Anne (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode)

Infobox Television episode
Title=Anne


Series=Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season=3
Episode=1
Airdate=29 September 1998
Production=3ABB01
Writer=Joss Whedon
Director=Joss Whedon
Episode list=List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes
Prev=Becoming, Part Two
Next=Dead Man's Party

"Anne" is the first episode of season 3 of the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Plot synopsis

ummary

After the events ending Season 2 where in Buffy kills Angel and sends him to a Hell dimension to suffer, Buffy runs away from home and everybody she knew. She ends up in Los Angeles, working as a waitress using the name Anne (her middle name) instead of Buffy. In the city, she refuses to do anything related to her Slayer past and is mostly moping around between work and home. One day working at the diner, she sees a girl who recognizes her. This girl, named Lily, was saved from being eaten by Spike's gang of vampires in Season 2's episode "Lie to Me". Buffy denies it, trying to forget her past. Buffy's past, though, isn't so easily forgotten, as soon Lily needs her help searching for her missing boyfriend. In the search for the boyfriend and then Lily, Buffy stumbles onto an organization of demons who kidnap runaways and take them into their dimension. In this dimension, time runs differently, in that years pass there, but only hours or days pass in the real world. Buffy leads the slaves in rebellion, rekindling the fire that made her the Slayer. In the end, she gives her apartment and the name "Anne" to Lily, and goes home to her mother and friends to face her past.

Expanded overview

Back in Sunnydale, lacking a Slayer, the Scooby gang tries to temporarily take her place. They attempt to slay, but they're just not the Slayer. Meanwhile, Buffy has taken up residence somewhere else where she's living in a tiny apartment and working as a waitress at a diner, Helen's Kitchen. She dreams about being on the beach and Angel finds her. He tells her, "I'll never leave. Not even if you kill me." She then wakes up.

The next day, school starts in Sunnydale and Willow finds disappointment when Oz tells her that since he didn't graduate and didn't go to summer school, so now he's stuck repeating the 12th grade with her. She doesn't know what to think about it. Giles continues his search to find Buffy, following all the leads he has, only to be disappointed by them. Xander and Cordy, having been away from each other all summer long, both look forward to seeing one another, but seem to have forgotten how to talk together.

While working in Helen's Kitchen, Buffy finds herself subjected to sexual harassment by a couple of guys she waits on, and encounters two homeless teens, Lily and Rickie looking for a meal for the minor change they have. After recognizing the girl as vampire-wannabe Chantarelle, Buffy leaves the diner, claiming to not be feeling well and heads to her apartment where she just sits, staring at a can of food. While Buffy is still alone and roams the streets in search of solidarity, Giles returns from his failed search to talk to Mrs. Summers. She's afraid to leave the house in case Buffy calls or shows up. Giles tries to comfort her and tells her not to blame herself. She doesn't -- instead, she blames him for taking her little girl away and having a secret life with her, revealing that she is still not quite able to deal with Buffy's destiny.

Xander, Willow, and Oz mope at the Bronze, listening to the music of BellyLove and talking about how terrible their slaying technique is. Xander suggests they use bait... Cordelia. That night, Lily a.k.a. Chantarelle, finds Buffy on the street and they discuss their previous lives. Lily asks Buffy if she has any money and wants to go to a rave. Buffy says she wants to be alone, but is willing to give Lily the money to go spend with Rickie. An old man walks past them rudely and then stops in the middle of the street as an oncoming car drives towards him. Buffy rushes out and pushes him out of the way, only to be hit by the car instead. People gather around her and try to call for help, but she claims to be fine and runs off. She runs into a guy, named Ken, who's passing out flyers about a group home and knocks all of his flyers to the ground. As they pick them up, he tries to make friends with her and get her to visit the home. She declines, claiming she is just fine.

At the Sunnydale Cemetery, Cordelia complains about being chosen as the bait. Oz checks to make sure everyone is "packing" with stakes and crosses and they all move to a hiding spot. Cordy follows after Xander and attempts to tell him that she didn't miss him over the summer and accuses him of having a summer fling. Just then, a vampire comes up from behind Willow and attacks her. Oz knocks the vamp off and attempts to stake it, but is thrown off. Xander tries too, then Cordelia tackles the vampire and all three go down to the ground, the stake impaling the vampire and leaving Cordy on top of Xander. The two kiss passionately.

