The Deleted Buffy Line That Predicted The Show’s Darkest Controversy

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 23 seconds ago

There are many great things about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, including its epic plots, cool fights, and amazing characters. However, the real strength of the show has always been its writing. Dialogue in Buffy was always fast and funny, showcasing that our titular Slayer could do more than put down killer vampires. She could, as needed, deliver witty lines just as sharp and just as deadly as her trusted stake.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the writing in Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed how an entire generation of writers approached dialogue. Because of this, I’m always fascinated to discover which lines were cut from classic episodes. Sometimes, deleted dialogue feels like a missed opportunity to flesh out our favorite characters even further. Every now and then, though, cutting a line helps the producers effectively dodge a bullet. For example, one deleted scene from “Beauty and the Beasts” predicted the show’s biggest controversy and would have forever linked Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the most infamous school shooting in American history!

Buffy, The Dark Humor Queen

The dialogue in question comes from the episode “Beauty and the Beasts,” which has Buffy dealing with a student whose magic potion transforms him into a murderous, Mr. Hyde-type figure. She also has to deal with Oz in his werewolf form and Angel, her undead lover, who is suddenly back from the dead. On top of everything else, she has to see the school psychologist because she was a runaway teen who only recently returned to Sunnydale after the harrowing events of the Season 2 finale.

While Buffy grows to really like the school shrink (at least, while he’s still alive), she initially resents having to see him and complains about having to prove she is “Little Miss Stable” just to stay in school. In a brief, deleted scene, Scott tells her to avoid certain topics, jokingly mentioning “the little men who live in your teeth” and “your compulsion to paint circus clowns.” To this, Buffy responds with an atypically ominous response: “But if God keeps telling me to kill, it just seems snotty not to, you know?”

Buffy’s Link To America’s Most Infamous School Shooting

This is, admittedly, a very funny line, especially if you have a dark sense of humor (it’s not just me, right?). But it’s one that would have likely gotten Buffy canceled for making jokes about killing people on school property. That’s because, exactly six months after this episode aired, America was rocked by the Columbine High School massacre.

That infamous school shooting cast a long shadow over Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode “Earshot” featured a lunch lady trying to kill as many students as possible by poisoning their food. At first, Buffy (who knows someone is plotting to kill students due to temporary telepathic powers) thought Jonathan was the culprit, and she finds him in a clock tower with a high-powered rifle. However, after Jonathan shockingly admits that he brought the rifle just to kill himself, she ends up tracking down and stopping the lethal lunch lady.

The Episodes You Almost Never Saw

The episode was originally set to air one week after Columbine, but it was postponed for nearly five months because the network was worried about associating Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a school shooting. Similarly, the season 3 finale, “Graduation Day, Part Two,” premiered two months later than intended because the plot involved Buffy arming her fellow students to fight the Mayor after he turned into a snake demon. Again, the network wanted absolutely no association between its top show and the most infamous school shooting in American history. 

Therefore, deleting Buffy’s flippant joke about murdering people on God’s orders from “Beauty and the Beasts” was definitely the right decision. The episode aired well before Columbine, but this dialogue would have painted a target on the Slayer’s back for a culture that wanted to know who to blame for youth violence. Plus, it might have retroactively worried the network when they began considering whether the show really did encourage violence. Fortunately, the episode aired without any issues or scandals, and we can now appreciate Buffy’s deleted line for what it is: a downright hilarious joke and a perfect example of peak Millennial humor.