Helpless (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Last updated
"Helpless"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 12
Directed by James A. Contner
Written by David Fury
Production code3ABB12
Original air dateJanuary 19, 1999 (1999-01-19)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
← Previous
"Gingerbread"		Next →
"The Zeppo"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3
List of episodes

"Helpless" is the twelfth episode of season three of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer . It was written by David Fury, directed by James A. Contner, and first broadcast on The WB on January 19, 1999. Giles and the Watcher's Council administer a test which drains Buffy of her Slayer powers.

Contents

Plot

In the library, Giles shows Buffy a variety of crystals, ostensibly to teach her how to identify them. Later, on patrol, Buffy's strength suddenly deserts her and she is nearly killed by a vampire. Buffy reports the problem to Giles and demonstrates her poor performance when throwing knives at a target. At home, Buffy is disappointed to find that her father is too busy to take her to the ice show for her 18th birthday; she suggests to Giles that he could take her instead. Giles has Buffy stare at a crystal until she falls into a trance, then injects her with a mysterious substance. Meanwhile, Quentin Travers, the head watcher, sets up an extreme test for the slayer, assisted by two men named Hobson and Blair.

Buffy tries to intervene when Cordelia's argument with an aggressive suitor becomes physical, but she is casually knocked aside. Buffy enlists the help of her friends to figure out what is wrong. She visits Angel who gives her a book for her birthday. He tells her about how he saw her before she was the slayer and how he loved her from the second he first saw her. Kralik, the captive vampire intended for Buffy's test, breaks out of his straitjacket while Blair is giving him his pills. He turns Blair into a vampire.

Giles goes to find Quentin at the Sunnydale Arms building, but discovers that Kralik is missing and Hobson is dead. Buffy, walking home alone, is confronted by Kralik. Blair chases her until Giles drives by and picks her up. At the Summers' home, Joyce hears a noise out front where she finds Kralik wrapped up in Buffy's jacket. Giles tells Buffy that she has lost her strength due to the injections of muscle relaxant and adrenaline suppressors he had given her, and about the test. Furious, Buffy returns home where she finds a picture of her mother bound to a chair and gagged by Kralik.

Buffy goes to the Sunnydale Arms building, beats Blair unconscious and then is chased by Kralik until his need for pills becomes unbearable. Buffy steals them away, and slides down a laundry chute where she finds her mother. Kralik breaks through the door and grabs his pills back, washing them down with a nearby glass of water. Buffy had filled the glass with holy water, causing Kralik to burn from within. Buffy frees her mother as Giles arrives and stakes Blair.

Back at the library, Quentin congratulates Buffy on her accomplishment, but Buffy is also angry with him. Because of Giles' fatherly relationship with the slayer, Quentin fires him from the Watchers' Council and prepares to assign a new watcher to Buffy, warning them not to interfere before leaving. However, Giles is still the school librarian and offers to help Buffy as a freelancer.

Reception

A reviewer for the BBC wrote that the slayer test made no sense and that "Helpless" would have been better if Faith, the second slayer, were also present. The review said the betrayal of Buffy by Giles, and the strains on their growing father-daughter relationship, was "heart-wrenching". [1] Noel Murray of The A.V. Club described the episode as "one of the most overtly horrific, with creepy dark houses and blood-spattered rooms". [2]

Myles McNutt notes that "our central characters really are alone in this fight. This doesn't mean they are helpless, of course, but it does mean that they don't have an army behind them," and that "Kralik is dangerous but has no plans to take over the world, which means that all of the consequences are about character rather than the end of the world." [3]

Vox ranked this episode at #71 out of the 144 Buffy episodes, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the show, saying, "Add in a whole mess of subplots involving Buffy pining after her dad and Angel doing some of his most self-indulgent moping, and 'Helpless' loses some of the spark it could've had by making Buffy fend for herself without her powers for the first time since before the show began. But the episode ends on a touching note when Giles gets fired from the Council for being too much like a father to Buffy, a charge he can't — and doesn't want to — deny. " [4]

Related Research Articles

Watcher (<i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>) Fictional character

In the fictional universe of the television series' Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel aWatcher is a member of a secret organization of parapsychologists. The Watchers' Council, which seeks to prepare the Slayer to fight demonic forces. A notable example of a Watcher is Buffy main character Rupert Giles. They are typically modelled after the fictional character Abraham Van Helsing from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyce Summers</span> Fictional character

Joyce Summers is a fictional character in the action-horror television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). Played by Kristine Sutherland, Joyce is the mother of the main character, Buffy Summers, and appears in 58 of the 144 episodes.

