Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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

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.

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.

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. :)

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!

Is Buffy's calling a wrong number? On the slayer's eighteenth birthday her powers go missing without no explination. Though it seems that there is a perfectly good explination, Giles. The Watchers Council is putting together a test for Buffy, a tradition given to every slayer on her eighteenth birthday, they pit the slayer against a vampire for powerless and Giles must be the one take Buffy's powers from her, using a poison.



Thankfully, she is Buffy and manages to slay this vampire though he manages to kidnap her mother without her powers. Unfortunately, Giles does not fair as well. The council fires him.

As almost every Buffy fan knows, Joss Whedon's original idea for the slayer was inspired by those stereotypical slasher movies where a dumb blonde runs down an alleyway, and ends up butchered by a masked madman. Buffy Summers was somebody who could turn that stereotype on its head, creating an intelligent blonde who instead of running down alleyways, defends herself against psychopaths and monsters.



One of the best things about Helpless is that Buffy is reduced to the blonde in the alleyway, being powerless against a gang of vampires, and having to scream for help and run for safety instead of what she usually does. It made for a decent change to see her like this, and Sarah Michelle Gellar was completely back in I Know What You Did Last Summer mode. You can also see David Fury had a lot of fun with writing these moments, especially when Buffy ran into the fence, and had to climb underneath it to escape her pursuer, something you see all the time in slasher flicks.



Despite that, Zachary Kralik was an average bad guy. I did love the mother-killing fetish and all the polaroids stuck across the room (admittedly a cliché, but still fun), but the writers foolishly made him a little too snarky and humorous, something which reduces him to nothing but a cheap laugh. If he was written in a serious X Files-like way, then you would end up genuinely creeped out by him, and concerned for Joyce's safety. But, unfortunately, that doesn't happen.



The Watcher's Council were introduced, and were pretty good, but they don't make too much of an impression on their first appearance. I did like the insight into the Council's rules, methods and tests for the line of Slayers, but it would have worked better if there were more of them in the show (besides just Quentin and two random soon-to-be murder victims), and if they had more interaction with Giles. Speaking of Giles, his firing was a logical step for the show to take, and promises a lot more characterization for him in future episodes.



Helpless had a lot of potential, but it only really fulfilled that in specific moments. If they doubled the tension, then it could have been a masterpiece.



Director: James A Contner

Writer: David Fury

Rating: B-

This was keeping up the Buffy's bad birthday tradition.



I loved Giles and Buffy in this one because this council test really tested their relationship. And Buffy's dad being too busy to come see her for her birthday did help to show that Giles is like Buffy's father too. This was also the first time that we really got to see the council. They aren't really the good guys that you would think they were and as Giles said "You're waging a war she's fighting it," or something along those lines. But Giles was right about them.



It was sad that Giles didn't pass the test but Buffy did. It's hard to picture Giles not being Buffy's watcher. But after that when Giles came and cleaned Buffy up the father/daughter relationship that they have was even more obvious.



Buffy loosing her powers made you see Sunnydale from a civilians point of view. The normal person cannot just fight off a vampire and Buffy has to experience being normal which is something that she's always said she wanted, but here she realizes that being normal kinda sucks.



Buffy was very witty when fighting off crazy vampire guy and it was great at the end to see how proud Joyce was of her. And of course the opening of the peanut butter at the end was so funny. I loved Xander saying that sometimes you just needed a big strong man and then he gave the jar to Willow to open

Favorite Episode Quotes:

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"



This was a standout episode. We get to see Giles true feelings for Buffy and we also see how very strong Buffy is even without her preternatural strength. I was so angry with Quentin Travers that I kind of wished Buffy had kicked his butt at the end. The Watchers Council really doesn't have a clue of the battles the Slayer must endure. And firing Giles?!?!? That alone shows me that they have a few chinks in their well oiled machine.

There is a severe change in Giles as he is injecting Buffy with the chemical that takes away her strength. It is very un-Giles like and not very fatherly of him. Despite the fact that he told Buffy in the end I still think it was wrong. Myabe he was trying to get back at her for the whole hiding Angel thing.



A powerless Buffy is a very pathetic Buffy, she has nothing when she isn't the slayer. Even Willow has her witchy-ness, Buffy hasn't even got her come backs and I doubt that they come from being a slayer.



When she was attacked by the vampires after leaving Angel's I was sure that Angel was going to come running around the corner and save her.

