A band with a squawky female singer plays in the Bronze. Couples, including Xander and Cordy, slow-dance. The camera drifts past Willow who is peering up into the mezzanine story of the Bronze. Buffy, in bronze lamé pants and a black tank, mopes at the railing. Behind her, a young man approaches; he attempts to engage her in conversation, and when she doesn't recognize him, he explains that they had algebra class together. Buffy finally recognizes the none-too-attractive Ben, and he asks her to ask him to the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance. Sadie Hawkins dances are such relics, with the retro implication that the girl asking the guy should be a once-a-year anomaly. Down with Sadie Hawkins! Buffy stutters, and Ben tries to make his escape, but Buffy explains, "It's me. I -- I'm not seeing anybody." Ben hurries his crushed ego away, and Buffy apologizes to his retreating back. You know how "Welcome to the Hellmouth" Buffy recognizes a vampire by his outdated outfit? Well, when I first saw Ben's outfit, I wiggled in my seat and squeaked, "Vampire! Vampire!" I guess I was wrong, but I'm still very proud of Buffy for turning down a guy in a purple wide-collared shirt, belt with enormous buckle, and brown slacks.
At the bottom of the stairs, Buffy runs into Willow, who wants to know if she's leaving. Buffy explains she plans to check with Giles about patrolling and then will head to bed, which causes Willow to chide her that she's been "all-work-and-no-play Buffy lately." Shrugging her shoulders, Buffy insists that she does have fun, but Willow contradicts her and points out her rejection of sartorially-challenged Ben. Someone throw some cold water on Willow, 'cause she has her "perky" meter turned up to ten as she encourages Buffy to "date to get into date mode," and I appreciate she's trying to help a friend, but when your great mushy high-school love turns wicked evil, reveals your defloweration to your mom, and kills one of your teachers, it seems like the perfect time to take a break from dating, you know? Which, hey, looky-there, is pretty much what Buffy tells Willow when Willow prompts her to be more "impulsive." Willow says she's "on board" with the fact that the "Angel thing went badly," but encourages Buffy that "love can be nice." From her glow and soft voice, we know she's thinking of Oz.
"Come back here," shouts a masculine voice, and we see a crying girl hurrying down a hallway at Sunnydale High. Accusing the girl of not caring anymore, the guy behind her grabs her arm and spins her around. She sobs that it doesn't matter what she feels, and he demands that she say she doesn't love him anymore. The girl insists she indeed doesn't love him, but the guy refuses to believe it. "A person doesn't just wake up one day and stop loving somebody." He pulls a gun and points it at her, insisting, "Love is forever." Um, yeah. That's the kind of attitude that charms the ladies. Charms them right down to City Court to file for a restraining order. Say, do you think this story will have strong parallels with Buffy's love life? As if Little Miss It's-All-About-Me needed any more reasons to think that it's all about her.
Buffy comes around a corner in the school and finds the guy and girl, still in their argument. The girl turns to flee, and the guy shouts after her, "Don't walk away from me, bitch!" Buffy runs towards him, and somewhere nearby the school custodian hears the racket and puts down his mop. Buffy attacks the guy and knocks the gun out of his hand while the janitor checks the girl to see if she's okay. After Buffy hauls the guy up off the ground, he stammeringly asks what happened. Buffy is outraged and yells that he "just went O.J." on his girlfriend, but the guy has no idea why he was so angry. His girlfriend backs him up, saying they weren't even fighting a few minutes ago. Buffy wants to know why the guy had a gun, but he has no idea, and the custodian, who is Bugsy from Perfect Storm in his once-per-century Hollywood appearance, looks around and says, "I don't see any gun." It's a little cool to recognize Bugsy, but I'd rather it was George Clooney or William Fichtner. ["Mmmm. Agreed. Note to Joss: Fichtner would make a fabulous vampire. Just something to think about for the fifth season..." -- Sars]
Establishing exterior shot of Sunnydale High. A guy walks by who seems to have been given Xander's skateboard and wallet chain from season one. Guess those were just languishing in the dusty depths of the costume department. Principal Snyder enters his office and closes the door. He snaps, "What would Sunnydale High do without you around to incite mayhem, chaos, and disorder?" but Buffy insists that she actually prevented the guy from killing his girlfriend. Squinting his already squinty little eyes, Snyder tells her he thinks the witnesses were "coerced," and that he's working on looking at the whole situation until he "knows exactly how this is all your fault." Snyder then exits to deal with "pathetic little no-life vegan" Billy Crandall, who has chained himself to the snack machine, but not before telling Buffy to stay put and that she "stink[s] of lies." Hee. A Sunnydale yearbook dated 1955 slides from the bookshelf behind Buffy and plops to the floor. She merely shrugs and returns it to its place, because Buffy has no interest in books -- even the kind that are mostly pictures.
