Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode Guide

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 1, Episode 5: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

by Helen

Buffy is battling a vampire in a graveyard. The moment she dusts him, Giles pops from behind a gravestone and begins criticizing her technique. He is distracted by a ring sitting in the vampire’s ashes that didn’t dust with the vamp like it should have. Giles decides to consult his books. At the same time The Master is also consulting his books, reading to his minion’s a prophecy about the Anointed One. The prophecy says that out of the ashes of five the Anointed One, The Master’s greatest warrior, shall rise and “… the Slayer will not know him, will not stop him, and he will lead her into Hell.” He then lets his minions (who he refers to as the Brethren of Aurelius) know that he is angry that one of their brothers got killed by the Slayer when he was supposed to help retrieve the Anointed One. The Master makes them very aware that they should not do anything more to disappoint him.

Buffy and Giles are looking at the ring in the library when Buffy recognizes a symbol on it. Giles tells her it is not significant but she finds it in a book, which says it is the symbol of the Order of Aurelius. As Buffy is enjoying her victory over Giles, Owen, a guy Buffy clearly has a crush on, walks in. Giles is shocked to find a student actually looking for a book, while Owen is shocked to see Buffy in a library. Buffy follows Owen around trying to convince him that she likes books, hoping to raise his opinion of her and after he leaves she tries to check out a copy of Emily Dickenson since that is what he is reading. Giles, however, is more concerned with fighting evil than helping Buffy impress her crush.

Still, by lunchtime Buffy has her own copy of Dickenson and is gossiping with Willow about the brooding, solitary yummieness that is Owen. Xander is more interested in news on the vampire front but makes the mistake of mentioning that Owen is sitting all alone. Buffy heads over to sit with him but Cordelia beats her to it, knocking over Buffy’s lunch tray in the process. Owen is helping Buffy pick up her food when Cordy invites him to The Bronze that night. He says he’ll go and he invites Buffy as his date.

Buffy is ecstatic about her upcoming night out with Owen but her good mood is dashed when Giles reveals that he has uncovered a prophecy about a vampire called the Anointed One rising out of the ashes of five dead and being met by the Order of Aurelius. According to his calculations the Anointed One should be rising tonight, which means Buffy is going to have to postpone her date.

That night Buffy and Giles wait for the Anointed One in the graveyard. But there are no fresh graves and nobody rising. After a long while they give up and Buffy heads for the Bronze. That same night an airport shuttle with five people in it drives into Sunnydale. A small boy onboard tries to talk to a rough-looking man and the man answers by growling out comments that are apocalyptic in nature.

Buffy heads in to the Bronze and sees Owen there. He is slow dancing with Cordelia and they seem to be pretty snuggly, so she leaves disappointed.

Meanwhile on the bus, the man is now walking up the aisle, talking loudly about Judgment Day. He’s disturbing the other passengers so the shuttle driver tells him to sit down. Suddenly one of the Brethren of Aurelius walks in front of the shuttle. The driver swerves to avoid him but ends up hitting him anyway and crashing the shuttle bus. Once he sees that everyone onboard is okay, he goes to check on the guy he hit. The vampire leaps up and kills him. Then all the Brethren attack the bus. They bite the scary guy and move on to kill the rest of the passengers.

The next day Buffy tells Xander about her failed date and he tries to comfort her by reminding her that there are other guys like Owen, guys that can read. After all, he can read. Suddenly Owen comes up to Buffy to ask her where she was and she makes up a lame excuse about her watch breaking. So he asks her out for another date that night and lends her his very nice watch, so she’ll be sure to make it. He is even able to explain away the Cordelia thing as Cordy just being grabby. Xander is not pleased by how charming Owen can be but Buffy is and she wanders down the hallway happily as Xander leans dejectedly against his locker.

Buffy runs into Giles’ office and bulldozes through him verbally, not giving him a chance to give her anything to do that night before telling him how great it is that she is getting some free time. Then she runs off so he won’t have a chance to contradict her.

Underground, The Master expresses his pleasure to the Brethren over their success so far and then tells them the must now do whatever it takes to get the Anointed One to him, even if that means giving their own lives to kill the Slayer.

That night Buffy has Xander and Willow help her pick an outfit for her date. Xander tries to get her to wear a bulky, ankle-length parka but she ignores his advice. Then he tries to watch her change, first blatantly, then through her jewelry box mirror when she makes him turn around. The doorbell rings and Buffy excitedly runs to greet Owen. Unfortunately for her it is Giles on the other side of the door, not Owen. Giles shows her a newspaper article about the shuttle bus crash and the five people who died in it. This article reveals that the scary guy on the bus was a murder suspect. Giles thinks he may be the Anointed One. He wants to go to the funeral home to investigate. Just then, Owen walks through the open front door and is surprised to find the school librarian at his date’s house. The group tries to play it off as a case of really overdue books and Xander and Willow pull Owen into the next room, where Xander attempts to convince Owen that Buffy doesn’t like to be touched. Giles continues talking with Buffy and finally agrees that since the people died in a car crash, it is unlikely that the Anointed One will rise from among them. He finally gives Buffy permission for her date and she agrees to take her beeper with her. Giles is still convinced his idea has some merit so he decides to head to the funeral home on his own. Willow doesn’t like this idea and tells Xander that they should follow him although Xander is more interested in following Buffy.

Buffy and Owen go to the Bronze and are having a good time talking until Owen mentions how he dislikes girls that put dating above more important things in life. This makes Buffy feel a little guilty but Giles hasn’t paged her so she pulls Owen onto the dance floor. While they are dancing Cordelia walks in and tries to steal Owen but Owen rejects her.

