The Zeppo
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| “The Zeppo” | |||||||
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| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |||||||
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 13 |
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| Written by | Dan Vebber | ||||||
| Directed by | James Whitmore Jr. | ||||||
| Production no. | 3ABB13 | ||||||
| Original airdate | January 26, 1999 | ||||||
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| List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes | |||||||
"The Zeppo" is episode 13 of season 3 on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Makeup in a Series.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Feeling left out by the gang, Xander befriends a psychotic student named Jack O'Toole. When Jack raises his friends from the dead, Xander prevents the gang of zombies from blowing up Sunnydale High, while Buffy, Faith, and the rest of the gang - oblivious to Xander's dangerous adventure - prevent an apocalyptic demon cult from reopening the Hellmouth under the Sunnydale High library.
[edit] Expanded overview
While the Scooby gang slaughters demons in an underground nest, Xander manages to get himself hurt. Buffy suggests he stay out of the fighting. Xander is desperate to find his place after his breakup with Cordelia and the alienation from his friends. When another student throws him a football, he misses and it hits Jack O'Toole's lunch, resulting in Jack threatening to beat him up. Cordelia, having witnessed the entire event, tells Xander he is useless: "You're the Zeppo". Meanwhile, Giles informs Buffy that the end of the world is near. A group is planning to reopen the Hellmouth and bring forth the demons it contains.
After a discussion with Oz about what makes someone cool, Xander gets himself a car that he believes will give him something unique. While getting donuts for the rest of the researching gang, Xander meets a girl who likes his car and wants to go for a ride, but as it turns out, the car really is the only thing she's interested in. At the Bronze that night, Xander rear-ends Jack sitting in a parked car. Jack threatens Xander with a knife. A cop shows up, Xander covers for Jack and the two and Car Girl leave to go get the rest of Jack's friends - who, being dead, need to be raised from their graves.
At the library, Buffy, Willow and Giles are researching, while Oz - in werewolf mode - is freaking out in his cage. Willow thinks it's because he can sense trouble. Giles leaves to try and contact some spirits and hopefully get their help with stopping the Sisterhood of Jhe, a group of fierce demons (of the same sort as the ones that the gang killed in the cave a few days before) that plans to end the world.
Xander, now "Wheel Man" for Jack and his friends takes them to get supplies to "bake a cake," or rather build a bomb. While the boys are getting the supplies from a hardware store, Xander spots Willow leaving the magic shop and tries to talk to her, but she hurries off to go help Buffy. After Jack and friends decide to initiate Xander into the club by killing him and then raising him again, he runs and manages to escape in his car. He rescues Faith, who was fighting off the demons and then takes her to her motel room where she persuades him to sleep with her. She kicks him out, clothes in hand, quickly after.
Xander, after realizing Jack built a bomb at Sunnydale High, heads towards the school to stop it. After disposing of Jack's friends, Xander heads down to the boiler room to defuse the bomb. Jack shows up, and after a fight between the two, Xander asks Jack who is more afraid of death. Jack points out that he's already dead, but Xander points out that "'walking around drinking beer with your buddies'-dead is a lot different from 'being blown up and swept up by a janitor'-dead." When Jack confronts Xander about dying, Xander merely remarks, "I like the quiet" and stares at him calmly. Jack defuses the bomb with seconds to spare. Xander leaves Jack there, who, upon opening a side door is mauled by Oz in his werewolf form. Meanwhile, Buffy, Angel, Faith, Giles and Willow are at the library fending off the giant multi-headed monster and members of the group of female demons and successfully close the Hellmouth.
The next day, Xander decides to keep his harrowing night to himself. Cordelia once again taunts Xander about him being left out of his circle of friends. But instead of lashing back at her, Xander just smiles and quietly walks by the bewildered Cordelia, now a better and confident person.
