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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Puppet Show, E01E09

My favourite season one episode!

If Angel was a turning point in the show's mythos, then The Puppet Show is a standalone example of what the show can be on a weekly basis: high concept premise, clever twists, genuine pathos and a great guest-star. It’s also the only episode in this season (barring the finale) that moves away from the “high school metaphor” format and just focuses on being a fun supernatural murder-mystery.

These days it would be classified as filler, since it’s a Monster of the Week story that’s entirely self-contained, though it does herald the arrival of Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder. And it’s about the time-honoured high school tradition of annual talent shows for students who have very little actual talent.

It starts off from the point-of-view of the monster, with a scary voiceover and a creeping “monster-cam” that crawls through the backstage dress rehearsals of the auditorium – and it’s a total cheat since we see Morgan, Sid and Marc from this so-called demon’s perspective. I mean, if it was just the first two, then it would be a clever indicator that they’re not in fact the demon that Buffy is looking for. But Marc is there too, so whose perspective is this scene coming from?

Ah well. Giles has been put in charge of overseeing the show by the new school principal (or as he puts it “our new furore”) and is slowly dying as he watches Cordelia’s terrible singing performance. I can’t fathom the thought process that would lead Snyder to deciding that “the school librarian should manage the talent show,” but he needs to be involved for plot purposes, so whatever.

Snyder arrives just in time to hear Buffy, Xander and Willow make fun of Giles for his new responsibilities, and promptly informs them they’ll be participating in the show as well.

Just to make sure we’re all paying attention, he also rattles off a boatload of continuity: reminding the trio that his predecessor was eaten, that the three of them left school yesterday (to fight the robot-demon in “I Robot, You Jane”) and that he’s sick of all the strange occurrences in the school, including: “suicide, missing persons, spontaneous cheerleader combustion...”

So I guess poor Dave is going to be remembered as the guy who hanged himself.

There’s a fun musical cue when Buffy sits down glumly right on the final note of the tuba-player’s performance, and Giles tries to hide his amusement.

The next act is a student called Morgan Shay with a ventriloquist dummy by the name of Sid. He’s pretty bad at first, until all of a sudden (which is made out to be part of the act) the dummy starts insulting him. Morgan’s lips aren’t moving, though the jokes still aren’t worth the amount of laughing that’s going on.

Meanwhile, Buffy says of dummies that: “they give me the wig.” Bless, they’re still trying to make “wiggins” happen. They’ve even shortened it.

Once rehearsals finish, we get the monster-cam vision again, as a ballet dancer packs up her stuff and then makes the fatal mistake of investigating a noise and calling out: “hello, is someone there?” instead of just booking it. Who cares if someone is there? Just leave.

The following day, our trio have decided on performing a dramatic scene from Oedipus as the least painful way of getting through the show, and once again Morgan – apparently – starts speaking as Sid in order to make some suggestive jokes. Thankfully, Buffy shuts down the horny dummy shtick (it was dated even in the nineties) only a few seconds before everyone hears a scream.

Emily the ballet dancer’s body has been found, minus her heart. Everyone is suitably sober, though because this is Sunnydale High, the mutilated corpse of a peer found on campus is not enough of a reason to send the rest of the student body home for the day.

Giles approaches the trio and tell them that Emily’s heart was removed, and that the murder weapon was a knife – which suggests a human culprit. Everyone is appalled at this, even though they’ve dealt with a human would-be killer in the past (the zookeeper from “The Pack”). Buffy doesn’t buy it, though given the location of Emily’s death, the obvious first step in any investigation is to question the rest of the talent show participants.

(As has been mentioned before, any police presence would obviously severely hinder the writers’ ability on a Doylist level to just let the show’s main characters solve this particular mystery, but their complete absence in this episode is pretty weird. They’re represented by a bit of police tape and a faceless extra and that’s it).

