Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Series) The Zeppo (1999) User Reviews

One of the most creative episodes of the series

[katierose295 · 10/10 · 3 August 2006]

This episode is set-up to be off-center. Rather than watching Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies battle an evil apocalypse cult, we follow Xander on some fun, lesser adventures. He wanders around town, getting into trouble of his own, while the others have important, heartfelt conversations and fight multi-headed monsters. The "end of the world" sub-plot is suppose to be a joke. It's deliberately played as overly dramatic and vague. We basically only understand what Xander does about it... And he doesn't understand much. Honestly, the plot of "The Zeppo" is hard to explain. But, it is a really funny and creative episode. It makes Xander the center of attention and the rest of the characters' problems secondary. I highly recommend it.

The episode revolves around Xander's desire to be cool. Desperate to find something that makes him special, he borrows his Uncle Rory's car and sets out for a night of fun. Meanwhile, the Scoobies are dealing with a female apocalypse cult who are out to open the Hellmouth and destroy the world. Worried that Xander will get hurt in the fight, the Scoobies try to keep him out of the investigation. However, Xander winds up in trouble of his own when he meets up with Sunnydale bully Jack O'Tool. Jack has soon swept Xander up in a scheme to raise the dead.

It seems Jack's part of a gang, that's members have the bad habit of dying. Luckily for them, Jack's Grand-Pappy knows a little bit of magic and the stars are aligned for a little resurrection spell. Soon the whole gang's reunited and ready to start having some un-dead fun "baking a cake." Which, in zombie-gang speak means "building a bomb." With the Scoobie's busy saving the world, Xander has to stop O'Tool on his own. Along the way he runs into Faith and the two of them end up sleeping together. Then it's off to Sunnydale High, where Xander has to defuse the bomb and the Scoobies work to stop the Hellmouth from opening.

There's a lot to like about this episode. Xander's attempts to be "cool" are just hilarious. From the crazy blond woman who's only interested in riding his drunken Uncle Rory's car, to his 'rassling with "Katie" and O'Tool, to his reluctance to join the zombie gang... It's all just great. And the writing in this episode is top-notch. Every once in awhile, we switch from Xander's point-of-view, to the Scoobies dramatically gasping that this is the worst monster that they've ever faced. How will they survive? How can they possibly stop it in time? What will they do? **cue the suspenseful music** And then we switch back to Xander driving around in his convertible. REALLY funny.

The end of "The Zeppo" is especially wonderful, with the Scoobies fighting to close the Hellmouth, the zombie gang chasing Xander through the halls, a bomb ticking in the basement and Oz locked up as a werewolf. It all plays off each other so well. And you have to laugh when Xander tells O'Tool-the-Zombie that they'll both die if the bomb goes off, "And this isn't walking around drinking with your buddies dead..." And I like that Xander finally discovers his own coolness in the end. It's not an outside thing that he has to buy or a group he has to join, it's about believing in himself. He doesn't even have to tell anybody about his adventure, because HE knows the truth. It's a lesson that Xander has to learn again and again. It's not easy being the "normal" one in a group of super-powered friends.

On the downside, isn't it Buffy's job to get the donuts while the Scoobies research? I thought that Xander praised her for going on snack runs in "Suprise." He and Willow are always the ones who get stuck with actual book duty. Also, Xander really does help the Scoobies a lot of times. He came up with the rocket-launcher plan for the Judge in "Innocnce", he rescued Giles in "Becoming Part Two, he discovered the swim team's secret in "Go Fish," etc... I think the rest of the Scoobies are selling him short in this episode. And as far as Jack's resurrection spell... It seems to work really well. Maybe, Dawn and the Scoobies should have talked to his Grand-Pappy in season five's "Forever" and season six's "The Barginning." On a nit-picky note, the first scene of the cafeteria in "The Zeppo" is a shot re-used from the episode "I Only Have Eyes for You." And the fact that I recognized it, is a sad indication that I'm hopelessly addicted to this show.

My favorite part of the episode: Buffy and Angel's melodramatic, tear-soaked, self-sacrificing, "I'll always love you" scene. The amazed looks on their faces when Xander walks in and interrupts their speech-ifying are truly priceless.

Best Buffy Episode

[david-2483 · 10/10 · 27 August 2007]

I just love this episode. Xander really carries it, something he's failed to do in the other Xander-center episodes IMO. Cordy is absolutely withering in her disdain for Xander and, of course, HOT. The monster plot is at first mysterious and ominous and later a beautiful in-joke. Jack O'Toole is brilliantly psychotic. His gang is pretty bleh, but they serve their purpose. Even Faith is interesting and sexy in this episode. The denouement is brilliant both in the gang's discussion of the monster and Xander's penultimate confrontation with Cordy.

