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| Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered | Killed by Death |
Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping, waiting, and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir. Open its jaws, and howl.
Buffy dances with Xander in the Bronze, unaware that Angel is watching her. Cordelia and Willow are there too. The group leaves together, laughing and joking among themselves. They don’t notice Angel in the shadows of the alley, killing a girl. He sees them though, and after they have passed he steps out of the shadows and follows them.
Buffy prepares to go to bed. She seems to sense something outside her window, but she doesn’t see anything when she looks through the blinds. She changes into her pyjamas, gets into bed, and turns out the lights. She doesn’t see Angel looking in her window.
Angel comes into Buffy’s room after she has gone to sleep. He sits on her bed and watches her. He gently brushes the hair away from her face.
It speaks to us, guides us. Passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have?
Buffy wakes up the next morning and finds a parchment envelope lying on her pillow. She opens it, and finds a charcoal sketch of her sleeping.
Buffy meets with Giles, Xander and Cordelia in the library. She tells them about Angel being in her room last night, and the picture he left for her.
“A visit from the Pointed-tooth Fairy,” says Xander.
“Wait,” says Cordy, “I thought vampires couldn’t come in unless you invited them in.”
“Yes, but, once you’ve invited them in, thereafter they’re always welcome,” says Giles.
“Y’know,” says Xander, “I think there may be a valuable lesson for you gals here about inviting strange men into your bedrooms.”
Cordelia is scared. She invited Angel into her car one time. That means he can get into her car at any time!
“Yep,” says Xander. “You’re doomed to having to give him and his vamp pals a lift whenever they feel like it. And those guys never chip in for gas.”
Buffy asks Giles if there is any sort of spell that will keep Angel out of her room—and will work for Cordy’s car—but before he can answer they are interrupted by Jonathan and a girl coming into the library.
“Excuse me, but have you ever heard of knocking?” asks Xander.
“We’re supposed to get some books,” says Jonathan. “On Stalin.”
“Does this look like a Barnes & Noble?” asks Xander.
“This is a school library, Xander,” says Giles.
“Since when?”
Giles directs Jonathan and the girl to the historical biographies section in the third row of the stacks. They go back to look for their books. Buffy and the others quietly pick up their things and leave the library so they can continue their conversation in privacy.
Jonathan comes out of the stacks. “Hey, did you say that was the…” He sees that everyone has disappeared. “Hello?”
Buffy and the others continue their conversation as they walk out into the school courtyard. Cordelia wonders why Angel is leaving pictures, instead of slitting Buffy’s throat or something. She sees the looks everyone is giving her. “What? I’m trying to help.”
“Yes.” Giles turns back to Buffy. “It’s classic battle strategy to throw one’s opponent off his game. He’s just trying to provoke you. To taunt you, to goad you into some mishap of some sort.”
“The nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah approach to battle?” asks Xander.
“Yes, Xander, once more you’ve managed to boil a complex thought down to its simplest possible form,” says Giles.
Buffy is worried. When Angel was obsessed with Drusilla, he killed all her family. She’s afraid that Angel may come after her mother. She thinks that she has to tell her mother something, so that she will be careful. “The truth?” she asks.
Giles doesn’t think that would be a good idea, but Buffy thinks that she has to tell her something. “Angel has an all-access pass to my house, and I’m not always there when my mother is. I can’t protect her.”
Giles tells Buffy he will find a spell, but she wants to know what she should do until then.
“Until then, you and your mother are welcome to ride around with me in my car,” says Cordy.
Giles understands Buffy’s concerns, but it is imperative that she keeps a level head through all of this. She can’t let Angel get to her, no matter what he does.
“So what you’re basically saying is: ‘Just ignore him, and maybe he’ll go away?’” asks Buffy.
Giles tries to find another way of saying it, but he fails. “Yes. Precisely.”
“Hey!” says Xander. “How come Buffy doesn’t get a snotty ‘once again you boil it down to the simplest form’ thing? Watcher’s pet.”
Computer science class ends, and Miss Calendar asks Willow to stay behind. She may be in late tomorrow, and wants Willow to teach the class if she’s not there in time.
At first Willow is happy and excited by the idea, but then she starts thinking about all the things that may go wrong. “Oh, wait. What if they don’t recognise my authority? What if they try to convince me that you always let them leave class early? What if there’s a fire drill? What if there’s a fire?”
