Overall Rating: 8.45 Matt: 8.2 Eric: 8.7 Written by: David Greenwalt Directed by: James A. Contner 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, Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder, Nancy Lenehan as Pat, Jason Hall as Devon. Original broadcast date : October 6, 1998 The episode begins with Willow having a hard time realizing she¹s a senior and can leave the school at lunchtime. Xander and Oz almost have to bodily carry her outside, to a picnic lunch a still-expelled Buffy has prepared just off the school grounds. As they eat, Willow spots Scott Hope, a boy who¹s been interested in Buffy for a while; Willow hopes he might be the key to helping Buffy get on with her life. That evening, a limousine pulls up in the drive-thru of the Happy Burger. But one of the passengers, Mr. Trick, isn¹t that interested in the food; he prefers the drive-thru employee, which he promptly drains while marvelling at Sunnydale¹s potentialŠ Buffy dreams that she¹s dancing with Angel at the Bronze. Buffy¹s claddagh ring falls to the floor, and as Angel picks it up and hols it, blood gushes from his chest. As she tries to help him, he tells her to go to hell, laughing and saying that he did. As Buffy wakes up, her mother informs her that Principal Snyder has been forced to take her back in. Both meet with the grudging principal, who gives Buffy a huge list of things to do to prove her worth, including make-up tests. After leaving Snyder¹s office, Buffy triumphantly enters the library, where Giles prods her about how she dealt with Acathla and Angel at the mansion the previous spring. He tells her he wants to do a spell to keep Acathla dormant. Willow wants to help with the spell, but Giles refuses, even though she¹s been doing magic all summer without his knowing it. At the Bronze that night, Scott Hope has worked up the courage (with a little push from Willow) to ask Buffy to dance. Buffy hesitates, and he says he'll be waiting by the dancefloor if she changes her mind. Xander and Cordy join Buffy, Willow and Oz, and Cordy remarks on an unlikely couple on the dance floor, a somewhat sensual and slutty-looking girl and a guy whose dress code and dance style seems more prehistoric. Buffy realizes that the guy is a vampire, and as the couple leaves, she makes her way through the crowd, but bumps into Scott, who thinks Buffy has changed her mind. After confusedly apologizing to Scott, Buffy arrives outside with the Scoobies in tow, and looks for the couple. Stunned, they find the girl beating the hell out of her vampire date. As Xander decides that this may be a new Slayer, the girl, without missing a beat, introduces herself as Faith, borrows Buffy¹s stake, and dusts the vampire. Later, at the bronze, Faith regales the Scoobies, especially Xander and Willow with her wild slaying stories, while an ignored and slightly jealous Buffy looks on. The next day, Faith charms Giles, actually flirting with him. Giles informs the two Slayers about missing individuals on Sunset Ridge, and suggests Buffy and Faith might patrol together that night, which Buffy grudgingly accepts. As she goes to take a make-up exam, her friends take Faith on a tour of the school. When Buffy meets with her friends, she finds Faith hitting on no other than Scott HopeŠ where she later finds, and hits on Buffy's not boyfriend Scott. That night, Faith is invited at the Summers home for dinner. Faith confides to Joyce how much she loves slaying, and Joyce tries to get Buffy to be more like Faith in her slaying. As Buffy and Joyce retreat to the kitchen and Joyce suggests that Faith take over all the slaying, Buffy spies the other Slayer hungrily cleaning her plate, then Buffy¹s, then her mom¹sŠ On patrol, the two Slayers get into an argument, mainly about Angel. When they come under attack by vampires, Buffy takes on two of them, while Faith busily pummels the other. Buffy, pinned down, calls for Faith¹s help, but the other Slayer is ragingly taking it out on her vamp; finally, Buffy manages to stake her vampires, then disposes of the one Faith is still hitting. The next day, Buffy tells Giles about what happened, and asks him to contact her Watcher. While she waits for him to come back, Scott arrives and invites her to a Buster Keaton dance. When she agrees, he offers her a present ­ a claddagh ring. Freaked out, Buffy drops the ring and almost bursts into tears, scaring Scott away. Giles arrives as if on cue to give Buffy more bad news: Faith's Watcher is dead. Buffy goes to talk to Faith about her Watcher¹s death, and about Kakistos, a name one of the vampires of the previous night had mentioned. Faith reveals that Kakistos is a vampire so old he has cloven feet. He killed her watcher, and then followed her to Sunnydale. Just then, Kakistos arrives at her door, and the two Slayers escape through the window to an old neighbouring building, which turns out to be Kakistos¹ hangout. Buffy fights some vampires, but Faith is incapacitated by terror and gets beat up by Kakistos. Buffy succeeds in staking him, only to find that he can't be killed that way. Then Faith picks up her courage, grabs a big wooden beam and drives it through him. Mercifully, he turns to dust. The next day Giles informs Buffy that Faith will be staying for a while and that he¹ll temporarily double as her Watcher. He then asks her for more details for that famous Acathla spell he¹s working on. Buffy finally decides to give away all the details, notably that at the last moment, the Willow¹s soul-restoring spell worked. After she leaves, Giles tells Willow, who is still anxious to help, that there is no spell. He did it all just to help Buffy come to terms with what happened. Buffy goes to find Scott and asks him if they can still go out. He considers, briefly and then they make plans for that night. Before they go out, Buffy pays a visit to the old mansion, and lays her claddagh ring down on the ground where she stabbed Angel. After she leaves, the mansion is plunged in darkness, the ring glows and then Angel falls down from the ceiling, naked. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.