While it's kind of cool that Xander's always been Buffy's white knight, how sucky is it that he's secretly in love with her while going out with Cordelia?  Bastard!  Discuss this on the Board.

We open with an intro of the graveyard, and Buffy's climbing over the wall whilst coughing and generally looking miserable.  The slayer is sick.  She almost slays the gang when they pop out at her from behind a mausoleum, and Cordy notes how half the school is out with this flu.  Xander tells Buffy she should rest, but Buffy's afraid that if she's not out to stop it, Angel will keep killing.  Just then, Angel shows up and takes Buffy on, saying "Not feeling well, Lover?"  They fight, but Buffy's form isn't quite up to par, what with her being sick.  Angel pins her, but the gang wards him off with crosses.  Angel leaves, and Buffy passes out. At the hospital, Xander carries Buffy into the emergency room.  Cordy calls Buffy's mom, and Willow calls Giles.  Later, after both have arrived, the doctor tells them that Buffy will be fine, but needs to stay in the hospital for a few days to rest.  Buffy isn't happy with the idea; she doesn't like hospitals.  In her delirium, she shouts out that the vampires are out there, and she has to stop them.  Xander and Giles play it off like it's the fever talking.  The attendants take her to her room, and Joyce tells the gang how Buffy's cousin Celia died in a hospital when Buffy was eight, and Buffy was alone with her at the time.  Ever since then she's hated hospitals.  After she leaves, Xander and Willow worry that Angel might try to attack Buffy there, since it's a public building.  Waking from a troubled sleep that night, Buffy sees a little boy standing in her doorway.  He leaves, and is followed by a menacing Freddy Krueger-looking guy in a black hat.  She gets out of bed to follow, and as she's walking down the hall she has a flashback to walking through the hospital halls when she was eight.  Just as eight-year-old Buffy walks into a room, Buffy wakes up in her own room, in present time.  Pulling the I.V. out of her hand, she gets out of bed and walks down the same hallway.  She comes across her doctor arguing with another doctor, about how the children in the hospital are dying off at an alarming rate.  Buffy's doctor thinks that her superior is only causing more harm by raising the temperatures of the sick children.  Buffy turns to leave and encounters the little boy from her dream, standing next to a little girl.  They tell her that "He" comes at night, that the grownups don't see him.  When she asks who, they say "Death". Later, outside Buffy's room, Angel shows up with a bouquet of flowers.  Xander acknowledges that while HE might not be able to stop Angel, there are too many other people around for him to get to her.  Angel accuses Xander of being Buffy's "white knight", and that he's still in love with her.  He flaunts his 'relationship' with Buffy to hurt Xander, then leaves.  Meanwhile, Buffy's having another flashback to playing with her cousin Celia.  It then flashes to the hospital where 8 year old Buffy watches Celia sleep.  The next morning, Buffy's doctor remarks that Buffy seems almost well, and the gang visits, bringing balloons and homework from school.  They go for a walk (or in Buffy's case, being wheeled around in a wheelchair), and Buffy tells them that a little girl died there last night of the flu.  Buffy expresses concern over what the doctor might be giving the kids, and tells them how Ryan (the little boy) saw "death".  They think that Buffy might actually just be looking for a demon to fight so she doesn't feel so helpless in this situation, but offer to help anyway.  Cordelia and Xander sneak into the records room to find out what killed Tina the night before, but are interrupted by a hospital security guard.  Meanwhile, Giles and Willow head back to the library to research.  Giles says that he thinks Cordelia might have been right about Buffy's need to have a tangible enemy to fight, but Willow convinces him to look into it anyway.  Giles postulates that the children MIGHT be seeing just a grown-up, but seeing his true self.  Seeing him as a monster.  They set their sights on the 'weird doctor'.  Back in the records room, Cordelia distracts the security guard with sensuality while Xander gets what they need.  Out in the corridor, Cordelia seems a little upset that Xander wasn't really jealous about her touchy-feeliness with the guard, but expresses jealousy over Xander's obsession with making sure Buffy's okay.  Buffy encounters Ryan in the playroom at the hospital, and he's drawing a picture of the guy that Buffy saw the night before.  Buffy tells him that she believes him, and that she's going to help him and keep him safe.  