Miss Calendar tells Willow she’ll be fine, and she will try not to be too late.
Willow starts looking on the bright side again. “Will I have the power to assign detention? Or make ’em run laps?”
Buffy and Giles appear at the door. Buffy only takes about one step into Jenny’s classroom, and Giles stands outside. “Hey Will,” says Buffy.
“Hi Buffy,” says Jenny, “Rupert.”
Buffy ignores Miss Calendar, and asks Willow to join her on the way to their next class.
Willow heads out of the classroom with Buffy. “Sorry. I have to talk to her. She’s a teacher, and teachers are to be respected, even if they’re only filling in until the real teacher shows up, because otherwise chaos could ensue.”
Giles hangs behind, and once Buffy and Willow have disappeared he steps into the classroom. Jenny asks how he’s doing.
“Not so good, actually,” says Giles. “Since Angel lost his soul, he’s regained his sense of whimsy.”
Jenny doesn’t think that sounds good. Giles tells her about Angel being in Buffy’s room, and that he has to find a spell keep him out.
Jenny picks up a book off her desk and hands it to Giles. She has been doing her own research since Angel changed and she thinks there’s something in it he can use. She asks how Buffy’s doing.
“How do you think?” asks Giles.
“I know you feel betrayed,” says Jenny.
“Yes. Well, that’s one of the unpleasant side effects of betrayal.”
“Rupert, I was raised by the people that Angel hurt the most.” Jenny looks at Giles. “My duty to them was the first thing I was ever taught. I didn’t come here to hurt anyone, and I lied to you because I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn’t know what would happen. I didn’t know I was going to fall in love with you.”
Jenny stops talking, and Giles doesn’t say anything either. They look at each other for a moment. “Oh, God. Is it too late to take that back?” asks Jenny.
“Do you want to?”
“I just want to be right with you,” says Jenny. “I don’t expect more. I just want so badly to make all this up to you.”
“I understand,” says Giles. “But I’m not the one you need to make it up to.” He thanks her for the book, and leaves her classroom.
Joyce notices that Buffy isn’t eating her dinner that evening. She’s just picking at her food. She asks Buffy what’s wrong. Buffy tries to tell her it’s nothing, but Joyce knows better. “Come on. You can tell me anything. I’ve read all the parenting books. You cannot surprise me.”
“Do you remember that guy Angel?” asks Buffy.
“Angel, the, um… college boy who was tutoring you in history?”
“Right,” says Buffy, “Uh, he… I… um… We’re sort of dating. Were dating. Going through a serious off-again phase right now.”
“Don’t tell me. He’s changed,” says Joyce. “He’s not the same guy you fell for?”
“In a nutshell,” says Buffy. “Anyway, since he changed, he’s been kind of following me around. He’s having trouble letting go.”
“Buffy, has he done anything?”
“No!” says Buffy quickly. “No, it’s not like that. He’s just been hanging around. A lot. Just sending me notes, that kind of thing. I just don’t want to see him right now. I mean, if he shows up, I’ll talk to him. Just…don’t invite him in.”
Willow talks with Buffy on the phone while she prepares to go to bed. “I agree with Giles. You need to just try and not let him get to you. Angel’s only doing this to try to get you to do something stupid. I swear, men can be such jerks sometimes. Dead or alive.” She shakes a little fish food into the aquarium she has in her room.
“I just hope Giles can find a keep-out spell soon,” says Buffy. “I know I’ll sleep easier when I can…sleep easier.”
Willow puts away the fish food. “I’m sure he will. He’s like book-man.” She turns toward her bed. “Until then, try and keep happy thoughts and…” She stops talking.
“And what?” asks Buffy. “Willow? Willow?”
Willow has found a parchment envelope lying on her bed. She picks it up, opens it, and pulls at the bit of fish line sticking out of it. Strung along the line are several tropical fish. Willow drops the phone as she looks toward her aquarium, and sees that it doesn’t have any fish in it.
Willow joins Buffy in her room. They are having a sleep over. They sit together on Buffy’s bed. Buffy has garlic strung around the room, and Willow is holding a stake. Buffy tells Willow she’s sorry about her fish.
“Oh, it’s okay,” says Willow. “We hadn’t really had time to bond yet. Although for the first time I’m glad my parents didn’t let me have a puppy.”
