School Hard

Season 2, Episode 3 (Episode 15 of entire series)

This episode marks the appearance of Spike and Drusilla, the death of The Anointed, some good lines, and Cordelia's first real time as a Slayerette. Also continues the theme of Buffy's balancing act of Slayer vs. normal teen.

Buffy meets up with Willow and Xander and tells them the scoop; they fill in Buffy on how Sheila's always been big in the trouble area. Then Xander makes an offhanded remark about how nothing's going to go wrong, and Buffy and Willow fly off the handle. They think he's jinxed them, and they walk off, leaving him to clutch his bookbag to his chest and mumble about how they could be wrong, maybe he didn't jinx them. It's at this point that the scene shifts and we see an old car (with fins, it looks like!) speed into town, knocking over the Welcome to Sunnydale sign.

So Buffy's at the Bronze studying and dancing when she's alerted to some vampiric activity outside. She makes quick work of the vamp, and then meets a bleached-blonde vamp, Spike, who tells her that he's going to kill her on the night of St. Vigius. Not your basic introduction..well, maybe for Sunnydale.

Anyhoo, Buffy and Co. are in the library learning more about the Night of St. Vigius when Angel shows up to warn them about Spike...it's pretty foreboding.

Basically when it's time for the Parent/Teacher Night, the gang helps Buffy prepare the food, and later Willow escorts Joyce to Buffy's classes. Conveniently enough, for Buffy, Joyce just misses out on meeting all of her teachers. Snyder eventually catches up with Joyce and goes to speak with her about Buffy. Joyce comes back kinda angry and they're about to leave when some vamps crash through the window. It's show time!

Spike and his gang are on the hunt for Buffy, but they're not against killing a few of the other folks there. Buffy, her mom, Snyder and some others lock themselves into a classroom, and Buffy takes control of the sitch. She takes the ceiling express across the hall to the library to get some weapons from Giles and to tell him to make sure that her mom's safe in case she buys it this time out. Giles tells her that Xander's on his way to get Angel.

Meanwhile, when Xander and Angel arrive, Angel pretends he's soul-less and chats it up with Spike. They're going to take a drink to old times via Xander's neck, when Spike reveals that he knows Angel is lying about who he is. Spike says to Angel, "You Uncle Tom!" Angel and Xander make a break for it.

Meanwhile, Snyder and another guy are trying to open the windows to escape, even though Buffy had told them to stay put. Joyce calls Snyder on this but he ignores her. Snyder sees the other guy get yanked through the window and killed. Meanwhile, Sheila's come back, newly vamped courtesy of Drusilla, only Buffy's not privy to this knowledge -- which I think is kind of weird, but hey, I mean, I guess she had her hands full at the time, you know? Sheila sees Buffy take out a vamp and flees. More fighting, and Cordy and Willow are in a janitor's closet. Cordy's freaking and praying and Willow's just kind of there, growing more annoyed than ever by Cordy's whining.

When Spike and Buffy start their one-on-one fight, after Buffy's freed her mom and the others, the two exchange some barbs (uh, I'm talking figuratively here), and then each gets the advantage over the other. It's looking grim for Buffy though, but she's saved by her axe-wielding mom who tells Spike, "You get the hell away from my daughter!" Buffy's off the hook with her mom for a while, Xander wonders what a sire is, and Jenny still wants to see Giles. Who knows how or when Willow and Cordy came out of the closet. (you know what I mean...got out of the closet sounded odd.) Also, we see Snyder in cahoots with a higher-up on the police force..they plan to use the "gang/pcp" story.

The biggest coup? Spike, a lover of tradition, NOT!, goes back to the warehouse and throws the Anointed One into a cage and hoists it up until the direct sunlight hits it...no more A1. And Spike proclaims that there's going to be a new order now that he and Dru are in town...a more fun order, with a lot less tradition. Okay, this was a little longer than I intended...sorry.

1. At the Bronze, Buffy used a stake to kill a vampire.
2. Buffy fought with Spike, but Joyce ultimately drove Spike away.

1. Angel sired Spike.
2. A mob in Prague nearly destroyed Drusilla.
3. Spike was at Woodstock.
4. In 5th grade, Willow was once look-out for Sheila when Sheila was smoking.
5. Snyder knows they're on a Hellmouth.