Janes (a True Stan) and Nerdy Spice (a New Fan) are watching all of Buffy together and comparing notes. Warning: May contain spoilers for later episodes.

Season 3, Episode 1 “Anne”

What would Sunnydale be like without Buffy?

We get to find out in this episode, since Buffy absconded by bus at the end of season 2 after throwing Angel into hell via a giant statue called Acathla (still don’t know how to spell it), and … it’s pretty dangerous. But, the Scoobs are trying to keep it together without her. Sadly, neither their fighting nor their vampire banter is really up to snuff. Possibly because Cordelia is away on a summer vacation somewhere. When Cordelia does show up at the first day of school next week, both she and Xander are incredibly nervous and awkward with each other. But the next night, she joins the Scoobs on their vampire hunt, as “bait.” She and Xander bicker so much that the vampire manages to sneak up on Willow. The kids all try to fight him off, and just as Xander’s about to be overpowered, Cordelia rushes in and saves him, and she and Xander make out. Yay!

Meanwhile, Giles is trying to find Buffy based on various sketchy tips of possible vampire-slayer sightings. He visits Joyce to update her, and she tells him she blames him for Buffy leaving. Whoa there, Mrs. Buffy! I kinda like seeing her stand up for herself now that she knows what’s up.

Buffy herself is living as “Anne” in a sketchy big city (according to Wikipedia it’s LA, which seems… kinda close by for someone who wants to disappear!), filled with junkies and cult recruiters. In between sultry guilt-dreams about Angel, she’s working at a diner, where she has to put up with customers who slap her ass. A pair of heroin-chic young lovers who’ve just had their names tattooed on each other’s forearms, Lily and Rickie, come into the diner and Lily suddenly recognizes Buffy, so Buffy ditches her shift. But Lily finds her later and reminds Buffy who she is: she was Chanterelle from the vampire-worshipping cult that Buffy saved. She wants to be friends, but Buffy gently rebuffs her.

Meanwhile, on the streets, they keep seeing old homeless people around saying, “I’m no one.” Buffy saves one of them from oncoming traffic, and as she makes her way home, dazed, a creepy cult recruiter tries to get her to come to his “family home.” Then, coincidentally, the next morning Lily finds “Anne” and asks for her help finding Ricky, who’s been missing for a day. Buffy tries to rebuff her again, but Lily pleads, “That’s who you are…. You help people.” Moral of the story alert!

So Buffy goes to Ricky’s various haunts, such as a blood bank where you can get money and a snack for donating blood. Then she finds an old guy in some basement entryway who just apparently drank a bottle of drain cleaner. But he has Ricky’s “Lily” tattoo. Buffy tells Lily about this, and not in a particularly gentle way, let me tell you. She actually uses the phrase, “These things happen all the time.” Gee, maybe she should abandon slaying and go into grief counseling.

An upset Lily makes an easy target for the Family Home cult recruiter, who claims that Ricky is staying with him. He gets her to participate in a “cleansing” that involves a pool of black sludge that looks kind of like what Keets’s and my kitchen sink looked like during a recent plumbing disaster. Meanwhile, Buffy breaks into the blood bank to look at Ricky’s file. When the sketchy nurse threatens to call the police, she just knocks the phone out of the wall. Hee! She intimidates the nurse into telling her what she does with the kids: “I give them the names of the healthy ones,” she says.

“Them” being Family Home, where Buffy shortly arrives and dropkicks her way in just in time to see Lily get sucked into the black sludge. Buffy jumps in, and pulls the sketchy recruiter (who shortly pulls off his mask, revealing that he has a demon face that’s basically a human face with some weird red marks) with her.

