Xander has bought a silver heart necklace for Cordelia, which
he plans to give her at the upcoming Valentine's Day dance at
the Bronze in an attempt to introduce some sort of legitimacy
into their "relationship." Buffy's less enthused about
the dance — in the wake of what happened with Angel, she
plans to spend the holiday vegging and pigging out with her mother.
Cordelia finds herself ostracized
by her friends, who say they know she's been seeing Xander. Xander
notices Amy, the girl whose mother was a witch who switched bodies
with her last year, apparently work some sort of witchcraft on
Miss Beakman. Ms. Calendar tries to speak to Giles in the hallway,
but he avoids her on the pretext of having to speak to Buffy,
which in fact he does have to do. It seems that Angel is given
to particularly evil acts around Valentine's Day, and Giles warns
Buffy to stay in for a few nights, to be safe. Angel is indeed
mulling over ways to "show his regard" for Buffy, and
is also paying extra-close attention to Drusilla, which really
doesn't sit well with the still wheelchair-bound Spike. For now,
he just sends Buffy a dozen roses, with a card saying "Soon."
At the dance, a well-dressed Xander gives Cordelia the heart
necklace, only to be thanked with a break-up. His pain increases
the next day, when it is apparent that everyone at school knows
that Cordy dumped him. Bitter, he blackmails Amy: He won't tell
anyone about her newfound witchcraft if she casts a love spell
on Cordelia for him as revenge.
Amy
says she needs a personal object to cast a love spell, so Xander
demands the necklace back from Cordy and the spell is cast that
night. The next day, though, Cordelia is just as snotty as ever
to Xander. Xander bitterly stalks off to the library, where to
his amazement Buffy offers comfort of a
very physical kind. Then Amy interrupts, reporting that
she thinks the spell misfired. Then she comes on to Xander,
and now he knows something has gone seriously wrong. Rushing
home, he finds Willow in his bed, wearing nothing but a flannel
shirt. She tries to seduce Xander, but he runs away. He explains
his problem to Giles, and Ms. Calendar shows up, ostensibly to
make up with Giles but then she starts drooling over Xander.
Giles drags her off, ordering Xander to stay put, which he does.
Then Buffy arrives, wearing nothing but a raincoat and begging
Xander to "open his present." When he refuses, she
gets angry, and then Amy arrives, and in a fit of jealousy Buffy
punches her. In retaliation, Amy turns Buffy into a rat.
It seems the love spell has
affected every woman in Sunnydale except Cordelia, who
is attacked by her former friends for dumping their now-beloved
Xander. While trying to catch the Buffy-rat in the library, Xander
is punched by Oz, who then helps him up and volunteers to help
catch the rat. Giles, disgusted with Xander, sends the boy home.
On the way he sees Cordelia fighting off the mob and saves her,
only to run into a second mob, led by an axe-wielding Willow.
"I'd rather see you dead than with that bitch!" Willow
sobs. The two mobs clash and in the confusion, Xander and Cordy
run off to Buffy's house. Buffy's mom lets them in, but then
starts to put the moves on Xander. Cordelia locks Joyce outside
and they run up to Buffy's room — where Angel pulls Xander
out the window.
Angel clearly plans to leave
Xander's corpse as a Valentine's Day gift for Buffy, but Drusilla
shows up and saves Xander — but she wants to make him into
a vampire! Finally the mobs show up, and Cordy drags Xander away
and down into Buffy's basement, where they barricade themselves
in. Cordelia realizes that the spell was meant for her, but just
then the mob breaks in. Oz trails the Buffy-rat down to the school's
basement. Just as the rat nears a mousetrap, and the mob has
Xander and Cordy pinned in Buffy's basement, Giles and Amy manage
to break the spell. Oz is left with a naked Buffy, and Cordelia
tries to convince the bewildered women that it was a scavenger
hunt. Although Willow won't speak to Xander, all seems to be
relatively normal in Sunnydale once again. And Cordelia stands
up to her friends, claiming Xander as her man, "no matter
how lame he is!"
