This week on Buffy and the Art of Story: Never Kill A Boy On The First Date. (Season 1, Episode 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)

The podcast episode covers interweaving plot lines, theme, and cliffhangers versus game changers.

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

Story Elements in Never Kill A Boy On The First Date

In this podcast episode we’ll look at how Buffy handles:

All the major plot turns in this standalone episode

How the different story lines interconnect

Theme

The difference between a game changer and cliffhanger

Also discussed - Buffy Season 1 DVD interview with Joss Whedon. He says Never Kill A Boy On The First Date is important because it is all about Buffy maintaining a normal life, and it juxtaposes her vampire slaying directly with a date with a cute boy.

Next Up: The Pack, S1 E6

Last Week: Teacher's Pet S1 E4

Plotting Your Story

If you're working on your own novel, screenplay, or story, check out the Story Structure Template available free to all on my Patreon page.

Or you can check out Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide To Plotting And Writing Your Novel (Book 1 in the Writing As A Second Career series).

As a patron, you’ll also get access to bonus episodes.

Those episodes will include Buffy-adjacent stories (such as key Angel episodes). Also films or TV episodes that are intriguing from a story, theme, or character perspective.

Episode Transcript

Never Kill A Boy On The First Date S1 E5

Hello and welcome to Buffy and The Art of Story. If you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you love creating stories or just taking them apart to see how they work, you’re in the right place.

I am Lisa M. Lilly, author of suspense, mysteries, and supernatural thrillers, and founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com.

Each week I”ll talk about one episode of Buffy in order, covering plot turns and other story elements. The discussion will be spoiler-free, except at the very end, and I”ll give you plenty of warning.

This Week: Never Kill A Boy On The First Date

This week, we’re covering Season One: Episode Five, Never Kill A Boy On The First Date. It’s a standalone episode, so we”ll cover:

all the major plot points,

plus how the different storylines interconnect,

a little bit on the dialogue and

the difference between a game changer versus a cliffhanger.

Okay, let’s dive into the Hellmouth.

Opening Conflict

We start in the graveyard, Buffy slays; Giles critiques, and this sets up our roles of our two characters for anyone who’s new in the audience. Giles finds a ring and says he will consult his books. And we get a cut to a dusty book slamming down on a table.

It’s not Giles though, it’s the Master. And the Master hints at one of our plot conflicts, which is the Anointed One.

He quotes a prophecy about the Anointed One, says, “The Slayer will not know him. He will lead her into hell, and that he will rise from the ashes of five who die.”

Story Spark and Intertwining Plots

Right about ten percent in, at four minutes, 30 seconds of a roughly 43 minute episode, we get our Story Spark, or Inciting Incident. And usually this is right about when we will see this happen in the episode.

Buffy figures out that the ring relates to the Order of Aurelius. She sees this in a book in the library when Giles is saying he can”t find anything. And we get this nice line that shows the developing playful relationship between the two when she says “Two points for the Slayer, while the Watcher has yet to score.”

Owen comes in.

Now this is our real conflict. We basically have two plots here that merge into one, in a way.

Two Plots Merge

We have the plot, the main plot with Buffy, trying to have a normal life -- specifically to date a boy that she is very interested in -- while also fulfilling her Slayer duties.

And the other plot is the plot of Buffy trying to stop the Anointed One from rising or kill th...