The motive in "Band Candy"?

[Joshua]

Was the motive in "Band Candy" to revert Giles back to Ripper?

 

[EffyStonem]

No, the candy was distributed so that all the adults in town would start acting like teenagers in order for the Mayor to offer a sacrifice to a demon without anyone noticing. The sacrifice was three babies (possibly four) so they needed all the adults who would normally be hyper-vigilant to not notice the babies being kidnapped (and it almost worked, were it not for Buffy).

 

[Lyri]

Yep, what [MENTION=12223]EffyStonem[/MENTION] said. It was a distraction, a way to make the usually responsible adults to take their eye off the ball, so that they could go in and steal the babies, thus making the ritual sacrifice.

Then, when the candy wore off, the adults would notice the babies gone and would blame themselves without ever knowing what really happened.

Though, I do think putting the spell on the candy was a bit of a risk. Not every adult in Sunnydale would have had a child at that school, so there would have been some people who didn't have access to the candy, especially the parents of the babies in that hospital. A better way might have been to put it in the water, at least they could be certain that ALL the adults would be exposed.

 

[fitz1980]

Yep, what [MENTION=12223]
Though, I do think putting the spell on the candy was a bit of a risk. Not every adult in Sunnydale would have had a child at that school, so there would have been some people who didn't have access to the candy, especially the parents of the babies in that hospital. A better way might have been to put it in the water, at least they could be certain that ALL the adults would be exposed.

They don't need to have a kid in HS to get the candy. When I was a kid and the school did fundraisers we were encouraged to knock on neighbors' doors and such to sell stuff. I'm told that's not near as common today because of paranoia that it might be some serial killer might open the door.

 

[Lyri]

They don't need to have a kid in HS to get the candy. When I was a kid and the school did fundraisers we were encouraged to knock on neighbors' doors and such to sell stuff. I'm told that's not near as common today because of paranoia that it might be some serial killer might open the door.

Yes, but that still might not reach EVERY adult in the town. Like you said, some people might not answer to strangers, some might not want to support a school they have no affiliation with if their kids are too old/young/go to one of the other high schools in the district, some might have been out of town when kids came to their door, and some might have been in hospital.

It seems impossible to me that the candy reached EVERY adult in town.

 

[Blaze]

Yes, but that still might not reach EVERY adult in the town. Like you said, some people might not answer to strangers, some might not want to support a school they have no affiliation with if their kids are too old/young/go to one of the other high schools in the district, some might have been out of town when kids came to their door, and some might have been in hospital.

It seems impossible to me that the candy reached EVERY adult in town.

Agreed, my guess is that it didn't really need to reach everyone, reaching half of the adults in town would be enough to cause havoc during which babies could be stolen.

 

[Sweet J]

They didn't need the candy to get to every able bodied adult, just to the staff at the local hospital and maybe law enforcement. However even though the effect was overkill(as pretty much every adult was affected) the mayor REALLY wanted to make sure his baby sacrifice offering went smoothly.

To reply to the suggestion of water distributing the magick drugs, that's not as easy as it sounds, I won't get into the chemistry, but pretty much no attempt at drugging/intoxicating people via their water supply has ever worked, or will ever work, until a water soluble compound with an effective dose (ED50) that is measured in the nanogram range is found and the substance is not subject to hydrolysis. Two pretty tall orders!

It's a neat episode!

 

[CordelliasHeart]

One issue.

Half or even a bit less of the adult population, those who are unaffected will be so busy trying to reign things in, that they wont pay as much attention to the hospital.