Buffy the Vampire Slayer Re-Watch: The Puppet Show (Season 1 Episode 9)

The greatest love of all is most definitely NOT Cordelia’s singing.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer plugs into one of the classic tropes of high school when the students at Sunnydale High take part in the school’s annual “talentless” show.

Naturally, because this is not your average show about teens in high school, the talent show turns deadly nearly immediately, leaving Buffy and the Scooby gang to solve the mystery of who is killing the students and harvesting their organs.

Just as the writers do in “I Robot, You Jane,” once again a great mystery unfolds over the course of the episode and it truly becomes a “whodunnit” among the characters we meet in the talent show.

The most obvious candidate is, of course, Sid, a ventriloquist dummy owned by Morgan. I mean, look at him. You could have nightmares for a week after just glancing at his face.

Additionally, let’s talk about Sid’s ability to move on his own, speak on his own, and wield a tiny knife unassisted. (Seriously, how cute is Sid’s tiny knife?)

The thing is, it’s so obvious that it’s Sid that it’s obviously NOT Sid. Buffy and her friends soon discover Sid’s secret: he’s a demon hunter, turned into a dummy by a curse. He’s this close to becoming a real boy and finally escaping his wooden prison.

The gang’s immediate liking of Sid is actually pretty sweet. They feel for his plight, and for his tortured love story with another Slayer in the 1930’s. While they’re all incredulous over this dummy’s ability to walk and talk, they put it all aside to help him.

And the students. Because it’s definitely easy to forget that kids are dying in this talent show pool.

We’ve seen Cordelia over-react a lot already in Season 1, but we at least get to the warm gooey center of why she takes the death of other students so hard; she’s actually terrified that she might become a victim, eventually.

That’s not to say it’s not still hilarious to watch her take the deaths of students whose names she doesn’t even know to heart.

Cordelia is growing into being a character I love having around, if only for comic relief. Her name is in the credits, so we know she’s sticking around. Will she join the Scooby gang eventually, putting away her beef with Buffy? It certainly seems like a possibility, but only time with tell.

This is easily the funniest episode of Season 1. Between Cordelia’s awful rendition of Whitney Houston’s, “The Greatest Love of All,” the terrible Greek tragedy that Buffy, Willow, and Xander re-enact, and Sid’s, er…attraction to the Slayer, there’s never a span of more than five minutes without a genuine laugh out loud moment.

Sid: You know what they say! Once you go wood, nothing’s as good.

“The Puppet Show” also features a memorable introduction as we meet Principal Snyder, the new guy at school that isn’t quite as keen on fresh starts as his predecessor, Principal Flutie.

Snyder: My predecessor may have gone in for all that touchy-feely relating nonsense, but he was eaten.

Right away, we know that he’s in on the secret; something weird happens in Sunnydale. He doesn’t know quite what it is, but he immediately zeroes in on Giles, Buffy, and her friends.

Principal Snyder is an even more menacing villain than the Master. The Master is pretty clear about his intentions for the Slayer. Principal Snyder, on the other hand, taps into Buffy’s real life, the one that she’s working so hard to keep some normalcy in.

He’s going to tear her apart and tear her down. And we’re going to hate him for it. I can see it already.

My disdain for Principal Snyder predates my hatred of yet another authority figure in fiction, Dolores Umbridge, of the Harry Potter book series. I find the similarities between the two so striking that I can’t help but wonder if J.K. Rowling is a Buffy fan.

Speaking of the Master, we’ve gone two episodes now without a mention of the season’s Big Bad, and without an appearance from Angel. We can only assume that the Master is biding his time, and Angel is still creepily stalking Buffy from the shadows.

“The Puppet Show” sets a new precedent for Buffy the Vampire Slayer; the ability to take a totally unique idea for a villain, add a lot of humor into it, and still leave us a bit teary-eyed in the end.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer will continue to try new things in storytelling, and set the bar for what will be acceptable in a sci-fi show in the future. Were it not for an episode like, “The Puppet Show,” there are a number of episodes of future shows like Supernatural that could never have taken place.

Buffy, and Sid, are pioneers in sci-fi television.

Pop Into Pop-Culture:

• “Redrum” is a classic line from The Shining.
• Buffy and Xander imitating the famous pose from the painting, “American Gothic.”
• Keyser Soze is the villain of The Usual Suspects.

Cordeliaisms:

• “It’s just such a tragedy for me!”
• “My song is about dignity and human feelings and personal…hygiene or something.”
• “There’s something wrong with my hair? Oh god!”
• “Looks like someone digs you. That’s adorable. You and the dummy could tour in the freak show!”
• “I can’t go out there. All those people staring at me and judging me like I’m some kind of…Buffy!”

Fashion Faux-Pas:

• Willow’s rubber ducky t-shirt.
• The amount of overalls worn by teenage girls.
• Buffy’s velour leopard print dress.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Re-Watch, when nightmares become reality and girls become invisible!