Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series) The Harvest (1997) User Reviews

Apocalypse postponed

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 31 October 2016]

This episode opens where the previous one left off; Buffy is in a mausoleum pinned down by vampire Luke. She fights him off and rescues her new friends Willow and Xander but Jesse is still in the hands of the vampires. The next day Xander and Willow are coming to terms with the fact that vampires are real and Buffy is keen to try to rescue Jesse who they believe may still be alive. Buffy returns to the mausoleum where she meets the mysterious Angel again; he advises her not to go in but she does anyway… followed by Xander who is determined to help. They enter a system of tunnels and find Jesse… unfortunately he has been turned into a vampire and they are lucky to get out alive. It is then learnt that something known as 'The Harvest' is due to take place that night and when it does the Hell Mouth will open and the world will be flooded with evil beings and The Master will be freed from his prison. As the vampires prepare to feast on the teens of Sunnydale at 'The Bronze' nightclub Buffy gets ready to stop them… it is just a pity that her mother has grounded her!

This was a solid second episode with a great mix of humour and scares. The scene where Willow tricks Cordelia into deleting her computer work after being insulted was priceless; Alyson Hannigan is great as the 'nerdy' Willow. The scenes where Xander and Buffy try to rescue Jesse are suitably tense; there is a real sense of danger as at this point in the series nobody, apart from Buffy, is established enough to be considered safe. The final confrontation in The Bronze was a lot of fun; combining action and danger with just enough humour. Not surprisingly the episode does not end with The Apocalypse but it is clear that it is only postponed and that our protagonists can expect to face more than just vampires in future episodes.

The second part of the series premiere

[katierose295 · 7/10 · 13 July 2006]

This is part two of the series premiere, picking up right where "Welcome to the Hellmouth" left off. Buffy's trying to stop the Master and his minions from "harvesting" lives and freeing the Master from his underground prison. This is an okay episode that is still working to build the series' back story. The Master isn't my favorite villain,(I like Angelus, Spike & Dru, the Mayor & Faith, Glory and the Trio & Dark Willow all better), but he does have a certain evil glee that's pretty entertaining. The episode also establishes Willow's talent with computers, gives Angel a name and introduces us to Harmony. Before Harmony was Angel's unicorn loving secretary or Spike's ditsy girlfriend, she was terrorizing Sunydale High at Cordelia's side. This is Harmony's first episode and even though she's not technically evil... She's still pretty evil. Watching Harm and Cordy bad mouth Buffy and Willow and Willow's sweet "push the deliver key" revenge is pretty fun. And Sunnydale's willful blindness towards super-natural happenings is illustrated for the first time at the end of the episode. Xander's right, it's no wonder property values in that town are so low.

On the downside, why is Jesse never mentioned again? You'd think his death would be worth at least a comment or two somewhere along the line. It could have been another reason for Xander to hate Angel and Spike. A "vampire killed my friend and now Buffy's dating one?!?" sort of deal. I even sort of hoped that Jesse'd be brought up again in season seven, as a image of the First and all, but no. He gets dusted and that's the end of it. Poor Jesse.

My favorite part of the episode: Buffy tricking Luke about sunrise at The Bronze, "It's in about nine hours, moron."

The Harvest Is Averted!

[callanvass · 9/10 · 13 January 2014]

Continuing where the pilot left off, Buffy Summers manages to avert death, save Willow & Xander, but The Harvest is still planning to commence. Jesse is still in grave danger with the vampires. At first they plan to kill him, but decide to keep him alive to lure him as bait for Buffy. Buffy wants to go in it alone, but reluctantly lets Xander & Willow tag along. After finding out Jesse is now, a vampire, Buffy must show more courage than ever to stop The Harvest. As much as I enjoyed the pilot, this episode was a lot better. It has much more suspense & action. As I explained in the pilot review. I'm essentially a brand new viewer to this show. Buffy's continued growth is very evident here. She is starting to get a little more comfortable as her duty, as a slayer. She's prissy, but a lovable badass. Even Willow gets out of her comfort zone to pull a great gag on Cordelia. It didn't take long for this group to be dynamic. The finale is filled with tremendous action, great stunts, and lots of thrills. My only carp is that Jesse turned into a vampire too soon. I don't know if they grew impatient or unsure, but more tension and buildup would have made Jesse's switch to the darkside all the more riveting. Buffy fans should love this episode.

