History Recap / BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E21BecomingPart1

* SmashCut: Whistler tells Angel that he can either become "even ''more'' useless", or he can become someone. A person. Someone to be counted. Angel asks Whistler what he wants with him, and Whistler replies that he wants to show him something. Flash to upbeat music as we pan down on a high school in Los Angeles. Angel rolls down his window, squints at the bright light, and looks over to see Buffy coming down the steps, chattering with three of her friends.

* TheOtherDarrin: Perennial mustachioed HeyItsThatGuy Richard Riehle guest-stars as Merrick, Buffy's first watcher. This role was portrayed by Donald Sutherland in the feature movie.

* HeyItsThatPlace: In the flashback to 1996, the school building Buffy is seen leaving with her friends is the famous Courthouse Square used in the ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' films.

-->'''Whistler'''

->''"My friends, we're about to make history... [[BaitAndSwitchComment end]]."''

* ShoutOut: In ''{{Marvel}}'''s comic/film franchise ''{{Blade}}'', Blade is a half-vampire who [[HunterOfHisOwnKind kills other vamps]] (sound familiar?) and has a mentor named Whistler.

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Without Buffy, the Scoobies are revealed to be frighteningly unprepared to deal with a handful of vamps, let alone a souped-up one like Drusilla.

-->'''Spike:''' [sing-song] Someone wasn't worthy! ♪

* IHaveManyNames: 1997!Angel asking who the strange man accosting him in an alleyway is. He cheerfully says his name is Whistler; "Well, lately it is."

* TheMenInBlack: In 1997, an older man in a black suit approaches our heroine and asks if she's Buffy Summers. Buffy briefly worries that a department store sent him, because she "[[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial meant to pay for that lipstick!]]" Actually, this is Merrick, Buffy's first (and [[MentorOccupationalHazard short-lived]]) Watcher.

** Joyce's marriage is already hitting the rocks in 1997. Following Buffy's first vampire kill, Joyce reproaches Buffy for not phoning. Downstairs, Dad's on the warpath. After her mother departs, Buffy turns on her bathroom faucet to drown out the sound of her parents arguing at the top of their lungs.

* HeyItsThatPlace: In the flashback to 1996, the school building Buffy is seen leaving with her friends is the famous Courthouse Square used in the ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' films.

** When Willow proposes to try to perform the spell, Giles warns her that she may be opening a door that can't be easily closed. He's right—the Restorations spell sets Willow on a path of dark magic. She begins practicing seriously in season three, and grows steadily more powerful as the series progresses. Giles's concerns about Willow becoming too involved in magic will prove well founded in Season 6.

* [[spoiler: BackForTheDead: Kendra.]]

** Between Angel in his hooptie and this pudgy older guy in a dark suit soliciting teen girls, this school is crawling with UnfortunateImplications.

* GenreSavvy
** Buffy says she's going to patrol even though she doesn't expect Angelus to turn up, adding that's when he usually turns up.
** Buffy actually does learn from the events of "When She Was Bad" by leaving Kendra to guard her friends. Unfortunately she's not a match for Drusilla.

* BrickJoke: In "Passions" the shop owner mentions that somebody had purchased a couple Orbs of Thesulah and was using them as new age paperweights. We find out Giles was the one who bought them when he moved to Sunnydale the previous year.

* InTheHood: Buffy patrolling the park in her Unabomber hoodie.

* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: On her way out, Buffy gets stopped by Kendra, who lends her a distinctive-looking stake nicknamed "Mr. Pointy." Buffy is amused yet touched by the gift. [[ChekhovsGun Unfortunately Kendra loses her stake during the battle; when she reaches for Mr Pointy, it's not there.

* BriefAccentImitation: Buffy imitates Kendra's accent when guessing dat ah very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale.

** When Drusilla is about to kill Kendra she says "Be in me" hypnotizing Kendra. This same line is used by Lothos in the ''Buffy'' movie.

* BookEnds / CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: As Buffy dusts her last vamp in the [[BatmanColdOpen cold open]], she gives a hand up to Xander, who has been conked out and hidden behind a headstone for this whole scene. He insists he was [[HalfTruth doing okay]] in the fight until "they resorted to fisticuffs." Later, Xander's arm is broken by a vampire, but surprisingly, he manages to fight on anyway. Ironically, he ends up being the most victorious of the non-superpowered Scoobies.
** This may [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl have something to do with Cordelia]], who was attacked by the same vamp whom Xander grapples with.

* OralFixation: SMG as pre-Sunnydale Buffy.

* PinkMeansFeminine

* GreviousHarmWithABody: Seeing Cordelia about to be attacked by a vampire, Xander throws the vamp he's struggling with into him.

* FlashbackTwist: "Everything that I am, everything that I have done, has led me to here." intones Angelus ominously. We then go back in time to 1996 Manhattan, where a [[CrazyHomelessGuy homeless, half-crazed Angel]] is tearing up some trash cans, ineffectively trying to catch a rat.

* RockBottom

** Averted when Whistler challenges Angel to bite him. He straight away reveals that he knows all about his story, and that he won't.

* Cliffhanger: Giles is carried off by Drusilla's mooks. Buffy returns to find Kendra's body, then..."Freeze!" ToBeContinued.
-->'''Whistler:''' You'll see what I mean.

* FoeRomanceSubtext: Darla using sex to lure Angel into an alley for siring; cut to Angelus stalking Buffy with an intent expression. Later in the pre-fight banter part he says to Buffy that she's the one thing in this dimension he's going to miss.
* {{Frameup}} / FromBadToWorse: Buffy sprinting across town, only to find she's too late; Giles has been kidnapped, her friends are injured, and Kendra lies dead on the library floor. Buffy collapses to her knees and strokes Kendra's face with her hand as a gun is raised behind her. "Freeze!" shouts a police officer. Caught red-handed.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: The dead Gypsy girl still looks fit, [[WomanInWhite dressed in white]] and covered in rose petals.