Synopsis - Living Conditions

It's late-night, and Buffy's preparing to go on patrol. Kathy (Buffy's roommate) is ironing her jeans, and Buffy says she needs to go on a coffee run (don't wanna tip her off about the Slay-Gal thing, ya know). Kathy shows concern that Buffy comes and goes at all hours — and her concern is not for Buffy's sake. Dear Kathy has also implemented a "system" in which the girls are required to log in all their phone calls, and she is curious as to whether a thief has been drinking her milk. Buffy gives Kathy her best cheerleader-smile before finally escaping to meet Willow. Buffy shares some roommate-whining with Willow, but tries to have a positive outlook. Willow goes off to meet Oz and Buffy patrols alone, not knowing that a demon with glowing green eyes is watching. She hears something, turns, and finds ... Kathy! She's decided a decaf latte sounds good after all. As luck would have it, a green-glowy-eyed-demon jumps out of the bushes. Buffy pushes Kathy down into the bushes and fights the demon until he runs away. Kathy comes out, complaining about her ruined sweater, and Buffy claims that a guy tried to mug her. They head back to the dorm to clean her up, and the demon is joined by another. In demon language (with subtitles), they discuss whether "she's the one." They decide to follow her to make sure.

The next day, Buffy is hanging out at Giles' place in order to avoid Kathy. Buffy describes last night's demon so that Giles can look it up. Giles encourages Buffy to learn to tolerate Kathy's oddities (including measuring her pencils to make sure they're all exactly the same size), and Buffy agrees, resolving to be a "roommate extraordinaire."

Back at the dorm, Kathy is trying to clean her ruined sweater. Growing frustrated, she looks in Buffy's closet for a sweater. She spots Buffy's bag o' weapons, but shrugs it off.

In the dining hall later, Buffy spots Kathy and tries to hide. A cute male student catches on, and they chat. He gives her some tips on getting more than her dining-card's worth. They introduce themselves (he's Parker Abrams), and they part ways. Buffy joins Willow, Oz, and Xander at a table (we knew it wouldn't be long before Xander started to hang out on campus), and they quiz her about the "cutie-patootie," who they think has the hots for Buffy. Suddenly, Kathy appears, and invites herself to sit down with them. Buffy is perturbed by the presence of her sweater on Kathy's body, but she tries to make nice — until she spots Kathy dripping ketchup on it, and gives her the evil eye.

Later, Buffy talks on the phone with Willow about her annoyance with Kathy. Willow has a hard time hearing, since she has ended up in a loud-party-dorm room. Buffy hangs up when Kathy comes back. She goes to the fridge, where she finds that it's full of stuff labeled with Kathy's name — right down to the hard-boiled eggs. Kathy, meanwhile, closes the window. Buffy goes back and opens it. Kathy picks up a book to find gum stuck to it, but Buffy claims innocence. She settles into bed, but has a strange nightmare which involves the glowy-eyed demons, a scorpion on her belly, blood being poured down her throat, and her soul being sucked out of her. She wakes up to find Kathy glaring at her, wondering if she always makes strange noises when she sleeps.

The next day, Buffy's detailing her dream to the gang — including Giles, who's on campus presumably to visit them. Kathy arrives, and hears Giles is trying to make sense of Buffy's dream; she describes the same dream that Buffy had. The tension between the roommates is obvious, with both exhibiting that special kind of bitchiness which disguises itself as extra-sweetness. Giles is concerned that they had the same dream, and decides to research it. Buffy goes off to class, while the gang discusses Buffy's not-so-great attitude toward Kathy.

Elsewhere, the demons meet around a fire and agree that yes, "she is the one;" they prepare for the summoning of the Great One, Wayne Gretzky — er, that is, Tapparich.

Buffy heads to her dorm room, where she finds Parker chatting it up with Kathy. He came to bring Buffy plastic bags with which to steal food from the dining hall, but lost track of time with Kathy. Buffy is obviously perturbed, and after he leaves, the two get into it. In an effort to piss Kathy off, Buffy dramatically drinks Kathy's milk, making such a show out of it that she gets the milk all over herself.

Willow and Oz go to Willow's dorm, and Willow tells Oz that she can't be with Buffy and watch out for her because she has an English paper to do. Oz offers to do the job for her (hang out with Buffy, not write her paper — we all know Willow wouldn't cheat). Willow tells him she's probably out patrolling already. Upon opening the door to her loud-as-the-Bronze dorm room, Willow decides to go to the library.

