16A) Inca Mummy Girl. WHAT'S IN A NAME?: "The episode title itself is a throwback to horror movies of the 1950s and 1960s, like The Wasp Woman or Dracula's Daughter, where a distaff variation of a classic movie monster would wreak havoc with the unsuspecting male populace. The title is deliberately cheesy, both saluting its horror movie origins and transcending them at the same time. Kind of like the series as a whole."--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40

PRODUCTION NOTE: "Inca Mummy Girl is one of only 9 BtVS episodes in which a credited regular cast member (David Boreanaz) does not appear. The others are The Pack, I, Robot...You, Jane (Charisma Carpenter), Consequences (Seth Green), The Body (James Marsters), Normal Again (Emma Caulfield), Help (Emma Caulfield), Conversations with Dead People (Nick Brendon and Emma Caulfield), and Dirty Girls (Emma Caulfield)."--KdS, Wed, 01/29/03 at 08:32:38; Sat, 02/01/03 at 08:02:53

Teaser

16B) "It's part of this whole cultural exchange magilla." POP CULTURE, YIDDISH, AND PURIM, OY VEY!: "Chances are Xander has this word in his head due to the short-lived Hanna Barbera cartoon series Magilla Gorilla. Performed by the voice of Allan Melvin, the character debuted on television in January of 1964, and was feasibly a fixture of young Xander's Saturday morning routine. However, the actual etymology of the phrase is Yiddish so Xander may have heard Willow's older relatives say this too when they were children."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 09:48:53 See 20P and 24Q.

"The megillah is the Book of Esther [from the Bible], which Jews read on [the holiday,] Purim. It's actually 1 of 5 books called megillot (the Hebrew plural), but it's the best known of them & the one usually meant by the word. It's fairly long, & the Yiddish expression ganze megillah (whole megillah) refers to anything that's unusually complete or takes a long time to do if you're doing all of it...This may be stretching things a bit, but Purim is a holiday for dressing up in costumes, as the characters will later dress in costume for the dance. Or maybe it's not--Willow does mention her costume in the very next line."--anom, Tues, 01/21/03 at 16:50:32

16C) "My dad tried to sell me to some Armenians once." HUMOR IS PAIN: "When Xander says this, we tend to take it as a joke. Later, as we hear more about the elder Harrises (and see them in Hells Bells), I wonder." At the very least, the sentiments behind it are truthful: Xander's parents don't care much for him and all but completely ignore him, as do Willow's.--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

16D) "Sven. Isn't he lunchable?" SNACK FOOD: "'Lunchable'--Cordy's tall, hunky foreign exchange student, Sven, is compared to a pre-packaged, measured-portion meal of dubious nutritional value. Once again, Cordy is obsessed with the outer package, ignoring the inner man--a theme that runs through the episode."--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40 See 16XX and 16YY.

16E) "By guy-like we are talking big, beefy, guy-like girl, right?" XANDER JEALOUS: "Again with the jealousy. It's interesting to note that while Xander is never officially dating Buffy or Willow, he continues to be deeply possessive of them throughout the first part of the series."--Tchaikovsky, Fri, 01/17/03 at 06:10:18

"However, as time progresses, Xander's possessive nature evolves from one of a failed suitor to that of an older brother, which is reflected in the dream sequence between Buffy & Xander in the sandbox (Restless) when Buffy says 'way ahead of ya brother.' In that moment Xander sees his place in Buffy's World, and since then he's learned to accept it. However back in season two Xander still hadn't grasped his place."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16F) "...Rodney Munson. He's God's gift to the bell curve." THE BELL CURVE DEFINED: "The 'bell curve' term in the episode...refers to a theory from the early twentieth century based on the statistics of standard deviation. It can be shown that for a wide variety of measurable or gradable (quantifiable) tasks if you take a broad sampling of people and have them attempt the task, about 60 percent of everyone will do the task about as well as each other. Around 18 percent will do noticeably better, and the same percentage noticeably worse. About 2 percent will do the task dramatically better and 2 percent dramatically worse. If you plot number of people versus how well they do the task the graph will have the shape of a bell:

