Re-watching episodes of Buffy for the first time since my teens, I've found I prefer the vampire episodes to the miscellaneous monster of the week episodes. Vampires, witches and demons are classic villains and work well, but other things on this show- say, for example, a giant praying mantis disguised as a high school teacher- are a little harder to swallow. This episode references the praying mantis episode and follows in its footsteps in making Xander a romantic interest for the monster of the week- this time, an Inca mummy. At first I brushed this off as another weak Buffy episode, but on reflection I realized there were a few things I liked about it, re-watched the episode, and gave it a higher rating.
The plot: Buffy and her class go on a field trip and see an Inca mummy, which one student accidentally awakens. It takes on its appearance as a teenage girl and takes the name Ampata from a boy who was going to live with Buffy and her mother for a number of days. Ampata and Xander meet and begin to like each other, with Willow becoming jealous, but Ampata has a dark secret- she has to suck the life out of innocent people so she can continue living herself. Buffy and Giles figure this out while Xander and Ampata go to a high school dance.
There are some weaknesses in the writing and maybe a little in the delivery- okay, Xander, we get the point, you don't like it that a boy might live at Buffy's house. Although the special effects mostly work, I was also not impressed when the mummy first opens her eyes. And we have a tragic villain, a mummy who started out as an innocent teenage girl who was sacrificed, but we don't get to feel much of her pain. But there are some good points to this episode- some parts are funny, with Willow hoping for a happy ending for the mummy story and later considering whether she should wait for Xander to notice her or get on with her life. And the plot is actually good. We have a villain with some parallels to Buffy, a tragic background, and, just to make things complicated and more interesting, a love for Xander. We also get helpful instructions as to how to eat twinkies. I'm a third of the way through re-watching season 2 and have been noticing the improvements over season 1, and this episode indicates that the non-vampire episodes are improving also. 7.5-8/10
The plot: Buffy and her class go on a field trip and see an Inca mummy, which one student accidentally awakens. It takes on its appearance as a teenage girl and takes the name Ampata from a boy who was going to live with Buffy and her mother for a number of days. Ampata and Xander meet and begin to like each other, with Willow becoming jealous, but Ampata has a dark secret- she has to suck the life out of innocent people so she can continue living herself. Buffy and Giles figure this out while Xander and Ampata go to a high school dance.
There are some weaknesses in the writing and maybe a little in the delivery- okay, Xander, we get the point, you don't like it that a boy might live at Buffy's house. Although the special effects mostly work, I was also not impressed when the mummy first opens her eyes. And we have a tragic villain, a mummy who started out as an innocent teenage girl who was sacrificed, but we don't get to feel much of her pain. But there are some good points to this episode- some parts are funny, with Willow hoping for a happy ending for the mummy story and later considering whether she should wait for Xander to notice her or get on with her life. And the plot is actually good. We have a villain with some parallels to Buffy, a tragic background, and, just to make things complicated and more interesting, a love for Xander. We also get helpful instructions as to how to eat twinkies. I'm a third of the way through re-watching season 2 and have been noticing the improvements over season 1, and this episode indicates that the non-vampire episodes are improving also. 7.5-8/10