Writers: Matt Kiene & Joe Reinkemeyer

Director: Bruce Seth Green

Original Air Date: 4.7.97

"The Pack" is the best episode of Season 1 because it puts together every aspect that makes "Buffy" so good into one tightly wrapped package. Like "The Witch," it breaks from the serial story of Season 1 and instead is an outstanding stand-alone episode. Season 1 was good at breaking from the show's plot structure to host a stand-alone episode, but it was ironically the dreadful Season 4 that was, in fact, the best season for stand-alone episodes (see "Superstar" and "Hush").

"The Pack" is so good because of three key features: its use of the high school/Hellmouth metaphor, Buffy's outsider nature and excellent storytelling. As an added bonus, it is a story that primarily focuses on Xander, generally the best character to center around for a mixture of humor and trouble.

The plot: A field trip to the zoo leads to trouble when four aggressive students bully another, weaker student into going into a closed hyena exhibit. The hyenas are quarantined for good reason. Xander goes in to help the bullied student when one of the hyenas casts a spell on the bullies, the wimp and Xander.

A quick change comes over all them. Xander goes from being a class clown to a leader of the intimidating pack. He revels in their mockery of a fat kid at The Bronze, he's antsy, etc. He and the pack end up killing and eating the school mascot.

Like most Buffy episodes, the metaphor isn't a subtle one: high school students often operate on a pack mentality, the strongest cliques being the most envied and, as a byproduct, the most feared. The pack Xander joins is four students who look like Versace models, unafraid to tear down anyone at any point. After his transformation, in Xander they sense their own. Xander is the perfect foil for this because he has always operated outside the margins, and suddenly is running with the most exclusive of cliques.

A critical passage in this episode comes during a game of dodgeball. Obviously Buffy is built for the game. Playing on a team opposing the pack - Xander tags out Willow mercilessly before being knocked out himself - Buffy winds up being the last remaining member of her team. The pack and another student are left. Sensing an equal if not superior player, the pack turns on the one remaining player not a part of their group, tagging him out.

The pack's behavior grows more greusome. Along with Xander - now the pack's leader - they kill a pig that was the school's mascot, eating it. Later, without Xander, they kill the school's weak principal, Mr. Flutie, after he scolds them for killing the pig and threatening to call their parents. Now, in just six episodes, Xander has made out with a She-Mantis and eaten a raw pig. The Xander-episode-is-funny-episode concept begins to take shape.

Buffy's outsider nature and Slayer powers tune her in to Xander's strange behavior early on. Furthermore, her hatred of bullies sensitises her to the increasingly strange behavior even more.

It is Buffy's instincts, we learn, that are the truest keys to her power. Going against her instincts, she leaves Willow to guard a caged Xander. After Xander almost seduces her into getting himself out, the rest of the pack break in and do so. And on a spree they go...

Needless to say, we learn it is an evil zookeeper who looks strangely like Frasier Crane who lusted after the power the pack stumbled into. The power is transferred, the plot is spoiled, Xander finally recalls how big a fool he's made of himself.  

And it is with "The Pack" that we find a Top 5 Buffy episode, one superior to almost all the others. For Buffy fans it is representative of everything good the show has to offer.