In computer class, Willow dismisses the class with a little joke about "two-digit, multi-stacked conversions" and then rushes up to Giles, proud of having made her class laugh. Mopey Giles manages to stutter out a little praise and says he came to offer Willow assistance, which he graciously observes she doesn't seem to need. Willow says that Jenny Calendar left good lesson plans on her computer, and I must say, Willow is even more of a computer whiz than we ever knew if she managed to salvage anything from a hard drive that Angel burned up in "Passion." Willow mentions that she found some of Jenny's files about "paganism and magic and stuff," which I think was the start of Willow's whole Wicca thing (and the de-emphasizing of her character's intelligence and computer skills, which were the best things about her), and then shyly tells Giles that she thinks Jenny would want him to have a rose quartz she found in a drawer. Giles slowly takes the stone and, a little choked up, tells Willow that it was "very thoughtful" of her. He leaves, and Willow looks appropriately thoughtful for a moment and then turns back to her desk.
Buffy looks sleepy and bored in her history class as the instructor lectures about the New Deal. She closes her eyes and is transported to a pastel, washed-out dream land. In the pastel dream land, the girls wear circle skirts with chiffon scarves in their hair, and the instructor is now a woman. A few girls discuss the Sadie Hawkins dance, looking at a flyer that reads 1955, and then Buffy is left alone at her desk as a tall youth in a letterman's jacket approaches the teacher. It's that cutie Harrison from Popular in his great WB stepping stone to the stars. Here's the desired career path for pulchritudinous kids looking to make it on TV in Hollywood: four episodes of Undressed or one of those live-action Saturday morning shows, then a one-shot on an established WB show and voila, a lead role on a new WB drama. Because the WB always needs fresh young meat. James/Harrison and the teacher discuss a book she lent him, and as Harrison reaches out to touch the teacher's hand, Buffy and the viewing audience get the message that Harry-boy is hot for teacher. It looks like an illicit clinch is about to happen, but someone opens the door to the dream classroom, and Buffy opens her eyes in the present day. Her teacher is still lecturing and writing notes on the chalkboard, and Buffy's eyes open wide. The teacher has unintentionally written "Don't walk away from me, bitch!" in large letters, and the students start giggling. Buffy looks around, nonplused.
Buffy and Xander walk down the hall, discussing the strange events in her history class. In this shot, we finally get a good look at Buffy's outfit: fitted brown sleeveless top, tiny loincloth with a large slit, and knee-high brown suede boots. All in all, the look is trés Ayla, which reminds me of Xander's "clan of the cave Buffy" quote from "Beer Bad." Good quip -- bad episode. Sep still bears the mental scars from that recap. Bad times, bad times. Xander says the school motto is "Something weird is going on," and dismisses Buffy's dream and the chalkboard incident as "Hellmouth lite." He then opens his locker door and is violently grabbed by a huge green arm that shoots out from inside. The arm slams Xander into the lockers in its attempt to yank him in. Buffy manages to pull him loose and slams the locker shut. She and Xander, his shirt front shredded, look around at the other students in the hall and try to act nonchalant. Buffy then eases the locker back open, but there's nothing amiss to see except Xander's girly-art decorating scheme.
