Helpless

Season 3, Episode 12, Aired

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8.7
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For her upcoming 18th birthday, Buffy declines the Scooby gang's offer of a big party, hoping to celebrate with quiet reflection and a traditional trip to the ice show with her father. Suddenly, Buffy finds that her Slayer abilities are fading, perhaps completely. Is this some natural event in the lifecycle of the Slayer, or is it something more sinister?moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (19)

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  • Hey there little red riding hood...

    8.0
    "Great"
    By joxerlives, Jan 19, 2012
    Helpless

    The Good;
    Fabulous ep, really pulls the rug out from under you and puts Buffy in serious peril, very scary. Lovely Amy ref, love the final scene and Joyce's pride at Buffy's cleverness.

    The Bad;
    The whole idea of the Cruciantanem is stupid. If the Slayer isn't up to the job then surely she just dies anyway and they get a new one? Surely Buffy would go to her friends for help? How does Kralik know that Buffy is aware where to come to when he send her his invitation? Wouldn't it be better for the Council to have Wes standing by to relieve Giles rather than leave it a fortnight? Willow's mustard yellow tights are awful, I think Tara threw them out as we don't see them past season 3. .

    Best line;
    No contest "Bite me!" but I do also like the Buffy/Angel exchange;
    Buffy; "That's beautiful...or taken literally really gross"
    Angel; "I was just thinking"

    Character death; 2 humans and 2 vamps

    Tied up; Joyce

    Knocked out;
    No but Buffy mesmerised

    Women good/men bad;
    Lots of it. Buffy is let down by her father and betrayed by her father figure (the scene where she dumps her father's present in the bin is particulary heartrending). Kralik killed and ate his own mother (hopefully after he became a vampire?) Kralik menacing Joyce is very scary and his idea of turning Buffy even more so (although would even a sired Slayer be evil?).

    Kinky dinky;
    How long have you got? Buffy and Angel 'getting all sweaty' as Xander would say. Buffy refers to dating an older man who likes it when she calls him daddy, probably her father but Angel would like to be sure. I must say I missed the whole 'phallic crystal fondling' first time around, David Fury had to point it out to me.You could even say that the whole Giles' drugs Buffy routine is tantamount to child abuse, he dopes her then penetrates her with the needle. Kralik meanwhile actually seems to like pain from Buffy burning him with the cross

    Calling Captain Subtext;
    If there were ever an ep where Cordy and Buffy were to get together this is it. Note Cordy's outraged pounding of the guy who pushes Buffy and her leaving Buff home.

    Guantanamo Bay;
    The Watcher's Council show their true colours and they're pretty damn ruthless

    Scoobies to the ER;
    Going to start a new topic because in virtually every ep one or more requires hospital treatment;
    Buffy pretty banged up and without Slayer healing for once

    Where's Dawn?
    Still at the house when Kralik snatches Joyce? At Kit's? Girl Scouts? After school classes? Or taken hostage with her mother?

    Questions and observations
    Interesting to hear David Fury's initial story idea, that Buffy hallucinates the Scoobies and Joyce as vamps. Nice to hear he was a fan before he got to write it. I also heard they couldn't do it because Kristine Sutherland was allergic to the vamp makeup. No Faith this ep? A shame, liked to have seen her. Presumably Kralik's pills are for mental illness rather than for anything physical which would have been cured when he became a vamp like Spike's mum/Darla. The guy he turns is one of the crew from ST;ENTERPRISE. You always knew Buffy would beat him but her method is very ingenious (after all, Little Red Riding Hood defeats the big bad wolf). Presumably more time elapses between Buffy trying to untie Joyce and him breaking through the door than is shown onsecreen. Remember Buffy hasn't even seen Kralik wash down the pills so Joyce must have told her. Personally I always liked the eaten-away-from-within effect and it was always obvious to me. Cordy's paper is on Bosnia which dates this ep pretty accurately (nowadays kids would be writing about Darfur).

    8/10, very, very good, almost a classic
    moreless

  • Happy Birthday Buffy!