9.2/10

Solid Buffy

[Joxerlives · 8/10 · 27 December 2011]

The Harvest

The Good; Never suspected they'd turn Jesse and was shocked when they killed him (Xander bags his first vamp, it'll take Willow and Cordelia 2 whole seasons to kill their first). The fight at the end is terrific especially Buffy's trick and 'give me the Spielberg (such a shame that there are no more commentaries on season 1, roll on Buffy Special Edition DVDs). Love Willow's trick on Cordy and we have Harmony for the first time (here unnamed). Willow hacks for the first time. Great scenes with the hand trying to pull Buffy back into tunnels (Xander saves her for the first time?) whilst the sun going down has never seemed quite so menacing not to mention Darla skipping along to the Bronze.

The bad; The vamps seem affected by the all too common slow moving monster syndrome. Also all the bodies disappear from the Bronze at the end whilst considering they're supposed to be lifelong friends Willow and Xander seem to forget about Jesse awfully quickly. Also considering we later establish what a formidable vamp Darla is Willow seems to overcome her awfully easily with just a jar of holy water

Best line; Willow; "I need to sit down" Buffy; "You are sitting down" Willow; "Oh, good"

Questions and observations; the vamps look slightly different to what we later see, their skin more mottled and talons more pronounced. We later see in The Wish that whilst the Harvest would have been bad it wouldn't have been the end of the world. Is it Cordy who bumps into Jesse and forces him onto Xander's stake? I must say I'd never seen the supposed gay subtext between the Master and Luke until it was pointed out by Joss but now it seems impossible to miss 8/10 solid Buffy

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Harvest is excellent conclusion to series pilot

[tavm · 10/10 · 20 September 2006]

This is the second part of the pilot episode that aired on the WB's last broadcast of September 17, 2006. In this one, The Master and his minions are trying to "harvest" lives in order to free The Master from the underground Hellmouth. We find out Jesse is now a vampire, Willow is good with computers, Cordelia's not (I love Willow's "Push the deliver key" line to her), Harmony (Mercedes McNab) is Cordelia's friend here, and minion Luke (Brian Thompson) is not too bright (another favorite line, "It's about nine hours, moron" from Buffy after tricking Luke to look through a broken glass window with the sun shining). The final line from Giles, "The earth is doomed" after Willow, Xander, and Buffy joke about possible ways Buffy could get kicked out of school makes this the perfect beginning of this wonderful comedy-horror hybrid for the next seven years...

Buffy's Secret Slaying Stash

[injury-65447 · 7/10 · 20 June 2020]

Not as consistently engaging or well written as the first Part, but still pretty fun.

I like the goofy makeup on the vampires. They're fun to watch as they ham it up, especially the master with his gross fingernails.

I like Jesse in this one, he has a good cheeky vampire persona. Shame he's Dead already.

I think it's funny how all the high school kids just forget about the insane incident at the club and chalk it up to some kind of gang rivalry business. Ummm didn't kids die? They got at least a few right? Won't there be a police investigation?

I like the hint that they will be dealing with many forces, not just vampires. That's a good sign. Makes me more excited to see more and wonder what supernatural stuff they'll encounter.

It's a good enough transition episode which gets the gang together and lays a foundation for the mythology behind the series (hell portal).