When Xander and Buffy enter the library, Willow jokingly asks about his shirt: "Did Cordelia win another round in the broom closet?" Buffy grunts and scratches her head, wondering if Xander is going to "make the signal" or if there are any stone-age technological advances left for her to discover. Xander says he had an encounter with a "locker monster," which Giles excitedly mishears as "Loch Ness monster." That's an episode I'd pay to see. Oh wait, I have cable -- I pay to see every episode. Still, I don't understand why syndicated crap like Relic Hunter has the money to shoot on location in Paris and Buffy doesn't even have the budget to shoot in, say, Las Vegas. They fill Giles in on the details, and he suggests "paranormal phenomena." Xander insists, "This was no wimpy chain rattler. This was 'I'm dead as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore.'" Giles replies that's a "fairly accurate definition of a poltergeist," and Xander gets a warm fuzzy. They discuss the "bad boo"; Giles lectures that a poltergeist is a slacker sort of ghost who doesn't know what it wants, or how to fix its "worldly troubles." Apparently, the way to rid yourselves of a poltergeist is to work out its issues, to which Buffy replies, "Now we're Dr. Laura for the deceased." Only not so homophobic and hypocritical, I hope. Giles thoughtfully says they need to find out who the spirit was.
School at night. Bugsy the janitor mops the floor. A teacher, Ms. Frank, exits her classroom, and she and Bugsy, obviously only vague acquaintances, share a few polite words. As she walks away, Bugsy's demeanor changes and he drops the mop. He tells her he can't disappear just because she says it's over, but she insists there's no way they can be together. She says other people would never understand and that she wants him to have a normal life. He replies he's going crazy not seeing her, and she strokes his face, but says it has to be over. She turns to leave, and Bugsy runs after her and grabs her arm. They launch into dialog matching the young couple from earlier. He tries to make her say she doesn't love him, and she does. He insists, "A person doesn't just wake up one day and stop loving somebody," and a gun magically appears in his hand. Bugsy points the gun at Ms. Frank, who backs away.
In the library, Giles hears yelling in the hall. He leaves his desk and goes to investigate, whispering, "Jenny." As Giles watches, Bugsy holds the gun on Ms. Frank and then fires. Giles hides himself in a doorway, and we see the stunned Ms. Frank grab her chest and then tumble backwards off the second-floor walkway onto the stairs below. Bugsy turns and runs, and Giles leaps out and tackles him. Bugsy drops the gun, and it skids across the floor and vanishes into a wisp of smoke. Disoriented, Bugsy demands, "What's going on?" and Giles breaks the unpleasant news to him that he just shot a woman.
A deserted mansion at night. I love the Frank Lloyd Wright Hollyhock House exterior on this place. Angelus, naturally clad in his leather pants of decadent evil, shows Spike and Dru into the garden. Dru is delighted, declaring it "fairyland," and she'd know, the eldritch bitch. Spike, in his wheelchair, snarks about the big windows and gardens having a negative effect on their health, and Angel takes a few digs at his paralyzed condition. "If you don't like it, Spike, hit the stairs and go. Take a stand, man." God, Angelus is ever so much more entertaining than Angel. He should have come back from Hell in season three as a really pissed-off Angelus. More growly jabs ensue between the vying males, and Angelus seems to win the exchange when he strokes Dru's face with a flower, causing her to quiver with delight.
The morning, Giles has gathered Buffy, Willow, and Xander at the library and is explaining his experience with Bugsy the janitor. He tells them the incident was just like the one Buffy interrupted, and that he and the police couldn't find the gun. He's certain as to what is going on, and when Xander asks for clarification, Giles says the ghost is obviously Jenny. The gang stares at him, equal parts doubtful and sympathetic. Aw, poor Giles. The gang tries to convince him that the spirit isn't Jenny, because of the gun and the specific fights the couples are having, but Giles doesn't want to hear any dissent. He says he's "clearly right."
