QUARTA SERIE
Contents
1 The Freshman
2 Living Conditions
3 The Harsh Light of Day
4 Fear, Itself
5 Beer Bad
6 Wild At Heart
7 The Initiative
8 Pangs
9 Something Blue
10 Hush
11 Doomed
12 A New Man
13 The ’I’ in Team
14 Goodbye Iowa
15 Goodbye Iowa
16 This Years’ Girl
17 This Year’s Girl
18 Who Are You
19 Who Are You
20 Superstar
21 Where the Wild Things Are
22 New Moon Rising
23 The Yoko Factor
24 Primeval
25 Primeval
26 Restless
The Freshman
Written & directed by Joss Whedon
Transcribed by Diov Llun <>
Disclaimer
I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".
They were created by Joss Whedon and belong to him, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar Television, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th
Century Fox Television and the WB Television Network.
This episode was originally broadcast on October 5, 1999.
Revised: October 15, 1999.
This transcript should be considered as copylefted... that is, you can do anything with this transcript you want as
long as it doesn’t interfere with others right’s to do anything with it that they might want, also. You can modify it,
but if you want to use any part of this transcript, your modifications should be copylefted also.
Explicit license is hereby given for anyone to archive this transcript whenever and wherever they may wish.
Prologue
It’s night in the cemetery and Buffy is pacing back and
forth. Willow is seated cross-legged reading papers.
Buffy sighing Anything?
Willow Ah! ’Introduction to the Modern Novel.’ "A
survey study of twentieth century novelists." Open to
freshmen, you might like that.
Buffy ’Introduction to the Modern Novel?’ I’mguessing
I’d probably have to read the modern novel.
Willow Maybe more than one.
Buffy I like books. I just don’t want to take on too much.
Do they have an introduction to the modern blurb?
Willow Oh! Short story.
Buffy Well, that’s good.
Willow Oh, no. It conflicts with Psych.
Buffy Maybe I shouldn’t take Psych.
Willow You gotta. I-It’s fun, a-and you can use it as your
science requirement. Anyway, Professor Walsh is sup-posed
to be great. She’s like, world-renowned.
Buffy How do you get to be renowned? I mean, like, do
you have to be ’nowned’ first?
Willow Yes, first there’s the painful ’nowning’ process.
Wait! ’Images of Pop Culture.’ This is good. T-They
watch movies, T-TV shows, even commercials.
Buffy For credit?
Willow Heh. Isn’t college cool?
Buffy How’d I miss that one?
Buffy walks over and sits beside her.
WillowWell, you did sort of wait till the last minute with
your course selection.
Buffy Sorry, ’Miss I-chose-my-major-in-playgroup.’
Willow That’s an exaggeration. I just, you know, think
it’s good to be prepared. Don’t want to be caught un-awares.
Behind them a hand thrusts up out of a fresh grave.
Buffy Well I’ve been busy! It’s been a very slay-heavy
summer. I just haven’t had a whole lot of time to think
about life at UC Sunnydale.
A vampire’s head and shoulders emerge from the grave.
Willow It’s exciting, though, isn’t it?
Buffy Yeah! It’s gonna be an adjustment.
Willow Yeah, it’s like, five miles away. It’s uncharted ter-ritory.
The vampire struggles to climb up.
Buffy Giles said I have to be secret-identity gal again.
Willow That makes sense.
The vampire makes it out of the grave and starts walking
toward them, his face vamped out.
Buffy It’s gonna be tough, though... with a roommate.
Willow Yeah.
Buffy I’mpsyched about college. The vampire smiles as
he gets closer.
Buffy Definitely. He stops as he sees weapons stacked
against a gravestone.
Buffy I just need to figure out howit’s going to work with
my extra-curricular activities. The vamp looks at Buffy,
the smile gone.
Buffy I just can’t let it take the edge off my slaying.
Shaking his head, the vampire turns and walks away.
Buffy I gotta stay sharp. She looks behind her toward the
fresh grave.) Is this guy ever gonna wake up?
Part 1
Buffy is standing in the middle of a quad with students
milling all around her. She’s looking around.
Student Volunteer FRESHMEN! WE’RE DOING THIS
BY FOLDER COLOR! IF YOU’RE NOT HOLDING ONTO
A YELLOW FOLDER, YOU’RE IN THE WRONG GROUP.
YOU BELONG UP BY WIESMAN HALL. She points.
Buffy looks at the folders in her arms but doesn’t see a
yellow one. She starts to walk in the indicated direction.
1.Girl standing in front of banner that reads "THIS MUST
STOP"
Girl Not gonna take it!