In education the bell curve theory stated that since people doing tasks normally performed that way, students, particularly those in large university-sized classes, should always graded that way. So given the common A-B-C-D-F grading system only 2 percent of the students could receive the top grade of A in any large class and only 2 percent of same large class would get a failing F. To a certain extent it worked, but... There are reasons why often didn't. The bell curve depends on the group being an average sampling of people. If an unusually large portion of bad students were in the class, too few of them would fail. If an usually large proportion of good students is in the class not enough of them will get higher grades. Since almost all colleges and universities have selective entry requirements, there frequently is a disproportionately large number of good students in a large college class. Despite the questionable nature of 'grading on the curve' as it was called, it was used rigidly for decades by many professors. By the time I got to college, grading on the curve was being attacked by many, many people in education, and I think I was only in one or two classes graded that way."--Cactus Watcher, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:14:40; Diagram from http://www.cis.occ.cc.mi.us/applets113/chap13/TestRandom.html (Thanks to Vickie for the link!)

Rodney is "God's gift to the bell curve," because his "abysmal academic performance hugs the bottom of the curve, thus bringing up the grades for the rest of the class."--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40

"The bell curve is sometimes called a Gaussian curve, from Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) a German mathematician and astronomer known for his contributions to algebra, differential geometry, probability theory, and number theory."--pr10n, Fri, 01/17/03 at 15:16:59

16G) "I got it. The non-violent approach is probably better here." WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...: "They've known Buffy less than a year, but they've shared at least one near-apocalypse by now if not more. They got her number. Buffy tends to kick butt first and ask questions later provided there's still someone conscious with answers. Both Willow & Xander know Buffy's got this natural inclination. Their place in the scheme of things is to sometimes hold on her reins and explore less violent alternatives. This is one of those many quiet moments where the Scoobies subtly do precisely that. Compare this quiet interchange with season seven's Selfless when Xander & Buffy argued over whether or not killing Anya was a nifty idea, and you'll see how far the three have come."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 09:48:53

"Buffy's tendency to smash first and think later is gently tweaked here, and it's brought up at various times during the series, especially during Selfless, where D'Hoffryn dubs her 'Miss Hacks Away.'"--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40

16H) "Do I?" DECONSTRUCTING BUFFY: "This is a fairly humourous foreshadowing of various issues which are dealt with later in the series. In Season Three, Faith's disturbing use of, and delight in violence makes Buffy consider her role as Slayer in Bad Girls. In early Season Five, Dracula tells Buffy that her power is 'rooted in darkness'. The physically violent nature of Buffy's job can be distracting or even harmful, and here Buffy is worried that it is hurting her character."--Tchaikovsky, Fri, 01/17/03 at 06:10:18

"This is the first time Buffy shows concern over what later becomes a major theme: that being the slayer is eliminating her humanity."--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

16I) "There're a hundred and three." BUFFYVERSE SCIENCE: "Actually, there are considerably less than that. The heaviest natural element is uranium, which is element 92, and some of the lighter elements are so far known only as artificial atoms made in nuclear reactors and particle accelerators. If ME confused this with the total number of known elements, they were still wrong, as more than 103 were known by 1997."--KdS, Fri, 01/17/03 at 04:56:28

"It's probable that Willow meant there were 103 elements to memorize for the class. A study of the Periodic Table indicates there are 90 widely accepted elements among the scientific community, plus 'Lanthanoids and Actinoids' whatever those are. Their teacher may have specified a finite number of elements to know for their test, so in the context of the moment, Willow would be absolutely right. There are also 'slots' for elements in the periodic table which are theoretically possible but are not known to exist in nature nor can they be made in a laboratory. Perhaps in Whedon's fictional universe, these extra elements do exist. This is not something Willow would ever be wrong about, even if the writers are."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 09:48:53

"OK, there are no vacant slots in the periodic table, and scientists recognize the existence of all the elements on it. When the periodic table was first put forward there were some vacant slots, and when the relevant elements were discovered they pleasingly turned out to have the properties that one would expect.

