"" is the first episode of season 4 of the television show ''
Buffy The Vampire Slayer ''.
While Willow blossoms in the college environment, Buffy has a difficult time adjusting and her Slaying suffers because of it.
Episode one of season four marks the first year of college for
Buffy and the
Scoobies where they attend the fictional
U.C. Sunnydale campus.
The episode opens with Buffy and
Willow on patrol in the cemetery discussing which classes Buffy should take for her first semester at college. They are so engrossed with this that they don't notice when the
Vampire they are waiting to awaken quietly slips away when he sees they are carrying an arsenal of vampire killing gear.
The day before classes shows Buffy being handed flyers by the various campus groups, frats, and general student protesters. Buffy meets up with Willow and
Oz and reveals that she feels overwhelmed by the new experience and disoriented. Willow on the other hand is very excited by the new surroundings and Oz is not fazed and even seems to know several people that walk by.
Buffy and Willow tour the library. During the trip they reveal that
Giles is "unemployed" (since the Sunnydale High School library has been destroyed) and that
Xander left Sunnydale for the summer to do a cross country trip.
Buffy and Willow go to the campus bookstore for supplies. When Buffy tries to get the "Intro to Psychology" texts she knocks them off the shelf onto the head of
Riley Finn . (This is Riley's first appearance in the series.) Riley introduces himself as a
TA for
Professor Walsh 's Psych 105 "Intro to Psychology" class.
Buffy arrives at her new dorm room in Stevenson Hall. She has already moved in and her new roommate Kathy is in the process of doing so. Kathy tells Buffy that she can tell that she is cool and thinks the upcoming year will be "super fun". As she says this to Buffy she hangs a poster of
Céline Dion much to Buffy's chagrin. During the night Buffy has trouble sleeping because Kathy snores, laughs, and smacks her lips in her sleep.
The first day of classes, Buffy gets humiliated in front and ejected from a class by a professor when she tries to find out if there is still room to sign up for it. With Willow and Oz she attends Psych 105 taught by Professor Maggie Walsh and TA'ed by Riley Finn.
That night she meets another freshman student named Eddie. They are both lost. Buffy and Eddie discuss their need of a "
Security Blanket " in their unfamiliar surroundings. Eddie tells Buffy that his security blanket is the novel ''
Of Human Bondage '', which he has read ten times and keeps by his bed. Buffy and Eddie then go separate ways and Eddie runs into a group of vampires. The vampires kill Eddie and turn him in to a fellow creature of the night. They also go to his dorm room, steal all of his belongings and leave a fake note supposedly signed by Eddie saying that he couldn't handle school and he had to leave.
The next day Buffy looks for Eddie in psych class but does not see him. She goes to his dorm room to find the note and empty room. She notices that the novel ''Of Human Bondage'' is still in his nightstand. She knows that he would not leave that behind and suspects something is wrong.
Buffy visits Giles to find a half naked female visitor at his flat and
David Bowie 's
Memory Of A Free Festival playing in the background. The woman is
Olivia visiting Giles (she refers to Giles as "Ripper" at one point). Buffy tells Giles of the mysterious disappearance and Giles is reluctant to help, feeling that Buffy is old enough and experienced enough to handle it herself.
That night Buffy runs into Eddie in a deserted part of campus. Eddie tries to attack Buffy and she stakes him without trouble. The group of vampires that turned Eddie are watching though and the leader of the group, named Sunday, attacks Buffy. Buffy is soundly thrashed by Sunday while the others watch. Her confidence shattered and arm sprained, she runs.
Buffy is shaken by the fight and goes home the next day for some comfort from
Mom and familiar surroundings. She finds her mother surprised to see her home so soon and has converted Buffy's room to storage space for her gallery.
When Buffy returns to her dorm room, she finds all of her belongings missing and a note similar to that found in Eddie's room. Buffy goes to the Bronze and meets up with Xander. Xander reveals that his car broke down in
Oxnard and his tour of America didn't happen. He spent a month and a half washing dishes at the fabulous "Ladies' Night" club earning money for repairs (which came to a merciful end when one of the male strippers fell sick, although Xander won't go any further with the story). Xander also says that he now lives in his parents' basement and pays them rent. Buffy tells Xander that she is overwhelmed by the new college experience and wonders if she can hack it. Xander pumps her up by telling her of course she can and that she is his hero.
Buffy and Xander find the vampire lair, which is a condemned frat house. Buffy elects to watch the vampires while Xander rounds up Willow and Oz, but is discovered and is forced to fight. When Sunday breaks the Class Protector award she was given at
Her Senior Prom , Buffy is angered enough to regain her confidence and soundly trounces the vampires, taking out Sunday with a backhand throw of a broken tennis racket.
The episode ends with one of the vampires escaping Sunday's lair and being hit with a
Taser . Three masked men dressed in camouflage fatigues approach the vampire with guns of some sort. This is the first hint of the existence of the
Initiative which plays an important role in this seasons' episodes. This vampire is not seen again until episode seven of season 4 The Initiative.
- Buffy answers the telephone, but hears nothing, not even breathing. The reason is explained in " City Of ", which was broadcast immediately afterward.
- This episode marks the first appearance of Riley Finn, Professor Walsh and the Initiative, the group of military commandos that fight demons and vampires and gives rise to this season's Big Bad .
- Buffy's roommate Kathy plays a bigger role in " Living Conditions " revealing powers Buffy did not yet know she had.
- The show will explore the transition from high school to the more complicated college life, which offers significantly more freedom and thus opportunities for mistakes. This episode showed Buffy's loneliness and self-doubt as a small fish in a big pond.
- Giles begins his mid-life crisis following the destruction of the Sunnydale High library and Buffy's new life away from him.
- The Yearbook seen in this episode was released as a tie-in product, Sunnydale High Yearbook
- The college vampires have a tally of Gustav Klimt versus Claude Monet posters they have stolen from the freshmen they kill. A poster of Klimt's painting, '' The Kiss '' is found in Eddie's belongings.
- This is the first ever episode not to feature Sunnydale High . It was blown up in episode 22 of season 3 " Graduation Day, Part Two " and the characters are starting college.
- While at the Bronze, Xander says the line "Say that one more time with a little less feeling." This foreshadows the name of the musical episode of Buffy, " Once More With Feeling "
- French title: "Disparitions sur le campus" ("Disappearances on campus")
- German title: "Frischlinge" ("Freshmen", ''literally: "Piglets"'')
- Italian title: "La matricola" ("The freshman")
- Spanish title: "Bienvenidos, alumnos de nuevo ingreso" ("Welcome, freshmen")
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