Crowd No!
Girl Don’t take it lying down!
Crowd No!
Girl What do we want?
Crowd Unintelligible... Food?
Girl When do we want it?
Crowd Now!
A student walks up and hands her a flier.
Boy Rally, tomorrow night. We have to let the adminis-tration
know how we feel.
Buffy Yeah, right.
Another student hands her another flier.
Girl Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal
savior?
Buffy Uh, you know I meant to and then I just got really
busy.
A third student hands her yet another flier.
Boy Party, Thursday at Alpha Delt, you gotta be there.
Free Jello shots for freshman women.
Buffy Hey, you guys know where Wiesman hall is?
But the student is already accosting someone else. Buffy
continues walking and Willow meets up with her.
Willow Buffy, Hey!
Buffy Oh, boy am I glad to see you.
They continue walking.
Willow Isn’t this cool? There’s so much going on.
Buffy Yeah. Almost, one might say, too much.
Willow I got all my courses... except for ’Modern
Poetry’, I had to switch to ’Ethno-musicology.’ But
that’s cool, West-African drumming, I think it’s going to
change everything. Have you met your roommate yet?
Buffy No.
Willow Me neither. I hope she’s cool.
Buffy Indicating the fliers in Willow’s hands. I see you
got ticketed too.
Willow Yes! I’ve heard about five different issues and
I’m angry about each and every one of them. What’d
you get?
Buffy ’Jello shots.’
Willow I didn’t get ’Jello shots!’ She picks a flier out and
tries to hand it to Buffy. I-I’ll trade you for a-a ’Take Back
the Night.’
Buffy hands over all her fliers with a smile.
Buffy Are we heading anywhere near Wiesman Hall? I
still need to get my I.D. card.
Willow Oh, I got mine this morning. The lines are really
long now, you should have gone early.
Buffy Well, I hope that I learn from this experience, and
that I grow.
Willow I’mbeing annoying, aren’t I?
Buffy No, it’s nice that you’re excited.
Willow It’s just in High School, knowledge was pretty
much frowned upon. You really had to work to learn
anything. But here, the energy, the collective intelli-gence,
it’s like this force, this penetrating force, and I
can just feel my mind opening up–you know?–and let-ting
this place thrust into and spurt knowledge into...
That sentence ended up in a different place than it
started out in.
Buffy I’m with you, though, I’m all for spurty knowl-edge.
It’s just, a little overwhelming. Don’t you feel it?
Willow Well, I’m... Gasp Ooh, boyfriend! My on-campus
boyfriend. Oz comes up and he and Willowkiss.
Buffy Oh no, I forgot to pick mine up. Line’s probably
really long there, too.
Willow How are you?
Oz Good. It’s pretty much a madhouse, a madhouse.
Buffy I know, I was just saying that to Willow. I mean it’s
just so overwhelming. Don’t you feel completely disori-ented?
Paul Oz! A student comes up to them.
Oz Hey, Paul.
Paul Finally matriculating with us, very cool! Tell me
you’re playing this week!
Oz Thursday night, Alpha Delta.
Willow Ooh! She holds up a flier. I have that one!
Paul I’mbringing the wrecking crew. Jello shots? Hmm?
Do you know where they’re distributing the work study
applications?
Oz Points. Back of Richmond Hall, next to the audito-rium.
Paul Thanks. Seeya bro. He walks off.
Oz Go get’em. He remembers what Buffy was talking
about. My band’s played here a lot. It’s still all new. I
don’t know what the hell’s going on. He sees someone.
Hey, Doug!
Later, Buffy and Willow are indoors, walking along a
hallway.
Willow Library... ooh! Library. C’mon. They start climb-ing
a flight of stairs.
Buffy It’s too bad Giles can’t be librarian here. Be con-venient.
They reach a landing and turn left to continue up an-other
flight.
Willow Well, he says that he’s enjoying being a gentle-man
of leisure.
Buffy Gentleman of leisure? Isn’t that just british for un-employed?
Willow Uh-huh, he’s a slacker now.
Buffy Speaking of slack, have you heard anything from
Xander?
2.Willow Not for awhile, he’s still on his cross-country-see-
America thing. They reach another landing and
turn to climb yet another flight. He said he wasn’t com-ing
back until he had driven to all fifty states.
Buffy Did you explain about Hawaii?
Willow Oh, he seemed so determined.
Buffy I hope he gets back soon. It’d be fun to have the
whole gang back together–you know?–hanging out in
the... library. Wow!
They enter the library, a huge room with a vaulting
cupola ceiling.