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By addict666, Mar 05, 2011
    This episode shows a powerless Buffy facing off with a crazy vampire. Buffy did some momentously stupid stuff in this episode, if she knows she doesn't have power why was she so careless. She is just walking about in the dark like nothing can hurt her when in reality everything can. Giles is my favorite part of this episode as he has to deal with doing what he is told and doing what he thinks is right as he is forced by the council to hurt his slayer. The scene where Buffy is asking him to take her to the ice show is a little heartbreaking because of her lack of a father figure in her life. Her killing of the vampire shows off her wit and cunning like it was suppose to, but her reaction to Giles was harsh because she didn't see what he had to go through.moreless

  • Helpless

    8.5
    "Great"
    By TrueTvWatcher, Oct 15, 2010
    Helpless was a very interesting episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In this episode we see another side of Giles, and are introduced to members of the Watchers Council as they prepare their test for Buffy on her 18th birthday. The game they have prepared turns deadly and Buffy has been stripped of her powers, temporarily. Using her wit, Buffy saves her mom, and the day as usual. There is some tension left between Buffy and Giles as she feels totally betrayed. Buffy didn't know what was going on at first, and she was getting really down about it. It was interesting to see her dealing with not having her powers.moreless

  • Season 3, Episode 12.

    8.5
    "Great"
    By Wanted23, Apr 26, 2009
    Buffy's 18th birthday is approaching, and she plans to spend it ice skating with her father like she does every year. However, Buffy's strength is fading, possibly completely. Is this natural for the Slayer, or is there a dark force behind this?

    This episode had a very interesting concept. It was nice to see Buffy desperate and hopeless and helpless. It was so weird. Cordelia made it farther in beating that guy than Buffy did. LOL. Sarah Michelle Gellar looked pretty good in this episode. I liked how Buffy finally found out that Angel watched her before she became the Slayer. This was a pretty cool episode. :)moreless

  • Once A Slayer...Now Just an Average Girl

    8.8
    "Great"
    By lenzinoH20, Jan 17, 2008
    Helpless-For her upcoming 18th birthday, Buffy declines the Scooby gang's offer of a big party, hoping to celebrate with quiet reflection and a traditional trip to the ice show with her father. Suddenly, Buffy finds that her Slayer abilities are fading, perhaps completely. Is this some natural event in the lifecycle of the Slayer, or is it something more sinister?

    A daring episode that takes the audience out of our comfort zone and make our usually fearsome slayer into helpess victim for an hour. It's really an shocking sight as we she Buffy so weak as she gets beaten up by a jock and saved by Cordelia of all people! Sarah M. Gellar takes advantage of Buffy's vunerablity and coneys a sense of loss and again, helplessness so convincingly. It's like watching "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Scream 2" all over again as Buffy for the first time runs for her life from the monster of the week.

    Speaking of the monster of the week, Zackary Kralik has to be the creepiest villain ever to grace Buffy. When you have a vampire who makes Drusilla seem not so scary in comparison, you know the actor is giving one of hell of a performance and in this case, Jeff Kober, shines as the psychopathic murder turn bloodsucker. The episode also has a very horror movie-esqe atmosphere, even more so than the first season. From the haunting music to unforseen shrieks and scares as Buffy is now a defense girl fighting for her life makes the usual danger of the series seem much more suspenseful and intense. Also, the scenes are disturbing like Kralik taking pictures of Joyce and putting them all over a wall for Buffy to see. The death scene of Kralik is very creative and clever as Buffy kills him by using his weakness by putting the hloy water in his glass for him to drink.

    The episode also continues to the fantastic father/daughter dynamic between Buffy and Giles. The scene in which Giles confesses his betrayal of Buffy is so moving as you can see the guilt on Giles' face is so very sincere yet Buffy's pain won't allow herself to forgive him. Both actors are amazing in that scene and Cordelia's little cameo in the scene is great comic relief. It great to see how protective and self-sacrificing Giles has become over Buffy. Even though he loses his job, by Quentine Travers, the Head of the Watchers counsel who makes he debut here, he has something worth more than his job and that's Buffy's trust in the end. All and All, a great episode that sees our slayer in real danger and our watcher in new light. By the way Oz and Xander, it's the Gold Kryptonite that takes away Superman's power, everybody knows that!moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • TRIVIA (11)

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    • When Giles is injecting Buffy, he rolls up her sleeve so he can puncture her skin, but he never rolls it down. When Buffy leaves, you can see the sleeve is rolled back down, but neither one of them moved it.

    • In previous episodes when vampires have come into contact with holy water the burning and pain experienced is immediate. Yet Kralik not only touches holy water to his lips without reacting but continues to take several swallows and starts talking to Buffy before any effects are seen or felt.

    • Kralik takes a poloroid picture of himself with Buffy's mother. These cameras use mirrors to relect the light inside the device and so the vampire shouldn't show up on film.