Xander will forget the life lessons he's learned in this episode, but for one brief shining week he gets to be the man.

A chance for Xander to shine

[Joxerlives · 10/10 · 18 February 2012]

The Zeppo

The Good; All of it, pure genius and a chance for Nic Brendon to shine like a beacon.

The Bad; Not much, the zombie makeup could be a bit better but that's about all. Buffy's hair looks like it's been through the machine that makes crinkly chips. Surely Jack's bomb is not sophisticated enough to be boobytrapped, why doesn't Xander just yank the wires out? Like Spike in Lover's Walk and the swimteam in Go Fish isn't it a bit irresponsible to just let O'Toole go at the end?

Best line; Willow; "Occasionally I'm callous and strange" (as we'll find out in Seeing Red) or O'Toole (threatening Xander with his knife) "Are you sacred?" Xander (desperate) "Would that make you happy?" But the winner is; Xander (wondering why Oz is cool) "Is it the way you express yourself in short, non-committal sentences?" Oz; "Do I?" also good is Xander's "I like the quiet", he's prepared to die to save his friends.

Character death; The Magic Box has a new owner but not for long.

Shot; Various members of the undead gang when they were alive plus Oz twice by Willow

Tied up; nope unless Faith and Xander indulged in some during the heat of passion

Knocked out; Angel according to the dialogue plus werewolf Oz

Women good/men bad; Actually a sisterhood of female demons this time around.

Jeez!; Decapitation by letterbox, death by soda machine

Kinky dinky; Faith shamelessly uses Xander for her own pleasure then chucks him out the door afterwards. Not that he's complaining! (and I'm sure millions of guys and not a few girls would agree). Xander seems to imply that he's never had sex before. We don't exactly know how old he or Faith are so it could be statutory rape, like Buffy/Angel (the legal age is 18 in California). Faith does this after the pain of Xander resetting her shoulder, linking pain, violence and pleasure (in Get It Done we discover why Slayers have this dark sexual side). Buffy seems to imply that Xander's car is a penis metaphor, love how her mind works. Xander's girl is lovely although Cordy's opinion of her is probably correct. Willow dreams of being naked, attacked by demons and late for a test.

Calling Captain Subtext; Xander is quick to point out to the cop that although he and Jack are wrestling it's 'Not in a gay way'. Check out page 17 of the Sunnydale High Yearbook for a very interesting picture of a grinning Willow from this episode posed with an adoring SDH cheerleader on each arm. Some of the dialogue about making Xander 'part of the gang' has a distinct Carry-On feel about it.

Guantanamo Bay; Xander interrogates the zombie-gang by dragging one behind a car and threatening another with a bomb. Buffy goes to beat up Willy but finds someone has beaten her to it.

Scoobies to the ER; Giles this time with a banged up arm and head wound.

Where's Dawn? Presumably Buffy got Dawn and Joyce out of town as she did in Graduation Day pt2

Questions and observations; The title comes from one of the lesser known Marx brothers. I suppose they could also have called it 'The Ringo'? (they do refer to Yoko later). Raising the dead appears to depend on the alignment of the stars as we later see in Bargaining although the magic is obviously different as Buffy is alive whilst Bob and co are zombies. Xander and Cordy still have a rapport despite them having fallen out. Cordy mocks Xander for his lack of superpowers but one day she will have her own in spades. The seeds of the season 7 ep Potential are sown here. The scene between Oz and Xander is wonderful, they have obviously made up although what would Oz have thought of Will telling Xander she loved him outside the Magic Box? Giles and Buffy both like jelly doughnuts. Amazingly the SDPD make themselves useful, rescuing Xander at the Bronze. Sunnydale obviously has its' share of criminal gangs in addition to all the evil. Uncle Rory is mentioned again. The series is confident enough to make fun of it's own clichés but the more serious point is that the Buffy/Angel relationship has not much room left to go. This is the last comedy ep before we start the evil-Faith storyline where things get a lot more serious. Xander uses the SDH soda machine to kill one of the gang, is this why it always gives the wrong drink from then on? He's pretty handy with the axe but then he wanted to be a fireman. Thankfully Oz still can't remember stuff he does as a werewolf but that'll change by season 4. Interestingly in this ep Angel is referred to as a the 'key' to opening the Hellmouth just as his blood awakened Acathla.

10/10, one of the best eps for a series at it's peak.

