"Teacher's Pet"
Buffys nice biology teacher, Dr. Gregory,
is attacked after class by a giant praying mantis, but as far as the students
know, their teacher is just missing. Angel shows up that night
to tell Buffy about pending danger. Buffy makes the observation that he
got attacked by someone with a fork. The next day at school a new substitute
teacher shows up and Xander kinda develops a thing for her. She tells the
class about the science fair, and asks for volunteers to help her create
a model of a praying mantis egg sacks after school. As expected, Xanders
hand shoots up, along with some football guy and every other guy in the
room. Miss French decides that the football guy can be her assistant that
afternoon, and Xander the next. Later in the cafeteria, Cordelia opens the
fridge to discover Dr. Gregorys headless body. Buffy speculates that
Angels warning and his unusual wound have something
to do with Dr. Gregorys gruesome murder, so she stakes out the park.
She sees a vampire with one arm that has three sharp claws where the hand
should be. The creature approaches Miss French, who is walking by with grocery
bags, but instead of pouncing on her, he sniffs her and runs away in terror.
Buffy catches the teacher turning her head around (but more like the exsorist)
Buffy comes to the realization that her substitute teacher is a praying
mantis. (Corny alert) Following her lead, Giles tries to get in touch with
a friend in England whos an expert in the field -- the only catch
being that the man is institutionalized. Meanwhile, hacker par excellence
Willow has found that that really cute football guy's mother has reported
him missing. Since its Xanders turn to work with Miss French
this afternoon, Buffy warns him, but he thinks Buffy is just jealous. Miss
French gives Xander a drink as soon as he shows up. As hes getting
woozy, he thinks he hears someone calling, but she ignores it. She takes
his hand, and her arm turns into a praying mantis foreleg.(ummm?)
He promptly passes out, and he is dragged away by Miss French. When he comes
to, he finds himself in a cage in Miss Frenchs cellar, with Blayne
in an adjoining cage. Surrounded by headless bodies in cages, he calls to
Miss French, who is now completely converted to her giant-mantis form.
After talking to his strait-jacketed friend, Giles confirms there is a creature
called a She-Mantis(he he he), who lures male virgins(oh no they found out
Xander!) to her nest. An extremely powerful foe, it was the She-Mantis who
put Giles friend into his deranged condition. Buffy suggests that
Giles record some bat sonar from the video library -- playing that for the
She-Mantis will disrupt her nervous system. Exhausting other methods, Buffy
decides to enlist Claw Guy to help her sniff out the She-Mantis. Going from
door to door, he finally winces when they reach the correct house. Turning
on her, he tries to attack Buffy, who promptly kills him with a fence slat.
Buffy enters the basement and uses a few blasts of the insecticide to send
her scurrying off, then plays the bat sonar. The tape has the desired effect
on the crazed insect, enabling Buffy to hack it to death with a machete.
We think this is the end of the She-Mantis until we catch a glimpse of the
inside of Dr.Gregorys classroom closet, where a glistening egg sack
is stirring at the bottom.