Basic atomic physics: the little number above each element in the periodic table is the number of protons present in the nucleus of every atom of the element. It's the number of protons that decides which element an atom is. You can't have partial protons so there can't be any unknown elements still hiding in there. Everything with more than 92 protons (corresponding to uranium) is too large to occur naturally. There are also some numbers of protons below 92 that are too unstable a combination to occur naturally. Everything above 92 has to be made artificially in a nuclear reactor of particle accelerator. Physicists are still trying to make progressively heavier atoms, but none of them hang around long enough to hold in your hand before they fall apart.

Lanthanides are a general name for all the elements from 57 to 70 protons and actinides are the generic name for all the elements from 89 to 102 protons. They're drawn below the main body of the periodic table, out of order, for largely historical reasons. The true order is the ascending order of proton number. Take home message - there are much less than 103 natural elements (around 90) in our universe, and the physics that lay that down are so fundamental that it's unlikely that there would be human beings walking around in any universe where that was different."--KdS,Tues, 01/21/03 at 10:57:31

"Yes, but the BuffyVerse is not our universe. The laws of physics are different there. So far as we know, things like lycanthropy and vampirism can't happen in this reality, at least not in the manner that they occur in Buffy's universe. Scientists have discovered medically proven conditions that mimic some aspects of these things, but for all intents and purposes we're talking about a fictitious universe that has things in it which ours does not, and can very well have more elements than ours, with 3.5 protons per atom or 93. And we can't assume that all the scientists in this world are 100% right. I mean, just a few hundred years ago, the finest minds in the world assumed that the world was composed of only four elements: fire, water, air, and earth. Maybe a few hundred years from now the finest minds in the world will look at today's periodic table, and reach for the red marker."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:03:26

16J) "...proceed into the Incan burial chamber." HISTORICAL GOODNESS: "The word ‘Inca’ means ‘prince in Quechua. It would be more accurate to say ‘Quechuan’ people, or ‘Runi’ (their word for themselves). But ‘Inca’ is how the audience will more easily recognize these people."--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

16K) "I hope this story ends with, 'And she lived happily ever after.'" SORRY, WILL: "As in most of the storylines in the Buffyverse...[these hopes are] over-ambitious. Joss' tendency for the most painful end to a storyline is here hinted at, even if his most tragic storylines are still to come."--Tchaikovsky, Fri, 01/17/03 at 06:10:18

16L) "And she became a scary, discolored, shriveled mummy." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "THE LEATHERED FACE OF A MUMMY. Macabre. Freeze-dried. Black holes for eyes. Shriveled lips. Ugly."--"Inca Mummy Girl" by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One

16M) "The Incan people sacrificed their princess to the mountain god Sebancaya..." HISTORICAL GOODNESS: "Misspelled in the transcript. Sabancaya, Peru is not just a mountain. It's a volcano; the middle and smallest of three glacier-topped stratovolcanoes in the Peruvian Andes. Sabancaya is located near Cañon Del Colca, Arequipa. The earliest recorded eruptions include 1750 and July 1784. More recently since December 1986, it's had a considerable number of ash explosions, and the ash it puts in the atmosphere is toxic to cattle and humans. Though scientists believe it's been an active volcano for over 300 years, it's not known whether the volcano was active in ancient Incan times. There are however sites near the volcano of pre-historic cave paintings, indicating the earliest traces of Incan people. This area is also known as "the Valley of the Condors" because it's a natural hatchery for the near extinct species."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

Sabancaya "means 'Tongue of Fire' in Quechua."--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

16N) "They could've at least wrapped her in those nice white bandages, like in the movies?" POP CULTURE TIME: "Willow's referring to the classic portrayal of mummies in Hollywood black and white films of the 1930s & 40s. The most famous of which is the portrayal of Boris Karloff in the 1932 film [The Mummy], directed by Karl Freund, which has become the template for all modern costuming of movie mummies."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16O) "His name's Ampata." WHAT'S IN A NAME?: "The inspiration for the episode surely came from an article in the 1996 National Geographic by Johan Reinhard and Stephen Alvarez entitled 'Peru's Ice Maidens: Unwrapping the Secrets.' The article described excavations underway in -- get this -- Nevado Ampato, Peru."--Sophist, Thurs, 01/16/03 at 21:30:28

Nevado Ampato is Quechuan for "Snowy Defender."