This is for McDeathUK reviewer

[NatashaJAmos2015 · 10/10 · 6 November 2020]

What's your justification for giving it a low score ? You weren't supposed to take this episode seriously , and you're supposed to follow Xander not Buffy and the others -that's the whole point . Buffy etc were the background characters and their overacting was supposed to be an injoke for the fans but I guess you missed it .

Possibly the best ever Buffy episode - certainly in the top 5

[labrat85 · 10/10 · 30 April 2017]

When the highly regarded UK newspaper The Guardian selected its top 5 Buffy episodes a couple of years ago, The Zeppo made it onto the list alongside the likes of The Body and Hush. The episode was singled out as "the funniest, cleverest episode of Buffy". Rightly so.

The episode has everything - it's beautifully written with not a wasted moment in the whole show, it has witheringly funny dialogue, great action scenes, laugh out loud hilarity (eg. the demon/post box encounter), a genuinely tense finale involving a bomb planted at Sunnydale High, and (mild spoiler) Xander losing his virginity to Faith. What more do you want?

An additional treat is Oz at his deadpan, laconic best (Xander: "You're cool, you play the guitar, is it hard to play the guitar?", Oz: "Not the way I play it". Xander: "Is it the way you express yourself in short non-committal phrases?", Oz: "Could be").

The ep centres around Xander lamenting his lack of cool and his apparent insignificance within the scooby gang. He tries to prove his worth and in doing so, and partly by accident, gets into some memorable scrapes with the high school bully and his undead pals. I'm not usually a fan of episodes that focus on one character, but The Zeppo is so good that it easily transcends its narrow brief. There's a reason why this episode is so highly regarded among Buffy fans, in fact there are many reasons.

Possibly too clever for some - see Morgan's "review" below - and I suppose some people prefer the lightweight trash of episodes like The Triangle (which is borderline unwatchable IMO), but if you love Buffy for its great writing, fantastic dialogue/characterization and superb action scenes then you'll love this episode.

Xander's time to shine

[mitsubishizero · 9/10 · 18 March 2021]

It's nice to see Xander, one of the most unappreciated and underrated characters of the show shine for once. Seeing him take on four undead goons alone while his friends were preoccupied was pretty cool. My favorite scene is when him and the villain-of-the episode, Jack fight towards the end. It was brief yet and intense and lead to the intense standoff of the episode.

I won't give away the ending but man, it was definitely a huge confidence booster for our guy. If you like Buffy, than this's a must watch. I think even non-fans will enjoy it too. Take it for what it's worth and see for yourself.

Xander: But you need a thing... one thing nobody else has... What do I have? Oz: An exciting new obsession, which I feel makes you very special.

[bombersflyup · 10/10 · 3 October 2019]

The Zeppo is about Xander finding the essence of cool, while his friends merely try to stop the world from ending.

Xander is an excellent, well-rounded and beloved character. In this funny and exceptionally written episode, we experience events taking place through his perspective and it's all kinds of brilliant. The group ask Xander to stay out of harms way and Cordy comments on his lack of cool, that he's the useless member of the group. In his efforts to be cool, Xander gets involved with a gang that have all been raised from the dead. Somehow the mood manages to stay in the lane we're in. Xander proves his worth, by stopping the explosion of the school with his friends in it. He need not tell though, he's happy with who he is and what he's about. O'Toole's gang are good, though O'Toole himself not so much. Hadn't really thought about the fact that before Xander even runs into O'Toole in the basement, he's pretty calm to still be in the school with the Sisterhood of Jhe running around.

Most memorable moments include; the Sisterhood of Jhe chasing Dickie and Xander and then eating Dickie. It's like a skit, Xander is chasing him, then they're running the other way. Xander's enthusiastic response to Angel showing up at the Bronze. Xander's usual response to Angel's arrival is "Oh yay it's Angel" with sarcasm, what's being cool if you don't enjoy it. The others are of Xander facing off with O'Toole in the boiler room and the last scene, facing Cordelia's insult attempt with smug joy.

Xander feels unimportant

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 24 April 2018]

So often Xander is seen as the least important of the series protagonists; he is just an ordinary high school boy with no powers or skills; he isn't even seen as cool by other students. When the latest threat appears to be the worst Buffy has faced it is decided that Xander should say away from the danger while Buffy, Giles, Willow and Angel try to deal with it. Trying to compensate he gets a cool classic car; this is the start of his problems though as he ends up driving Jack, a school bully, around as he raises his friends from the dead! Once raised there is more trouble in store as first they state their intention that Xander should die and be raised to join there group then he realises they are planning to set off a bomb.

