Graduation Day, Part One

Infobox Television episode
Title=Graduation Day, Part One


Series=Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season=3
Episode=21
Airdate=May 18 1999
Production=3ABB21
Writer=Joss Whedon
Director=Joss Whedon
Episode list=List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes
Prev=The Prom
Next=Graduation Day, Part Two

"Graduation Day, Part One" is the 21st episode of season 3 of the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Plot synopsis

ummary

While the Mayor prepares for his Ascension, Buffy battles Faith to save Angel's life.

Expanded overview

As Graduation Day approaches, Sunnydale High enjoys a mellow love fest as former enemies exchange pleasantries. Buffy has not caught the spirit, however, and others have their own concerns, too. Cordelia is worried about the color of the gown while Xander fears for his life. He then learns that the Mayor will be the commencement speaker, meaning that the Mayor is not only going to ascend on Graduation Day, but at the ceremony itself. Faith kills Professor Worth for the Mayor.

Anya tries to entice Xander into another date, but is stunned when she finds out about the upcoming Ascension. Xander brings her to the library, where she tells of an Ascension she witnessed 800 years before. A sorcerer had decimated an entire village within hours; only a few people escaped. The destructiveness of an Ascended demon stems from its lack of any human characteristic. The Mayor seems to be heading towards a different breed from the sorcerer's, however, and Anya is unable to help further.

At that moment, the Mayor enters the library. He tells Buffy he will eat her, and Giles plunges a fencing epee into his chest. Wilkins shrugs it off with an indignant expression, promising "one heck of a speech."

Anya tries to convince Xander to skip town with her, but he has friends on the line. Buffy convinces her mom to leave, while Oz releases Willow's tensions by making love to her.

Searching Professor Worth's apartment, Buffy runs into Angel. It is their first encounter after the Prom. They begin arguing in the street when Faith shoots Angel in the back with an arrow, deliberately missing the heart. Angel tries to get up, but collapses into Buffy's arms.

Wesley tells Giles that the professor found a large demon carcass buried in a lava bed. Professor Worth thought it was an unknown dinosaur, but the Mayor evidently thought it safer to silence him anyway. Wilkins is impervious to harm only until the Ascension.

Buffy brings Angel to the library, where Giles helps remove the arrow. It was clearly poisoned and Wesley offers to ask the Watcher's Council for help. Buffy thanks him, and Willow's afterglow is cut short by Buffy's call for help. Wesley returns to tell Buffy that the Council refused to help a vampire. He explains that the laws are older than civilization, and Buffy must follow the Council's orders and ignore the distraction. Buffy quits the Council.

The Mayor prepares for the Ascension by eating the giant beetles in the Box of Gavrok as Faith takes a break from her murders.

Oz tells the gang that vampires can only survive the poison by draining the blood of a Slayer. Xander has doubts about its consequences for Buffy as she leaves with Faith's dagger, intent on killing Faith before feeding her to Angel. Willow finds Faith's apartment, paid for by taxpayers, and Buffy arrives after Faith had a workout. After an impressive but brutal battle, she eventually manages to stab Faith with her own knife, but Faith jumps from the roof onto a passing truck, unconscious but away from Buffy.

Writing

*In another father-daughter moment, Faith mentions her childhood as a tough kid. The Mayor calls her a "firecracker" and she reveals that her mother used to call her that, too. In "Touched", the First Evil appears to Faith as the Mayor and calls her the same.

Acting

tarring

*Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
*Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
*Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
*Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
*David Boreanaz as Angel
*Seth Green as Oz
*and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest starring

*Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
*Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins
*Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
*Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall
*Ethan Erickson as Percy West
*Emma Caulfield as Anya
*Eliza Dushku as Faith Lehane
*and Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder

Co-starring

*James Lurie as Mr. Miller
*Hal Robinson as Lester
*John Rosenfeld as Vamp-Lackey #2
*Adrian Neil as Vamp-Lackey #1

Production details

Music

*Christophe Beck - "Faith's End"
*Christophe Beck - "Poison Arrow"
*Spectator Pump - "Sunday Mail"

Quotes and trivia

*James Lurie played the teacher Mr. Miller in "I Only Have Eyes For You" and "Anne" as well as playing hangman with his class ("They always go for the 'E'").

*When this episode originally aired, the first ever trailer for "Angel" was shown. It lasted only four seconds with Boreanaz turning towards the camera, and the words "Angel. This Fall" appeared.

*On seeing an illustration of the Mayor's eventual demon form, Xander quotes the famous line from Jaws: "We're going to need a bigger boat".

*Faith's line "Look at you, trying on big sister's clothes" is a reference to the Elvis Costello song "Big Sister's Clothes" on the album "Trust". This line also alludes to Dawn's arrival and Buffy being 'the big sister'. The episode in which Faith awakens from the coma she enters in this episode, "This Year's Girl" is also a reference to an Elvis Costello song.

*When Angel is shot in the back with the poisonous arrow by Faith, a large sign she's stanced behind says "Sun", a common killer of vampires. This is the Sun theatre of Sunnydale.

Translations

* Italian title: "La sfida - I parte" ("The challenge - Part 1")
* German title: "Das Blut der Jägerin" ("The Blood of the Slayer, fem."; literally: "The Blood of the Hunter") "As there is no suitable direct translation for the term "Slayer" in the German language, it is normally replaced by the term "Jägerin" ("hunter", fem.) in the German dubbing."
* French title: "La Cérémonie, Première Partie" ("The Ceremony, Part One")
* Japanese title: "卒業の日　パート1" ("Sotsugyō no Hi Pāto 1" - Graduation Day, Part 1")
* Spanish title: "El día de graduación" ("The graduation day")

Continuity

Arc significance

*Buffy quits the Watcher's Council, which she will not rejoin until she needs information on Glory in season five. She explains the decision as her graduation, but one may view it in the same vein as her protection of Dawn from Glory, which she will view differently two years later.
*Willow loses her virginity to Oz. The core four have all lost theirs now.
*Anya helps the Scoobies for the first time, giving them information about a demon Ascension. She also decides to explore a relationship with Xander, which will continue to the end of the series.
*Buffy vows Angel would be her "last office romance," but she would go on to establish relationships with Riley and Spike. She also had a literal office romance, albeit briefly, with Principal Wood while working at Sunnydale High.
*This is the first time since "Ted" that Buffy has intentionally attempted to harm another human, and the first instance where it could be considered consciously premeditated. Despite Faith's obviously evil actions, Buffy's reaction after mortally wounding Faith is reminiscent of the reaction she had when she thought she'd killed Ted.
*When Anya returns to the school to ask Xander to run away with her she tells him that her car is just outside and they can take turns driving, however in season five during the episode "Triangle" it is revealed that Anya is unclear about driving. She still demonstrates her ability to drive in the episode and it may be perceived that she is still new to the concept in this episode.

Timing

*Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:

External links

*
*

Reviews

* [http://www3.sympatico.ca/jenoff/btvs321.htm Peripheral Visions Review]
* [http://www.section31.com/guideextras.php?id=186 Section 31 Review]
* [http://tv.swingthesickle.com/ststv/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer/Season_3/21.review Swing the Sickle Review]