This week on Buffy and the Art of Story: Inca Mummy Girl (Season 2 Episode 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

This podcast episode covers (1) a clear Inciting Incident; (2) how a very flawed character draws the audience in; (3) emotional arcs with major commitments; and (4) a new character - Oz!

As always, the discussion is spoiler-free, except at the end (with plenty of warning).

Next Up: Reptile Boy S2 E5

Last Week:  School Hard S2 E3

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Season 2 Buffy DVDs

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In addition to hosting the podcast Buffy and the Art of Story, Lisa M. Lilly is the author of the bestselling four-book Awakening supernatural thriller series and the Q.C. Davis mysteries, as well as numerous short stories. She also writes non-fiction, including books on writing craft, under L.M. Lilly. She is the founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com.

Episode Transcript for Inca Mummy Girl

Today we're talking about Season Two Episode Four, Inca Mummy Girl.

Along with the usual breakdown of the plot, we’ll cover:

the very clear Inciting Incident here;

how Xander, a very flawed character, draws the audience in;

emotional character arcs with major commitments;

some of the wittiest quotes so far; and

a new character (Oz) who I hope you'll all come to love if you don’t already.

As always, there will be no Spoilers except at the end to talk about foreshadowing, but I'll give you plenty of warning.

Okay, let's dive into the Hellmouth.

Inca Mummy Girl was written by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer and directed by Ellen S. Pressman.

Opening Conflict

We start with our Opening Conflict. This is the conflict to draw the reader into the story, whether or not it relates to the main plot.

Here, it does.

Buffy, Willow and Xander are walking outside toward a museum. Buffy is complaining that it's so unfair she has to have a complete stranger living with her for two weeks as part of the cultural exchange program. And we can imagine it will be hard for Buffy to hide her secret identity with someone staying with her. Xander, though, thinks that this melding of two cultures is beautiful.

Inside the museum, Cordelia is looking through photographs of the exchange students. She says hers is Sven, “100% Swedish, 100% gorgeous, 100% staying at my house.” Buffy has not seen a photo of her exchange student.

She kind of shrugs when either Xander or Willow asks about what the student looks like. But she does say he is guy-like. Suddenly Xander doesn't think the cultural exchange program is such a great idea.

Does Buffy Always Resort To Violence?

We see a new character, Rodney. He is scraping at one of the masks on display. Xander makes some disparaging comments about Rodney's intelligence and we get the first set of favorite quotes for me from this episode.

Willow: You just don't like him because of that time he beat you up every day for five years.

Xander: Yeah, I'm irrational that way.

Buffy says she better go stop Rodney. And Willow says she'll do it because not everything is solved by violence. After she's gone, Buffy says to Xander that she doesn't always use violence. And Xander tells her what's important is that s...