With buffy back in town,
things are still not completely status quo with her friends, who feel she
has let them down. Willow and Buffy need to work through friendship issues,
as do the others who have felt betrayed. There are also monsters thrown
in, as an ancient mask Buffy's mom brings home one night causes zombies
a` la Night of the living Dead to crash Buffy's welcome-home party.
The Buffy vampire "mythology"
gets the show back to basics as new slayer Faith arrives in town. she proves
to be a plucky, welcome addition to the gang though she carries some dark
secrets. She let her watcher get killed, and the demon Kakistos (Jeremy
Roberts) has been hunting her down for some time. New vampire Mr. Trick
(K. Todd Freeman) arrives as well, meanwhile Buffy is also being pursued
by new suitor Scott (Fab Flippo) but she proceeds with caution as she hasn't
gotten over Angel just yet.
The beast within Oz (Seth Green)
is unleashed once again. The gang including girlfriend Willow, have a system
of locking hin up at night but when locals start turning up dead, mauled
and mutilated, Oz becomes the primary suspect. Ulitmately, it is discovered
that the culprit is student Pete, whose attachment to his girlfriend Debbie
truns him into a Jekyll-and-Hyde case whenever he gets jealous. The climax
is a battle between the Hide-ish Pete and the wolfed-out Oz Mean while,
it's bad news for Buffy when Angel comes back from hell and doesn't know
why.
Cordelia finally has a chance
to shine in this episode, which pits her against Buffy in a campaign to
win the homecoming queen crown. Mr Trick, meanwhile, has other plans, putting
a bounty on the heads of Buffy and Faith. When Buffy and Cordelia end up
together, the demonic hunters mistake Cordelia for Faith, resulting in
some comical situations when she tries to pretend she's a slayer. This
episode also marks the first appearance of the Mayor (Harry Groener) who
has some evil things up his sleeve, and finds Xander and Willow realizing
that they're attracted to each other, even though they're still seeing
Cordelia and Oz.
This stand-alone episode shows
a different side of Giles when he and the other adults fall under the control
of mysterious "band candy" that makes them feel young again. This is the
handiwork of Mr Trick, working under the Mayer, By keeping the adults preoccupied
with their youthful indulgences, he can have his demons steal the town's
babies for sacrifice to a demon. The best moments involve Giles becoming
the angry punk he once was, hooking up with Buffy's mom and having a chance
to be the out-of-control adolescent for a change, with Buffy becoming the
responsible parent.
This ambitious story sees the
arrival of Mrs. Post-a new Watcher ready to take charge of Faith. Meanwhile,
the Glove of Myhnegon has surfaced, and a demon is in town trying to find
it, ultimatelt it's revealed that Mrs. Post is the bad guy. Other revelations
in this episode include Xander's discovery that Angel is back and that
Buffy hasn't told anyone. Naturally, no one likes this turn of events.
Willow and Xander's secret affair heats up too.
Trouble brews in town when last
season's main villain Spike (James Marsters) returns, mourning the loss
of his beloved Drusilla, who has left him for another demon. The thrust
of this episode is how Spike handles being dumped-and results include his
forcing Willow to whip up a spell that will make Dru his again. Along the
way, Cordelia and Oz discover Xander and willow's big secret, and Angel
and Buffy come to a truce, realizing that they can't be lovers and are
better off keeping a distance.
Coldelia is still broken up over
Xander's betrayal and blames it all on Buffy-ever since she arrived, Cordelia
believes, nothing has been the same. When teen demon Anya (Emma Caulfield)
offers her a chance to make any desire come true, Cordelia wishes that
Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. The alternate reality that ensues is
horrific; Xander and Willow are badass vamps, the Master lords over the
town and Giles Oz and a handful of students make up a renegade stake squad
in the absence of a slayer. Almost all the major characters are killed-including
Cordelia-until alternate-reality Giles finds a way to break Anya's spell.
Also referred to as "A Buffy
Christmas," this story follows the redemption of Angel on Christmas Eve.
He is having visions of all those whom he has biten over the years, and
develops a huge guilt complex, as his victims try to convince him to kill
himself to end their suffering. What Angel discovers is that the images
are being spawned by a deamon bent on destroying him and Buffy. Her love
saves Angel-but the real answers to this episode's questions await this
fall when the Angel series debuts.
Four months before the Columbine
tragedy (which led to the bumping of two Buffy episodes) this episode dealt
with the concern about violent influences affecting young people with tact
and subtlely, After two young kids die through what looks like witchcraft,
Buffy's mom (Kristine Sutherland) creates a parent group (MOO-Mothers opposed
to the Occult) to stamp out sorcery in town-which it is discovered that
the two kids are actually demons who appear every so often to upset the
balance of small towns, their exposure reveals a larger evil at work.
It's Buffy 18th birthday, and
the watcher council says she must go through a rite of passage-in which
she is stripped of all her slayer abillties for a short time, and she must
fight a hideous vampire to the death on mortal terms. This results in Buffy
losing her trust in Giles, while he finds himself fired as a watcher because
of his insubordination-though Buffy ultimately finds a clever way to prevail.