The Harvest

[Realrockerhalloween · 17 September 2016]

A great follow up to the premiere that shows you can't keep a good girl down as Buffy tries to stop the Master's plans. Now its Buffy and her friends against an unearthly threat as they must stop a ritual only known as the harvest. Mark Metcalf & Eric Balfour both gave great performance as beings who are real threats ranging from menacing, seductive and giving viewers the chills. The rest of the caste varies as they are still getting use to each other or finding their footing and don't come off as genuine quite yet. The atmosphere adds to the creepy vibe they gave off with the low lighting, shadows and if I'm not mistaken a super eight camera to give the film a hazy unsettling picture. The special effects for the face makeup was impressive for such a low budget and very original as they look how I imagine from legends instead of handsome Dracula, but a demon returned from The grave to terrorize the living.

The music sounds creepy, almost ancient in nature showing how perilous the situation they find themselves in really is and how dangerous the creatures of the night they're facing are.

The Harvest

[bombersflyup · 8/10 · 29 June 2019]

The Harvest is quite a fall from the series opener, with just run of the mill vampires and little character development.

The series goes on to show it can expand beyond these boundaries, branching out with other fiends as Giles would put it and to have developed entertaining villains as well. Xander exhibits lust personified here, as he follows Buffy in order to get close to her. Good music again and Sarah beautiful as always.

Giles: How about the end of the world?

Buffy: I've got a friend down there. Or, at least, a potential friend. Do you know what it's like to have a friend? Buffy: That wasn't supposed to be a stumper.

A so-so second episode.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 13 June 2015]

Episode 2 Season 1 ties up The Master storyline for the time being, allowing for the introduction of more varied monsters in the forthcoming few shows. As far as the story for this one goes, it's not particularly memorable stuff: centuries old vamp The Master (Mark Metcalf) sends his minion Luke (Brian Thompson) to harvest victims, which will free him from the underground prison in which he has been trapped for sixty years. Buffy ensures that The Master stays put.

What this episode does do well is to build on the dynamic between Buffy and her pals, establishing each of them firmly in their roles: Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) as wise mentor, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) as comic relief, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) as brainiac sidekick, and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) as the bitchy one. But for me, the series would really get going with the next episode

Episode 2 review

[leecdewsnap · 8/10 · 6 November 2015]

SPOILER WARNING Following on from my previous review from Welcome to the Hellmouth, I feel this also concludes a great show opener. I think that Luke didn't react quick enough to his hand being burnt, which made the escape seem a little unlikely to me. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get more of Jesse, I liked him, he worked well as Xander's best mate (who was never mentioned again interestingly for someone who's supposedly his best friend). Unsure why they made Angel character so mysterious and unhelpful to start with, but I like what he grew into. I love Buffy's words to Luke before she stakes him, classic Buffy pun language used throughout. Finally, I wonder if they knew that the final line from the episode would be used so well in the finale years later, love this line.

Great Second-Half of the Pilot Episode

[trix_n_min · 7/10 · 26 June 2008]

The Harvest picks up right where Welcome to the Hellmouth left off, and it is just as good and just as promising as the first part. We've already been introduced to the main characters, so this episode just continues on from that. Already, their quirks are becoming clearer and the dialogue is sharpening, showing hints of the greatness that is to come. Xander's growing crush on the Slayer is becoming all too clear, while Willow's crush on Xander goes unnoticed by him but obvious to the viewers. The fight scene in the Bronze is kind of cheesy, true, but it shows us more of Buffy's fighting style. She quips the whole way through, and her "There's something you forgot about too - sunlight" trick is fantastic. My favourite scene in this episode is the ending, where as Buffy, Willow and Xander walk away, Giles turns and says "The earth is doomed." It is fantastic if you are a huge fan of the show and know that this scene will be repeated in the very final episode of season seven. Having watched the series already and knowing everything that is to come between now and that scene in season seven... honestly the amount of tears, drama, laughs, action and everything else that is still yet to be revealed, is staggering. My only negative is that I find Darla so immensely irritating. Her voice, the way she speaks - she is so annoying. Thank goodness she gets killed off later in the season. Overall - The Harvest is a great second half of the pilot episode. Greatness is being created before your very eyes.

