What do *you* think about the vampire just busting in without an invite?  Talk back on the Message Board.

The episode starts out with Buffy fighting a vampire in a pumpkin patch.  There's another vamp in the shadows filming the struggle.  Buffy stakes the vampire and heads to the Bronze, where she's supposed to be meeting Angel for a date.  At the Bronze, Angel is waiting for Buffy.  Cordelia latches onto him before she can show, though, and is making Angel laugh at some joke when Buffy arrives.  Buffy turns to leave (I sense a pattern here...just like she left when Cordelia was with Owen at the Bronze, last season), but Angel sees her and catches her before she makes it out the door.  Cordelia puts her down for her dissheveled appearance, and Buffy whines (yet again) about her lack of a "real life".  She leaves.  The next day at school, Principal Snyder is "volunteering" students up for the Halloween program, where the student has to get dressed up and gets assigned a little troop of children to take around for trick-or-treat.  Buffy, Willow, and Xander each get similarly "volunteered".  In the lounge, Buffy stops a bully named Larry from pummeling Xander, and Xander blows up at Buffy for it, thinking that now he's gonna have a sissy-boy repuation.  He storms off and Buffy tells Willow about the misfire of a date the night before, and expresses her jealousy over Cordelia.  Willow puts forth that Cordelia isn't Angel's type, but Buffy confesses to not really knowing what Angel's type IS.  They decide to sneak one of the old Watcher's diaries out of Giles's office to learn more about Angel.  Buffy distracts Giles while Willow sneaks in to take the diary.  In the bathroom, they look at pictures of the kind of girls prominent back in the time when Angel was still human, in the 1700's.  Cordelia comes in and flaunts the time she spend with Angel the night before after Buffy left, and pretty much states her intentions to "get him".  She didn't know, however, that he was a vampire...and doesn't believe it when Buffy tells her so.  Later, Buffy, Willow and Xander meet up in a new costume shop, and Buffy finds a beautiful 18th century dress.  The Proprietor, Ethan, sells it to her at a bargain price.  Elsewhere, Spike is analyzing the video of Buffy fighting.  He's studying her moves and methods to better understand how to kill her.  Druscilla enters, and tells Spike of one of her visions, in which "Everything's switching, and it makes the Slayer weak"  THAT gets Spike's attention.  Back in the costume shop, Ethan Rayne is genuflecting before a private alter in a back room.  On the altar is a marble head with two faces.  Later, Buffy is all dressed up in her dress and a wig with long black hair, and Willow has become (quite reluctantly) a leather-laden-lady...she's wearing a mini skirt, knee high black boots, and a bare midrift.  Xander shows up as "Private Harris", but Willow chickens out and puts on a ghost costume.  At school, everyone's assigned their groups and Larry (dressed as a pirate) threatens Xander again.  Everyone goes out trick-or-treating.  We switch back and forth from seeing the trick-or-treaters, to watching Ethan performing a spell in his back room.  Suddenly, everyone starts becoming what their costume is of.  Little kids dressed up as monsters suddenly become demons...Willow is suddenly a REAL ghost; she can be seen, but can't touch anything.  Indeed, she walks right through Xander when she encounters him on the street as a soldier, shooting a real gun at the sudden bedlam of monsters and demons.  Buffy has become a mindless noblewoman who faints at the sight of the monsters.  In the madness that Sunnydale has become, the gang takes refuge in Buffy's deserted house.  Xander runs out to save Cordelia from a demon, and brings her into the house.  For some reason, Cordelia is not acting like her costume (a cat).  Willow leaves to go find Giles, and scares the hell out of him when she walks through one of the library walls.  At Buffy's, Angel shows up and is confused when Xander and Buffy don't recognize him.  Cordelia (kind of) explains, but just then the lights go out.  Xander orders Angel and "the princess" to check out the kitchen, while he and "catwoman" check upstairs.  In the kitchen, Angel notices the back door open.  He reflects that he didn't leave it open, just as a vampire jumps out and attacks Buffy.  