This great stand-alone episode
focuses on the often underutilzed Xander, who feels he has become ehe Zeppo
(the lesser-known Marx brother) of the Buffy gang. Everyone else has more
ability than he does, and he sets out to prove his worth when he discovers
a group of hellraising ghouls plotting to blow up the school. At the same
time, the others are trying to stop a group called the sisterhood of jhe
from opening the Hellmouth-though we only see this action when Xander is
around it.
With Giles now no longer a watcher,
Wesley Wyndam-pryce (Alexis Denisof) is brought in to take over, but Buffy
wants nothing to do with him, instead, she becomes a bad girl, hanging
out with Faith and getting into trouble. The two also have to deal with
the minions of Balthazar, an enormously fat demon seeking a magic amulet.
When Faith accidentally kills the Mayor's right-hand man (a mortal) Buffy
and Faith deal with the aftermath in different ways-Buffy feels guilty,
while it's obvious that Faith got some kind of pleasure out of it.
The fallout of the "Bad Girls"
episode is dealt with head-on as Faith shirks her responsibility for killing
the Mayor's assistant and blames it on Buffy. As the police search for
the murderer, the Mayor soon learns that the slayers were involved and
wants them dead. Mr. Trick is dispatched, leaving the Mayor to pick up
the mantle as this season's primary heavy, in the end Faith, feeling betrayed
by the watchers and her friends, realizes that there's a job opening with
the Mayor now that Mr. Trick is gone, and joins forces with him.
Willow is tired of being everyone's
"Old Reliable" and wants to be something better. She gets her wish-sort
of-when Anya tries to regain the power she lost in "The Wish" (she was
transformed into a mortal teen) and ends up bringing the alternate-reality
vampire Willow to present-day sunnydale. This leads to a number of mistaken-identity
scenarios and allows Hannigan to give a tour-de-force performance as both
Willows. As for Faith, a father-daughter relationship develops between
her and the Mayor as he plans for his Ascension.
Faith sets her sights on Angel
as she continues to play both sides of the fence, and the gang starts to
suspect something is up along the way, Angel has his soul taken away during
a demonic ceremony and turns bad again. Faith plots to use him to destroy
Buffy-but things don't go as planned, her partnership with the Mayor is
laid clear to her former friends.
After killing an unusual, mouthless
creature Buffy finds herself infected by an "aspect of the demon". As the
school Prom approaches, she starts to hear the thoughts of those around
her. The comic, and academic, potential for good in this soon evaporates.
Instead the maddening chaos of hearing everyone thinking at once causes
her to collapse-but not before she over-hears someone think the vow "tomorrow
i'll kill you all" in the school cafeteria. Buffy's friends'
investigations, using CIA-style murderer profiling borrowed by Willow,
point towards a cynical journalist on the school paper. But his only concern
is evading reprisals from Oz because of a bad review for his band. Restored
to strength, Buffy frantically scans the school grounds-and spots what
we've already seen, their insignificant classmate Jonathan, rifle in hand,
overlooking everyone from the clock tower. But before a shot is fired,
she learns that Jonathan only intended to kill himself. The real would-be
killer is still in the school cafeteria, and never intended to use guns
at all.
As "choices" begins, every-one
is deciding where to attend collage. Willow has been accepted into every
major school, while Buffy has gotten into the very prestigious Northwestern.
Meanwhile, Faith receives a magical knife from the Mayor, who needs her
to retrieve a special box containing specimens he needs to prepare for
the Ascension. Buffy and the gang decide to retrieve it on their own, taking
the fight to the Mayor himself.
With the prom approaching, a
disgruntled student trains Hell Hounds to attack people in formal wear
in order to disrup it (he teaches them who to go after by making them watch
Prom Night, Pretty in Pink, Carrie, ect.) Meanwhile, Buffy and Angal's
relationship is coming to a end, as he realizes that he needs to let Buffy
go on with her life. Xander also learns a big secret of cordelia's-her
parents have become broke. At the same time, Anya takes a liking to Xander
and asks him to the Prom.
It's all coming to an end, as
the Ascension is near and the mayor plans to destroy all the Sunnydale
High students at graduation. Xander discovers that Anya (who still has
a crush on him) has actually been to an Ascension once before and has some
key information. Faith shoots Angel with a dart filled with deadly
poison-with the only antidote being the blood of a slayer. This leads to
a fight to the death between Buffy and Faith. Buffy wins the battle-but
appears to loss the chance to use Faith's blood to save Angel.
Buffy and friends have been anticipating
Sunyydale's ancient Mayor's Ascension (a transformation into a demon) for
weeks. in Graduation Day Part 1 they finally realise that he intends to
achieve this during their Graduation ceremony. becoming a demon far larger
than the hybrids they have seen hitherto-before devouring the helpless
students. Until then he is literally invincible, but immediately after
transforming he may be vulnerable.
Our heroes realize that the
demon Mayor can only be stopped by a barrage of weapons, and in Graduation
Day Part 2 arm themselves and their classmates accordingly with crossbows
and more. When the Mayor transforms into a 60-foot snake, his vampire acolytes
are ordered to keep the students from the exits. But the demons hadn't
reckoned on what might be concealed beneath their Graduation robes, or
the explosive surprise Buffy has in store for the terrifying creature.
A vicious battle ensues, and the school they are leaving is itself amongst
the casualties.
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