“It’s so weird,” says Buffy. “Every time something like this happens, my first instinct is still to run to Angel. I can’t believe it’s the same person. He’s completely different from the guy that I knew.”
“Well, sort of,” says Willow, “except…you’re still the only thing he thinks about.”
Drusilla returns home from a hunt. She has brought a little something back for Spike, who’s still in his wheelchair. It’s a little white dog.
“She’s an orphan,” says Dru. “Her owner died…without a fight. Do you like her? Hmm? I brought her especially for you, to cheer you up. And I’ve named her…Sunshine!” She holds the dog up in front of Spike. “Open wide.”
Spike looks away from her.
“Come on, love,” says Dru, “You need to eat something to keep your strength up. Now, open up for Mummy.” She waves the dog in front of his face again.
Spike has had enough. He pushes his wheelchair away from her. “I won’t have you feeding me like a child, Dru!”
“Why not?” asks Angel, as he comes into the room. “She already bathes you, carries you around, and changes you like a child.”
Drusilla asks where Angel has been. It is nearly morning, and they were getting worried about him. Spike quickly disagrees, he wasn’t the least bit worried about Angel.
“You must forgive Spike,” says Dru. “He’s just a bit testy tonight. Doesn’t get out much anymore.”
Angel leans over Spike. “Well, maybe next time I’ll bring you with me, Spike. Might be handy to have you around if I ever need a really good parking space.”
“Have you forgotten that you’re a bloody guest in my bloody home?” asks Spike.
“And as a guest, if there’s anything I can do for you. Any responsibility I can assume while you’re spinning your wheels.” Angel leers at Drusilla. “Anything I’m not already doing, that is.”
Spike pushes Angel away. “That’s enough!”
Angel giggles.
Drusilla is amused by the entire situation. She thinks its sweet that her two boys are fighting over her, but then she suddenly moans in pain. Spike asks her what’s wrong.
“The air. It worries,” says Drusilla. “Someone, an old enemy is seeking help. Help to destroy our happy home!”
Jenny enters a magic shop. The proprietor greets her, speaking with an eastern European accent. He asks if he can help her find something. “Love potion? Perhaps a voodoo doll for that unfaithful—”
“I need an Orb of Thesulah,” says Jenny.
He drops the accent. “Oh, you’re in the trade. Sorry about the spiel, but around Valentine’s Day, I get a lot of tourists shopping for love potions and mystical revenge of past lovers.” He goes into the back of the shop and rummages around in the shelves. While he looks he asks her how she found out about the shop. She tells him that she learned about him from her Uncle Enyos.
“So you’re Janna then?” he asks. “Sorry to hear about your uncle. He was a good customer.” He comes out holding a small round box. He takes the lid off it revealing the crystal sphere within. “Well, there you go. One Thesulan Orb. Spirit vault for the rituals of the undead.” He tells Jenny that there isn’t much demand for them these days, but he did sell a couple as new age paperweights last year.
Jenny hands him her credit card to pay for the orb.
“By the way, you do know that the transliteration annals for the ritual of the undead were lost,” he tells her. “Without the annals, the surviving text is gibberish.”
“And without a translated text, the Orbs of Thesulah are pretty much useless,” says Jenny. “Yeah, I know.”
“Well, I only mention it because I have a strict policy of no refunds.” He replaces the lid and hands the box with the orb in it over to Jenny. She tells him that she’s working on a computer program to translate the text.
Jenny takes the lid off the box, and takes out the orb for a closer look. He asks her just what she plans to conjure with the orb if she can get the rituals translated.
“A present for a friend of mine,” says Jenny.
“Really? What are you going to give him?”
Jenny looks into the orb, and it begins to glow. “His soul.”
Buffy and Willow arrive at school and are greeted by Xander. He asks how they spent their evening. Willow tells him they had a pajama party sleep over, with weapons.
“Oh, and I don’t suppose either of you had the presence of mind to locate a camera to capture the moment?” asks Xander.
Willow has to go. She wants to arrive early at computer class so she can glare disapprovingly at the stragglers. Then she spots Miss Calendar walking across the lawn toward the school. “Oh, darn. She’s here.” She walks away from Xander and Buffy toward the school. “Five hours of lesson planning yesterday down the drain.”
