Overall Rating: 6.5
A funny, and yet scary, first season episode that comes off a little hokier than it should despite some great acting by the regulars due to some TERRIBLE acting by the guest stars and some really cheesy background music.
Plot Synopsis:
On a class trip to the Sunnydale zoo (you know..for a relatively small town, Sunnydale seems to have EVERYTHING!), Xander bemoans the unfair treatment he receives from a pack of ill-mannered thugs who've been picking on him (and Willow) relentlessly at school. When he covers for the bullies in front of Principal Flutie, hoping to earn their respect, they repay him with more rudeness - leading him to follow them into an off-limits hyena pit on a dare. There, they are possessed by the demon spirits of the hyenas and begin, slowly, to transform into the animals (mentally).
This manifests for Xander first by his angrily refusing to cooperate with Willow as she tries to tutor him in math, then by his aggressively pursuing Buffy in a rather chilling scene that might well have led to rape (luckily, Buffy is too strong for him and he backs off). Finally, he joins the group of thugs in tormenting other students, including Willow, and that group eats Principal Flutie alive. From this point on, they cease to be capable of reason. They go hunting at night, threatening teachers, and Buffy contains Xander in the library book cage. Willow is left to guard him while Buffy tries to figure out what is behind the strange behavior and here again, there is a chilling scene between Willow and Xander where he tries to convince her he's normal and then claws at her when she refuses to let him out.
Buffy and Giles track down the likely source of the problem to animal transpossession and Buffy remembers the special hyena exhibit that was off limits, so they question the zoo keeper. He seems cooperative and offers to help them prepare to reverse the spell - a Massai tribal ritual intended to take power from the animal world. When Giles realizes that the zoo keeper knows too much about the ritual and sees the power circle and imagery scrawled on the ground i the hyena pit, he catches on to the keeper's treachery and is knocked out for his trouble. Buffy, meanwhile, realizes that the other hyena bullies will try to free their friend and kill the one who has him imprisoned. To save Willow, she leads them away from the school (just in the nick of time, oh BTW) and gets them to chase her...all the way back to the zoo and the hyena pit. The keeper is in the middle of prepare to reverse the spell so he can steal their hyena powers when she arrives. Once all of that funky animal mojo is in one man instead of several kids, Buffy easily subdues him, ending the threat. Xander pretends to remember nothing, but Giles knows better and calls him on it...he begs Giles never to say a word to anyone.
Writing: 7.5
The script gets a bit stilted in spots, and the show gets points taken off for being produced with some seriously god awful score and hokey African tribal ritual cliche. :) But It gets some of that back in credit for daring to "go there" and have one of its regular characters do some truly heinous things, up to and including indulging in cannibalism, attempting rape, and attacking a best friend. Buffy succeeds on many occasions to genuinely surprise the audience and make them very VERRRY uncomfortable, which a good horror/fantasy adventure show should. There is a fair bit of humor too, which keeps the show enjoyable.
Acting: 5.0
Brendan Harris, Alyson Hannigan and Sarah Michelle Geller were all way above average in this episode - especially Brendan Harris. The slow change from lovable geeky doofous to scary bully to wild animal was expertly conveyed - aiding in the high discomfort to which I referred above. Unfortunately, every last one of the extras was so comically inept n their roles that I can't give this episode more than an average rating. Some of the worst back-up performances I've ever seen on a TV show. Truly pitiful.
Message: 7.0
The allegory of the week in this episode is the dangers of schoolyard bullying - particularly in the especially harmful high school form of gangs and cliques. How far above a laughing hyena are the antics of your typical bully, really? In fact the show takes great pains to reveal the animal qualities of the bullies to which Xander is desperately trying to ingratiate himself to avoid another round of abuse long before they become possessed to drive home that very point. Kids are animals...it's not that big of a leap from bullies to tribal squabbling to hunting in packs on the streets of Sunnydale. The consumption of the Principal was done with an unfortunate bent toward humor - but to me symbolizes what happens to administrators when they try to ignore the rampant bullying problems happening right under their noses. This stuff has to stop...everyone agrees on that point (except the bullies and their blind parents), but few take serious enough action to prevent it. For calling attention to it here, Joss gets a thumb up from me, though it would have been nice if he'd hit this one a little harder and given it more dramatic power.
Highlights:
XANDER: We just saw the zebras mating. Thank you! Very exciting!
WILLOW: It was the heimlich maneuver...with stripes! (LOL!)
GILES: Xander's taken to teasing the less fortunate?
BUFFY: Uh-huh.
GILES: And, there's been a noticeable change in both clothing and demeanor?
BUFFY: Yes.
GILES: And, well, otherwise all his spare time is spent lounging about with imbeciles.
BUFFY: It's bad, isn't it.
GILES: It's devastating. He's turned into a sixteen-year-old boy. Course, you'll have to kill him. (BWAHAHA!)
WILLOW: Oh, my God, Xander! What happened?
BUFFY: I hit him.
WILLOW: With what?
BUFFY: A desk. (That'll work)
GILES: I've been reading up on my, uh, animal possession, and I cannot find anything anywhere about memory loss afterwards.
XANDER: Did you tell them that?
GILES: Your secret dies with me.
XANDER: Shoot me, stuff me, mount me. (snerk)
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