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We open at tryouts for a talent show being held at Sunnydale High.  Giles has been forced to handle the show by the new Principal, Snyder.  (Quark, from Deep Space Nine).  The Scooby Gang laughs at his prediciment, but Principal Snyder overhears them and forces them to 'volunteer' for the talent show.  One of the tryouts, a guy named Morgan with a Dummy named Sid, turns in a surprisingly good ventrilaquist act.  Meanwhile, in the locker room, a girl is murdered and her heart is taken.  Giles tells the gang about it, and they deduce that the girl was killed by a human, as the murderer used a knife.  They split up and interview the talent show kids to see who spoke to her last.  The figure out that it was Morgan, and also that he's been acting "really weird", holding his head and moaning and stuff. Later, Buffy goes to question Morgan, and finds him talking to Sid all alone in the auditorium.  Sid yells at Buffy's questions, and Morgan asserts that it's Sid who's mad, not Morgan.  She tells Giles her suspicions, but he says "the show must go on", or else Principal Snyder will get suspicious of them.  Buffy goes to check Morgan's locker, but the Principal catches her and makes her leave.  From across the hall, Morgan and Sid watch. Back in the auditorium, Morgan is having an argument with Sid.  Sid is urging Morgan to kill Buffy...but Morgan doesn't want to.   Sid insists "you saw how strong she is...she's the one.  Just one more and I'll be free."    Morgan still says no, but Sid says "Then I will".  At home, Buffy turns in for bed, but wakes up in the dark to hear something scurrying around on the floor.  She tells Giles and the gang about it at school the next day, convinced it was Sid, but they think she imagined it. Giles says that he may have found a possible demon culprit.  He says that there's this group of demons who every seven years must take a brain and a heart, or else they revert back to their original form.  Giles says Morgan doesn't fit, because the demons are supposed to be really strong, whereas Morgan seems to be getting weaker every day. In class, Buffy is unnerved when Sid seems to turn around and stare at her on his own volition.  Morgan is distracted by the puppet, and the teacher takes it away and puts it up in a cabinet.  Later, Morgan comes back to get Sid, but he's already vanished from the cabinet.  Morgan freaks out.  Cut to the library, where Xander has gone with Sid.  Buffy takes off to go talk to Morgan alone, Giles and Willow are "once again banished to the demon section of the card catalogue", and Xander keeps an eye on Sid.  Not a very good eye, however, for Sid is gone before you know it, and Xander's up on the table in a show of manliness.  Backstage, Snyder comes across Buffy looking for Morgan...he warns her that it might not be safe to be wandering around by herself, but Buffy tells him she can take care of herself.  He leaves, and Buffy finds Morgan's body...which is missing a brain.  Suddenly a chandelier is dropped on Buffy from above, and she's trapped underneath it.  She hears and sees Sid running around alongside her, and he's got a knife.  He tries to stab her a few times, but Buffy manages to get out from underneath the chandelier, and pins Sid.  They both accuse each other of having taken the heart and the brain, and realize they're hunting for the same demon.  Back in the library, Sid explains that he was once a demon hunter, but was cursed to live inside the dummy...and he can't be free until he kills all seven of the demons.  He's killed six.  He also tells them that he'd thought she was the demon he was after. Giles realizes he's supposed to be at the talent show, and gets all of the students out on stage so that Sid and Buffy (who are sitting on the catwalk above) can see who's missing.  Nobody appears to be missing, however, and Sid disappears. Backstage, Giles encounters Principal Snyder, but the Principal leaves without saying anything.  Buffy is looking for Sid, but finds Morgan's brain, instead.  While Giles is running the show,  Willow does a search on the computer and finds out that Morgan was one of the smartest guys in school, but had brain cancer, and was dying.  They deduce from this that his brain was not satisfactory to the demon, and he's still out looking for one.  They come to the realization that Giles, as one of the smartest guys around, was in danger, and rush to the show (which is about to start) to help.  Meanwhile, Giles is helping one of the students in his guillotine routine...surprise, that student is the demon.  Buffy shows up just in time, and they battle.  Xander catches the rope just as the guillotine is about to slice Giles's head open.  Willow frees Giles, and Sid shows up and stabs the demon while Buffy holds him.  The demon ends up falling on the guillotine, and getting his head cut off.  Sid stabs the demon through the heart to end it, and he is "free"...meaning that he can now be dead in peace.  Buffy picks up Sid's body, and and just then the curtain opens.  The audience looks on at the beheaded monster, Willow holding an axe, and Buffy cradling a dummy.  Principal Snyder is confused. Flaws: A big one, that the show totally doesn't deal with.  On the day of the talent show...just hours before, in fact, Morgan is killed and his body is found backstage.  We never see any cops...school is not cancelled, and the talent show continues.  What's the deal?  Thoughts on the Episode:  I thought this was a decent episode.  No real big plot or anything...but it was nice eye-candy.  We're introduced to Principal Snyder...indeed, he seems to be a highly suspicious character.  Combined with his actions in "School Hard", we were all left wondering exactly WHAT Principal Snyder was, and what he was up to.  Unfortunately, they never really developed that.  More on that in the synpsis of "School Hard".  One other thing I felt they totally ignored:  why did Sid team up with Morgan in the first place? Best Line:   Principal Snyder:  "My predecessor Mr. Flutie may have gone in for all of that touchy-feely relating nonsense, but he was eaten; you're in my world now.  And Sunnydale has touched and felt for the last time."

"The Puppet Show"

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