| "What's My Line" | |||
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| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |||
The two vampire slayers: Buffy and Kendra |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 9 & 10 |
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| Directed by | David Solomon (Part 1) David Semel (Part 2) |
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| Written by | Marti Noxon (Part 1 & 2) Howard Gordon (Part 1) |
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| Production code | 5V09 & 5V10 | ||
| Original air date | November 17, 1997 (Part 1) November 24, 1997 (Part 2) |
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| Guest stars | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes | |||
"What's My Line" is a two-episode story in season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In Part One, Buffy endures Career Week at school while Spike hires assassins to kill her; a fierce fighter who identifies herself as "Kendra, the Vampire Slayer" shows up in Sunnydale. In Part Two, Buffy encounters another vampire slayer, while Angel is taken by Spike for a ritual in which Drusilla is restored to health.
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As career week arrives, Buffy feels isolated and apathetic because the students around her are exploring their choices for the future, while her fate as the Slayer is already set in stone. Even so, she must join Willow and Xander in filling out career questionnaires. Spike works on a cure for Drusilla as she lays out Tarot cards. He becomes frustrated with Dru's childlike behavior and ruminates on Buffy's interference in his plans. Dalton, a vampire transcriber, is unable to decipher the book stolen from the library a couple of weeks earlier which contains a cure, but then Drusilla informs Spike that they need a key because the book is in code. The cards indicate the location of the key, much to the delight of Spike.
Buffy witnesses Dalton stealing an object from a mausoleum, but he escapes when she is distracted by another vampire. She enters her bedroom through the window out of habit, despite the fact that her mother is out of town for a few days, and finds Angel waiting to warn her of grave danger, and she notes with irritation that he does this a lot. He discovers her childhood obsession with Dorothy Hamill (Dorothy dolls, posters, and haircut), and offers to take her ice skating the following day. At school the next morning, the test results are revealed, much to the chagrin of Buffy and Xander. Buffy reports to Giles, and he is distressed and disappointed when she tells him about the theft from the mausoleum.
Spike and Drusilla examine the key stolen by Dalton, a gold cross. Spike decides to call the Order of Taraka, an ancient guild of assassins, to rid himself of Buffy once and for all. Back at school, Willow is taken into a secluded lounge area to be recruited by a leading software company, along with Oz, the boy who has been watching her for weeks. At the mausoleum, Giles realizes with concern that Josephus du Lac (a member of a religious sect that had been excommunicated by the Vatican) is buried there. He is the author of the book stolen from the library, and Giles believes the key was stolen from the tomb.
In the meantime, the assassins begin to arrive. A large, intimidating man exits a bus, and a door-to-door beauty salesman walks down the sidewalk past Buffy's house to her next-door neighbors'. He gains an invitation inside, the door closes, and the lady of the house screams. A young woman attacks an airplane worker in the cargo hold of a plane, escaping with little difficulty.
Giles tells Buffy, Xander, and Willow about the "du Lac Cross" which can be used as the key, and he enlists their help with further research. Buffy manages to keep her ice skating date with Angel. She is attacked while ice skating, and Angel arrives in time to help her fight off the assassin whom she kills with the blade of her skate. Angel, recognizing the assassin's ring, asks Buffy if she knows what it means ("I just killed a Super Bowl Champ?"), and then warns her that she should leave Sunnydale and hide. Angel is wounded and doesn't want Buffy to have to touch his vampire face, but she removes her gloves to touch his face with her bare hands, assuring him that she hadn't even noticed, and kisses him. The female from the plane watches from the shadows.
The assassin next-door to Buffy's house feeds on the body he had killed by disintegrating into hundreds of writhing mealworms which can reshape themselves into limbs at will. Buffy is paranoid and jittery, suspicious of each person who passes by in the hallways at school. As Oz passes her, she panics and pins him against a locker. Oz declares her to be a "tense person". Buffy arrives at Angel's empty home and falls asleep in his bed. Angel goes to Willy's bar for information, and Willy finally confirms Angel's suspicions that Spike is behind the assassins, but before Angel can leave, he is attacked by the mysterious female. They fight, and she locks him in a metal cage in front of an eastern window, with only a few short hours until sunrise.
Giles awakens Willow, who had fallen asleep ("Don't warn the tadpoles!" she exclaims, subsequently explaining that she has "frog fears"). He reveals that the missing manuscript is a ritual to restore a weakened vampire back to health. Xander and Cordelia enter Buffy's house, and Xander searches for her while Cordelia waits downstairs. She hears a knock at the door and lets in the mealworm assassin, again appearing as a make-up salesman promising free samples. In Angel's bedroom, Buffy awakes to find herself being attacked by the mysterious woman. They fight, and the woman tells Buffy that her name is Kendra, the Vampire Slayer...
