As the episode opens, Giles is all a-flutter. Once again, he's trying to impress upon Buffy the seriousness and devotion her calling requires, and he's upset with her latest transgression. Apparently, she's decided to try out for the cheerleading squad. Giles attempts to put his foot down and forbid her to, but she's completely unimpressed by his display of authority. Hate to say it, Giles, but this will be a recurring theme.

Buffy's actually got a pretty good reason for wanting to join the squad. She's hoping to do something normal and fun while she's in high school - retain some semblance of a normal life in the face of Slayerdom. This desire of hers never really does go away. Years later, she still longs for a normal life. Even though this unfulfilled desire will often cause her pain, it's also helped keep her grounded in reality. She's mistaken, however, when she refers to cheerleading as something safe. As she once again utters some famous last words, the scene cuts to a shot of a dark room, complete with bubbling green liquid in a cauldron, and a hand ominously yanks a Barbie-esque cheerleader doll from the hook where it was dangling.

Back at Sunnydale High, it's the first day of cheerleading tryouts, and Xander and Willow come along to give Buffy their support. Okay, so Xander's also there to appreciate the stretchy girls limbering up. He gives Buffy a little "good luck" gift - it's a silver bracelet that's engraved "Yours Always". He insists it just came that way, but his discomfort is pretty revealing. Looks like Xander's got himself a crush on our friendly neighborhood Slayer. And it looks like Willow was a bit thrown by his gift. Not terribly - just enough to remind me that she was at The Bronze in WttH, hoping he'd be there.

Cordelia, naturally, is also at tryouts. The gal in charge announces that they will begin with a girl named Amber. As everybody clears the floor, Willow spots a friend named Amy Madison, who's also there to audition, and introduces her to Buffy. Amber begins her routine (which is a strange combination of funk, cheering, and ballet - all it's missing is some jazz hands), and everyone's impressed. Amy talks about training for hours every day with her mom. She's kind of intense, really. But Amy's mom was, like, the Queen Cheerleader of Ever, and Amy clearly wants to be just like her.

As everybody watches Amber, they notice her pom-poms starting to smoke. Odd, that. Then her hands burst into flames. Buffy sprints up the bleachers to grab a team banner, then tackles Amber, using the cloth to smother the fire.

Back from the theme song, the gang's assembled in the Library. Buffy astutely observes that the latest problem isn't vampire-related, but that's life on the Hellmouth for ya. Always keeps you on your toes. They decide to get the skinny on Amber to see if anything about her indicates the kind of rage usually found in victims of spontaneous human combustion, and Willow excitedly volunteers to hack the school's records. Xander plans to ask around about Amber. Buffy reminds them that they don't have to get involved, but they already consider themselves part of the team. Buffy doesn't want to put them in danger. They insist, however, and the Scooby Gang is born.

Later at Chez Summers, Joyce is trying valiantly to pry open a crate with a crowbar. She asks Buffy how school was, a bit distracted by her new acquisitions for the gallery she's opened. She offers a couple of generic encouragements, then Buffy busts her for not actually knowing what Buffy was even trying out for. Joyce is happy when Buffy mentions cheerleading, saying it'll help keep Buffy out of trouble. Not that Buffy's actually in any trouble, but Joyce offers an inspiring, "no, not yet." Quite the vote of confidence. Buffy sounds a bit jealous when she mentions the time Amy's mom spends helping her daughter practice, but Joyce says Amy's mom must not have a lot to do. This is actually an interesting scene. It's obvious that Joyce really loves Buffy, but she's very distracted by the demands that running the gallery put on her time. It's a little sad, but it's also necessary. After all, if Joyce didn't have other things on her mind, we'd never buy that Buffy could live the life of Slayage without Joyce finding out.

So we're back in the gym the next morning to try that audition thing again. They're working in groups, and Amy collides awkwardly with Cordelia. Afterwards, Buffy and Amy are looking at Mrs. Madison's cheerleading trophies, and Amy waxes nostalgic about her mom being "Catherine the Great". Amy's obviously extremely frustrated about not being the cheerleader her mom was.

Willow arrives just as Amy walks away. The two of them used to be pretty good friends in Junior High. Whenever Amy's mom got her down, Amy would go over to Willow's, and they'd pig out on brownies. The conversation moves on to Amber, but Willow hasn't found anything to suggest why the sudden flames.

In the very dark and creepy locker room, Amy's finishing getting dressed when Cordelia startles her, threatening Amy with untold horrors if her earlier screw-up keeps Cordy from making the team. Then she tosses her headband into her locker and huffs away, leaving a pretty stressed-out Amy there alone.

