What's My Line, Part One

Infobox Television episode
Title=What's My Line, Part One


Series=Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season=2
Episode=9
Airdate=November 17 1997
Production=5V09
Writer=Howard Gordon and Marti Noxon
Director=David Solomon
Episode list=List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes
Prev=The Dark Age
Next=What's My Line, Part Two

"What's My Line, Part One" is episode 9 of season 2 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". In this episode, Buffy endures Career Week at school as a fierce fighter who identifies herself as "Kendra, the Vampire Slayer" shows up in Sunnydale. See also List of "Buffy" (series) episodes.

Plot

As career week arrives, Buffy feels isolated and apathetic because the students around her are exploring their choices for the future, while her fate as the Slayer is already set in stone. Even so, she must join Willow and Xander in filling out career questionnaires. Spike works on a cure for Drusilla as she lays out Tarot cards. He becomes frustrated with Dru's childlike behavior and ruminates on Buffy's interference in his plans. Dalton, a vampire transcriber, is unable to decipher a stolen book containing a cure, but then Drusilla informs Spike that they need a key because the book is in code. The cards indicate the location of the key, much to the delight of Spike.

Buffy witnesses Dalton stealing an object from a mausoleum, but he escapes when she is distracted by another vampire. She enters her bedroom through the window out of habit, despite the fact that her mother is out of town for a few days, and finds Angel waiting to warn her of grave danger, and she notes with irritation that he does this a lot. He discovers her childhood obsession with Dorothy Hamill (Dorothy dolls, posters, and haircut), and offers to take her ice skating the following day. At school the next morning, the test results are revealed, much to the chagrin of Buffy and Xander. Buffy reports to Giles, and he is distressed and disappointed when she tells him about the theft from the mausoleum.

Spike and Drusilla examine the key stolen by Dalton, a gold cross. Spike decides to call the Order of Turaka, an ancient guild of assassins, to rid himself of Buffy once and for all. Back at school, Willow is taken into a secluded lounge area to be recruited by a leading software company, along with Oz, the boy who has been watching her for weeks. At the mausoleum, Giles realizes with concern that Josephus du Lac (a member of a religious sect that had been excommunicated by the Vatican) is buried there. He is the author of the book stolen from the library, and Giles believes the key was stolen from the tomb.

In the meantime, the assassins begin to arrive. A large, intimidating man exits a bus, and a door-to-door beauty salesman walks down the sidewalk past Buffy's house to her next-door neighbor's. He gains an invitation inside, the door closes, and the lady of the house screams. A young woman attacks an airplane worker in the cargo hold of a plane, escaping with little difficulty.

Giles tells Buffy, Xander, and Willow about the "du Lac Cross" which can be used as the key, and he enlists their help with further research. Buffy manages to keep her ice skating date with Angel. She is attacked while ice skating, and Angel arrives in time to help her fight off the assassin whom she kills with the blade of her skate. Angel, recognizing the assassin's ring, asks Buffy if she knows what it means ("I just killed a Super Bowl Champ?"), and then warns her that she should leave Sunnydale and hide. Angel is wounded and doesn't want Buffy to have to touch his vampire face, but she removes her gloves to touch his face with her bare hands, assuring him that she hadn't even noticed, and kisses him. The female from the plane watches from the shadows.

The assassin next-door to Buffy's house feeds on the body he had killed by disintegrating into hundreds of writhing worms which can reshape themselves into limbs at will. Buffy is paranoid and jittery, suspicious of each person who passes by in the hallways at school. As Oz passes her, she panics and pins him against a locker. Oz declares her to be a "tense person". Buffy arrives at Angel's empty home and falls asleep in his bed. Angel goes to Willy's bar for information, and Willy finally confirms Angel's suspicions that Spike is behind the assassins, but before Angel can leave, he is attacked by the mysterious female. They fight, and she locks him in a metal cage in front of an eastern window, with only a few short hours until sunrise.

Giles awakens Willow, who had fallen asleep ("Don't warn the tadpoles!" she exclaims, subsequently explaining that she has "frog fears"). He reveals that the missing manuscript is a ritual to restore a weakened vampire back to health. Xander and Cordelia enter Buffy's house, and Xander searches for her while Cordelia waits downstairs. She hears a knock at the door and lets in the centipede assassin, again appearing as a make-up salesman promising free samples. In Angel's bedroom, Buffy awakes to find herself being attacked by the mysterious woman. They fight, and the woman tells Buffy that her name is Kendra, the Vampire Slayer...

