Lie to Me (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"Lie To Me"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
230px Buffy meets her friend from her old school, Jason Behr.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 7
Directed by	Joss Whedon
Written by	Joss Whedon
Production code	5V07
Original air date	November 3, 1997
Guest actors
Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar James Marsters as Spike Juliet Landau as Drusilla Jason Behr as Billy "Ford" Fordham Jarrad Paul as Diego Julia Lee as Chanterelle Will Rothhaar as James

"Lie to Me" is the seventh episode of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It originally aired on November 3, 1997.

Plot

The episode opens on a playground at night. Drusilla approaches and talks to a young boy named James, intending to feed on him. Angel stops her and sends the boy home; realizing that if Drusilla and Spike remain in Sunnydale, a fight with them is inevitable, he tries to persuade Drusilla to leave town with Spike, to no avail. While Dru and Angel are talking, Buffy sees them from a distance, sparking her curiosity and her jealousy.

The next day, Jenny Calendar is teasing Giles about their date. Buffy reports her patrolling, but omits any Angel references. Later in class she passes notes to Willow about the Angel-Drusilla sighting while the rest of the class is discussing Marie Antoinette. In the hallways, Xander tries to make his way into the conversation but fails, just as another young man sneaks up behind Buffy and surprises her. She introduces him to Willow and Xander as her friend Ford (Billy Fordham), with whom she attended school in Los Angeles. He explains that his dad has been transferred and he's finishing his senior year at Sunnydale High. They make plans to go to the Bronze that night before Buffy walks Ford to the admissions office.

That night at the Bronze, Ford entertains Willow and Xander with embarrassing stories about Buffy. Buffy runs into Angel. She introduces Angel to Ford, whom Angel obviously doesn't trust from the beginning. The awkwardness prompts Buffy to ask Ford to take a walk with her and she says goodbye to her friend. As the two walk out, Angel is clearly jealous and confused as to what he's done to make her angry.

In the alley behind the Bronze, Buffy hears suspicious clattering around a corner. She asks Ford to leave and then runs around toward the sound. Ford heads toward the Bronze just for a second before turning back and following Buffy, where he watches her stake a vampire. Ford reveals that he knows that she is the Slayer. Later, Ford goes to an industrial warehouse. From the scenery, the building is some sort of club for a subculture. Ford walks down the stairs and begins discussing the details of some unnamed event with his friend Marvin (aka Diego), who is upset about not knowing the details of the plan.

Also that night, Angel shows up at Willow's bedroom. He asks for help tracking down Ford on the internet. Willow indirectly accuses him of being jealous, which he partially admits. She quickly finds that Ford is not actually registered at Sunnydale High. Angel has to leave before her mom finds him, but Willow agrees to keep searching and to not tell Buffy what they are doing.

The next day at school, Willow is awkward and jittery when she runs into Buffy and Ford, but Buffy shrugs it off. Next, Buffy and Ford run into Giles. Buffy tells Giles that Ford knows about her vampire slaying. He accuses her of using her identity to impress cute boys, but she explains that Ford already knew. That night, Buffy gives Ford a tour of the small town when they see two vampires running onto campus. They follow the vampires, but one gets behind Buffy and attacks before she sees him, pushing her out of sight of Ford and the other vampire. Ford holds a stake to the vampire's heart and threatens to kill her unless she does what he wants. Buffy stakes the first vampire, and when she finds Ford again he claims to have killed the other vampire. Meanwhile, Xander, Willow and Angel visit the industrial building used by Ford and his friends. Claiming to be friends of Ford's, they are let in and see the strange cult living there. They notice a pro-vampire motif just before one girl talks to them about those she calls "the lonely ones." She explains that they are misunderstood creatures and Angel can't help but scoff at her delusions. She is offended and walks away. Angel claims to have seen cults like this before. Ranting on their way out, they are overheard by Diego, Ford's friend.

Buffy goes back to the library and meets Giles and Mrs. Calendar. They try to think about what the vampires could have been up to when Buffy sees a picture of Drusilla among Giles' research. She recognizes it as the girl with whom she saw Angel two days before and asks who she is. Giles explains that she was Spike's lover, allegedly killed by an angry mob in Prague, but Buffy tells him that she is still alive and that she saw her with Angel. Soon, a vampire storms out of Giles' study with a book. She sprints for the door and makes it before anyone can stop her. Buffy recognizes her as the vampire Ford said he had killed.