After lunch, Xander's asking Willow for advice on asking Buffy out. He tells Willow she's just like a guy friend but with the inside info on girl stuff. Willow's not terribly flattered by the assessment. Over on the quad, the tryout results are posted on the bulletin board. Cordy made the team, and Buffy and Amy are alternates. Xander tries to ask Buffy on a date to celebrate, but when Amy walks away upset, Willow interrupts him to explain that the alternates only cheer if something happens to somebody on the squad. Buffy goes to follow Amy, and Xander kicks himself for putting his foot in his mouth.

Buffy proposes a brownie-fest, but Amy's too busy beating herself up for not being her mother to listen. Then the scene changes to a house with a bricked-up attic window. Someone yanks another cheerleader doll from its hook, wraps Cordelia's headband around its head, and tosses it into the pot of bubbling green goo.

The next morning, Joyce is reminiscing about how much fun she had in the yearbook club, trying to talk Buffy into joining Sunnydale's. Buffy's not interested. In fact, she makes some kind of mean comments about how only the losers do that (hello, what did Joyce just tell you?) and says she's into her own thing. Joyce falters a little too by pointing out that whatever Buffy's thing is got her kicked out of her last school, and that's why they had to move here.

At school, Cordelia's in a haze. She blows right by Xander, ignoring him. Not that he minds, he tells Willow, he just wishes Buffy would notice him for a change. Gee, kind of like Willow feels about you, Xander? Eeeexcellent - that love triangle's coming along nicely. Buffy arrives, and Xander tries to ask her out again. But as soon as he starts, Buffy notices how spacey Cordelia's acting and walks away. Ouch.

Buffy follows Cordy out to the school parking lot where driver's ed is about to start. It's Cordelia's turn to drive, but she can barely even see the dashboard. She starts the car, and it lunges wildly in reverse. Then she throws it into drive and careens through the parking lot, slaughtering an entire herd of defenseless orange cones. Buffy takes off towards the car at a run. The driver's ed teacher screams for Cordy to hit the brake, but they crash through the fence and into the street. Finally stopped, they all pile out of the car, but Cordelia just staggers blindly, unaware that a huge UPS truck is coming. Just before it hits her, Buffy leaps and tackles her out of the way. She asks if Cordelia's okay, but Cordy just stares up at her with milky white eyes - she's completely blinded. Eep!

With spontaneous human combustion ruled out now, Giles has surmised now that the phlebotinum du jour is witchcraft. Phlebotinum is a term used on the Buffy set for whatever mystical whoosit they're up against or need to explain that week, and this episode's is witchcraft. Of course, it's utter Hollywood "cackling and broomsticks" witchcraft, not to be even remotely confused with Wicca.

The common denominator between Amber and Cordelia is cheerleading, and the gang now suspects Amy. She's been desperate to live up to her mother's example, and they figure she's trying bump herself up from alternate to full member. They decide to see if maybe she's checked out any of the Library's books on witchcraft, but Xander thinks that's a hideous plan. That's because he's checked out the books himself to gawk at the semi-nude engravings. Hee. Giles has a better idea; he's found a spell. It calls for some simple ingredients and some of Amy's hair. Apparently, they apply the mixture to the witch's skin, and it'll turn blue if she's done any spells in the past 48 hours. Mercury, nitric acid, and eye of newt - all things you can find in the school science lab.

Fortunately for our plot, it's both biology and chem class today, so all the necessary ingredients are in play. The teacher works up front, and there's a cool mirror thing over his desk that's propped up by a pole so the kids can see what he's doing. Xander's squeamish, but Willow steps up the plate and extracts the eye of newt - well, eye of frog - and adds it to the mixture. Buffy's job is to get some of Amy's hair, which she does extremely awkwardly by asking Amy a dumb question, pretending to drop her troll-head pencil by Amy's bag, then reaching in to grab some of Amy's hair from her brush. It's physically impossible for Amy not to see this, but she just gives Buffy a vacant smile. So the hair goes in, and the mixture's ready. Buffy does the lamest "oops" in the history of Western civilization and spills some on Amy's arm - sure enough, it turns bright blue. Amy's pregnant. I mean, she's a witch. No sooner does this happen, though, than a girl at the next table struggles to cry out. She turns around, panicked for very good reason. Her mouth is completely gone. Again I say - eep!

Amy seems as freaked out by this as the rest of the class, but the test was definitely positive. Buffy suggests maybe they need to try and talk to Amy's mother about what all the pressure has done to her daughter. Lordy, they have no idea.

