The Freshman (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) - Plot

Plot

This episode is crucial because it begins the process during which the Scooby Gang are shown dealing with a much more adult world than in the previous seasons, and must themselves work to become adults.

Buffy, Willow and Oz begin attending the University of California at its fictional Sunnydale campus. Buffy (as novelist A.M. Dellamonica writes) "feels overwhelmed by the University of it all, while everyone else is apparently thriving." Willow is excited by the bigger library and the opportunities to advance her learning, while Oz seems typically unfazed. Meanwhile, Giles is a retired "gentleman of leisure" now that the Sunnydale High School library has been destroyed, and Xander is out of town on his much-anticipated cross-country road trip.

Buffy and Willow go to the campus bookstore for supplies, where Buffy accidentally knocks a pile of psychology textbooks onto the head of Riley Finn, who introduces himself as a TA for Professor Walsh's Psych 105 "Intro to Psychology" class. Usually pretty cool, Buffy fumbles the conversation:

Riley: I'm a TA, I'll be helping the Professor out. I'm sorry, I've forgotten my manners in all the concussion... I'm Riley.
Willow: Willow, and this is my friend Buffy.
Riley: It's nice to meet you both.
Buffy: I'm nice to meet.

As reviewer Chris Monigle comments, "Buffy's so out of place she becomes 'Willow's friend.'"

Buffy then goes on to her new dorm in Stevenson Hall, where she has already moved in and her new roommate Kathy is in the process of doing the same. Kathy expresses her belief that the upcoming year will be "super fun", but Buffy is unconvinced when she sees Kathy hanging a poster of Céline Dion on the wall. During the night Buffy has trouble sleeping because Kathy snores, laughs, and smacks her lips in her sleep.

On the first day of classes, Buffy is humiliated at being ejected from a class by a bullying professor (of pop culture, no less) in front of dozens of other students, and in the next class she feels overwhelmed by the heavy workload promised by Professor Walsh, wondering how she will find the time to both study and slay vampires. Feeling increasingly lonely and isolated on campus, she is relieved to strike up conversation with a fellow freshman named Eddie (who is also taking Psychology with Professor Walsh) when they are both lost on campus at night. They discuss the need for a "security blanket" in unfamiliar surroundings, and he says that the novel Of Human Bondage serves this purpose for him. After Buffy and Eddie separate, he is killed by a group of vampires, who then go to his dorm room, steal his belongings, and leave a fake note from Eddie claiming that he decided he couldn't handle the stress of college and went home.

The next day, Buffy is disappointed to find Eddie missing from class. She goes to his dormitory, finding it empty but for the note and the novel "Of Human Bondage", which is still in his nightstand. Considering their conversation of the previous day, she does not believe that he would leave the book behind, and goes to Giles for advice. However, Giles feels she is capable of handling the situation herself.

That night, during a patrol, Buffy comes across Eddie in a deserted part of campus and is horrified to realise he is now a vampire. The vampires that turned Eddie are watching and now attack. Buffy is thrashed by their leader, Sunday, who injures Buffy's arm and causes her to flee. Buffy's confidence is greatly shaken by this encounter, and she decides to visit her Mom and some familiar surroundings. Joyce did not expect to see Buffy home so early in the semester, and because of this she has been using her daughter's room as extra storage space for the gallery.

When Buffy returns to her dorm room on campus, she finds all of her belongings missing and a note similar to that found in Eddie's room. Buffy goes to The Bronze and mopes around, feeling even worse when she sees a man with a pronounced physical likeness to her former boyfriend Angel. However, she is greatly cheered by the appearance of Xander, who reveals that his tour of America never happened because his car broken down in Oxnard and he spent the rest of the summer washing dishes at the fabulous "Ladies' Nightclub" to earn money for repairs. Now he has returned home, where he lives in the basement of his parents' house and is expected to pay rent. Buffy tells Xander about her negative early experiences of college, and expresses a fear that she cannot adapt to the college experience, but Xander greatly moves her by describing her as "my hero" and explaining that he always thinks "What would Buffy do?" whenever he is in a bad situation. (He adds, "Ok, sometimes when it's dark and I'm all alone, I think, 'What is Buffy wearing?'") They then agree to track down the vampire lair and reclaim Buffy's stolen belongings.

Using the college computer system, the pair locate the vampire gang in a disused frat house. While Buffy angrily watches the vampires using and abusing her belongings through the glass roof of the frat house, Xander leaves to round up the assistance of Willow and Oz. Unfortunately, the roof breaks and Buffy lands on the floor in front of the vampires. They fight and she is once again losing, in part because of her sore arm from their previous encounter, but seeing Sunday damage the Class Protector award she was given at her senior prom angers Buffy enough to regain her confidence and soundly trounce the vampires, taking out Sunday with a bankhand throw of a broken tennis racket. As Buffy and friends return to the dorm with her belongings, Giles makes a belated appearance with weapons, apologising for his earlier dismissal of her fears and promising that they will fight the evil together.

Meanwhile, one of the vampires from Sunday's gang is hit with a taser by three masked men in camouflage fatigues.