"Dead Man's Party" is the second episode of the third season of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by Marti Noxon, directed by James Whitmore, Jr., and first broadcast on The WB on October 6, 1998.

"Gingerbread" is episode eleven of season three of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by Thania St. John and Jane Espenson, directed by James Whitmore, Jr., and first broadcast on The WB on January 12, 1999. The whole town of Sunnydale vengefully investigates the death of two children, blind to the fairy tale aspects of the situation.

"Passion" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the fantasy-horror television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). The episode was written by Ty King and directed by Michael Gershman, who served as the show's cinematographer. It originally aired on The WB in the United States on February 24, 1998.

"Anne" is the third season premiere of the drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon, and first broadcast on The WB on September 29, 1998.

"Bring on the Night" is the tenth episode of the seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on December 17, 2002 on UPN.

"Buffy vs. Dracula" is the season 5 premiere of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on September 26, 2000 on The WB.

"Faith, Hope & Trick" is the third episode of season three of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode introduces the character Faith, another vampire slayer, who will become a key player in Sunnydale. While the rest of the gang gets to know Faith, Giles suspects that Faith and Buffy aren't being entirely honest about recent events in their lives. Some new vampires arrive in Sunnydale with their own agendas and a familiar face returns. It was written by David Greenwalt, directed by James A. Contner, and first broadcast on The WB on October 13, 1998.

"Homecoming" is the fifth episode of the third season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written and directed by David Greenwalt, and first broadcast on The WB on November 3, 1998.

"Band Candy" is the sixth episode of season three of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by Jane Espenson, directed by Michael Lange, and first broadcast on The WB on November 10, 1998.

"Checkpoint" is episode 12 of season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on January 23, 2001 on The WB. The episode shows the Council testing Buffy's skills, while Glory plans to go through Buffy to get the Key. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Glory is a god, not a demon.

"Amends" is episode ten of season three of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon. Advertised as a Christmas episode, it was first broadcast on The WB on December 15, 1998.

"Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" is the fifth episode of the first season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode aired on The WB on March 31, 1997. The episode was written by story editors Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali, and directed by David Semel. The narrative follows Buffy Summers, as she struggles to find a date and stop the rise of the Anointed One.

"The Harvest" is the second episode of the first season of the American supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by series creator executive producer Joss Whedon and directed by John T. Kretchmer. The episode originally aired on The WB on March 10, 1997, forming a two-hour premiere with the previous episode, "Welcome to the Hellmouth", and attracted 3.4 million viewers.

"Phases" is episode 15 of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by series story editors Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali, and first broadcast on The WB on January 27, 1998. In the episode, Oz learns that he is a werewolf, while Buffy endures the emotional trauma of dealing with Angelus.

"Lie to Me" is the seventh episode of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It originally aired on The WB on November 3, 1997.

"What's My Line" is a two-episode story arc in season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode was broadcast separately and aired on The WB. Part one aired on November 17, 1997 and part two aired on November 24, 1997.

"Graduation Day" is the season finale of the third season of the drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, consisting of the twenty-first and twenty-second episodes. They were written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon. "Part 1" first aired on May 18, 1999 and "Part 2" first aired on July 13, 1999; both airing on The WB. The second part was to originally be aired on May 25, 1999, but was postponed due to the episode's content and the occurrence of the Columbine High School shootings one month prior.

"Lovers Walk" is episode eight of season three of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by Dan Vebber, directed by David Semel, and first broadcast on The WB on November 24, 1998.

References

  1. ↑ "Episode Guide — Helpless" . Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: "Amends" / "Gingerbread" / "Helpless"". The A.V. Club . 19 June 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  3. ↑ McNutt, Myles (May 23, 2010). "Plumbing the Depths of Darkness". Cultural Learnings. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  4. ↑ Framke, Caroline (10 March 2017). "Every episode of Buffy, ranked, in honor of its 20th anniversary". Vox. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.