Willow, Xander, and Buffy close themselves in the empty computer classroom, discussing Giles's strange behavior. Xander expresses confusion: "I know. He's usually Investigate-Things-From-Every-Boring-Angle Guy. Now he's I-Cling-Onto-My-One-Lame-Idea Guy. What gives?" Buffy can relate a little to Giles's pain, saying that he misses Ms. Calendar and can't think. "Just a little more fallout from my love life," she pouts. Well, she doesn't really pout. It's like pouting, only less sulky, but somehow still very self-indulgent. Bah, my vocabulary fails me in my hour of need. They decide to research killings that happened at the school, and Willow instantly pulls up a newspaper on the computer with a headline that reads, "Sunnydale High Jock Kills Lover, Self." Let's not even get into the improbability of Sunnydale High newspapers, or even city newspapers from the 1950s, being scanned and available on-line, 'kay? ["Or of their calling someone a 'jock' in the headline. Wouldn't they use the word 'athlete'?" -- Sars] Willow paraphrases the story of James and the teacher having a rumored affair that she attempted to end. After he killed her, he went into the music room and there shot himself. When Xander asks when the murder/suicide occurred, Buffy replies, "1955." A little later, she shows them a 1955 yearbook like the one she encountered in Snyder's office. She tells them of her dream featuring the teacher, Grace Newman, and the student, James Stanley. Willow confirms that James was the murderer in the news story. Buffy calls James a "sicko" for killing someone because she couldn't love him, and Xander says he was "dumb" for killing someone and himself. Willow, ever the utterly hopeless romantic, asks if the others don't feel a little sorry for the doomed lovers. Buffy feels sorry for Grace but wants James to pay for being a murderer. They decide the ghost is James, and Willow proposes finding a way to determine what the James ghost wants. Buffy snaps that she doesn't care what he wants; she just wants to stop him before anyone else gets killed.
In the cafeteria, Cordy brings her lunch tray to sit with Xander, Buffy, and Willow. She tells them she's organizing a boycott of the Sadie Hawkins dance, which she thinks is a bad idea because the girls have to ask the guys and pay for the date. Shut up, Cordy. Screams from across the cafeteria, and we see a number of students whose food is full of snakes. Piles of snakes slither everywhere, and although we hear rattles on the soundtracks, the snakes look like pretty harmless garter snakes to me. Students scream and run past the baffled Snyder.
Outside, ambulances and other emergency vehicles have gathered. Workers in yellow plastic coveralls wrangle the snakes while terrified students run in every direction. Xander and Cordy sit in the back of an ambulance, and a paramedic dresses a bite on Cordy's cheek. The Sunnydale police chief gets out his car to talk with Snyder; they're discussing a cover story for the snake incident. Chief Wiggum suggests saying that the sewers backed up, which Snyder thinks he can sell to the media. "We're on a Hellmouth. Sooner or later, people are gonna figure that out," insists Snyder, obviously way optimistic about the observational powers of Sunnydale's average resident. Chief Wiggum tells Snyder to handle the situation, and if he can't, he might have to take it up with (ominous pause) the Mayor. Snyder looks scared and says he'll handle it.
Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Cordy are gathered in Buffy's room. Willow says she's done some investigating and that she no longer wants to contact the spirit. "The only solution is the final solution," she says, but she doesn't mean nuking the school like Xander thinks. Instead, Willow wants to do an exorcism. She has a plan to "create a Mangus-tripod," with one person chanting on the balcony where Grace died and the other three chanting in locations around the school. Aw, Willow has a cute little diagram all drawn up, with gold star stickers to indicate the chanters. Supposedly, the spell will "bind" the bad spirit. Buffy decides to take the balcony position and seems ready for a showdown with James the slacker ghost.
