The ABCs of Sunnydale

Principal Bob Flutie:

Debut -- Welcome to the Hellmouth (Season 1)

Other first season appearances: The Harvest, Teacher's Pet

Death -- The Pack (Season 1)

In Welcome to the Hellmouth, Principal Flutie is first seen in his office going over Buffy's transcripts with her. Immediately we can tell that he really likes the students and wants to make the school a place where both the teachers' needs and the students' needs "mesh." Buffy leaves his office and the next time they meet, it's in Part 2, The Harvest, when she's trying to leave the school grounds to go look for Jesse. Although he's a tolerant principal, Flutie does enforce the school rules, telling Buffy she can't leave campus. That's the last time we see Flutie in the premiere.

Most Amusing Exchange:
Buffy: "Mr. Flutie--"
Flutie: "All of the students here are free to call me Bob."
Buffy: "Bob--"
Flutie: "But they don't."
takes place at beginning of episode.

In Teacher's Pet, we once again see the caring yet semi-demanding nature of Bob Flutie. After Dr. Gregory is found decapitated in the freezer, Flutie rounds up the students who witnessed the sight to get some on-campus counseling. Buffy doesn't want to go, but Flutie insists. He mentions that they all need to undergo a healing process; it's in this dialogue of Flutie's that he dispenses two amusing lines see below.

Most Amusing Lines:
Flutie: "We all need help with our feelings. Otherwise we bottle them up and before you know it, powerful laxatives are involved." -- to Buffy on the virtues of counseling.

Flutie: "...I'm always here if you need a hug, but not a real hug, because there's no touching in the school; we're sensitive to wrong touching." -- to Buffy on the healing process.

Flutie's last appearance is in The Pack. Again, we see his more tough side at first, when the mean kids (aka The Pack) are terrorizing a classmate of theirs at the zoo. Flutie steps in to let them know he's watching them, and we get the impression that he'd love to be able to kick them out of school.

Later, we see Flutie looking for the school's new mascot, a pig named Herbert. He's a razorback, and he's there to engender school spirit. Buffy scoops up the pig and she and Flutie take it back to its cage. Flutie bonds a bit more with Buffy, talking about school spirit in the old days.

The next time we see Flutie, it's when he busts the Pack for eating Herbert. Unfortunately, his authority is meaningless to them, since they've been transpossessed by the hyenas back at the zoo. Once alone in his office with the Pack, Flutie finds himself in a losing situation as the kids close in for the kill, literally pouncing on him and eating him.

Flutie's death, for me, anyway, was one of the most horrific on the show. This is because although we don't see the pack actually eating him, we do see their behavior in the moments leading up to his death, and we see his reactions to their behavior. His reactions are frightening as the sheer terror of the situation becomes evident to him. Also, when the camera leaves the scene, it pans first on a picture of him that's on his desk, and we still hear the pack's wild cries as they begin to devour him.

Most Distressing Utterance:
"Are you people insane!?!" -- to the Pack, as they scratch him and close in on him.

Principal Comparison:
Interestingly enough, Flutie is usually called Mr. Flutie rather than Principal Flutie; whereas no one calls his successor Mr. Snyder -- he's always addressed as Principal Snyder.


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This page last updated June 8, 1998