Lessons
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| Buffy the Vampire Slayer | |
| Season 7, Episode 1 | |
 | |
| Air date | September 24, 2002 |
| Written by | Joss Whedon |
| Directed by | David Solomon |
| Episode Guide | |
| previous Grave | next Beneath You |
"Lessons" is the first episode of seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the hundred and twenty-third episode altogether. It was written by Joss Whedon and directed by David Solomon. It originally broadcast on September 24, 2002.
Dawn finds vengeful spirits in the new Sunnydale High School. Giles helps with Willow's rehabilitation in England.
Contents |
Synopsis
In Istanbul, a dark-haired girl is running, looking over her shoulder in fear. She's being chased by two men in hooded cloaks. After trying various alleys looking for an escape route, she finds herself trapped in a dead-end. She sees a drain pipe next to her and decides to use it to scale the building.
Buffy is in Sunnydale training her sister on how to fight vampires. She instructs Dawn that fighting (and slaying) are about power. They discuss the fact that Sunnydale High has just reopened. Meanwhile, Willow is studying with Giles in Westbury, England. She studies magic and meditation with a coven of wiccans that Giles knows. She is learning control, but feels frightened and distraught because she "killed people" ("Villains").
Xander is working construction at the new high school which Dawn is to attend. He shows Buffy his discovery that the Principal's office is right over the Hellmouth (where the library used to sit). Buffy follows Dawn into the school where she meets Principal Wood. She wanders into a bathroom, where she finds a mysterious talisman. Upon seeing the talisman, she sees a dead girl who threatens her. She says Buffy was unable to protect her, and that she will not be able to protect Dawn either.
Buffy tries to warn Dawn, but winds up only embarrassing her. Dawn then sees a similar dead student. She hurries to the bathroom where she meets Kit Holburn, who has also been seeing things. They are about to leave the bathroom when the floor caves in and they wind up in the high school basement. Willow, back in England, has had a vision. She saw "the earth's teeth" -- the Hellmouth. She tells Giles, who has taught her that everything is connected, that not everything that is connected to the earth is good.
Dawn and Kit run into another student in the basement, Carlos Trejo, who says he saw a dead janitor. They are soon confronted by the three dead people. The dead people tell them that everyone dies at Sunnydale, and they will be no different. Dawn calls Buffy on her new cell phone. Buffy descends into the basement to help Dawn, but cannot find her. Instead, she finds a deranged Spike holed up in a small room.
He has scratches around his heart which he explains as attempts to "cut it out". He is rambling incoherently, but tells Buffy that the dead students are not zombies or ghosts, but "manifest spirits" raised by a talisman. Buffy calls Xander, telling him to find and destroy the talisman. She then hears Dawn screaming, and runs to her rescue. She fights the spirits off as Xander wrestles with one to destroy the talisman. Xander breaks the talisman and the spirits disappear.
Buffy then sends Dawn, Kit, and Carlos off to class. Principal Wood is impressed that Buffy was able to convince Kit and Carlos to socialize and go to class (Saying that they are the only two students with school records as large as Buffy's had been). He offers her a job working as a counselor at the school, and she gladly accepts. She wants to be able to keep an eye on her sister, the school, the Hellmouth, and the new principal.
Spike is now huddled in a corner in his basement room. He says that he had a speech to Buffy prepared, but she would not understand. A figure that appears to be Warren Mears is seen pacing around him. He begins to give a speech about how great he is. He turns into Glory, then Adam, followed by Mayor Wilkins, Drusilla, and then The Master. Each of them continues the speech, but each in their own particular voice and using their individual personalities and manner of speaking. The Master says, "It's not about right. It's not about wrong." He then transforms into Buffy and tells Spike, "It's about power", the same thing Buffy had said to Dawn at the beginning.
Starring
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
- Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
- James Marsters as Spike
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
Special Guest Star
Guest Starring
Co Starring
- Mark Metcalf as The First/The Master
- Juliet Landau as The First/Drusilla
- Harry Groener as The First/Richard Wilkins
- George Hertzberg as The First/Adam
- Clare Kramer as The First/Glory
- Adam Busch as The First/Warren Mears
- David Zepeda as Carlos Trejo
- Jeremy Howard as Dead Nerd
- Ken Strunk as Dead Janitor
- Rachael Bella as Dead Girl
- Ed F. Martin as Teacher
- Simon Chernin as Student
- Jeff Denton as Vampire
Trivia
- Kali Rocha was performing in the play Noises Off when Season Seven was shooting. She was flown in for one day and filmed all her Season Seven scenes ("Lessons" and this episode) on that one day. She filmed her "death scene" before a green screen for later super-imposition into the scene.
