Buffy the Vampire Slayer/I Robot, You Jane

I Robot, You Jane
Season 1, Episode 8
Airdate	April 28, 1997
Production Number	4V08
Written by	Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden
Directed by	Stephen Posey
← 1x07 Angel	1x09 → The Puppet Show
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season One

I Robot, You Jane is the eighth episode of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Willow falls under the spell of a charismatic mystery man named Malcolm, but Buffy and Xander suspect something is wrong when the computer geeks start acting more strangely than usual.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) (credit only)

and Anthony Stewart Head (Giles)

Guest Starring: Robia LaMorte (Jenny Calendar), Chad Lindberg (Dave), Jamison Ryan (Fritz)

Co-Starring: Pierrino Mascarino (Thelonius), Edith Fields (School Nurse), Damon Sharp (Male Student), Mark Deakins (Voice of Moloch)

Uncredited: Joss Whedon (Radio Host), Michael Deak (Moloch)

Plot Overview

Willow meets a boy on the Internet, and her friends grow concerned about the relationship. After Willow accidentally unleashes a demon while scanning a book, the group enlists the aid of Miss Calendar, a teacher at the school. The group traps the demon in a robot body, and Buffy electrocutes him.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• Moloch: Moloch the Corrupter is a lizard demon that was prominent during 1418 in Corona, Italy. The demon preys upon people by subtly manipulating them into following him unconditionally with promises of affection. Moloch was imprisoned by a band of priests who formed a sacred circle of Kayless to imprison him inside a book. When Willow scanned the book, he inhabited the internet and directed his followers to build him a robotic body so he could continue his works in the real world.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Carlo	Moloch	Snapped Neck	Lair
2	Dave	Fritz	Hanging	School Computer Lab
3	Moloch	Buffy	Electrocuted	CRD Building

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Jenny Calendar first appears in this episode, meeting the group for the first time. She will later be tied romantically with Rupert Giles.

Trivia

The Show

• First Appearance: This episode marks the first appearance of Jenny Calendar, the computer science teacher and Techno-Pagan. Her first name is never mentioned in this episode, although in the script it was originally "Nicki." This was changed to prevent confusion on the set because Nicholas Brendon goes by "Nicky" as a nickname.
• Cameo: Series creator Joss Whedon can be heard as the voice on the radio that Giles is listening to.

Allusions and References

• Thelonious Monk: The name of the monk who binds Moloch to the book in Italy is credited as "Thelonius." This is likely a reference to Thelonious Monk, a famed jazz pianist who is often regarded as the founder of bebop.

• Spider sense: One of Spider-Man's enhanced senses - he feels a tingling sensation when in danger. The sense grows stronger in proportion to the level of danger that he's in.

Buffy: Besides, I can just tell something's wrong. My spider sense is tingling.

Memorable Moments

• Buffy landing perfectly after jumping a fence, Xander falling flat on his face.

Quotes

• Giles: When I've examined it, you can, uh, uh, uh... skim it.

Ms Calendar: Scan it, Rupert. That's scan it.

Giles: Of course.

Ms Calendar: Oh, I know, our ways are strange to you, but soon you will join us in the 20th century with three whole years to spare.

• Ms. Calendar: You know, for the last two years more e-mail was sent than regular mail. More digitized information went across phone lines than conversation.

Giles: That is a fact that I regard with genuine horror.

• Giles: I'm - I'm just gonna stay and clean up a little. I'll, uh, I'll be back in the middle ages.

Ms Calendar: Did you ever leave?

• Xander: I mean, sure he says that he's a high school student, but I could say that I'm a high school student.

Buffy: You are.

Xander: Okay, but I could also say that I'm an elderly Dutch woman. Get me? And who's to say I'm not if I'm in the elderly Dutch chat room?

• Buffy: I'm telling you, something is going on. It's not just Willow. Dave, Fritz, they're all wicked jumpy.

Giles: Those boys aren't sparklingly normal as it is.

• Giles: Things involved with a computer fill me with a childlike terror. Now, if it were a nice ogre or some such I'd be more in my element.

• Buffy: I can just tell something's wrong. My spider-sense is tingling.

Giles: Your spider-sense?

Buffy: Pop culture reference. Sorry.

• Ms. Calendar: You're here again? You kids really dig the library, don't you?

Buffy: We're literary.

Xander: To read makes our speaking English good.

• Ms. Calendar: You're a snob!

Giles: I am no such thing!

Ms. Calendar: Oh, you are a big snob. You, you think that knowledge should be kept in these carefully guarded repositories where only a handful of white guys can get at it.

Giles: Nonsense! I simply don't adhere to a, a knee-jerk assumption that because something is new, it's better.

Ms. Calendar: This isn't a fad, Rupert! We are creating a new society here.

Giles: A society in which human interaction is all but obsolete? In which people can be completely manipulated by technology, well, well... Thank you, I'll pass.

• Giles: Well, it's been so nice talking to you.

Ms. Calendar: We were fighting.

Giles: Must do it again sometime, yes... Bye, now.

• Buffy:Tell me the truth: how's my hair?

Xander: It's great! It's your best hair ever!

• Buffy: Okay, so a powerful demon with horns is walking around Sunnydale and nobody's noticed?

• Buffy: He's gone binary on us.

• (discussing Moloch)

Xander: He's in a computer. What can he do?

Buffy: You mean besides convince a perfectly nice kid to try and kill me? I don't know. How about mess up all the medical equipment in the world?

Giles: Randomise traffic signals.

Buffy: Access launch codes for our nuclear missiles.

Giles: Destroy the world's economy.

Buffy: I think I pretty much capped it with that nuclear missile thing.

Giles: Right, yours was best.

• Moloch: (to Willow) Don't you see? I can give you everything. I can control the world! Right now a man in Beijing is transferring money to a Swiss bank account for a contract on his mother's life. Good for him.

• Ms. Calendar: Well, you really are an old-fashioned boy, aren't you?

Giles: Well, I-I don't dangle a corkscrew from my ear.

Ms. Calendar: That's not where I'd dangle it.

• Willow: Malcolm, Moloch, whatever he's called. The one boy that's really liked me and he's a demon robot. What does that say about me?

Buffy: It doesn't say anything about you.

Willow: I mean, I thought I was really falling --

Buffy: Hey, did you forget? The one boy I've had the hots for since I've moved here turned out to be a vampire.

Xander: Right, and the teacher I had a crush on? Giant praying mantis.

Willow: That's true.

Xander: Yeah, that's life on the Hellmouth.

Buffy: Let's face it: none of us are ever gonna have a happy, normal relationship.

Xander: We're doomed!

Willow: Yeah.

(they all laugh about it, then stop once they realise what this means for them)