The gang enters the school at night. As they make their way down the hall to their respective places, Buffy gives out the final directions. Willow hands out the scapulas that she's made, and Xander quips, "So we can flip the ghost over when it turns a nice golden brown?" Willow explains that a scapula, not a spatula, is a protection charm. Cordelia complains that they smell like "grandpa breath," and Willow says it's from the sulfur. Ew, Cordy's grandpa obviously needed to brush up on his oral hygiene. "Brush up," geddit? Requisite friendly bickering completed, they're ready to start when there's a loud crashing noise. One after another, the doors to the school slam shut. Ruh roh.
At the mansion, Spike and Angelus are (what else?) squabbling. Dru has a vision, and it seems she's still inflicted with that unfortunate case of full-body Tourette's. Angel needles Spike about being "special-needs boy" and makes a thinly veiled sexual innuendo in Dru's direction while nestling his head against her stomach. I don't know why Spike is so hung up on Dru these days -- he's far too good for her and it's obvious that she's very much enjoying playing her suitors off of each other. I guess that's just what you get when your girlfriend is literally a blood-sucking demon.
Willow walks cautiously along the quiet hallway off the school. As she passes a door, it's opened suddenly and she screams. Her fright causes Giles to cry out as well. Giles questions why Willow is even at the school, and when Willow deflects Giles's question back at him, he stammers that he's trying to contact Jenny. He turns to go back into the library but is stopped by a pungent odor. Willow explains that it's her scapula; Giles tells her that she's quite clever for using sulfur, and then warns her that he expects some paranormal activity and that she should seek safety.
In the girls' bathroom, Cordelia walks up to (what else?) the mirror. After setting her candle and flashlight on the shelf, she pulls the bandage off of her cheek and inspects the tiny, tiny fang wounds that look about as threatening as the red Crayola marker dots that they are.
Cut to Buffy walking down another hall. The strains of "I Only Have Eyes For You" float through the air. She walks towards the sound through a set of double doors. Further down, she sees a poster advertising the Sadie Hawkins Dance of '55. She peers through the window and sees James and Grace slow dancin'. Sigh...statutory rape is so damn romantic. ["It worked on Dawson's Creek." -- Sars]
Cafeteria. Xander. Snakes.
Willow walks up a short flight of stairs and pauses on the landing, glancing worriedly around her.
Buffy is still watching James and Grace dancing. As they sway and slowly turn to the music, Buffy sees that James's face is all green and rotted. Buffy stares back in shock, and the couple disappears.
In the bathroom, Cordelia retrieves her compact and after fumbling through her purse she looks back up in the mirror. One entire side of her face is in the early stages of Freddy Krueger disease. Heh. I have to say that the poltergeist sure knows the best way to get under Cordelia's skin.
Back to Willow. She sets her black taper on the floor, and the linoleum starts to swirl like quicksand. A green demon bit reaches up and grabs her leg, pulling her into the floor. She grabs the stair rail and starts screaming at the top of her lungs for Giles. He hears her cries and takes off running, shouting, "Where are you?" Willow loses her grip on the railing and has almost sunk completely when Giles turns the corner into the student lounge and sees her. He clambers up the stairs and grabs onto her arm and begins pulling. The pit is winning. Ever so slowly, Giles manages to free Willow, and the force of Giles's exertion cannonballs her into Giles and they tumble down the stairs.
At the balcony, Buffy decides to put on her scapula. She seems to be distracted by something in the distance, and then she has a vision of James chasing Grace into the hall. He yells at Grace to stop and she turns to face him. She tells him to calm down, but as James is shaking the gun at her, it fires. Grace's hands fly to her chest and cover the bullet wound. She pulls her hand away and gapes at the blood on her hand. James walks into the band room and puts on a record. Crying, he raises his gun to his head and pulls the trigger. Then we're back with Buffy on the balcony as rotty James grabs her and orders her to "get out!" Poor confused 'geist. If he doesn't want her there, why did he show her the yearbook? He fades, and Buffy takes a few stunned steps backwards.
