History Recap / BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E3TheWitch

** Catherine has one of her spells turned back on her, and seemingly vanishes. At the end of the episode, it turns out she's been trapped in one of her old cheerleading trophies. She presumably died when they blew the school up at the end of season three, but fans speculate that this somehow released Catherine to possess her daughter Amy again, explaining Amy's otherwise inexplicable FaceHeelTurn in Season 6 -- although the in-continuity comic series {{Jossed}} this.

** The bracelet Xander gave Buffy shows up later as the token Amy uses to cast a deadly spell on her.

* {{Pilot}}: Whedon's philosophy is that the first six episodes are the pilot of a show. Thus they spend more time explaining the premises and showcasing Buffy's and the gang's abilities than they would otherwise.
* PoorMansPorn: Xander regularly checks out rare occult books on witches -- not because he has any interest in witchcraft, you understand, but because the engravings feature half-naked women (the depths teenage boys would sink to before the rise of the internet). His line admitting to this is actually the quote for that page.

* AnticlimaxCut: Giles' long rant at the beginning of the episode. See the page quote.

* NotSoDire: Giles' reaction to Buffy's desire to be a cheerleader. See the page quote.

* RealityEnsues: Catherine might have been good enough for the cheer-leading squad back in her day, but in the present day, aka her daughter's body, she can't quite pull off the moves necessary to get a spot on the team. Possession of someone's body doesn't necessarily include your ''own'' muscle memory.

* NoOSHACompliance: Keeping a fire ax in a school hallway? ''Really?' (On the other hand, this is Sunnydale. The fire axe will come in useful in future episodes.)

* PoorMansPorn: Xander regularly checks out rare occult books on witches -- not because he has any interest in witchcraft, you understand, but because the engravings feature half-naked women (the depths teenage boys would sink to before the rise of the internet).

* WhamLine: An ill Buffy notices a plate of nibbled brownies at Amy's house, and her "mother" is acting nervous and stumbling over her words when Giles confronts her, saying "Since Dad...her dad left...". Buffy then asks, "Are you Amy?" and has her EurekaMoment. Both the bodyswapped Amy and Giles are in StunnedSilence, before Giles goes OhCrap.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation:
-->'''Xander:''' [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 I laugh in the face of danger]]...then [[CowardlyLion I hide until it goes away]].

* Just Keep Driving: As Cordelia stands in the road after crashing the Driver's Ed car through the fence, a UPS delivery van is coming towards her. Its driver makes no attempt to slow down or stop, and doesn't even bother to blow the horn. He doesn't even stop after hitting the Driver's Ed car!

Written by Dana Reston, Creator/MattKiene, Joe Reinkemeyer, Creator/RobDesHotel, & Creator/DeanBatali

Written by Dana Reston, Creator/MattKiene, Creator/JoeReinkemeyer, Creator/RobDesHotel, & Creator/DeanBatali

Written by Creator/DanaReston, Creator/MattKiene, Creator/JoeReinkemeyer, Creator/RobDesHotel, & Creator/DeanBatali

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Buffy looks in a crate at a fertility statue. "[[GagPenis Jeepers!]]"

-->'''Giles:''' This is madness! What can you have been thinking? You are the Slayer! Lives depend upon you! ''(begins pacing)'' I make allowances for your youth, but I expect a certain amount of responsibility, and instead of which you enslave yourself to this, this... ''(stops pacing)'' Cult?
--> '''Buffy:''' ''(wearing a cheerleader outfit)'' You don't like the colors?

Elsewhere, in a creepy den with dolls and dried flowers hanging from the ceiling, someone in a dark robe dangles a medallion over a cauldron of bubbling green liquid and yanks a cheerleader-shaped voodoo doll off a hook. Ominous music plays.

At the cheerleader tryouts, Buffy, Willow, and Xander discuss the situation. Xander likes the girls stretching in spandex. Then he gives Buffy a bracelet bearing the legend "Yours always". He insists they all came that way. The camera focuses on Amber Grove, clearly a notch above the rest of the girls, standing on the toes of one foot while raising the other above her head, while Cordelia complains. We then meet Amy Madison. Willow is surprised that she's trying out for the squad and lost a lot of weight to do so.

Amber is performing superbly when something strange begins to happen. Smoke begins pouring from her pompoms. Then her arms catch fire. Buffy rushes to smother the flames with a banner while the rest look on in horror. Cue the intro.

Back in the library, Giles tells the gang that this isn't a case of vampires, though it's certainly abnormal. He muses briefly that it might be spontaneous human combustion, spoken of for centuries, but those usually just leave a pile of ashes. As combustion is usually caused by extreme rage plus a mystical extra, Willow is tasked with looking into Amber's records to see if she's had episodes before. Xander goes to seek information around the school. Buffy wants them to be careful.

Back home, Buffy finds her mother unpacking crates of artwork for her gallery. Buffy briefly tries to engage her mother's interest in her cheerleading tryouts. Her mother, distracted, hopes it will keep Buffy out of trouble, points out that she doesn't have time to help Buffy with her practice, and leaves.