Amy gets home from school. Her mother's there, looking cowed and afraid of her. Amy rudely tells her to write the history report she's got due for class tomorrow. She's mad that she's not on the squad yet, and yes, she knew what the Scoobies were up to. Joke's on Buffy, though, because Amy's holding the bracelet that Xander gave Buffy. And she knows just what to do with it.

The next morning, Buffy clobbers her alarm clock. She's extremely perky in her cheerleading uniform as she goes to the kitchen for breakfast, and Joyce apologizes for the day before. Buffy waves it off as no big deal, way too peppy to be upset about it. She actually agrees that Joyce had a good point but that there are just some things about being a vampire slayer that... oops. Not that Buffy notices the oops - she's too busy being bouncy, swiping Joyce's fresh-squeezed orange juice, and singing "Macho Man" to be bothered with it.

Buffy's practicing with the team before the game, way too exuberant to concentrate. Xander and Willow enter the gym and see how looped she's acting. Before they can get her out of there, Buffy forgets that Slayer strength and cheerleading might not be mixey things and throws the head cheerleader into the wall. Head gal's had it with Buffy's hyper act and throws her off the team. Oh, gee, Amy happens to be right there, ready to go. Buffy starts to yell that Amy's a witch, but Xander and Willow drag her out of the gym to see Giles.

While they're practically carrying her between them, an overly chatty Buffy decides to tell Xander why she loves him so much. He's only too happy to listen until she tells him he's just like one of the girls. Ooh, ouch. Pretty much exactly what he said to Willow earlier. Buffy starts to get seriously woozy, though, and pretty much collapses.

In the Library (which I know doesn't actually require a capital "L", but I just love the place), Willow suggests getting Buffy to a hospital, but Giles says they wouldn't know what to do. Buffy's not sick, she's been cursed. And this one's a whopper. The earlier effects of it were just like being intoxicated, but in just a few hours, Buffy will be dead. The other curses weren't lethal, but Buffy knows Amy's secret.

Giles offers two ways to reverse Amy's spells: get their hands on her spellbook or cut her head off. Xander's all for chopping heads, but Buffy's surprisingly compassionate, seemingly understanding the pressure Amy's mother put on her. So Giles and a very weak Buffy are off to Amy's house to get the spellbook.

Brief pause to celebrate the first appearance of Giles's Citroën. Great car.

When they arrive, Catherine doesn't want to let them in. Giles, however, pushes his way in and helps Buffy to the couch, speaking sternly to Mrs. Madison about what Amy's been doing. Giles gets in her face about what her obsession's done to Amy, but Catherine says she doesn't care about cheerleading. That's when Buffy sees the plate of brownies hidden under the table. Then when Catherine slips up and mentions "Dad... I mean, her dad" leaving, Buffy puts it together. They're really talking to Amy - Catherine switched their bodies.

After the commercial, Amy confesses how hard it's been since her dad left and describes waking up in Catherine's body. It's a great moment - here's Buffy, weak and probably dying, doing her best to help Amy feel better. They break open the door to the attic, where Catherine's been casting her spells. Amy's terrified of her mother coming home and catching them in the attic, so Giles sets to finding the volume they need to break the spells. He opens a trunk, and a black cat leaps out at him, hissing and howling loudly, and scaring the wits out of me. Heh, I'm such a sucker for that bit. Gets me every time, and I love it. What's even funnier is that when I just played that scene, my own black cat jumped up all ready to defend the living room from the mystery intruder. Pets are fun. Except when they scratch the hell out of your leg when you're watching "Outbreak". Especially since she did it not 2 seconds after the monkey scratched that guy in the pet shop. Clearly, television is a bad influence on our nation's pets.

Back downstairs, Buffy's looking pretty bad. The three of them head off to the school to perform the counterspells. In the science lab, Giles lays Buffy on a table, folding his jacket to make her a pillow, and then he sets to work. The basketball game's started over in the gym, and Catherine's clearly thrilled to be cheerleading again. Then as Giles begins the spell, she looks a bit disoriented. For just a moment, she can see the desk in front of Amy, and Amy can tell the spell's starting to work. She's getting a bit woozy herself, just like her mother is. Another disoriented flash, and Catherine topples from her spot in the cheer pyramid. She knows what's going on now and runs from the gym to put a stop to it.

