"Inca Mummy Girl" is episode four of season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, originally airing on The WB on October 6, 1997. The episode was written by former series story editors Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer (penning their second and final script for the show) and directed by Ellen S. Pressman.
Buffy and Giles are suspicious of Ampata, a Peruvian exchange student staying at Buffy's house, when a fellow student goes missing during a school field trip to the Natural History Museum and a broken Peruvian pictogram-cover plate is found in his place. Meanwhile, after Xander falls head over heels for Ampata, he faces certain death when his love interest is revealed to be an ancient mummy who must kill to stay alive.[1]
Plot
As part of a cultural exchange program at Sunnydale High School, students are paired with international students who will live with them for two weeks. In preparation, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her classmates take a field trip to the museum, where they view an exhibit featuring a 500-year-old mummy of an Inca Princess. Buffy reveals her mother (Kristine Sutherland) signed her up for the program, and she has been paired with a male student named Ampata. Xander (Nicholas Brendon) becomes jealous upon learning that Buffy's exchange student is male.
After the class leaves the museum, a student named Rodney (Clayne Crawford) attempts to steal a ceramic plate from the Inca Princess' sarcophagus. In doing so, he accidentally breaks the seal preserving the mummy, which comes to life and drags him into the coffin.
Later, the Scoobies realize Rodney has not returned from the field trip. They sneak into the museum at night and are confronted by a man dressed in traditional Inca clothing wielding a sword. He attacks them but quickly retreats. Upon examining the sarcophagus, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) observes that the mummy now has braces, leading the group to conclude that the mummy drained Rodney's life force and left his body behind.
Buffy realizes she is running late and rushes to the bus station with Willow and Xander to meet Ampata. Meanwhile, the Inca mummy lures the real Ampata away and drains his life force. When Buffy and her friends arrive, the Inca Princess (Ara Celi) — now appearing as an attractive teenage girl — poses as Ampata. Since no one has seen a photo of the exchange student, they assume the gender difference is a misunderstanding with the exchange program. "Ampata" is taken to Buffy's house, where Xander quickly becomes smitten with her. She appears to return his affections, which makes Willow visibly jealous.
At school, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) makes plans to meet Devon (Jason Hall) at the dance that evening where his band, Dingoes Ate My Baby, will perform. Sven, the Swedish exchange student staying with Cordelia, obediently stands nearby. Cordelia complains to Devon that Sven does not speak English. After they leave, Devon discusses Cordelia's attractiveness with his friend and bandmate Oz (Seth Green), who remains unconvinced. Devon teases Oz for being too picky, saying that as the band's lead guitarist, he could date anyone.
Meanwhile, Willow and Xander discuss their costumes for the upcoming costume dance. Willow is excited, while Xander is intent on making an impression on Ampata. Buffy and Ampata arrive at school, and the group meets with Giles (Anthony Head), who has been researching the markings on a fragment of the broken Inca seal. He asks Ampata, as a South American native, if she can assist with a translation. Ampata hesitantly examines the artifact and identifies the word "bodyguard." She explains a local legend about a warrior who was entombed with the Inca Princess to protect her from anyone who might harm her.
Xander and Ampata sit on the school bleachers, flirting and sharing snacks. In the library, Buffy focuses on researching while Willow is distracted by Xander's growing interest in Ampata. Buffy reassures her that Ampata will only be staying for two weeks, but Willow fears Xander will continue to overlook her. She admits she never minded Xander's crush on Buffy because it was unrequited. Giles then realizes that the Inca mummy is likely responsible for Rodney's death.
On the bleachers, the bodyguard (Gil Birmingham) — the man who attacked them at the museum — lunges at Xander and Ampata, demanding the return of the seal. They escape, but he later corners Ampata in the bathroom. She pleads for mercy, claiming she was forced into sacrifice, but he condemns her for killing to survive. She overpowers him and drains his life force.
In the hallway, unaware of what happened, Xander asks Ampata to the dance, and she accepts. Willow sees the exchange and is heartbroken.
That night, the real Ampata's trunk arrives from the bus station. When Buffy starts to open it, the Princess quickly distracts her, as the mummified body is inside. Instead, she speaks about the Inca seal and the fate of the Princess — sacrificed at sixteen, the same age as Buffy. Although frustrated to be missing the dance, Buffy helps Ampata get ready by lending her some lipstick.
At the costume party, Ampata arrives dressed as an Inca princess, captivating Xander with her beauty. Willow attends alone, wearing an oversized Inuit parka, and is insulted by Cordelia. While Xander and Ampata share a slow dance, Oz notices Willow and is intrigued. Suddenly, Ampata's hands begin reverting to their mummified state. She abruptly leaves Xander on the dance floor and lures Jonathan (Danny Strong) away, intending to drain his life force. Before she can act, Xander arrives, causing Jonathan to flee.
