Band Candy
Buffy's S.A.T. is coming up, so Giles helps her study for it at the cemetery
while waiting for any vampires to rise from their graves. At City Hall,
Mayor Wilkins enlists Mr. Trick's aid for an upcoming tribute to a demon.
Mr. Trick just so happens to know a man who can help them.
The next morning, Principal Snyder enlists students to sell candy in order
to raise money for Sunnydale High's marching band, and Buffy and the gang
are at the top of Snyder's recruitment list. After Buffy convinces her
mother to buy some candy, she revives their long-standing debate over
whether or not she can get a license and start driving. Joyce remains
uncomfortable with the notion of her daughter behind a steering wheel. Buffy
then heads off for the library, telling her mother that she has some more
training to do with Giles. Joyce is not pleased with how much time Buffy has
to spend working with Giles. At the library, Buffy trains briefly with Giles
before leaving early, explaining to him that her mom wants her home early.
Buffy then visits Angel at the mansion, bringing along a container of blood
from the butcher shop. When Buffy finally goes home, she is surprised to
find both her mom and her Watcher waiting for her in the foyer. They both
have figured out that Buffy lied to them in order to go someplace else,
although Joyce suspects that place was the Bronze. Unhappy with the way
she's being treated, Buffy expresses how she can't fulfill both of their
demands for the amount of time they want to spend with her. After Buffy goes
to her room, Giles and Joyce relax on the couch, curiously eating one candy
bar after another. Elsewhere, these same candy bars are being packaged in a
factory. Overlooking the whole process is none other than Giles' old rival,
Ethan Rayne.
Buffy, Cordy, Xander, Willow, and several other students sit in study hall
on Friday, waiting for their supervisor to arrive. The staff member assigned
to study hall this day happens to be Giles, who is uncharacteristically
late. While the students wait, Xander and Willow engage in a forbidden game
of footsie under their table, apparently still hung up over each other after
their kiss on Homecoming week. Principal Snyder talks one of the teacher,
Ms. Barton, into filling in for Giles. Buffy is both surprised and dismayed
to learn that Giles never showed up, but she and the rest of the students
are even more surprised when Ms. Barton speaks to them loosely and freely,
going so far as to refer to their principal as "Commandant Snyder". After
school, Buffy goes to Giles' apartment to find out where he was, but that
soon becomes irrelevant when she notices that her mother is there as well.
Giles explains that he and Joyce have been working out a schedule to make it
easier for Buffy to spend enough time with the both of them. Joyce then
stuns her daughter by handing her the keys to her jeep, telling Buffy to
drive herself home. After Buffy grabs the keys and leaves, Giles lights up a
cigarette, dropping the charade that he and Joyce were putting on for Buffy
when she arrived just now. Not one to pass up on an opportunity like this,
Buffy picks up Willow in the jeep and drives off to the Bronze, displaying a
horrific driving ability along the way. At the Bronze, Buffy and Willow
immediately notice the vast number of adults present, which is unusual for
any given night at the Bronze. Even stranger is that all of the adults are
acting like rowdy teenagers, including Principal Snyder, who acts like he's
just one of the Scooby Gang. While Buffy and Willow try to decipher this
phenomenon, Giles and Joyce drink, smoke, and listen to old LP's before
heading out into town. Giles and Joyce stroll by the store windows, one of
which showcases a coat that catches Joyce's eye. Giles breaks into the
window and steals the coat for the new "girl" in his life. A cop tries to
stop them, but Giles makes short work of the cop and takes his gun before
leaving the scene with Joyce. Back at the Bronze, Buffy decides that they
need to get out and find some answers. As Buffy, Willow, and Oz leave the
Bronze and get into the jeep, Snyder follows them into the car. Since time
is definitely an issue, Buffy lets him tag along. Meanwhile, adults all over
town are acting like teenagers, just like the people at the Bronze. Two guys
even get into a drag race, and one of them smashes into Buffy's jeep. After
everyone gets out of the car, one man runs by and steals Snyder's candy bar.
Buffy realizes that there must be something wrong with the candy. Buffy
instructs Willow and Oz to get Xander and Cordelia and head to the library,
while she and Snyder drive to the candy bar factory.
Buffy and Snyder arrive at the factory, where a huge mob of adults are
gathered around the entrance to get more candy bars. On her way to the
entrance, Buffy is distracted by the sight of Giles kissing Joyce right in
front of her eyes. Unable to deal with them at this moment, Buffy knocks out
the workers and enters the factory, with Giles, Joyce, and Snyder following
closely behind. Inside, Buffy finds Ethan, who wastes no time in running
away. He tries to lose them in the maze of candy bar boxes, but Buffy
eventually finds him. Back at the library, the rest of the gang tries to
find some useful information, but they can't do much without a good lead.
Buffy learns from Ethan that his job was mainly to divert the adults from
the main objective, which is to pay tribute to a demon named Lurconis. Oz
and Willow discover that Lurconis feeds on babies. Unbeknownst to any of
them, a group of vampires walk into the hospital nursery and steal four of
the infants there. Buffy and the others are too late in getting to the
hospital. However, Giles is able to recall that Lurconis means "glutton",
and that they should be able to find him in the sewers. They go down into
the sewer tunnels and find the babies, along with Mr. Trick, the other four
vampires, and the Mayor. As soon as Buffy and Giles arrive, Mayor Wilkinson
immediately flees the scene. While Buffy fights the vampires, Giles and
Joyce move the babies out of harm's way. During the battle, Buffy throws one
of the vampires into a large pool. A large rumbling soon follows, and
Lurconis, a huge serpentine creature, emerges from an opening next to the
pool and devours the hapless vampire. Mr. Trick challenges the Slayer to a
fight, but her Watcher intervenes and attempts to take on the vampire. Mr.
Trick easily tosses Giles into the pool and escapes. With Lurconis coming
back for seconds, Buffy detaches a fuel line and ignites the open end on one
of the torches that the vampires set up, creating a giant blowtorch. As
Lurconis emerges from the opening once again, Buffy roasts the demon,
sending it back into its dwelling. Afterwards, Mayor Wilkinson expresses his
disappointment in Mr. Trick's failure, warning him not to make the same
mistakes again.
The following Monday morning, all the adults in Sunnydale are back to
normal. Buffy laments to Giles after school about the disaster that was her
S.A.T. They meet up with Joyce by the jeep, which is still wrecked. Buffy is
relieved that she was able to stop Giles and Joyce before they went a little
too far with their carefree romance... or so she believes.
