Dial V for vampire

It’s the morning of the first day of class in “Lessons,” the Season 7 opener of UPN’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and Buffy is about to send little sister Dawn to high school. Somewhere between breakfast cereal and backpack check, (“Books, lunch, stakes?”), Buffy hands Dawn a small package tied with ribbon.

“What is it?” Dawn asks. “It’s a weapon, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Buffy says with a smile.

The present, it turns out, is a cell phone, and it’s become Dawn’s signature tool as Buffy passes the stake to the wireless generation. In the Buffyverse, all things are meaningful -- and linked -- thus the cell’s become part of a never-ending riff.

When Dawn is being chased by the ghosts of murdered nerds, she dials Buffy (“Buffy? Isn’t this reception amazing? I’m in the freakin’ basement!”). Six episodes later,that same cell phone becomes a symbol of disconnect. Dawn is calling for help, but to no avail -- Buffy is lost in conversation with a vampire she’s supposed to be killing. While the vampire feels tapped into “an all-consuming evil,” Buffy feels alone. “When you said not connected,” says her undead would-be shrink, “that was kind of a telling statement, wasn’t it?”

Like many a weapon (or tool) before it, this one’s double-edged -- as anyone who’s driven behind a cell-wielding SUV pilot knows. Soulful or soul-robbing? As with the stake before it, that all depends on how it’s used.

-- Gendy Alimurung