I'd like to give a big fat shout-out to Marlys, who sent me some much-appreciated Buffy shooting scripts. See? I told you I accept bribes.
In the Master's lair, Colin is throwing stones into the pit of Jell-O when Darla enters. The Master asks her what happened to Zachary, and Darla replies, "The Slayer." The Master asks Colin what he would do, and Colin replies that he would "annihilate her." Oh come on! That's his big plan? Who elected this kid "Anointed One," anyway? For some reason, The Master seems impressed with this answer. Darla volunteers to do the job, but The Master has decided that he will send "the Three" to get the job done.
In an alley, three toughs with shaved heads are lighting their cigarettes. Three men wearing some light plate armor turn the corner and head towards the toughs, causing them to scatter. Now maybe I've just seen too many of my friends fall to the sister diseases of Renaissance Faire and the Society for Creative Anachronism, but when I come across people wearing armor in my day-to-day life I'm far more likely to snicker than run away.
At the Bronze, Willow and Buffy are sitting at a table. It's the night of the pre-fumigation party (squash a roach, get a drink) and Buffy is lost in her thoughts. Willow wonders if she's thinking about a guy, but Buffy says, " For us to have a conversation about a guy, there'd have to be a guy for us to have a conversation about. Is that a sentence?" Willow correctly deduces that Buffy is deficient in the guy department but asks, "What about Angel?" Buffy nixes that idea, saying, " I can just see him in a relationship. 'Hi, honey, you're in grave danger. I'll see you month,'" but then she dreamily continues, "When he is around, it's like the lights dim everywhere else. You know how it's like that with some guys?" Willow says that she does know as she looks yearningly over at Xander, who is busy spastically dancing. Willow, she said "it's like the lights dim everywhere else," not "he's like a dim bulb." Which, to be fair, is a pretty accurate description of Angel too. On the dance floor Xander bumps into Cordelia (who has to have at least one scene because she's in the credits), who demands that he get his "extreme oafishness off [her] two-hundred-dollar shoes." Xander apologizes, but Cordelia rags on him some more, which prompts Xander to fight back with, "I don't know what everyone's talking about. That outfit doesn't make you look like a hooker," extra-loud so everyone else can hear. His mission complete, he goes to sit with Buffy and Willow. He asks what they're up to, and Willow replies, " Just sitting here, watching our barren lives pass us by," before she's distracted by a cockroach. Xander suggests that they "stop this whirligig of fun," because he's getting "dizzy." Buffy decides to bail, and Willow and Xander unsuccessfully try to talk her out of it. Buffy takes off, and we see that Angel is there watching her from behind the stairs. She senses something and turns around, but he's disappeared. I was going to make a whole bunch of stalker jokes, but then I realized that since Angel's a 240-year-old vampire, he's probably not going to have the social skills necessary to relate to the typical California suburban teenager. Much like the RPG fans who would play his character in "Vampire: The Masquerade" or whatever.
On the street, Buffy is walking alone when she again senses someone watching her. She stops in her tracks and says, " It's late, I'm tired, and I don't wanna play games. Show Yourself." On cue, one of the Three drops down behind her. She spins around, all the better to stake him, but he grabs her arm. Two of Three approaches and grabs her other arm. They shove her up against a chain-link fence as Three of Three approaches. Buffy: "Look, I really don't want to have to fight all three of you. Unless I have to." And with that she kicks Three of Three in the crotch and elbows the vamp to her left. She tries to punch the other, but he blocks it and they quickly recapture her. Three of Three approaches her with a low growl in her throat.