Buffy and Lily try to run, but realize that they’re trapped in some kind of hellish underground factory staffed with slaves, basically. And, a hundred years pass in the factory during a single day on Earth. (This makes me dubious that they have enough Earth time to actually recruit enough factory slaves to keep this all going, but… let’s just go with it.) Now, this sounds bad, but it’s actually better than if it were the other way around, right? What if a hundred years passed on Earth for every day down there? Then if they didn’t escape basically right away, all their Earth friends would be old and they would be forgotten and declared dead and everything. I’m mainly making this point because I got confused on my first watch-through and thought that was how it worked and got very worried that everyone else was going to get old while Buffy tried to escape.

Buffy finally reclaims her identity as soon as the demon tries to make her say she’s nobody. She beats him up and leads an escape of her fellow recruits. She sends them towards the black sludge while she basically single-handedly fights off all the guards. The head demon finally uses Lily as a hostage to get Buffy to stop–but Lily shows a sudden access of spirit and pushes him off a ledge. Buffy helps the recruits escape, even lifting an iron gate with her sudden super-strength and then dropping it so it impales the head demon, who managed to get up from his fall and catch up with them. Then she smushes his head with a hammer. Yikes. Dark Buffy is dark!

As soon as the kids get out, the black pool magically tiles itself closed. Well, that’s a relief. Buffy passes her lease and her job at the diner to Lily, and returns home to a giant hug from Joyce.

—Nerdy Spice

Notes from a New Fan:

• Oz, by the way, is still around because he failed to attend summer school and didn’t pass out of his senior year. This bugs Willow, but then it kind of goes away. I guess we just needed Oz to be around for another year.
• “I’ve always been amazed by how Buffy fought, but in a way I feel like we took her punning for granted,” Xander says. It’s true, she’s preternaturally talented in many areas!
• Just because we’re panning down to see Angel grabbing Buffy’s waist during her quiet beach dreams, doesn’t mean the camera had to linger that much on her boobs! Ugh. So many other ways they could have done that.
• I wish Buffy’d kicked that customer’s ass after he grabbed hers. So disappointing!
• I’m confused. Did Xander and Cordy break up? Did we know this? Why is Cordelia worried that he met someone over the summer? (She remarks that he couldn’t meet anyone in Sunnydale but monsters, then adds worriedly, “But then again, he’s always been attracted to monsters.”) ETA: Whatever, I’m all about that reunion kiss after they stake a vampire together.
• Lily didn’t realize her previous assumed name, Chanterelle, meant mushroom. Buffy kindly comforts her that it’s an exotic mushroom. This totally reminds me of one time when Janes was like four and she decided she was going to name herself a new, pretty word she’d heard that day: Tarantula. 
• Lily tells Buffy that she hates permanence and likes to change identities a lot. Doesn’t that make it kinda weird that she tattooed her name on Rickie’s arm? I guess it’s not on her own arm, so it’s OK?
• I love when Buffy rips the phone out of the wall without even looking at the evil nurse. She’s so badass!
• And when she kicks in the door when those guys try to keep her out of Family Home!
• It’s convenient that the black pool turns back into tile just as Buffy leaves. Would’ve been awkward if that had happened fifteen seconds earlier.
• I just realized that Buffy has Ginger Spice’s exact hairdo.
  
  

Notes from a True Stan:

• Oooh I so wish that Buffy had kicked that sexual assaulter’s ass.
• I love that they bring back Chanterelle. If I could have predicted a guest star that they would bring back for another guest spot (and then a recurring role on Angel!), it would not have been Chanterelle.
• It’s cute–but also pretty weird–that Xander and Cordelia are so nervous to see each other after the summer. Weren’t they in a serious relationship for like, six months? High school relationships are weird. [Wait, so… they didn’t break up? –Nerdy Spice]
• You see Ken giving someone a flyer while Buffy’s walking down the street, way before he’s even been introduced! 
• Also, the actor who plays Ken played another overly friendly demon on Angel, and it was super confusing.
• I love how much Joss Whedon hates LA. Buffy tells Ken she’s “okay,” and Ken responds, “Then why are you here?” He literally thinks everyone who lives in LA is a hair away from joining a cult.
• Some of the images from the “LA is really dark and depressing” montage are used in the opening credits to Angel. Which is fitting, since the tone of Buffy’s scenes in LA is bleaker and more adult, almost noir, like Angel was in its first season.
• Xander laments that the Slayer-less Scooby gang is losing “half” the vamps, but like, that’s a really good record for three high school kids? Like, even just not dying is a huge achievement?
• I actually love the scene between Joyce and Giles, where she gets mad at him for “having a whole relationship with Buffy behind [her] back.” I also love that they never bring it up again.
• Buffy’s 90s color-contrast bangs are pretty cray. [We really do remark on the same stuff even when one of us has seen it a thousand times… –Nerdy Spice]
  
