Plot
Buffy and her friends attend a night-time victory party, in honor of the high school swim team, at Sunnydale State Beach. One of the swimmers, Cameron Walker, approaches Buffy and suggests that they get to know each other. While they chat, a ruckus arises: another team member, Dodd McAlvy, is dunking Jonathan Levinson's head into a barrel of water, teasing that Jonathan was too weak to join the team. Buffy pushes Dodd off and offers Jonathan a towel, but he snaps that she should mind her own business (his anger being caused by embarrassment). Meanwhile, swim champion Gage Petronzi suggests that he and Dodd go for a swim in the sea, with Dodd saying that Buffy creeps him out. He lags behind while Gage continues on, then Gage stops to sniff the air and exclaims, "Dude, what is that foulness?" He turns to see that all that remains of Dodd are his clothes and skin, while a monster rises from the mess and departs into a storm drain. Buffy arrives at school in a car with Cameron. He makes persistent and unwelcome sexual advances, so Buffy slams his head against the steering wheel. Principal Snyder witnesses this and threatens Buffy not to harm their chances of a victory in the state championship. Giles and the Scooby Gang decide to determine what killed Dodd. Xander bumps into Cameron, who rubs his elite status in Xander's face. After Cameron goes to the cafeteria for a snack, Xander hears him scream. Investigating, Xander finds a ransacked cafeteria, Cameron's skin, and a gill monster. In the library, Cordelia sketches the creature that Xander saw. Buffy and Willow return, having been informed that Cameron and Dodd were the Razorbacks' two best swimmers; after them was Gage. Having little else to go on, Buffy shadows Gage as the potential next target. At the Bronze that night, Gage confronts Buffy about her following him; she tells him that he may be in danger. He does not believe her and leaves, only to be attacked by Angelus in the parking lot. Buffy fights off the vampire, noting as she does that Angelus was spitting out Gage's blood rather than drinking it. Gage asks Buffy to walk him home to keep him safe. The following day, Buffy and Willow and Cordelia sit in on swim practice. They discuss Angelus' behavior, and speculate that the swim team may be takingThemes
"Go Fish" is an example of a ''Buffy'' episode showing negative consequences for drug use. It also includes the recurrent theme of Buffy's prospective boyfriends turning out to be monsters. Roger Pocock condemned the simplistic drugs-are-bad theme: Theresa Basile, in a series about sexual consent issues in ''Buffy'', addresses as problematic the scene in which "Cameron claims that Buffy led him on and gestures to her outfit, commenting on the way she dresses. Coach Marin tells Buffy to dress more appropriately." To Marin, "women are disposable, and he gets angry with them when they fail to show the proper school spirit and don't enjoy being victimized." Basile points out some elements contributing to "the tone of this episode and how it addresses victim-blaming and slut-shaming."Cultural references
The episode shows obvious parallels to ''Creature from the Black Lagoon'', while Cordelia mistakenly refers to '' The Blue Lagoon'', a 1980 movie starring Brooke Shields. Xander says of a monster attack, "This was no boating accident," a line from '' Jaws''. Willow says Oreo cookies have "chocolately-goodness." This in-joke alludes to the fact that Alyson Hannigan once did a commercial for Oreos.Reception
Reviewers generally called the episode "silly." Theresa Basile lists it among her "10 Underrated Episodes of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''," calling it a "silly one-off" which "has the misfortune of being placed between " I Only Have Eyes for You" and the epic " Becoming" two-parter, and it suffers in comparison to those transformative stories. On its own, ''Go Fish'' is very entertaining. Xander wears a Speedo, Cordelia gives Xander a touching speech about how much she'll still like him and take care of him even if he's a fish monster, and Buffy gets to flirt with Wentworth Miller." '' Vox'' ranked it at #139 on their "Every Episode Ranked From Worst to Best" list of all 144 episodes (to mark the 20th anniversary of the show), calling it "some of that dumb-but-fun stuff... a silly little piece of nothing about how steroids are bad." Reviewer Justin Carreiro remarks, "If social media were around in 1998 in Sunnydale when this happened, Sunnydale High would've been drowning in bad PR. Cameron, Principal Snyder and Coach Marin would've rued the day they ever crossed or blamed Buffy." Billie Doux called it a "completely silly and ridiculous episode jammed sideways into a season of spectacular Angel heaviness," with an enjoyable "transparent, over-the-top condemnation of athletes using performance-enhancing drugs and sliding through school without having to study." Mike Loschiavo addressed the "dated and, frankly, more than a little awkward" handling of the themes of drugs and sexual assault, while praising the season's "amazing job at addressing real life concerns." "Less impressive is the silliness of a high school coach, probably working for close-to-free, also being a geneticist."References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Go Fish (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 2 episodes 1998 American television episodes Television episodes written by David Fury Fish in popular culture Television episodes about drugs Swimming mass media Television episodes about genetic engineering