Buffy Logo 'Inca Mummy Girl'
Story Code '5V04'

by Matt Kiene
and Joe Reinkemeyer
Buffy

Sunnydale High is participating in a cultural exchange programme with students from a South American High School. Cordelia is delighted to have a handsome young man staying with her, but when Xander finds out that Buffy's mom has signed-up for the programme, he begins to feel hostile towards Buffy’s assignee, Ampata, despite not even having meet him yet. Later, the school goes to the local museum to learn about South American history, where the students see a five-hundred-year-old mummy on display. When the class leaves the exhibit room, they leave behind a student named Rodney behind, who attempts to steal a seal from the Mummy. But in the process the seal breaks and the mummy awakens, reaching out its desiccated arms towards Rodney… The next day at school, Willow notes Rodney's absence, and the gang return to the museum to look for him. They find part of the broken seal, and then a strange man armed with a knife attempts to kill them. After the man looks at the mummy and runs away, Willow wonders what scared him; she notices that the Mummy is now wearing braces - it is a shrivelled-up Rodney. Buffy sets off to meet Ampata at the bus depot, and is surprised when a beautiful young woman arrives answering to that name. Xander is smitten! Giles and Buffy are busy trying to decipher the text on the piece of the seal they found, while Willow unhappily watches Xander and Ampata grow closer, particularly when he asks her to be his date to the cultural exchange dance at ‘The Bronze’. Later, the knife-wielding stranger attacks Ampata, but before he can harm her she kisses him, sucking out his life-force and using it to extend her own. Buffy and Giles come to the conclusion that Ampata is the missing mummy, a realisation bolstered by the discovery of a mummified corpse in Ampata's trunk. They head off to ‘The Bronze’ to warn Xander, who is now dancing with Ampata, and failing to notice that her hand has begun shrivelling. Rather that kill Xander, Ampata finds a hapless victim to attack, but before she can renew herself she is interrupted by Xander, enabling her victim to escape. Desperate, Ampata tries to take what she needs from Xander, but she cannot - she loves him. She runs off to the library instead, sensing that Giles is about to re-assemble the seal. Buffy and Willow find Xander dazed from the almost-kiss and follow Ampata to the museum, where she tries to kiss Willow. Xander won't let her though - he insists that if she's going to take someone's life, she take his. She tries, but Xander holds back. The mummy dries up and dies before their eyes, and Xander is once again left to contemplate his questionable taste in women...

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles), Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), Seth Green (Oz), Ara Celi (Ampata), Jason Hall (Devon), Henrik Rosvall (Sven), Joey Crawford (Rodney), Danny Strong (Jonathan), Kristen Winnicki (Gwen), Gil Birmingham (Peru Guy), Samuel Jacobs (Peruvian boy)
Directed by Ellen S. Pressman

TX (US): 6th October 1997
TX (UK - Sky One): 18th April 1998
TX (UK - BBC): 5th May 1999

Notes:
*Featuring Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles and Cordelia

*This episode introduces Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne, guitarist with the band Dingos Ate My Baby

*Ampata almost kills Jonathon, who becomes a regular background character as of this episode