Welcome to the Hellmouth
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| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
|---|---|
| “Welcome to the Hellmouth” | |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
| Guest star(s) | Mark Metcalf (The Master) David Boreanaz (Angel) Ken Lerner (Principal Flutie) Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers) Julie Benz (Darla) |
| Writer(s) | Joss Whedon |
| Director | Charles Martin Smith |
| Production no. | 4V01 |
| Original airdate | March 10th, 1997 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Unaired Buffy pilot (non-canon)" | "The Harvest" |
"Welcome to the Hellmouth", the first in a two-part series opener, is the very first episode of the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Buffy Summers has left Los Angeles with her mother and moved to Sunnydale. She looks to leave her checkered past behind her, and forget all about her life as a Slayer. On the first day of school, she meets several people and tries to blend in as much as possible. These plans go awry when she meets Rupert Giles, the school librarian and a Watcher, who insists that Buffy follow her destiny. She ignores this until a body turns up in the girl's locker room, the victim of an obvious vampire attack. No longer able to ignore her calling, she agrees to work with Giles to stop the vampire threat in Sunnydale. The fight gets personal when two of the new friends that she has made are abducted and she has to try and save them. One she is able to rescue, but the other she is unable to save, due to a battle for her own life with Luke, one of The Master's servants.
[edit] Expanded overview
The series premiere begins at Sunnydale High School, where a boy breaks into the school during the night with a seemingly reluctant girl, promising her mischief and therefore fun. Knowing the show is about vampires, the viewer assumes the reluctant girl will meet a gruesome and unfortunate fate. Nervous and on edge, the girl thinks she heard something and fears something is there. The boy calls out but gets no response, during which the girl's face morphs into that of a vampire, and bites the boy, revealing to the viewer that she was the only danger all along...
Buffy has a nightmare the morning her first day of school. Her mother drives her to the school and encourages her to think positive. She catches Xander’s eyes. Inside the building, Principal Flutie tells her she will start with a clean slate. He reconsiders that after realizing that Buffy burned down her previous school's gym because "it was full of vampi-...asbestos."
Buffy exits the office and bumps into another student, spilling the contents of her handbag over the floor. Xander sees that and helps Buffy, introducing himself. She leaves without her stake, which Xander pockets because he called out to her, but she had already walked away. In history class, Buffy is helped by Cordelia, who afterwards tests her "coolness factor," skipping the written as Buffy had just moved to Sunnydale, California from Los Angeles. To Buffy's horror, Cordelia humiliates an awkward Willow at the water fountain. Inside the library, Mr. Giles places a book titled Vampyr in front of Buffy after realizing who she was. A stunned Buffy makes a hasty exit.
Buffy, Willow, Jesse McNally and Xander meet during a break, and Xander returns the stake. Buffy claims it is standard self-defense in Los Angeles. Cordelia appears and tells Buffy that gym is cancelled "due to the extreme dead guy" in Aura's locker. Buffy asks whether there were marks on the body, freaking out Cordelia. Buffy forces her way into the locker room, examines the body, and finds the characteristic puncture wounds of a vampire on the neck.
Buffy returns to the library and confronts Giles, who informs her that he is her Watcher. Buffy refuses to accept her calling as a Slayer, since it had gotten her kicked out of her previous school and cost her social life. After they leave the library, Xander emerges from behind the shelves, having overheard the strange conversation.
That night, en route to her first visit to the Bronze, the cool hangout in Sunnydale, Buffy meets a mysterious, handsome stranger, who warns her that she is living on a Hellmouth that is about to open, and that "the Harvest" is coming. He also gives her a large silver cross. It isn't revealed until the next episode that the stranger's name is Angel.
In the Bronze, Buffy meets Willow and encourages her to seize the moment: "Because tomorrow you might be dead." She finds Giles and tells him about Angel. Giles tells her to learn to hone her skills to sense vampires anywhere. Buffy uses her fashion sense to pick out a vampire in the club and is alarmed to see Willow leave with him. She loses them and is surprised by Cordelia, nearly staking her. Cordelia immediately calls her friends to tell them about it. While Buffy looks for Willow, Jesse chats up Darla at the Bronze. Buffy is stopped by Xander, whom she convinces to help search for Willow.
Meanwhile, under the streets of Sunnydale, The Master is woken by lesser vampires from a long sleep to prepare for the Harvest. He sends Luke to fetch young blood.
