Quick Links
Summary
BecauseBuffy the Vampire Slayerwas a “monster of the week” type show, there were plenty of characters and stories that would show up one week and then never get mentioned again. However, the show also had plenty of recurring characters and storylines that popped up, then went away for a while and then would come back either help or hurtBuffyand the rest of the Scooby Gang. The approach of characters and stories coming back after weeks, months and sometimes years helped the show feel more authentic and like action wasfloating around the small town of Sunnydale.
While the show was great at recycling various characters and stories, there wasone particular plot ploint thatBuffy the Vampire Slayermishandled. The series mishandled it despite the fact that there were plenty of opportunities to call back to it. And the weirdest part was that it was the kind of plot point Buffy almost always found a way to point back to.Especially when Riley Finn, his buddies and his organization, the Initiative were introduced, “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” seemed like it was poised for a return, but it never happened, much to the detriment to the show and its fans.
“Out of Mind, Out of Sight”was a first season episodewhere a young girl, Marcie Ross was someone who her Sunnydale High classmates ignored so completely that she felt invisible. And because this wasBuffy the Vampire Slayerand dark magic was all over the school, Marcie feeling invisible eventually turned her invisible.And along with becoming transparent, Marcie became homicidal.
1x11
“Out of Mind, Out of Sight”
July 21, 2025
Throughout the episode,the Scooby Gang were investigating various attackson students in Sunnydale High and for most of the run, it seemed like the situation was a ghost who had gone wrong. Later in the season, ghosts did wreak havoc, seemingly as a way to show that this kind of thing did in fact happen. However, as it turned out, it wasn’t the work of someone who was dead. It was just someone who was gone from everyone’s sight. And of course, it was someone who no one noticed was missing.
Eventually,Buffy did what Buffy always doesand finally figured out what was going on, and they were able to figure out that Marcie was not a ghost but was just invisible, and after a brief fight, she was able to stop Marcie from hurting anyone else.
Thetwist was that at the end of the episode, because Marcie was apparently permanently stuck as an invisible girl, she was shipped off to some kind of government program where there were other invisible students all sitting in a classroom. The point of this room was to build a kind of army of people that no one could see. And because these people had become homicidal, they seemed happy to be learning techniques that would serve them out in the world. Despite the hint thatBuffy the Vampire Slayerviewers might eventually"see" Marcie again, the storyline was dropped completely and the program was never brought up again, despite the Scoobies seemingly knowing it existed.
A Return Of The Initiative In Buffy The Vampire Slayer
InSeason 4 ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer,theInitiative made an appearanceand it was quickly revealed to be a massive operation dedicated to studying all the witches and warlocks and monsters and ghosts in the world and specifically that were in Sunnydale.
Considering this was a government operationdedicated to the occult, it seems rather odd that Marcie and her classmates were never mentioned. With a government program training these assassins, it looks like it’s a bit of a no-brainer that they wouldn’t be stored/learning at the underground facility where Riley and his friends operated. it was a real missed opportunity to bring back a quite interesting storyline, especially with the hints at the shady government organization involved.
Other Storylines Got Similar Unfinished Treatment
There are a couple ofother stories fromBuffy the Vampire Slayerthat seemingly ended on a cliffhanger and were never discussed again. However, they were at least cleaned up a little. One such example was another Season 1 episode titled “Teacher’s Pet” where Xander gets into a romantic relationship with a substitute teacher named Ms. French. It turns out that Ms. French is actually a giant preying mantis monster that breeds with men and then bites their heads off.
Just before she could kill Xander, Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies rushed in and killed her, seemingly ending the threat. However, at the end of that episode, the camera pans over to egg sacks, and one of those egg sacks started to hatch. This kind of story was at least dismissable. However, there was aperfect chance forBuffy the Vampire Slayerto return to the story of “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” and it dropped the ball.
