A/N The Sisterhood of the Jhe appeared during the Zeppo episode. One of those fan essays I read points out the fact that despite how funny this episode is, it makes no sense. Mainly because it's the start of the Xander is useless theme that has come to define some fans interpretation of Xander. Except up to this point he's saved Buffy's life more than anyone else, he's come up with plans that work and more of them than anyone else and he's been an integral part of the group. Than Cordelia calls him a Zeppo and Buffy, who just a week before told Giles she couldn't be helpless decides, for no good reason, that Xander is helpless and should be 'fray adjacent' and they never know that he helps save the world.

Some people say it's an episode about Xander dealing with his insecurities, only I don't buy that. I think it's him trying to understand why his friends suddenly have no faith in him. Of course Joss is having to rewrite Xander's entire arc at this point because the fans have rebelled against him and the network broke up a great relationship just to move Charisma Carpenter to the spin off where Cordelia got destroyed.

Joss was big on metaphors, were you aware that Zeppo Marx, youngest of the Marx Brother, appeared in the least amount of the Marx Brothers films, but was the most successful off camera? Like Xander was at the construction company. Including inventing and patenting a life saving watch that monitors a person's pulse and sounds an alarm if the heartbeat becomes irregular. Xander Harris was often refered to as the Heart of the Scoobies. ;)

A Critic named Percy Hammond wrote, 'One of the handicaps to the thorough enjoyment of the Marx Brothers in their merry escapades is the plight of poor Zeppo Marx. While Groucho, Harpo, and Chico are hogging the show, as the phrase has it, their brother hides in an insignificant role, peeping out now and then to listen to plaudits in which he has no share. Thus the audience thinks he's insignificant."

Xander told Dawn, 'he sees more than anyone realizes because no one's watching him'. He also does more when the rest aren't looking at him. He wasn't meant to be insignificant though, he was meant to be an equal partner, he just got pushed out unfairly. Just like Zeppo, who left after a supposed threat to cut salaries and the others were bigger names.

Another critic insisted that while Zeppo Marx was more subtle than the others, he was undeniably essential to the success of the films he was part of.

Credit Wikipedia for these tidbits of info on Zeppo Marx.

Is Xander Harris Joss' version of Zeppo Marx?

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Buffy grunted as she got thrown into a headstone. She hated when that happened. She sprang up and charged the big and very much female, demon Faith was wailing on. It had come out of nowhere and tossed her aside like she was a rag doll. "What the Hell is this thing and why is it acting like it's pissed off at us?!" She demanded, as she found her taser and took aim at the big blue scaly thing. "Faith, get out of the way!"

Faith dodged sideways and Buffy fired. Only it didn't seem to do any good, the thing barely flinched.

"Okay, new plan." Faith grabbed a headstone herself and wrenched it out of the ground and slammed it into the big blue scaly thing's face. That got a response. Blue blood ran down it's face as it staggered and flailed around. Buffy grabbed a piece of the headstone she'd crashed into and used the sharp broken end of the granite and slashed at the big blue scaly thing's neck. Blue blood splashed on her and Faith slammed her headstone over the big blue scaly thing's head and it went to its knees.

"What the Hell is it going to take to put this thing down?!" She demanded. "It's way tougher than vampires!"

"I'm guessing a whole lot of blunt force trauma." Buffy answered as she slashed at the neck again and Faith hit it again with the headstone, further damaging its head. It flopped on the ground and lay still.

"I'm not checking to see if it has a pulse." Buffy decided.

"I don't blame you." Faith assured her as she pulled out a fancy knife she'd taken off a vampire awhile back. Yes, she still mugged vampires. "I'm going to see if I can cut its head off, that should be enough to be sure, than we find Red and the other Brains and they can figure out what it is, just in case there are any more of these rowdy ladies around. There's got to be an easier way to deal with them." She had just started cutting when a totally different demon appeared. It walked towards them, sniffed the air and then turned and shuffled away.

"Maybe we scared it off?" Buffy suggested as she glanced at Faith.

"We did just wail the crap outta big blue here." Faith shrugged and stood up after finishing cutting off the demon's head. "Should we take the head with? Or do you think we can describe it well enough that Red and the Brains can figure out what it is?"

"I think we can describe it well enough." Buff decided and Faith nodded and dropped the head onto the demon and the two headed off down the street.

In the van down the street a stunned group of Seals and a Wolfblood Mayor watched the camera. The entire fight had lasted less then twenty seconds.

"What the Hell was that?!" Charles Chase demanded.

"I have no freaking idea." Captain Howard answered. "The second demon is the glamored one. The other one is something else entirely."

"So the kids have two mysteries to solve?"