"Ampata is the feminine noun form of amparar, 'to defend or protect' in Spanish. Though Buffy's expecting a male exchange student (and one does arrive to be the mummy's snack), Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer have chosen a name that works well for our mummy girl--the feminine form meaning protector or defender (see Nevado Ampato, masculine form, above). In fact, the writers seem to have used the Quechua language reasonably well throughout...given ME's reputation for making stuff up. A fun trivium: Yma Sumac (who will be referenced in Once More, With Feeling) is a Quechuan name that means beautiful."--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

16P) "The Sunnydale bus depot." SUNNYDALE SPOTS: This is the first time we see the Sunnydale bus depot. "Not a safe place--obviously. The real Ampata is ambushed by the Incan Princess, and in Showtime, Rona is attacked by the Bringers. Unfortunately, Sunnydale's railway station isn't much safer (Crush)."--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40

16Q) ...breaking it against the side of the coffin. OOPS!: "Possible goof: When Rodney breaks the seal, it appears to break in half across the centre, but when the broken seal is seen later there’s one large piece with bits broken off around the edges."--KdS, Fri, 01/17/03 at 04:56:28

Act One

16R) "...I'm so stuffy, gimme a scone." MOCKING GILES: Buffy's mockery of Giles here is remarkably similar to Spike's mockery of Giles in the sixth season premiere, Bargaining, when he describes Giles' life as "cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea..."

16S) "Your secret identity is gonna be difficult enough to maintain while this exchange student is living with you." SHE'S NO CLARK KENT: See 5P.

16T) "Giles, come on, budge! No one likes a non-budger." SLAYER VS. WATCHER: "Here the tension between Buffy and Giles is shown, and their roles in the surrogate-father/surrogate-daughter relationship played up. The conflict is here getting towards breaking point [which has been building up since the previous episode, School Hard, where Giles kept insisting Buffy separate her Slayer and everyday lives]. In the following episode Reptile Boy, Buffy lies to Giles in order to get a night off to go to the frat house."--Tchaikovsky, Fri, 01/17/03 at 06:10:18

16U) "I think I can get my mom's car, so I'm wheel man." USEFUL XANDER: "This sentiment is echoed in The Zeppo [when Xander borrows his uncle's car in an attempt to be seen as the guy with the cool car]. Xander is always looking for ways to be useful."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16V) "See, with you we're three and everybody's safe." SAFETY IN NUMBERS: "Xander picks up on an emotional danger that results in the Buffy-Xander-Willow relationship whenever one of the females is taken out of the mix in a date-like situation. In the early seasons, when the threesome meant stability and a kind of equilibrium from the one-way romantic tensions, Xander desperately wanted to avoid getting into a place where hurting Willow or leading her on would be unavoidable. And yet he couldn't bring himself to protect himself from similar rejection from a well-meaning Buffy."--xanthe, Tues, 01/21/03 at 11:34:20

YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND: "I see this as a reinforcement of the power of friends and working together in the Buffyverse. In this episode, the B/W/X trio is threatened, such as when Xander almost gives away Buffy's secret identity to Ampata in the library later in the episode. The look of shock and concern exchanged between Buffy and Willow when he runs from the library after Ampata speaks volumes about the need for the trio to reach a new level of trust, and the challenge represented when one of them connects with an outsider. The importance of friendship and loyalty forms one of the primary themes of the series. It provides a feminist model of working in groups using consensus. Contrast this with Ampata's more individualist approach which fails in the end. By keeping her secret, she is defeated. She probably would have received sympathy and even help from Buffy if she had chosen to reveal her secret instead. The importance of friends is also reinforced by the fact the Ampata's only goal in being alive is to have friends and love. It is the one thing she could not bear to sacrifice..."--submitted by Flo

16W) "She's the kind of girl that...I'm best friends with." POOR WILL: "Xander's perspective of Willow is once again as a friend only. The initial triangle of Willow/Xander/Buffy is still just about in evidence here, although with the advent of Oz, and Cordelia's relationship with Xander, things are about to get much more complicated." Also of note is how heartbreaking it is to see Will's face light up upon hearing Xander loves her, and then the inevitable sinkage of her happiness.--Tchaikovsky, Fri, 01/17/03 at 06:10:18, with some additions by Rob