On his way to find Buffy, Oz passes a girl. As they pass each other, their heads turn as they look at each other. It's an interesting look. We then see the three camouflaged guys follow in the direction of the girl. A tad later, Oz and Buffy are walking and talking. Buffy, of course, is describing her latest Kathy-incident. Getting riled up, Buffy lashes out at a bench, breaking it to pieces.

That night in her dorm, Buffy is thoroughly annoyed by Kathy's clipping of her toenails. Kathy is equally annoyed by Buffy's pencil-tapping, and blasts her Cher CD (which, by the way, she has been playing all episode long). Buffy puts on earmuffs. Kathy cracks a (labeled) hard-boiled egg. Buffy stares at her. All the while, the girls say nothing, until Buffy says that she's going to bed. She begins to have the nightmare again, and wakes up — Kathy wakes up a moment later, appearing to have also had a nightmare.

The next day, Kathy is talking to Willow in a hallway about how weird and touchy Buffy is. Buffy spots them, prompting Kathy to leave, and Buffy is incensed that Willow was talking to her. Buffy reassures Willow that she has found the solution to her roommate problem: Kathy is evil, and since Buffy fights evil, Buffy must kill Kathy. Willow wonders if Buffy is jumping the gun, and Buffy pulls out a baggy filled with Kathy's toenails, which she claims grew last night after they were cut, which is a "demon thing." Willow convinces Buffy to go to Giles first and run her plan by him. Buffy agrees, and heads there. Willow calls Giles to warn him that Buffy's gone insane. When Buffy gets to Giles' place, a net is thrown over her. Giles, Xander, and Oz tie her up, insisting that they are stopping her from making a mistake. Buffy insists that Kathy is evil, citing her growing toenails along with the facts that she irons her jeans and listens to Lite FM. Giles, who thinks the demons have possessed Buffy, leaves the boys to watch while he goes to get some supplies to cure her.

Willow goes to Buffy's dorm, suggesting that Kathy might want to give Buffy some space, by leaving the room. Kathy is "concerned" that Buffy is crazy and might hurt herself ... or push someone too far. Oz calls and updates Willow, who changes her mind and tells Kathy to stay put.

Buffy is not pleased with Oz and Xander. They realize that her ropes may not be tight enough, and carefully approach her to check them. When they get to her, she jumps up and bangs their heads together, knocking them out. Guess they weren't tight enough.

Buffy goes back to her dorm and confronts Kathy. Kathy punches Buffy, and when Buffy fights back, she manages to rip off some of Kathy's face. "I knew it," declares a triumphant Buffy. [The demons have summoned their guy, who demands, "Where is she?"] While fighting, Kathy demands that Buffy let her finish her ritual. [Giles discovers a ritual involving the forced ingestion of animal blood during slumber, and realizes Buffy's nightmares were real.] Kathy tells Buffy that her nightmares were real. Turns out she's a demon (duh) who left her dimension to become a college student, but "they" sent some guys after her. [Giles reads that the demons can disguise themselves as human, and that the other demons can recognize each other by their lack of a soul.] Kathy explains to Buffy that she's going to "borrow" her soul, so that when the demon guys come, they'll think soul-less Buffy is one of them and take her back to their dimension instead of Kathy. The "nightmares" Buffy was having were actually Kathy trying to steal her soul, but Buffy kept waking up before Kathy could get the whole thing. They fight, doing some damage to their dorm. [Xander and Oz come to as Willow arrives at Giles' place. Willow tries to call Kathy and tell her to leave before Buffy comes back, but there's no answer.] Kathy is beating Buffy across the face with the phone receiver. [Giles arrives, telling them that Buffy was right about the toenails and Kathy. Apparently Buffy's strange behavior was caused by the fact that she was missing part of her soul. Giles knows a spell to repair the damage, which he will perform with Willow while Xander and Oz go to help Buffy.] The girls continue to fight, while a dorm-neighbor (male, further proving that Buffy's dorm is co-ed) complains about the noise. [Willow and Giles perform the spell at the same time that Kathy tries to suck the rest of Buffy's soul.] Dingoes poster Buffy's soul is returned to her body, just as the demon leader arrives. The demon yells at Kathy, who complains that she is treated like a child. Xander and Oz arrive just in time to see the demon open up a portal in Buffy's floor; the bad guys leave through it.

Willow is moving in with Buffy now, putting up a Dingoes Ate My Baby poster. Buffy is talking about how glad she is that it was Kathy's ritual making her "no-fun Buffy," when Willow spots half of a sandwich. She bites into it, and doesn't notice the evil eye that Buffy gives her.