At that moment, Spike and Drusilla are discussing her meeting with Angel, but are interrupted when Ford sneaks in. Ford asks to be made a vampire, but the idea doesn't interest Spike, until Ford explains that he can give them the Slayer.

Later that night, Angel comes to Buffy's house to tell her about Ford's group, but she starts interrogating him about Drusilla instead. Buffy demands the truth about her and her relationship with Angel. He explains that Drusilla was the worst of all the terrible things he did in the past. He is Drusilla's sire, but before making her a vampire, he tortured her into insanity by killing everyone she loved before biting her. Buffy is obviously upset by the intensity of Angel's past life, but accepts it. He tells her about the vampire cult Ford is in, but that he doesn't know their plans. She is upset that he, Willow, and Xander were doing recon behind her back, which creates an awkward silence.

At school the next morning, Ford asks Buffy to hang out again, but won't tell her what he has planned. Buffy pretends she doesn't suspect anything. However, she doesn't wait to meet Ford as planned and goes to his club. He is talking to his followers when Buffy comes in and tells him his plan isn't going to work. Ford explains that he was counting on Buffy figuring out his plan and coming to meet him. Buffy pleads with him to let the others go. Ford interrupts to tell her that he has brain cancer and will be dead within six months; becoming a vampire is the only way he can avoid irrevocable death. He then admits to her that the other people will not be changed.

Within minutes of sunset, the vampires arrive, who immediately begins feeding. Ford starts fighting Buffy, but she swings him into a metal beam and he falls down, knocked out. While the rest of the vampires are feeding, Drusilla waits on the platform above the main area. Buffy sees her alone, rushes through the crowd and jumps up to the platform, where she immediately overtakes Drusilla and prepares to stake her. She yells out to Spike, who immediately orders everyone to stop feeding. Buffy demands that they let everyone go, which Spike agrees to. The former vampire worshippers flee and Buffy follows. Ford is still unconscious on the floor as Buffy closes the door, locking all the vampires inside with him. Ford awakens, and confronts Spike—the Slayer may have gotten away, but Ford held up his end of the bargain by handing her over. He demands that Spike holds up his end of the bargain and sire him.

A few nights later Buffy and Giles are waiting over Ford's grave. Just then Ford's vampire self emerges and Buffy stakes her former friend. Buffy then asks if [life] gets any easier, and Giles asks Buffy what she wants him to say. She responds, "Lie to me." Giles replies:

Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true. The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats and we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after.

Buffy retorts, "Liar."

Reception

"Lie to Me" had an audience of 3.4 million households on its original airing.

Cultural references

Buffy mentions a song by an Australian rock band:

It was terrible. I moped over you for months. Sitting in my room listening to that Divinyls song "I Touch Myself". Of course, I had no idea what it was about.

Arc significance

• This episode marks the first appearance of the character "Chanterelle", who will reappear in the Season Three premiere as "Lily" and will become a minor, recurring character in Angel under the name Anne Steele (given to her by Buffy in "Anne").
• The Scoobies become aware of Drusilla.
• This episode is also where Angel's connection to Drusilla is revealed. He shows he retains affection for her by trying to persuade her to leave Sunnydale with Spike, not because he thinks he and Buffy can't fight them but because, despite their evil activities, he does not want to fight them.
• The book stolen by the vampire will come into significance in "What's My Line", a two-part episode.
• Willow invites Angel into her house.
• Buffy tells Ford that, contrary to what he thinks about vampirism: "You die, and a demon sets up shop in your old house, and it walks, and it talks, and it remembers your life, but it's not you." This notwithstanding, in most episodes (both of Buffy and of spin-off series Angel) Buffyverse vampires usually behave as if they are indeed the people they were in life, except considerably crueller and more vicious, and most non-vampires tend to treat them as if this were the case; Buffy herself sometimes falls into this fallacy, as seen in her behavior toward vampirized Harmony Kendall, Angel's soulless incarnation Angelus, and others.

External links

• "Lie to Me" at IMDb
• "Lie to Me" at TV.com