Overall Rating: 8.55 Matt: 8.6 Eric: 8.5 Writer: David Fury Director : 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, David Boreanaz as Angel. Main guest stars : Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers, Eliza Dushku as Faith, Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins III, Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder. Original broadcast date : May 4, 1999 At City Hall, The Mayor is spoiling Faith rotten with some cookies and a gift ­ a beautiful knife. She¹s happy, but he reminds her that she has to work to earn the gift ­ he instructs her to go pick up a box at the airport. Meanwhile, Buffy and Angel, fighting vampires at the cemetery, discuss their relationship. She worries that while they¹re together, she¹ll never see anything other than monsters and cemeteries; she feels that their relationship is in a rut. The next day, Joyce finds out that Buffy has been accepted at Northwestern. Buffy isn¹t very warm to the idea of leaving, but her Mom is so excited she calls family members in Illinois to tell them. Outside Sunnydale High, as Snyder goes about his new hobby, searching for drugs in a student¹s lunch box, the Scoobies discuss their future plans. Buffy mentions she also got accepted at University of California, Sunnydale, and Willow informs them that she got accepted to every college in the country, and to Oxford. As for Xander, he doesn¹t plan on going to college, but rather on travelling. Motivated by her discussion with her friends, Buffy informs Wesley and Giles of her intention to leave Sunnydale after graduation. Wesley is outraged an forbids it, saying that her slaying duties are too important. Frustrated, Buffy decides to hurry things along as far as the Mayor is concerned, and to take the fight to him. Her reasoning is that the faster she defeats him and stops the Ascension, the faster she can leave Sunnydale. That night, a small plane arrives at the airport and a man steps out, carrying a box handcuffed to his wrist. A limousine pulls up, and out comes Faith, carrying a crossbow. She kills the man, then uses her brand-new knife to sever him from the box. She climbs back into the limousine and goes back to City Hall, where Buffy spies from the bushes. After Faith steps inside the building, Buffy attacks the vampire limousine driver, forces him to tell her what¹s inside the box, and then dusts him. In the Mayor¹s office, Faith puts the box on Wilkins¹ desk, then informs him that she killed the courier. The Mayor laughs out, marvelling at her originality and sense of initiative. In the library, Buffy informs the gang about the Box of Gavrok, which is quite central to the Mayor¹s ascension. With a map of City Hall handy, they start planning a break-in to retrieve said Box, and enlist Willow¹s help in performing a spell to break down whatever magical protection fields have been put in place to guard the Box. Willow sends Xander to the Magic shop with a list of ingredients for a spell to destroy the Box. On his way to the shop, he sees Cordelia in a clothes boutique, and goes in to give her verbal taunting. However, she bests him by showing him the pile of letters from colleges she was accepted at ­ Duke, Colorado State, Columbia, etc. That night, a black van pulls up at City Hall. Buffy, Willow and Angel step out, while Wesley and Giles remain inside. Cut to the library, where Xander and Oz are preparing the spell. On the roof of City Hall, Willow pours a powder through a skylight on the Box in the conference room below. When the magical guards around the Box flare out, Willow leaves, climbing down the ladder to the ground while Angel lowers Buffy, in a harness, to the conference room. When she lifts the Box off the table, though, an alarm goes off and the rope gets stuck, stranding Buffy in the room. Vampires rush in, and Buffy and Angel fight them, running out through the front door and into the bushes as Giles and Wesley speed past with the van, creating a diversion. The Mayor is of course quite unhappy of the turn of events, but Faith cheers him up by coming in, dragging Willow and holding her knife to her throat... At the library, the gang is debating how to free Willow. Buffy proposes to arrange a trade with the Mayor, but Wesley is outraged that she would place her friend before the Box and the welfare of the whole city. They argue back and forth until Oz, who hasn¹t said a word, picks up the cauldron they were going to use for the destruction spell and smashes it against the wall. That puts an end to the discussion, as Buffy asks Giles to make the call to the Mayor. At City Hall, Willow tries to escape from the room she¹s being kept in, but one of the vampire guards decides he wants a little snack. She manages to dust him by levitating a pencil, just as he¹s about to bite her. She sneaks out of the room and into the Mayor¹s office, where she finds his ritual cabinet. On the lower shelf, she finds the Books of Ascension, and starts going through them. She¹s busy reading when Faith comes in and expresses wonder at how afraid Willow is not. The rogue Slayer pulls out a knife, but Willow buys herself time by telling Faith what a worthless waste she is, claiming the world is out to get her while at the same time rejecting Buffy¹s friendship. Faith is getting really ticked, when the Mayor interrupts and tells the two girls about Giles¹ call. At the school cafeteria, the two sides meet in the darkness for the swap. The Mayor chooses this rather peculiar moment to give Buffy and Angel a fatherly lecture on how they have no future together, how unable Angel will be to make Buffy blossom. With Angel looking silently at him, Wilkins instructs his vampires to make the trade. Faith reluctantly pushes Willow to Buffy, and just as the Box is being handed over, Snyder barges in with some security guards, convinced he¹s nabbed some drug dealers. The Mayor makes himself known, hoping to intimidate Snyder away, but one of the guards lets his curiosity get the best of him and opens the Box. A huge and nasty-looking scarab insect jumps out and kills him. More break free, attacking Buffy and the Mayor. Faith spots a last one on the wall behind Wesley and dispatches it by throwing her knife at it. The Mayor and his vampires leave, Box in hand, Faith hesitating for a moment before following. At the library, Willow is telling the gang the tale of her captivity, including her courageous lecture to Faith. Then she hands Giles a few strategic pages she ripped out of the Books of Ascension. The next day, Buffy and Willow are sitting on the lawn outside the school talking. Buffy confides to her friend that she¹s now conscious of the fact that she¹ll never be able to leave Sunnydale. Willow then announces that despite all the prestigious offers, she¹ll be going to UC Sunnydale so she can help Buffy fight evil. Buffy tells her friend how much she loves her. That night, Angel and Buffy cuddle up and talk about plans for next year. Buffy dismisses the Mayor¹s warnings, saying that they¹ll be OK. But Angel looks very pensiveŠ Summary by OttsFiveByFive.