This episode was a lot of fun; I really liked how we focused on Xander's story even though one would expect Buffy and the other's struggle to prevent the Hellmouth from opening would dominate proceedings. It has been clear for some time that Xander is the least special of the group so it was fun to see him being forced to deal with a situation when the others are too busy to help him. Jack and his friends are a good group of antagonists who manage to be threatening and mildly amusing. Nicholas Brendon is on great form as Xander; we see his frustration with being left out, his fear when threatened and ultimately believable bravery. There are some surprises; most obviously what happens between Xander and Faith after he helps her get out of a spot of bother... details of this would spoil it! Some might be disappointed that we don't see too much of what Buffy and the others are up to, just enough to make it look interesting, but if we had Willow's comment about the world not knowing what they did wouldn't be amusing. Overall this episode was a lot of fun; there was good character development for Xander, some solid action and scares and quite a few good laughs.

Cordelia knows who Zeppo Marx is

[nightwishouge · 10/10 · 12 April 2021]

As far as I recall, the episode does not explain its title reference. "Zeppo" refers to Zeppo Marx, the straight man in a handful of Marx Brothers movies. He is best-known these days as an answer to a trivia question. In comedy circles he is regarded as the boring romantic lead, who never gets any real laugh lines, but his publicly zanier, more well-known brothers (Groucho, Harpo, and Chico) often said that in private, Zeppo was the funniest of them all.

Cordelia calls Xander "the Zeppo" as a dig. She means superfluous, unappreciated, useless. Subtextually, the episode might be saying that, while Xander is popularly regarded as the least effective member of the Scoobies, he is perfectly capable of being the leading man in his own private life, even if nobody else knows about it. He just needs to discover this for himself. The story of the episode is his journey to reach that self-understanding.

Season three has a lot of episodes about identity, and ultimately one of the major character arcs in the season will be whether or not Faith can forge an identity for herself that is not defined by her worst impulses and biggest mistakes. "The Zeppo" is Xander's turn: bereft of the other Scoobies, who is he? What is his purpose? What can he accomplish? Fittingly, however, this is not a "heavy" episode, with painful self-examination and existential angst (like "Amends"). Xander is, ultimately, the lampshade-adorned life of the party, and it makes sense the an episode examining his identity crisis would follow suit in tone.

This is one of my all-time favorite episodes. Both conceptually and moment-to-moment, it's really funny. The way that Xander keeps bumbling into the more "serious" conflict faced by the other Scoobies--yet another apocalyptic threat manifesting in Sunnydale--as he tries to navigate his way through his own relatively low-stakes quest is hilarious, and the contrast becomes progressively exaggerated as the episode goes on. The single best moment has to be his interruption of Buffy and Angel's absurdly melodramatic argument (honestly that is how every one of their exchanges feels to me and I'm glad the show is acknowledging it textually), but I also love Xander running past the library in an oblivious panic even as the Scoobies are struggling to contain the extra-dimensional beast bursting forth from the Hellmouth.

It's also a strangely touching episode, in its own lighthearted way. You root for Xander to step up to the plate and realize his own self-worth, and even though he's the one who fumbled his relationship with Cordelia, you nevertheless feel a sense of pride in him when he is finally able to shrug off her ribbing at the end of the episode. If the events of "The Zeppo" had transpired before "Homecoming", maybe Xander would have felt secure enough to not have cheated on her in the first place. Ah well, we can only speculate.

Xander's the man

[Realrockerhalloween · 2 October 2016]

The zeppo is a nice Xander centric episode as he feels like Jimmy Olsen and doesn't contribute to the team. So he takes his uncle's car out for a night on the town. I'm glad Xander finally got to be a hero again as he saves Faith from demons and all his friends inside the school as they battle the beast inside the hell mouth from Jack's bomb. It was interesting to see from his point of view how the recurring plots like Angel and Buffy's romance has become overreacted nor passionate as the audience sees it.

Another aspect is the side story contained within as Buffy has to stop another Apocalypse as the creature The Master wanted to destroy the world finally comes up our of the ground. Why it didn't t before this is never explained, but I'm glad they finally addresses it as it felt untapped and forgotten. We only get glimpses of what it can do and I'm curious to what it's full potential is capable of.

Over the top?

[drago-jelisic · 6/10 · 18 April 2008]

I am a real Buffy fan and have almost watched all the episode. But one of the episode that dissatisfied me is this one. I don't know why it have such a great grade, 8,7/10.

This episode was for me, a plot which could be very good, but instead went wrong. This episode is over the top. Much is happening during 40-45 minutes, for me it was too much. This episode is concentrated much on Xander, and well it would turn up great if Buffy and the other one wouldn't interfere with that. Instead they almost take more place than Xander, because they have a greater "mission" than him. And this episode was quite unfair...

