SURPRISE (BUFFY EPISODE)

"'Surprise'" is Episode 13 in Season 2 of the television series, ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. See also List of ''Buffy'' (series) episodes.

Contents

Plot outline

Summary

Expanded overview

Acting

Starring

Guest Starring

Special Guest Star

Writing

Arc significance

Continuity

Cultural references

Production details

Music

Trivia

Translations

Technical goofs

Timing

External links

Plot outline

Summary

Buffy has a vivid dream (a very undead Drusilla dusts Angel) which she fears is prophetic. Willow remembers why she can't go on a date with Oz and invites him instead to the surprise party the Scoobies are planning for Buffy's 17th birthday. Elsewhere, Dru, strong as Buffy dreamed, arranges her own gala event, while Spike, confined to a wheelchair but quite undead as well, directs his gang to collect scattered pieces of the demon Judge to reassemble for her present. The Scoobies deduce the plot when Buffy and Jenny Calendar intercept one of the pieces. Following secret Gypsy orders to separate Angel from the Slayer, Jenny encourages Angel on his mission to prevent the dire consequences of reassembly—he must take the Judge's arm by cargo ship to "the remotest region possible." While Angel gives Buffy a Claddagh ring for her birthday during their tearful parting at the dock, Spike's vamps manage to steal the arm back, scrubbing the mission. Later at the library, Buffy has another informative dream, and takes Angel to investigate the factory where Spike and Dru have their lair. They narrowly escape the now fully assembled and activated Judge, then return to Angel's apartment exhausted and drenched. Still suffering from successive threats of losing one another, Angel and Buffy confess feelings each has been trying to suppress. They make love for the first time and fall asleep in each other's arms. Suddenly, in a flash of lightening and a crash of thunder, Angel bolts awake and runs out into the storm, calling Buffy's name in anguish.