Willow's new acquaintance takes her to a crypt in a cemetery, where they are joined by Darla and Jesse, whom she has bitten. Buffy and Xander arrive. Buffy kills Willow's vampire. Xander and Willow help Jesse, who has been weakened, flee. Luke takes Darla's place in the fight so she can help catch the kids. Luke throws Buffy in a stone coffin and is about to move in for the kill...
[edit] Acting
[edit] Main cast
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
- Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
[edit] Guest stars
- Mark Metcalf as the Master
- David Boreanaz as Angel
- Ken Lerner as Principal Flutie
- Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
- Julie Benz as Darla
[edit] Co-starring
- Brian Thompson as Luke
- Eric Balfour as Jesse
- J. Patrick Lawlor as Thomas
- Natalie Strauss as Teacher
- Carmine D. Giovinazzo
- Amy Chance as Aphrodesia
- Tupelo Jereme as Girl #2
- Persia White as Girl #3
[edit] Filming
Before the airing of this episode, all twelve episodes of season one had been filmed with no guarantees of restoring it to a second season. The two-hour pilot episode, was one of several pilot episodes of popular WB series (including Felicity, Angel and Dawson's Creek) that aired on The WB's final broadcast on September 17th, 2006.
Brian Thompson, who plays Luke, will return to the series as an alternative character, the Judge, in "Surprise" and "Innocence". Moreover, Thompson is no stranger to playing a vampire. He played Bocworth the vampire in the 1989 movie Fright Night II, and was Eddie Fiori, head of the Brujha clan of vampires in the 1996 TV series Kindred: The Embraced.
David Boreanaz (Angel) has mentioned that his character’s first meeting with Buffy was his audition scene.[citation needed]
Creator Joss Whedon stated on the DVD commentary that he had hoped to include actor Eric Balfour in the title credits to shock viewers when Jesse dies. Unfortunetly, the show could not afford the extra set of title credits at the time. However, Whedon granted his own wish with Doyle in the spin-off series Angel, and Tara Maclay in season six's "Seeing Red."
Certain scenes, such as the argument between Giles and Buffy in the library, and Buffy's first meeting with Angel, were re-shot eight months after the first episode was recorded. Both Whedon and Gellar had decided to make the character less angry and more vulnerable.
[edit] Music
Four of Sprung Monkey's 1996 album Swirl feature throughout the episode, three of which they appear on screen performing. “Saturated” plays softly in the background when Buffy tries on clothes in her bedroom. At the Bronze, the band present “Believe,” “Swirl,” and lastly followed by “Things Are Changing.”
[edit] Translations
- German title: "Das Zentrum des Bösen" ("The Center of Evil")
- French title: "Bienvenue a Sunnydale" ("Welcome to Sunnydale")
[edit] References
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: Spring 1996 - Spring 1997 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles, summer 1996 | Film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| Los Angeles, summer 1996 | Buffy graphic novel: The Origin |
| Los Angeles, summer 1996 | Buffy graphic novel: Viva Las Buffy |
| Los Angeles, summer 1996 | Buffy graphic novel: Slayer Interrupted |
| Los Angeles, summer 1996 | Buffy graphic novel: A Stake to the Heart |
| Sunnydale, fall 1996 | B1.00 Unaired Buffy pilot |
| Sunnydale, fall 1996 | B1.01 Welcome to the Hellmouth |
| Sunnydale, fall 1996 | B1.02 The Harvest |
| Sunnydale, fall 1996 | WB Buffy promo: History of the Slayer |
| Sunnydale, fall 1996 | B1.03 Witch |
| Sunnydale, fall 1996 | B1.04 Teacher's Pet |
| Sunnydale, Halloween 1996 | Buffy book: Halloween Rain |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | Buffy book: Night of the Living Rerun |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | B1.05 Never Kill a Boy on the First Date |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | B1.06 The Pack |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | B1.07 Angel |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | Buffy the Animated Series unaired four-minute pilot |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | B1.08 I, Robot... You, Jane |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | B1.09 The Puppet Show |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | B1.10 Nightmares |
| Sunnydale, 1996/7 | B1.11 Out of Mind, Out of Sight |
| Sunnydale, spring 1997 | B1.12 Prophecy Girl |
| Sunnydale, summer 1997 | Buffy book: Coyote Moon |
| Sunnydale, & L.A., summer 1997 | Buffy anthology book: How I Survived My Summer Vacation |
[edit] External links
- BBC episode guide to "Welcome to the Hellmouth"
- Wikiquote
- The Buffy Body Count's guide to this episode
- Buffyology Episode Page
- TV Squad review
