2.4 Inca Mummy Girl

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Sunnydale High is taking part in a cultural exchange program with students from schools around the world. Buffy is not too happy about the idea of having a stranger living in her house for a fortnight, and Xander is even less enthusiastic when he discovers that Buffy's guest will be male!

On a school trip, the students visit a new Incan exhibition, where the main attraction is an ancient stone coffin containing a mummified corpse. The Tour Guide tells the story of a young girl, chosen by the Incan people to be their princess, then sacrificed to the mountain gods. She remained in her tomb for centuries, protected by a cursed seal held in her petrified hands. As the students file out, one boy stays behind for a closer look at the corpse. As he tugs at the seal it breaks, and when he reaches in to gather the pieces, the mummy opens her eyes and grabs him.

Next day, Willow reports that one student didn't come home from the trip, and the gang go to the museum to investigate. They find the stone coffin containing the mummy and the broken seal, but no sign of the missing boy. Suddenly a man rushes at them from the shadows, wielding a knife. He glances into the coffin, then just runs away. The gang are about to leave, when Willow notices that the supposedly ancient mummy has modern metal braces on its teeth, and they realise that the corpse must actually be the missing student.

At the bus station that evening, Buffy's exchange student, Ampata, is waiting for her to come and collect him. He hears a voice softly calling his name, and as he walks towards it, the mummy steps from the shadows and grabs him by the throat. She kisses him, and we see his flesh begin to dry and shrivel, as if she is sucking the life force from his body. Moments later, Buffy, Xander and Willow arrive and are surprised to find that instead of the young man they were expecting, Buffy's guest is actually a beautiful South American girl - Xander is immediately smitten.

At school the next day, Buffy introduces Ampata to Giles, who shows her the remains of the seal, in the hopes that she can translate some of the symbols. She tells them that it is very old and valuable, but the only symbol she can decipher is one meaning "bodyguard". While Buffy continues to investigate, Xander quickly volunteers to look after Ampata for the day, and they seem to hit it off. While they are sitting together talking, the knife-wielding bodyguard attacks them, demanding the return of the seal, but they manage to run away.

Back in the library, a frightened Ampata tells the others that they should destroy the seal. Willow is obviously upset by how close Xander and Ampata seem to be, but bravely ignoring her own unhappiness, she tells him he should take their guest to the fancy-dress dance that evening. While Xander waits, Ampata goes into the bathroom and finds the bodyguard lying in wait for her. She pleads for her life but he tells her she has already been dead for 500 years. As he lunges at her with the knife, she grabs his arm and twists him round, pulling him in for her fatal kiss. When she comes back to Xander, she looks even more vibrant than before, and happily agrees to go to the dance with him.

While Ampata gets ready that evening, Buffy offers to unpack her trunk, which has arrived from the bus station, but Ampata refuses her help, and locks the trunk. Xander arrives, dressed like Clint Eastwood, to take Ampata off to the dance, and Buffy stays behind to wait for Giles. At the Bronze, a band is playing on stage while an Eskimo-costumed Willow waits for her friends. As Xander and Ampata arrive hand-in-hand, she watches unhappily.

Giles tells Buffy that the bodyguard has been found at the school, mummified, and that further research has revealed that rather than guarding the mummy from harm, he was actually supposed to make sure she didn't wake up and escape. Ampata obviously misled them with her translation, and they become suspicious. Breaking open her trunk, they find the shrivelled corpse of the real Ampata. Buffy heads to the Bronze to warn the others, while Giles goes to the museum to try and reassemble the seal, hoping that will trap the mummy again.

The band begins another song, and Xander leads Ampata to the dance floor, where they smile at each other, their fingers entwined. Willow looks on miserably, but attracts the interest of the lead guitarist, Oz, who watches her with a smile, and wonders who she is. As they dance, Xander and Ampata move closer together, and almost kiss, until Ampata notices that her hand is starting to shrivel, and pulls away. She rushes from the dance floor, leaving Xander staring after her in confusion.

Ampata finds another student, Jonathan, and leads him backstage. She is moving in for the kiss when she hears Xander calling her name. Jonathan takes the opportunity to flee, and Xander finds Ampata alone and crying. She tells him she doesn't deserve him, and he puts his arms round her, kissing her gently. After a moment, she pulls him closer and we see his eyes widen in horror as he feels his life force begin to drain away. After a few moments, however, Ampata realises she can’t go through with it. She releases Xander and he falls to the floor, dazed but conscious. Somehow Ampata senses the seal being reassembled, and runs off. Arriving at the Bronze a few minutes later, Buffy finds Willow and tells her what's going on, and together they look for Xander.

