Overall Rating: 6.95 Matt: 6.8 Eric: 7.1 Written & Directed by : Joss Whedon Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase, Seth Green as Oz, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles. Main guest stars : Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers, Julia Lee as Lily, Carlos Jacott as Ken, Mary-Pat Green as the Nurse, Chad Todhunter as Ricky, Larry Bagby III as Larry, Skip Stellrecht as Agent Manetti. Original broadcast date : September 29, 1998 In a cemetery, a vampire crawls out of a grave, to meet a female figure standing over him. It¹s Willow, who taunts him in Buffy-fashion. As he escapes, Oz and Xander try to dust him, without luck. As they lament the absence of the Slayer, Willow wonders where Buffy is and what she¹s doingŠ Buffy is walking on a sunny beach, the wind in her hair. Angel comes up behind her and promises he¹ll never leave, even if she kills him. The alarm clock rings, and Buffy wakes up in her tiny apartment in a dumpy neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The next day, as school starts, Willow is disappointed to learn that Oz is repeating 12th grade, since he didn¹t go to summer school. As for Giles, he continues to try finding Buffy, following various leads that never pan out. Xander and Cordy, are both antsy about seeing each other again, but seem uptight and uneasy when they finally stumble into each other. In L.A., Buffy works as a waitress in a diner, under the fake name "Anne". She seems submissive and rather broken. She doesn¹t even react when a couple of truckers sexually harass her. Waiting on a couple of homeless teens very much in love, Buffy suddenly recognizes the girl, as vampire-worshipper Chanterelle. Uneasy, Buffy claims to not be feeling well and leaves the diner. Buffy leaves the diner. In Sunnydale, Joyce Summers is doing some cleaning when there is a knock on the door. It¹s Giles, who tells her his latest lead didn¹t pan out. She tells him that she¹s afraid to leave the house in case Buffy calls or shows up. As he tries to comfort her, saying she mustn¹t blame herself, she shocks him by saying she blames him for taking her daughter away from him. Buffy is roaming the streets of Los Angeles, encountering pathetic, broken youths, looking very lost herself. At the Bronze, Xander, Willow and Oz are lazily listening to music and sharing ways of improving their slaying techniques. Xander suggests they use bait...Cordelia. That night, Lily calls after Buffy in the street. They discuss their previous lives, and Lily suggests that they go to a rave. Buffy says she just wants to be alone, then offers to give Lily the money to go and have fun. Right then, a confused old man bumps into them, then goes into the street and stops in front of an oncoming car. Buffy runs and pushes him out of the way, then gets hit herself. People gather and try to suggest calling an ambulance, but she gets scared and rushes away. She runs into Ken, a "social worker" passing flyers advertising a group home for youths, and she knocks all his flyers to the ground. As she apologizes and helps him pick up the mess, he asks her who she¹s running away from. He tries to get her to visit the group home, but she insists she¹s fine. In Sunnydale, the Scoobies gather at the cemetery, with Cordelia wearing, at Xander¹s instruction, something "trashyŠer". Oz and Willow hide, but instead of acting "baity", Cordy goes after Xander and starts arguing with him about their relationship. As a rather bored Willow looks on, a vampire, comes up behind her and attacks her. Xander tries to dust the vampire, but ends up with the fiend on top of him. Cordelia tackles the vampire, which makes Xander¹s stake go to the right place. The vampire dusted, Cordelia and Xander are on top of one another. They exchange a passionate kiss. The next day, Lily goes to the diner and enlists a reluctant Buffy¹s help in looking for Ricky, who has disappeared. They go to the blood bank where Lily and Ricky went often because they got a bit of money for giving blood, but the nurse says she hasn't seen him. Buffy says to Lily they should split up to cover more ground, and proceeds alone to the bad part of town. She finds Ricky dead on the streets: he looks like a eighty-year old manŠ Lily doesn¹t take the news well, and takes off. She runs into Ken, who tells her Ricky¹s not dead, but is waiting for her at the group home. Meanwhile, Buffy breaks into the bood bank and starts searching through the files. When the nurse shows up, Buffy confronts her, and the woman admits that she give "them" the names of the healthy ones. At the group home, Ken is preparing Lily for a ritual cleansing in a dirty black pool. Buffy intervenes, just in time to see Lily sucked into the pool. As Ken and Buffy wrestle one another, they also tumble into the pool and fall to the ground, in another dimension. Ken reveals himself as a demon intent on making both of them work as slaves, just like Ricky and all the other youths he kidnapped. He explains that in his dimension, time goes faster so that while one day passes in the real world, a century may pass here. As a demon guard tells the new recruits that they are now without identity, and gets each of them to answer "I¹m no one" to the question "Who are you?", Buffy introduces herself as the Vampire Slayer, and fights off the demons while ordering Lily and the others to flee. However, Ken takes Lily hostage and, holding her at knifepoint, gets Buffy to stand down. While he gives Bufyf a lecture about how that fighting stint was not permitted, Lily sees an opportunity and pushes her captor over the catwalk. Buffy knocks out the last guards and makes her way with Lily to a large iron gate, which she lifts with her bare hands. As she tries to get underneath, Ken arrives and pushes her, causing her to lose her grip on the gate. The heavy iron bars impale Ken, giving Buffy an opportunity to smash his head in what she claims is an "impersonation of Gandhi". In her apartment, Buffy packs, preparing to leave. She has given her apartment and her job to Lily, who admits that she¹s not too good at taking care of herself. After assuring Lily that it gets easier with time, Buffy heads back to Sunnydale. Joyce hears a knock on the door, and goes to open it. Buffy is standing there, not saying a word. After a few silent moments, both share a heartwarming hug. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.