The One With The Harvest...

[taylorkingston · 8/10 · 2 October 2014]

I really enjoyed this episode. It's a great follow up to the Series Premiere.

In this episode, Buffy and her friends encounter a powerful vampire. The Master. Classy name. Wonder how he got that. He's hell bent on opening a portal that will free him from his prison. The sewers. Ew. After Buffy escaped from that big vampire, Jesse is still with them. They eventually turn him into a vampire, whilst setting him up as a trap for Buffy and Xander to foolishly fall into. Jesse goes to The Bronze and dances with Cordelia, and just as he's about to eat her, the other vampires all come in, and start killing people. This will somehow get The Master out of his "cage". But, knowing Buffy, she's gonna stop it and use some snappy one-liners on the way.

Overall, I give this episode an 8 out of 10.

Not quite as fluent as the pilot episode but entertains despite some poor pacing

[SLionsCricketreviews · 7/10 · 30 May 2017]

'The Harvest" is a relatively quiet episode that does a job in wrapping up the story from the first episode to some degree of satisfaction. It is the weaker of the two episodes and yet its strengths and weaknesses are fairly similar with the added weakness that this episode has some pacing issues throughout its run.

One of the bigger issues of the first season that is a by-product of a restricted budget is the lighting especially in scenes photographed at night. These opening episodes really emphasize this where far too much of the frame is essentially blackened out and too much of the action is obscured as a result. The first season is less of a spectacle than later seasons (note the difference between the first season episodes and the season two premiere) and in this episode, the sewer sequence and the climax at the Bronze suffer somewhat.

While the first episode was clearly Buffy's and it only made sense, in many ways, this second episode is Xander's. He reacts most violently and emotionally during the library reunion after announcing that best pal Jesse was turned into a vampire and it is he who is put to the test of ending Jesse. When he offers Buffy his hand in venturing out to find Jesse, she refuses out of fear for his safety and he takes it personally as a slight against his masculinity. Xander is buried in his insecurity and he must overcome it when seeing his best friend, a now vampire, scold him for his weaknesses. Even when Jesse is staked, it is an accidental staking on Xander's behalf but he isn't altogether weak and powerless either. He demonstrates in a number of instances, courage and strength not just in following Buffy into vampire territory but in confronting vampire Jesse.

Nicholas Brendon was great in the pilot in a reduced role and here he is equally fantastic, this time at the forefront of the episode. He shines in bringing forth a complexity to the often buffoonery Xander and does it quite effortlessly. Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy is the other star of the episode, the next key player here, and "The Harvest" adds some depth to Buffy's role as a slayer. In the scene with her mother, just prior to her escaping through her bedroom window, Joyce states somewhat sarcastically and figuratively that she understands everything in life to a sixteen year old is "a matter of life and death" and sadly, in Buffy's case it is true. Much like the suitcase which hinds her vampire slaying tools, Buffy must conceal this other side of herself from even her own mother and as would come to be explored in great detail throughout the series, must continually place the weight of the world before herself.

The climax at the Bronze suffers somewhat, though even in this weak sequence, there's moments to savour. Buffy's means of defeating the vampire Luke, in this episode also known as the Vessel, is one of the highlights of the episode. There's an element of subverting expectations here, where the viewer might assume that sunlight will indeed end the vampires (a major moment of plot convenience) but it doesn't and the payoff is sublime comedy. There are some issues with cutting back and forth between different characters where a fluidity isn't necessarily present and the sequence, while sloppy, does have its moments.

One of the finest moments of the episode is the last scene and particularly Giles's declaration "the Earth is doomed" as an almost unconcerned (from the previous night's events) trio lead their way to classes chittering and chattering. As Xander does state in this episode, nothing would ever be the same…

Oh and welcome to the show, Harmony. What an odd journey she goes through over the course of the Buffyverse ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer" + "Angel")

buffy 1x2 review

[jackDee-56565 · 10/10 · 9 November 2020]

Fantastic part 2 of the pilot, on the DVD release the first 2 episodes are both considered to be the same episode, part 2 is great loved it, I loved the darker lighting episodes better

This Show Slays! I'm a Watcher.