"In Inca Mummy Girl - it's worth noting that Willow keeps trying to get Xander's attention but can't, he never sees her - he looks right past her to Ampata - in the same manner that Buffy looks right past Xander."--shadowkat, Tues, 01/21/03 at 11:42:47

"Blind stupid Xander. This is a classic moment in the relationship between Xander & Willow, and illustrates that there is a mutual attraction there but Xander foolishly avoids exploring it because he feels it will ruin the friendship. This fear is realized in season three['s Lover's Walk] when Cordy & Oz catch Willow & Xander in a weak moment."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16X) "Y'know, I don't think I remember seeing Rodney on the bus back from the field trip." TEACHERS BAD: "The writers assume most of the faculty of Sunnydale to be completely inept. In the real world this probably would have been noticed by the chaperones of the field trip before the busses left the museum."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16Y) Their smiles fade as they all realize that that may not be so far-fetched. LINKAGE: "Xander hasn't learned last episode's lesson, Don't Tempt Fate by saying bad things out loud (see 15G). Nor has Willow--or Buffy apparently."--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

"An echo of the end of I Robot, You Jane, where the ending involves the three laughing hysterically at their inability to date on the Hellmouth, before realization hits them..." that this is no laughing matter (see 8TT).--Tchaikovsky, Fri, 01/17/03 at 06:10:18, with some additions by Rob

LIFE ON THE HELLMOUTH: "In the BuffyVerse, anything's possible. By this point in the series, the writers were self-conscious about how they were already repeating motifs and being rather obvious about where and when the next bad guy would strike. Here, they face this dilemma head on, unafraid of admitting the obvious."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16Z) "It's addictive, you know." SMOKING KILLS!: "One of ME's little jabs at the dangers of smoking (see 15F). Not only is it stated directly that it's addictive, it is also implied to be a stupid choice in that it is assumed to be something done by Rodney, 'god's gift to the bell curve (see 16F).'"--submitted by Flo

16AA) "Look at this series of pictograms." HISTORICAL GOODNESS: "There is no known form of written Quechua before the Spaniards came to South America and used our alphabet to transcribe it...[They had a] 'knotted rope form,' called quipus, [which] did record information of some kind using numbers. Very little research has been done on their nature though..."--submitted by @ustin

16BB) ...and swings at him with a knife. FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "ANGLE: A MAN (PERU MAN), murder in his eyes, rushes from the shadows, shrieking. Long, curved KNIFE raised. (Some people call it a huge, machete-like carving blade. We call it a long, curved knife.)"--"Inca Mummy Girl" by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One

16CC) "Did they have orthodontists?" WILLOW SMART: "Important to note here that it's deductive Willow who uncovers the truth about the body, as opposed to Giles, who overlooked what should have been obvious to them both."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16DD) "Ampata Gutierrez?" WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Ampata's last name is "a reference to Joss Whedon's assistant, Diego Gutierrez, who went on to write...Normal Again."--Tchaikovsky, Fri, 01/17/03 at 06:10:18

16EE) "...Doritos..." TRANSLATE THAT!: "Doritos are a brand of corn chips popular in America, and any relation to anything spanish is largely heretical."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

The name Doritos is "probably based on dorado/de oro ('golden')--for the golden corn they're made from, of course--w/the dimunitive ending -ito."--anom, Tues, 01/21/03 at 21:37:13

16FF) "...Chihuahua." TRANSLATE THAT!: "Chihuahuas are a small breed of dog, typically hairless (though not always - mine's a long-haired chihuahua) and most notable for their endearing but freaky bug-eyes. They are largely believed to have originated in Mexico but may have come from as far as South America."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

"The dog is named for the Mexican state of the same name (also its capital), where it was 'first noted,' according to my encyclopedia; there's a Chihuahua Desert that extends into Arizona, New Mexico, & Texas."--anom, Tues, 01/21/03 at 21:37:13

16GG) "I am Ampata." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "A GIRL appears from the dark alley. She's 16. Stunningly beautiful, but hesitant. Vulnerable."--"Inca Mummy Girl" by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One