Expanded overview

Buffy tosses in her sleep, then wakes up thirsty, but the water glass by her bed is empty. Seeming unaware that Drusilla silently follows, she carries her glass down the hall to find that her bathroom is really The Bronze. Buffy moves through the crowd of people dancing in slow motion, sees Willow speaking French to an organ-grinder's monkey, then encounters her mother who asks, "Do you really think you're ready, Buffy?" before the saucer she holds drops to the floor and smashes. As Joyce turns away, Buffy moves back into the crush, then turns herself, smiling at something she sees behind her. The crowd has parted and Angel is slowly coming toward her, quietly smiling as well. Suddenly, Drusilla steps up behind Angel and stakes him in the back. Angel, his face a mask of agony, reaches toward Buffy's reaching hand, but his fingers sift to dust before they can touch. In vamp-face, Drusilla says, "Happy birthday, Buffy," and Buffy wakes with a gasp.
Angel answers a knock at his door to find a distraught Buffy wanting to see with her own eyes that he's all right. Hearing that she dreamed Drusilla was still alive and killed him "right in front of her," Angel tries to comfort Buffy, to reason with her, but when her anxiety only seems to escalate, he simply kisses her. Totally diverted, Buffy melts into his arms and their embrace deepens until the Slayer reluctantly pulls away, saying she needs to get to school. Caught himself, Angel agrees she must, then catches her and kisses her again. Feigning resolve, Buffy moves toward the door while Angel stalks her, corners her, and kisses her yet again. At the neck-kissing stage, Angel comes to his senses a little. Struggling for control, he reminds Buffy to tell him what she'd like for a gift. After a moment, she says, "Surprise me." Angel gives her a crooked little smile, murmurs "Okay, I will," and gently kisses her one last time. Buffy sighs and confesses that it's becoming harder to say goodbye, no matter whose bedtime it is. Staring intently into her eyes, Angel agrees.
Walking across school grounds a little later, Buffy tells Willow all. The two friends wonder whether Buffy is ready to take her relationship with Angel to the next level and Willow is awed to hear that Buffy believes it's "sort of inevitable." They spot Oz. Buffy encourages Willow to go talk to him, then continues on her way. Transparently delighted when Oz asks her out, Willow remembers with chagrin that the Scoobies are throwing Buffy a surprise birthday party the following night. Oz is delighted in turn (in mellow Oz fashion) when Willow invites him to go as her date. Inside at their lockers, Xander tries to suggest that Cordelia be his date to the party, since they'll both be going anyway, but she still doesn't want anyone to know about their relationship. Xander stalks away and runs into Giles, then Buffy and Ms Calendar. The four of them take a table in the lounge area, but Xander doesn't stay long. With Jenny a silent auditor, Buffy fills Giles in about her nightmare and her fears for Angel. Unlike Angel, Giles concedes that Buffy's dream could be a portent, but insists they can protect Angel in any case. Buffy, still worried, goes off to class. Meanwhile, Spike, confined to a wheelchair and recovering slowly from his injuries, tries to talk Dru into having her party in Vienna to escape further interference from Angel and the Slayer. In contrast, Drusilla seems both entirely cured by the interrupted ritual using Angel's blood and completely unscathed by the ensuing disaster in the church. Nor does she share Spike's emotional distress, dismissing his request to leave "cursed" Sunnydale and continuing to decorate their lair for the upcoming event. When Dru begins to fuss over the flowers, however, Spike indulges her with a peek into one of her presents. "It reeks of death," she purrs, then slams the box shut.
The next morning, her birthday, Buffy playfully tells her mom she suddenly feels "responsible, mature and level-headed" enough to become a licensed driver, to which Joyce replies with a wry, "Uncanny." But when Buffy continues to plead, she is stunned to hear her mother ask, "Do you really think you're ready, Buffy?" and to watch a plate slip from Joyce's fingers and shatter on the kitchen floor, eerily echoing details from her recent nightmare. Before class, Jenny arranges her desk and is surprised by a strange visitor, who turns out to be her Uncle Enyos, come to remind her that she is Janna of the Kalderash people and must still fulfill her Gypsy obligations. She has been sent to Sunnydale to make sure Angel's curse remains intact, but the Gypsy elder woman can sense that Angel's pain is lessening. When Jenny reluctantly reports that "there's a girl" in Angel's life, her uncle lectures her about the purpose of Angel's curse as cruel vengeance for killing their tribe's "most beloved daughter," then charges Jenny with the task of separating Angel from his beloved Slayer. Meanwhile, in the library, Buffy tells Giles, Willow and Xander that her dream is coming true. Giles agrees that a mad, powerful, undead Drusilla could pose a substantial threat and promises to spend the day further researching Dru's history for any clue to her activities or whereabouts. Buffy listlessly agrees to return at 7:00 that evening, and wanders away to keep herself occupied until then. Willow and Xander conclude that the current crisis puts the kibosh on their party plans, but Giles insists they celebrate regardless.
That night, Jenny intercepts Buffy returning to the library, saying that Giles has changed the plan and wants to meet her somewhere else. Buffy, making no comment on Jenny's awkwardness, accepts her offer of a ride. Recognizing that they are near The Bronze, Buffy suddenly spots vampire activity around a truck backed up to a well-lit loading dock. Despite Jenny's demurral, Buffy dutifully goes to slay them while Jenny, seeming truly bewildered by the situation, waits in the car. Buffy recognizes the bespectacled Dalton from Spike's crew, but only has time for one taunt before the fight is on. She stakes one of the other vamps and, while she engages with the third, Dalton runs away—empty handed. As Angel and the Scoobies hide and wait impatiently for their guest of honor to arrive, Buffy and the last vamp struggle hand-to-hand, then crash through a smoky window into what turns out to be the very back room at The Bronze where her friends are just wondering if they should investigate sounds