Now that they are seniors, the gang can leave the Sunnydale High
campus for lunch, which they do. Lunch is a picnic with Buffy,
who is longing to get back to her normal life — shopping,
hanging out, going to school, and saving the world. Maybe even
dating, as Willow points out a boy named Scott Hope, who's liked
Buffy since last year. Buffy seems reluctant. That night, there
are some new arrivals in Sunnydale: a limo pulls up to the local
Happy Burger. In the back is a black vampire named Mr. Trick,
who is positively salivating over the prospects that Sunnydale
presents, and his cloven-hoofed master who has but one thing
on his mind: killing the Slayer.
Buffy has another disturbing
dream about Angel and how she killed him to save the world. That
morning Principal Snyder is forced to readmit her to school on
the condition that she takes makeup tests and gets a psychologist
to see to her violent tendencies, and Buffy and her mother leave
his office in triumph just as the Mayor calls. Later, Willow
and Buffy go to the library, where Giles tells Buffy that he's
casting a binding spell to make sure that Acathla, the demon
Buffy killed Angel to stop, is truly bound, and he needs some
details about how she stopped the demon. Buffy provides them,
briefly, then runs off to a test as Willow accidentally reveals
her dabbling in witchcraft to Giles. That night at the Bronze,
Buffy is happy about having her life back, but is again hesitant
when Scott Hope shows up and asks her to dance. Then Cordelia
points out that the date of a striking girl on the dance floor
is a throwback to the 70's. As the girl and her date leave, Buffy
gets a feeling he's a vampire and follows them. They find the
girl kicking the snot out of her date who, as Buffy thought,
is a vampire. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say there's
a new Slayer in town," says Oz.
There
is a new Slayer, called upon the death of Kendra. Her name is
Faith, and she quickly charms Buffy's friends with her wild Slaying
stories. She even wins over Giles, who tells the two Slayers
about missing people on Sunset Ridge. Buffy says she and Faith
will patrol (after reluctantly inviting Faith to dinner with
her mom), and then her friends run off with Faith. Buffy is not
happy about the whole thing, and again gives short answers when
Giles requests details about her experience with Angel and Acathla
so he can cast the binding spell. Faith comments to Willow and
Xander about Buffy's down attitude, and then Buffy arrives to
see Faith flirting with Scott Hope.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trick just loves Sunnydale for its high-tech
possibilities, but his master is still only interested in killing
the Slayer. When Trick points out that Sunnydale already has
a Slayer, it becomes clear that they came in pursuit of Faith.
The cloven-hoofed master points to his destroyed right eye, saying,
"She's going to pay for what she did to me." That night,
even Joyce is completely taken with Faith. When Joyce suggests
that Buffy could just let Faith take over as Slayer, Buffy exasperatedly
lets slip that a new Slayer can only be called when the old one
dies. Joyce is devastated to find that Buffy died, even for a
moment, but Buffy comforts her. Later, Buffy and Faith argue
while on patrol when Faith nonchalantly mentions Angel. They're
about to fight each other when a group of vampires shows up.
Faith is just hitting one repeatedly and not staking him. Buffy
yells at her to help, but then gets pinned by a vampire who says,
"For Kakistos we live, for Kakistos you die."
Buffy manages to kill her
vamps, and the one that Faith was hitting too, but when she confronts
Faith about her behavior, Faith lightly blows it off. Buffy complains
about the incident to Giles the next day, and he promises to
call England and ask her Watcher. Then Buffy mentions Kakistos,
and Giles is disturbed. Kakistos is a very old vampire, and Buffy
guesses he followed Faith to Sunnydale. As she goes to ask Faith
about it, she runs into Scott Hope, who invites her to a Buster
Keaton film festival. Buffy brightens and accepts his offer,
but then he gives her a Claddagh ring and memories of Angel come
flooding back. She drops the ring and nearly bursts into tears,
scaring Scott off. Then Giles shows up with more bad news: Faith's
Watcher is dead. That night Buffy goes to Faith's motel room
and confronts her about Kakistos and her Watcher, and Faith angrily
says she can deal and prepares to leave again. A knock on the
door appears to be the motel manager, but when Faith opens the
door, the manager's dead... and there stand Kakistos, Trick,
and a whole bunch of vampires.
The
two Slayers run, but the vampires herd them into their hideout.
Faith reveals that she saw what Kakistos did to her Watcher and
she ran, but Buffy reassures her she did the right thing, just
as the vamps show up and a fight ensues. Buffy takes on several
vampires, but Faith freezes before Kakistos, who has her at his
mercy. Buffy intervenes, and seems to be beating Kakistos. Mr.
Trick, citing "the big picture," takes the other vampires
and leaves. When Buffy's normal-sized stake isn't enough to finish
Kakistos off, Faith comes to and shoves a massive wooden pole
through the ancient vampire, finishing him for good. The Watcher's
Council agrees to have Faith stay in Sunnydale indefinitely under
Giles' care until a new Watcher is assigned. Buffy, inspired
by how Faith dealt with her issues, reveals to Willow and Giles
what really happened the night she killed Angel —
how he was Angel again before she kissed him and killed him.
Feeling better she walks off (as Giles tells Willow the "binding
spell" was just a ruse) and takes Scott Hope up on his date
offer once and for all. That night she goes to the mansion where
she killed Angel and, placing the Claddagh ring Angel gave her
on the ground, quietly says, "Goodbye." After she leaves,
though, a bright shaft of light illuminates the ring, and a naked Angel falls out of the light to lay
on the floor, sweaty and trembling.