We're back with Buffy and her fan club. As the leader of the Three is coming in close, Angel suddenly grabs his hair from behind and punches him in the face. Buffy takes this as her cue to kick her captors in the face simultaneously. While Buffy struggles with her two, the leader of the Three breaks off an iron bar and swings it at Angel's stomach, slicing him. He falls down, but Buffy comes to the rescue, helping him to his feet, and suggests that they run for it. Which they do, with The Three in hot pursuit. Buffy and Angel run up to her house, and Buffy briefly struggles with the lock. She finally opens the door and they rush inside (after Buffy yells, "Get in! C'mon!" to Angel, for you sticklers for detail). Buffy slams the door, catching one of the vampires' hands. Which is a little odd, since in later episodes we've seen that the threshold is like a physical barrier to uninvited vamps. He shouldn't have been able to reach around the door like that. Buffy leans against the door, breathing heavily, as the Three circle outside. Then she notices Angel's wound and goes to fetch a first-aid kit after telling Angel to take his shirt off. She heads into the kitchen with Angel following. He disrobes, and this marks the first of many many gratuitous "Angel is shirtless" scenes. Buffy admires the tattoo that Angel has on his right shoulder and then asks him if he was following her. Angel replies, "Why would I do that?" with a smile and Buffy, as she bandages him, says, "You tell me. You're the mystery guy that appears out of nowhere. I'm not saying I'm not happy about it tonight, but if you are hanging around I'd like to know why." Angel offers that it's "maybe" because he likes her. They smile at each other but are interrupted by the sound of a door opening, and Buffy walks into the foyer to find Joyce entering. She quickly pulls her mother inside, thinking of the vamps outside, and as Joyce starts to go into the kitchen, Buffy pulls her towards the stairs and tries to bundle her upstairs into her room as quickly as possible with the promise of hot tea. Joyce is somewhat suspicious of Buffy's intentions and Angel, choosing that moment to join them, confirms her mother's instinct. Buffy introduces Angel as a first-year community-college student who has been helping her with her history homework. At this point, I've got to say that Angel looks at least 240 years younger here than he does now, but still couldn't pass for a freshman unless he repeated grades nine through twelve -- three times. Joyce ain't buying it and somewhat frostily says that it's a "little late for tutoring," and that she's going to go to bed. Buffy promises to say goodnight to Angel and head upstairs herself. She pretends to show Angel out but instead sneaks him up to her room. Isn't she worried that her mother is going to check on her? Or did I just have an overly vigilant parent? Buffy and Angel argue over who gets the bed for a bit, and then Buffy tells Angel to go look out the window while she changes. While she's putting on her pajamas, she asks him why he's involved with the vampire hunting business, and he struggles with his word choice so he can avoid telling the whole truth. Luckily for him, Buffy asks him if his family was killed by vampires, and when he replies that they were, she quickly decides that it's a "vengeance gig" for him. Angel clumsily tries to change the subject by telling Buffy how pretty she looks in her pajamas. Buffy: "Well, when I wake up it's an entirely different story." Which might be, because she goes to bed with three pounds of makeup on her face. Buffy lies on her bed after handing Angel a spare blanket, and they both go to sleep.
The day in the library, Xander is grilling Buffy. "He spent the night? In your room? In your bed?" Buffy clarifies that he slept by her bed rather than in it. Willow asks in her shy way if Angel got fresh with Buffy, but Buffy smiles and says that he was a "perfect gentleman." Xander tries to tell Buffy that Angel is using the "oldest trick in the book" to seduce her, and that guys will do anything to impress a girl. In fact, he, Xander, once drank a gallon of Gatorade without stopping to take a breath. At this point Giles, as always with a book, interrupts them, saying, "Can we steer this riveting conversation back to the events that happened earlier in the evening?" He shows Buffy the book and asks if the "three unusually virile vampires" pictured therein are the same ones who attacked her. Buffy IDs them and Giles tells her that the Three are warrior vampires. Giles concludes that Buffy must be a right thorn in the Master's side or he wouldn't have summoned the Three. Giles sees this as an excuse to step up Buffy's training regimen. Xander offers to have Buffy stay at his house while those "samurai guys" are after her, but Giles tells him that Buffy (and Angel, dammit!) aren't in immediate danger, and since the Three failed, they will "offer their own lives in penance" to the Master.
Cut to the Master's Lair where the Three are kneeling in a row...offering their own lives in penance. One of them offers the Master a wooden spear, and he passes it to Darla. Darla walks behind the three as the Master kneels beside Colin. "With power comes responsibility. True, they did fail, but also true, we who walk at night share a common bond. The taking of a life -- I'm not talking about humans, of course -- is a serious matter." Colin asks if the Master is going to spare them, and one of the Three looks up hopefully. The Master considers it as he rises and says, " I am weary, and their deaths will bring me little joy." He starts to walk away with Colin, and behind them Darla raises her spear and smiles as she stakes the first of the three. The Master turns to Colin and says, "Of course, sometimes a little is enough." Oh, that wacky Master! I'm sure glad they refined his character when they recycled him in Season Three as the Mayor.
