First off, this ep is AMAZING! A definite keeper!! Yay episode 3! The ep starts off with the gang happy to be capable of leaving school premises for lunch. Buffy and co are back to their normal 'happy-happy-joy-joy' selves and with Buffy admitted back into Sunnydale High things are running a lot smoother. *Yes, Principal Snyder was forced to re-admit the Buff-ster and Joyce even had the oppurtunity to give him the ole' "nananana-booboo!" Yay Joyce!!! 3 cheers for Joyce! Let's get Joyce the blue ribbon for comedic timing! *O.k, enough of that* Now, there's this boy named Scott who's jonesing for Buffy BIG TIME! Now never fear avid B&A fans, the conclusion of this ep is pretty dang spiffy if I do say so myself! Now let's not skip ahead here. Now where was I? Ahhh yes, Buffy meets the new Slayer in town (Faith) when she sees a disco-ing vamp lure a girl (Faith) out of the Bronze. To Buffy's suprise the girl can handle herself just fine against this "K-C and the Sunshine Band" wannabe. Faith has all these stories to tell the Scooby Gang (including Xander, who never fails to develop an immediate attraction to Slayers) and Buffy feels a little left out of the hoop-la. Faith and Buffy don't hit things off overly well, especially since the newbie Slayer is leading the whole, "Buffy needs to loosen up" rally. This episode emphasizes Buffy's love for Angel and how she must move on. Meanwhile there are two new baddies in town, one of which is an extremely old vampire with hooves, who is hunting down Faith after killing her Watcher (who she claims is at a Watchers retreat in England). The cloven hooved villain has a side kick (the long awaited Mr.Trick) who, after getting used to his street slang (ie: "posse") is quite cool; he even has potential "Better-than-Spike-ish-ness".
Now, to wrap up the 'non-issues' related plot, we have Buffy and Faith defeating the wannabe Centaur (while Mr. Trick flees the scene). Buffy takes Faith's lead and makes her first step in moving forward by confessing the true nature of Angel's departure to Giles and Willow. She then proceeds to consent to a date with Scott (hold on people, this is after much hesitation) and goes to the old mansion to say her final "goodbyes" to Angel. Now, here's where things get especially good for Angel fans. Buffy places the claddaugh ring on the ground and starts to walk away...suddenly everything goes black and the ground starts shaking. With a flash of light we see a body fall to the ground and when the darkness clears we see a nude Angel lying on the ground, whimpering. Let me take this oppurtunity to shriek!!! What a great ending to a fabulous episode! Three's a charm, as I always say...errr in this case...
Now a few things to take note of in this ep:
There is one dream sequence between Buffy and Angel in the Bronze, where they are dancing closely and Buffy's ring slips off her finger. Angel bends down to pick it up and Buffy starts telling him that she didn't want to kill him, and so on. Angel intercepts with, "I loved you....go to Hell!" We then see Angel with an overly 'yuk-some' face saying, "I did, hahahaha" (ok, his laugh was better than mine, but you get the jist of it!)
In one of Scott's attempts at asking Buffy on a date, he gives her a present, telling her it represented friendship...a claddaugh ring. Naturally, Buffy went wiggy and fled the scene.
Giles told Buffy a small fib in order to get her to reveal the true nature of the closing of the Acathla. He claimed that he had to "bind" the statue and in order to do so properly, he would have to know all the details. (He did this for Buffy's good, mind you. He knew that he had to get the truth out one way or another).
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