16HH) "Ay caramba!" POP CULTURE TIME: This phrase was made popular in the United States by the eight year-old cartoon character, Bart Simpson, from the popular television show, The Simpsons (see 21WW). "Still not a great reflection on Xander's fluency in Spanish."--Tchaikovsky, Fri, 01/17/03 at 06:10:18, partly paraphrased by Rob

TRANSLATE THAT!: "Caramba & similar expressions like caray are euphemisms for carajo, a slightly vulgar term for 'penis'."--anom, Tues, 01/21/03 at 21:37:13

Act Two

16II) "Yes. For many years now." AMPATA FUNNY: "They have no idea how many! But this would be funny even if it meant only as many years as they assume it does."--anom, Tues, 01/21/03 at 16:50:32

16JJ) "And not a boy, 'cause we thought a boy was coming, and here ya are in a girl way!" JUXTAPOSITION: Willow's insecurities about Xander being in such close proximity to this girl are a perfect echo of Xander's previous insecurities about Buffy being in such close proximity to the guy they thought was coming.

16KK) ...goes to get something to munch on as Willow pours the juice. DETAILS: "Buffy eats Goldfish brand crackers during the rest of this scene. It's also a nice 'normal life' touch how Willow knows her way around the Summers kitchen."--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

16LL) "I was taken to Atlanta, Boston, New York." MUSEUM TOUR: "Ampata is referring to how her carcass would do tours of museums throughout America and the world. An interesting approach from a writing standpoint to give the audience a glimpse of Ampata's state of existence up until now. Though trapped and physically lifeless, her spirit was fully conscious the entire time. So at the very least she was bored and at most she is insane."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16MM) "Sorry about the teeniness of the room." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: The original script contains an interesting (but ultimately unnecessary) scene preceding this one, where Joyce encourages Buffy to have Ampata sleep in her room. She thinks it would be nice for the two girls to make friends, and Buffy, reluctantly, agrees. Buffy tells her "You know, next year I ought to sign up for one of those 'exchange mom' programs."--"Inca Mummy Girl" by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One

16NN) "You must teach me everything about your life." THE CHOSEN TWO: "Buffy & Ampata seem to bond very quickly. Indeed they have very much in common. Both characters are The Chosen One for their respective cultures. Both are trapped in that position, and both simply seek a normal life. Others count on both of them to be their saviour, and it's far too much of a responsibility for a young person to have to bear. However, that's where the similarities end, because how both girls dealt with their respective roles in the Big Scheme of things is dynamically different."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22 See 16III, 16JJJ, and 16NNN.

16OO) "Just like you. A normal life." NORMAL AGAIN?: "It's mildly amusing to note that in season six there were two episodes, Life Serial where Buffy was trapped in a time loop with a mummy hand, and Normal Again where Buffy almost killed her friends to escape what she believed to be madness, which basically placed her in Ampata's shoes."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16PP) "...I am *not* one of your little groupies." CORDELIA: As usual, Cordy is a trendsetter, not a follower, or at least, she likes to think of herself that way. Yes, she wants to do exactly what all the other "cool" girls want (in the next episode, Reptile Boy, for example, she'll practically do backflips to get invited to a fraternity party), but she has to project the image of being in control. She may be dating a guy in the band, but she is not a groupie, dammit!

16QQ) "Sven!" FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "SVEN, Cordelia's exchange student, stands nearby. Hulking, blond, expressionless - like a Swedish Lurch."--"Inca Mummy Girl" by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One

16RR) "She's a wonderland tour." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "There's a quiet restraint and total lack of bitterness to his [Oz's] sarcasm; where Devon is your typical excitable rock and roller, Oz is completely unflappable. His is the kind of cool that is completely unaware of itself."--"Inca Mummy Girl" by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume One

THE WONDER OF OZ: "Oz! Dude! And right off the bat, he's got the same dry humor we all came to know and love. He's immediately contrasted with Devon, who's into the eye candy; Oz prefers to be a little choosier about his women (although the whole thing with the feather boa and the theme to A Summer Place makes you wonder if he's just odd, and not choosy)."--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40