In the library, Giles puts out a sign that reads, "Library closed for filing. Please come back tomorrow." Inside, Buffy is checking out the cache of weapons. She seems particular enamored with the crossbow and says, "Goodbye stakes, hello flying fatality. What can I shoot?" "Nothing. The crossbow comes later," corrects Giles as he takes it from her and instead comes back with two quarterstaffs. Giles warns her that it will "require countless hours of vigorous training." Buffy quips that Giles should join her in the twentieth century, since she's not going to be fighting "Friar Tuck." Giles prissily informs her that she'll "never know with whom or what [she'll] be fighting" as he puts on his helmet. He is heavily padded and reminds Buffy to put on her pads as well, but she sort of half-smirks and half-laughs as she tells him that she won't need any pads to fight Giles. Giles: "Well, we'll see about that. En garde!" They face off and Buffy makes short work of Giles, quickly knocking him to the ground. The too-many sharp cuts in this scene make me appreciate the dearly departed Jeff Pruitt and Sophia Crawford even more. I hope they don't go back to this style of fighting season. Or the gymnastics-based crap from the pilot. From the floor, an astonished Giles croaks, "Good Let's move on to the crossbow."
Establishing shot of the Summers residence that evening. Buffy enters her room and looks around, calling, "Angel?" Angel steps out of the shadows as Buffy turns on a lamp and hands him a Ziploc bag, explaining that she brought him a bit of plateless dinner. Then Buffy asks him what he did all day, and Angel replies that he was reading. Did he bring a book with him? I can't imagine that anything Buffy would have on her shelf would capture his interest, I picture Buffy as mired pretty deep in the V.C. Andrews oeuvre. Buffy quickly glances at her diary and notices that it's out of place and jumps to the conclusion that Angel read it. She has a minor conniption fit, saying, " My diary? You read my diary? That is not okay! A diary is like a person's most private place! You don't even know what I was writing about! 'Hunk' can mean a lot of things, bad things. And, and when it says that your eyes are 'penetrating,' I meant to write 'bulging.'" "Buffy," interrupts Angel, but she runs right over him: "And 'A' doesn't even stand for 'Angel,' for that matter, it stands for... 'Achmet,' a charming foreign exchange student, so that whole fantasy part has nothing to even do with you at all." Angel explains that Buffy's mom moved her diary while she was straightening her room and that Angel "watched from the closet." Heh. I'll bet you did, Angel. Buffy realizes that she just spilled all of her secrets as Angel explains that he can't be around her anymore. I start to rejoice at this point, but it's short-lived, because Angel admits that all he "can every think about is how badly [he] want[s] to kiss" Buffy. Angel again says that he'd better go as Buffy sidles up closer to him. "I should..." "Go. You said." And then it happens. They kiss. I cry. Angel breaks off the kiss and backs away, hiding his face. Buffy wonders what's wrong, and Angel turns towards her with his game face on and growls. Buffy screams and Angel takes off through the window. Gosh -- I think there was probably a better way to handle that.
The morning at school, Buffy is telling the gang about her encounter with Angel. Buffy hopefully asks Giles if a vampire is capable of being a good person. Giles shatters her hopes by saying, "A vampire isn't a person at all. It may have the movements, the, the memories, even the personality of the person that it took over, but i-it's still a demon at the core, there is no halfway." Buffy then wonders why Angel has helped her out of so many scrapes and speculates that it might be part of the Master's plan. No, not his, but rather that of the great and powerful god Whedon, who has taken a personal interest in making your life a living hell (pardon the pun) for at least the four years. Buffy and Willow sit down on a bench; Xander, King of Cretins, reminds Buffy that as the Slayer she has a duty to dispatch Angel. Buffy just sits there morosely and Xander says, "I know you have feelings for this guy, but it's not like you're in love with him, right?" When Buffy doesn't answer and instead just looks away, Xander exclaims, "You're in love with a vampire? What are you, outta your mind?" A just approached Cordelia inquires, "What?" Xander quickly recovers, "How could you love an umpire? Everyone hates them!" You know, if Xander is so quick with the clever cover-up, you'd think that he'd have the sense to keep his trap shut in the first place. Cordelia's comment was apparently directed at another girl who is wearing the same dress as she. The girl continues to scurry off with Cordelia in hot pursuit, haranguing her. "Where did you get that dress? This is a one-of-a-kind Todd Oldham. Do you know how much this dress cost? Is this a knockoff?" After checking the label of the other girl's dress, she proclaims, "This is a knockoff, isn't it?! Some cheesy knockoff! This is exactly what happens when you sign these free trade agreements!" Hee.
