After class, the teacher remarks that he's heard Buffy had a few problems at her last school. Buffy tries to downplay it with, "What teenager doesn't?" but the teacher's like, "You burned down the gym, hon," and confesses that Principal Flutie showed him Buffy's permanent record. Buffy pleads "major extenuating circumstances" and starts to explain, but the teacher walks over to his coat, exchanges the pair of glasses he's wearing for a different pair, and interrupts her to say that he can't wait to see what Buffy's "gonna do here." "'Destructive girl,' that's me," Buffy murmurs sadly, half to herself. "But I suspect it's gonna be great," the teacher continues. She thinks he means "'great' in a bad way," but he doesn't; he tells Buffy she has a "first-rate mind" and can think on her feet, but she needs to do the homework. He knows she can "excel in this class," so he expects her to do just that. Buffy apologizes. "Don't be sorry, be smart," he snaps. More pep-talking about how Buffy shouldn't listen to Principal Flutie's or anyone else's negative opinions about her and "let's make them eat that permanent record" -- long story short, he believes in her, and she's touched. Finally, after one more nag from the teacher about doing the reading, Buffy leaves. The teacher turns the lights in the classroom out again and sits down to examine slides. The shot leaves an ominous space behind him and to the left, so we know something's lurking. Also, we've watched television before. Then the shot changes to over the teacher's shoulder and pulls in tighter. Strings And Flugelhorn Of Impending Doom. A large jointed tentacle that looks like part of a cactus grabs the teacher by the neck and yanks him backwards, and he lands on the floor next to his broken glasses, thereby dooming Buffy to many more years of academic insecurity.

Credits. Yuck, Darla.

The Bronze. Superfine plays one of my least favorite songs from the soundtrack as Xander dances his way through the crowd towards the stage; he gives the lead singer a "what's up dude" nod, but gets dissed. Negged on the "what's up dude" nod by a guy in a silver shirt? That's got to hurt. He walks back to the tables, where the jock from bio class is bragging about how many girls he's slept with -- seven, if we believe him. Which we don't, because we've watched television before. The jock's friend buys it, though, and listens politely as Jockstrap blithers on about how a girl really has to "have something" to get with him. "Something like...a lobotomy?" Xander supplies from a nearby table. Jockstrap sneeringly asks how many times Xander has "scored." God, I loathe that expression. It's so...meatheaded. Anyway, Xander tries to fake him out by saying, "Are we talking today or the whole week?" Jockstrap laughs in his face. Just then, Xander spots Buffy and Willow coming down the stairs, and with a smug "ooh, duty calls," he bails to go talk to them. Jockstrap and Friend look at each other all "oh, I am so sure."