Surprise (''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'')

"Surprise"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode

Buffy and Angel begin to get intimate
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 13
Directed by Michael Lange
Written by Marti Noxon[1]
Production code 5V13
Original air date January 19, 1998
Guest appearance(s)

"Surprise" is episode 13 of season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by Marti Noxon and first broadcast on January 19, 1998. "Surprise" is part one of a two part story. Part two, "Innocence", was broadcast the next day.[2]

Plot

Buffy has a vivid dream (a very undead Drusilla dusts Angel) which she fears is prophetic and realises that Spike and Dru may still be alive. Oz finally asks Willow out on a date. She accepts, but remembers the Scoobies are planning a surprise party for Buffy's 17th birthday and instead invites him to the party. Elsewhere, Dru, strong as Buffy dreamed, arranges her own gala event, while Spike, using a wheelchair but quite undead as well, directs his gang to collect scattered pieces of the demon Judge to reassemble for her present. Jenny Calendar gets a visit from a mysterious man who reveals Miss Calendar's Gypsy past, and they discuss her responsibilities in ensuring Angel's continued suffering. The man orders Jenny to separate Angel from the Slayer, Jenny agrees and she reveals that the man is her uncle. On their way to Buffy's surprise party, she and Miss Calendar intercept a piece of the Judge and bring it to the party, deducing Dru's plot. Following her Gypsy orders, Jenny encourages Angel on his mission to prevent the dire consequences of reassembly—he must take the Judge's arm by cargo ship to "the remotest region possible." While Angel gives Buffy a Claddagh ring for her birthday during their tearful parting at the dock, Spike's vamps manage to steal the arm back, scrubbing the mission. Later at the library, Buffy has another informative dream, and takes Angel to investigate the factory where Spike and Dru have their lair. They discover the Judge is fully assembled and activated, and Spike and Drusilla capture and taunt the two, debating who will die first. They narrowly escape into the sewer system, then return to Angel's apartment exhausted and drenched from the rain. Still suffering from successive threats of losing one another, Angel and Buffy confess feelings each has been trying to suppress. They make love for the first time and fall asleep in each other's arms. Suddenly, in a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder, Angel bolts awake and runs out into the storm, calling Buffy's name in anguish.

Writing

Arc significance

Continuity

Cultural references

Production details

Brian Thompson, who played the Judge, also played Luke in "Welcome to the Hellmouth". Both episodes were two-parters in which his character died in the second part.

"Surprise" was the final episode to air on Monday nights on The WB. Together with "Innocence," the show transitioned from Mondays to Tuesdays as a lead-in for The WB's then newest debuting series Dawson's Creek. Both Buffy and Dawson's Creek would go on to become two of the network's signature series.

References

  1. ↑ Rhonda Wilcox (November 5, 2005). Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I.B.Tauris. pp. 112–. ISBN 978-1-84511-029-1.
  2. ↑ "Episode List: Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Retrieved August 25, 2016.
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