Buffy looks at Miss Calendar too, and tells Xander she’ll see him later in class. She jogs across the lawn to intercept her.
Jenny stops when she sees Buffy in front of her. “Is there something that— Did you want something?”
“Look,” says Buffy. “I know you feel badly about what happened, and I just wanted to say… Good. Keep it up.”
“Don’t worry, I will.” Jenny starts to move away.
“Oh, wait,” says Buffy. “Um… He misses you. He doesn’t say anything to me, but I know he does. And I don’t want him to be lonely. I don’t want anyone to.”
“Buffy, you know that if I have a chance to make this up—”
“We’re good here,” says Buffy. “Let’s just leave it.”
Buffy finds Giles in the student lounge. Cordelia is there too. Giles asks how the night went, and Buffy tells her that there were no human fatalities.
Giles tells them that he has found a ritual to revoke a vampire’s invitation into a home. Cordelia is glad to hear it. She had to trade cars with her grandmother last night.
“The ritual’s fairly basic, actually,” says Giles. “It’s just the recitation of a few rhyming couplets, burning of moss, herbs, sprinkling of holy water…”
“All stuff I have in my house,” says Buffy.
Willow nails a cross to her bedroom wall beside the window, and then hides it behind a curtain. She tells Buffy that she hopes her dad won’t notice it.
“You really think it’ll bother him?” asks Buffy.
“Ira Rosenberg’s only daughter nailing crucifixes to her bedroom wall?” asks Willow. “I have to go over to Xander’s house just to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas every year. Although it is worthwhile to see him do the Snoopy dance.”
Cordelia is with them. She has been checking out Willow’s aquarium. She asks Willow if she knows that there are no fish in it. Willow whimpers.
Buffy tells Cordy that she can go if she wants. They have already done her car.
That sounds good to Cordy. She picks up her coat off Willow’s bed, and notices the parchment envelope that had been under it. She picks it up and hands it to Willow. “This must be for you.”
Willow opens the envelope, and carefully takes out its contents. She unfolds the parchment, and looks at it. She hands it to Buffy. “It’s for you.” It’s a sketch of Joyce Summers sleeping.
Joyce arrives home and finds Angel waiting in the front yard. She gets out of her car with a bag of groceries in her arms. Angel tells Joyce that he needs to talk with her.
Joyce recognises Angel, and tells him that she wants him to leave Buffy alone.
Angel follows Joyce as she walks to front door. He tells her that he wants her help to convince Buffy to see him again.
Joyce starts to get a little scared. While she fumbles in her purse for her keys she drops her bag of groceries.
Angel helps pick up the spilled groceries. “You don’t understand, Joyce. I’ll die without Buffy. She’ll die without me.”
“Are you threatening her?” asks Joyce.
“Please,” says Angel. “Why is she doing this to me?”
“I’m calling the police now,” says Joyce. She leaves her groceries and quickly searches for the right key for the front door.
“I haven’t been able to sleep since the night we made love,” says Angel. Joyce looks at him in surprise.
“I need her,” says Angel. “I know you understand.”
Joyce gets the door open. “Just leave us alone,” she tells Angel, and rushes inside.
Angel smiles and starts to follow Joyce. He comes to a sudden stop when he hits an invisible barrier.
Angel looks up and sees Buffy and Willow coming down the stairs. Willow is carrying a book. “‘His verbis, consensus rescissus est,’”1 she reads.
Buffy walks up to the to the door. “Sorry, Angel. I changed the locks.” She slams the door in his face.
Jenny is working late in her classroom when Giles drops by. She quickly closes the window she is working in on her computer screen before he can see what’s in it. She tells him what Buffy said to her. Giles thinks that Buffy is being a meddlesome girl.
Jenny goes on to tell Giles that she may have some news for him later that evening, but she doesn’t want to say anything yet in case she’s wrong.
Giles tells Jenny she can drop by his home.
Drusilla stops into the magic shop, along with Sunshine.
The proprietor is just closing up for the evening, and he starts to tell her to come back tomorrow, but then he sees her. He recognises who—or what—she is, and gets very frightened. He asks what she wants.
“Miss Sunshine here tells me you had a visit today,” says Drusilla. “But she worries. She wants to know what you and the mean teacher talked about.”