  
• Buffy ripping the phone off the wall and telling the nurse that she wishes she could just stay home with a tea cozy is giving me all the Jessica Jones vibes. If Buffy had come out a few years later, she might have stayed this angry and no-fucks-given for longer than just one episode. [Omg it totally reminded me of Jessica Jones too! —Nerdy Spice]
• Do they–fall into hell through a mud bath? Joss really hates LA.
• Love Lily’s eyes widening after she gently pushes Ken off the platform. Hee!
• When we see Lily on Angel, years later, she’s still using “Anne.” I love that.

Season 3, Episode 2 “Dead Man’s Party”

Buffy is back! And it is–awkward. Everyone is manically cheerful–her mom force feeds her five-course meals, her friends catch her up on their summer plans–and studiously avoids talking about the fact that she ran away for three months without so much as an email. That should go well. Also, Buffy’s mom gets an import of sinister-looking art from Nigeria. This definitely will not go well, for either the characters or the non-racist members of the audience. (At one point, Joyce actually refers to the mask on her wall as “primitive art,” as if that’s a real thing, and not a offensive/colonialist label of art from non-Western cultures.)

Anyway, Buffy quickly realizes that she can’t just jump back into her old routine. She’s still kicked out of school, and Snyder won’t let her back in, even though she was conveniently cleared of Kendra’s murder while she was gone. (How, exactly? Did they arrest Drusilla? Did Xander finally get around to telling them Buffy wasn’t even there when Kendra died? Unclear.) She tries to get back in the swing of things with her friends, but they all act skittish about hanging out with her one-on-one, and Willow just straight-up flakes on a planned shopping trip without even calling. Um, not cool! 

Meanwhile, Buffy finds a dead cat. At first, it seems to be a metaphor for how Buffy is lost or something, but then in the middle of the night, the mystical Nigerian mask glows red (ugh), and the cat comes back to life as a reanimated zombie cat. 

Also, Joyce is planning a horribly ill-advised welcome home party for Buffy. She invites everyone over for dinner, which is a bad enough idea, considering how much resentment is festering between all of them, but then the Scoobies have this nonsensical scene where they’re trying to decide whether to have an “intimate” gathering with “brie” or a “hootenanny” with lots of underage drinking. Giles, the only person with any sort of sensitivity chip this episode, suggests that Buffy might not be up to attending a rager at this juncture, but honestly, there’s a bigger issue at hand. Isn’t Joyce the one who planned this dinner? Doesn’t she get to decide whether to serve brie or not? Why on Earth would these kids think it was acceptable to turn this into a huge bash full of drunk teenagers that Joyce would then have to host? In an episode full of egregious behavior, this is wild.

So Joyce lets this happen, I guess, and the party turns into a big kegger. Buffy’s friends use this party as an opportunity to be giant jerks to her: Xander just makes out with Cordelia the whole time and doesn’t even talk to her, Willow literally pretends not to hear her when she says she wants some quality time. They’re actually the worst friends, and they’re just getting started. Buffy also overhears her mom tell her horribly perky book club friend, Pat, that things have been hard since Buffy got home, and that while she thought having Buffy home would make things better, “in some ways, it’s almost worse.” Ugh, I actually sympathize with Joyce here, and she should have an outlet for her complicated feelings, but good Lord, don’t say that with your daughter in the house!