    • When Buffy is about to stake the vampire from the teaser look closely. When the vampire lands on the stake Buffy is laying down squinting and very tense, but once the vampire turns into dust she is all of a sudden relaxed with her eyes open. And in a really bad cut, you can even see Buffy's position shift slightly before and after the staking.

    • After Buffy stakes the first vampire from the teaser, they cut to a shot of outside the school...you can tell that it is the same shot from "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" when Cordelia is rejected from her group because you can see Harmony in the background and you can see the same people walking and sitting down on the side of the screen.

    • Why doesn't Buffy ask for Angel for help against Kralik? She isn't obliged to play by the rules of the Council's test and her mother's life is at danger.

    • So Buffy sees the photo of Kralik with her mother, and then packs up her anti-vampire stuff. Except she's changed her clothing and put up her hair between shots. Guess that was more of a priority for her.

    • Buffy places a book on a table and stands up, as she does the book begins to slide towards the floor, when the shot goes wide the book is now laid perfectly flat on the table atop another book.

    • During the teaser, the boom mic is visible in the top left hand corner of the screen when Buffy kicks the vampire onto the merry-go-round.

    • After seeing Angel, Buffy is chased by Kralik and the other vampire and she screams for mercy. But just before she collided with Kralik, there were two guys mocking her... wouldn't those guys at least hear her scream for help? I guess in Sunnydale, with the hellmouth and everything, you learn not to get involved with other peoples' problems.

    • Why doesn't Buffy realize she has needle marks on her arm. Wouldn't she feel or see them and suspect someone has been drugging her?

  • QUOTES (19)

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    • Angel: Buffy, you could never be helpless or boring, not even if you tried.

    • Kralik: She'll go to sleep, and when she wakes up, your face will be the first thing she eats. I have a problem with mothers. I'm aware of that.

    • Cordelia: What's going on? Oh, God. Is the world ending? I have to research a paper on Bosnia for tomorrow, but if the world's ending, I'm not gonna bother. Giles: You can't walk home alone, Buffy. It isn't safe. Buffy: I don't know you. Cordelia: Did something take her memory? He's Giles. Giiiiillles. He hangs out here a lot. Buffy: Cordelia, could you please drive me home? Cordelia: Of course. But if the world doesn't end, I'm gonna need a note.

    • Angel: It was a bright afternoon out in front of your school. You walked down the steps. And I loved you. Buffy: Why? Angel: 'Cause I could see your heart. You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe, to warm it with my own. Buffy: That's beautiful....Or taken literally, incredibly gross. Angel: I was just thinking that, too.

    • Buffy: Before I was the Slayer, I was... Well, I don't want to say shallow, but... let's say a certain person, who will remain nameless, we'll just call her Spordelia, looked like a classical philosopher next to me.

    • Buffy: It's sweet and thoughtful, and full of neat words to learn and say like"wilt" and "henceforth".

    • Buffy: What if I just become pathetic? Hanging out at the old Slayer's home, talking people's ears off about my glory days, showing them Mr. Pointy, the stake I had bronzed.

    • Xander: An ice show. A show performed on ice. And how old are we again? Willow: I went to Snoopy on Ice when I was little. My dad took me backstage, and I got so scared I threw up on Woodstock. Buffy: I know you guys think it's just a big, dumb, girlie thing, but it's not. I mean, a lot of those skaters are Olympic medal winners. And every year, my Dad buys me cotton candy and one of those souvenir programs that has all the pictures-- and okay, it's a big, dumb, girlie thing, but I love it. Oz: It's not so girlie. Ice is cool. It's water, but it's not.

    • Willow: Aha! A curse on Slayers. Oh, no, wait. It's lawyers. Xander: You know, maybe we're on the wrong track with the whole spell, curse, and whammy thing. Maybe what we should be looking for is something like, um, Slayer kryptonite. Oz: Faulty metaphor. Kryptonite kills. Xander: You're assuming I meant the green kryptonite. I was referring, of course, to the red kryptonite, which drains Superman of his powers. Oz: Wrong. The gold kryptonite's the power-sucker. The red kryptonite mutates Superman into some sort of weird... Buffy: Guys. Reality.

    • Buffy: I'm way off my game. My game's left the country. It's in Cuernavaca.

    • Buffy: Wow, that was funny looking. Could you do it again? Vamp: I'll kill you for that. Buffy: For that? What were you trying to kill me for before?

