Directed by James A. Contner ~ Written by David Fury
Buffy's worried about her powers, and talks to Giles about it while trying to throw knives at a target but missing terribly. Meanwhile, Quentin Tavers, the head Watcher is setting up a "test" for the Slayer. She is to be locked up in a building, without any powers and defeat a powerful and insane vampire--Zachary Kralick. Giles meets with the head Watcher, and tries to convince him to stop the test, but it does no good. At home, Buffy is disappointed to find that her Father can't come and take her to the ice show for her birthday. While trying to get Giles to take her to the ice show, Giles has Buffy stare into a rock where she then falls into a trance and he injects her with a muscle relaxant to take her Slayer powers away temporarily.
After Cordelia saves the day where Buffy was supposed to, Buffy really begins to worry and enlists the help of her friends to figure out what's wrong. Buffy visits Angel and he gives her a book for her birthday. She tries to sound enthusiastic about it, but loosing her powers has really begun to bother her. He tells her about how he saw her before she was the Slayer and how he loved her from the second he first saw her. Kralick has the chance to break out of his straight jacket while Blair is getting his pills and water. He then turns Blair into a vampire and when he wakes up, Kralick is completely freed from his restraints.
Giles goes to find Quentin at the Sunnydale Arms building, but instead
finds Kralick free and Hobson dead. Buffy, walking home
alone is first confronted by two men looking for a lap dance and then
Kralick. Blair chases her until Giles drives by and picks
her up. At the Summer's home, Joyce hears a noise out front and goes
to check it out where she then finds Kralick wrapped up in Buffy's
jacket. Giles tells Buffy everything that he did, and everything about the
rite of passage. Buffy is very angry and tells him she doesn't know
him anymore--that he should stay away from her or she'll kill him.
Cordelia shows up and drives Buffy home where she then finds a picture
of her mother in the hands of Kralick.
Buffy goes to the Arms building, beats Blair into unconsciousness and then is chased by Kralick until his need for his pills becomes unbearable. Buffy steals them away, and slides down a laundry shoot where she finds her mother tied up. Kralick breaks through the door looking for his pills and water. After he downs the water, he's surprised to find out that Buffy replaced his regular water with holy water. After he explodes, Buffy tries to free her mother, then Giles shows up and stakes Blair before he can hurt anyone.
Back at the library, Quentin congratulates Buffy on her accomplishment, and then Buffy tells Quentin that he better be gone by the time she gets her powers back. Quentin tells Giles that he's fired because he's grown too close with the Slayer--his relationship with her is as more of a Father than a Watcher. The next day, Buffy celebrates her birthday with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and her close friends. When Buffy, minus her strength can't open the peanut butter jar, Xander offers to help, but he can't do it either.