Willow and Giles are still recovering on the stairs when Willow says through tears, "Giles. Jenny could never be this mean." Giles soberly admits that he doesn't think the spirit is her anymore. The clock chimes midnight, which spurs Willow to action. She grabs her candle and...
...cut to a nervous Cordelia, who stands poised with her candle and lighter. Buffy, in her position, strikes a match and lights the candle. Back on the landing, Willow struggles to light her candle. Giles crouches beside her, relieves her of the lighter, and manages to ignite the wick. Ex-smokers seem to have an affinity with lighters. Willow begins chanting, and we cut to Cordy, who lights her candle and says, "I shall totally confront and expel all evil." Cut to Xander sitting cross-legged on a table, his candle in front of him, hands clasped and eyes closed. "Out of marrow and bone..." On the balcony Buffy finishes, "Out of house and home. Never to come here again." Cut back to Willow and Giles. Nothing much seems to be happening. Don't they have to chant it more than once? In unison? Something? Cut to Buffy. A sudden breeze blows her candle out. Then Willow's. Then Xander's. Then Cordelia's. Nobody tries to re-light their candles, even though it seems obvious that if you're in the middle of an exorcism and something tries to blow out your candle, it's a safe bet that you want your damn candle to be burning strong. Anyway, Giles and Willow descend the stairs and peer down the hall. There's a faint buzzing in the air that grows louder, until at the far end of the hall a cloud of wasps or bees has formed and is headed right towards them. "Oh my God!" cries out Giles, and he and Willow break into a full sprint. They round a corner and are joined by Buffy and Cordelia. Enter Xander from the cafeteria. As the gang reaches the end of the hall, Giles tries the door, but it's still stuck. Buffy tells him to get back, and with one well-placed kick the glass shatters and the door is knocked out of its frame. They reach the curb and turn to survey the school. "Check it," says Xander. "I'd say school's out for good." The wasps have formed a buzzing barrier around the school so that nothing can get through. Giles takes off his glasses to see, uh, worse.
The gang has reconvened at Buffy's house and are taking refreshments in the living room. Giles bright-sides, "The good news is none of you girls were shot." So is it bad news that Xander wasn't shot, or does Giles just consider him one of the girls? Either way, that's not too flattering. They continue discussing James's spirit; Giles explains that he's trying to "resolve whatever issues are keeping him in limbo. Wh-wh-what exactly those are, I'm not..." "He wants forgiveness," interrupts Buffy, who is not seated in the living room with the others but rather standing off to one side with arms crossed, leaning against a wall. Giles explains that forgiveness is impossible, and Buffy snaps, "Good. He doesn't deserve it." Giles gently reproves Buffy, saying, "Forgiveness is an act of compassion, Buffy. It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it." "No," retorts Buffy ardently, "James destroyed the one person he loved the most in a moment of blind passion. And that's not something you forgive. No matter why he did what he did. And no matter if he knows now that it was wrong and selfish and stupid, it is just something he's gonna have to live with." Xander points out that, strictly speaking, James isn't living with anything these days, and Buffy storms off into the kitchen. Everyone gets that she's really talking about herself and Angel there and not James, right? Oh good. I just want to make sure everyone playing along at home can keep up.
In the kitchen, Buffy reaches into her leather jacket and pulls out a folded piece of paper. She unfolds it to reveal a flyer for the Sadie Hawkins Dance of '55. She sets the flyer on the kitchen island, and as a faint male voice says, "I need you," she takes off out the kitchen door.
Back in the living room, Willow wonders if they should go back inside the school; Giles counsels against it, saying that "the spirit is too angry, too too powerful."
Buffy stands before the school, which is still surrounded by wasps. She walks up to the entrance, and the cloud parts to let her in. The doors open for her, and after she enters the swarm closes up behind her.