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
* Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest starring

* Seth Green as Oz
* James Marsters as Spike
* Juliet Landau as Drusilla
* Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder
* Bianca Lawson as Kendra
* Saverio Guerra as Willy the Snitch
* Eric Saiet as Dalton
* Kelly Connell as Norman Pfister

Co-starring

* Michael Rothhaar as Suitman
* P.B. Hutton as Mrs. Kalish

Production

The hold of the plane in which Kendra arrived in Sunnydale was turned upside down and used as a sewer tunnel in later episodes. [Citation |title="The Watcher's Guide, Volume 1 (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)" |last=Golden |first=Christopher |last2=Holder |first2=Nancy |publisher=Simon & Schuster |url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0613633652/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-0350059-5613769# |pages=95 ] The ice rink, called "Iceland", is found at 8041 Jackson Street in Paramount, California. This is around 25 miles from where Buffy was filmed.Fact|date=October 2007

Sarah Michelle Gellar is a fan of ice skating in real life, and lists ice skating as one of her hobbies. [Citation |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/indetail/whatsmylineone/trivia.shtml |title= Episode Guide: What's My Line Part One |publisher=BBC ]

Music

* Vivaldi - "Spring" from "The Four Seasons".

Translations

Translated versions of this episode are entitled:
* French title: "Kendra - 1ère partie" ("Kendra - Part 1")
* Italian title: "L'unione fa la forza - I parte" ("Togetherness is strength - Part 1")
* German title: "Die Rivalin" ("The rival ("fem.")")
* Japanese title: "バフィーの運命　パート１" ("Bafī no Unmei Pāto 1" - "Buffy's Fate, Part 1")
* Spanish title: "Que mi Linea, (I)" ("What's My Line, Part One")

Cultural references

* Dorothy Hamill: When Buffy talks about a "Dorothy Hamill phase," she means ice-skating since Hamill was an American ice-skater who won a gold medal in the 1976 Winter olympics.
* Seattle-Tacoma International Airport: The software recruiter says to Willow, "The jet was delayed by fog at Sea-Tac, but he should be here any minute."
* "The Simpsons": Buffy says to Giles "Have a cow, Giles." She is playing on "The Simpsons" phrase used by Bart Simpson, "don't have a cow" (which means "don't get worked up").
* "What's My Line?": An American game show which ran from 1950 to 1963. Contestants had to guess what unusual jobs or products were linked to mysterious guests from clues given by the host (John Charles Daly). The U.K. version featured the mystery guests miming their jobs.
* "My Fair Lady": After Dalton has a success, Spike says "By George, I think he's got it," playing on Henry Higgins' (played by Rex Harrison) singing line "By George, she's got it! I think she's got it!"
* "White Noise": Principal Snyder tells Xander "Whatever comes out of your mouth is a meaningless waste of breath, an airborne toxic event," which is a reference to the "Airborne Toxic Event" that Jack Gladney was exposed to in Don DeLillo's 1985 novel, "White Noise".

Reception

“What‘s My Line, Part One” pulled in 3.5 million households on its original airing. [Citation |title=Nielsen Ratings for Buffy's Second Season |url=http://home.insightbb.com/~wahoskem/buffy2.html ]

Continuity

Arc significance

*This episode introduces the character of Kendra, the first vampire slayer besides Buffy to be featured on the show.
*The idea of Buffy's death in "Prophecy Girl" activating a new slayer (thus allowing there to be two slayers) will remain important throughout the series, especially after the introduction of Faith.
*Willow and Oz finally meet - having almost done so in previous episodes "Inca Mummy Girl" and "Halloween"
*The term "Scooby Gang" is used for the first time, when Xander tells Cordelia, "You want to be a member of the Scooby Gang, you gotta be willing to be inconvenienced every now and then."
*"Willy’s Place" is seen for the first time. The bar also appears in many other episodes including "Amends", "The Zeppo", "Goodbye, Iowa" and "Family".
* The spectacled vampire, Dalton, later appears in "Surprise" and is killed by the Judge.
* Darla asks Angel in the season one episode "Angel", if he believes Buffy would ever be able to kiss his 'real face'. She does in this episode.

Timeline

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

References