At the museum, Giles has almost completed the seal when Ampata creeps up on him. She grabs the seal and dashes it to the floor where it shatters. Buffy arrives just as Ampata is about to drain Giles, and the two of them fight. Ampata manages to hurl Buffy into the coffin where she dropped the unconscious Giles, and shuts the stone lid on them. Willow arrives next, and is grabbed by Ampata, but Xander is close behind, and tells Ampata to let her go. Ampata says that they can be together, if she drains Willow, but Xander says that if she's going to kiss anyone it should be him. He pulls Willow away, and demands to know if Ampata is really willing to kill him. She looks distraught, but realises it is her only chance at life and pulls him towards her just as Buffy finally manages to push the lid off the coffin. Xander desperately tries to hold off the quickly shrivelling Ampata, as Buffy grabs her from behind, pulling her away and leaving only her rotting arms in Xander's hands. The rest of the mummified corpse drops into dusty pieces on the floor, and Willow goes over to comfort Xander.

Highlights

• All the stuff with Willow dressed as an Eskimo. She looks down at her costume with a look of such hopeless misery when she sees Xander walking into the room hand-in-hand with the beautiful Ampata in her Incan Princess dress. She has no clue how cute she looks - but Oz notices.
• Willow asking where Buffy is, and having to twist her whole body to look because of her Eskimo hood. When she shrugs inside the bulky costume, Xander doesn't realise that's what she's doing and tells her that next time she should say "shrug". He leaves and Willow looks after him, then says "sigh".

Pop Culture References

Xander says he doesn't know much Spanish except Doritos and Chihuahua.
'Doritos' refers to a brand of tortilla chips available in the UK as well as the States, and a chihuahua is a small breed of dog believed to have originated in Mexico.

Xander also says 'Ay caramba!', an expression made popular by Bart from the cartoon family 'The Simpsons'.

Xander: "I'm from the country of Leone. It's in Italy pretending to be Montana."
Refers to the "Spaghetti" Westerns of Sergio Leone which were set in America, but shot in Spain (rather than Italy, as Xander seems to suggest, but we could give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's referring to the nationality of Leone himself).

This is the first we see of Oz's band "Dingoes Ate My Baby", the name of which is a reference to a famous murder case in Australia where the defense hinged on a suggestion that the real culprit was a dingo (wild dog) which had attacked and killed the baby. This was later made into a film "A Cry in the Dark" starring Meryl Streep.

Buffy: "Okay, I'll still get Xander. Before he gets smoochy with Mummy Dearest."
This is the second Buffy episode to refer to the book written by the adopted daughter of actress Joan Crawford. The first was Episode 3 of Season 1, Witch.

Nice Touches

• Although they don't stress the point, it's clear that the Mummy is listening as the gang discuss when and where Ampata is due to arrive - she surely didn't turn up at the bus station by accident. She also mentions having travelled round the States, obviously touring with the Incan exhibition. This all leads to the rather horrible realisation that the Mummy must have been conscious and aware during her 500 year ordeal - no wonder she's a bit pissed.
• In the scene where Buffy is training with Giles - Xander winces in the background each time one of Buffy's kicks hits home.

Nitpicks

• This may not be a nitpick exactly, but I do find it unlikely that Rodney was able to get so close to the exhibit, and even to interfere with it and damage it - surely such an ancient and important artifact would have been behind glass, or at least roped off. Doesn't say much for museum security!
• In the library Willow is playing with a toy frog, yet in a couple of later episodes (What's My Line, Part One and Killed By Death) she refers to having "frog fear". I guess toy frogs don't count!
• At one point, Ampata tells Buffy that she has no lipstick, yet earlier we saw her using one at school.
• Several times, Giles and Buffy mention that they weren't able to find all of the pieces of the broken seal - they assume the bodyguard chap must have some of them - yet when Giles goes back to the museum to reassemble the seal, all of the pieces seem to be there.

Buffy-Speak

Buffy: Come on Giles, budge! No-one likes a non-budger!

Buffy: It's the uber-suck!