Angel enters his apartment and goes to turn on a really ugly lamp. You might think in his 240 years on earth he would have picked up something resembling taste, but apparently not. Angel senses someone in the room and asks who is there. "A friend," comes a voice from off-screen. Angel turns to face the source of the voice, and Darla steps out of the shadows. After exchanging pleasantries, Angel asks Darla, "What's with the Catholic schoolgirl look? Last time I saw you it was kimonos." "And last time I saw you it wasn't high-school girls." As we would have said in 1987, "Ooh! Face!" Darla goes on to admonish him for living "above ground like one of them," and "attacking us, like one of them," as she's prancing across the room. "But guess what, precious. You're not one of them." As she says this, she suddenly opens the window blinds, and as light streams into the room Angel jumps back, squinting into the light. This is his apartment -- didn't he know that window was there? Angel can be as dumb as a box of rocks sometimes. Angel protests that he's "not exactly one of you either," and while in 1997 we all puzzled over that statement, now we know it means that Angel is in possession of a pesky little soul. Darla walks to the fridge and opens it to reveal bags of blood hanging from the shelves. "You're not exactly living off of quiche." She exhorts him to return to the dark side and blah blibbedy blah finally leaves with a parting shot of "talk to her. Tell her about the curse. Maybe she'll come around. And if she still doesn't trust you, you know where I'll be." Angel stands there looking Real Troubled.
Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles are researching in the library. Giles says he's found information about Angel in the diary of a Watcher, and Willow dizzily interrupts to commiserate with Buffy about thinking that Angel read her diary. Priorities, Willow. Giles says the diary mentions a two-hundred-forty-year-old vampire named Angelus, "the one with the angelic face," which causes Xander to cough stagily. I'm going to have to agree with Xander here. The tattoo Buffy saw on Angel's back acts as confirmation, and Giles continues with his exposition, saying that about eighty years ago Angel arrived in America, and since then there are no reports of him hunting. Willow is excited, thinking it's proof that Angel is good, but Giles and Xander are skeptical.
As the Anointed One looks on, Darla thanks the Master for allowing her to kill the Three, and insists that he allow her to take care of the Slayer. The Master teases Darla a little for her bossy attitude, but then lets her explain her plan. Darla wants force Angel to "come back to the fold" by arranging to have him kill Buffy. The Master and Darla wax nostalgic about what a "vicious creature" Angel was. Then the Master takes this opportunity to bore Colin and the viewing audience by delivering a little lecture working "together for the common good."
Willow and Buffy are studying in the library. To Willow's question about when the Reconstruction began, Buffy tries to focus and replies, " Um, Reconstruction...uh, Reconstruction began after the...construction, which was...shoddy, so they had to reconstruct." How did this girl get into college again? Sometimes I get very confused by this show's mixed "Buffy is very bright/Buffy is an airhead" message. Buffy then muses that Angel was already at least one hundred years old at the time of the Civil War, and Willow wonders if they're going to discuss boys or help Buffy to pass history class. Willow then TMIs a fantasy about Xander kissing her, and when Buffy tells her to speak up about her crush on Xander, Willow replies, " No speaking up. That way leads to madness and sweaty palms." As the girls talk, we see that Darla is lurking behind them in the library stacks. Willow asks about Angel's kiss and then babbles about how he'll stay "young and handsome forever" while Buffy will "get wrinkly and die." She apologizes for being a bummer, but Buffy says she needs to get over Angel. Shouldn't the mere news that a crush is a vampire automatically get the Slayer over him? Teen hormones are a bitch, I guess. Buffy is agitated by the thought of staking Angel, who has never done her any harm (other than inflict his awful "lurking mysterious guy" routine on her). The girls try to apply themselves to studying.
At home, Joyce reads some papers and drinks coffee in the quiet house. She hears a noise outside and checks, but finds nothing. As she walks away from the kitchen door, we see Darla's vamped face outside. That made me jump the first time I saw it. A short time later there is a knock at the front door, and Joyce answers to find Darla standing there. Darla claims to be a friend of Buffy's who has arrived for a study date, and Joyce falls for it, inviting Darla in to wait for Buffy. Like a good mommy, Joyce ushers Darla into the kitchen, asking if she would like something to eat. Behind her, Darla is now wearing her game face and looks hungry.
