The Pack

After the disappointingly routine Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (#1.5), it's great to get something that is a little more original, this episode revolving around demonic animal possession, with Xander and a group of bullying alpha students becoming hosts to evil hyena spirits while on a school trip to Sunnydale Zoo. Once back on campus, the pack prey on the weak, moving from killing and eating the school mascot to attacking and devouring the principal. Buffy realises what is happening and enlists the help of the zoo-keeper to try and reverse the transmigration of the spirits back to the hyenas.

The Pack's success owes more to great performances than showy special effects (all we get here are glowing eyes), with Nicholas Brendon as evil Xander being this episode's best asset, the actor ably proving that he can play dark and threatening as well as dorky. Standout scenes include Xander attacking Buffy and belittling Willow, and a creepy attack on a family in a car. The best quips comes from Giles ("He's turned into a sixteen-year-old boy. Of course, you'll have to kill him") and Willow ("Why couldn't Xander be possessed by a puppy? Or-or some ducks?"). A neat twist towards the end adds to the fun of this very entertaining episode.

I give it pointsforthinking outside the box but overall this episode was silly dumb fun at best, the only to really watch this episode is get drunk get snacks and watch with someone so you can have a good laugh at least

A pretty terrible episode if we're honest. The low budget for one becomes really apparent in this episode, the puppets look pretty amateurish, the plot is just ludicrous, some African wild dogs or something somehow possess a group of bullying teens, who spend the episode acting literally like a pack of dogs with cringe results. The episode lacks a lot of the fun quips and dialogue we like, its more of a slog than anything. The whole episode is just so sunny and brightly lit too, hardly a single bit was shot a night.

There's yet more bloodshed but nobody is suspicious, nobody expect Buffy asks why the other kids seem to have lost their minds. This just isn't well written, the look isn't that good, it's super low budget in terms of the monster and the ending is extremely lame.

Demonic animal possession meets bullying in an episode that does what Buffy often does best - uses the monster metaphors to stand for larger teen social issues. Dark but also kind of funny!

After 6 episodes of Buffy i have to give my first 7/10 Just not as good as the others, less humor less credibility , just not as well written as the first 5, Still an enjoyable moment, 7.5/10 but I go for 7 stars.