Buffy Season II Episode Guide: Halloween

Two nights before Halloween, Buffy is up to her usual business: staking vampires. This time, however, a hidden vamp lurks in the bushes with a camcorder, recording the entire fight. As Buffy uses a signpost to finish off her opponent, the other vampire leaves the scene. Afterwards, Buffy heads to the Bronze to meet up with Angel, who has been waiting there quite a while. Cordelia keeps him company since she has been stood up by Devon, the lead singer of a local band. Buffy arrives late and, despite Angel's request, decides to go home early and call it a night.

The next day, Principal Snyder is forcing students to sign up for a Halloween chaperone program in which students accompany groups of children around town to go trick-or-treating. Against their will, Buffy, Xander, and Willow are each handed pens to sign up for the program. Buffy is still worried that Angel may not be as interested in her as she wants him to be, so she plots with Willow to steal one of Giles' Watcher diaries from his office in an attempt to learn more about the women of Angel's time. The plan does not execute as smoothly as they'd hoped, since Giles is present in the library, but with a lengthy diversion by Buffy, Willow is able to slip into the office behind Giles' back and snag the appropriate diary. In the restroom, Buffy and Willow find a picture of a proper noblewoman from the late 18th century, a time when Angel was still human. Cordelia then enters the bathroom, and Buffy and Willow are shocked to discover that she is still unaware of the fact that Angel is a vampire. They try to explain it to her, but Cordy believes that Buffy is just trying to keep her out of the picture.

After school, Buffy, Willow, and Xander check out Ethan's, a new costume shop in town. Xander purchases a toy gun to go along with the army fatigues he has at home. Buffy is dismayed by Willow's purchase of a ghost costume since she believes Willow needs to be more open. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Buffy spots the perfect costume: an English noblewoman dress. The store owner, Ethan, gives Buffy an irresistible price for the dress, so Buffy buys it. Elsewhere, Spike reviews the video of Buffy's fight with the vamp, trying to study her attack patterns. Drusilla forsees a great change in the near future that will affect the Slayer.

Buffy dresses up in the costume, topped off with a black wig, while Willow tries on a few clothes that Buffy suggested, which includes a maroon blouse knotted at her midriff and a leather miniskirt. Xander stops by in full army gear to accompany them to school, but by then, Willow has slipped on her ghost costume in fear of embarrasment due to her skimpy costume. That night, as the volunteers take the children around town to trick-or-treat, Ethan performs a spell with drastic results: the transformation of people into their costumes. While the children turn into various monsters and ghouls, Xander becomes a soldier wielding an actual gun, Willow dies and emerges from her body as an intangible ghost, and Buffy loses all her Slayer powers and becomes a helpless noblewoman. Since Willow is the only one of the three to retain her memory of who she really is, she leads the other two into Buffy's house to hide from the chaos on the streets. Xander sees Cordelia being chased down the street, so he brings her inside the house. Willow tries to explain to her what's going on, only to realize that Cordelia was unaffected by her costume. Willow then leaves to find Giles at the library. Angel then arrives, but he's also confused by the transformations. His vampire face frightens Buffy, who runs out of the house in an attempt to get away. While Angel, Xander, and Cordelia go out to look for her, Willow and Giles determine that the only people affected by the spell were the ones who bought their costumes at Ethan's. They go to the store and find Ethan in the back of the shop, at which time Giles tells Willow to leave and find the others. After she leaves, Giles greets Ethan by name, while Ethan simply says, "Hello, Ripper."

Willow meets up with the others in an alley, where Xander has just finished beating up a pirate who was about to attack Buffy. The five of them run into a warehouse at the sight of Spike, who is leading several costumed monsters. Xander tries to blockade the entrance, but the monsters are too strong and easily break down the door. Outnumbered, Angel and Xander are restrained by Spike's followers while Cordelia and Willow can only watch in horror as Spike prepares to bite into Buffy. In the costume shop, Ethan reminds Giles that he was not always as noble and innocent as he claims he is today, but Giles will hear none of it. He demands Ethan to reverse the spell, and when he refuses, Giles knocks him to the floor and proceeds to repeatedly kick him until Ethan finally tells him to break the statue in the middle of the room. Giles picks it up and smashes it on the floor. In the warehouse, Spike notices that his followers are once again young children, and that Buffy's hair is now nothing more than a wig. Buffy springs up and attacks Spike with several swift punches and kicks before he retreats. As everyone recovers, Xander notices that Willow is nowhere to be seen. She has returned back to her body, which was left lying on the porch of a house. She gets up and tosses away her ghost costume, feeling much more assured of herself after the ordeal. She walks by Oz's van, and he can only look and say to himself, "Who is that girl?" Later that night, Buffy and Angel finally spend their much-needed time together in her bedroom. They share a kiss, their first since the ending of the "Angel" episode. The next day, Giles discovers that Ethan's shop is cleared out, and a note is left on one of the counters. It reads, "Be seeing you."

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