Buffy The Vampire Slayer, “School Hard" Review (2x03)

Brief Synopsis: “A dangerous new vampire named Spike comes to town, hoping to use the power of the Hellmouth to restore his love, Drusilla, to health. He has killed two Slayers before, and he decides to make Buffy the third, attacking Sunnydale High on ‘Parent Teacher Night’. Buffy must find a way to stop Spike and his vampire minions, lead her mom and the other parents and students to safety, and keep them from finding out that she is the Slayer.”


"Some Assembly Required" (2x02) quick link here                                                          "Inca Mummy Girl" (2x04) quick link here


Two quick notes before we get started...

1)    I will be reviewing the episodes in bullet point form. This is because it makes the reviews simple to read, and helps break up the text.
2)    If you are watching the show for the first time along with these reviews, please be warned that there may be a few spoilers for things that haven’t happened yet.

With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?



• “School Hard” should be renamed to “Spike Has Joined The Buffyverse, Nothing Else Matters”. Sure, it’s a long title, but it’s catchy.
• Sheila:  “I didn’t stab anyone with a trowel. They were pruning shears.”

...much better...

• In my opinion, Spike has the greatest entrance into Sunnydale out of anyone who appears in “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. His entrance in this episode is badass and completely sets the scene for who his character is. The only entrance that I prefer to this one is Spike’s drunken return in season three’s “Lovers Walk”.
• James’ English accent is superb. I genuinely believed that James Marsters (and Alexis Denisof) was English. Having Anthony Head on the cast certainly helped, as Spike’s accent is the same as Anthony Head’s real accent.
• Drusilla! You crazy, crazy Goddess. How amazingly talented is Juliet Landau? James and Juliet bring something completely new to the show that was missing before: loveable bad guys. Don’t get me wrong, The Master was loveable in his own way, but Spike and Dru were the first two villains that I was begging to not be killed off because they were so cool and entertaining. Let’s be honest, Spike and Drusilla steal the show in this episode.
• I’m not sure whose idea it was, but whoever decided to not conceal James’ eyebrow scar is a genius. It’s such a great character feature! It looks particularly pink in this season. I’m not sure if they enhanced it or whether it had yet to scar over properly by this point, but either way it adds something extra to Spike’s character.
• Joyce: “What I don’t want is to be disappointed in you again.”

OUCH. Geez, Joyce, harsh! I know parents like to use that “I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed” line, but Joyce is usually so empathetic. Season two is the only season where I question some of Joyce’s parenting decisions. In season three she’s pretty great, in seasons four and five she’s almost flawless, but in season two she makes some really questionable parenting choices. Telling Buffy not to come back in “Becoming”, some of Joyce’s decisions involving Ted, and Joyce scalding Buffy in “Bad Eggs” all spring immediately to mind.

• Giles and Jenny trying to cover up the Slayer-talk when Snyder walks by is so amusing. “You’re all.....sl....slaaaaves.....to the television”. Giles is Watcher Council trained, he should be more convincing at lying than this!
• I can’t help it, I love Snyder! He’s such amusing foil for the Scoobies.
• Nickel are a fantastic band. I have their album with “1,000 Nights” and “Stupid Thing” on it. Very memorable performance. One of my favourite things about “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” is the music. It’s one of the only things that Angel is missing. Buffy has The Bronze, which allows the show the ability to bring unique bands and music into the equation, while we get to actually see the bands perform! It’s great exposure for the band, and a lot of these bands add a significant amount to the episodes in which they appear.
• I cannot emphasise enough how much I love the scene where Spike first sees Buffy. That slow, stalking walk. It’s the start of a very interesting relationship. It’s interesting that when Spike first sees Buffy, she’s dancing. Spike later tells Buffy in season five’s “Fool For Love”, in the alleyway, that all they’ve ever done is dance. What a twisted parallel that is. Spike is transfixed with Buffy from the first time he sees her.
• Xander, with the classic teenage boy flails at touching a tampon. This also raises a much weirder, much more disturbing thought...when Spike says “I smell the blood of a nice ripe girl”...is it just a play on words, or is he talking about Buffy being on her period?...I’m not sure I want to know the answer.
• Spike: “Nice work love....”

I must have said that phrase a thousand times over the past 15 years (ironically, never in the bedroom...). I love the way that James delivers that line.

• Spike: “You’ll find out on Saturday.”
Buffy: “What happens on Saturday?”
Spike: “I kill you.”

