Original Air Date: Part 1: November 10, 1997
Part 2: November 24, 1997

Part 1: Written by Howard Gordon & Marti Noxon
Directed by David Solomon
Part 2: Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by David Semel

Summary

It's Career Week at Sunnydale High for everyone but Buffy -- her fate as the Slayer has already been sealed. While Buffy is bummed, Spike seeks out a cure for Drusilla by having a transcriber go through a book stolen from Giles. They realize the book is in code, and through tarot cards, they can figure out what to do. While at the cemetery, Buffy enters a mausoleum and sees the transcriber and another vampire -- she's able to kill the vampire, but the transcriber eludes her. When she returns home, Angel is waiting for her and warns her of trouble. She's still upset about Career Day, and reveals her secret childhood obsession with ice skater Dorothy Hamill.

Giles worries about the missing vampire and what was taken from the mausoleum. We see Spike with a coffin pillow adorned with a cross -- part of the cure. He knows if Buffy keeps interrupting, he'll never get the key to curing Drusilla, so he decides to summon bounty hunters -- the most savage of killers. Giles chastises Buffy as they examine the mausoleum together and Giles finds the name "duLac" -- he was the author of the stolen book Spike has; a book of evil spells written in archaic Latin. They realize the cross has been stolen from his crypt, and it is the tool which will allow Spike to wreak havoc -- Giles says he must decipher the book first in order to save them. Meanwhile, we strangers start hitting town and doing their damage-- one is a door-to-door cosmetic salesman, one is an evil-looking guy, and one is a beautiful woman.

Buffy blows off the deciphering session to go skate with Angel, but Evil Guy is already there. Angel tries to save her but she's able to cut the guy's throat with her skate blade. Angel wigs when he sees the guy's ring -- Giles identifies it as the symbol of the Order of Teraka -- the deadly assassins. These are not the ordinary vamps; they'll stop at nothing to kill everything in their paths. Buffy freaks and goes to Angel's house while Angel goes to a local bar, trolling for information about the bounty hunters. The beautiful woman arrives and attacks Angel, locking him in a cage where he'll be vulnerable to deadly sunlight within hours. While working with the transcriber, Spike has finally found the answer to curing Drusilla. As Xander and Cordelia go looking for Buffy at her house, Cordelia lets the cosmetics salesman in. Back at Angel's house, the beautiful woman tries to kill Buffy with an axe, identifying herself as Kendra, The Vampire Slayer...

Buffy freaks as Kendra identifies herself as the Slayer. They realize that Kendra was summoned as the new Slayer when Buffy died -- temporarily drowned, that is. Kendra, too, knows that evil is coming. Near death at daybreak, Angel is dragged from the cell by the guy from the bar -- he dumps him in a sewer and turns him over to Spike and Drusilla. When the new moon comes that night, they will perform the ritual they figured out from the transcriber and Angel will die.

Giles seems to be bonding with Kendra, making Buffy feel left out. Now that there's a spare slayer, Buffy considers giving up the business. At Buffy's house, Cordelia chats merrily with the cosmetics guy until she realizes he has bugs crawling all over him. He turns into a huge pile of them, sending Cordelia and Xander into hiding, and they fight over what to do. In the heat of the argument, they kiss passionately (?!). They manage to escape and speed off in Cordy's car. At Sunnydale High, Willow chats with Oz, her male computer nerd counterpart, about their similar Career Fair paths. A police woman supervising the fair suddenly opens fire on Buffy and accidentally shoots Oz, but Kendra comes to Buffy's rescue. When the gang assembles in the library, Giles announces he's figured out the ritual: Angel will die that night. Buffy and Kendra go to the bar to try to get help finding Angel, but Kendra bails, convinced that Angel is evil. Meanwhile, Drusilla is having a field day with her ex-tormentor Angel, dousing him with holy water and watching him writhe in pain. The Bar Guy leads Buffy to the church, which is filled with evil Tenaka bounty hunters. Buffy watches in horror as Drusilla holds onto the tied-up Angel, sapping his power. As the policewoman assassin goes to shoot Buffy, Kendra enters to save her. Willow, Xander, Cordelia and Giles burst in and help, too. Xander and Cordelia wait for Bug Guy to, well, bug out, then they pour glue all over him and stomp on the helpless creatures. Buffy releases Angel, but Spike sets the room on fire and grabs Dru. Before they're able to escape, Buffy hurls something at them and sends them crashing into a huge organ, squooshing them both. The charm-free Kendra leaves town, and Buffy is the Number One Slayer once again. But all is not well. Emerging from the rubble in the church is Drusilla, now fully vamped out and strong enough to carry the injured Spike to safety. She's back, and she's bad.

Miscellaneous Info

-The hold of the plane in which Kendra arrives was constructed on the set and later turned upside fown and redeisgned as a sewer tunnel.
-The ice rink where Angel and Buffy skate in this episode is, in real life, a place called Iceland, which is located at 8041 Jackson Street, in Paramount, California, about twenty-five miles from the actual set of the show.
-Sarah Michelle Gellar used to be a competitive figure skater herself, ranking 3rd in regionals of New York City. She quit at the age of 17 because she chose acting instead of competitive figure skating.
-The "Pink Ranger" line has additional significance beyond being a standard Buffy pop-culture reference: Sarah Michelle Gellar's stunt double, Sophia Crawford, used to play the Pink Ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Quote of the Week

Xander: It's a statistical impossibility for a sixteen-year-old to unplug her phone.
or
Buffy: Soike is going down. You can attack me, you can send assassins after me, but no one messes with my boyfriend!

My Rating

5/5

Cast