I loved this episode because we see Buffy when she is 'weak'. She can't deal with the fact she could be normal. It's a nice bit of insight into her character because usually, she does lots of complaining about how she would just love to be 'normal' again. And when the chance comes to her, she has a meltdown.



In the end, she stands and fights, despite being weaker, and that shows more inner strength than anything. When I first saw this episode, I was shocked that Giles went so far as to drug Buffy. But I was moved when we see that Giles really feels like a father to the slayer, instead of her watcher. I loved the father-daughter comparisons in this ep. Buffy's father misses yet another birthday, while Giles is there. We know that despite his being fired from the council, Giles will be around. Because that's what a true father does.

This is the episode that made me very afraid of Jeff Kober as an actor. He played the bad vamp. Yes I know that all vamps are bad but he is the worst of the worst…psychotic in life so even worse on death. It’s Buffy’s 18th birthday and she is drugged by the council as a test. The drugs make her lose her slayer strength and she is supposed to fight this vamp by herself. But of course something goes wrong and instead of the “controlled” situation where she is supposed to fight him, he gets out and kidnaps Joyce and taunts Buffy. Buffy finds out what the council was doing and is very mad a Giles. Buffy goes after her mom and does dust the vamp. Afterwards the council makes a ruling on her and her watcher. Buffy passes but Giles is fired because he has a father’s love for her. Quentin: Congratulations again.

Buffy: Bite me.

Quentin: Yes, well, colorful girl.

Helpless is one of my favourite Buffy episodes.



It deals with a fan fantasy, "What if Buffy lost her powers?"



We've seen it with superhero's before, namely, Superman himself. This story was installed into the show at exactly the right time. We have seen two and half seasons of Buffy defeating the bad guy, being our hero, triumphant in her battles. She has bagged a boyfriend (Angel) who is probably the personification of gorgeous, has true friends who look to her for protection and has built up a nice relationship with Giles, although not fully explored in it's emotional connection despite a charming scene in Passion.



By taking away our Slayer's strength, gradually this causes her to question her powers and what they mean in her life. The fact that Giles, Buffy's watcher, is the person who strips her of them is heart-breakingly fitting.



This episode also introduces Quentin Travers, played by the very gifted actor, Harris Yulin. Travers is a great contribution to the buffyverse, creating clear meaning to Giles and Buffy's exceptional relationship.



Helpless allows for great character exploration of Buffy. What will she be like as a normal girl? It allows for great scenes, like Cordelia "saving" Buffy from a highschool jock. This is a lovely way of revealing that, although Cordy is a b!tch, she is basically a nice girl who does know right and wrong, "(to jock guy) What is wrong with you?" as she sissy-hits him for violently pushing Buffy.



It also provides us with a classic Buffy and Angel scene, showing his genuine love for her. This scene also highlights this shows devotion to it's audiences need for continuity, by Angel telling Buffy that he saw her before she was the Slayer, " I watched you, and I saw you called. It was a bright afternoon out in front of your school. You walked down the steps... and... and I loved you" He goes on to say, "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".



But what Helpless really succeeds in is one of the episodes overall themes, the love between father and daughter. And it doesn't arrive at this message easily. It takes us to very dark places beforehand, like the breath-takingly acted scene where Buffy learns of Giles betrayal.



Giles: (shaky) It's a test, Buffy. (takes off his glasses) It's given to the Slayer once she... uh, well, if she reaches her eighteenth birthday. (swallows hard) The Slayer is disabled and then entrapped with a vampire foe whom she must defeat in order to pass the test. (paces toward his office) The vampire you were to face... has escaped. (stops at the door facing away) His name is Zackary Kralik. As a mortal, he murdered and tortured more than a dozen women before he was committed to an asylum for the criminally insane. When a vamp...



Buffy stands up and throws the syringe case at him, but misses, hitting the wall beside him.



Buffy: (sobbing angrily) You bastard. All this time, you saw what it was doing to me. All this time, and you didn't say a word!



Giles: (faces her) I wanted to.



Buffy: (sobs) Liar.



Sarah is wonderful in this scene, hitting home to the viewer just how she feels about Giles. She is utterly destroyed by his actions because she trusted him like a father.



A brilliant and much needed scene in Helpless is Buffy running for her life screaming "Somebody help me". It's utterly terrifying to discover just how defenceless our Slayer has become in situations that are usually comfortable viewing for an audience that knows Buffy always wins fights.