The casual way in which Spike says ‘I kill you’ is perfect. You instantly know that Spike means business. In my opinion, Spike comes across in this episode more threatening than The Master or any other villain has thus far. Not only because he’s killed two Slayers, but because of the way he acts. That’s what I’m looking for in a villain! Someone who makes me nervous that one of the main characters could be killed off at any moment! A villain (even a monster-of –the-week like The Gentlemen) needs to give you that emotional reaction in order to be memorable.

• Willow, stop doing math on how many dates Angel has had. It hurts my head. Plus, he was with Darla for over 100 years, then spent almost 100 years living in alleyways and eating rats, so the amount of dates he’s had is probably significantly smaller than you’d expect it to be.
• Why did Xander never follow through on his promise to get a collar and a bell for Angel?! I would have loved to hear Angelus’ thoughts on Xander wanting to put a bell on him...
• Spike and Drusilla’s relationship is one of the most sweet, tender, and interesting in the Buffyverse. Neither of them has a soul, yet they seem capable of love (Spike more so). That makes them very unique amongst vampires. I wish that we had more flashbacks on the two of them together. I mean, I know we get a lot over the years, but I still want more! I wanted the flashback of Spike finding Drusilla after “Lovers Walk” and torturing her until she liked him again...what? that’s normal, right?...
• “Slag” means something VERY, VERY DIFFERENT in the UK.
• When I first saw this episode, I wondered why Spike used railroad spikes to torture his victims. It wouldn’t have been my first choice of torture weapon. This does get explained in season five’s “Fool For Love”, when the writers used a little ret-con to explain why Spike used railroad spikes. For those of you that aren’t aware, or have forgotten, one of the people who listened to William (Spike)’s poem said, “I’d rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff!” After William was turned into a vampire, he started torturing people with railroad spikes as an act of revenge.
• This episode goes from “very good” to “amazing” the second the vampires break through the windows at Sunnydale High.

• In my opinion, Angelus is a much darker, more evil character than Spike. What did Spike ever do that was truly evil? He didn’t kill anyone overly important after arriving in Sunnydale. The worst thing Spike ever did was try to rape Buffy, which is a very different kind of evil to what I’m talking about here. Spike always worked better as that vampire that wasn’t “good” or “bad”, but just himself. One of the things that sets Angelus and Spike apart is planning. Spike was so eager to fight Buffy that he didn’t stick to his plan, which resulted in him not killing Buffy. Angelus was the opposite. He planned everything. Every detail. He took his time to try to break Buffy mentally before bothering to try to kill her. It’s really fascinating to me to compare these characters because they’re the two most important vampires in the Buffyverse by some margin. Even though a lot of people disagree, I feel that these characters are a lot more similar than they are different.
• Spike: “I’m a veal kind of guy. You’re too old to eat.....but not to kill *kills*. I feel better.”
• Sacrifice Snyder to the vampires, Buffy!

• I’m so glad that they decided not to kill Spike at the end of “What’s My Line Part Two”, which was the original plan. How different would the show be if Spike had died then? I don’t want to think about it! *fingers in ears* La-la-la-la-la! Spike, Drusilla, Wesley, Faith, and Anya were all characters that survived far longer than they were originally supposed to. I’m so glad that all of those characters survived longer! Three of them even survived the shows!
• A broom, Cordy? Was that the best weapon that you could find? At least break it so that you have a pointy piece of wood! They are vampires, you know.
• Here’s another personal opinion of mine...Sarah Michelle Gellar looks better in the earlier Buffy seasons than she does in the later seasons. By season five, Sarah had lost quite a lot of weight, which I feel made her face look far too thin.

• What makes Spike work so well as a villain? I think there are many reasons, but here are a few of the most important ones... 1) Confidence. Spike is cocky. Spike knows that he can kill you at any moment. He makes the audience believe that he can kill anyone at any moment. 2) Spike is cool! Think about all of the greatest villains in the Buffyverse. Think about The Mayor, Angelus, Spike...what do they have in common? Confidence and appeal are two of the biggest characteristics that the most successful villains share. Spike isn’t just capable of killing Buffy, he has appeal! Most of the women want to shag Spike and most of the men want to be Spike. 3) Cheekbones. 4) The accent. 5) It’s been established that Spike has killed two Slayers! No villain that Buffy ever faces can boast that except for Spike. 6) Charisma!
• The first scene between Angel and Spike is a highlight of this episode. They are one of my favourite non-romantic (“except that one time....”) couples ever. It’s so lukewarm-hate. One of the best features of Buffy season two and Angel season five is the exploration and uncovering of the relationship between Angel/Angelus and Spike. It’s one of the reasons why Angel’s cancellation sucked so much! David and James together was comedy gold. The amount of flashbacks and backstory that is dedicated to these two characters is what makes their relationship so interesting.
• Angel being Spike’s sire confused/annoyed a lot of people, as technically, he’s Spike’s Grand-Sire. I have to listen to that rant on an almost daily basis from someone or other.
• Angel: “I told you, I couldn’t make the first move. I had to see if he was buying it or not.”
  Xander: “And if he bit me, what then?”
  Angel: “We would’ve known he bought it.”