As the mystical Nigerian mask (gah) pulses red and reanimates dead people all over town, Buffy impulsively starts packing her bags again. Willow catches her, and is understandably upset, but then loses me when she indignantly says that she “just needs [Buffy] to talk to [her].” Um, actually, Buffy needed you to talk to her, and you pretended not to hear her like a five-year-old! Then she finally starts airing her grievances: Buffy left without ever calling, and wasn’t there for her. I think she could be a little more understanding, considering what Buffy was going through, but at least she’s expressing her feelings honestly and productively.

But then, Joyce catches them with Buffy’s packed bags, and everyone’s resentments come bubbling to the surface. Joyce screams at Buffy in front of the whole party about how it felt to go months without knowing whether her daughter was alive or dead. Buffy points out that Joyce told her to leave, which isn’t exactly fair, but is probably fair from a grieving teenager’s perspective. Either way, I’m pretty sympathetic to both sides of this argument, but then Xander feels the need to speak. He self-righteously sticks up for Joyce, telling Buffy it was “selfish and stupid” for her to run away. Surprisingly, ganging up on Buffy and attacking her is not the best tactic (Willow even tries to get more shots in! What is wrong with these people??), and it turns into a knock-down drag out fight in front of everyone. Awkward.

If you haven’t noticed, I’m not particularly sympathetic to anyone in this episode aside from Buffy. (And Joyce, a little bit. And Giles, obvi, since he’s just generally a champ about all of this.) I understand that the act of running away, and especially letting everyone think you might be dead, is a selfish act, but–come on! She killed her boyfriend, and they’re all acting like she’s overreacting after a bad breakup. [Do they actually know she killed him? Or do they think he just got sucked into the demon’s mouth? -Nerdy Spice] Xander even says, “I’m sorry that your honey was a demon, but most girls don’t hop a greyhound over boy troubles.” And yes, Xander is always the worst, but I feel like the writers kind of validate that perspective, especially when they expect us to sympathize when Willow complains that Buffy wasn’t there to talk about her dating troubles. That is some crazy false equivalence! If my friend’s boyfriend died, I would give her more than three months to be a little bit self-involved.

And also, in case these people forgot, Buffy killed the man she loved to save the world, maybe a thank you is in order? Okay I’m done now.

A bunch of zombies interrupt this lovely intervention and start snapping random kids’ necks, but they also kill Pat, which is a small mercy. The gang works together to fight them off, and then Giles arrives to give a brief, perfunctory explanation of the demon contained in the mask, which has a perfunctory Nigerian name (ugh). He explains that really, really bad things will happen if one of the zombies puts on the mask and becomes the “demon incarnate,” but then Pat puts on the mask, and Buffy very easily dispenses with her, and all the zombies disappear. So, uh, letting one of the zombies put on the mask was actually a very good strategy!

Anyway, fighting off zombies bonds the kids together, and they all hug and make up. Giles looks on, relieved that they’re all dealing with their feelings. All is well in the world, except that Buffy totally shouldn’t have forgiven them so quickly and several of their classmates are dead. But I guess that is the status quo in Sunnydale.

Also, Giles quietly but convincingly threatens Principal Snyder, even pushing him against the wall at one point, and gets Buffy back into school. He is by far the MVP of this episode.

—Janes

Notes from a New Fan:

• Oh, goodie, an artifact from an ancient non-white culture that’s definitely going to turn out to be evil, probably with some kind of loose tie to a white person’s conception of what that culture might believe. Love those!
• How is this giant monster getting the best of Buffy? Seems like she’s kind of out of practice. More importantly, though, I cannot believe these kids survived a whole summer without Buffy. They are so ill equipped.
• Oh man, shirtless thirst-Xander made it into the credits? I disapprove.
• Wow, everyone gives Xander a pity laugh for making a joke whose punchline is, “Belgium.” That’s… generous.
• Oh look, the mask is mad. Maybe it’s just mad that it was looted from its original country by people looking to exoticize Nigeria.
• Miss Porter’s? Joyce wants to send Buffy to Miss Porter’s? Kind of hard for her to fight the hellmouth from Connecticut…
• I’m a cat person, but this? No. Not a fan.
  
