: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2, Episode 13: “Surprise” (airdate: Monday, January 19, 1998): Part 3 of 3

30:01 – THE END Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . . Part 1 & Part 2 In part two of our three-part, annotated synopsis of “Surprise,” we discovered that the Scooby Gang and Drusilla were both planning parties. The Scoobies were planning Buffy Summers’ surprise birthday party. She’s turning seventeen. I think Drusilla was planning […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2, Episode 12: “Bad Eggs” (airdate: Monday, January 12, 1998): Part 1 of 3

00:00 – 15:00 Part 2 & Part 3 On this day in history . . . Among the inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Mamas & the Papas, and Santana. I approve of this selection. The #1 song in the US was “Truly Madly Deeply” by […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2, Episode 10: “What’s My Line? Part Two” (airdate: Monday, November 24, 1997): Part 1 of 3

00:00 – 15:00 Part 2 & Part 3 On this day in history . . . On the Saturday before this episode aired, November 22, Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS, died. It was either suicide or autoerotic asphyxiation gone wrong. Dead, in either case. November 24 is also the anniversary date for a […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2, Episode 9: “What’s My Line? Part One” (airdate: Monday, November 17, 1997): Part 3 of 3

30:01 – The End Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer . . . Part 1 & Part 2 Spike had one of his vampire minions steal the du Lac Cross from the du Lac mausoleum so that they can use it to decipher the text of the du Lac manuscript and use this translation to […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2, Episode 9: “What’s My Line? Part One” (airdate: Monday, November 17, 1997): Part 2 of 3

15:01 – 30:00 Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer . . . Part 1 & Part 3 We were still in Act I as we arrived at the 15-Minute mark last time. The first act is considered to be the Set-Up of the story, right? What did the first fifteen minutes set up? Spike is […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 7: “Lie to Me” (airdate: Monday, November 3, 1997): Part 2 of 3

15:01 – 30:00 Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . . Buffy Summers saw Angel meeting with Drusilla at night in a playground. This made her jealous. Again. Angel was telling Dru to get out of town, though, not meeting up with a Tinder date. Angel later tells Buffy he was at home that night, reading. […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 7: “Lie to Me” (airdate: Monday, November 3, 1997): Part 1 of 3

00:00 – 15:00 On this day in history . . . The #1 song in the US is once again Sir Elton’s Diana remix of “Candle in the Wind.” The #1 song in the UK is Aqua’s “Barbie Girl.” I wouldn’t care to hear either song again at this moment. The movie The Devil’s Advocate […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 5: “Reptile Boy” (airdate: Monday, October 13, 1997): Part 3 of 3

30:01 – THE END Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . .Part 1 & Part 2 Buffy Summers, the titular Slayer, makes the unfortunate choice to lie to Giles in order to attend a fraternity party with Cordelia Chase at Crestwood College. Both girls are almost immediately roofied. Xander is also at the party, but the […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 5: “Reptile Boy” (airdate: Monday, October 13, 1997): Part 2 of 3

15:01 – 30:00 Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . . Part 1 & Part 3 During the teaser to this episode, we witnessed the attempted escape of a young woman named Callie from a fraternity house at a college we’ve never heard of. She’s pursued and recaptured by frat boys in dark hooded robes. After […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 5: “Reptile Boy” (airdate: Monday, October 13, 1997): Part 1 of 3

00:00 – 15:00 Part 2 & Part 3 On this day in history, British RAF officer Andy Green set a new land speed record of 749.69 MPH in the Thrust SSC. This happened in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The new record would hold for two days, when Green and Thrust SSC broke it again at […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 4: “Inca Mummy Girl” (airdate: Monday, October 6, 1997): Part 1 of 3

00:00 – 15:00 Part 2 & Part 3 What were you doing on Monday, October 6, 1997? I don’t remember either. I wasn’t watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer yet. We’ve talked about this before, you and I. That came much, much later, after the series was off the air and I was married to a […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 3: “School Hard” (airdate: Monday, September 29, 1997): Part 3 of 3

30:01 – THE END Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . .Part 1 & Part 2 As it turns out, Spike can’t wait until the Night of St. Vigeous, that huge Maguffin all the vampires are chanting about, to kill the current incarnation of the Slayer. Instead, he leads a group of bloodsuckers in a raid […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 3: “School Hard” (airdate: Monday, September 29, 1997): Part 1 of 3

00:00 – 15:00 Part 2 & Part 3 Newscaster David Brinkley retired, at age 74, the day before this episode aired. He would pass away six years later. Jury selection in the trial of Oklahoma City bombing suspect Terry Nichols began the same day. Unlike co-conspirator Timothy McVeigh, Nichols would not receive the death penalty. […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 2: “Some Assembly Required” (airdate: Monday, September 22, 1997): Part 3 of 3