Giles arrives at Buffy's house and informs her that the bodyguard's mummified remains were found in the school bathroom. They open Ampata's trunk and discover the real Ampata's mummified corpse inside. They inform Willow, who leaves the dance just before Oz can introduce himself. Giles goes to the museum to reassemble the sacred seal, while Buffy rushes to save Xander from the Inca Princess' deadly kiss. However, the Princess, having developed genuine feelings for Xander, is unable to harm him and rushes to the museum instead. When Buffy arrives to help, she and Giles are briefly trapped inside the sarcophagus and rendered unconscious. As Willow arrives, the deteriorating Princess attempts to drain her life force. Xander intervenes and offers himself instead. Before she can act, Buffy yanks her away and discovers she has fully reverted to her mummified state. The body then crumbles to dust.
The next day at school, Xander comments that he has terrible taste in women. Buffy reassures him that the Inca Princess truly cared for him but was trapped by tragic circumstances. Xander compares her fate to Buffy's own destiny as the Slayer, noting that she too was expected to die. Buffy reminds him that he was there to bring her back.
Continuity
Vox notes, "There’s the introduction of Oz, and Jonathan's first appearance on the series proper after he showed up in the unaired pilot."[2]
Xander asks Ampata, "You're not a praying mantis, are you?" in reference to Xander's crush in "Teacher's Pet."
Cultural references
The Inca Princess in this episode was inspired by the story of Mummy Juanita, a real mummy discovered on the extinct volcano Ampato near Arequipa, Peru, in 1995.[3]
"Inca Mummy Girl" had an audience of 3.2 million households.[4]
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked this episode as #133 out of the 144 episodes in honor of 20th anniversary of the show's ending, calling it "forgettable."[5]Vox ranked it as #140 out of the 144, saying that "it did take a while for season two to outgrow season one's reliance on fun-but-dumb monsters of the week," and this is "one of the dumbest and the least fun."[6]
Reviewer Mike Loschiavo applauded "the gruesomeness of the episode... It explored a horror trope with compassion. ... this was about a creature that struggled with killing," and "we find out that she was a chosen one herself."[7]
"Inca Mummy Girl" was ranked at #126 on Paste Magazine's "Every Episode Ranked" list[8] and #128 on BuzzFeed's "Ranking Every Episode Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer" list.[9]
InsectReflection.com discusses the similarities between two Chosen Ones, specifically with Buffy's choice to sacrifice herself for the sake of others in "Prophecy Girl", while Ampata chooses to live and make others pay that price:
In both cases, a Slayer is told by their Watcher that they must die. The difference lies in how Ampata and Buffy react to that. ... While Xander's kiss revitalises Buffy and fills her with new strength, Ampata's kiss drains others of their life force. ... In a way, she could be seen as a more weak-willed version of Angel in "Amends" – who is prepared to sacrifice her love, to lose herself and her humanity in the embrace. Ampata is in fact doing double-shifts in the metaphor here – she is Buffy of course, but she is also Angel, the undead creature threatening to consume her Heart.[10]
IsPrettyAwesome.com observes that the Mummy Girl's "real name is never revealed" and wrote similar sentiments:
She was an innocent girl chosen for an unpleasant fate, and now she is willing to sacrifice people in order to experience some of the joys she missed before. Her powers are classic Bathory – draining the life from other people to maintain her own youth! It's really just vampirism in a slightly different form... The show is savvy enough to complicate this metaphor, because the people who sacrificed the Inca Mummy Girl were indeed monstrously unfair, and submitting to her fate will indeed ruin her life. So the show cleverly has its cake and eats it too – it criticises that selfishness while also agreeing that teenagers can be right about stuff.
Here, the comparison is with Ampata and Xander, rather than with Ampata and Angel: "The climax brings Xander's and IMG's respective selfishnesses into collision. Xander is the one who demands the Inca Mummy Girl leave Willow alone – if she's going to murder anyone, it's got to be him. It's his turn to step up to his responsibilities, the same test that Buffy passed, and that Inca Mummy Girl failed."[11]
An essay on Willow's costumes and dress in Buffy discusses the "themes of identity, costume, and duality" in "Inca Mummy Girl" and the later episode "Halloween". Oz notices her for the first two times when she is costumed - here, in "her adorable but slightly cultural appropriate-y "Inuit" costume," and at Halloween in "the full-body ghost costume and the 'generically sexy' costume. Both are very much performances in their own way."[12]
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