Original Air Date: September 26, 2000

Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by David Solomon

Summary

Buffy is sleeping in bed with Riley but she's restless. She heads out to the cemetery, hunts down a vamp, slays him, then heads back to bed, much less restless.

The next day the gang, (except for Giles) is at the beach but when it starts to rain heavily they abandon camp and head for shelter. That night, it's still raining, two movers are unloading large crates at some castle-like mansion. Suddenly a hand breaks through the crate and kills the two movers.

The next day Willow is helping Giles scan ancient texts onto her laptop. Giles then tells her that since he's no longer Buffy's Watcher he doesn't feel needed in Sunnydale anymore and he'll be returning to England. He asks her to keep this a secret until he tells Buffy himself. Meanwhile Buffy finishes supper with her mom and then heads out once again for patrol. After a staking there's a big poof of smoke and then a tall, dark-haired, pale-faced man in a cape appears. Buffy has no idea who he is until he introduces himself as Dracula. At the same time, Willow and Xander are walking by the cemetery and they decide to check if Buffy's inside. Dracula knows who Buffy is and he's here to see her, the one who's power is rooted in darkness. Buffy tries to stake him, twice, but he only disappears in a cloud of smoke. Willow and Xander show up just as Dracula appears behind them. They're also stunned to see him. Dracula then turns into a bat and flies off. They all head back to Giles' where they tell everyone about their encounter. They decide to reconvene in the morning after they've all done some research. Xander is heading home when he runs into Dracula who puts him under his spell so that Xander will serve him during the day. Riley doesn't head home but rather to Spike's crypt to get some info about Dracula. Spike tells him he's over his head but he does say that Dracula lives a luxurious life, in mansions and such.

Buffy's asleep at home. Dracula appears in her room and she wakes up to find him staring at her. He tells her that he's searched for her darkness all over the world and that she's different from all the other Slayers; she's kindred. He then semi-hypnotizes her and drinks her blood from the same wound that Angel had drank from her. She wakes up the next morning and covers up the bite marks before heading over to Giles'. The rest of the gang is there. Willow tells them that Dracula has special hypnotic powers. Xander acts weird the whole time and Giles finishes the discussion with a comment that Dracula's victim must consent before he can transform them. Buffy is about to head out to find Dracula when Riley stops her and discoveres that she is under Dracula's thrall; she has been bitten.

Riley and Giles decide to check out some mansions while Buffy hides out in Xander's basement. Xander then takes Buffy to Dracula's castle. Dracula does have control over Buffy and forces her to put her stake down. Riley and Giles eventually discover the castle and make their way through the inside. Dracula tells Buffy that she can't resist him because she does not want to. He offers her immortality to discover who and what she is. He offers her his blood and tells her that if she has any she won't change because he hasn't taken enough of her own. He wants to show her what the darkness fight for. He then repeats Tara's words from her dream and then she drinks from his wrist and visions of hunting fly though her mind. She strengthens, pulls away and pushes him roughly and he loses his control over her. She fights him calmly and viciously. She then spies her chance to kill him when he evaporates; she rushes to the spot where he's about to reappear then slams her stake into his heart when he materializes. Giles and Riley then appear, as does Xander. They head out, except for Buffy who stays behind to stake Dracula again when he tries to reappear, like he does in his movies.

The next day, Buffy and Giles are talking and Buffy tells him that ever since the spell to raise the first Slayer, Buffy has been patrolling every night and she's scared because she doesn't understand her own power. She wants to know about past Slayers and about her own strength and she wants Giles to be her Watcher again.

Later at home, Buffy is about to head out to meet Riley. Joyce suggests taking her sister with her but both Buffy and Dawn are against the idea.

Summary written by Nika

Quote of the Week

Riley: It could have been worse, you could have been making time with the Dracu-babes like Giles here.
Giles: Of course not, I was just about to kill those loathesome creatures when Riley interrupted me.
Riley: Really? You were gonna nuzzle 'em to death?

My Rating

5/5

Nika's Review

I have no bad things to say about this season premiere at all. It was great! And things are definitely looking up for this entire season! I must admit I wasn't looking forward to the whole Dracula bit because he usually ends up coming off as cheesy, but not here. It was great! Dracula was great! I kind of expected him to be a little better looking but he was still fascinating with his comments about Buffy's powers being rooted in darkness, which they are but I never really thought of it that way. Her powers don't come from the lightside, or maybe they do, but they're only there to work against the darkside. She's more of a reaction to the darkside. Tons of fun throughout the entire episode. Let's start at the beginning; at first I was a little skeptical about Sophia Crawford's replacement but so far she's better than Sophia, either that or the new stunt coordinator is just awesome! They're incorporating more gymnastics into the fights and it looks a lot better. More fluent and the camera angles aren't so choppy so that made me extremely happy. Everyone was used well in this episode, Xander was absolutely hysterical with his whole "Master - bate" lines and the way he was acting under Dracula's influence and that whole line about being a man-bitch. Willow was great as well, though her pink lipstick was a tad on the scary side. Riley was also looking quite nice this season (though you wouldn't have thought so from that scary Season 5 picture that was released a couple days ago). I was shocked to think of Giles going back to England but now it looks like he's staying because of Buffy's request to resume his position as Watcher. Which leads me to a very interesting point. It looks like this season is going to be about discovering Buffy's powers and making her stronger and the history of past Slayers, which is going to be REALLY interesting. Dawn's introduction at the end was great too and it looks like there's going to be a lot of fun between the two of them. The thing about Buffy hunting every night has me a little worried though, I mean, what could it mean? She has excessive energy now and it's not like very many Slayers have every hit 19 years old so there are a lot of unanswered questions there, like maybe that Slayers get stronger the older they are?

Niki Bartl's Review

I must admit to all the hard-core B fans that are out there, I was a wee bit skeptical about this episode actually turning out halfway decent. So my faith in all things Buffy faltered a little, but of course, I was proven wrong. Well, I was proven wrong in most of my complaints. First of all, congrats to Sarah who looks like she actually gained a bit of weight. The first thing I loved about this episode was the humour. It felt like an old-school Buffy episode, from season one or two, only we know and love the people a little more now. Willow's "I didn't do it!" line was so typical of her, I felt comfortable again immediately. The funniest part to me had to be when it showed Buffy taken to the castle, and I thought '. For a one-Starbucks town like Sunnydale, it's hard to imagine a castle there. An old mansion where a two hundred year old vamp can hang out, maybe, but a castle?' Right after that thought cam Riley's "I've lived in Sunnydale for three years and I don't remember a castle" line, which had the most impeccable timing, at least with me. I did have a few bones to pick, mostly with the way that the writier's handled the Dracula mythology. It was never really explained why he travelled with his grave dirt, or how he established a huge castle in the middle of nowhere. Parlour tricks maybe, but regenerating himself after Buffy stakes him? That's a little more than a parlour trick there, buddy. But all in all, I really enjoyed this episode. It gave us a less brooding Buffy with her old pals, Giles is staying in Sunnydale, and there is a lot of information on old Slayers to be dug up. And I know for sure that I can't wait to see Giles getting his ass kicked in training again.

Cast