30:01 – The End Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . .Part 1 & Part 2 In time-honored fashion, two students we’ve never met before—Chris Epps and Eric Gittleson—are up to no good in the Sunnydale neighborhood, robbing graves of newly deceased young women in order to put their disassembled parts together and reanimate the results. […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 2: “Some Assembly Required” (airdate: Monday, September 22, 1997): Part 2 of 3

15:01 – 30:00 Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . .Part 1 & Part 3 While patrolling the cemetery, Buffy and Angel discovered that a body had been stolen from one of the graves. It turns out the body belonged to Meredith Todd, a cheerleader from Fondren High (located on the other side of Sunnydale, maybe?), […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 1: “When She Was Bad” (airdate: Monday, September 15, 1997): Part 2 of 3

15:01 – 30:00 Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . .Part 1 & Part 3 Buffy Summers, the Slayer, returns from her summer vacation in Los Angeles to begin her junior year at Sunnydale High. If you’ll recall, she had been killed, however briefly, during the Season 1 finale by the elder vampire known as the […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 2, Episode 1: “When She Was Bad” (airdate: Monday, September 15, 1997): Part 1 of 3

00:00 – 15:00 Part 2 & Part 3 Way back in 1997, it had been nearly three-and-a-half months since the finale episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s first season aired (at least, for the first time). But we’re back from summer break, with the show still broadcasting on Monday nights. Since we’ve been away for […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 1, Episode 12: “Prophecy Girl” (airdate: Monday, June 2, 1997): Part 1 of 3

00:00 – 15:00 Part 2 & Part 3 When the Season 1 finale episode “Prophecy Girl” first aired in 1997, it was two weeks after the penultimate episode of the season “Out of Mind, Out of Sight.” I’m not sure when Joss Whedon and crew knew that the series had been renewed for a second […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 1, Episode 10: “Nightmares” (airdate: Monday, May 12, 1997): Part 3 of 3

Part 1 & Part 2 30:01 – The End Previously on \m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/ . . . Twelve-year-old Billy Palmer is in a coma, but he’s somehow causing everyone’s nightmares to manifest in Sunnydale. Rupert Giles suggests that Billy is somehow experiencing astral projection. We’ve seen nightmares such as spiders pouring forth from a textbook, students […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 1, Episode 10: “Nightmares” (airdate: Monday, May 12, 1997): Part 2 of 3

Part 1 & Part 3 15:01 – 30:00 It’s not unusual in Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the teaser and first act of an episode to conclude at about at the fifteen-minute mark. It is rare for Act I to end at exactly the fifteen-minute mark, though, and that’s what it did this time. This […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 1, Episode 10: “Nightmares” (airdate: Monday, May 12, 1997): Part 1 of 3

Part 2 & Part 3 00:00 – 15:00 Welcome back to the Sunnydale High library, my fellow Scoobies. Rupert Giles, the librarian who pulls double duty as Buffy Summers’ Watcher, is over there in his book cage, looking for some dusty ancient text probably bound in human skin. Willow Rosenberg, likely the smartest student at […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 1, Episode 9: “The Puppet Show” (airdate: Monday, May 5, 1997): Part 3 of 3

30:01 – The End Part 1 & Part 2 We were still in Act II of “The Puppet Show” the last time our little club met here in the Sunnydale High School library. This means the entirety of Acts III and IV are squeezed into Part 3. The set up of the story has been […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 1, Episode 9: “The Puppet Show” (airdate: Monday, May 5, 1997): Part 2 of 3

15:01 – 30:00 Part 1 & Part 3 During Part 1 of our 15-Minute Hellmouth exploration of first season episode, “The Puppet Show,” we were introduced to the new principal of Sunnydale High School, the very Ferengi-like Mr. Snyder, who has positioned himself as the Anti-Flutie, a man placed in charge of children who seems […]

\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 1, Episode 9: “The Puppet Show” (airdate: Monday, May 5, 1997): Part 1 of 3

Part 2 & Part 3 00:00 – 15:00 On May 1, 1997, a mere four days prior to this episode’s first appearance, Tony Blair took over John Major’s spot as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. For the first time in eighteen years, the Labour Party is in control of UK government. The day after […]

**\m/15-Minute Hellmouth\m/: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DeepWatch: Season 1, Episode 8: “I, Robot . . . You Jane” (airdate: Monday, April 28, 1997): Part 1 of 3**

00:00 – 15:00 Part 2 & Part 3 It has been two weeks since the mythically important episode “Angel” aired. We both liked that one a lot, you and me. Any episode that followed would suffer in the comparison. Case in point: “I, Robot . . . You Jane.” I mean, my issues with this […]

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