Overall Rating: 8.2 Matt: 8.2 Eric: 8.2 Writer: Douglas Petrie Director : David Grossman 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, David Boreanaz as Angel. Main guest stars : Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers, Eliza Dushku as Faith, Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins III, Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. Original broadcast date : March 16, 1999 Buffy and Angel are just leaving the Sun cinema, where they saw a movie which was more arousing than the title suggested. Buffy¹s worried that they¹ll lose control ­ especially Angel, but he proves her wrong by contenting himself with kissing her. Faith shows up for patrol, interrupting the moment. As Faith and Buffy discuss her "close but no cigar" relationship with Angel, they come across a demon who is looking to sell the Books of Ascension, for 5 000 bucks. Buffy¹s not interested in the least, but Faith, after putting up an act of threatening to beat up the demon, goes back alone to City Hall and fills in the Mayor. He orders her to kill the demon and take the Books. At the library, the Gang are trying to figure out what the Ascension is. They find out that they don¹t know much ­ according to one book, it caused a whole city to disappear. In a run-down hotel, Faith finds the demon packing his things, intent on getting out of town before the Ascension, and she stops him ­ permanently. Then, looking at the blood on her hands, she looks confused. She goes to Angel and admits to him that she¹s freaking out and is upset over what she¹s become. Angel takes her in his arms, and she tries to kiss him. He draws back, but not before she manages to give him a kiss on the cheek, which Buffy sees as she walks in. At City Hall, Faith reports to the Mayor that her attempt to make Angel happy in order for him to lose his soul was unsuccessful. The Mayor decides to resort to another means of attaining the same goal ­ a painful one. At the library, Wesley and Giles have finally decided they want the Books of Ascension, and ask Buffy to go find the demon with Faith. Xander conveniently supplies an address, which he bribed form Willy the Snitch. Buffy reluctantly accepts to go check it out with Faith. Of course, when they get there, the demon is dead and the Books are gone ­ Faith puts on a good show of convincing Buffy that there¹s nothing left to find there, but Buffy seems perplexed by the brutality of the murderŠ While the Mayor cuts a deal with a strange cloaked warlock to take Angel¹s soul away by magical means, Buffy confides to Willow about Angel and Faith. Not believing that Angel would betray Buffy, Willow convinces her friend to talk to him about it. Faith goes to Angel¹s mansion and apologizes for coming on to him. Then, she splashes blood from a vial onto his shirt. The warlock finds Angel first at the mansion and apologizes for her behavior the night before, and then she pours blood onto his shirt. The warlock appears and chants a spell; Angel, caught in a column of light, screams and falls to the floor. When he gets back up, in full vamp face, he draws Faith to him and kisses her intensely before beating her up. Faith to him and they kiss before Angel starts beating her up. Then they make up and kiss again, and againŠ At the library, Willow reports that her attempt to hack into the Mayor¹s files has failed. The Scoobies, minus Xander and Buffy, leave for the Hall of Records, hoping to find some information on the Mayor there. In the Mayor¹s office, Angelus is being introduced to Wilkins by Faith. The Mayor praises the vampire, but Angelus only seems interested in playing with a letter opener. Noticing it, Wilkins invites Angelus to try and stab him with it. Angelus obliges, but the Mayor stops the object with his hand, which promptly heals. Having demonstrated his invulnerability, he asks Angelus what his plans are. The vampire answers that he plans on torturing and killing Buffy. Angelus and Faith leave for Buffy¹s house, and encounter Xander on the way there. Angelus just punches the nuisance out of the way, which, of course, freaks Xander out. When they arrive at the Summers home, Angelus compliments Joyce on her hair, and he and Faith climb upstairs to Buffy¹s room. They inform her that she has to come with them to the mansion; once there, Angelus knocks Buffy out and chains her up to the wall. Buffy wakes up and sees Faith and Angelus kissing and preparing the torture instruments. When Buffy asks Faith why she¹s doing this, the younger Slayer ragingly tells Buffy how tired she is of hearing how better Buffy is. When Buffy admits that yes, she is better, Faith hits her. Buffy taunts her, telling her that she had to tie her up to hit her, and finally promising that she¹ll stop the Mayor¹s Ascension. All worked up, an unsuspecting Faith spills the beans about the fact that the Ascension is to take place on Graduation Day. Buffy marvels at the amount of hate Faith has in her, and the rogue Slayer jokes that she¹s the world¹s best actor. "Second best", Angel corrects, revealing his reverting back to evil was all an act, as Buffy shrugs off her chains, asking Angel if he thinks they got all the information. Furious at having been had, Faith attacks Buffy until they end up with knives at each other¹s throats. But Faith suddenly decides Buffy isn¹t ready to kill her, and instead kisses her on the forehead and runs off. At the library, Giles thanks the warlock for putting on a good light show, pretending to take Angel¹s soul away. Even if Wesley is upset that Giles planned this behind his back, the Scoobies are relieved of at least knowing that Faith has crossed to the bad side. Meanwhile, the Mayor comforts Faith, telling her that he¹s the only friend she needs, and that Buffy and her friends will be dead come Ascension day. Shaken by the extremely convincing Angelus act Angel put up, Buffy goes to see him and tells him that she needs some time away from him. Angel, horrified at what he had to do to Buffy in order for their plan to work, doesn¹t argue. He just asks her, as she walks away, if she¹s still his girl. "Always", she answers. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.