When She Was Buffy
Part two of our Buffy guide: a look at seasons one and two.
      by Lisa Kincaid

Buffy and Angel can't resist each other any longer in "Surprise".

"Surprise"
Summary: Buffy's having her sixteenth birthday, and everybody's love lives are going surprisingly well: Oz and Willow have their first date when Willow invites the Dingoes guitarist to come with her to Buffy's surprise party, and Xander and Cordelia continue making with the secret smoochies in various closets, while Buffy and Angel are beginning to find it hard to say goodbye at the end of the night. Unfortunately for Giles, his paramour, Miss Calendar, has a secret of her own: she's visited by her uncle, a Romani gypsy, who tells her to keep Angel and Buffy away from each other. A wheelchair-bound Spike and rejuvenated Dru are in a festive mood, too, with a party for Dru now that she's regained her strength. To celebrate, they're reassembling a dismembered demon called the Judge, who's said to be indestructable, but they need all of his parts, which were scattered across the globe by an ancient army. Buffy intercepts one of the Judge's arms, which Jenny persuades Angel to take to the other side of the world so that the Judge can't be reassembled. But they lose the arm to a group of Spike's minions, and Angel and Buffy end up at his apartment, where they're unable to restrain themselves any longer and finally get some wild monkey lovin' goin' on. Of course, if there's one constant of the Buffyverse it's that sex is bad, and Angel wakes in the night, dashing outside and screaming Buffy's name. Obviously something is terribly, terribly wrong.
And the moral is: Sex is bad. By the time Joss is through with you, you will learn this well.

"Innocence"
Summary: Spike and Dru have all they need to assemble the Judge, and they do so, but it'll take Big Blue awhile to regain his strength before he can start burning the humanity out of people (and thus reducing them to dust). Meanwhile, Angel's on the street where we left him (in "Surprise"), but he's not Angel anymore -- making love to Buffy triggered a clause in the gypsy curse, resulting in Angel losing his soul. He enters Spike and Dru's lair, and is confirmed to be totally evil again when the Judge is unable to burn any humanity from him. Happy to have "daddy" back, the evil gang prepares to unleash the Judge, but Angelus wants to kill Buffy himself. Willow, meanwhile, finds Xander and Cordelia kissing, making their secret smooching much less secret, and Jenny is forced to reveal herself as a gypsy when Angelus returns to threaten the Scoobies and destroy Buffy's self-esteem. Once the Judge is up to full power, Angelus and Dru take him to the local mall to try out his powers of incineration, but Buffy's got a secret weapon: a rocket launcher stolen by Xander, using his military memories from his time as a soldier at Halloween ("Halloween"). She blows the Judge into chunks so tiny he'll never reassemble again.
And the moral is: Sex is still bad.

Oz discovers his wild side in "Phases".

"Phases"
Summary: Xander and Cordelia are making out in her car when they're interrupted by a very deadly visitor: a werewolf. The Scoobies attempt to capture the creature -- who is, after all, a human being the majority of the month -- but instead run into Cain, a hunter who wants to kill the werewolf and sell its coat. He tells Giles and Buffy that the werewolf is attracked to sexual energy, so they head to the Bronze, thinking that that's the best place for teen lust in Sunnydale. They spot the werewolf there but don't catch it, and in the morning the creature wakes in the woods, now furless and looking very much like Oz. Buffy and crew are still trying to figure out who the werewolf is, and they suspect Sunnydale High student Larry, who was recently bitten by some sort of dog; Xander goes to interrogate him, but only finds out that Larry's gay. Oz has connected the dots and found Waldo, and he's preparing to chain himself up for another night of the full moon when Willow comes calling; he changes right in front of her, and nearly kills her, but Buffy charges to the rescue with a tranquilizer gun, and they save the furry wereOz from Cain, as well. Luckily for Oz, people on the Hellmouth tend to be forgiving of strangeness, and Willow doesn't mind his wolfy side -- the experience has only served to bring them closer together.
And the moral is: In a place like Sunnydale, a dark and quiet makeout spot can only spell trouble.

"Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered"
Summary: Cordelia's feeling the pressure from her popular friends when everyone finds out she's sort-of dating geeky Xander Harris, and despite her growing affection for him, she dumps him on Valentine's Day to save face. Xander's none too happy about that, and when he notices Amy Madison using her witchy powers on a teacher, he blackmails her into performing a love spell for him: he wants to make Cordelia love him again, so that he can dump her. But Amy's spell backfires, and suddenly every woman in Sunnydale wants Xander: Jenny, Buffy, Amy, Drusilla and Harmony included. The only one who doesn't want him is Cordelia, but with all of the women in town suddenly crazy in love, they're all out to get her, too, for breaking Xander's heart, and fighting amongst each other (Amy even turns Buffy into a rat) to compete for Xander's affections. Together, Xander and Cordelia flee to Buffy's house, but there's no escape from the crazy chicks. Giles manages to break the spell just in time to avert disaster, leaving the female populace very confused, but Cordelia decides that Xander's worth the trouble, and they decide to get back together.
And the moral is: Don't use magic to mess with love. You'll only regret it later.

Mmmm, smirky and evil.

"Passion"
Summary: Though he's lost his soul, Angelus can't seem to shake the memory of Buffy, and it unnerves him that he's so preoccupied with the Slayer. So he spends his time taunting and baiting her, this time by drawing pictures of her while she sleeps. Freaked out that he was in her room, Buffy goes to Giles for help with revoking Angel's invitation. Though Jenny Calendar's still on the outs with the group because of her betrayal, she finds a copy of the original gypsy curse so that she can restore Angel's soul. Meanwhile, back at the factory, Angel's making his own fun by flirting with Dru to make Spike jealous and telling Joyce that she shagged her daughter. He discovers the hard way that his invite into Buffy's home has been revoked, and one of Dru's visions reveals that Jenny is working on re-cursing him; he goes to the school and kills the computer teacher, trashing her lab and leaving her dead body in Giles' bed. The disk with the gypsy curse tumbles between desks, unnoticed. Giles sets out on his own to kill Angel, seeking revenge for his almost-girlfriend's death, but only succeeds in burning down the factor and nearly getting himself killed before Buffy comes to his rescue.
And the moral is: Don't play with matches.

"Killed By Death"
Summary: Buffy's laid low by illness, but she keeps on with her duties, trying to patrol despite being sick. She's nearly killed by Angelus in her weakened state, but the Scoobies rush to her rescue, and she ends up having to do hard time in the hospital while she recovers from the flu. In her fevered state, Buffy sees a monster in the hospital hallways that seems to be killing the children. Giles suspects that the real culprit is one of the hospital's doctors, but when the doctor turns up dead, it seems there may be some validity to Buffy's claim. Xander stands guard outside Buffy's hospital room while she's out of action, and stands up to Angelus, who comes to pay his ex-squeeze a visit. As she recovers from her fever, Buffy can't see the creature anymore, so she re-infects herself and kicks some Kindestod ass, racking up another win for the good guys.
And the moral is: Even slayers can't escape the cold and flu season.

I only have eyes for Spike. Yum.

"I Only Have Eyes For You"
Summary: There's something rotten in the state of California just as the students of Sunnydale are preparing for their Sadie Hawkins dance. Students and teachers keep getting caught in a bizarre reenactment of a murder/suicide, a ghostly arm assaults Xander, there's a whole bunch of snakes in the cafeteria, and Buffy keeps getting thrown back into scenes from the 1950's. Giles is convinced that the ghost is his dead lover, Miss Calendar, and tries to resolve things on his own, but the haunter, it turns out, is the ghost of a former Sunnydale student who'd had an affair with his teacher; when she tried to break it off, he killed her and then shot himself. The Scoobies try to perform an exorcism to rid the school of the harmful spirit, but they're driven out by unsolid floors and a swarm of stinging wasps. Buffy returns to the school on her own, and she's follow by Angelus, who plans to try to kill her. Once inside, both are possessed by the spirits: Buffy becomes James, the student, and Angel becomes Grace, the teacher. They reenact the grisly scene, with Buffy shooting Angel; she then continues to play out the scene, preparing to shoot herself. But Angel's undead body isn't killed by the bullet wound, and he stops Buffy from committing suicide. Grace's ghost is able to forgive James for killing her, and both spirits are released to their rest, leaving Buffy and Angel lip-locked. Once he comes back to himself, Angelus flees back to the mansion where he's moved his clan, and as Angelus takes Drusilla out hunting, Spike stands from his wheelchair, secretly healed.
And the moral is: Teacher/student relationships can only end in heartache. Sometimes the heartache involves Jell-O and artificial cheese product, and that's even more tragic.

Nicholas Brendan: Magically delicious, especially when wet.