  
• So the kids are inviting a whole bunch of people… to Mrs. Buffy’s house? And Oz’s band? Rude.
• And like, are all these people drinking alcohol out of Solo cups in the middle of Mrs. Buffy’s house?! WHAT?!
• Giles is all mad that Mrs. Buffy had a mask that raises the dead, and he rolls his eyes and goes, “Americans.” Yeah, because London definitely doesn’t have a giant museum literally filled with precious art looted from colonized cultures. Oh wait.
• I like how Mrs. Buffy mentions she had “schnapps,” like oooooh, you’re not kidding around now!
• Pat is the zombie king. Cute twist!
• Wow, Giles really reconnected with his former badassery this episode. Jumpstarting cars, threatening the principal… even if the principal is tiny!

Notes from a True Stan:

• Giles’ little scene in the kitchen, where he allows himself to fall apart for a few seconds so he doesn’t have to take it out on Buffy, is so devastating and pure. All of the other characters should take note.
• Also, he’s the only one who acts like a human being and asks Buffy how things are with her mother! #TeamGiles
• Buffy’s unimpressed reactions to Pat give me life. 
• I love that Angel died, but between dreams and fantasies, David Boreanaz didn’t miss a single episode. [Yeah, did anyone at this point actually think he wasn’t coming back? One same-season flashback episode is par for the course with major character departures. More than that, and you know they’re coming back. -Nerdy Spice]
• Joyce is hilariously clueless. “I would think they would be happy to have a… superhero. That’s not an offensive term, is it?” Oh, Joyce. Just go back to talking about your “primitive art.”
• I know that Buffy is supposed to look overdressed and out-of-place because she thought they were having a dinner party, but like, is this what she would wear to dinner with her friends and Giles?
• Buffy lashes out at a rando–“You, by the dip!”–and it’s Jonathan!
• This fight between Buffy and her friends/mom is written weirdly. Everyone’s assholery notwithstanding, they sort of make stabs at using double entendres that could apply to a whole host of normal dramas–coming out, drug addiction, dating a nonsupernatural “demon,” etc.–but then Cordelia bluntly refers to Angel becoming “Mr. Killing Spree.” Are they even trying to hide that Buffy’s the Slayer anymore?
• Oh, I wish Buffy had actually punched Xander’s lights out. She clearly wanted to, and it would have been cathartic for us all.

Season 3, Episode 3 “Faith, Hope and Trick”

So Buffy’s still not back in school, which means that the kids have to make use of their senior privileges to leave campus and meet up with her to have a picnic. The gang consciously uncouples in order to not depress Buffy further as she grieves for her lost love. The next day, though, Buffy and her mom go to a meeting with the principal that solves the whole thing. Principal Snyder pretends to set several conditions on Buffy’s return–until Mrs. Buffy calls his bluff, saying that he legally has to take her back. You go, Mrs. Buffy!

Speaking of Buffy’s newfound singlehood, a cute, rather bashful boy named Scott Hope is hoping to take Angel’s place, so to speak. Buffy really can’t handle it. For one thing, she’s still having weirdly sensual yet upsetting dreams about how she killed Angel. Willow tries to encourage her to do it, but Buffy doesn’t say yes to him until a little jealousy (more on that) nudges her. She agrees to meet him at a film festival that weekend–but then he gives her a present (creepy!) that’s shaped just like the ring Angel got her, so she freaks and runs away. Only after working through her issues about Angel (more on that later, too) does she eventually ask this guy to the film festival. It’s cute, but I’m not getting too attached: I know Buffy has one vanilla boyfriend named Riley that almost no one cares about, so this has to be a vanilla boyfriend who was such a flash in the pan that literally no one cares about. Maybe he’s going to turn out to be a monster and be defeated in the next episode. In any case, Buffy drops off her Angel ring in the temple where Angel died, to say good-bye.