While Angel fights it, he gets his vamp face on...Buffy gets one look at him and runs screaming into the night. Back at the library, Giles and Willow figure out that only the costumes bought at Ethans changed their wearers.  Angel, Cordelia and Xander go looking for Buffy, and Spike overhears them talking about how helpless she is, and starts looking for her too.  But Larry the Pirate has found her.  The gang arrives and Xander beats the crap out of him, gaining an odd feeling of "closure".  Giles and Willow arrive at Ethan's shop, and Giles orders Willow to leave when he meets Ethan.  After Willow leaves, he greets Ethan like he knows him...and Ethan calls Giles "Ripper".  Willow finds the rest of the gang just as Spike and his minions are closing in.  The gang takes off looking for shelter, Angel carrying Buffy to keep from slowing them down.  Meanwhile, Giles has confronted Ethan about this Halloween madness, and Ethan responds with obscure references to what Giles is capable of..and who is really is.  He says that he knows Giles's true nature...but "they don't, do they?"  He hints at a dark past for Giles...a hidden violence.  This is proven when Giles beats Ethan to find out how to reverse the spell. Cut to an abandoned warehouse, where Spike has cornered the gang.  While Angel and the others are restrained, Spike closes in on the defenseless Buffy.  Ethan finally tells Giles to smash the statue head.  He does, and turns around to find that Ethan has escaped.  Back at the warehouse, everyone's suddenly normal again.  Buffy jumps up and kicks the crap out of Spike, who hurridly makes a retreat.  Xander prepares to take the former demons (now children again) home, and Willow finds herself back at her body.  She takes the ghost sheet off and walks home...right by Oz, who is more intrigued by her than ever. Back in Buffy's bedroom, Angel asks why Buffy thought he'd like her better dressed that way.  Buffy tells him that she wanted to just for once be the kind of girl he used to know back in his human days.  Angel laughs and tells her he hates that kind of girl...useless and mindless, and how he always wanted to meet someone "exiting", like her.  Giles goes back to Ethan's shop the next day, but everything is gone except a note that says "Be seeing you".   Flaws:  Two of 'em.  Firstly, when Buffy and Angel went into the kitchen after the lights went out...a vampire jumped out and attacked Buffy.  What I'd like to know is how he got there...nobody invited him into the house.  I mean yeah, it was probably some kid who got turned into a vampire because of his costume, but still.  They all got turned into their costumes.  He was a vampire.  He should have needed an invite.  Secondly, when Spike's about to kill Buffy near the end, she's crying and sniveling and basically cowering before him, with cheeks wet from tears.  Five seconds later, when everyone gets switched back, she jumps up and her face is dry.  Thoughts on the Episode:  The most intriguing thing about this episode was the history about Giles that Ethan hinted about.  We suddenly saw Giles in a potentially lethal light.  He was vicious to Ethan, beating him mercilessly.  And he looked positively evil at some points.  Unfortunately, this back-plot kind of went the same way as Principal Snyder's...it never really panned out.  We find out what the big secret is in "The Dark Age", but it doesn't really justify what we saw in this episode.  Too bad.  Other than that...we meet Larry for the first time, and Buffy and Angel are pretty much together here. Best Line:  When Sunnydale has become a bedlam, and people are running around screaming and such, Spike looks around in appreciation and says "Well this is just neat!" Also Xander has a couple good parts: Xander:  (to his assigned group of trick or treaters, in drill-seargant fashion)  "On sleazing extra candy; tears are key.  Tears will normally get you the double-bagger.  You can try the old "you missed me" routine, but it's risky!  Only go there for chocolate." and later...... oldfashioned Buffy:  "A demon! A demon!" ghost Willow:  "It's not a demon, it's a car!" army Xander:  "Is this woman insane?" W:  "She's never seen a car before." X:  "She's never seen a car before?" W:  "She's from the past." X:  "And you're a ghost." W:  "Yes, can we get inside now?" X:  "I just want you to know I'm taking a lot on faith, here."

"Halloween"

What do *you* think about the vampire just busting in without an invite?  Talk back on the Message Board.