Jenny is still working on her computer in her classroom. She feeds the text through her program one more time. “Come on, come on!” she says to herself, and then she sees the results. “That’s it! It’s going to work! This will work.”
Jenny saves a copy of the results onto a yellow floppy disk which she sets aside, and then prints off a copy.
Jenny looks up from the paper coming out of her printer and sees Angel sitting at one of the desks in the classroom.
Jenny gasps, and jumps to her feet. “Angel! How’d you get in here?”
“I was invited,” says Angel. “The sign in front of the school: ‘Formatia trans sicere educatorum.’”
“‘Enter all ye who seek knowledge.’” says Jenny.
“What can I say?” asks Angel. “I’m a knowledge seeker.” 2
Jenny tries to tell Angel that she has good news, but he doesn’t think so. He’s heard what she’s up to.
Angel walks up to Jenny’s desk, and picks up the orb. “If memory serves, this is supposed to summon a person’s soul from the ether. Store it until it can be transferred.” The orb begins to glow as Angel looks at it. “You know what I hate most about these things?” He throws the orb against the blackboard behind Jenny, and it shatters. “They’re so damn fragile. Must be that shoddy gypsy craftsmanship, huh?”
Jenny edges toward the door behind her desk, and tries to open it, but it’s locked. Angel is between her and the other classroom door.
Angel looks at Jenny’s computer monitor. He tells her that he is truly amazed by how much the world has changed in the last two hundred years. He pushes her computer off the desk, and it smashes on the floor. The monitor starts to smolder and burn. He rips the printout of the spell off the printer, and looks at it. “‘The Ritual of Restoration.’ Wow. This, this brings back memories.” He starts to tear it up.
“Wait,” says Jenny. “That’s your—”
“My cure?” asks Angel. “No, thanks. Been there, done that, and deja vu just isn’t what it used to be. Isn’t this my lucky day? The computer and the pages.” He adds the torn up pages to the burning monitor on the floor, and warms his hands over the fire. “Looks like I get to kill two birds with one stone.” He looks at Jenny, wearing his vampire face. “And teacher makes three.”
Jenny tries to make a dash for the other door, but Angel intercepts her. He throws her against the door, breaking it open. Jenny scrambles to her feet and runs away down the hall.
“Oh, good,” says Angel. “I need to work up an appetite first.”
Jenny runs through the school corridors with Angel following her. She tries one door leading out of the school but finds it’s locked. She dashes down a cross corridor to another door leading into the school courtyard.
Jenny runs across the courtyard to another section of the school with Angel in pursuit. He’s gaining on her. She reaches a door leading back into the school, and pulls on it, but it refuses to open. She yanks on it with all her strength. It springs open, and she dashes through, and slams it shut again before Angel can get to it. She runs away down the hall. Angel yanks the door open and chases after her.
Jenny grabs a janitor’s cart, and pushes it into Angel. It knocks him off his feet, and she dashes up the stairs.
Jenny looks back to see if Angel’s following her, but he isn’t there. She looks ahead, and runs into him. He has somehow gotten in front of her.
Angel grabs onto Jenny’s head. “I’m sorry Jenny, this is where you get off.” He gives her head a sharp twist, snapping her neck. Jenny falls to the floor, dead.
Angel sighs, and smiles. “I never get tired of doing that.”
Giles stops by Buffy’s house and Willow lets him in. He’s there to pick up the spell book. He plans to go home and do his own apartment next. He asks if the ritual went well.
“Oh, yeah. It went fine,” says Willow. “Well, it went fine until Angel showed up and told Buffy’s mom that he and Buffy had, well, you know, that they had— you know. You do know, right?”
“Oh, yes,” says Giles. “Yes. Sorry.”
“Oh, good,” says Willow, “’Cause I just realized that being a librarian and all, you maybe didn’t know.”
“Oh, thank you. I got it,” says Giles.
Willow thinks that Giles would have been pleased with how well Buffy handled the situation. She totally kept her cool. She and her mother are upstairs now having a talk. Giles suggests that maybe he can intercede with Buffy’s mother on her behalf.
“Sure!” says Willow, “Like, what would you say?”
“W— Uh—”
Willow opens the door and smiles at Giles. He gets the message. “You will tell Buffy I dropped by?” he asks.
“You bet,” says Willow, and closes the door behind him.