Kralik himself is a great episode baddie. He isn't just soulessly evil, but psychotically evil! The final showdown between him and Buffy in the derelict house is very "Silence of the Lambs". Very claustrophobic and well shot. Kralik's death-by-holy-water scene is a great twist followed by the genius non-pun, pun by Buffy, "If I was at full Slayer power I'd be punning right now" providing us with yet another example of this show's, and Buffy's, self-awareness. Also, it sounds really cool!



The ending is fantastic with Quentin Travers saying, " Your affection for your charge has rendered you incapable of clear and impartial judgment. (Buffy looks at Giles) You have a father's love for the child, and that is useless to the cause" This well-scripted quote not only sums up Giles feelings for Buffy, but also seemlessly shows us how Buffy can now forgive Giles for what had earlier made her reveal her complete mistrust in him.



A pivotal and fascinating edition to Buffy the Vampire Slayer...one of my favourites.

This is a great episode where we see Giles differently that the normal person we think or want him to be. Buffy is helpless for ones and thats a twist. The end is great! she stoped him perfectly! this episode rocked! We also see what danger it is for Joyce knowing that buffy is a slayer.

After Giles' "You have no respect for me..." outburst in the episode where the gang finds out Angel's back, this was a real unpleasant surprise. Even though I can see where Giles in coming from, after all, he is a Watcher and this is something that the Council has done forever; it's still hard to watch him put that needle into Buffy. You have to completely side with her when the truth is revealed (by Giles, trying to explain himself) and her anger.



Sarah does a marvelous job in the confrontation scene during the "I don't know who you are", echoing the discomfort of the viewer... some very nice writing.



As for the 'main bad guy' (if you discount the Council-which personally I don't), Kralick is sort of fun. Unfortunately his sudden need for his pills just as he is ready to bite a de-powered Buffy was just too convenient and smacks of lazy scripting.



I do like Buffy's ingenuity in defeating him, however. And the firing of Giles was brilliant in shaking up the status quo a little and it helps heal the rift between Giles and Buffy.

An excellent Buffy episode.



Buffy’s 18 years now but suddenly seems to be losing her powers. She throws knives like a girl and almost got stakes by a vampire with her own stake.



Buffy is also having issues with her dad that always takes her to some ice show but cancelled it this year. It makes her mad and not wanting to speak to him again.



Meanwhile she tries to ask Giles to go with her to the iceshow but he’s too busy putting needles in her.



The great thing about this episode is that it develops the great relationship between Buffy and Giles and also seeing Buffy all helpless and being saved by Cordelia from Mr no-neck.



Meanwhile the council is in town and have a vampire that they are going to unleash onto Buffy. His name is Krallik and has issues with mothers. Giles doesn’t want to do this but he has to, it is a test they do to every slayer that reaches the 18th birthday.

That’s a problem I have with the storyline, why the hell would they do that? That would kill her and then they would have a new slayer, really careless and stupid but hey.



Anyway, when Buffy completely looses her strength she gets attacked but the vampire and his pal who was made by him. Buffy gets saved by Giles who soon tells her what’s going on, Buffy cannot believe what he did and doesn’t even want him close to her anymore.



Joyce also plays a good part in this episode, the vampire catches her and takes her to his own place where he makes lots of pictures of her. He wants to vamp Buffy and eat Joyce as the first. He has issues with mothers.



Buffy goes into the house to save her mother and Giles comes to protect Buffy as well. Buffy is very smart and takes Krallik’s pills and puts them with holy water. That makes Krallik smelt and Giles comes to save Buffy by killing the other vamp.



The council says that Buffy past but Giles failed and gets fired. I really hated the council and think that Buffy should have kicked their asses. I loved how it ended with Giles cleaning up Buffy’s wounds.



‘Helpless’ was one of those season 3 episodes that really left an impression. It did have some cringe-worthy moments but it was mostly very well directed and everything. I loved the darkness and it felt like I was watching an old vampire movie. Excellent.

"Helpless" is another fine example of my favorite Buffy plot device: doing what's right even though it might not be a popular choice. This episode neatly resolves the lingering question of just who's side Giles would be on in a tough spot, and he comes through in flying colors. In addition, we have the interesting subplot of Buffy and Giles relationship, which has grown from teacher/student to almost a father/daughter relationship. (Which is pretty appropriate when you consider that apart from a flashback here and there Hank Summers will not be seen again in the series). And the way in which Buffy kills Zachary Kralik in this episode is, in my opinion, great and under rated. I mean up to this time we've seen Buffy kill vampires in virtually every way. Helpless makes Buffy resort to using her intellect and not just dust a vamp. She has to be cunning to win the day.

