Helpless (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode)
From Iwe
| "Helpless" | |||
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 12 | ||
| Directed by | James A. Contner | ||
| Written by | David Fury | ||
| Production code | 3ABB12 | ||
| Original air date | January 19, 1999 | ||
| Guest actors | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
| ← Previous "Gingerbread" | Next → "The Zeppo" | ||
| List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes | |||
"Helpless" is the twelfth episode of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Contents |
Plot synopsis
Buffy and Angel spar until Buffy pins him and holds a breadstick to his heart. They talk, and Buffy reveals her plans to go to an ice show with her father for her 18th birthday. That night in the library, Giles is quizzing her on crystals and having her concentrate on staring at them, a practice known as Crystal gazing. Later, on patrol, Buffy's strength suddenly deserts her and she is nearly killed by a vampire with her own stake.
Buffy's worried about her powers, and talks to Giles about it while trying to throw knives at a target but missing terribly. Meanwhile, Quentin Travers, the head Watcher, is setting up a "test" for the Slayer, assisted by two men named Hobson and Blair. She is to be locked in a building, without any powers, and defeat Zachary Kralik, a powerful and insane vampire. Giles urges Travers to stop the test, but it does no good. At home, Buffy is disappointed to find that her father can't come and take her to the ice show for her birthday. While she tries to get Giles to take her to the ice show, Giles has Buffy stare into a crystal where she then falls into a trance. He injects her with a mysterious substance in a syringe.
After Cordelia fights off an aggressive suitor who had knocked Buffy down, Buffy really begins to worry, and enlists the help of her friends to figure out what's wrong. Buffy visits Angel and he gives her a book for her birthday (Sonnets From the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning). She tries to sound enthusiastic about it, but losing her powers has really begun to bother her. He tells her about how he saw her before she was the Slayer and how he loved her from the second he first saw her. Kralik has the chance to break out of his strait jacket while Blair is getting his pills and water. He then turns Blair into a vampire and when he wakes up, he completely frees Kralik from his restraints.
Giles goes to find Quentin at the Sunnydale Arms building, but instead finds Kralik missing and Hobson dead. Buffy, walking home alone, is confronted by two apparently drunk men looking for a lap dance and then by Kralik. Blair chases her until Giles drives by and picks her up. At the Summers' home, Joyce hears a noise out front and goes to check it out where she then finds Kralik wrapped up in Buffy's jacket. Giles tells Buffy that she's lost her strength due to the injections of muscle relaxant he'd been giving her, and about the rite of passage. Buffy is very angry and tells him she doesn't know him anymore, and he should stay away from her. Cordelia shows up and drives Buffy home, where she then finds a picture of her mother in the hands of Kralik, tied to a chair and gagged.
Buffy goes to the Sunnydale Arms building, beats Blair into unconsciousness and then is chased by Kralik until his need for his pills becomes unbearable. Buffy steals them away, and slides down a laundry chute where she finds her mother tied to a chair and gagged. Kralik breaks through the door and grabs his pills from Buffy, washing them down with a nearby glass –which Buffy had filled with holy water, causing him to burn from within. With Kralik destroyed, Buffy frees her mother. Giles arrives and stakes Blair.
Back at the library, Quentin congratulates Buffy on her accomplishment, and then Buffy tells Quentin that he better be gone by the time she gets her powers back. Quentin tells Giles that he's fired because he's grown too close with the Slayer; his relationship with her is as more of a father than a Watcher. He tells Buffy that a new Watcher will be assigned to her and warns Giles not to interfere before finally leaving. Buffy, grateful that Giles lost his job for her, allows him to tend her wounds. The next day, Buffy celebrates her birthday with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and her close friends. When Buffy, minus her strength, can't open the peanut butter jar, Xander offers to help, but he can't do it either.
Production details
This story had the working title "18" as it is set around Buffy's eighteenth birthday.
Continuity
- Whilst Buffy and Angel are talking, Buffy mentions Mr. Pointy, the Stake Kendra gave to her in Becoming, Part One, before she is killed by Drusilla.
Arc significance
- Buffy is disappointed by both of her father figures in this episode. Her father breaks their tradition of attending the ice show, and Giles betrays her trust (which he accused her of doing to him, regarding Angel's return to Earth, back in "Revelations").
- Giles reveals his now parental feelings towards Buffy.
- Buffy begins to rebel against the Council, culminating in her decision to operate outside their authority. The separation of Council and Slayer - and Giles' own situation with the Council - will not be resolved until "Checkpoint".
- Quentin Travers, leader of the Watchers Council, is seen for the first time. He will reappear several times, usually in opposition to Buffy's methods and activities.
- This episode marks the beginning of Buffy's father's estrangement.
- The 12th or 13th episode of each season is traditionally when Buffy celebrates her birthday; her birthday takes place in episode 13 of Season Two ("Surprise"), episode 12 of Season Four ("A New Man"), episode 13 of Season Five ("Blood Ties") and episode 14 of Season Six ("Older and Far Away"). Buffy's birthday is not shown celebrated in Season One (it presumably occurred before the beginning of the half-long season) or in Season Seven.
- At the end of the episode Buffy has a huge slash across her forehead, but later she does not have a scar.
Trivia
During this episode, Kralik (played by Jeff Kober) leaves a polaroid of Buffy's mother at her house to lure Buffy into a trap. In an episode of Charmed titled "The Power of Two", Prue and Phoebe leave a polaroid photograph to lure a ghost (also played by Jeff Kober) into a trap. Jeff Kober also plays the warlock Rack in Season Six. In the scene where Buffy is first depicted losing her powers while fighting a vampire he is killed leaping onto her stake. It is nearly identical to her "first" kill, shown in Angel's Los Angeles flashback involving Buffy from "Becoming"
References
External links
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer | ||
|---|---|---|
| Canon • Index • Joss Whedon | ||
| Series | Film • Television • (Episodes • 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7) • Comics (Season Eight • Season Nine) • Buffyverse canon | |
| Main characters | Buffy • Willow • Xander • Cordelia • Giles • Angel • Spike • Oz • Anya • Tara • Dawn • Riley | |
| Major villains | The Master • Drusilla • Angelus • The Mayor • Adam • Glory • The Trio • Dark Willow • The First | |
| Spin-offs | Angel • Fray • Tales of the Slayers • Tales of the Vampires • Buffy the Animated Series | |
| Expanded universe | Novels • Undeveloped productions • Video games | |
| Auxiliary | Academia • CCG • DVDs • Guidebooks • In popular culture • Magazines • Music • RPGs | |
| Universe | Big Bads • Hellmouth • Main characters • Minor characters • Monsters • • Scooby Gang • Sunnydale • Vampire | |