Angel lurks outside the Summers home and then approaches the front door. Angel is such a stalker! He's about to knock, changes his mind, and starts to walk away, but then hears a scream. He bursts into the kitchen to find Darla with her fangs poised over the swooning Joyce's neck. Darla tries to taunt him into feeding on Joyce and tosses him her limp body. Angel catches Joyce and, tempted by the smell of blood, vamps out. Darla gloats and leaves the kitchen. Seconds later Buffy enters, horrified to see the vamped-out Angel seemingly in the process of drinking her mother's blood.
Angel is tossed out through a large window and lands on the lawn. Buffy stands in the broken window and tells him he's no longer welcome and if he comes near them again, she'll kill him. The music in this scene is incredibly cheesy. Angel leaves and Buffy hurries back inside to call 911, telling the operator that her mother cut herself. As she hovers over her mother, trying to rouse her, Xander and Willow arrive in the kitchen. Buffy tells them that Angel attacked her mother.
Giles hurries down a hospital corridor. In one of the hospital rooms, Joyce lies in bed with a bandage on her neck and tells Buffy, Xander, and Willow that she guesses she slipped soon after she let Buffy's "friend" into the house. The doctors have told Joyce it appears she cut herself on a barbecue fork. Giles pops into the hospital room, and Joyce wonders if he's a doctor but Buffy explains he's actually the school librarian. Joyce is confused as to what he's doing there but decides that "the teachers really do care in this town." Buffy gives her a kiss, and they all file out of the hospital room. Out in the corridor, Giles tries to tell Buffy she was lucky to find her mother as soon as she did, but Buffy castigates herself for inviting Angel into the house and allowing herself to care about him. Willow tries to tell her, "If you care about somebody you care about them. You can't change that by --" but Buffy retorts, "Killing them?" She storms off, but Giles tries to stop her, telling her that Angel is dangerous and will "take more than a simple stake."
Buffy agrees, because we see her loading the crossbow from Giles's weapons stash. As Buffy prepares, elsewhere Darla taunts Angel, sneering that Buffy is preparing to kill him. Angel tells her to leave him alone, but Darla circles him, mocking him for thinking Buffy could love a vampire. In the library, Buffy shoots a crossbow bolt straight into the heart of a guy on a "No Smoking" poster. Darla tells Angel to accept his "true self" and to stop acting like a "mangy human." "Kill, feed, live," she practically shouts at him, and Angel suddenly leaps up and pins her to the wall. He tells her he "want[s] it finished." Darla seems to be enjoying Angel's violent treatment and breathes heavily.
Buffy patrols an alley with her crossbow. She arrives at the Bronze and hears glass breaking nearby. She climbs a fire escape ladder up the side of the building.
Giles is sitting to Joyce's bed in the hospital and they are discussing Buffy. Giles explains that Buffy is having trouble in history class because she "lives very much in the now." Joyce muses that Buffy must be trying to do well, since she's studying with both Willow and Darla. Giles's ears perk up at this unfamiliar name, and he confirms that Darla is the friend who Joyce mentioned coming by earlier, right before her "accident." Joyce frets that Darla was probably scared by her fainting, and Giles offer to check on her immediately. After he leaves, Joyce reflects, "That school is amazing." Giles hurries down the hospital corridor, informing Willow and Xander that they have a problem.
Buffy, in a sleek ponytail, electric blue shirt, and what looks like black leather pants, carefully patrols inside the Bronze. A figure moves into the shadows, and Buffy calls out, "I know you're there. And I know what you are." From the dark Angel, in game face, sneers, "I'm just an animal, right?" and Buffy responds, "You're not an animal. Animals I like." After this witty and not-at-all confusing exchange, Angel is ready to rumble. With an accompaniment of super-cheesy Walker, Texas Ranger action music, he leaps onto the pool table and up into the second story of the club. Fighting and missed crossbow shots on Buffy's part ensue. Eventually Buffy gets Angel in her crossbow sights; he morphs back to his human face and tells her to kill him. She fires but her shot goes astray and I sigh wearily. Buffy wants to know why Angel toyed with her affections, and tells him she hates him. She's angry that she invited him into her home and he attacked her family, and he sneeringly replies, "Why not? I killed mine. I killed their friends and their friend's children. For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart." I have to admit I don't understand Angel here at all. Is it David Boreanaz's terrible acting or just sloppy writing? A combination of both, perhaps. At first it seems he wants Buffy to kill him because he's miserable living as a vampire, which actually seems quite poignant, but then he dons his human face, making it hard for her to put him (and us) out his misery. Now he's all Braggy McBigpants about his awful past. Do you want her to dust you or not, stalker guy? I think a better actor would have presented Angelus's evil deeds with regret and self-loathing, but Boreanaz can only seem to muster up "snotty." Angel continues his sob story and tells Buffy about how he fed on a young gypsy girl and was cursed by the restoration of his soul. At this point, he's pretty much lost most of his attitude, but hasn't gained any acting skill when he has to deliver this line: "You have no idea what it's like to have done the things I've done and to care." He explains to her that he hasn't fed on a human since the day he was cursed, and Buffy wonders why he started with her mother. "I didn't bite her!" sulks Angel, with a line delivery that makes me snicker every time I watch this scene. He says he did want to feed on her mom, though, and wanted to kill Buffy herself earlier. Buffy drops her crossbow and approaches Angel, daring him to kill her, but he can't. "Not as easy as it looks," says Buffy, but Darla steps from the shadows and replies, "Sure it is." How'd they all know to show up at the Bronze?
