Band Candy

"Band Candy"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
Giles and Joyce in Giles' apartment listening to music, under the influence of the band candy, causing them to act as teenagers
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 6
Directed by	Michael Lange
Written by	Jane Espenson
Production code	3ABB06
Original air date	November 10, 1998
Guest actors
Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers K. Todd Freeman as Mister Trick Robin Sachs as Ethan Rayne Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder Jason Hall as Devon MacLeish Peg Stewart as Ms. Barton
Episode chronology
← Previous "Homecoming" Next → "Revelations"
List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

"Band Candy" is the sixth episode of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot synopsis

Buffy combines her slaying with studying for the SAT in the graveyard with Giles. At school the next day, Buffy tells Willow and Oz of a test-related nightmare. Oz offers to help her study and Willow brags about how smart Oz is. Buffy tells them Giles and her mom have her scheduled 24/7 to keep her out of trouble. They find Principal Snyder in the cafeteria handing out boxes of candy, commanding the students to sell it to pay for band uniforms.

Buffy sells half of her chocolate bars to her mom, who refuses to let her drive. Buffy then leaves for the library, ostensibly for the night. She sells the other half of her quota to Giles, then leaves, ostensibly for home. Instead, Buffy brings blood to Angel, who is practicing T'ai chi. He asks her about Scott. Buffy lies, saying that she's still seeing her ex. When she arrives home, Buffy finds her mother and Giles waiting, both of them angry that she lied to them about her whereabouts. They send her to bed and proceed to munch on her candies. Meanwhile, at a local warehouse filled with workers packaging the candy bars, Ethan Rayne is revealed to be overseeing the operation. For some reason, he stops a worker from eating one of the chocolate bars.

The next day, Giles fails to show up for study hall, where Xander and Willow are playing footsie. Giles' substitute, Ms. Barton, behaves oddly and is dismissive of the study hall. Worried, Buffy goes to Giles' place and finds her mom on the couch. Giles explains that they are rescheduling her activities to lessen her burden, and Joyce offers her car keys. After a surprised Buffy leaves, Giles lights up a cigarette and Joyce pulls out a bottle of Kahlúa. Giles, now as his teenage Cockney personality "Ripper," invites Joyce out for some fun.

Buffy frightens Willow with her driving. They find the Bronze packed with adults who are acting like teenagers, including Principal Snyder, Ms. Barton and Willow's shirtless, stage diving doctor. Buffy and Willow leave with Oz and Snyder, who insists on tagging along, and decide to head over to Giles' place to find out what is going on.

At the warehouse, Mr. Trick checks up on Ethan Rayne and the production of the chocolate bars. Trick suddenly (and arbitrarily) accuses one of the workers of eating the candy, and kills him as an example. He then leaves to perform the "tribute."

Meanwhile, out on the town, Joyce notices a coat in a shop window. Giles throws a garbage can through the window and steals the coat. The ensuing alarm attracts a cop, whom Giles beats unconscious (and steals his gun). He and Joyce start making out on the hood of the police car.

Buffy gets into a car accident, and damages her mom's car. When a passerby takes the candy bar Snyder is munching on, Buffy puts two and two together and realizes that the candy is making adults regress to their adolescence. Buffy sends Willow and Oz to the library and drives to the warehouse after Snyder tells her where the band candy comes from. Upon arrival, Buffy finds her mother and Giles kissing in the middle of the street. Buffy tries to reason with her mother, with no luck. She enters the factory, taking Joyce along; Giles and Snyder follow. Inside, Buffy finds and catches Ethan; her threat of violence easily persuades him to reveal that Trick needs to dull Sunnydale adults in order to collect a tribute intended for a demon named Lurconis.

Meanwhile, four vampires enter an unguarded hospital to remove four newborn babies. Buffy and the adult teenagers arrive at the hospital a little later where Willow phones them from the library and relays to them the discovery that Lurconis eats babies. Giles remembers that the demon may be found in the sewers.

Down in the sewers, the Mayor, Mr. Trick, and the four vampires are chanting in a ceremony to summon Lurconis. Buffy, Giles and Joyce crash the party underground, and the Mayor quickly flees unnoticed. Buffy defeats the vampires while Giles and Joyce retrieve the babies to safety. Trick escapes and the huge demon appears. Buffy pulls down a gas pipe, igniting a fire that kills Lurconis.

Back at his office, the Mayor asks why Trick fled, allowing Buffy to kill Lurconis. Trick replies that he thought he did the Mayor a favor by having the Slayer kill the demon, leaving one less demon to whom the Mayor would owe tribute. The Mayor warns Trick against doing him any more such favors.

The next day, the adults have returned to their senses. Snyder, reverted to grumpy and misanthropic, chooses Willow, Oz, Xander and Cordelia as "volunteers" to clean up the mess in the hall. Buffy complains to Giles about the SATs. They meet Joyce, but Buffy fails to notice their awkwardness upon seeing each other.

Production

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Band Candy

• Kristine Sutherland, who plays Joyce Summers, has named "Band Candy" as one of her favorite Buffy episodes, along with "Ted", "When She Was Bad" and "Innocence".
• The Cream song "Tales of Brave Ulysses" later reappeared in the season five episode "Forever", where Giles listens to the record after Joyce's funeral, in remembrance of the events of this episode.
• The accent used by Teenage Giles is Anthony Head's normal accent.
• Buffy quotes 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' by saying "Let's do the Time Warp again." when she and Willow walk into the Bronze. Anthony Head actually starred in a production of The Rocky Horror Show.
• This is the first episode where script writer Jane Espenson is credited. Later on, she would love to put Giles and Joyce in front of embarrassing situations in the episodes she'd write, as a recollection of their sexual intercourse happening in "Band Candy".^[1]
• In the White Collar Season 3 episode Taking Account, the character Peter Burke states that he persuaded a friend in the U.S. Attorney's office to grant him a warrant needed for the episode's investigation by buying a good deal of her child's band candy, and that he wished they had something besides "those damn chocolate bars". Jeff Eastin acknowledged on his live Twitter feed during the airing of that episode that the dialogue is a deliberate reference to this episode, and a "shout out" to Jane Espenson, who is now part of the White Collar writing staff.

Continuity

Arc significance

• Willow and Xander continue their dangerous liaison.
• The Mayor once more shows his character, while Snyder proves to be an ignorant participant in his evil schemes.
• The glaring implication at the end that Giles and Joyce went further than kisses is confirmed in "Earshot".
• This is Ethan Rayne's first appearance since the previous season's "The Dark Age".
• The demon Lurconis is very similar to the demon the Mayor transforms into at the end of the season.
• In the scenes where Giles is wearing only a tee shirt, a Mark of Eyghon tattoo is clearly visible on his left inner forearm. This is in keeping with his 'Ripper' backstory as presented in "The Dark Age".
• Willow learns that although Lurconis receives a tribute every thirty years, the one prepared in this episode is late; no reason for the usually ultra-punctual Mayor's lateness is given, but it might be theorized that he delayed the tribute as long as possible in hope of Buffy dying or leaving Sunnydale in the interim, so she would not interfere with it, as she in fact does here.

References

External links

• "Band Candy" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Band Candy" at TV.com