Overall Rating: 7.75 Matt: 7.0 Eric: 8.5 Written by: Dana Reston Directed by: Stephen Cragg Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles. Guest stars : Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers, Elizabeth Anne Allen as Amy Madison, Robin Riker as Catherine Madison, Jim Doughan as Mr. Pole, Nicole Prescott as Lishanne, Amanda Wilmshurst as the Senior Cheerleader, William Monaghan as Dr. Gregory. The episode starts out in the school library with Giles in an outraged huff about something. Then we see Buffy in cheerleading miniskirt and pom-poms. She tells Giles being the Slayer doesn¹t mean she can¹t have a life. She stands by her decision to try out for the cheerleading squad. In the gym, as Xander marvels at the stretchiness of the aspiring cheerleaders, Willow encounters her friend Amy, who is trying out as well because her mother was a former cheerleading champion. Things turn strange when during the first girl¹s audition, her hands catch on fire. Buffy jumps on her and puts the flames out. No one has any idea what is going on though and the try-out goes on. The results place Cordelia on the squad, Buffy as first alternate, and Amy as third alternate. That night, we see a pair of hands dangling a «Cordelia» doll above a boiling potŠ The next day, while taking her driver¹s class, an obviously unwell Cordelia crashes the car into a fence, stumbles out and almost gets run over by a truck. Buffy tackles her out of the way, and finds that Cordelia has gone blind... In biology class, another member of the cheerleading squad suddenly panics as her mouth disappears, leaving her unable to speak. In the library Giles and the Scoobies come to the conclusion that witchcraft is being used, and that Amy may be the culprit. They devise a test to acertain whether Amy has indeed performed a spell recently; when the test turns out positive, Amy realizes that they are on to her. That night, she casts a spell on BuffyŠ The next day, Buffy is acting overly cheerful, as if she was drunk. At cheer practice, she throws the captain across the gym and is kicked off the squad, which clears the way for Amy to take her place. Xander and Willow rescue a definitely delirious Buffy from doing any more damage, but she faints in their arms. When she awakens, in the school library, Giles has discovered that the spell cast by Amy is causing Buffy¹s lifeforce to slowly ebb. Giles and Buffy go over to Amy's house to find a spell to stop her. When they get there, Buffy realizes that the real Amy is trapped in her mother¹s body, while her mother is in Amy¹s body, trying to relive her cheerleading glory days. Giles finds out how to reverse the body-switching spell and they hurry back to the school lab to brew the potion. At the basketball game, Catherine-in-Amy has body-switching flashes and realizes what is happening. She storms out to the lab, but the reversing spell works just as she enters. Buffy demonstrates to Catherine that she feels better by hurling her across the room. Catherine retaliates by starting a spell that will send Buffy to hell, but Buffy deflects the spell back to the witch with a mirro. The next day, as Buffy and a recovering Amy pass by the glass display case in the school corridor containing a trophy honouring Catherine the Great, a close-up shows us that the trophy¹s eyes are darting back and forthŠ Summary by OttsFiveByFive.