Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Puppet Show on AllMovie

Episode nine is a standout for its comic twist on the familiar "evil puppet" story line. Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) takes on the monstrous task of coordinating the annual talent show at Sunnydale High. The sadistic Principal Snyder (Armin Shimerman) forces Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) to also participate in the program. It doesn't take long for one of the talent show performers to be found dead with her heart cut out. In researching the possible culprits, Giles uncovers a text about a clan of organ-stealing demons known as the Brotherhood of Seven. They need the organs of a young human every seven years to remain in the visage of human teenagers. Morgan (Richard Werner), a ventriloquist a little too attached to his dummy, Sid, falls under Buffy's suspicion. Her instincts are correct, but not precisely: Sid the dummy is alive, but he is not the demon. He's a demon hunter who was imprisoned in a dummy's body by the Brotherhood of Seven during the 1930s. Buffy and Sid team up to find the demon after realizing that Morgan, now murdered, had brain cancer and was useless to the demon.