Ryan says "you can't fight death", and that he'll come back that night. In the library, Giles and Willow find that 'the weird doctor' (Dr. Backer) has a bit of a rap-sheet....a malpractice suit, reprimands for experimental procedures, etc.  Back at the hospital, Cordelia sits next to Xander outside Buffy's door.having brought him coffee and krispy kreme donuts.  In the corridor, Buffy follows Dr. Backer as he heads to the childrens ward.  He gives one of them an injection, and is then attacked by an unseen enemy.  All we see are slashes appearing through his lab coat.  He's thrown out of the room into the hallway where Buffy watches, and is then dragged away by the unseen force.  The next morning Giles tells Buffy he thinks Backer is responsible, but then Buffy tells the gang how the doctor died the night before.  Buffy wonders how she was able to see the creature the first night she was there when she was all delirious, but couldn't see it the night before.  Joyce comes in saying Buffy can leave the hospital now, but Buffy feigns illness so she can remain.  Willow stays to help Buffy search the doctor's office, Xander's on sentry duty, and Cordelia goes with Giles to try to find out what the creature is (armed with the crayon drawing Ryan did). In Dr. Backer's office, Willow discovers that that the doctor was trying to inoculate the children with a controlled dosage of the same virus they already had......raising their temperatures to burn the fever out, and that it was actually starting to work.  In the library, Cordelia's getting on Giles's nerves as a research partner, until she stumbles across a picture of the creature on the cover of the book.  Cordelia calls Buffy and informs her that it's called "Der Kinderstadt", which means child death, and he feeds off children by sucking the life out of them, although the kids look like they died because they were sick.  Buffy concludes that it killed the doctor because Backer was actually making headway in curing the kids, taking away Der Kinderstadt's food supply.  Giles gets on the phone and tells Buffy that the creature kills by sitting atop the victim, pinning the child down as it drains the life out of them.........and that it must be horrifying for the victim.  Buffy flashes back to her cousin's death, and realizes that this creature is what killed Celia.  Theorizing that the only way she can see the creature is by being sick again, she and Willow make to the doctor's refrigerator where Buffy imbibes some of the flue virus (from some vials he had). She gets sick pretty quickly.   They go to the children's ward, where all of the children are missing.  Buffy looks on and can suddenly see Der Kinderstadt.  It sees her watching him, and leaves through a door on the other side of the room.  Buffy's doctor stumbles across Buffy, and calls security when Buffy and Willow take off.  Willow distracts security, and Buffy makes her way to Xander's stake-out.   Xander and Buffy head to the basement, figuring that the children ran there to escape the creature.  In the basement, the creature finds the children that Ryan has tried to lead to safety, and starts to attack Ryan.  Buffy shows up and fights with the demon, and Xander gets the kids out.  Coming back into the room, he sees Buffy fighting what looks like nothing.  The creature gains the upper-hand and starts to drain Buffy's energy, but she reaches up and snaps its neck.  At home the next day, Joyce waits on Buffy while she recuperates in bed.  Xander and Willow share the bed, and ask Joyce for their own stuff.  In exasperation, she starts to leave, but remembers something that came in the mail for Buffy that day.  Buffy sees it's from Ryan, and opens it to find a crayon drawing of a blond girl standing victorious over a bleeding demon on the floor. FLAWS:         None found. THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE:       Okay episode, even if the bad guy was a total rip-off of Freddy Krueger.  I mean come on......killing kids, looks all burned and deformed; wears a hat.   It even sliced and diced the doctor while no one else could see it (just like Freddy killed Tina in the first Elm Street movie.  Interesting that the little girl who died's name was Tina  ;)    ).  We learn through Angel's intuition that Xander does indeed still love Buffy, as we all sort of suspected after Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered (the way he was totally ready to drop Cordelia once he thought Buffy liked him).  Not much else going on here in the grand scheme of things. BEST LINE:         Xander:  "Flowers for m'lady"                           Buffy:  "I think they call those balloons."                           Xander:  "Yeah, stick 'em in water; maybe they'll grow."

"Killed By Death"

While it's kind of cool that Xander's always been Buffy's white knight, how sucky is it that he's secretly in love with her while going out with Cordelia?  Bastard!  Discuss this on the Board.