Buffy sits on the end of her bed, while her mother paces. Buffy tries to explain away the bit with the Latin, and the herbs as just Angel being very superstitious, but that isn’t what’s on Joyce’s mind. She sits on Buffy’s desk chair. “Was he the first? No, wait.” She gets back up and starts to pace again. “I don’t want to know. I don’t think I want to.”
“Yeah,” says Buffy. “He was the first. I mean, the only.”
Joyce sits back down again. She is not thrilled with Buffy’s taste in men. Angel is obviously quite a bit older than her, and he doesn’t appear to be very stable. She had hoped that Buffy would show better judgement. Buffy tells her mother that Angel wasn’t like this before.
“Are you in love with him?” asks Joyce.
“I was.”
“Were you careful?” asks Joyce.
“Mom, this is no time—”
Joyce springs back to her feet. “Don’t ‘Mom’ me, Buffy. You don’t get to get out of this. You had sex with a boy you didn’t even see fit to tell me you were dating!”
“I made a mistake,” says Buffy.
“Yeah well, don’t just say that to shut me up,” says Joyce. “Because I think you really did.”
“I know that!” says Buffy. “I can’t tell you everything.”
“How about anything?” asks Joyce. “Buffy, you can shut me out of your life, I am pretty much used to that. But don’t expect me to ever stop caring about you, because it’s never going to happen. I love you more than anything in the world.” She sits down on the bed beside her daughter. “That would be your cue to, uh, roll your eyes and tell me I’m grossing you out.”
“You’re not,” says Buffy.
“Oh, well,” says Joyce. “I guess that was The Talk.”
“So how’d it go?” asks Buffy.
“I don’t know. It was my first.”
Giles arrives home and finds a red rose stuck in the lattice work on his door. He can hear music coming from inside his apartment: La Boheme, by Puccini. He smiles, smells the rose and goes in.
Giles calls out for Jenny. He doesn’t see her, or get any response. He does find a bottle of wine chilling in an ice bucket with a couple of glasses, and a note written on parchment that says “Upstairs.”
Giles straightens his hair, picks up the wine and the glasses, and heads upstairs. There are candles burning in glasses on the edges of the steps, and more roses are lying on the stairs.
Giles sees Jenny lying in his bed. He smiles and walks toward her. Then he notices her lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling. He drops the wine and the glasses.
The police collect Jenny’s body, and an officer asks Giles to come with him to the police station to answer a few questions. Giles agrees, but asks if he can make a phone call first.
Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love. The clarity of hatred. And the ecstasy of grief.
Angel is watching through the dining room windows from outside Buffy’s house when the phone rings. He watches Buffy pick up the phone, and start to tell Giles that the ritual went great. Then she stops talking, and listens for a bit. She’s stunned.
Willow takes the phone from Buffy and asks Giles what happened. She starts to cry when she gets the news.
Buffy leans against the wall, and sags down onto the floor while Willow cries. Joyce comes in, tries to calm Willow, and asks what’s wrong.
Angel smiles, and turns away from the house.
Cordelia and Xander pull up in her car in front of Buffy’s house, and are met by Buffy and Willow. Cordelia has strung strands of garlic all around the interior of her car, and has a cross hanging from her rear view mirror. She and Xander have just come from the police station, but Giles had already left by the time they got there. Buffy asks for a ride to Giles’.
“But don’t you think he wants to be left alone?” asks Willow.
“I’m not worrying about what he wants,” says Buffy, “I’m worried about what he’s going to do.”
Giles adds a can of gasoline to the weapons he has already packed into a bag. Angel has left him a portrait of Jenny lying in his bed.
Xander pushes open Giles’ door, and calls quietly for him. He doesn’t get an answer, so he ducks under the yellow “Crime Scene” tape that the police have strung across the door and goes inside. Willow, Cordelia and Buffy follow him in.
Xander looks around at the ice bucket, candles and roses. “I guess Giles had a big night planned tonight.”
Buffy picks up the portrait of Jenny. “Giles didn’t set this up.” She hands Xander the picture. “Angel did. This is the wrapping for the gift.” She goes upstairs to see what’s there.
“Oh, man,” says Xander. “Poor Giles.”
Willow sees the open trunk where Giles stores his weapons, and sees that they are gone. Cordy is a little surprised. She thought Giles kept all his weapons in the library. Xander explains that the library just has his everyday weapons. He keeps all the good weapons at home.
