Season 4, Episode 5 | Aired: 2 November 1999 | Written by: Tracey Forbes | Directed by: David Solomon
Xander gets a job at a campus bar. The landlord has been brewing a special batch of beer — made with actual cave ingredients — that reduces drinkers to a primitive state. Buffy drinks it and becomes cave-Buffy, which turns out to be a more effective fighter than regular Buffy and no worse at navigating her feelings about Parker. The episode is not subtle about its messaging and is one of the season’s weaker entries. It is still funny in places.
What Happens
Parker Abrams — who slept with Buffy and moved on — is at the bar, being charming and insincere. A group of college men drink the bad beer and devolve. Buffy, having had too many herself, half-devolves. She rescues the de-evolved men from a fire, then hits Parker on the head with a stick. She is not entirely wrong to do this.
Key Moments
Cave-Buffy hitting Parker with a club. The episode earns this moment even if it takes twenty minutes of fairly thin television to get there.
Monster / Villain
The bar landlord — irritated that the students at his bar behave like what they are, and deciding to literally make them primitive.
Notable Quote
“Fire… pretty.” — Buffy, at low ebb.
Where It Fits
Beer Bad is the season’s most message-driven episode and generally acknowledged as one of the show’s least successful efforts. Parker gets hit with a stick, which is appropriate, and the season moves on.