The Scooby gang totally ditched Xander in a subtle way and hey the Scooby Gang should do everything together, mortal as immortal. For me this episode gets a strong 6. It doesn't reach a 7, unfortunately. Josh Wheedon exaggerated to much, at least for me.

The One Based Around Xander...

[taylorkingston · 9/10 · 15 June 2015]

I enjoy this episode so much. It's one of my favorites from season three, and is one of my all-time favorites. I love how completely different it is to every other episode. I love Xander, so of course it's going to be cool to see an episode that is completely based around him. I love how the background focuses on the rest of the gang. I also love how they didn't need to explain how they killed the beast from the Hellmouth.

In this episode, Xander goes on "adventure" when he is forced to hang out with dead guys, while they raise other guys from the dead. When Xander discovers that they are going to plant a bomb, he realizes that he must save the day. Meanwhile, Buffy and the rest of the gang battle evil when the Hellmouth reopens. But since it's based around Xander, we only see small bits and pieces.

Best part of the episode: When Xander hangs out with the dead guys.

Worst part of the episode: The dead guy leader, he's douchey.

Overall, I give this episode a 9 out of 10, which in my ratings book is: Amazing.

Don't understand why all the love

[rodrigo666 · 5/10 · 1 November 2021]

I really don't understand all the love for this episode.

Xander is a brave character, but got all frightened by a guy who threatens him at school, this guy then turns out to be a kind of zombie who raised others zombie to a night of fun.

Xander see all of this and don't try to kill those guys, neither did he warned Giles when they met at the cemetery. WHY? That don't make any sense!

Him got laid with Faith was the highlight of the episode, that part was the one I liked most, as so was the parts where he killed and confronted all the zombies, specially the last one with the bomb about to explode.

The B Story is the End of the World

[ossie85 · 9/10 · 11 August 2022]

After a battering from Cordelia, Xander realises he needs a thing to keep him cool. He then goes and borrows a car and immediately falls in with the wrong crowd who want to blow up the school. Meanwhile, the world is ending.

. Why It's So Good - Wonderful framing of a story with Xander's relatively minor story taking the forefront, as the end of the world shifts to the background. A great character building story for Xander, and a whole bunch of hilarious humour.

Watch Out For - Oz being oddly full.

Quote - "Excuse me? Who, at a crucial moment, distracted the lead demon by allowing her to pummel him about the head?" - Xander.

Have Faith Xander, we appreciate you.

[Son_of_Mansfield · 1 April 2006]

There are precious few episodes that focus on the Chandleresque Xander and this is the only one where he gets to save Sunnydale, and all of the gang, even if no one will ever know about it. That is perhaps the best part of the episode, where everyone is happy that Xander was safe as they were saving Sunnydale. Along the way, he rides in a classic car, almost becomes a member of an undead group of ruffians, finds out that Faith really does like slaying, and shows off his fairly strong backbone. The weak part of the episode is the menace that Buffy and Co. face, it is underdeveloped and unimportant and all of his friends not telling him anything for his safety, is lame. My favorite part of the episode is where the leader of the undead gang vows revenge on Xander before opening up the room where a hairy Oz was caged and promptly being mauled.

7 out of 10.

More "American Graffiti" than "Rosencranz and Guildenstern"

[poplivion · 10/10 · 31 January 2024]

The Zeppo is an intentional homage to George Lucas's "American Graffiti" which follows 4 high school friends who set off on separate adventures, only to have their storylines intersect occasionally throughout the movie. The Zeppo limits this to following Xander throughout the episode, loosely following Curt Henderson's storyline with a nice nod to Curt's wild ride with a group of guys who make his evening very, very uncomfortable. And, as in the movie, Xander occasionally bumps into his friends who have their own things going on.

With Star Wars being as huge as it is, it's surprising that the obvious American Graffiti references have mostly gone unnoticed. Had they waited until season 5, having Spike babysit Dawn over the course of the evening (the John Milner storyline) would have been a nice touch.

How has this got any rating above 5

[McDeathUK · 3/10 · 25 February 2017]

First let me lead with BtVS is the best TV series in history, and I watch all seven seasons annually.

And this is the episode I dread and have skipped on more than one run through...

...but amongst the stupid overacting of the main cast, the horrific story, the bizarre music score, and did I mention the cringe-worthy acting of the main cast.. there is one important occurrence that is vital to the season overarching story.

Any great moments are Xander moments, but they are few and far between.

Regardless of the reviews above which score 9 and 10 (I am going to assume these are joke reviews), this is the one and only low point of a legendary series. Watch once, then avoid.