The ABCs of Sunnydale

Snyder Principal Snyder:

Debut -- The Puppet Show (Season 1)

Other first season appearances: Invisible Girl

Death -- Graduation Part 2 (Season 3)

Principal Snyder is Principal Flutie's successor, much to Buffy's dismay. Whereas Principal Flutie was a decent human being, Snyder's after only one thing -- Buffy's expulsion. He's an evil rodent, but not without some good lines!

In TPS, Snyder's put Giles in charge of the Talent Show, and when he catches Buffy, Willow, and Xander enjoying Giles's discomfort with the situation, he forces them to participate in the show, too. He lets on right away that he thinks kids are troublesome, in particular the Slayer and the Slayerettes. He's already noticed that they cut classes one afternoon. No matter what the sitch is, Snyder's always got something nasty to say. He's a menacing figure. Believe me.

Principal's Principles:

Principal Snyder: "Kids today need discipline. That's a popular word these days, discipline. I know Principal Flutie would have said, 'Kids need understanding, kids are human beings.' That's the kind of woolly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten." -- to Giles in the auditorium, after Buffy & Co. leave.

In IG, Snyder tries to stop Buffy from entering the guys' locker room to investigate the scene of Mitch's beating, but he becomes distracted when he hears Willow and Xander talk about how Mitch might sue the school. This pretty much sets a precedent as Snyder later tells Harmony, "Don't sue!"

Snyder's later seen during Cordelia's May Queen speech, and that's about it.

SEASON 2 APPEARANCES

When She Was Bad; School Hard; Halloween; What's My Line I, II; I Only Have Eyes For You; Go Fish; Becoming I, II

In WSWB, Snyder's seen talking with Giles on the first day of school. He rants about how he hates kids and how they're nothing but walking hormones. It's pretty funny because his whole schpiel is like a voice-over when we see Giles interact with Miss Calendar.

Snyder's Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World:

Snyder: "One day the campus is completely bare, empty. The next, there are children everywhere -- like locusts. Crawling around, mindlessly bent on feeding and mating. Destroying everything in sight in their relentless, pointless desire to exist." -- to Giles.

Snyder pops up later to tell Giles that he believes Buffy is a kid headed for trouble, expulsion, and possibly jail. He can't believe that Giles has faith in the youth of today. Strange guy.

In SH, Snyder makes Buffy's life a living hell. First he assigns her and Sheila to make the preparations for the Parent/Teacher meeting. He also lets them know that he'll kick them out should they screw up.

We see that Snyder's a guy who likes to wield his authority in any situation, even one he can't deal with. When the vampires arrive at the meeting, Snyder goes around yelling that the vamps are actually a gang on PCP, and he doesn't listen to Buffy when she tells him to sit tight. Joyce Summers tells Snyder to pipe down and listen to Buffy, but he doesn't. Ultimately, he's responsible for the death of one parent or teacher, since he tried to open the window to escape. He later tells a policeman that he told the parent not to go out the window. What a little slime-bag. This is the first time that we are clued in to the fact that Snyder knows that there's a Hellmouth, and that the police are also in the know. This information serves to make Snyder's character somewhat more intriguing, as we have no idea who or what he really is, and whether or not he knows who Buffy is.

Snyder on Snyder:

Snyder: "A lot of educators tell students, 'Think of your principal as your pal.' I say, think of me as your judge, jury, and executioner." -- to Buffy and Sheila.

Halloween once again demonstrates Snyder's distate for Buffy and for students in general. He forces all of the kids to sign up to take trick-or-treaters around the neighborhood. Later, when he sees Buffy introducing herself to her set of children, he tells her not to speak with them. I have to say, he goes out of his way to be nasty, and it's sometimes amusing.

Season 2 To Be Continued!

SEASON 3 APPEARANCES

Dead Man's Party; Faith, Hope & Trick; Band Candy; Gingerbread; Doppelgangland; Choices; Graduation part 1; Graduation part 2

In DMP, Snyder has a field day and gets all tingly when he tells Buffy and Joyce that Buffy's not coming back to his school. He makes fun of Buffy, tells her she'd look cute in the waitress outfit at Hot Dog on a Stick. He also makes a Snide (snyde?) remark about Joyce's threat to go all the way to the Mayor if she has to to get Buffy reinstated at school. Snyder's a beasty, but it takes Ripper/Giles to convince him that Buffy should be reinstated. Giles gets a bit forceful and says he'll take it to higher levels than the city mayor. Heh. Quake now, Snydey.

Snyder's none too pleased in FHT 'cause he's been ordered to reinstate Buffy in school. Of course, he's still going to make life hellish for her...he orders her to see the school counselor and pass all of her makeup tests and..she must also produce one glowing recommendation from any faculty member who is not "an English librarian." Check out Snyder's face when the Summers ladies taunt him and undermine his authority! Heh.

