Written by: Marti Noxon ~ Directed by: James Whitmore Jr.
After Buffy's return to Sunnydale, she has a hard time fitting in. She goes to her mom to see if she can go out and find Willow and Xander. She startles her mom who is trying to put a nail in the wall, and instead she puts the hammer through the wall. She then hangs up a very scary looking mask over the hole. After a slew of attempts to keep her at home, Buffy's mom let's her leave to find her friends.
Buffy accidentally sneaks up on Xander while he's patrolling and just as he's trying to digest the shock of her return, a vampire crashes through a large crate and attacks them. While Buffy tries to fight him, Cordy calls Xander on a walky-talky to check in with him. Eventually the rest of the gang shows up and attempts to help. Once everyone has been thrown to the ground, Buffy stakes the vampire and then watches as her friends just stare at her.
They go to Giles' place first where Buffy is reluctant to bother him, fearing his anger for her leaving. Xander indicates that he's afraid Giles will be mad by suggesting that everyone wait outside while Buffy talks to him. To their surprise, he simply welcomes her back. Inside, Buffy finds out that the charges for murder have been cleared, but she still has to get back into school. After putting off talking about her summer activities, Buffy plans to get back into her old routine of school and slaying. When she wants to get together for some quality friend time with Willow and Xander, she finds she's a third wheel in their relationships and that they both have other plans. Willow does say she'll cancel hers though.
Buffy waits for Willow but she never shows and she's forced to walk home, alone. When Buffy gets home, she meets a woman named, Pat who was watching over her mother and trying to be a good friend while Buffy was away. When inside, Buffy's mom suggests to her that she invite her friends over for dinner and then informs her that she already did. Buffy has no choice but to agree and then goes downstairs to get the "company plates." While sifting through the junk on the shelves, a dead cat falls off the top of the shelf, which she and her mother later bury. That night, in Joyce's room, the eyes of the mask start to glow. Then, the cat, now buried outside crawls out of it's dirt grave and runs away.
Meanwhile, Buffy has a very strange and incomprehensible dream. She's worried "they" will be there and Angel shows up telling her she should be scared. Then the school bell rings in her dream, while her alarm clock goes off in the real world. Her mother presents ideas of alternatives to Sunnydale High since Snyder is stuck on keeping her out of it including banning her from school grounds. Her mother opens the kitchen door and the cat they just buried comes running inside. Giles is called to come and pick it up and he takes it away to the Library to study what it might be.
While Giles and the Scooby gang study the dead but moving cat, they try to come up with ideas for Buffy's party that night. Finally, after some discussion and a majority vote against Giles, they decide to have a big party for her. At the party, Buffy is ignored by Willow who's gawking at Oz and his band, and left feeling alone while Xander attempt to converse while Cordelia is all over him. Then, she finds that her mother isn't even sure she's happy with Buffy being back since her return has made a lot of things much more difficult. Buffy solution to all this is to run away again, but she's stopped by Willow who has her own problems. Over the summer, her life got pretty complicated and she didn't have a best friend to talk to.
When Buffy's mom breaks into the conversation, Buffy decides she doesn't know what she wants and tries to get out of the house. Her mom stops her and makes a huge scene in front of a slowly dying crowd of partygoers. Everyone jumps in on the action of beating up on Buffy verbally. She refuses though to explain all that happens with Angel while trying to give good reasons as to why she had to go away. Suddenly, a group of zombies, come crashing into the house and everyone scatters. People are attacked and the Slayer and Slayerettes do everything they can to stop it. They only find that their staking technique has no effect on these monsters and they have to resort to a final solution, running away.
While all this is going on, Giles has discovered at the library that the mask in Joyce's room raises the dead and he goes to stop them. On the way, he hits a zombie and gets out of the car to check it out, thinking he hit a human. When he discovers how wrong he is, he rushes back to the car, only to find that his keys are on the pavement outside. Then, after hotwiring the car, he's off.
The gang rushes upstairs and barricades themselves in Joyce's room with Pat. As Buffy and Xander try to hold the door closed and keep the zombies out, Willow finds out that Pat is dead. A zombie breaks into the room, sending Xander flying into the wall and knocking down the mask. Buffy starts to fight the zombie but he won't go down easy. Downstairs, Cordy and Oz, who were hiding in the stair closet, come out, armed with ski poles. Giles finds them and they find out that if one of the zombies puts on the mask, it will become a monster that is worse than a zombie is.
While everyone is fending off zombies, Pat wakes up, a full zombie now and puts the mask on. She tries to eat Willow but Buffy stops her and falls out the window with Pat. While trying to avoid the hypnotizing glare of the zombie Pat, Buffy is knocked down. Back inside, Giles tells Oz to go warn Buffy that she has to go for the eyes. Just then, Pat catches both Buffy and Oz in her glare but somehow Buffy isn't affected and she puts a shovel into Pat's eyes, making her and all the zombies go away.
Everyone reunites inside and Buffy makes up with her friends and mother after she saved their lives yet again. The next day, Buffy and Willow are hanging out at a coffee shop and Willow is telling her all about the witchcraft she worked on all summer long. They then take turns calling eachother names, jokingly of course.