“So Giles is going to try to kill Angel then?” asks Cordy.
“Well, it’s about time somebody did,” says Xander.
“Xander!” says Willow.
“I’m sorry,” says Xander, “but let’s not forget I hated Angel long before you guys jumped on the bandwagon. So I think I deserve a little something for not saying ‘I told you so’ long before now. And if Giles wants to go after the…fiend that murdered his girlfriend, I say ‘Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!’”
Buffy is coming back down the stairs. “You’re right.”
“Thank you,” says Xander.
“There’s only one thing wrong with Giles’ little revenge scenario,” says Buffy.
“And what’s that?” asks Xander.
“It’s going to get him killed.”
Spike is not pleased to learn about what Angel has been up to. He is supposed to be killing Buffy, not leaving gag gifts in her friends’ beds. He is also not concerned when Drusilla tells him that Jenny had been planning to restore Angel’s soul. “What if she did? If you ask me, I find myself preferring the old Buffy-whipped Angelus. This new, improved one is not playing with a full sack. I love a good slaughter as much as the next bloke, but his little pranks will only leave us with one incredibly brassed-off Slayer!”
“Don’t worry, Roller Boy,” says Angel. “I’ve got everything under control.”
A molotov cocktail explodes on the table beside them, spreading flames. The vampires start to retreat away from the fire, and Angel is hit in the shoulder by an arrow.
Angel pulls the arrow out of his shoulder. Giles charges toward him with a baseball bat, which he ignites from the fire on the table. He starts pounding on Angel with his flaming bat.
“Jeez! Whatever happened to wooden stakes?” asks Angel.
Dru starts forward to help Angel, but Spike holds her back. “No fair going into the ring unless he tags you first.”
Angel recovers his equilibrium, and manages to block the next swing of Giles’ bat. He grabs Giles by the neck and lifts him off the ground. “All right, you’ve had your fun, but you know what it’s time for now?”
Buffy kicks Angel in the head. “My fun!” She slams him against the stairway and gives him another kick in the head.
Spike and Dru decide that it is time for them to be going, and she pushes his wheelchair toward the back entrance of the factory.
Buffy and Angel fight as Giles lies unconscious on the floor and the fire spreads. Angel makes a dash up the stairs to the factory catwalks, trying to retreat, but Buffy intercepts him, using some piled up crates to get up to the catwalk ahead of him. They continue to fight.
Angel is losing. He starts to laugh as Buffy pounds his head against the railing. “Are you going to let your old man just burn?”
Buffy looks down and sees that the fire is getting perilously close to Giles. Angel uses her distraction to toss her over the catwalk railing down to the factory floor. He makes his escape while Buffy helps Giles get to his feet, and out of the burning factory.
Buffy half carries Giles out of the factory. Once they’re outside he pushes her away from him. “Why did you come here?” he demands. “This wasn’t your fight!”
Buffy punches Giles in the jaw, and knocks him to the ground. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?” She starts to cry and crouches down to hug him. “You can’t leave me. I can’t do this alone.”
Giles returns to his apartment, pulls the police tape off the door, and goes inside.
It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we’d know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we’d be truly dead.
Giles lays some flowers on Jenny’s grave, and then stands beside Buffy. “In my years as Watcher, I’ve buried too many people. But Jenny was the first I’ve loved.”
Buffy looks up at him. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t kill him for you—for her—when I had the chance. I wasn’t ready. But I think I finally am.”
Willow enters the computer science class, and informs the students that Principal Snyder has asked her to fill in until a new teacher can be found. “So I’m just going to stick to the lesson plan she left.”
“I can’t hold onto the past anymore,” says Buffy. “Angel has gone. Nothing’s ever going to bring him back.”
Willow sets her books down on Jenny’s desk. They nudge a row of Jenny’s books a little toward the edge of the desk. At the end of the row is the yellow disk on which Jenny had saved the spell to restore Angel’s soul. It gets nudged off the desk. It falls unnoticed into the narrow space between the desk and a filing cabinet.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| A girl | Alley beside the Bronze | Killed by Angel |
| Four fish | Willow's bedroom | Killed by Angel |
| Jenny Calendar | Sunnydale High | Neck broken by Angel |