Everyone splits up to interrogate the rest of the talent show, and everyone from the juggler to the magician to the tuba player point the finger at a single suspect: Morgan. Apparently he’s been muttering to himself lately and acting like he’s in pain, and was the last to speak to Emily before she was found dead.

And hey, one of these characters in this montage is played by a Black actress, which takes the number of Black people living in Sunnydale up to a grand total of three (the other being Blayne’s friend in “Teacher’s Pet” and the girl whose mouth disappeared in “Witch”).

Seeking out their prime suspect, Buffy finds Morgan in the auditorium, seemingly in an argument with his dummy. He covers by telling her that he’s practicing throwing his voice, and there’s a nicely staged little scene between the three of them in which Morgan has to negotiate a conversation with Buffy while also pretending to be speaking for the sentient puppet that won’t stop interjecting!

Rich Werner actually does really good work in this role, having to act constantly distracted and twitchy in a way that points just as much to ill health as it does to demon-related shenanigans. As with Dave, I feel desperately sorry for Morgan in regards to what happens to him.

Buffy decides to break into Morgan’s locker to search for more clues, but is caught by Principal Snyder, who makes some thinly veiled threats. I’d totally forgotten that the script treats him as a candidate for the killer!

I support a girl’s right to wear whatever she wants, but wow, that’s a tiny dress.

Unbeknownst to both of them, Morgan and Sid are watching them from behind a half-closed door, and they’ve seen Buffy’s super strength in busting open the lock.

Throughout the episode so far, there’s been some cute double-meaning talk between them, from: “right now you and me gotta be on the lookout. Figure out who's gonna be next,” to “you saw what she did, how strong she is. She's the last! Just this one more, and I'll be free.”

It’s dialogue that matches either one of the theories that Giles and Willow have come up with: that the killer is a type of demon who must steal brains and hearts every few years to keep up their human visage, OR that a dummy like Sid “already possessed of consciousness” could act upon their desire to become human by harvesting organs.

And yet, not all the pieces fit. As Giles points out, Morgan is getting weaker, not stronger. And if Sid is the demon, why does he need to be in league with Morgan? Morgan certainly acts nervous and edgy, suggesting he’s afraid of his puppet, but what exactly is his purpose in this partnership?

The truth of what’s really going on makes all this clear, but for now at least, I love it when stories introduce theories that get discarded when the evidence doesn’t fit, when the audience is exposed to disparate clues that don’t add up; all leading to the characters finally reaching a solution that accounts for everything they've witnessed. For some reason, logical wrongness in fiction is fascinating to me.

In a bit of padding that also serves as a reminder that Joyce still exists, there’s a cute little scene between her and Buffy in which Buffy talks her out of attending the talent show. Later that night, she’s convinced something managed to break into her bedroom – and the open window supports that claim.

The next day I’m thrilled to meet yet another member of the Sunnydale High faculty: a history teacher called Mrs Jackson. She seems passionate about her chosen field and is nice to her students, so I hope she made it out of her teaching tenure alive and well.

In this scene Sid does a Natalie French-level neck-swivel to stare at Buffy, and when Mrs Jackson can’t get Morgan’s attention, she takes Sid from his desk to stash in a cupboard for the duration of the class. Once the period ends, Morgan attempts to retrieve him, and gets incredibly flustered when it's revealed that he’s disappeared.

This time the culprit is Xander, who must have performed a fairly impressive slight-of-hand to remove Sid from the cupboard without Mrs Jackson seeing him. He’s brought Sid to the library to ascertain once and for all that he’s absolutely a puppet, and though Buffy isn’t impressed with his fooling around, takes the opportunity to find and talk to Morgan without his appendage.

Unfortunately, all she finds is Morgan’s body backstage in the auditorium – his head sliced upon and his brain removed. (And a brief confrontation directly prior to this once again asks us to believe Snyder might be responsible).

Before she can do anything, there’s a snapping sound and the chandelier falls on top of her. Okay, why the hell is there a chandelier hanging from the ceiling behind the curtains of a high school auditorium? While she’s pinned to the floor, Sid rushes up and tries to stab Buffy with a knife – she manages to fend him off, lift the chandelier, and then pin the psychotic dummy to the wall with her arm.