Back at the Summers' house, Willow goes into the kitchen to look for Buffy, but when she sees the flyer on the counter, she immediately figures out the situation. The gang assembles outside the school to...do nothing, because they can't get past the swarm of wasps.
Inside, Buffy is walking slowly down a hallway. Near the trophy case, she turns around, and Angelus walks up behind her. "Fun fact about wasps," he begins, "they have no taste for the undead. Not that a sting would do me any damage, it's just tonight. Tonight's special. I wanted to look my best for you." Buffy quietly says, "You're the only one. The only person I can talk to." Oh, I get it. Buffy is possessed by James but Angelus doesn't know that. "Gosh, Buffy. That's really pathetic," sneers Angel. Juffy turns to face him and continues, "You can't make me disappear just because you say it's over." "Actually," says Angel menacingly while stepping closer to Juffy, "I can. In fact..." Beat. "...I just want you to be able to have some kind of normal life. We can never have that. Don't you see?" Oh, so when Angelus got close to Juffy, he got caught in the spirit's thrall as well. So Juffy and Grangel continue to play out the same scene, with Juffy eventually shooting Grangel. Juffy slowly walks to the music room, and then we see Grangel lying, uh, undead at the foot of the stairs. His eyes open suddenly. In the band room, Juffy puts on a record, and "I Only Have Eyes For You" fills the room. She looks into a mirror, and the shot changes to an over-the-shoulder angle to let us see that it's James's reflection. The camera pans from Juffy's face down to the gun clasped in her shaking hand. She starts to raise it slowly, but a hand covers hers and pushes it back down. Juffy turns to find Grangel looking at her. Grangel tells Juffy not to kill herself, but she protests. Grangel reassures her that it was an accident. Juffy tries to protest some more, but Grangel hushes her with a "shhh. I'm the one who should be sorry, James. You thought I stopped loving you. But I never did. I loved you with my last breath." Juffy sobs. My spell check suggested that I replace "Shhh" with "Shah." Thinking about how different that would make the line sound cracks me up. This scene is very sad with the reunited lovers and all, but the message that Grace loved James with her dying breath really skeeves me out. Way to glamorize illegal co-dependent homicidal love, Joss. Cutting back and forth between 1955 and the present, Grace and James kiss, as do Juffy and Grangel. They're enveloped in a bright light as the spirits of James and Grace find peace and depart. Suddenly the light is gone, and Buffy and Angel stop kissing and open their eyes. "Angel?" queries Buffy softly. Angelus growls and pushes Buffy away sharply, running from the room.
Later that evening, the gang has gathered in the library to discuss the events. Buffy is recovering in Giles's office, and he asks how she is doing. Buffy forlornly replies, "James picked me. I guess...I guess I was the one he could relate to. He was so sad." She continues, "A part of me just doesn't understand why she would forgive him." "Does it really matter?" asks Giles.
At the mansion, shirtless Angelus stands near a fountain of some sort, scrubbing himself furiously. Spike: "You might want to let up. They say when you've drawn blood, you've exfoliated." Angelus snarls that he was violated, and that Spike couldn't understand since he didn't "have this thing" in him. Drusilla: "What was it? A demon?" Angelus: "No. Love!" Ah, love. The worst of all the demons. Apparently, the only cure for the love disease is a "real vile kill." I'll have to remember that time I'm suffering from some sort of heartache. Drusilla is up for a trip to the grocery store that is the pre-dawn streets of Sunnydale and invites Spike to come along. Angelus disagrees, saying that Spike would slow them down too much, and calls over his shoulder, "Try to have fun without me." "Oh I will," says Spike, who slowly stands up from his wheelchair and kicks it viciously away. "Sooner than you think." Hey, what happened to those other people that James possessed, like Bugsy the custodian? It kinda sucks that he'll probably have to do some serious jail time for killing Ms. Frank while possessed. Poor Bugsy can't catch a break, because I guess after he serves his jail time he decides to relocate to New England to try his hand at swordfishing, and we all know how that turned out.