Willow, Xander, and Giles walk down an alley near the Bronze, looking for Buffy. Xander wonders what help they'll be if they find Buffy fighting Angel and his vampire buddies.
Back in the Bronze, Darla's in her game face and telling Buffy that it's sad to still love someone who used to love you. Buffy gives a funny "eww" face mixed with a bummed face, but gets in a crack about Darla looking a "little worn around the eyes". Darla recovers ground in the cat-fight by telling Buffy she "made" Angel, and that for a time they shared everything. She taunts Angel and tells him he's sick for loving someone who hates vampires. How much does Darla know about the curse? It seems like anyone with half a brain would realize that Angel wouldn't be capable of returning to his demon ways until his soul is removed. Darla is acting like he can become a vicious killer by just applying a little willpower. Or maybe she thinks killing Buffy will remove the curse? Well, whatever is in her demonic pea-brain, Darla sneers that Angel will have to live while remembering watching Buffy die. Buffy flips her crossbow up off the ground and claims she didn't come alone, but again Darla has a better hand and pulls two big pistols out of, well, somewhere in her Catholic schoolgirl skirt, I guess. She plugs Angel, who roundly deserves it for standing there this whole time like a petrified stump, and then continues after Buffy.
Outside, the Scoobies hear gunshots and run in that direction.
Buffy hides and attempts to load her crossbow, and I wish she would hurry up and shoot Darla already, because I am more than tired of her smug routine. Buffy fires a bolt at Darla but misses her heart. Giles, Xander, and Willow have made their way into the second floor of the Bronze, and they try to distract Darla by shouting that it was she and not Angel who attacked Buffy's mom. Darla fires at them and then smugly walks the length of the pool table. Buffy pops up and pulls the table forward, knocking Darla down. She then shoves the pool table backwards and flees across the room. Darla fires after her again and again and again with her special made-for-TV gun which never requires reloading and tells her to "take it like a man." Angel comes up behind her and stakes her with one of Buffy's crossbow bolts. "Angel?" breathes Darla, right before she poofs into a pile of dust. Buffy and Angel give each other googly looks, and Angel turns to leave as sad music plays.
The Master is having a bit of a tantrum and throws a few candelabra around his prison. He tells the Annoying One that Darla was his favorite "for 400 years," but the Annoying One counsels that Darla was "weak." The Master is sad that he lost Darla to Angel, whom he'd planned to have right beside him come the day he took over the Earth. The Annoying One reassures the Master than when he rises they'll "kill them all." Which is pretty much how my friends console me whenever I'm in a bad mood.
Buffy, Xander, and Willow attend the Bronze's "Post Fumigation Party." Buffy tells them she hasn't heard from Angel, but she feels that "in a way" he's still watching over her. Willow tells her he's actually still watching her and nods towards Angel, who's lurking across the room. As Xander weakly insists he's not threatened, Angel and Buffy approach each other on the dance floor and stand close together. He inquires after her mother, and they agree that they can't ever be together. Angel says he has to walk away from "this," and Buffy agrees, but instead they begin to kiss. All right, even though I've been watching this show for years and have suffered through the whole Angel/Buffy saga, I still find myself shocked at the age difference between these two and dismayed that the Slayer would stick her tongue down a vampire's throat. Guess if a guy kills his ex-girlfriend for you, you can forgive him just about anything. If you're sixteen and horny as hell, that is. After the kiss, Buffy says she'll see him around, and leaves. The camera pans down from Angel's face and reveals the crucifix that he gave her earlier in the season has burned an impression into his chest. That's what he gets for prancing around with his shirt unbuttoned down to there.