We open at the Bronze, where the gang's making homecoming dance plans.  Cordelia fully intends to be elected Queen, and they're all debating going in a limo.  Scott shows up and asks Buffy to go with him, and she seems exited about it, but bails on the rest of the night to go see how Angel's doing, and bring him some blood.  She asks him how he is, and he says that it hurts, but less.  She tells him she's going to keep helping him get better, but isn't going to tell any of the others that he's back.  She tells him a little bit about what she's been doing, and mentions that she's involved with Scott.  Angel seems to be a little upset at this, but doesn't say anything.  The next day, Scott tells Buffy he thinks they shouldn't see each other any more, as she seems to be really distracted all the time now.  From a van out in the parking lot, two military-looking guys watch her through hi-tech binoculars, and record the image on a t.v. inside.  They call an old man in a wheelchair, who gets the same image on his t.v. set.  He talks with Mr. Trick, who tells him that she is the target.  In the mayor's office, the two guys from the van are reported to the mayor by his attendant, a guy named Alan.  The mayor seems like a harmless guy, even if a little preoccupied with germs.  At school that day, Buffy exercises off some rage with Faith in the library, and misses school pictures.  She also tries to get her recommendation from her favorite teacher (one of the stipulations by Snyder for her readmittance back into school), but the teacher doesn't even remember her.  Buffy reflects that no one's going to remember her after graduation, and decides to run against Cordelia for homecoming queen.  Elsewhere, Mr. Trick talks about competition.  In attendance is Lyle Gorch (from Bad Eggs, season 2), among a bunch of other demons and humans.  Mr. Trick tells them that the first target, Buffy, they've all seen.  The second, Faith, was a little more elusive, but would be theirs soon.  He welcomes them to Slayerfest 98.  In Willow's room, Xander and Willow try on outfits for the dance.  Willow helps Xander with his tie, and they reflect on their friendship that has lasted so long.  Having finished dressing, they look at each other with almost new eyes.  Willow says she's insecure about dancing, and Xander takes her into his arms.  In the moment, they kiss...then jump away from each other.  At school the next day, Buffy tries to enlist Willow, Xander and Oz to help her with her homecoming queen crusade, only to find out that Cordelia has already gotten to them.  Thus follows a truly horrible montage of scenes where Buffy and Cordelia are handing out fliers, and so forth, and the bad guys are all training for Slayerfest 98.  Tensions rise between Cordelia and Buffy, and Willow and Xander have more than a little wigginess going on between them because of their mounting feelings for each other.  That night, in the limo, Buffy and Cordelia discover that the rest of the gang wanted them to go on alone, so they can work out their problems, and they're in the limo alone together.  Buffy and Cordy are still fighting about it, when the limo driver stops suddenly and runs away.  They get out and find themselves in the middle of the woods, with a TV and VCR set up across from the limo.  They press play on the tape, and Mr. Trick appears to tell them about SlayerFest 98, and says they have 17 seconds left to run for their lives.   Mr. Trick and the others are under the impression that it would be Faith and Buffy in the car by this point.  They run, and encounter a guy with bear traps and a gun first, and take him down with one of his own traps.  They end up in a little cottage, and Buffy tries to make Cordelia mad enough so she won't be so scared.  Cordelia grabs a spatula and they're ready to roll.  At the dance, Faith sees Scott dancing with some other girl, and 'creates' a scene with him where she tells him the "doctor said the itching and swelling will go down, but they've gotta keep using the ointment", all right in front of the other girl.  Back at Slayerfest 98, the old man in the wheelchair is connected by satellite with the two guys from the van before.  He finds out where Buffy and Cordy are, and that they're using a phone in the cabin.  He cuts it off, but not before Buffy gets a message to Giles.  He (the old dude in the wheelchair) directs the two german guys to the cabin where, inside, Buffy and Cordelia finally come to some kind of understanding about why they both want to be Homecoming Queen so badly.  Just then, one of the demons jumps in and attacks Buffy.  Cordelia attacks it with the spatula, and Buffy grabs Cordelia and jumps out of the cabin as the germans launch a little grenade thing in.  It kills the demon, but Buffy and Cordy escape.  They head back to the school, where Giles has been knocked out by Lyle Gorch and his new vampire bride Candy.  Elsewhere, Mr. Trick answers the door, and is taken away by some cops.  At school, Buffy reflects on how the germans seem to keep finding them, no matter where they go.  They head into the library and are attacked by Lyle and Candy.  Buffy stakes Candy just before she gets knocked out.  Cordelia steps in between Buffy and Lyle, and convinces him that she, as the stronger of the two slayers, will kill him if he doesn't back off.  He leaves.  After Buffy wakes, she realizes that the corsages left for them in the limo contain bugs (tracking devices) that the germans are using to track them.  The germans show up and are tracking her through the school.  Buffy wraps the bugs up in wet toilet paper, gets the germans seperated, and throws the wad on one of them.  The old guy in the wheelchair adjusts the target to the germans, and they end up firing on each other.  At the mayor's office, Mr. Trick is brought in before Mayor Wilkins, who wants him to be part of his team.  Buffy and Cordelia show up at the party just in time for the announcement of Homecoming Queen, only to find out that two other girls got the crown in a tie.  In disgust, they turn and leave.  FLAWS:        None found. THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE:   kind of a lame episode.  After the coolness of last season, nothing this season so far really measures up.  The only high point was the interaction between Buffy and Angel in the beginning.  Also, nice continuity factor...Buffy was wearing the jacket he gave her in "Teacher's Pet", Season 1.  I wouldn't have even noticed it except he turned the collar out the right way when she was telling him about Scott.  BEST LINE:       Giles's.  He shows up at the homecoming dance at the Bronze and surprises Willow and Xander by saying " We have to find Buffy, something terrible has happened!...Just kidding; I thought I'd give you a scare!  Are those finger sandwiches?"    Hee.

"Homecoming"