In the third episode of the cult classic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, entitled “Witch”, we are introduced to a key player in later seasons, Amy Madison. Also, witchcraft is first used and, hey(!), that’s pretty important.

“You have a sacred birthright, Buffy. You were chosen to destroy vampires, not to…wave pompoms at people. And as the Watcher, I forbid it.”

I love this episode. I especially love watching it with friends and hearing them predict that Amy is the witch, or Amy’s mom is the one doing it, and watching as they realize that (SPOILER ALERT) Amy’s mom is Amy, who is actually evil. You follow?

I also love this episode because it reminds me how damn important it was to me, in high school, to get the coveted roles in all of the plays. Which I didn’t. And I might have enjoyed seeing certain people burst into flames.

This episode had a lot of firsts: The first time that Giles is ever knocked out, the first use of witchcraft, the first telekinesis, the first body swapping, the first episode no one died in, the first (and only one of eight) wherein no vampire is featured, and the first time that a character gets black eyes from use of magic. Since this is only the third one, it’s no surprise that there were so many firsts, but these were all recurring and important factors to the series.

Now, I’m gonna stay pretty spoiler-free in these reviews, but Amy is important. She’ll be absent in a lot of the series, but I think it’s important to know that she has a lot of potential. While in her first episode she is shown to be weak and uninterested in magic, she will make some pretty neat comebacks. Don’t write her off yet.

So Amy’s mom has gone a bit crazy, but the way she cursed Buffy caused for some interesting song choice:

Like that look you get when your daughter is running around the kitchen singing Macho Man in a cheerleader uniform. And acting like that drunk girl at the club.

This is also the first episode we see Willow be a little violent, and I tried really hard to find of a gif of her wielding an ax and shouting, “WHERE IS SHE?” Alas, the Internet has not come through.

The resolution of this episode (again, SPOILERS): Amy got her body back, magic can be bad, Buffy is not a cheerleader, and Amy’s mom (Catherine) is a statue. Just this once, EVERYONE LIVES. Sorta.

If you enjoyed Amanda’s bewitching, you can find the rest of her work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow her on Twitter @ErukaMoseley.

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