Giles shows up at the funeral home, where he is attacked by the Brethren. He wards them off with a cross and runs into the building. They chase him. He doesn’t have a phone to page Buffy with so she continues to enjoy herself on the dance floor with Owen. Giles makes his way to the crematorium, where he barricades the door. He goes to the window and finds Xander and Willow staring in. They followed him and saw him begin chased. He can’t fit through the window so he sends them to get Buffy.

Back at the Bronze Owen offers to get Buffy some food while Cordelia watches jealously. She insists to one of her Cordettes that she has never seen a girl throw herself at a guy the way Buffy is. Just then Angel walks in and Cordelia sees him. “Hello, salty goodness,” is her first response and she heads straight for him, only to see him go straight for Buffy. Cordy is more than a little upset.

Angel tries to warn Buffy that a lot is going on that night and she should be out fighting it. He is surprised to find out that she is on a date and isn’t very friendly to Owen when he returns with Buffy’s food. All of the sudden Xander and Willow run up. Xander is not happy to see Angel there, Owen is not happy to see Xander there, and Buffy isn’t happy to see any of them of them. Xander and Willow manage to tell Buffy that she needs to get to the funeral home without saying anything overly suspicious but Owen doesn’t understand why Buffy doesn’t want him coming along; he thinks it sounds like fun. She pulls him aside and explains as best she can while Angel watches her. Both he and Owen are surprised when Buffy ends the conversation with a kiss before running away with Xander and Willow.

The three have just gotten to the funeral home and are trying to find a way round back when Owen pops out of the shadows. He’s followed them. Buffy goes off on her own, while the Slayerettes watch Owen. Buffy finds the room Giles was in but the door has been broken down and the window bars have been badly bent. Suddenly one of the compartments in the body fridge opens and Giles crawls out. He hid there when the Brethren broke in. He and Buffy need to look for the Anointed One but Buffy has to deal with Owen first. She can’t take him outside because there might still be vampires out there but she can’t let him see Giles either because that would raise too many questions, so Buffy stashes Owen in an office, again leaving him in her friends’ care. Giles and Buffy set out looking for the Anointed One, while Willow and Xander barricade the office door. Owen, left to his own devices begins exploring the office. Giles and Buffy’s search proves unfruitful. That is because Owen just found what they were looking for. The scary man’s dead body is in the display room adjacent to the office and his dead body is moving. Now a vampire, the scary man gets up and breaks the glass divider that separates him from the office. Buffy hears the noise and runs towards it while the other kids work on unbarricading the office door. They get out just in time and pass Buffy on their way out. They run for the entrance but the Brethren are there. They shut the safety gates on them and run back into the funeral home. Buffy runs back to Giles to get a stake. Just then the scary man vampire attacks Buffy from behind, flinging her across the room. She hits her head on the body fridge and is stunned. Owen decides that leaving Buffy was wrong and runs off to help her. Willow and Xander chase after him. Giles tries to keep the vampire away from Buffy with a cross but the vamp easily tosses him out of the way. He hits his head against the on-button for the furnace before sliding unconscious to the floor. Owen runs in just in time to see the vampire attack Buffy and he hits him with a metal tray. The vampire is surprised and tosses Buffy. She smacks into the fridge again and is again stunned. The vampire then attacks Owen who hits him over the head with a stone urn. With the vampire on the ground Owen goes to help Buffy, but the vamp recovers quickly and cracks Owen’s head against the fridge announcing him dead to a shocked Buffy.

Buffy is so angry that the vampire killed her date that she attacks him far more viciously that she normally attacks vampires. Xander and Willow run in and see Owen starting to get up. Willow tries to tell Buffy that Owen is alive but Xander advises her to withhold that news until Buffy is done. In a fit of rage Buffy defeats the vampire and flings him into the now-roaring furnace. A recently conscious Giles shuts the furnace door, locking him in. Buffy is happy that Owen is alive but upset that her date turned out so badly. She tries to salvage it but Owen seems resistant to spending any more time with her. Xander and Willow take him home. Giles tries to comfort Buffy but there is really nothing he can say.

The next day Buffy is still upset that she blew it with Owen. Xander suggests that she might want to date someone who already knows she’s the Slayer and still likes her but she misses his hint because just then Owen walks up to her. Willow drags an angry Xander off and to Buffy’s surprise Owen asks her out for a second date. He found the danger of the night before thrilling and he wants more. Buffy finds herself not only turning down a second date but telling him that they can’t see each other anymore.

Giles has witnessed what happened from a distance and again tries to comfort her. Buffy tells Giles that she knows that Owen couldn’t survive in her world, embracing danger the way he does. He wouldn’t be careful and someone would get hurt. She then expresses guilt that she wasn’t there to help Giles but Giles lets her know that she is doing very well as a Slayer, especially since she stopped the Anointed One prophecy. Even if she is having a bad day, at least The Master is having a bad day along with her.

Except The Master isn’t having a bad day because, as the prophecy says, “…for in this time will come the Anointed and the Slayer will not know him, she will not stop him and he will lead her into Hell” Giles was mistaken the whole time, thinking the murder suspect-scary man was the Anointed One. He was just a vamp the Brethren left behind while fetching the real Anointed One, the small boy from the shuttle bus, now a vampire and ready to fulfill the prophecy.

Back to the main Buffy the Vampire Slayer page