...did Angel just make a joke?...was this the first time Angel made a joke?...who’d have thought that Spike’s arrival is what made Angel develop a sense of humour.

• Spike: “They make me feel all manly.”
Spike is sexy. Even to people whose orientation doesn’t favour men. Spike is sexy to everyone. The way that James delivered that line is truly fantastic. To any budding actors out there, I would recommend listening to James Marsters and Anthony Head in particular. They have this wonderful ability to take pretty much any sentence (regardless of how mundane) and make it memorable. This line is the perfect example of that. Along with “someone’s in the ceiling.”
• This episode also contains the first of many spectacular fight scenes between Buffy and Spike.
• Joyce axing Spike remains one of the greatest moments ever. I love you, Joyce. Although, it looks like she hit him with the end of the axe...shouldn’t his skull have been split like a watermelon?

• Surprisingly, that’s not even my favourite Joyce moment of the episode. My favourite moment is Joyce telling Buffy that she doesn’t care what Principal Snyder told her about Buffy. She has a strong, powerful, caring daughter, and that’s what is more important. How can anyone not love Joyce in that moment? It takes a special kind of person to be able to look past what Snyder said and be proud of her daughter.
• This episode also does a great job of showing the audience just how hard it is for Buffy to try and juggle both sides of her life. She can never win. When Buffy goes into a catatonic state in season five’s “Weight Of The World”, I look to episodes like this and it makes perfect sense. Buffy is a sixteen-year-old girl here! She knows that she will probably die young, she knows that she is literally all that stands between the world and total destruction, and yet she still has to worry about entirely ordinary things like Parent Teacher Night and doing well in school. Yet, in this episode both of those worlds collide and she somehow manages to make it all work. She defeats all the vampires with few human casualties, and she manages to do it in such a way that the humans aren’t aware that it was vampires at all! Talk about a dramatic clusterfuck.
• It’s obvious to see that the show has found its feet by this point. In season one’s “The Harvest”, there was no explanation given as to why everyone magically forgot that there were vampires in The Bronze (a phenomenon I’ve named “Sunnydale Syndrome”). Whereas in this episode, Snyder uses the excuse that it was a gang on PCP. That is a much more satisfying way of resolving the plot of this episode.
• Willow: “Ask for some aspirin.”

• I’m glad Spike killed the ‘Annoying One’. He was originally supposed to survive all the way up to “Becoming”, but Andrew was starting to grow and age very fast, which obviously vampires aren’t supposed to do, so Joss had to kill him off earlier than intended. What I said earlier about Spike getting bored and acting on a whim came about again with Spike spontaneously killed the Anointed One. It doesn’t matter that the Anointed One could have been useful to him; he just killed him because he could. That’s what made Spike so dangerous in this episode and in this season...Spike just does what he wants, when he wants. He’s totally unpredictable. When this episode concluded, I was under the impression that Spike (and to a lesser extent, Drusilla) was going to be the season’s ‘Big Bad’. How wrong I was...
• To conclude, this episode is fantastic! With the exception of “Prophecy Girl”, this is the best episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” thus far. Everything about it just works. Not only does it introduce Spike and Drusilla to the Buffyverse, but this episode is very important when it comes to shaping the season arc. A memorable villain, an intense plot, emotional attachment to the episode, and the episode holds significance for the season. What more could you ask for?
• One final point to mention is that all of this takes place IN EPISODE THREE! Most shows wait until much later in the season before introducing characters that are going to be the season’s villains! Obviously, Angelus is excluded from this, but Spike and Drusilla are equally important.


Quote Of The Episode

There are so many great quotes from this episode (almost all are by Spike), but my personal favourite is this one...


Spike: “I was actually at Woodstock. That was a weird gig. I fed off a flower person and I spent the next six hours watching my hand move.”


FINAL SCORE: 8/10

So what are your thoughts on "School Hard"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!