Sid: You win. Now you can take your heart and your brain and move on.

Buffy: I'm sure they would have made great trophies for your case.

Sid: That woulda been justice.

Buffy: Yeah, except for one thing: you lost, and now you'll never be human.

Sid: Yeah, well, neither will you.

[beat]

Buffy and Sid: What?

It’s a great Bait and Switch, and it cuts through all the red herrings and misdirection that the episode has thrown at us. Sid is not a demon, but a demon hunter under a curse. Morgan wasn’t in the puppet’s thrall, but just a nervy teenager trying to assist Sid in his mission to kill the last of the demon brotherhood. Sid referring to “freeing himself” referred to his chance to lift the curse that turned him into a dummy. The reason they targeted Buffy was because from their point-of-view her super strength made her the prime candidate for the demon. It answers every question but one: if neither Sid nor Buffy is the demon, then who is?

Sid is sure it’s someone from the talent show (which is about to start) and so instructs Giles to form a “power circle” with all the participants in attendance. Since the demon has obtained his heart and brain, then whoever’s not there has to be the demon.

Problem: everyone is there. More red herrings: Sid disappears and Giles spots Snyder lurking around backstage. But he’s got no time to confront him – the show must go on!

And in her search for Sid, Buffy finds a brain. It’s obviously Morgan’s, who was a very smart guy, so why did the demon reject it? Willow checks his school records and discovers he was suffering from brain cancer – which explains all the headaches he was having and why the demon is still on the loose. It still needs a healthy, intelligent brain.

That’s easy, decide Buffy and Xander. All they have to do is protect Willow, the next smartest person they know. Unfortunately, this doesn’t take Giles into account, who is currently demonstrating that he’s not actually that smart by assisting Marc in his magic act by willingly allowing himself to get strapped down onto a guillotine.

Yes, the demon was Marc the whole time! Wait, who? Well, he was one of the contestants that the gang interviewed after Emily’s death, and he’s popped up a couple of times after that in a comedic capacity given that he’s absolutely no good at stage magic. I’d say his haplessness was meant to be a clue as to his true identity, but the episode has been at pains to demonstrate that none of these students have any talent.

Having realized that Giles is in imminent danger, the trio arrive just in the nick of time. As in, Xander catches the rope attached to the guillotine as it is falling, while Buffy fights the demon and Willow tries to loosen Giles’s bonds.

Um, where on earth are the rest of the talent show contestants while all this is going on?

Buffy manages to behead the demon with his own guillotine, but Sid reappears to tell her that he has to take out the heart for it to die properly. Then, his curse will finally be lifted. He does the deed, and the dummy slumps over. As he told her earlier, his body has long-since turned to dust. For him, “freedom” from the curse is the freedom of death.

I actually like how quiet and almost anti-climatic his final moments are: no drawn out speeches or flashing lights, not even a glimpse of his human self in spirit form before he ascends to the afterlife – just a methodical doing of what needs to be done. And the rest is silence.

Until the curtains open on Buffy holding a mannikin in the Pietà Pose, Willow brandishing an axe, and a headless demon. Snyder is not impressed. It’s such a great ending, that I’ll withdraw the question of where the heck the rest of the talent show participants disappeared to.

And hey – look! It’s a post-credit scene! This is the only episode in the show’s entire seven-year run that contains such a thing, and it’s the trio attempting to pull off their dramatic reading of Oedipus while Snyder and Giles (and the entire audience) watch to varying degrees of bewilderment and/or exasperation.

Xander forgets his lines, Buffy is utterly fed up, and Willow rushes off when stage fright strikes. It’s cute.