    • Giles: This one? Buffy: Amethyst. Giles: Used for? Buffy: Breath mints? Giles: Charm bags, money spells and for cleansing one's aura. Buffy: Okay, so how do you know if one's aura's dirty? Somebody comes by with a finger and writes "wash me" on it?

    • Cordelia: Did something take her memory? He's Giles…Giiii llls

    • Angel: A thing? A date? Buffy: Nice attempt at casual

    • Buffy: Bite me. Travers: Yes, well. Colorful girl.

    • Buffy: The important thing is I keep up my special birthday tradition of gut-wrenching misery and horror.

    • Buffy: If I was at full Slayer power I'd be punning right about now.

    • Quentin: You think the test was unfair? Buffy: I think you better leave town before I get my strength back. Quentin: We're not in the business of fair, Miss Summers, we're fighting a war. Giles: You're waging a war. She's fighting it. There is a difference.

    • Buffy: Actually I do have a date. Older man. Very handsome. Likes it when I call him Daddy. Angel: Your father... It is your father, right?

  • NOTES (12)

    ADD NOTES

    • Angel references 2 season 2 episodes: Surprise, when he mentions the severed arm of the Judge at Buffy's last party; and Becoming Part 1, when he is sitting in a dark car, watching Buffy being called in Los Angeles at her school, in a flashback that was in the episode.

    • The vampire Zachary Kralik was named after writer David Fury's nephew.

    • The original idea for this episode had Buffy hallucinating that her friends and family were vampires and demons, but it was eventually changed because it was considered too similar to The Wish (3x09).

    • We know that there must have been Slayers for at least 1200 years, as Quentin tells Giles, "It's been done this way for the past dozen centuries."

    • Buffy says that parties in her honor tend to go badly ("monsters crash, people die"), referring to her surprise party in "Surprise" and her welcome-home party in "Dead Man's Party".

    • Again we see that Buffy enjoys ice skating, as does Sarah Michelle Gellar (see "What's My Line (1)").

    • Faith is noted in this episode, but does not appear. She is on one of her "unannounced walkabouts."

    • Kralik photographs himself with Joyce, proving that the Buffyverse doesn't use the old "vampires can't be photographed" thing. Which makes sense, as modern cameras don't generally use mirrors to take the picture anyway.

    • Note that this is the first of two appearances Jeff Kober has had on Buffy. In his Season 6 appearances, he plays the powerful Rack.

    • In the first conversation Buffy has with Angel in this episode, Buffy brings up Mr. Pointy, the lucky stake that Kendra had given her in "Becoming (1)".

    • Watch for Dominic Keating who plays Lt Reed on Enterprise as Blair in this episode.

    • Jeff Kober is no stranger to playing a vampire. He played Dadelus, head of the Nosferatu clan of vampires in the 1996 TV series Kindred: The Embraced.

  • ALLUSIONS (7)

    ADD ALLUSIONS

    • Cordelia: Did something take her memory again? Referring to the season 2 episode Halloween in which Buffy "became" her costume of a 17th Century woman and forgot who she was, and who her friends were.

    • Visual: Angel's gift to Buffy.
      Angel gives Buffy "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning for her birthday. It was originally published in 1850 in a two volume publication entitled Poems. It contains the famous poem "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."

    • Kralik: Why did you come to the dark of the woods? To bring all these sweets to grandmother's house?
      Kralik refers to the story of Little Red Riding Hood in which a wolf accosts a young girl who is carrying a basket through the woods to her grandmother's house. The fairy tale has been around since the early 19th century and has been written in many different languages with many different versions.

    • Quentin Travers: Cruciamentum is not easy for Slayer or Watcher.
      The name of the rite of passage that every Slayer must complete is the "Cruciamentum", which is a Latin word meaning "torture" or "torment".

    • Xander: Maybe what we should be looking for is something like slayer kryptonite.
      The primary weakness of the character Superman is kryptonite, a radioactive substance created from Superman's homeworld when it exploded. Various forms of kryptonite will render him helpless, kill him, or have other strange effects depending on the color of the stone.

    • Buffy: Brian Boitano doing Carmen is a life changer.
      Brian Boitano is one of the most well known male figure skaters who has won many professional and international titles, including the 1988 Olympic gold medal.
      Carmen is an opera composed by George Bizet in 1875, based on a novel by Prosper Mérimée written in 1845.

    • Buffy: It's in Cuernavaca.
      Cuernavaca is a city in Mexico.

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