16SS) "Yeah, she's a hot girl." THE WONDER OF OZ II: "It's easy to over-interpret Oz, but at the same time there's often much in the few words he chooses to use. Here, he's making a play on words. Cordy's hot as in 'don't touch or you get burned.' Like a hot potato. It's not just that Cordy's not his type. Oz can tell from a distance that her shallowness makes her a waste of anyone's time."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16TT) "Well, it involves a feathered boa and the theme to 'A Summer Place'." POP CULTURE TIME: A Summer Place is a classic 1959 film starring Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee, whose love theme has been used repeatedly throughout the years, particularly in film parodies, to represent young, googly-eyed love. Interestingly, Buffy itself would use this music in the seventh season's Him every time one of the women looked at (and instantly fell in love with) R.J., the boy with the enchanted letterman jacket.--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24, paraphrasing and additions by Rob; some information taken from http://www.imdb.com

16UU) "They make my calves look fat." POP CULTURE TIME: This line is reminiscent of the sarcastic/slightly effeminate brand of humor of Paul Lynde, a famous comedian of the '70s, known for his appearances on game shows such as Hollywood Squares and his role of Uncle Arthur on Bewitched. He, incidentally, was a gay man who, like Liberace, appealed more, on the whole, to female fans than other gay men.--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24, paraphrasing and additons by Rob

16VV) "Why are you suddenly so worried about looking like an idiot?" XANDER DEAF?: "This blindspot or rather deafspot in Xander's thinking is reflected again in season seven's Same Time, Same Place when Buffy refers to Xander as stupid and he's completely oblivious to the cut down."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22 See 21F.

16WW) "Our archeology club." GOOD LIARS: "Both Willow and Xander (crime club) are pretty good with the coverup stories in this episode (see 5S)."--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

16XX) "It's a delicious, spongy, golden cake stuffed with a delightful creamy, white substance of goodness." DECONSTRUCTING THE TWINKIE: "A charming scene, showcasing Nic Brendon's comic talents and a reiteration of the episode's theme about golden spongy outsides and insides with no nutritional value whatsoever. In many ways, Ampata herself (pretty package, but with a big secret hidden inside) could easily be described as a 'twinkie.'"--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40 See 16D.

16YY) "And the exciting part is that they have no ingredients that a human can pronounce." DECONSTRUCTING THE TWINKIE II: "According to Sargeant Powell in the movie Die Hard, Twinkies contain 'Sugar, enriched flour, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, polysorbate 60 and yellow dye #5. Everything a growing boy needs.'

According to twinkiesproject.com they contain 'enriched flour (niacin, iron (ferrous sulfate), thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin), water, sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated vegetable and/or animal shortening (contains one or more of: canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, beef fat), eggs, and dextrose, and also containing no more than 2% of modified food starch, whey, leavenings (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), salt, starch, yellow corn flour, corn syrup solids, mono and diglycerides, dextrin, calcium caseinate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, cellulose gum, polysorbate 60, wheat gluten, lecithin, flavors (artificial, natural), artifical colors (yellow 5, red 40), caramel color, preservatives (sorbic acid).'"--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22 See 16D.

16ZZ) "I like it." THE PERFECT GIRL?: A girl who actually gets Xander's sense of humor and finds him charming? Of couse, he falls head over heels in love!

16AAA) Willow is off in her own world, idly playing with her stuffed frog. FROGS NOT SCARY?: "In the first season episode The Witch Willow participates in frog dissection for a biology class. She managed to remove an eye without a problem and referred to it as an 'eye of newt' jokingly. Xander was the one with the problem with frogs (see 3*1). [Editor's Note: Another interpretation would be that Willow has no problem dissecting a frog, because somewhere inside her, it is a mastery over her fear. She, after all is the one with the blade, cutting up the thing she is most afraid of.] However, by the second season two-parter What's My Line we learn that Willow had a bad dream about tadpoles and admits to having...a 'frog fear (see 21Mx4).' Willow also faked frog hallucinations in Killed By Death...to allow Buffy to slip past the hospital security staff (see 30TTT). Altogether frogs are only mentioned in the first six seasons of the series in four episodes, and Willow's present three out of the four times. In the episode Family, she enters the scene almost immediately after the word is mentioned."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

The fact that Willow plays with a stuffed animal of a frog here isn't necessarily an inconsistency in her character. I remember, as a young child, that I was terrified of wolves, and in fact had a lot of nightmares about them. But my mom bought me a cartoonish stuffed animal wolf with a big goofy grin, and I loved it. So sometimes someone can be able to detract from their fear of the real animal by playing with a stuffed animal version.