Willow Oh my gosh! Isn’t this amazing?
Buffy It’s... cozy.
Willow You know I never wanted to hurt Giles’ feelings,
but occult books aside, our old library just didn’t have
the greatest selection. But this!
Buffy Yeah, this is great, you know, if we ever need a
place for the Nuremburg rallies.
WillowThis is a real library. Someone shushes them. See
we even have to whisper. It’s like a whole new world.
The bookstore. Students are milling about carrying
books in shopping baskets. Buffy carries an arm full of
books and Willow comes up with a basket.
Willow Here.
Buffy Thanks. Buffy puts the books in the basket. Can’t
wait till mom get’s the bill for these books, I hope it’s a
funny aneurism.
Willow ’Introduction to Psychology.’ Oh, up there. She
indicates three of four books stacked on the edge of the
top of a bookshelf.
Buffy I’ll get’em. You know, this store discriminates
against short people.
Willow Oh, I think there’s a protest next week.
Buffy reaches up and accidentally knocks the books off.
Buffy Woah, oh. They fall on the head of a young man
crouched underneath. He staggers back but recovers.
Oh, ahh. Oh god, I’mso sorry.
He stands up.
Riley I’mokay. It’s okay. Well, that was bracing.
Buffy I’m so... the books were just too high, and then
everything was bad. She bends down to pick up the
books.
Riley Let me give you a hand. He bends down and picks
up some books. Let’s put a few of these down here. He
puts them on a lower shelf. So, uh, are you girls taking
Intro Psych, or do you just want me dead?
Buffy Uh-huh. I mean the first one.
Riley Well, you’ll have a lot of fun. Professor Walsh–
she’s quite a character.
Willow You’ve taken it?
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’mRiley.
Willow Willow, and this is my friend Buffy.
Riley It’s nice to meet you both.
Buffy I’mnice to meet.
Willow Hey, do you know if we’re going to be studying
’Operant Conditioning’ in the first semester? ’Cause I
hear that’s kinda Professor Walsh’s specialty.
Riley Absolutely. Do you know her treatise on Dietricks
work?
Willow I know of it.
Riley It’s not in the syllabus, but it’s a fascinating read...
if you’re in to that sort of thing. They have it here.
Willow Oh, where?
Riley I’ll show you. I don’t meet that many freshmen
that know that much about psychology.
Willow Well, it’s fascinating.
Buffy Yeah, you know, ’cause everyone’s got a brain. Ri-ley
half smiles politely and starts leading the way. Or,
almost everyone. She follows Riley and Willow.
Dorm corridor. Buffy works her way through milling stu-dents,
both male and female. She enters a dorm room
with two beds and two desks. She sees another young
woman there unpacking a suitcase laying on one of the
beds.
Buffy Hi.
Kathy Looks up. Oh, hi! Are you Buffy?
Buffy Yeah.
Kathy Kathy.
Buffy Hi, it’s nice to meet you.
Kathy Yeah!
Buffy puts her things down on a desk and crosses over to
the bed and sits down.
Buffy So, it’s, ah... it’s a pretty nice room.
Kathy Hmm! I was surprised, ’cause you hear hor-ror
stories about freshmen housing. You took the right
side?
Buffy Yeah, umm, but if you want it...
Kathy No, no. I just wanted to make sure that’s what
you wanted. Exited for classes tomorrow?
Buffy Painfully.
Kathy Laughs I bet there’s going to be a lot of parties to
go to this week, too. Not that I’m a crazy partier. Oh,
and I’mnot always this hyper, either. I’mjust excited.
Buffy Yeah, me too.
Kathy crosses the room and picks up a folded poster and
carries it to a wall on her side of the room.
Kathy I am really glad they put me with somebody
cool... I can tell that you’re cool. I just know that this
whole year is going to be super fun! She unfolds the
poster onto the wall revealing it to be of Celine Dion.
Night time. Buffy is laying in bed listening to Kathy
snore, smack her lips and mumble in her sleep.
3.Day time. Buffy is in a lecture hall while Professor
Reegert gives his introductory lecture.
Professor Reegert The point of this course is not to cri-tique
popular American culture. It is not to pick at it,
or look down upon it. And it is not to watch videos for
credit. Small laughter from students. The point is to ex-amine...
Buffy Whispers to student beside her Do you knowif this
class is full yet?
Professor Reegert And there are two people talking at
once, and I know that one of them is me. And the other
is... a blonde girl. You, blonde girl. Stand up. I’m very
excited to hear what you have to say that’s worth inter-rupting