I know a lot of people who don't like this episode much. |
The school is celebrating the most recent victory of the swim team at the beach, even through it's a bit frigid outside. Xander seems to be a little bit bitter about the swim teams' sudden popularity in light of their recent successes. Buffy is off by herself staring at the waves, when one of the guys on the team, Cameron Walker, comes up and makes conversation with her. He says he likes being around her, but before they get very far Buffy breaks up a pick-fest on Jonathan by the other members of the team. The guys who were torturing Jonathan go off for a walk along the beach, when one of them is apparently attacked by something. The other one, who had walked ahead, smells something reeking and heads back to the bonfire when he can't find his friend. The camera pans down to show the steaming corpse of the kid, and a creature making its way into the sewer system off the beach. In class the next day, Willow's still teaching Jenny Calendar's old computer class. The swim team member from the night before (who left his friend to be attacked......Gage) isn't participating in class. Snyder shows up after class and tries to pressure Willow into revoking Gage's failing mark. Willow tells Xander and Cordelia about Snyder's pressure and Xander thinks it's horribly wrong, while Cordelia thinks that those with better physical attributes and so forth should be cut a little slack elsewhere. Cut to the parking lot where Buffy's getting a ride to school from Cameron.......who won't shut up. Buffy's about ready to call it over before it started with Cameron, when he tries to go further than she'd like. She ends up breaking his nose, and gets a reprimand from Principal Snyder. In the library, Giles tells the gang about the evisceration of the swim team member the night before, and Buffy remarks that the swim team as a whole has been really mean lately. Xander goes to the lounge to get a drink, and runs into Cameron. They spar a little, and Cameron goes into the cafeteria. Inside, he notices a foul smell, and then we hear him scream from outside where Xander's trying to make a drink selection. He runs into the cafeteria, and sees Cameron's skin lying on the floor. When he turns around, an ugly scaly green monster hisses at him, and Xander runs away. In the library, Xander describes what he saw to Cordelia, who sketches it. Cordelia berates him for running away, just as Buffy and Willow enter. They confirm that Buffy's theory is right, that Cameron and Doug (the other dead swim team member) were 1st and 2nd on the swim team, and postulate that Gage will be the next victim. They try to figure out who could be wanting to take out swim team members, and Willow remembers Jonathan from the beach party. Willow questions Jonathan in her classroom, and tries to get him to confess to casting a vengeance spell or something, but he confesses only to peeing in their pool in revenge. Meanwhile, Buffy follows Gage around, keeping an eye on him. Xander overhears the swim team coach and Principal Snyder discuss how they need another member if they want to win the championship. At the Bronze that night, Buffy's still keeping tabs on Gage, but he sees her and she tells him she thinks he's in danger. He doesn't believe her, blows her off, and leaves the Bronze. Outside, Gage encounters Angel, who gets close to him by badmouthing Buffy. He lays the bite on him, but Buffy comes out just in time to see him throw Gage to the ground and spit the blood out of his mouth. He throws Gage at Buffy, and runs away. Gage is suddenly VERY cooperative in letting Buffy watch him. The next day at swim practice, Buffy's still keeping an eye on Gage. She discusses with Willow and Cordelia how she thinks Angel spit Gage's blood out because there were steroids in it. They think that maybe the steroids are attracting the creature. Suddenly Xander shows up in a speedo, having made the swim team. He says it's so he can keep an eye on Gage and the others when Buffy can't. He hangs out with the guys in the steam room for awhile, and leaves Gage in the locker room, tagging Buffy for her turn on his way out. In the locker room, Gage notices an awful smell, then starts screaming. Buffy runs inside to see one of the slimy creatures attacking Gage. She pushes Gage down, then watches in horror as another green slimy thing breaks out of his skin amidst his screams. The two green slimy things block her in between them, and they all fight. The coach comes in, and the monsters dive down into a grate in the floor. In the school nurse's office, Giles questions the coach as to whether or not he gave the boys drugs. He denies it. Buffy and Willow determine that they MUST have been on steroids, and they appoint Xander to find out how, what, when, where and why. Giles and Buffy head to the sewers to try to find the beasts, while Xander hangs out in the steam room with the team again. After rambling for awhile, he finds out that the steroids are in the steam. Elsewhere, the coach and the nurse discuss what's happening to the boys. She wants to stop the treatment, but the coach says they're not lost, just changed. He grabs her and throws her down through a grate in the floor, and she is quickly surrounded by three hungry green slimy things. In the library, Xander worries that now that he's been exposed, he might turn into a creature. Buffy goes to question the coach, and he confesses to drugging the kids so that they'd win the championship. He pulls a gun on Buffy, and forces her to go down the same hole he pushed the nurse through before. She lands in the water below, and realizes that they're down there with her when the coach tells her that the 'boys' have already had their dinner, but they have other needs. By the pool, Xander is obsessed with the idea of turning into a creature and goes off to look in a mirror to see if he's changed. He leaves Cordelia by the pool, and she stands there aimlessly until a creature comes running out of the locker room and jumps in the pool. Thinking it's Xander, she feels that this is her fault, thinking that Xander joined the swim team only to impress her, and now he's a creature. In a sweet moment, she says that she still loves him, and will do whatever she can to improve his quality of life......."whether that means bath toys, or whatever." Just then, Xander comes out and says that the creature's not him, and it surfaces.....sending Xander and Cordelia running. In the library, Giles and Willow have locked all of the remaining human swim team members in the cage. They realize that Buffy never came back, and Xander goes after her. He subdues the coach, and helps Buffy out of the hole in the floor, where she's been down fighting with the creatures. She manages to get out, and then the coach falls into the hole, getting eaten by the creatures. At school the next day, Giles says that there's been no more sign of the creatures; Buffy thinks they've gone home. We cut to the beach where the four creatures are swimming into the ocean amidst the crashing waves. FLAWS: None found. THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE: Okay episode. Nothing big really happens in this one, as far as the big picture goes. Jonathan's back for the ep, and we get a little insight into Cordelia, who cares about Xander a lot more than I think even *she* knew. Also, the scene with Xander in the speedo is hilarious. And ah....back in the day when Xander was actually halfway useful. I miss them. BEST LINE: Angel's. When he encounters Gage outside the Bronze, he tells him that he and Buffy had a "thing" , and it was the worst mistake of his life. Gage: "She thinks she's God's gift, or something." Angel: "Who does she think she is......the chosen one?" Gage: "Exactly" |
"Go Fish" |
I know a lot of people who don't like this episode much. |