"Go Fish"
Summary: When members of the swim team start mysteriously dying, leaving only their skins behind, Xanders joins the swim team in an effort to get to the bottom of the plot. Willow, who's been filling in as a substitute teacher since Miss Calendar's death, is urged by Principal Snyder to give a swim team athlete a better grade than he deserves, and Buffy seems a little weird when she follows members of the swim team around, trying to keep more from dying. But as it turns out, the swimmers aren't really dying -- they're just evolving. Steroids given to the swimmers by the coach turn them into fish-men, and Xander fears he might be next. When Buffy uncovers the extent of the plot, the coach tosses her in with the fish-guys, but she's rescued by Xander and ends up tossing the coach in instead, and after he meets his fate, the swimmers answer the call of the wild, vanishing into the ocean.
And the moral is: Nicholas Brendon should wear less shirts.

"Becoming, Part 1"
Summary: Angelus is dreaming up another crazy scheme, this one involving an artifact recently unearthed by the Sunnydale museum. He takes some henchmen to steal the big ol' box, which is revealed as Acathla, a demon frozen in stone who, when awakened, will suck the whole world into Hell. In the Scooby camp, Jenny's disk is found, offering a way to restore Angel's soul to him, and Kendra returns with a prezzie: a sword which can be used to kick Acathla's butt. In flashbacks, we see Angel being turned into a vampire by Darla, then cursed by gypsies, and eventually found in New York by a good demon named Whistler, who guides him to Buffy. In the present, Angelus tries unsuccessfully to wake Acathla, but doesn't have all the right ingredients, so while he distracts Buffy, Drusilla goes to the library with a crew of vamps; Dru kills Kendra, and the minions capture Giles, who should know how to correctly perform the spell to wake Acathla. Buffy realizes too late that it's a trap, and races back to the school, where she finds the library in ruins and Kendra dead. The police bust in just then to see Buffy standing over the body.
And the moral is: Please, for the love of God, don't ask David Boreanaz to do an Irish accent.

Buffy and Angelus duel to the death.

"Becoming, part 2"
Summary: Buffy runs from the police, dashing to the hospital to check on her friends; Xander and Cordelia are mostly fine, Willow's in a coma, and Giles is still missing. Back at the mansion, Angelus tortures Giles, demanding the key to waking Acathla, but the Watcher won't break. Buffy heads to Giles', but doesn't find him there, cementing the fact that he's been kidnapped; what she does find is Whistler, who provides a bit of cryptic wisdom about using the sword to stop Angelus. On her way back home, Buffy's stopped by a cop, but help comes from the most unlikely source: Spike. He doesn't like playing second fiddle and holds no love for Angelus, and the two conspire to take down the big bad vamp together. They go back to her place to hash out the details, are met by Joyce, and are promptly interrupted by a vampire, which Buffy stakes right in front of her mother, forcing her to finally admit to mom that she's the Vampire Slayer. Joyce tells her daughter that if she leaves, she can never come back, but Buffy has to save her friends; she heads out into the night, to the high school, where she retrieves Kendra's sword but is spotted by Snyder, who expels her. Drusilla works a little of her wacky mojo on Giles, making him believe that Drusilla is Jenny Calendar, and the Watcher unwittingly spills the secret of how to wake Acathla: only Angel's blood will do it. Whistler tells Buffy the same thing, and she strikes out to storm the mansion as, though still in the hospital, Willow and the others begin performing the spell to re-curse Angel. Xander fails to tell Buffy that Angel could be re-cursed, and they enter the mansion together; Spike suddenly attacks Angel from behind while Buffy takes on the minions, then he's got his hands full with an angry Drusilla. Xander rescues Giles and they escape, but Angelus pulls the sword from Acathla's chest, waking the demon and opening the vortex. Spike takes Drusilla and runs while Buffy and Angelus engage in deadly swordplay, and just as Buffy's about to win, Angel suddenly collapses: his soul has been restored. But the vortex is already open, and Buffy has no choice but to send her boyfriend, soul and all, to Hell. She shares one last bittersweet moment with him, then thrusts the sword through his body, sending him into the vortex. Unable to bear the strain of all the night's events, Buffy takes off, headed on a bus to parts unknown.
And the moral is: Sucking the world into Hell isn't good for anybody.

Be sure to return in October for part three of our Buffy guide, and check out the series' fifth season premiere on September 26th on the WB!

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