[edit] Writing
"The Zeppo" is a twist on the show format, which normally consists of an action-packed "A-story" and a character-development "B-story." Here, Xander's feelings of inadequacy develop into the A-story while a stereotypical epic episode of Buffy and the others saving the world is pushed to the background to become the B. Many of the apocalypse story elements happen off-screen.
[edit] Acting
[edit] 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
- Seth Green as Oz
- and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
[edit] Guest starring
- Saverio Guerra as Willy the Snitch
- Channon Roe as Jack O' Toole
- Michael Cudlitz as Bob
- Eliza Dushku as Faith Lehane
[edit] Co-starring
- Darin Heames as Parker
- Scott Torrence as Dickie
- Whitney Dylan as Lysette
- Vaughn Armstrong as Cop
[edit] Production details
[edit] Music
- Beastie Boys - "Putting Shame In Your Game"
- Christophe Beck - "Dead Guys With Bombs" played during the scenes in the highschool with the zombies chasing Xander
- Extreme Music Library - "For the glory" played in the last scene, with a smiling Xander walking away from Cordelia
- Michael Jackson - "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" is the song Xander references in his first scene with Jack O'Toole
- Sound Stage Music Library - Dodgems"
- Supergrass - "G-song"
- Tricky Woo - "Easy 09"
[edit] Quotes and trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Zeppo Marx is the straight man among the Marx Brothers and long considered to be the most unexceptional member of the act. Xander is treated in the same way in this episode.
- The executive producer of Doctor Who; Russell T Davies, mentions the Buffy episode "The Zeppo" as a possible influence on the Doctor Who episode "Love & Monsters", the format of which would later be mirrored in Torchwood's "Random Shoes", and repeated in Doctor Who episode "Blink". With the announcement of a third "Doctor-lite" episode, this has become an annual tradition.[2]
- Nicholas Brendon cried when he read the script for this episode because he was "so delighted with it, and its meaning for [his] character." [1]
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Arc significance
- Xander loses his virginity to Faith, but the boost to his self-esteem is undermined by Buffy's statement about Faith in "Consequences".
- The multi-headed monster is the same monster that attacked Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Jenny in the library when the Master's ascension opened the Hellmouth in "Prophecy Girl." The Master's death caused the monster to retreat back into the Hellmouth.
[edit] Translations
- Italian title: "Il giorno dell'Apocalisse" ("The day of the Apocalypse")
- German title: "Die Nacht der lebenden Leichen" ("The night of the living corpses"); Episode 3x02 has a similar German title: "Die Nacht der lebenden Toten" ("The night of the living dead")
- French title: "Le zéro pointé" ("The Total Zero")
- Japanese title: "ツェッポ" ("Tseppo" - "Zeppo")
- Spanish title: "Falta de carácter" ("Lack of character"); also "Zepo" (sic.)
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: January 1999 - Spring 1999 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Uninvited Guests |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy comic: The Final Cut |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Bad Blood |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.11 Gingerbread |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy comic: Bad Dog (by Doug Petrie) |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Crash Test Demons |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Pale Reflections |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.12 Helpless |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.13 The Zeppo |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: The Deathless |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.14 Bad Girls |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.15 Consequences |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.16 Doppelgangland |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: Doomsday Deck |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: Immortal |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.17 Enemies |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Angel: The Hollower |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Prime Evil |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Revenant |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.18 Earshot |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.19 Choices |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Power of Persuasion |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.20 The Prom |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Resurrecting Ravana |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy books: The Gatekeeper [Trilogy] |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Return to Chaos |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Visitors |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Unnatural Selection |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Obsidian Fate |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Deep Water |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Here Be Monsters |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: The Book of Fours |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.21 Graduation Day, Part One |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.22 Graduation Day, Part Two |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Sunnydale High Yearbook |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy comic: Double Cross |
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- "The Zeppo" at the Internet Movie Database
- "The Zeppo" at TV.com
[edit] Reviews
- Soulful Spike Society analysis of The Zeppo
- Peripheral Visions Review
- Section 31 Review
- Swing the Sickle Review
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