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In 'Beer Bad' Buffy turns into a caveperson by drinking magical beer, but in the next episode she is normal again.

How did this happen?

Also, they didn't seem to stop the bar owners from making more of this magical beer. Why not?

2 Answers 2

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Essentially, the beer only turned a person temporarily into a caveman. The effects were stated to wear off pretty quickly. It seemed to me that the beer was destroyed in the fire near the end, but it is never said exactly what was done about it.

As for proof of the timespan, the transcript states:

Xander: No. No neat. I served them that beer. I served Buffy that beer! Uh, how much beer would you say a person would need to consume before they start seriously questing for fire?

Jack: Relax. It'll wear off in a day or so.

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  • thanks for the answer! how was the capability of the owner to make more taken away?
    – user12524
    Commented Feb 13, 2013 at 1:21
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    @user12524 - At the end we see police and firetrucks. I suspect that he'd be dealt with in the usual way you deal with bar-owners who intentionally poison their customers.
    – Valorum
    Commented Feb 3, 2015 at 15:05
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    @Richard - a slap on the wrist and requested not to do it again? Commented Feb 3, 2015 at 15:30
  • @Wikis - In the UK you're obliged to display a food standard rating (manchestergazette.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Level-1.jpg). Anyone who gets less than a 3 can usually expect to go out of business fairly rapidly.
    – Valorum
    Commented Feb 3, 2015 at 15:56
  • Wasn't there a line indicating that the bar-owner didn't actually make the beer, that his cousin or somebody did it for him? I got the impression that the bar-owner probably went to a normal prison for poisoning his beer, because he wasn't personally very magical. The actual, magical "threat" was someone we never saw.
    – Nerrolken
    Commented Feb 3, 2015 at 17:32
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In answer to your question(s)

  • How did [they return to normal]?

This is explicitly covered in the original script. Jack, the Grotto's owner indicates that the effects were only temporary.

Jack: ...Relax. It'll wear off in a day or so.


  • Also, they didn't seem to stop the bar owners from making more of this magical beer. Why not?

Buffy and her crew don't have the capability of keeping dangerous humans under wraps, relying on the police and local authorities. That said, we do have a few possibilities;

  1. US ARMY

A few episodes later we learn the the US Military have a special holding facility for precisely these sorts of people. Given The Initiative's resources and integration with local law enforcement, it's plausible that the bar's owner would have been taken to that same facility for 'assessment and rehabilitation'.

ETHAN : Well, maybe 'cause you've got no choice. I'm human, you can't kill me. What's a Slayer gonna do to me?

Riley ushers in two large, uniformed, US ARMY MPs. One of the MPs handcuffs Ethan.

RILEY : By the authority of the U.S. Military, you are being taken into custody pending a determination of your status.

The MPs haul Ethan away.

RILEY (to Buffy) : They'll take Mr. Rayne to a secret detention facility in the Nevada desert. I'm sure he'll be rehabilitated in no time.

  1. Federal Authorities (FBI)

We learn in Out of Mind, Out of Sight that the FBI keep a reasonable watch on the events in Sunnydale, kidnapping and indoctrinating a girl who's become invisible. It's certainly possible that they "disappeared" him the same way.

  1. Local Law Enforcement

There's also the merely mundane. There's a police presence in the final scene and we see several policemen questioning potential witnesses. Given that he knowingly poisoned his patrons, Jack may simply have been arrested and imprisoned for attempted murder or "maliciously administering a poisonous agent", both of which carry hefty prison terms.

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