of battle coming from outside. With the struggle abruptly inside, Oz—getting his first exposure to slayage as Buffy dusts her opponent with a handy drumstick—negotiates an abrupt expansion of his worldview with Oz-like equanimity. While the friends bring each other current, Jenny (apparently truly detailed by the gang to ferry Buffy to the party) brings in the oddly-shaped crate left behind by Spike's vamps. Buffy, Angel and Giles immediately open it. Inside, to the puzzlement of all, they find an armored, gauntleted, severed arm, which promptly comes alive and tries to strangle the Slayer. After prying Buffy loose, Angel explains his grim suspicion that Dru is attempting to bring back a powerful demon called the Judge, whose purpose is to rid the world of "the plague of humanity" by "burning the righteous down," leaving only evil demons alive. Recognizing Angel's account, Giles further explains that the Judge could not be killed, even by an entire army, and was only neutralized by being dismembered, with the pieces scattered to "every corner of the earth." Angel warns that if Spike and Dru succeed, reassembling the Judge will "bring forth Armageddon." Immediately, Giles says they must get the arm out of town and Jenny quickly chimes in, "Angel should go." Without thought or hesitation, Angel accepts the mission to take the Judge's arm to "the remotest region possible," a trip that could take months. Buffy is frantic. Jenny tells Angel, "I'll drive you to the docks."
Back at their lair, Dru threatens to poke out Dalton's eyes for losing her present, but Spike convinces her to give the hapless scholar one more chance to find it again. Leaving Jenny to wait in the car, Buffy walks Angel up a dock to the pier where a tramp freighter lies at anchor. Neither of them is able to hold back tears when he gives her the claddagh ring he chose for her gift. Buffy pleads with Angel to stay, but he hushes her, urging her not to dwell on the time they'll be apart or the dangers they'll each certainly face. When their slow goodbye kiss breaks, Angel begins to say something else, but at that moment, vamps attack. In the ensuing fight, Buffy is thrown bodily off the pier and Angel leaps into the water after her, leaving Dalton and two more vamp thugs to make away with the box containing the Judge's arm.
With the armageddon-out-of-town mission a bust, the gang (minus Oz and Cordelia) congregates back at the library to research a way to find Dru and stop the Judge. Knowing she hasn't been sleeping well lately, the others let Buffy rest in Giles' office, where she slips into a dream of a huge, dim interior containing candles, greenery and, oddly, Jenny Calendar. Wearing a long white satin nightgown, the dreaming Slayer bends to examine a collection of variously-shaped boxes that seem to contain other pieces of the Judge. At that moment, Drusilla calls to her from the catwalk above, where she holds a strangely quiescent Angel hostage. When Dru presses a huge, curved dagger to Angel's throat, Buffy yells and wakes. She is only slightly comforted to find Angel sitting right beside her, safe and undead—so far. Back at the lair, Dru's party gets underway and Spike presents her with the final piece to the puzzle, the Judge's head. When the last box is in place, the whole structure glows from within and opens down the middle, revealing the enormous, blue-skinned horned demon inside. The Judge totters a bit when he steps from his reassembled coffin, and Spike, reaching out to tap the armor breastplate, confronts the demon about his murky intentions and weakened condition. Eager to see some action, Dru offers the Judge a "party favor." The demon chooses Dalton, who apparently still retains some vestige of humanity, and burns the long-suffering vamp to ash. Dru is wildly excited by the show. Buffy, recognizing the factory location of the vampire lair from her dream, takes Angel on a recon mission, sending the others to various transport locales, just in case the final pieces of the Judge have yet to arrive. At the factory, Buffy and Angel sneak along the catwalk and see Spike and Drusilla entertaining their guests below, among whom is a huge blue demon. Just as they realize what they are seeing, the Judge becomes aware of their presence. Buffy and Angel are immediately captured and brought before the Judge, Spike and Dru, but manage to break free before the Judge can kill them. Together, they escape through the sewers and emerge above ground in the pouring rain. Then, still alive, still together, they hold hands and run for the nearest shelter.
Angel sheds his dripping coat as soon as they reach his apartment. To alleviate her uncontrollable shaking, he brings Buffy some dry clothes and urges her to get under the covers "just to get warm." Seeming unwilling to let her out of arm's reach, Angel dutifully turns his back as she changes, but starts at her audible wince. Sitting on the bed to inspect the small cut on her back, Angel tenderly slips the camisole strap from her shoulder and, his voice husky, tells her it's already healing. Then he falls silent and still. Unable to resist his proximity, Buffy shivers and leans back, tucking herself into his embrace. In this relative safety, with nowhere else immediately to be, and in reaction to all the stressful events of the past two days, the Slayer quietly begins to weep. Heartbroken, clearly desiring her, Angel simply holds her. Struggling to express her deepest fear, Buffy says, "You almost went away today." Shaken, Angel replies, "We both did." When he tries again to tell her what he wanted to say on the docks, Buffy sits up and turns to face him in anticipation. "I love you," he confesses, and his voice breaks a little. "I try not to, but I can't stop." Helplessly, she tells him she feels the same way, then passionately kisses him through her tears. Uneasy, Angel pulls back long enough to murmur, "Buffy, maybe we shouldn't ... ," but Buffy puts her finger to his lips and tells him, "Don't. Just kiss me." She feels Angel give himself over to her desire as he slowly sinks backward beneath her. Some time later, they lie asleep side by side, Buffy's arm over his chest. Suddenly, Angel sits up with a gasp, then struggles from the bed, all the while thunder and lightening crash outside. Somehow he dresses and stumbles out to the alley, where he collapses in agony, crying Buffy's name. Inside, the Slayer sleeps undisturbed, never hearing as Angel calls her name over and over into the pouring dark.