I love this episode because I generally love puzzle-box plots – when they’re handled properly and all the disparate pieces come together into a coherent whole. “The Puppet Show” pulls it off: the misdirection, the double-meaning loaded dialogue, the careful seeding of plot-points such as Morgan’s intelligence (“you’re one of the brightest kids I’ve seen in a long time”) and his waning health (all the headaches), the fun twist that’s predicated on our aversion to ventriloquist dummies. There's also a twinge of fairy tale ambiance about it, which is always going to get you extra points in my book.

I’ve no idea what exactly inspired writers Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali, but other famous dummies of the era include Slappy from R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books, and Scarface from Batman: The Animated Series. Both had their first appearances in 1993, predating Sid by four years – though obviously there have been hundreds of other examples of the classic ventriloquist dummies in pop culture before and since “The Puppet Show” first aired in 1997.

And Sid is a great character, so much so that if they ever make a Buffy the Vampire Slayer prequel (I envision a miniseries that focuses on one of Buffy’s distant predecessors) it would be very cool to see his backstory play out in full. The script wisely but tantalizingly only gives us a rough sketch of who he was as a human: a demon hunter who was cursed into the body of a dummy, and who has been hunting down the seven members of the demonic brotherhood ever since.

We don’t get much more detail than that, only that he was friends (perhaps more?) with a Korean Slayer back in the thirties. So he’s been around for a while, and for all we know, that was a love story of epic proportions. Talk about Hero of Another Story potential!

Has his backstory ever been explored in more detail in any supplementary material? Because I have the vague inkling he turned up in one of the video games. [Quick Google search: something called Chaos Bleeds, where his soul is put back into a dummy by the First (!!!) before he’s finally freed at the end of the game. Huh.]

They build a strong rapport between Buffy and Sid in a surprisingly short amount of time, so much so that I felt a feeling when he slips away.

While we’re here, let’s also pour one out for Morgan. I feel desperately sorry for this character for so many reasons. At first, we’re led to believe that he’s either a demon, or a guy in cahoots with an evil dummy that has some sort of hold over him, forcing him into being an accessory to murder. Turns out he’s a perfectly decent guy struggling with brain cancer and trying to do the right thing by helping Sid hunt down the final demon.

How’d he meet Sid in the first place? Was he involved in Sid’s successful killing of any of the other demons? Why was he so certain the last demon was in the talent show? Where were his parents during all of this? And what kind of psychological impact would all this have had on the poor guy? Imagine trying to hunt down a demon while fighting brain cancer and knowing that your bright future is in jeopardy on two fronts.

And then he’s horribly murdered, and no one even cares! Sid doesn’t mention him at all after he’s killed, and (despite setting up a preexisting friendship, or at least amiable acquaintance with Willow) the rest of the Scoobies only discuss him in regards to the ongoing mystery. Heck, they demonstrated more grief for Emily, who had barely any screentime.

We don’t even see his death – he’s last seen freaking out about Sid’s disappearance in Mrs Jackson’s classroom, and then he’s brutally murdered by Marc off-screen. Come to think of it, he was probably backstage because he was looking for Sid. It’s all very, very sad.

But I still love this episode. A great guest star, a twisty-turny plot, a fun subversion of the Demonic Dummy trope, and a solid introduction to a recurring antagonist. I’m still chuffed that Snyder was heavily hinted as being the demonic killer for a fair portion of this episode.

And like I said, it’s nice to move away from the “high school is hell” metaphor and just have a quirky murder-mystery for a change.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Early on, Giles is given the line: “A demon is a creature of evil, pure and very simple.” Um, really? Cos we’re eventually gonna meet a WHOLE lotta demons who don’t fit that profile.

Cordelia is on comic relief duty for this episode, and new viewers would be forgiven for wondering what the point of her is at this stage. But her time will come. Also, no Angel for the second episode in a row.

There is a particular emphasis here on Buffy, Willow and Xander operating as a trio, which I always appreciate, from Giles saying: “oh, you three” when they turn up to mock him, to Snyder pinpointing them as “those three.” That relationship really is the crux of the show at this point: those three against the world, who are identified as such by friend and foe alike.