16BBB) "It seems Rodney's killer might be the mummy." EUREEKA!: "I refer to this as one of Giles' Of Course Moments. In some episodes there's a moment where Giles comes across some 'illuminating' discovery which leads to him being Exposition Man. It's one of the ways writers utilize the character of Giles to further the plot. I call it an Of Course Moment because sometimes he says 'of course!' as if to say, 'Eureka!' or 'Great Scott!' or 'If it'd been a snake it woulda bit me!' or 'I coulda had a V-8!' Compare to the episodes Earshot: 'Of course, demons are telepathic!' and Something Blue: 'A truth spell, of course! Why didn't I think of that?' Giles also uses 'Good Lord' in The Witch when they figure out Amy & her mother have switched bodies. The best Of Course Moment happens in Where The Wild Things Are when Giles talks with Ms. Holt, but his 'Of Course' is a bit premature. And of course sometimes he doesn't use those words at all but it's still an Of Course Moment."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

16CCC) "...the mummy is capable of...feeding off the life force of a person..." MUMMYOLOGY 101: "While Ampata's life-sucking ability brings vampires to mind, mummies are a traditional horror movie staple, Boris Karloff playing perhaps the most famous version (see 16N). They are often seen as representing a fear of aging and death...[S]ince her victims end up mummified the emphasis seems to be that she is using other people to take her place; she wants a normal life at the expense of others."--ponygirl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 12:30:51

16DDD) "We're not an archaeology club. We're in..." HONESTY: Note how quickly Xander falls for Ampata, that he feels he can trust her with Buffy's secret. The others, however, do not allow this to happen.

16EEE) "I'm tryin' to convince her that our lives aren't just danger and peril around here." UM...: "Of course, this is difficult because they are mostly danger and peril."--Vickie, Fri, 01/17/03 at 07:29:24

16FFF) "You should take her to the dance." WHAT I DID FOR LOVE: "Willow, being brave, self-sacrificing and adorable. She wants Xander to be happy, even if his happiness makes her miserable. Her true friendship will be rewarded at the end of the episode."--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40

16GGG) "I know." POOR WILLOW: This is perhaps one of the most touching scenes ever in the show's history. The depth of Willow's pain at being ignored by Xander, coupled with her utter selflessness in allowing him to take Ampata to the dance, and her quiet admission that she is his best friend, is heartbreaking. It is also very in-character for Willow. We have previously seen her, in Prophecy Girl, refuse to spend a night on a "date" with Xander, knowing that the whole time he would want to be there with someone else (see 12X). And here she doesn't want that to happen, either.

16HHH) "You're not a praying mantis, are you?" CONTINUITY CHECK: "Xander, Mr. Cautious. He's trying to avoid the mistake he made in Teacher's Pet (1.4). Poor guy--he makes it, anyway."--cjl, Fri, 01/17/03 at 22:09:40

16III) "You are the Chosen One. You must die. You have no choice." THE CHOSEN TWO: Here is the first time Ampata is explicitly referred to as "the Chosen One" in the span of the episode. "The writers purposefully use the same wording for Ampata that they use to describe Buffy, to again drive home the similarities between the two. Note also that it's not fair to turn an innocent teenage girl into a Slayer but fate did it anyway, and that Ampata's star-crossed relationship with Xander is a shadow of Buffy's fate with Angel. Sometimes life, and even life after death, just isn't fair."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22

It's also interesting that in this episode Xander falls for another Chosen One. Perhaps Ampata's similarities to Buffy are what draws him to her. See 16NN, 16JJJ, and 16NNN.

16JJJ) "Yes, I do." THE CHOICE: "Further, that though she isn't supposed to have a choice, Ampata makes a choice anyway, despite the risk. This is echoed in season five when Buffy chooses to sacrifice herself rather than her sister. Both women dare to outwit fate."--ZachsMind, Tues, 01/21/03 at 18:33:22 See 16NN, 16III, and 16NNN.

Part Two