Original Air Date: November 2, 1999

Written by Tracy Forbes
Directed by David Solomon

Summary

Buffy wakes up from a daydream in psych class in which she was saving Parker's life and he apologized for how he's acted. She pays attention in class for a few seconds, spots Parker hitting on another girl and then returns to her daydream.

On campus the next day, Willow and Buffy are studying while Xander informs then that he's the new bartender at the local pub. On their way back to class, Buffy tries to convince Willow (and herself) that Parker is just pushing her away because he cares about her so much. Willow tells her she has to stop concentrating on Parker.

Xander's first day on the job as bartender turns out to be harder than he's originally though; he can't get orders straight and everyone's yelling at him. Buffy arrives at the pub and bashes into Riley by accident while watching Parker and another girl. Xander gets hassled at the bar by some frat kids who insults him with the greatest of ease. Xander serves him his beer and then joins Buffy who's sitting glumly at the bar. Buffy relates that she now realizes that Parker has intimacy problems; he can't get enough of it. She starts to get really depressed, realizing that she shouldn't have fallen for him. On her way out of the bar, Buffy runs into four guys who urge her to have some drinks with them. Buffy and her four new friends chug down beer after beer. Over at the Bronze, Willow is on a date with Oz. Oz starts to geel a little weird but he says it's nothing. A band named Veruca Salt goes on stage and Oz becomes transfixed by the singer. Willow notices it and is clearly unhappy.

At the dorm the next morning, Buffy has a hangover while Willow mutters nasty things about Veruca. Buffy relates to Willow about her experiences with beer last night. She's still dazed but she and Willow head off to psych class where Buffy acts like a complete spaz by answering questions completely off topic and by snatching another girl's sandwich and wolfing it down. Meanwhile, in a lab somewhere, a whole bunch of bottles and test tubes with brightly coloured fluid are flowing into a keg of Black Frost beer. Later that night, Buffy is back at the pub drinking with her new friends. Xander watches anxiously while they start to get rowdy. Xander finally decides that Buffy's had enough and ushers her on home.

After an awkward encounter with Oz because of the Veruca situation, Willow heads to the pub and runs into Parker. She gives him a piece of her mind about Buffy's situation while he tries to explain his actions. In another room of the pub, Buffy's drinking friends are about to leave the bar when they suddenly transform into disgusting cavemen and start trashing the place. Xander manages to scare them off with the flame from his lighter. Xander informs the owner of the bar about the people acting like cavemen but he just shrugs it off. Xander eventually figures out that the owner has been putting some nasty stuff in the beer which is causing people to transform into cavemen. Xander, heads out in search of Buffy. He gets Giles and they find Buffy in her room painting crude pictures on the walls.

Back at the pub, Parker tries to make a move on Willow but she laughs in his face and says she isn't that gullible. The cave people break back into the bar and knock out Willow and Parker. They build a fire that quickly spreads and pretty soon the whole place is on fire. Back at Buffy's dorm, Xander brings up the contaminated beer and Buffy runs out of the room in search of some. Xander rushes after Buffy and she smells smoke coming from the pub. They make their way over and Buffy heads into the burning building and rescues Willow and Parker from the flames. Outside, Parker tries to apologize for how he treated Buffy and thanks her for saving his life. Buffy, still in cavewoman mode, just knocks him out cold with a tree branch. The gang then heads off home.

Summary written by Nika

Quote of the Week

Oz: Hey! You got a table.
Willow: I had to kill a man.
Oz: Well, it's a really good table.

My Rating

0.5/5

Nika's Review

Ugh... There aren't enough words in my vocabulary to express all of my dislike for this episode. This is most definitely the worst episode ever (hell, it even beats out The Zeppo). The whole way through this episode I was cringing, and having to rewatch it again to write the summary up was almost too much. the whole caveman/beer is bad idea was completely overblown to the point where I almost didn't want to continue watching this episode (sheer willpower had me sitting through the whole thing). The only parts about this episode that I did like was Willow and Parker's interaction at the bar. That was really well done and it was amusing to see Parker trying to make a move on Willow, seeing her laugh in his face was a welcome sight. I also liked that Buffy wasn't herself at the end of this episode when Parker apologized to her, if she had been herself she porbably would have fallen right back into Parker's trap. Anyway, I honestly don't know what they were thinking when they made this episode, it just felt like a filler to waste time and it was absolutely horribly done. This episode totally disgusted me.

Niki Bartl's Review

When this Buffy was over, I was left shaking my head in dismay. Even my brother walked in and said "That was bad". And he only watched the last five minutes of the episode. Every year there is a horrible, evil Buffy episode that deserves to be buried somewhere. Bad Eggs, anyone? The thing I've always like about Buffy is that it never gets preachy, and it never tells you what to think. They could have flashed "Drinking is bad" across the screen and it would have been less subtle than what they did. And why do the caveman guys get furrowed brows but Buffy only gets this disgruntled look on her face? The only person who saved this episode was Willow, first with the Oz scene (oooh, I'm sensing some tension!) and then the Parker/gullible act. One last thing, what is with the type-casting? Parker amazingly reminds me looks-wise of Xander, and Riley is very Angel-ish, not in facial looks, but in the big broad shoulders type thing

Cast