The Zeppo

Plot

Xander helps the gang vanquish a demon, but Buffy worries for his safety and asks him to stay fray-adjacent, upsetting him. When a student throws him a football, Xander drops it onto Jack O'Toole's lunch, leading Jack to threaten him. Cordelia tells Xander that, unlike his friends who are slayers, werewolves, witches, and watchers, he is useless and expendable like Zeppo Marx. Meanwhile, Giles informs Buffy that the Sisterhood of Jhe, a group of fierce demons, plans to reopen the Hellmouth.

Xander buys a car hoping to feel useful, but the only girl interested likes only the car. He accidentally rear-ends Jack, who threatens him with a knife; when a cop appears, Xander covers for Jack and earns his respect. They go to raise Jack's dead friends from their graves. Giles leaves to contact spirit guides for help.

Xander accompanies Jack and his group to steal bomb supplies; he spots Willow leaving a magic shop, and she tells him she loves him before hurrying off. Jack and his friends try to initiate Xander by killing him, revealing Jack is also dead. Xander flees, rescues Faith from a sisterhood member by hitting it with his car, then goes to her motel room where she seduces him before kicking him out. Back at the library, Willow and Giles sedate Oz in werewolf form and lock him in the basement.

Themes

Essayist Emily of InsectReflection.com compares Jack O'Toole and Xander regarding their views of masculinity. Theresa Basile compares Xander to the hobbit Sam in The Lord of the Rings, describing him as a would-be man's man obsessed with being manly, whose only close friends are women, and who is both a perpetrator and victim of sexual assault and violation of consent. She notes he is both attracted to and intimidated by strong women, jokes about objectifying women and viewing sex as a game, yet in intimate moments values romance and real connection, and is both a willing participant in and victim of the patriarchy.

Reception and influence

Vox ranked The Zeppo at number 34 of the 144 Buffy episodes, noting that while Xander is sidelined by his friends during another apocalypse, the episode is truly Xander-centric as he falls in with a dead crowd, has a romantic encounter with Faith, and averts his own apocalypse, reminding viewers that he fights beside his friends by choice, which is in some ways more noble. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club called it a favorite episode, praising how Xander's feelings of abandonment pervade the structure with intentionally dramatically unsatisfying moments.

Entertainment Weekly placed it at number 23 on its list of the 25 best Whedonverse episodes. TV Squad's Keith McDuffee listed it as the fifth best episode of the series. The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Makeup in a Series. Theresa Basile calls it overrated, arguing that Xander had previously performed heroic acts without supernatural powers, and that the episode sacrifices character for a weak parody that only becomes funny in the final act, though she liked the zombie frat boys who enjoy Walker, Texas Ranger.

InsectReflection.com notes the episode is quietly a turning point for Xander's character and one of the best and most unique episodes, describing it as an episode of Xander the Zombie Fighter inside which occurs an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Did You Know?

• Dan Vebber wrote two scripts for the show: Lovers Walk and The Zeppo.
• The episode is unusual in that the story is largely told from Xander's point of view, with the world-saving activities of the main cast portrayed as secondary until the plot lines converge.
• InsectReflection.com notes that the earlier episode Helpless directly compared Buffy to Superman, and The Zeppo follows up by comparing Xander to Jimmy Olsen, Superman's sidekick.