Xander and Willow follow her out, trying to stop her. Willow tries to stall her with lame questions about witchcraft while Xander tries to sneak up from behind her. She turns around, clenching her hand into a fist, and Xander suddenly can't breathe. Then she whirls back around and uses the fist to sock Willow in the face. As Giles continues the incantation, Catherine arrives and finds the classroom door locked. She grabs an emergency fire axe from the wall and hacks her way in. She advances on the half-conscious Buffy, raising the axe over her head. Giles shouts the end of the spell, and there's a flash of light. Back in her body again, Amy lowers the axe as Buffy gets up from the table. They take half a second to register that all's well, and then it's not so well again. An enraged Catherine, now back in possession of her own body, flies across the room and tackles Buffy. With a glare, she sends a table flying into Giles, knocking him down. Then she turns on Amy, threatening to put her where she can never make trouble again.

Ooh, but Buffy's feeling a lot better now, and Catherine is sent sprawling across the room. Ah, but with a little magic, Buffy soon gets the same treatment, landing behind the teacher's desk. Then Catherine begins her spell. She chants about sending her enemy's soul someplace most unpleasant, and swirls of light coalesce. She flings the ball of light at Buffy, who knocks the support out from under the teacher's mirror. It swings down and reflects the spell back onto Catherine, who shrieks and disappears.

Buffy, Amy, and Giles all cautiously begin to relax, then Xander leaps into the room, grabbing Amy and shouting for somebody to cut her head off. They explain the Freaky Friday mixup, then Willow runs in with a baseball bat, looking to thank Amy for socking her in the face. Xander explains that he took care of it, and all is well again.

Back home, as Buffy sweeps the remains of her pummeled alarm clock into the trash bin, Joyce comes in to talk. Buffy asks if Joyce would ever want to be 16 years old again, and Joyce answers a definite no. It's not a big conversation, but it seems their fight from earlier is cleared up now, and they understand each other a little better.

At school the next day, Amy is grousing about how her dad's been smothering her with quality time, but she's clearly loving it. Cordelia flounces by and rubs their faces in their not being on the squad anymore, but neither girl seems particularly upset not to be on the team.

Buffy and Amy stop in front of the trophy case. As they look at Catherine's cheerleading trophy, Amy confirms that there's been no sign of her. Not surprising since that last spell was supposed to send Amy someplace where she'd never make trouble again. Then as they walk away, the camera lingers on the trophy. Its eyes shoot open, and it struggles in vain to open its mouth and scream.

Creepy!

Thoughts

I really enjoyed the premiere two-parter - it got me completely hooked on this new show - but this was the episode where I totally fell in love with BtVS. Amber's flaming hands, Cordelia staggering blind in the street, the girl's mouth disappearing, the twisted trophy at the end... eek!

This was also the first episode where the show's "mission statement" becomes clearer. The ep is all about stopping the witch, but at the same time, it's about the mother/daughter relationship and the pressures parents can sometimes put on kids to be what they want the child to be. This other layer makes the lead story more engaging and really helps draw you into the characters' lives. This "monsters as metaphor" formula will be used to great effect throughout the series.

I also loved the emergence of the love triangle among Willow, Xander, and Buffy - as well as seeing Giles so passionate in his efforts to save Buffy's life. There's a lot to enjoy about this episode. Fun, angst, cheerleaders, mayhem, peril, a spiffy Citroën... it's all good. I also thought it was great that they faced something that wasn't a vampire so early on.

Quirks

When Buffy tackles Amber to put out her flaming hands, Amber's stunt double's hair is a completely different colour. Amber's hair is almost light brown, but the double's hair is short and practically black.

I get that Cordelia didn't see the truck coming towards her, but didn't the driver maybe notice a girl in a bright green shirt standing in the middle of the street? The guy didn't even slow down!

I'm of two minds about the portrayal of witchcraft in this episode. On one hand, the whole evil brewmeister thing kind of had to be dealt with - it's such a classic Halloween-ey stereotype that Buffy & Co. were bound to run into it. But on the other hand, the stereotype came from inaccurate and harmful portrayals of nature worshippers and midwives, many of whom were members of the Wiccan religion. Obviously that wasn't what Joss was talking about here, but the frequent bastardization of witchcraft and Wicca on this show does often upset me. Sometimes I rant my head off, sometimes I don't stress it. It doesn't stop me from enjoying the episode, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I know it was pretty much just setup for the scary cat bit, but really - why would Catherine keep her cat in a trunk?

Giles says this was his first spellcasting, but as we find out later, that's a load of farm-fresh hooey.

Body Count

Wow... none? Unless you count Catherine Madison, stuck in the trophy.

Haiku

Buffy's on the squad
Shake those pom-poms, Xander cheers
Stretchy girls are nice

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