Acting

Starring

★ 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

★ and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

★ Seth Green as Oz

★ Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers

★ Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar

★ Brian Thompson as The Judge

★ Eric Saiet as Dalton

★ Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall ( credited in some aired versions only )

Special Guest Star

★ Vincent Schiavelli as Uncle Enios

★ James Marsters as Spike

★ Juliet Landau as Drusilla

Writing

Arc significance

★ This episode begins a tradition of Buffy birthdays gone awry, although Buffy does not celebrate her birthday on-screen in the final season.

★ Several important plot-lines begin in this episode. Oz and Willow have their first date, commencing one of the longest relationships on the show. Angel is transformed into Angelus, becoming the Big Bad of season two. Spike and Dru are established as worthy adversaries, allowing for Spike's eventual return appearances in seasons three and four, and for his permanent membership as regular cast for seasons five, six and seven.

★ Buffy's birthday gift from Angel, her claddagh ring, not only comes to signify her lost love for the rest of season two, but also plays an important part in the beginning of season three, first as a resonant antecedent to Scott Hope's impromptu gift, and then as a mystical focus for Angel's return from Acathla's hell dimension.

★ Obviously, Buffy loses her virginity at episode's end. In retrospect, this could make her first dream prescient on a symbolic level as well. In addition to referring to Buffy's ongoing driver's license campaign, dream-Joyce could stand in for Buffy herself, seriously wondering whether she is "responsible, mature and level-headed" enough to take her relationship with Angel to the next level. Also, while losing her virginity does not in fact cause Angel to lose his soul (it just seems that way), dream-Drusilla could represent another psychological stand-in for Buffy—as Angel's destroyer. Going forward, Buffy's feelings of grief and guilt inform her actions for the remainder of season two, particularly in the next episode, "Innocence", where she is unable to slay Angelus (a decision that has harrowing consequences), and in "Becoming, Part Two", where she again destroys her beloved Angel, not by mistake as here, but with full understanding and intent. Her successive losses of Angel, both inadvertent and intentional, also set the emotional tone for the first half of season three, at least.

Continuity

★ Carpe diem: Buffy's advice to Willow in the series pilot, "Welcome to the Hellmouth", which almost has catastrophic consequences for her soon-to-be best friend, foreshadows the disastrous results of Buffy's attempt to "seize the day" in this episode, most of a year later.

★ In the first dream, Willow says "L'hippo a piqué ton pantalon," which means, "The hippo stole your pants" in French, while speaking to the monkey. This refers back to her conversation with Oz near the end of "What's My Line, Part Two," in which, intentionally absurd, he wonders if the hippo animal cracker is jealous of the fact that the monkey is the only animal cracker with pants, as well as asserting that, "All monkeys are French." Buffy is not shown to have witnessed this conversation, which lends credence to her fear that this dream is prophetic, yielding real information about things ''outside'' her direct experience to date.

Cultural references

★ 'Snakes-in-a-can': As usual, Xander has no idea of the deeper import of his anxious wisecracking. Yes, there's a scary surprise when the gang opens the box containing the Judge's arm, and an even nastier surprise when Spike and Dru open the Judge's custom-built coffin. But the really cruel kicker comes when Buffy opens her true birthday present—Angel.

★ 'Denny's': Xander's fantasy harks back to Cordelia's repeated predictions that he himself is slated for a brilliant career as a pizza delivery boy. More importantly, it foreshadows Buffy's harrowing stint as a Doublemeat Palace employee.

Production details

Music

★ Christophe Beck - "Buffy-Angel Love Theme"

★ Christophe Beck - "Escape"

★ Christophe Beck - "Moment of Happiness"

★ Clement & Murray - "Anything"

★ Rasputina - "Transylvanian Concubine"

Trivia

★ Brian Thompson, who played the Judge, also played Luke in "Welcome to the Hellmouth." Both episodes were two-parters in which his character died in the second part.

★ Together with "Innocence," the show transitioned from Mondays to Tuesdays. This was the last episode to be played on a Monday—all subsequent episodes aired on Tuesday.

Translations

★ French title: "Innocence (1/2)" ("Innocence")

★ Italian title: "Sorpresa" ("Surprise")

★ German title: "Der Fluch der Zigeuner" ("The Curse of the Gypsies")

★ Japanese title: "誕生日の贈り物" ("Tanjōbi no Okurimono" - "Birthday Present")

Technical goofs

Timing

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

External links

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★ Buffy World summary

★ Buffy Guide

★ Buffy formula, explaining "the big bad" and "the little bad" concepts

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★ TV Tome