The next day, Buffy and Amy return for the new audition. At the end of the routine, Amy falls after her cartwheel and lands on Cordelia. In the hall, an upset Amy looks at her mother's trophies, displaying her cheerleading talents. She tells Buffy about her parents' high school romance, then tears it apart by recounting her father's infidelity and the divorce. Her mother, Catherine, made it out alright, though; she put herself through cosmetology school, bought Amy everything she ever wanted, and never once gained a single pound. Buffy tries to reassure her that she doesn't have to be exactly like her mother, to no avail.

Willow walks up as Amy walks away and provides some background; they used to hang out in middle school. Amy's mother is obsessive about her appearance and some of that splashed onto Amy. Buffy inquires about Amber; no special information. Next up: waiting for the next shoe to drop.

In the locker room, we're treated to a slow pan to Amy. Cordelia confronts her and tells her that if she messes up Cordy's chances to get on the squad, she'll be ''beyond'' sorry.

Outside, they've posted the squad list. Xander pushes through the crowd and Cordy walks out. Cordy made it; Buffy's first alternate and Amy is number three. He's not aware that that means they didn't make it.

From the exterior of a house to the threatening interior we saw in the open, with its bubbling cauldron, someone performs an incantation, wrapping a cloth around a doll's head and offering it as sacrifice in proxy for Cordelia.

The next day, Buffy prepares breakfast as her mother walks in with her own old high school yearbook. Joyce tries to convince Buffy to join another club, perhaps yearbook like she did. Buffy protests that she wants to do her ''own'' thing, not Joyce's. Joyce replies that her ''own'' thing got her kicked out of school.

At school, Cordelia, in a daze, ignores and doesn't insult Xander. Xander and Willow muse on the meaning of Xander's invisibility and he talks himself into asking Buffy out. Unfortunately, as she arrives she's distracted by Cordelia's confused wandering and he doesn't have time to do so. Cordelia wanders out of the building to her driver's ed class. She appears to be having trouble seeing, tries to avoid getting behind the wheel, but gets put there anyway. She ends up driving wildly, eventually out into the street and into traffic, luckily without hurting anyone. Buffy pulls her out of the street before she can get run over, when it's revealed that her eyes have gone blank and she can't see. Another cheerleader is off the squad.

In the library, Giles confirms that blinding and disorienting your enemies is a classic move from witchcraft. Willow opines that Cordelia has too many enemies to count, but Amber doesn't. All they have in common is cheerleading. Giles muses that someone hates cheerleading. Buffy goes the other way: someone likes it too much. Their new suspect is Amy. Fortunately, Giles has a potion for detecting a witch.

In the biology lab, the gang prepares the spell (nitric acid, mercury, eye of newt[[note]]frog will do in a pinch[[/note]], and Amy's hair). When poured on her skin, the solution turns blue; Amy's a witch. But as soon as Buffy confirms that, another student panics and the rest are horrified as her mouth disappears from her face. Amy looks shocked, and the gang are confused. Apparently it's ''not'' Amy, though the test came up positive. They suspect Amy just doesn't know what she's doing.

Back at the sinister house, now confirmed to be Amy's, we see her walking up the front walk and through the door. In a sinister voice, she seeks out her mother. She demands that her mother write her history report, muses that she belongs on the team, and threatens the gang. She reveals that she has Buffy's bracelet.

Buffy's next morning begins with her disoriented and... stereotypically blonde. She bounces into the kitchen, singing, and snags some juice. She chats for a bit, then snags more juice. Buffy accidentally lets slip that she's the Slayer (fortunately it gets ignored), and Joyce shows some concern as Buffy bounces out the door.

At cheerleader practice, Buffy's behavior is getting worse. Her ditziness leads her to behave erratically and injure a fellow cheerleader. First she steps on someone's foot then accidentally throws her across the room. Amy's now on the team. Willow and Xander stop an increasingly erratic Buffy from blurting out that Amy's a witch and drag her from the room. In the hallway, she blurts that she thinks of Xander as one of the girls, then collapses.

In the library, Giles informs the gang that it's a bloodstone vengeance spell. It hits the body like a quart of alcohol before shutting down the immune system. Unlike the other girls, the witch wants Buffy dead. She only has a few hours. Fortunately, his research has indicated that if they can get hold of the witch's spellbook, they can reverse all of her spells. The alternative is to decapitate the witch. The witch would need a sacred space, with a pentagram and a cauldron. Buffy and Giles go to Amy's home while Xander and Willow keep an eye on Amy and keep her away from the science lab, where Giles will cast the counterspell.

At the Madison home, Giles and Buffy confront Catherine, sitting on the couch and eating brownies. She tries to get them to leave, but they barge in. A few verbal gaffs and the brownies clue Buffy in that Catherine is in fact Amy; her mother switched their bodies. Amy as Catherine explains to them that she didn't know about her mother's powers, and how horrible she was, and that a few months prior she woke up in her mother's bed... Buffy reassures her that everything will be fine. Giles takes note of the important information; she would lock herself upstairs. The horrible room from the cold open is the Madison attic. They find her spellbook and Buffy, Giles, and Amy leave for the school.