Lily goes to Buffy the next day, telling her that Rickie is gone and that she's worried something's happened. She's looking for Buffy's help. They go to the blood bank that day to see if they had seen Rickie. Lily and Rickie went there before to get some money... and cookies. The nurse says she hasn't seen him, and Buffy leaves with Lily to go search elsewhere for Rickie. Buffy finds him dead on the streets, after drinking drain cleaner, with one problem: he appears to be about eighty years old.

When Buffy tells Lily, she doesn't take it well and leaves. When she hits the streets, Ken finds her and convinces her into coming to the family home, telling her that Rickie was already with them, and not dead. At the blood bank, Buffy goes searching through the files, trying to find out what happened to Rickie. The woman shows up and after Buffy makes it very difficult for her not to cooperate, she says that she just gives the names of the healthy ones to them.

Meanwhile, Ken has gotten Lily to change clothes for the "cleansing" and leads her into another room. After a failed attempt to go in undercover, Buffy just kicks down the door and finds Ken with Lily over an icky pool of black, viscous liquid. However, it's too late for Lily; she's already been sucked in. Buffy tries to save her, but Ken tries to keep her out. Instead, both fall through the black pool and into another dimension where time flows at a different rate. Ken reveals himself as a demon of some sort with a human face glued on, and sends his guards after the girls. The two are quickly caught and told that they will be living there for as long as they can serve as useful slaves. In this dimension, time runs differently, in that decades pass there, but only hours or days pass in the real world. Slaves who are too old to work are returned to their former dimension to die on the streets.

When the opportunity presents itself, Buffy reveals herself and fights off all the demons. After many rounds, she is stopped when Ken holds Lily at knifepoint. When he is distracted by a lecture he's presenting to Buffy, Lily pushes him off the platform and he falls. Buffy tries to escape with all the others through a large iron gate. As she tries to get underneath while holding the heavy gate up, Ken pushes her through and in turn, gets impaled by the stakes on the gate. Buffy smashes in his head with a well-timed quip about Gandhi. After Buffy returns with all the others, the black pool disappears.

After giving Lily her identity as "Anne," Buffy leaves and heads back to Sunnydale. Back at home, Buffy's mom opens the door to find her daughter on the front steps. After a few moments, they hug.

Acting

tarring

*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
*Seth Green as Oz
*and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest starring

*Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
*Julia Lee as Lily (previously named Chanterelle)
*Carlos Jacott as Ken
*Mary-Pat Green as Blood Bank Doctor
*Chad Todhunter as Rickie

Co-starring

*Larry Bagby as Larry Blaisdell (as Larry Bagby III)
*James Lurie as Teacher
*Michael Leopard as Roughneck
*Harley Zumbrum as Demon Guard
*Barbara Pilavin as Old Woman
*Harrison Young as Old Man
*Alex Toma as Aaron
*Dell Yount as Truck Guy

Writing

Social issues covered by this episode include teenage runaways and sweatshops. The issue of relative time is present in stories about Heaven or Hell across cultures as well as in science (theory of relativity).

Season 3 will offer a resolution to the Buffy/Angel relationship twice, the first time interrupted by Angel's surprise return. It is the last season for which Joss Whedon's attention was not divided between "Buffy" and other projects.

Production details

Music

* Bellylove - "Back to Freedom"
* Christophe Beck - "Deliverance"

Translations

* Italian title: "Identità segreta" ("Secret identity")
* German title: "Anne, Gefangen in der Unterwelt" ("Anne, Captured in the Underworld")
* French title: "Anne"
* Japanese title: "アン" ("An" - "Anne")
* Spanish title: "Anne"

Trivia

* Guest star Carlos Jacott, who played Ken is one of only four actors to appear on "Buffy", "Angel", and "Firefly". He appeared in "Bachelor Party", the seventh episode of the first season of "Angel", and in the pilot episode of "Firefly", "Serenity".

Continuity

Arc significance

* This episode shows Buffy missing in action from the others in the core four.
* Lily's character first appeared as Chantarelle in "Lie to Me". She adopts Buffy's persona at the end of this episode. "Anne" would later appear on the spin-off "Angel" as a social worker, helping Angel on a couple of occasions.
* This episode is the first time the Scoobies are shown patrolling as a team sans Slayer. They will be required to do this several more times throughout the series, most significantly at the beginning of Season 6.

Timing

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

External links

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Reviews

* [http://www3.sympatico.ca/jenoff/btvs301.htm Peripheral Visions Review]
* [http://www.section31.com/guideextras.php?id=173 Section 31 Review]
* [http://tv.swingthesickle.com/ststv/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer/Season_3/01.review Swing the Sickle Review]