Buffy Season II Episode Guide: The Dark Age

While Giles researches and Buffy works out in the library, a man desperately tries to get in from the outside. He is looking for Giles, who cannot hear his shouts due to the Buffy's loud aerobics music. Suddenly, a figure approaches the man from behind. He spins around and is immediately horrified as he recognizes his old friend, Dierdre. However, Dierdre is now a shriveled corpse, and before he can do anything, she strangles him to death right outside the library. Dierdre then collapses next to the man's lifeless body and dissolves into a puddle of green goo, which slowly creeps towards the man's corpse.

The next day at school, Giles makes an appointment with Buffy to meet at the hospital later that night, for there will be a blood delivery that will surely attract vampires. Giles then returns to the library, where a detective and a couple cops are waiting for him to investigate a homicide. They bring Giles to the morgue where he identifies the body as Philip, an old friend of his from London. Giles then notices a tattoo on Philip's right arm, but denies any knowledge of it. Later that night, Buffy waits for Giles at the hospital, but he doesn't show up. The blood shipment arrives, and Buffy observes two vampires, posing as doctors, come out to take the cooler of blood. After the van leaves, they open it and start drinking from one of the bags as another vamp arrives in a car. Buffy runs out and fights the vampires, while Angel arrives to help out. After the third vampire escapes in his car, Buffy pays a visit to Giles' apartment and finds him rather unkept and preoccipied with something. After she leaves, Giles tries to contact Dierdre in London, only to find out that she recently died. Giles then walks over to his sink and rolls up his sleeves to wash his face, revealing a tattoo on his arm identical to Philip's. Back in the morgue, Philip's body comes back to life. His eyes flash a bright greenish-yellow, and he escapes.

Saturday morning, Ms. Calendar holds a tutorial for the two students who are falling behind in her computer class: Xander and Cordelia. Willow also attends to help out and earn extra credit. Buffy shows up at the class and explains her visit with Giles to Ms. Calendar. Buffy then goes to the library, where she finds Ethan Rayne snooping around. He tells her about the Mark of Eyghon, which is the tattoo that both he and Giles wear. Buffy calls Giles to tell him of Ethan's presence, but in the middle of the school, Philip crashes into the library and attacks them. While Buffy fights with Philip, Ethan tries to escape, but he is stopped short by a kick from Cordelia as the others run into the library. Buffy knocks Philip into the book cage and traps him in there as they wait for Giles. When he arrives, he immediately demands Ethan to leave town. Ethan, however, wants Giles to tell everyone else about his hidden past. Philip then breaks open the door of the book cage, knocking Ms. Calendar unconscious. After another kick from Buffy, Philip dissolves into a puddle of green goo, which makes contact with Jenny Calendar's unconscious body. Giles wakes her up and brings her back to his apartment, not noticing the greenish-yellow flash in Jenny's eyes.

At the library, Willow finds the Mark of Eyghon in a book. It appears that Eyghon is a demon capable of possessing dead or unconscious bodies. They try to call Giles and warn him, but Jenny has already ripped out his phone wire. She then attempts to seduce Giles, but he refuses to take advantage of her during such a distressing time. Jenny than transforms into Eyghon, her facial features distorting. Before Eyghon can kill Giles, Buffy busts open the door and kicks Eyghon, who then escapes through the window. Taking a moment to recover, Giles explains to Buffy that in the past, he and a few friends experimented with various types of voodoo and crafts. They conjured up the demon of Eyghon, but one of them suddenly died, and they thought Eyghon was dead. Apparently, Eyghon is still alive and bent on killing everyone who wears his mark. Buffy leaves Giles at his apartment and goes to Ethan's costume shop to protect him from Eyghon's imminent arrival. Ethan has other plans on his mind, however, and he knocks Buffy out with a wooden plank. Buffy wakes up to find herself tied to a table face-down. Against her will, Ethan tattoos her with the Mark of Eyghon, then proceeds to burn his own tattoo off with acid. Before he can get out, Eyghon comes in through the front door. Ethan's deception works, for Eyghon pushes him aside and attacks Buffy, who breaks free of her ropes just in time to roll off the table. During their battle, Giles runs into the shop and demands Eyghon to take his life instead. Before he can comply, Angel rushes into the shop and strangles Eyghon. Giles tries to stop him, but Willow holds him back, saying it's all part of her plan. Realizing that Jenny's body was in danger of being killed, Eyghon leaps out of her body and into Angel's, sending him back against the wall. Back to normal, Jenny falls to the ground, but Giles is there instantly to cradle her. The others watch as Angel's face goes through a series of transformations, his entire body convulsing. Finally, Eyghon releases one final cry of anguish before dissolving into the air. Willow and Angel explain that in order to rescue Jenny, they had to put her body in danger so Eyghon would leap into the nearest dead person, which happened to be Angel. His vampire demon then fought with Eyghon inside Angel's body, and eventually won. Giles takes Jenny home, and everyone else leaves the shop. Ethan has once again escaped.

The next morning, Giles and Jenny discuss the previous night's events. She's still disturbed about the whole experience, and when Giles moves into to hold her hand, Jenny takes a few steps back before going to her computer class. Giles realizes that it may be a long time before she ever completely forgives him and regains his trust.

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