At the school, the basketball game has begun and Catherine is with the rest of the cheerleaders at the gym. Giles carries Buffy into the science lab and gently lays her on a table, pillowing her head on his suit jacket. They only have a few minutes. Giles prepares a smoking, bubbling potion and recites an incantation. Amy begins having strange flashes of vision, disorienting her. Catherine does as well. Unfortunately, the visions tip Catherine off that the spell is taking place in the biology lab and she heads there.

Willow attempts to stall Catherine in the hallway. Xander sneaks up behind her, but she chokes him with a spell and punches Willow. Unable to open the door to the lab, she grabs a fire-axe and breaks it down. As she raises the ax to kill Buffy, Giles' spell finally takes hold and all of Catherine's spells are reversed. She and Amy are back in their own bodies. Buffy gets off the table and greets Amy, just as she's tackled by Catherine. She flings Giles against a wall with a magically shoved table, snags the axe from Amy, delivers a few lines about how she's a bad daughter, buries the ax in the table, and threatens to send her where she won't cause trouble any more. Then Buffy stands, informs Catherine that she's feeling better, and punches her across the room. Catherine returns the favor with a spell.

As Buffy stands, wincing, Catherine prepares a particularly threatening incantation and stares at Buffy with thoroughly black eyes. At the last second, Buffy spies the mirror above the teacher's lab table and drops it in front of her, reflecting Catherine's spell back on herself. With a despairing wail, she disappears, and "the dark place shall have her soul."

Giles and Buffy reassure one another that everything is fine. Xander and Willow burst in, ready to take care of Amy, only to learn that she was her mother, and everything is okay now.

Back at home, Joyce walks into Buffy's room and declares that there's some kind of biological imperative whereby she, not being sixteen, is incapable of understanding her sixteen year old daughter. Buffy asks if she ever wishes she could be sixteen again, and Joyce shudders at the thought. "Not even if it would help me understand you." A grateful Buffy kisses her and leaves. "I don't get it," muses Joyce one last time.

At school the next day, Amy is complaining with absolute glee that her father is smothering her with caution and love. And brownies. They stop by her mother's trophy case one last time, and wonder what happened to her. As they walk away, the camera zooms in on her trophy... now with a pair of very real eyes, spinning wildly...

Buffy wants to join the cheerleading squad, just like how she was in LA. Giles tries to appeal to her common sense and sense of duty; as the Slayer, she doesn't have time to be peppy. He forbids it. She points out that he doesn't actually have any way of stopping her; anyway, she just wants to do something normal and safe. The camera cuts to a creepy den with doll heads hanging from the ceiling. Someone in a dark robe puts something in a bubbling green cauldron and grabs a cheerleader voodoo doll off a hook.

* RewatchBonus: For "Amy's" behavior after TheReveal, of course. Likewise, Catherine coming off as scared and nervous in Amy's presence becomes this when you realize she's a

* DaddysGirl: Apparently Amy, who talks about wishing that her father had let her come with him after the divorce.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Catherine wanted to relive her glory days so she steals her own daughter's body. When the spell is reversed, she tries to blast Buffy with a magic spell but it gets deflected back at her and she disappears. The Scoobies don't know what happened to her but we find out that Catherine is now stuck in her old cheerleading trophy i.e "reliving her glory days."

* RewatchBonus: For "Amy's" behavior after TheReveal, of course.

* TheAce: Amber is this for cheerleading. Apparently she turned the Lakers down.

-->'''Xander:''' [[Disney/TheLionKing I laugh in the face of danger]]...then [[CowardlyLion I hide until it goes away]].

* RealityEnsues: Catherine might have been good enough for the cheer-leading squad back in her day, but in the present day aka her daughter's body, she can't quite pull off the moves necessary to get a spot on the team. Possession of someone's body doesn't necessarily include your ''own'' muscle memory.

* FreeTheFrogs: Averted as Willow has no problem dissecting a frog. -- even though, as we learn in Season 2, she has a frog phobia.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Buffy's spell-induced ditziness makes her let slip that she's a Slayer to Joyce, who apparently accepts the brush-off Buffy gives her. In the sixth season, we learn about Buffy's institutionalization and Joyce's reaction is probably one of contained, abject ''horror''. A massive change in behavior coupled with an apparent relapse into delusion? Yeesh.

* AndIMustScream: Catherine has one of her spells turned back on her, and seemingly vanishes. At the end of the episode, it turns out she's been trapped in one of her old cheerleading trophies. She presumably died when they blew the school up at the end of season three, but fans speculate that this somehow released Catherine to possess her daughter Amy again, explaining Amy's otherwise inexplicable FaceHeelTurn in Season 6.
** The comics confirm that she's still trapped.

--> '''Buffy:''' ''(wearing a cheerleader outfit)'' You don't like the color?

* AnticlimaxCut:
-->'''Giles:''' I make allowances for your youth, but I expect a certain amount of responsibility, and instead of which you enslave yourself to this, this... cult?\\
''[reveal: Buffy in cheerleader uniform]''\\
'''Buffy:''' You don't like the colors?