Armin Shimerman is given a special notation in the title sequence, in which he’s identified as a “special guest”. Does he keep this honour for the duration of the show? I can't recall.

Xander jumps at the sight of a mime, which mildly foreshadows his fear of clowns in the next episode (which has otherwise never come up before).

Willow apparently plays the piano, something that has never been mentioned before, nor will be ever again.

In hindsight, it’s actually pretty funny at just how little Sid gives a shit when it comes to talking of his own volition in front of other people. He did it constantly. I suppose he knew Morgan was just going to take the blame, and what was anyone going to do anyway? Believe he’s real?

What do you think the Scoobies did with Sid’s “corpse”? Bury it? Mount it on the wall? Give it to a travelling circus? Kept it in Giles’s basement as a souvenir?

This is the episode that taught me what a “power circle” was – when you get everyone involved in a show to gather in a circle pre-curtain and rev them all up. I’ve since used it in real life.

A recurring feature of this episode was that Buffy’s instincts were consistently correct, despite everyone else’s skepticism. She doesn’t believe that a human being was responsible for Emily’s death, and she’s right. She thinks that Sid is a sentient being, and she’s right.

Later, she believes that neither Morgan nor Sid are the culprits behind the murders – and she’s still right. Usually a story would have the protagonist assert a belief in order to demonstrate how fallible she is by proving her wrong... but in this case, the Scoobies would have done well to trust her instincts from the get-go.

When Buffy, Xander and Willow burst out of the library and go rushing down the hall to save Giles, there’s a brief glimpse of someone in the hall behind them. A janitor? An extra? A crewman that wandered into frame? Until I got the screenshot I assumed it was Snyder and that a scene had been cut which featured him slowing them down somehow, but apparently... it's just some guy in the hall.

As stated, there’s not much evidence that Marc the magician is the demon beyond the fact he’s really bad at magic, which might just be the weak note of the episode. There’s no satisfaction to be found in the reveal – it’s just a random guy who made a couple of appearances throughout the episode. It could have just as easily been the juggler or the mime.

I enjoyed Giles psyching out Cordelia by staring at her hair, mostly because the idea was suggested to him by Xander, implying that a friendship is building up between them. Speaking of, Xander gets his first real Big Damn Heroes moment by catching the guillotine rope and saving Giles’s life.

In his confrontation with Buffy, Snyder tells her: “there’s something going on with you. I’ll figure it out sooner or later.” It’s a shame this never really goes anywhere, despite some later-episode hints that Snyder know more about the supernatural side of Sunnydale than he lets on... but we’ll get there.

Buffy gets the line: "OK, everyone look at me like I’m in a bunny suit 'cos I feel so stupid saying this." It’s funny because three seasons later, Anya will turn up in a bunny suit for Halloween.

Best Shot: Loved this one:

Best Line: After Snyder overhears the trio telling Giles they’ll be there to “watch” and “mock” and “laugh” over his efforts in the talent show, he tells them: “I know the three of you will come up with a wonderful act for the school to watch. And mock. And laugh... [awkward pause] At.”

It’s quintessential Snyder: summoning a certain degree of menace and then instantly blowing it. He’s so threatening and yet so pathetic.

Most Random Scene: When Buffy interviews Lisa, the tuba player, about Emily, the ballet dancer, they have this exchange:

Lisa: I didn't know her too well. There's that whole dancer/band rivalry, y'know? Buffy: I've heard about that.

HAHAHA. I want to know more about this dancer/band rivalry! They say it so matter-of-factly!

Best Reaction Shot: The Scoobies see Sid talk of his own volition for the first time:

Death Toll: Lisa, killed by the demon. Morgan, killed by the demon. Sid, sacrifices himself to kill the demon. The demon, killed by Buffy and Sid.

Grand Total: Fifteen civilians, fifteen villains, one ally (Sid).

#buffy the vampire slayer #rav's watching log #buffy rewatch

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