Buffy's kindly biology teacher, Dr. Gregory, is attacked after class by a giant
praying mantis, but as far as the students know, their teacher is just missing. The
mysterious Angel appears at the Bronze that night to warn Buffy about a pending
attack. His arm looks as if it was cut by a tiger's claw. The next day, Dr. Gregory's
class is being taught by a substitute teacher -- the comely Miss Natalie French,
who drives Xander ga-ga. She tells the class about the science fair, and asks for
volunteers to help her create a model of a praying mantis egg sacks -- after school.
As expected, Xander's hand shoots up, as does football heartthrob Blayne's and
every other boy in the class. Miss French decides that Blayne can be her
assistant that afternoon, and Xander the next. Later in the cafeteria, Cordelia
opens the fridge to discover Dr. Gregory's headless body. Buffy speculates that
Angel's warning and his unusual wound have something to do with Dr. Gregory's
gruesome murder, so she stakes out the park. She sees a vampire with one arm
that has three sharp claws where the hand should be. The creature approaches
Miss French, who is walking by with grocery bags, but instead of pouncing on her,
he sniffs her and runs away in terror.
Buffy catches the teacher turning her head around -- all the way around. Buffy
finally figures it out: Miss French is a praying mantis! Following her lead, Giles
tries to get in touch with a friend in England who's an expert in the field -- the only
catch being that the man is institutionalized. Meanwhile, hacker par excellence
Willow has found that Blayne's mother has reported him missing. Since it's
Xander's turn to work with Miss French this afternoon, Buffy warns him, but he
thinks Buffy is just jealous. Miss French gives Xander a drink as soon as he shows
up. As he's getting woozy, he thinks he hears someone calling, but she ignores it.
She takes his hand, and her arm turns into a praying mantis' foreleg. He promptly
passes out, and he is dragged away by Miss French. When he comes to, he finds
himself in a cage in Miss French's cellar, with Blayne in an adjoining cage.
Surrounded by headless bodies in cages, he calls to Miss French, who is now
completely converted to her giant-mantis form.
After talking to his strait-jacketed friend, Giles confirms there is a creature called a
She-Mantis, who lures male virgins to her nest. An extremely powerful foe, it was
the She-Mantis who put Giles' friend into his deranged condition. Buffy suggests
that Giles record some bat sonar from the video library -- playing that for the
She-Mantis will disrupt her nervous system. Exhausting other methods, Buffy
decides to enlist Claw Guy to help her sniff out the She-Mantis. Going from door to
door, he finally winces when they reach the correct house. Turning on her, he tries
to attack Buffy, who promptly kills him with a fence slat. Buffy enters the
basement and uses a few blasts of the insecticide to send her scurrying off, then
plays the bat sonar. The tape has the desired effect on the crazed insect, enabling
Buffy to hack it to death with a machete. We think this is the end of the
She-Mantis until we catch a glimpse of the inside of Dr. Gregory's classroom
closet, where a glistening egg sack is stirring at the bottom.