[Aegelis · 10/10 · 20 January 2024]

Hitting full stride with fists and kicks of fury, Buffy squares up with the rising vampire horde. More detail is fleshed out (pun intended) as the scope of the new Buffy landscape widens to suggest a vast array of supernatural threats.

Suspense builds, battles are fought and unlike other shows, fighting is not casualty-free. We get a peek into other characters as well, all making rather reasonable decisions regardless of the overwhelmingly dooming circumstances. Buffy must also square up with perhaps her greatest challenge: Mom.

Sensibility, a well-written story, dramatic directing, all the pieces come together to lay the foundation of an excellent TV series.

The Harvest

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 26 June 2020]

The life of a vampire ain't an easy one. You get the munchies in the middle of the night so you have to find some blood. Then there is all that Goth rock you have to endure.

You never see a vampire listening to some Perry Como or Nat King Cole.

The poor old Master. He wants to feed, his minions are getting ready a harvest for him so he can leave his underground lair. The victims will come from a nightclub that is playing Goth rock. His ears are going to bleed.

Unfortunately his minions are a bit rubbish and no match for Buffy and her new crew.

It is not all vampire hunting in this episode. There are still the rules of High school life but Buffy manages to leap over that. Willow manages to deliver some IT shortcuts to the vapid 'It' girl.

The premise is established after this episode and for Buffy she will be meeting more than just vampires. The big problem is that the high school kids have to have a reset and forget that people just got killed by vampires.

Not your average show

[ossie85 · 8/10 · 8 August 2022]

The Master prepares Luke for the Harvest, he will be the vessel and every soul he takes will help The Master free himself. Buffy, Willow and Xander are incredibly worried about Jesse (Eric Balfour). Buffy and Xander go and try to find him, they do but its too late. Jesse has been turned into a vampire. Later that night, the vampires attack the bronze.

Why It's So Good - First sign that everybody in this show doesn't survive. It may seem odd now, but TV in the 90s rarely killed people. Something that this show would continue to do with great impact.

Watch Out For - Should we have an assembly when the dead rises?

Quote - "I have to have the most expensive thing. Not because it's expensive, but because it costs more." - Cordelia.

The Harvest-Review

[rohanumpleby-34057 · 7/10 · 6 April 2023]

The first episode sets the second episode well. The Harvest has some cool action scenes, when Buffy is fighting the Vampires. This is also the episode where the Watcher is more involved, and teaches Buffy a lot more stuff. It's interesting and engaging because the first part was more of an introduction but here we get to see the Watchers importance for Buffy, the vampire slayer. This is also the episode where Xander and Willow find out about Buffy being the slayer, and eventually come to terms with it. This episode is mostly set in the Bronze where the people are held hostage by the Vampires themselves, this is good because it proposes a real threat. The Scooby Gang have to try and stop it and they need to think of a plan to stop them.

The episode does however suffer in the pacing department, where the plan feels overly rushed, and Buffy fights of the Vampires really quickly. After all the threat that the Vampires proposed on the gang, that all gets resolved rather to easily. However still a great episode.

Rating stands at 7/10 For me.

The continuation of the pilot episode

[BenTramerLives78 · 10/10 · 12 October 2020]

This episode begins where the pilot left off. The Harvest is fast approaching and Buffy and her new pals and watcher must stop the ritual. The action takes place at the Bronze and is very entertaining. This episode is just as great as the pilot and lets the viewer know this is a show well worth watching.

The intro continues

[kellyq12 · 7/10 · 26 November 2021]

This episode is great at Willow and Xander process the fact that vampires are real and Buffy is the slayer. Buffy has to deal with the fact that she can't run away from being the slayer, and the series is off to the races!