SYNOPSIS It's field trip day for some classes at Sunnydale High, and the location for the trip is Sunnydale Zoo. There, Buffy is mocked by the school bullies, two guys and two girls who, according to Willow, are "obnoxious, professionally". The bullies harass Lance, one of the uncool people of Sunnydale High, and bring him with them into the closed-off hyena house. Xander follows them in to make sure nothing bad happens to Lance. Buffy and Willow start to follow, but the zookeeper stops them. He warns them that the hyenas were imported and are being quarantined until they can be declared safe. In the hyena house, the bullies mess around with Lance, holding him dangerously close to the hyena pit. Xander comes in and pulls Lance away from the group. Just then, the hyena flashes its eyes yellow. The bullies' eyes flash yellow. Scared, Lance tries to get out, but stumbles and falls. The group turns around and starts laughing like hyenas. Xander turns around, and his eyes flash yellow. Back at school, Xander starts acting different, being much meaner and crueler. He drops out of geometry, then cruelly breaks off his friendship with Willow. Heart-broken, she runs off, while Buffy confronts Xander. He only laughs at Buffy, then joins the bully group. Eventually, Buffy connects Xander's change in behavior with the field trip to the zoo, particularly his venture into the hyena house. After doing some research, Buffy, Willow, and Giles determine that an old legend has come true. The legend states that an ancient tribe dealt with hyena spirits that could possess humans. Xander and the bullies apparently were possessed by the same hyena spirit, making them something similar to a hyena pack. Meanwhile, the pack finds Herbert, the school mascot pig, and eats him. While investigating the room where Herbert was kept, Buffy is attacked by Xander. She knocks him out and locks him in the library's book cage. The rest of the pack are caught by Principal Flutie and brought to his office. There, they satiate their appetites by feeding on Principal Flutie. Horrified by the principal's death, Buffy and Giles leave to talk to the zookeeper, leaving Willow behind to watch Xander. The zookeeper describes a possible way of trans-possessing the spirits out of the students back into the hyenas. This involves getting all of them back to the hyena house. Meanwhile, at the library, the rest of the pack finds Xander in the cage and breaks into the library. Willow runs off and hides in a room. Buffy and Giles make it back and fight off the pack. While Willow and Giles leave for the zoo to meet up with the zookeeper, Buffy finds the pack and leads them to the zoo. Giles discovers that the zookeeper wants the spirits inside himself, and plans to trans-possess the spirits from the students to his own body. Before Giles can warn Willow, he is knocked out by the zookeeper and hidden in a back room. Hearing the pack approaching, Willow runs in, but Giles is nowhere to be seen. The zookeeper ties her up and puts a knife to her neck, waiting for the pack to enter the hyena house. Buffy runs in, but is tackled by Xander. Soon, the rest of the pack catch up and surround Buffy. Before they can do anything, the zookeeper screams out a tribal chant, and the spirits are passed on into his body. Xander, back to his normal self, sees Willow with the knife to her neck and jumps forward to knock the zookeeper away. With Willow safe, Buffy fights the zookeeper and tosses him into the hyena pit, where he is eaten by the hungry animals. The next day, Xander claims that he can't remember anything while he was in his possessed state. He is shocked to hear that he ate a pig. Buffy and Willow are happy to see him back to his normal self, especially Willow. After the two girls leave for class, Xander meets up with Giles, who knows that there is no memory loss after the trans-possession. Xander makes sure that Giles never tells this to Buffy and Willow, then wanders off in shame.

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