Buffy and Kendra go to Giles for assistance in explaining their situation. They learn that Kendra is the slayer who was 'called' when Buffy temporarily died in her fight with The Master in "Prophecy Girl". Their discussion reveals that Kendra had locked Angel in a cage, leaving him to be dusted at sunrise. Buffy and Kendra arrive to find only an empty cage; Buffy fears the worst, but Kendra points out the absence of dust.
Willy (the bar guy) had saved Angel from near-death, only to dump him in a sewer with Spike. Spike takes Angel back to the warehouse, where he will be held until he can be sacrificed to restore Drusilla to full strength. Bound and gagged, Angel haplessly listens as Drusilla asks Spike to let her torture Angel. Although Spike briefly hesitates, he soon smiles and agrees, unable to resist indulging her whims. Meanwhile, as Buffy ruminates on the co-existence of two slayers, she entertains the possibility of quitting and letting Kendra take over her Slayer duties.
Giles begins to bond professionally with Kendra, who seems to be more dedicated to her calling than Buffy, on a professional, intellectual and academic level. Xander and Cordelia face even bigger problems when they find that the salesman that Cordy let into the Summers' house is actually an assassin who can transform himself into thousands of mealworms. They run and hide in the basement, although before long they are fighting each other. After an unexpected kiss, Xander and Cordelia rush to escape the basement, running past the attacking worm-monster. At school, the career placement test has thrown Willow and Oz together, and they discuss their similar interests. Buffy, whose test results recommend a career in law enforcement, attends the career fair seminar to appease Principal Snyder. The police officer leading the seminar calls Buffy's name, but when Buffy identifies herself, the officer draws her gun and points it at the Slayer. Buffy avoids the bullet, which instead hits Oz as he pushed Willow out of harm's way. Kendra comes to Buffy's rescue, and they fight off the attacker. The Scoobies then gather in the library, where Giles announces that Spike intends for Angel to die in the ritual to restore Dru. Buffy angrily announces that Spike can do anything to her, but he had better not mess with her boyfriend.
Meanwhile, Angel is being tortured by Dru, both emotionally and physically; she pours holy water on him as she reminds him about how he killed her whole family. Spike comes in and announces that it is time for the ritual to begin. Angel taunts Spike with insinuations that Spike is unable to satisfy Dru, in hopes that Spike will kill him before he can be used to cure Dru. Spike is infuriated, but does not lose sight of the big picture. Meanwhile, Kendra gains a newfound respect for Buffy's qualities as a Slayer. Later, the Slayers go after Willy to learn what happened to Angel; they force Willy to take them to the location of Spike and Angel. However, Willy leads them into the assassins and they arrive too late to prevent the ritual. Buffy attacks Spike to save Angel, and Kendra and the Scooby Gang arrive to back her up. Xander and Cordelia work together in the hallway to kill the worm assassin; since he can only be destroyed in his "disassembled state", they lure the worms underneath a door into a sticky trap. Willow and Giles work together to stake a vampire while Buffy and Kendra fight several of their own. Spike starts a fire and rushes to rescue the unconscious Dru, hoping that the ritual has had time to cure her. However, Buffy prevents their exit, crushing them in falling rubble. She rushes to the floor to help the weakened Angel, while everyone watches in awe, and she helps him exit the building.
With the danger over, it's time for Kendra to leave. Buffy and Kendra discuss Angel (with Kendra admitting he's 'pretty cute') and also their position as Slayer. Kendra remarks that Buffy considers slaying to be a job when it isn't, it's a part of who she is. The two, now friends, say their goodbyes and Buffy is left with a new outlook on her position as the Slayer, as well as the knowledge that she is no longer alone in her calling.
At the remains of the church, Spike lies seriously injured under the rubble... when Drusilla rises, the ritual having worked and restored her to full power. She carries her partner out of the debris, promising to return the favor and make him as powerful as her.
I really hated that accent! I got the part, and I didn't originally have an accent. Then, literally the night before, they said, "What about a Jamaican accent?" So it's one of those things where, y'know, I just had to put it on tape, but I didn't have a chance to get comfortable with it. And the thing is, certain things - if you say it properly [in Jamaican patois], people don't really fully understand it, so they would change things. They'd say, "Well, say it like this" and it's like, "Would that be accurate in that accent though?" "It doesn't matter because no-one's going to understand you!" So different people were giving their interpretations of it. I was like "But everyone's going to think that I'm doing it wrong!" So personally, I wasn't happy with the accent!
Part one pulled in 3.5 million households on its original airing, while part two had an audience of 3.9 million households.[4]
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