From half-naked Tai-Chi to their (stunt-doubles) wrestling; no wonder Buffy and Angel are feeling frustrated. It’s been a year since their soul-destroying love-fest and it seems that they’re both itching for a bit more. Poor Buffy is reduced to fondling phallic-shaped objects, before almost being pricked by her own stake, followed by Giles doing his own penetration of her with his Sherlock Holmes-style works.



If the last episode was about mothers, then this one is about fathers. Buffy’s dad lets her down, again, he sure didn’t turn up last year and prevent the whole Angel-turns-evil thing by taking his daughter out to the Ice Capades. Her nightmare in "Nightmares" has come true and she deals with it by trying to persuade her father-figure, rather than her father, to take her but he’s more interested in hypnotising and drugging her with muscle relaxants and adrenaline suppressants. Unsurprising that Buffy wants to forget her 18th coming of age birthday.



Meanwhile, at the abandoned boarding house, we meet the Watchers’ Council for the first time, including Malcolm Reed from Enterprise and Kralik the vampire, soon to be reincarnated as Rack the drugs/magic dealer. The council have a birthday present for Buffy and it doesn’t involve cake, funny hats, or even quiet reflection, no matter what Xander may wish for. Whilst Buffy must learn to put away childish things, the council is carrying out “an archaic exercise in cruelty” which has been the same for “dozens of years”. The council’s agèd rituals and tradition play against Buffy’s youthful spontaneous flexibility. Like the first Watchers, whom we meet in S7, the present day ones like to give and take away power. One can’t help but wonder if Buffy died in the test, then a new Slayer might be easier to control. A girl too big for her boots after two or three years of super-slaying powers could thus be easily disposed of. And Buffy, after whining for two seasons about it, now accepts her calling and doesn’t want to have it taken away from her, she doesn’t want to be the thing she yearned for all along – to be a normal girl.



“If I’m not the Slayer, what would I do?” she asks Angel, as she finds out what it’s like to be female: she can’t challenge men, she can’t walk home alone, none of Sunnydale drivers will stop to help a young woman in jeopardy, she has to stay meek, quiet and passive to avoid trouble. Angel’s comfort: “You could never be helpless or boring if you tried”, is cold, but it’s true. There’s more to Buffy than just slayer-strength. Joss’s original idea was to challenge the trad. horror story notion that the weedy blonde running down a dark alley can’t look after herself by imbuing her with super-powers. But what about us normal girls? asked the viewers. Well, here we have the typical horror movie plot, the chick hiding in the dark house hiding from the monster, and here we have her using her ingenuity to win. Little Red Riding Hood kills the wolf herself. Girls aint helpless.



Giles knows he has done wrong in keeping secrets from his Slayer and reducing her to being rescued by Cordelia and thus admits everything to Buffy. However, the test may be invalidated, but Kralik still wants to play. He kidnaps Joyce (and one can’t help but feel this is just deserts after her behaviour in "Gingerbread"). He tells Joyce that he has a problem with mothers, interesting in an episode about father issues. At the end, when Giles tends to Buffy’s cuts and Quentin tells Giles that “your affection for your charge has rendered you incapable or clear and impartial judgement. You have a father’s love for the child”, the two of them reconcile and share a tender moment. The ultimate patriarch however doesn’t change just like that. Instead of admitting that they were wrong in administering the test, the Council sack Giles. Good job Faith wasn't around when her 18th birthday came up.



Let’s leave the last word to Xander “Admit it, sometimes you just need a big strong man” – as he fails to open a peanut butter jar.

*Spoilers* (I think all my reviews have spoilers...)



Well, this episode certainly changed things around a little. The normally helpful, wonderful Giles backstabs Buffy, Buffy is left without any slayer powers, and Giles even gets fired as watcher! It is true, you can never guess exactly what is going to happen in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It was wonderfully different to see our heroine frantically running and screaming for help as a vampire chases her. Not even some sort of indestructable super rocket launching giant, or anything. Just a vampire (say that to a non-Buffy fan and see how they react). With all that said, I can't give it the full ten, simply because there wasn't enough Angel when we all know his time on the show is winding down.