- The scenes that are marked as taking place in Westbury were actually shot at Anthony Stewart Head's house in Somerset, England. He owns the horse seen in the episode, and it is named "Otto".
- Willow's mentor in England, Ms. Harkness, is named after the Marvel Comics character, Agatha Harkness, who is also a witch.
- Willow remarks how confused she is that Giles rehabilitates her with magic, comparing him to the fictional wizard character Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the school Harry Potter attends, in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of books and movies.
- This is the only episode in the entire series where you can briefly see one of Sarah's real life tattoos. In the first act when Buffy & Xander are discussing the Sunnydale High you can the Chinese symbol for hope or luck on her left hip. But not later in the episode.
- Buffy refers to the three spirits as the "Resentful Dead", a reference to The Grateful Dead.
- Dawn assures Buffy that she knows To Serve Man is a cookbook, a reference to the classic Twilight Zone episode.
Quotes
Buffy - "Ah, you put the box near the milk. I saw it on the food channel."
Buffy - "You know, you could still drop out. Only nerds finish high school."
Xander - "Whoa. Contracty goodness." Xander sees big bucks when coming across the bathroom floor caved in.
The First Evil as Warren (re: Buffy) - "She's a girl! With sugar, and spice, and everything... useless, unless you're baking." Buffy will use a similar metaphor in the series finale.
Continuity
- The teaser follows the trend of season premieres taking place in a graveyard since "When She Was Bad", in which Buffy, Willow and Xander reunite in a cemetery. In "Anne", Willow, Xander, and Oz patrol a cemetery in place of an absent Buffy. The next year, in Season 4's "The Freshman", Buffy and Willow decide on what college courses to take in the graveyard. Season 5's "Buffy vs. Dracula", shows Buffy needing that extra dose of slaying-in-the-graveyard before bedtime. With Buffy dead, Season 6's "Bargaining, Part One", shows Giles, Spike, Xander, Tara, Anya, and the Buffybot patrolling in the cemetery under the leadership of Willow. Finally, in this episode Buffy trains Dawn in the techniques of vampire slaying.
- This is the first of multiple episodes to begin with the murder of a Potential Slayer, until their pivotal stand in "Chosen".
- "Lessons" reintroduces the First Evil, this season's Big Bad. The First makes an initial probe of Sunnydale's mettle under Buffy's reign by tormenting Angel in the season three episode, "Amends".
- This episode marks Dawn's first day at Sunnydale High. The First remarks to Spike, "We're going back to the beginning." The first episode of Buffy depicted Buffy's first day at the old Sunnydale High. (This is just one of many references to the old days of Sunnydale High.)
- The character of Principal Wood is introduced, later to be revealed as Nikki Wood's son.
- Having worked at Doublemeat Palace during season six, Buffy is now employed at Sunnydale High, where Principal Wood creates a counseling position for the express purpose of luring the Slayer.
- This episode marks the first time Buffy is seen using a cell phone.
- This is the only episode where Spike and The Master (as The First) are seen together.
- At the end of the episode, except for Buffy, all of the First's appearances are the Big Bads from previous seasons, in reverse chronological order: Warren Mears (Season 6), Glory (Season 5), Adam (Season 4), Mayor Wilkins (Season 3), Drusilla (Season 2), and The Master (season 1).
- In her "intervention" over Anya's lackluster vengeance, Halfrek suggests that it's best they don't talk about "Mr. Czolgosz." This is exceptionally obscure in-joke directed at Jane Espenson, who wrote a joke in Season Four about Anyanka making a male victim fall in love with President McKinley ("Superstar"). Leon Czolgosz assassinated President McKinley. The joke was a little too obscure; Espenson didn't catch it.
- The regaining of Spike's soul is key in the series finale's battle, when Buffy asks him to wear an amulet (brought by Angel in "End of Days") that can only be wielded by someone both ensouled and possessing preternatural strength.
- Error: The First (as Drusilla) touches and moves Spike's hair, however it is made clear later in the season that The First is not corporeal, which means it is unable to physically touch anything.
Music
- Douglas Romayne - "In Westbury Field"
- Douglas Romayne - "Istanbul"
- Douglas Romayne - "Just In Time"
- Douglas Romayne - "Lesson One"
- Strange Radio - "So High". The duo perform the song at The Espresso Pump.
