"The Harvest" is the second episode of the first season of the American supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by series creator executive producer Joss Whedon and directed by John T. Kretchmer. The episode originally aired on The WB on March 10, 1997, forming a two-hour premiere with the previous episode, "Welcome to the Hellmouth", and attracted 3.4 million viewers.^[1]

The episode continues directly from the cliffhanger ending of "Welcome to the Hellmouth", as Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) struggles to save Jesse McNally's (Eric Balfour) life with the help of her new friends Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), and her Watcher Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head). Although the episode originally aired with "Welcome to the Hellmouth", in subsequent reruns and home media releases, the two episodes are typically presented separately.

Luke (Brian Thompson) is about to bite Buffy, who is trapped in a stone coffin, but he is repelled by the silver cross that a mysterious stranger (David Boreanaz) had given her earlier that evening. She then escapes the mausoleum and saves her friends Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) from vampires in the cemetery. However, Darla (Julie Benz) has already taken Jesse (Eric Balfour) underground. She and Luke inform the Master (Mark Metcalf) about Buffy's unusual fighting abilities and knowledge of the supernatural, suspecting that she may be the new Slayer. The Master decides to use Jesse as bait to lure Buffy to him.

In the library, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Buffy reveal to Xander and Willow the supernatural world of vampires, demons, and Slayers, and that Buffy is the latest Slayer to endow powers chosen to fight supernatural threats. Willow uses a computer to view the city council's plans for Sunnydale's tunnel system. Buffy realizes that there must be a way to access the tunnels from the crypt where she fought Luke and Darla. Willow offers to help now that she knows about the supernatural and continues assisting Giles with research. However, Xander is hurt when Buffy declines his offer to help her track down Luke.

Buffy skips school to search for the hidden tunnels in the cemetery. The dark stranger appears again, just as Buffy is about to enter the tunnel system in the crypt, and tells her his name is Angel. He gives her directions to the Master's lair, but pointedly refrains from wishing her luck until she is out of earshot. Xander catches up with Buffy in the tunnels, having decided to follow her anyway, despite her earlier attempts at discouraging him.

Willow is researching the Master in the computer lab when she overhears Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) and Harmony (Mercedes McNab) badmouthing Buffy. When Willow attempts to defend her new friend, Cordelia insults her. Willow exacts revenge by convincing the computer-illiterate Cordelia to press the DEL key to "deliver her assignment," thus deleting it from the system.

Buffy and Xander find Jesse in the tunnels seemingly alive and unhurt, but he leads them to a dead end and then reveals that he has been turned into a vampire. Buffy and Xander barely manage to escape through a manhole.

Underground, the Master is unhappy about their escape and punishes the vampire Colin by violently poking his eye out. After drinking the Master's blood, Luke turns into "the Vessel." Back at the library, Giles explains that an ancient vampire, the Master, arrived in Sunnydale with his minions in 1937. He was attempting to open the Hellmouth — a portal between Earth and a demonic dimension — located beneath Sunnydale. However, he was swallowed by an unexpected earthquake and is now trapped in a church that is buried underground. If the Hellmouth opens, demons will invade the Earth. Tonight is a once-in-a-century opportunity called "the Harvest," in which the Master chooses one of his minions to drink his blood, marking him as "the Vessel" with the ritual's symbol. As a result, the Master will draw strength from each of the Vessel's victims until he is powerful enough to finally break free from his imprisonment. To prevent this, Buffy and her friends must kill the Vessel. They wonder where the vampires might attack to ensure the maximum number of victims, and Xander suggests The Bronze, as he realizes that the vampires have been using it as their feeding ground.

On the way to the Bronze, Buffy stops by her house to pick up some additional weapons before the fight but is promptly grounded by her mother (Kristine Sutherland), who has received a call from Principal Flutie (Ken Lerner) about Buffy skipping classes. She is terrified that the same events that led to Buffy being expelled from her previous school are happening again. Knowing that she cannot abide by her mother's wishes, Buffy collects her weapons from a secret compartment in a chest (the top layer that is filled with stereotypical girlie items so as not to arouse suspicion) and climbs out of her bedroom window.

Luke and the other vampires burst into the Bronze to begin feeding. Buffy arrives just in time to save Cordelia from being bitten by Luke. Buffy notices the Vessel mark on Luke's forehead and attacks him. Xander confronts Jesse with a stake but is spared the decision of killing or being killed by his former best friend when a fleeing woman accidentally shoves Jesse into the stake, piercing the vampire's heart. Willow pours holy water on Darla when she is about to bite Giles, causing her to run away in pain. After shattering a window, Buffy tricks Luke into believing a street light is the sun, then stakes him in the back when he realizes it's still night. With Luke dead, the Master's plan fails, and he is weakened again. Angel watches as the now-leaderless vampires flee from the Bronze; he is clearly impressed by Buffy's success at stopping the Harvest.

The next morning, despite Xander's expectation, Cordelia exemplifies the denial most Sunnydale residents undergo after paranormal encounters as she tells a fellow student about the previous night. Giles warns Buffy and her friends that the Hellmouth will continue to act as a magnet for demonic forces and that many more battles lie ahead, a fact which they accept more nonchalantly than he would like.

Whedon hoped to include actor Eric Balfour in the title credits to shock viewers when his character dies. Unfortunately, the show could not afford the extra set of title credits at the time.^[2]

Music included in this episode includes:

• "Right My Wrong" by Sprung Monkey features in this episode as Buffy attempts to leave Sunnydale High but is stopped by Principal Flutie.
• "Wearing Me Down" by Dashboard Prophets plays as Cordelia goes out on the dance floor at The Bronze.
• "Ballad For Dead Friends" by Dashboard Prophets plays as Jesse gets Cordelia to dance with him

Although it is never revealed in the series, the Master's real name as listed in the script of this episode is Heinrich Joseph Nest.^[3]

Joss Whedon noted in the commentary for this episode that he felt horrible for giving Eric Balfour so many lines with "s" in them, which he had to recite while in "Vamp-face". He had such a difficult time getting the lines out around the prosthetics that new ones were designed for vampire characters required to speak frequently; the older style ones were given to vampire lackeys with few or no lines in future episodes.^[4]

• Richie Tankersley Cusick: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Harvest. Simon Pulse ISBN 9780671017125

"The Harvest" originally aired in feature-length format alongside part one, "Welcome to the Hellmouth", on March 10, 1997, on The WB. The broadcast attracted 3.4 million viewers.^[1]

Vox ranked it at #99 on their "Every Episode Ranked From Worst to Best" list (to mark the 20th anniversary of the show), remarking on Jesse's death "not because Xander screwed up his courage and found his inner hero, but because someone accidentally pushed him while they ran by," saying that the moment goes a long way toward defining Buffy's tone from very early on."^[5]

Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave "The Harvest" a grade of B+, writing that it helped set the precedent for the series. However, he criticized some of the action scenes for a "lapse into mano-a-mano action-horror clichés" and felt that the resolution was anticlimactic.^[6] A review from the BBC stated that the episode was allowed "more time to breathe" than "Welcome to the Hellmouth", and praised the fight choreography and the developing characters.^[7]

• "The Harvest" at IMDb