Season 2, Episode 2 | Aired: 22 September 1997 | Written by: Ty King | Directed by: Bruce Seth Green
A Frankenstein episode — a student is rebuilding a body for his dead brother using parts from recently deceased girls. It’s one of the season’s lighter entries in terms of its place in the arc, but it handles its central metaphor — grief, obsession, and the impossible desire to undo death — with more care than the premise might suggest.
What Happens
Chris Epps has been digging up graves and stealing body parts to reassemble a companion for his brother Daryl, who died in a football accident and was secretly reanimated by Chris. The project is almost complete — it only needs a head, which Chris plans to take from a living girl. Cordelia is the target.
Giles and Jenny Calendar’s awkward courtship begins in this episode, which is as important as the main plot in terms of what’s coming. Buffy and Angel’s dynamic continues its slow build. The monster plot is resolved at the school’s science lab in a fire — Daryl, refusing to let his created companion die again, burns with her.
Key Moments
Daryl’s final choice — to die with the patchwork girl rather than continue without her — is played with unexpected pathos. He’s a monster and a victim simultaneously, and the show doesn’t flatten that.
The Giles/Jenny flirtation is important to note because it’s setting up one of the show’s most devastating storylines. Everything here is warm and tentative and hopeful.
Monster / Villain
Chris Epps (Angelo Spizzirri) and his brother Daryl (Ingo Neuhaus) — not supernatural villains but grieving humans making catastrophic choices. The assembled girl (Melanie MacQueen) is more victim than threat.
Notable Quote
“Look on the bright side. At least you two have a heart between you.” — Cordelia, to the assembled girl, not quite meaning to be cruel but managing it anyway.
Where It Fits
A fairly standalone episode that does useful work establishing the Giles/Jenny relationship and continuing the Cordelia-as-Scooby-adjacent dynamic. The grief theme will recur throughout the season in darker forms.