In Buffy's dream, she's underwater, trying to get to the surface.  Suddenly a hand reaches up from the depths and holds her down; it's Alan's body.  Kicking free, she reaches the surface only to be pushed under again by Faith.  Waking, Buffy sees on the news that Alan's body has been found.  The next day at school, Wesley wants the Slayers to investigate the murder of the deputy mayor.  Just then Cordelia comes in for a  book, and Wesley is quite taken by her, until he finds out she's a student.  Buffy tells Faith later that they need to tell about Alan, but Faith threatens to implicate her in it if she goes to Giles.  In the lounge, Buffy finds Willow, but Willow's still feeling hurt that Buffy dumped her so quickly when she was going around with Faith in Bad Girls, and heads off to meet some of her witch friends, so they can try to de-rat Amy again.  Later that night, police examine the scene of the crime.  Angel watches from the shadows, and remembers the blood on Buffy's hand before they went to the warehouse to kill Balthazar.  In the mayor's office, Mayor Wilkins wonders why deputy mayor Alan left such a paper trail behind, and wonders if he was going to betray Wilkins.  Mr. Trick produces the coroner's report, which reveals Alan to have been stabbed through the heart with a pointed wooden object, and they deduce that a slayer did the job.  In the deputy mayor's office, Faith and Buffy search around.  Faith, in a moment of weakness, remarks 'he came out of nowhere'.  When Buffy tries to sympathize, Faith blows her off.  Buffy finds that all of the papers in his office have been shredded.  They figure out that the mayor is a bad guy, and wonder if Alan was looking for them.  They end up arguing again, and Buffy says they were meant to kill demons, and that doesn't make them better than everyone else so that they can pass judgement on them, and decide who it's okay to kill.  Faith disagrees.  She's got the whole "we're super human, we can do whatever we want" mentality.    Back home, Buffy finds a cop at the house, who questions her.  He also questions Faith at the motel.  Both stick to their stories, but Angel lurks outside the motel; suspicious.  Buffy goes to Willow's, and after Willow finally tells Buffy she feels left out of the slayer's only club, Buffy tells her what happened to Alan.  Willow tells Buffy she has to go to Giles, which she does.  Only when she gets there, Faith has already told Giles HER version of events, in which BUFFY was the one who stabbed Alan.  Giles freaks on Buffy, and sends Faith home while he 'deals with her'.  In the library office, he apologizes for making Buffy think that he believed Faith, and says he knows that she's really the one who murdered Alan.  They talk about what to do to help her, and Giles reveals that this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened.  In this kind of circumstance, the council generally convenes, and decides whether the death was avoidable or not, and metes out any punishment, if necessary.  He then says that he has no intention of involving the council, as it's the last thing Faith needs right then.  She's unstable, and if they do too much to send her over the edge, they might lose her forever.  Outside, Wesley has heard everything. In the cafeteria, Giles, Xander, Willow and Buffy discuss how to reach Faith.  Xander volunteers to be the one to talk to her, since they have a 'connection' (referring to the sex they shared in "The Zeppo").  The rest of the gang gets the subtext, and realizes what he's talking about.....Willow most profoundly of all.  After the discussion, Willow sobs in a bathroom stall.  At Faith's, Xander has decided to take it upon himself to talk to Faith anyway.  She's less than receptive, even though Xander puts himself on the line and says he believes it was an accident that she killed that man.  Faith demonstrates how little she takes it to heart by strangling Xander, almost killing him before Angel shows up and knocks her out.  He takes her to the mansion, where he chains her to the wall (the same way Buffy chained him when she found him).  After she wakes, they share some verbal banter before Angel goes out into the garden to talk to Buffy.  He tells him that the process may be really long before she's willing to talk to him, and he's not sure that she even wants to be helped.  At the mayor's office, Wilkins and Trick watch a replay of Buffy and Faith on the security camera the night before, and Wilkins tells Trick he'd better come up with a more effective way of dealing with the slayers. Back at the mansion, Angel relates to Faith as a killer, and starts to upset her.  He then tries to offer her hope, and she's actually listening, until Wesley and some council geeks break in, subdue Angel, and take Faith into custody.  She manages to get away from them en route to the airport.  Buffy arrives at the mansion to find Angel hurt and bound, and he tells the gang back at the library what happened.  Buffy wants to go stop the council from taking her back to England, but Wesley shows up to let them know she got away.  Everybody's pretty much pissed at Wesley.  They all split up to go look for her, except for Wesley.  Buffy heads to the docks, knowing Faith's gonna want to get out of town.  She finds her there, and they argue some more about how they should be allowed to be different from every one else because they're better.  Before they get too far, Mr. Trick and some vamps arrive and Buffy gets herself knocked out saving Faith.  Faith slays the rest of them, and kills Trick before he bites Buffy.  Back at the library, Buffy tells Giles how Faith saved her, and Giles says it's promising that Faith came back to town of her own free will.  He says she's got a chance as long as Buffy keeps believing in her.  Cut to the mayor's office, where Faith informs Wilkins of having killed Mr. Trick, and says "I guess that means you've got a job opening, huh?" FLAWS:     None found. THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE:     More groundwork down for the rift between Faith and Buffy.  It gives us the first hint at an understanding between her and Angel, though, and her meeting with the mayor turns out to be rather important to the rest of the season.  We also see how Wesley sucks, and doesn't fit into the scheme of things, really.  BEST LINE:     Cordelia's, upon being introduced to Wesley.  "Check out Giles the Next Generation.......what's your deal?"

"Consequences"