There are new arrivals in town, staying stealth by driving around in a stretch limo: a very suave black gentleman and a disgusting demon with only three fat fingers on each hand. They eat a Happy Burger cashier as an amuse-bouche, but they’re really after “the Slayer.” Naturally, we think this is Buffy… at first. But then a sexy girl shows up at the Bronze and starts dancing with a guy that gives Buffy the vampire vibes. When he lures her outside, Buffy goes to rescue her, only to find her already fighting him. Faith (let’s not be coy, we all know this is Faith!) borrows Buffy’s stake and finishes the guy off.

Buffy does not handle there being another Slayer all that well, especially because Faith is super sexy, gregarious, and likes to tell stories that involve her being naked — and Xander is OF COURSE hanging off every word. Instead of thanking whatever Gods or demons there be for getting a break from Xander’s creepery, Buffy takes offense. The human heart is complex (or the human ego, anyway). Also, Faith is supposedly from Boston, but her accent is somewhere between “orphan from Annie” and “villain in a movie set in the Midwest.” It’s very embarrassing.

Anyway, we learn that Faith’s Watcher is off at a retreat for Watchers, which Giles apparently had no interest in, so she came to meet Buffy. Buffy reluctantly invites her to a pre-planned group dinner, and to patrolling that night. She’s even less pleased when she sees Faith flirting with Scott Hope.

Faith is a rousing social success at dinner, even though Buffy is radiating hostility and even though as soon as everyone leaves the room Faith starts eating out of the communal plate with her bare hands. Yeah… you know how Boston was a couple centuries behind when it came to adopting modern conveniences like… cutlery. Mrs. Buffy gets wind of the jealousy and says wisely that it’s probably good Buffy was an only child. Hee! But then she realizes Faith must have been called when Buffy momentarily died (not quite true, but I guess Buffy doesn’t want to spook her even more with the story of Kendra) and totally freaks out. Buffy awesomely comforts her by saying, “I know how to do my job.” Yeah, Buffy! What a bad-ass professional.

Perhaps slightly less professional is the squabbling the girls get into while they’re on patrol later that night. Faith thinks Buffy is too tightly wound, Buffy thinks Faith likes fighting too much. They do get a clue out of this: someone mentions “Caquistos,” which Giles recognizes as a name of a vampire so old that his hands and feet are cloven. Somehow they know that this guy showed up two days ago, which I kind of missed how they know that, but whatever: the point is that Buffy sees a connection between Faith’s arrival and Caquistos. At that point, Giles makes a call and discovers the Faith’s Watcher is actually dead, not at the Watcher retreat.

Speaking of Caquistos, the demons have figured out that there are two Slayers in town, which makes the suave one nervous, but the ugly one declares that Faith must pay for what she did to him (apparently slice him across the face and put out an eyeball, even though vampires supposedly have healing powers, but this guy doesn’t, I guess?). Just as Buffy goes to Faith’s motel room to confront her about Caquistos, the girls are cornered by Suave and Ugly, and one of their friends for good measure. Buffy pushes them back and they manage to escape out the window.  Faith freaks out because the guy killed her Watcher in front of her, but Buffy reassures her that her main job is to not die.

They leap into what they think is a hidden alcove, but then it turns out to be Caquistos’ lair. A big climactic fight ensues. Caquistos is promptly abandoned by his two friends as soon as they realize the Slayers are about to win the fight. Heh. Just as Buffy seems to be losing after all, Faith impales the guy with a giant stake that’s basically a pointy two-by-four. Convenient that he had that lying around in his own lair. Anyway, Faith is going to stay in Sunnydale and share Giles with Buffy until a new Watcher is “assigned.” Buffy seems resigned to this. And, motivated by the fact that Faith told her secret to Buffy, she finally confesses to Willow and Giles that Angel’s soul had been restored before she killed him.

