"I brought Marshmallows! Occasionally I'm callous and strange"
ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 26th January 1999
EPISODE NUMBER: Season 3, Episode 13
WRITTEN BY: Dan Vebber
Truly an underrated gem in Buffy's catalogue, The Zeppo is a fresh, original and inventive episode that began to expand the limits of the show. The influences this episode has since had are numerous, but most notable is on Russell T Davies' Doctor Who reboot, which had several Doctor-lite episodes inspired by this Xander-centric tale.
The episode deals with Xander's insecurity in the group. A regular Joe in amongst a Slayer, a witch, a vampire, and a werewolf makes him feel he has little to contribute. Seeing the show through Xander's eyes is fun, as the apocalypse plot takes a back seat to undead hijinks.
Very meta and self-aware, the episode gets a lot of laugh from cranking up the melodrama and deliberately ommitting supposedly "important" scenes and playing it straight. But let it be said that The Zeppo is a very funny episode in its own right. What is zombie frat boy Bob's first reaction to being pulled out of his grave? To catch up on his favorite TV show. There's also the brilliant scene where Xander's questioning ends early after his subject gets his head knocked off by a mailbox.
The format takes a little while to get used to, but once it gets going, it's a riot.
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