Band Candy is hands-down the most hysterical Snyder outing of all. Yeeks...I'm revisiting the Snyder-geek at the Bronze, and when he tries to hit on Joycie at the factory..he's also got a quote on the episodes page.

Anyhoo, during his regression, Snyder forces Miss Barton to monitor study hall since Giles didn't show. He talks to himself for a second after she leaves, saying that everyone always expects him to do everything 'cause he's the principal. Later at the Bronze, he runs into Buffy and Willow, and tells them to call him "Snyder" -- 'cause it's cool, like Barbarino! He's really excited to be jamming to the music, checking out the babes, and he's especially proud to recall that The Mayor shook his hand...twice!

When Snyder's not calling Oz's hair cool, he makes sure that the gang doesn't leave him behind, and gets in the car with Buffy, Willow and Oz, who are on their way to find out what's up with the adult community of Sunnydale. He survives the fender..er, side-smash bender that Buffy gets into, and he takes Buffy to the source of the candy. He spies Ripper and Joyce, wonders if they're going steady, and makes eyes at Joyce the whole time. Later he ends up chickening out of going underground with them to rescue the babies from being eaten by Lurconis. Actually I'm doing him no justice, just try to catch this episode, okay? It's great!

Snyder on Study Hall:

Snyder: "The big pinhead librarian didn't show up. And I don't want to do it. You do it!" -- to Miss Barton, about monitoring study hall.

Snyder's Stoked!:

Snyder: "Didja see Miss Barton? I think she's wasted!" -- to Buffy and Willow at the Bronze. He also says that he'll have to put it in her files, 'cause he's the principal!

Of course, by the end of the episode, he's back to his weasel-y self, and orders Willow, Cordy, Xander and Oz to clean up the lockers, which have been the victim of Kiss Rocks! graffiti. Oh well.

Snyder as part of the New World Order? But of course...In Gingerbread, Snyder's under pressure from MOO (Mothers Opposed to the Occult, founded by one Joyce Summers) to conduct a search of the students' lockers in order to unearth witch-y type things. He exhibits much glee in doing this. Well, after all, he doesn't like kids. The power of his heinousness also reaches into the depths of the library..where he's allowing officials to get rid of books that supposedly don't belong in the school library. Naturally all of these books belong to Giles or are at least used for research. This wins no points with Giles, who calls Snyder "..that twisted little homunculus."

Snyder's Apocalpyse..Now?:

Snyder: "I love the smell of desperate librarian in the morning." -- upon entering the library during the book removal.

In Doppelgangland, Snyder seems to revisit Go Fish...that is, he's once again putting the heat on Willow to do something. This time out, he wants her to tutor Percy West, yet another underachieving sports star. Hey, at least he didn't tell Willow: "Think of me as your judge, jury, and executioner," eh?

Snyder's on the warpath again in Choices. You have to wonder how he runs the school when he's so busy trying to sniff out drug dealers and drug addicts and such. Here, he bugs some kid -- granted, this kid's lunch sack was large enough to hold a few poppyfields! -- who's trying to have lunch, to see if he's got drugs on him. Negative, but hey. Later he continues on in this fashion, unwittingly interrupting a meeting between the forces of good and evil. Or hey, Buffy and the Mayor. Snyder brings his pinhead guards/cops/whatever with him and sort of bugs them to open up the Box of Gavrok.

Snyder freaks big-time when he spies the spiders the box contains. Later he laments the whole thing by saying something like, "Why couldn't you be dealing drugs like normal people?" Geesh, make up your mind, Snidey! (Spidey?)

In Graduation part 1, Snyder's getting ready for the class of 1999's commencement exercises. He seems all proud when The Mayor commends him on keeping stuff in line. The Mayor also tells Snyder that he'll be paid in full come Graduation Day. Y'know, you'd think that after having seen the Mayor with the Box of Gavrok, that Snyder would start to wonder what's kosher and all that...but no...

Alas, it's in Graduation part 2 that Snyder's tenure is up. It's nice to see that he still tries to maintain authority on his schoolgrounds during graduation...I mean, he singles out kids for chewing gum and making gestures, and all that. And later he stupidly goes so far as to chastise the Mayor -- who's now in his demon form -- for making a wreck of the graduation ceremony. Like, what kind of dunderhead is going to goad a 60-foot tall monster? I mean, that's almost like the kind of woolly-headed (liberal?) thinking that leads to being eaten....Poetic Justice? Who knows. But it sure is odd that both principals of Sunnydale High got eaten. Yow. Not unlike the captain going down with the ship...he tried to save his school and all. It would almost be admirable if it weren't so dumb, but this is the guy who wanted to crawl out of a school window in School Hard, remember.

Goodbye little homunculus.


Buffy in tank The ABCs of Sunnydale

The 411/Mythology

The 511/Relationships

The 611/Slayerships

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The Episodes

Sunnydale

Main Entrance

Missing Lynx

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Pic courtesy of The Buffy Cross & Stake

This page last updated August 10, 1999.

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