Speaking of Angel, this whole episode, Giles is working on a binding spell to make sure that Acathla remains dormant. He tries to get the details of Acathla’s defeat from Buffy, who’s still being totally sketchy about it because she doesn’t want to admit what really happened. Meanwhile, Willow is way too excited about the idea of conjuring with Giles, and we learn that she’s been doing it on her own. But Giles never does figure out the spell (or maybe he was lying about there being one? I didn’t really get it). And at the very end of the episode, in the same crypt where Buffy just left his ring, a totally naked Angel suddenly drops from the ceiling.

—Nerdy Spice

Notes from a New Fan:

• Faith! I’m very excited. I love Eliza Dushku. Mainly by virtue of her character in Bring It On, honestly–I could never get into Dollhouse. [Aw I love Dollhouse! But I think I’m the only one. –Janes] 
• This is the one high school TV tradition that I actually identify with: being allowed to go off campus as a senior. (Although, we definitely didn’t wait till we were seniors.)  
• On first sight, I actually thought that this terrifying Happy Burger statue was gonna turn out to be the demon of the week.
  
• Why didn’t Faith come with a stake?!
• So… Faith is supposed to be from Boston and that’s why she says “wrassling” and “aboot”? I mean… sure.
• Of COURSE Xander immediately starts perving on Faith. Of course.
• Are there Watchers for other kind of superheroes? Otherwise, if there are only two Slayers (and until recently, only one), why have a retreat? I’m so confused.
• I don’t get what Giles means when he says there’s no spell?! [I think he was making it up to force Buffy to talk about her feelings, which is super manipulative! Just get her into Slayer therapy! –Janes] [Ahhh, thank you. Subtext is not my forte, despite all the times they talk about it on my other favorite show, Dawson’s]
• Um, that’s Angel’s butt! I didn’t know you could show butts on network TV!

Notes from a True Stan:

• Cordelia, with Xander in tow, refers to Angel as “the only guy who ever liked [Buffy].” Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. 
• Willow’s disgruntled “You’re supposed to stop me when I do that” after accidentally making an innuendo and Oz’s “I like it when you do that” is one of my favorite exchanges on this show. They are so cute.
• Love when Joyce makes fun of Snyder. She’s a good mom sometimes. 
• Also love that Giles is always disapproving of Willow practicing magic. Such good character continuity!
• Buffy goes to the Bronze wearing a floral, teacher-y midi dress and a cardigan, while Willow is in another fuzzy sweater and jeans. What kind of club is this?
• Yessssss Faith!!
• Ew, can Xander stop openly lusting after every Slayer who rolls into town? With Cordelia sitting right there?
• OMG love when Faith says that slaying makes you “hungry and horny.” Also love how many times that detail comes back. 
• Faith has a lot of super interesting stories, considering she’s only been a Slayer for about three months. But I guess she’s supposed to be an exaggerater.
• Buffy’s rage about everyone liking Faith is such an only child thing and I love it.
• It’s funny that Buffy immediately dismisses the idea of Faith “taking over for her,” when for literally generations one Slayer has been enough. A couple of seasons ago, that would have been Buffy’s first thought.
• Faith says she’s “5 by 5”! And I still don’t really understand what that means.
• I never understand the Watchers’ Council shunning Giles. He’s the only one with an active Slayer! Doesn’t that mean he’s like, the Uber Watcher? Why would they pick someone they didn’t like to handle the only Slayer? (Or one of two now, I guess.)
• Scott got Buffy a Claddagh ring? For “friendship”? Even if this wasn’t triggering for Buffy, he would still need to slow his roll.
• Faith is struggling to pay for an $18 motel room? Shouldn’t the Watchers’ Council be giving her a stipend so she can focus on um, slaying? What does the Watchers’ Council do exactly?
• “You hungry?” “Starved.” Hee!