything; in "City of," Angel calls Buffy but is unable to say anything, so he hangs up.
  • In addition, when Buffy briefly believes that she sees someone at The Bronze who looks like Angel, it is actually David Boreanaz at first.
  • This episode marks the first appearances of Riley Finn, Maggie Walsh, and The Initiative.
  • The vamps are keeping a tally of prints featuring paintings by Gustav Klimt and Claude Monet they have stolen from the freshmen they kill. Monet is winning but poster of Klimt's painting, The Kiss is found in Eddie's belongings, adding one to his total.

Music

  • David Bowie - "Memory of a Free Festival Part 1"
  • Moby - "Everloving" (Promo)
  • Sound Stage Music Library - "Freaky soul"
  • Splendid - "You and Me"
  • Stretch Princess - "Universe"
  • The Muffs - "I Wish That I Could Be You"
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