First Date (Buffy episode)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“First Date”
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
Episode no. Season 7
Episode 14
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by David Grossman
Guest stars Anthony Stewart Head
   (Giles)
Ashanti
   (Lissa)
Danny Strong
   (Jonathan)
Tom Lenk
   (Andrew)
Iyari Limon
   (Kennedy)
Sarah Hagan
   (Amanda)
Kristy Wu
   (Chao-Ahn)
K.D. Aubert
   (Nikki)
DB Woodside
   (Principal Wood)
Production no. 7ABB14
Original airdate February 11, 2003
Episode chronology
← Previous Next →
"The Killer in Me" "Get It Done"
List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

"First Date" is the fourteenth episode of season 7 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

[edit] Summary

Principal Wood asks Buffy out to dinner, to which she accepts partly because she likes him and partly because she is intrigued as to what he really is. Xander also agrees to go out at night with a girl he meets at a tool demo somewhere in Sunnydale.

Things go very differently for them. Buffy finds out Robin Wood is in fact the son of a Slayer, trying to find his mother's killer. Xander in the meantime, discovers that the girl he was out with is a demon, as she ties him up to the wooden structure over the seal beneath the school and sticks a knife between his ribs.

At the Summers house, Willow receives an SMS with a help code from Xander and Spike offers himself to go fetch Buffy. He finds her at the restaurant with Wood and they all rush out to rescue Xander. When they get to the seal beneath the school, they fight and kill the demon and find Xander only slightly hurt. It all turns out to be almost alright but not quite, as Wood finds out Spike is a vampire and that Buffy cares a lot about him.

At the end of the episode, the First shows itself to Wood in the guise of his dead mother and tells him it was Spike who murdered her.

[edit] Acting

[edit] Main cast

[edit] Recurring role

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] Production details

[edit] Music

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • At the very beginning of the episode when Giles and the Scoobies are walking in the graveyard, there's a gravestone clearly marked "Snyder," a reference to Principal Snyder.
  • As Xander himself points out, Lissa is only the latest of several demonic women who have been drawn to him. Her predecessors include Natalie French from "Teacher's Pet," Ampata from "Inca Mummy Girl," and, of course, Xander's ex-fiancee Anya. Even Xander's Sunnydale High girlfriend Cordelia Chase ended up becoming part demon (although the Scoobies may not be aware of this).
  • When Buffy is picking out clothes for her date with Principal Wood, Anya remarks that it may be blood or pizza sauce on the shirt, a reference to the episode "Conversations with Dead People". In that episode, Dawn gets pizza sauce on her outfit while Buffy is out of the house, and comments to herself that she'll just think it's blood.
  • There is an important goof in this episode: Wood doesn't know that Spike is a vampire although he "looked" at him in a mirror. Vampires don't have reflection.

[edit] Translations

  • Italian title: "Primo appuntamento" ("First date")
  • German title: "Das erste Date" ("The First Date")
  • French title: "Rendez-vous dangereux" ("Dangerous Date")
  • Spanish title: "La Primera Cita" ("The First Date")

[edit] Continuity

[edit] Arc significance

  • Buffy learns of Principal Woods' past and that his mother was a Slayer, though she doesn't know which one.
  • The First informs Wood that Spike killed his mother.
  • Giles shows great frustration with Buffy and her methods, a theme that will continue right up through the final episode.

[edit] Timing

  • Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
Location, time
(if known)		 Buffyverse: January 2003 - Spring 2003
(non-canon = italic)
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.11 Showtime
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.12 Potential
L.A., 2003 A4.11 Soulless
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.13 The Killer in Me
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.14 First Date
L.A., 2003 A4.12 Calvary
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.15 Get It Done
L.A., 2003 A4.13 Salvage
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.16 Storyteller
L.A., 2003 A4.14 Release
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.17 Lies My Parents Told Me
L.A., 2003 A4.15 Orpheus
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.18 Dirty Girls
L.A., 2003 A4.16 Players
L.A., 2003 Angel book: Nemesis
L.A., 2003 Angel book: Book of the Dead
L.A., 2003 A4.17 Inside Out
L.A., 2003 A4.18 Shiny Happy People
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.19 Empty Places
L.A., 2003 A4.19 The Magic Bullet
L.A., 2003 A4.20 Sacrifice
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.20 Touched
L.A., 2003 A4.21 Peace Out
L.A., 2003 A4.22 Home
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.21 End of Days
Sunnydale, 2003 B7.22 Chosen

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The Buffyverse
Canon · Index · Joss Whedon
Buffy
Angel
People
Amy · Andrew · Angel · Anya · Buffy · Connor · Cordelia · Darla · Dawn · Doyle · Drusilla · Eve · Faith · Fred · Giles · Groo · Gunn · Halfrek · Harmony · Holtz · Illyria · Jenny · Jonathan · Joyce · Kate · Kennedy · Lilah · Lindsey · Lorne · Maggie · Oz · Riley · Robin · Spike · Snyder · Tara · Warren · Wesley · Willow · Xander
Villains
Key terminology
Demon · Slayer · Vampire · Watcher · Witch
Expanded Universe
Auxiliary
Powers
Places
Music