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The episode opens with Xander practicing asking Buffy to the Spring Fling on Willow.  Cut to the park, where Buffy's fighting her third vampire of the night.  Giles is in the library, reading the Kodex that Angel obtained for him in "Invisible Girl".  In shock, he translates the prophecy to read that the Master will rise, and the slayer will die.  Suddenly, there's an earthquake.  It causes structural damage to the library and the Bronze, and the Master glories in it in his Lair.  He says that it's a sign, and that they are in the final days before his day is come.  The next day Buffy tells Giles about the increased vampire activity, but he's distracted by the prophecy.  Afterward, Xander finally works up the courage to ask Buffy to go out with him, but Buffy says no.  Giles calls Angel (where'd he get his number, anyway?), and tells him he needs to consult with him.  Jenny Calendar confronts Giles with the weirdness going on recently, and tells him that this "crazy monk from Cortona (the same city Mulloch came from, by the way)" keeps e-mailing her about the Annointed One.  Giles is startled, because he thought the Annointed one was dead.  Cordy makes plans with Willow to show up at school early the next morning to hook up a sound system for the Spring Fling.  Willow agrees, and then tries to comfort Xander about his rejection.  Xander assumes that he and Willow will go to the dance, but then SHE says no.  She doesn't want to go with him while he's wishing he were at the dance with Buffy.  Buffy is in the bathroom, and discovers blood running out of the faucet.  She goes to the library to tell Giles about it, and finds Angel there (the first time she's seen him since "Angel").  She overhears them talking about the Kodex, and the prophecy that she's going to die.  Buffy goes into denial when she hears this, and Angel tries to tell her that they'll figure a way around it.  But Buffy then gets mad at Giles because he hadn't told her, and she "quits" Slaying.  She leaves.  She goes home, and finds out her mom has bought her this beautiful white dress she'd wanted for the dance.  The next morning at school, Cordy and Willow show up for the sound-system thing.  They find Cordy's boyfriend (Kevin this time) and his friends dead in the AV room.  Buffy's mom sees it on the news, and tells Buffy (who's trying on her dress), who rushes over to console Willow.  Willow tells Buffy she's not okay..she knew those guys, went to that room every day.  She said that when she walked in there, it wasn't her world anymore the vamps had made it theirs.  Willows despair makes Buffy realize she can't elude her responsibility....she can't let the Master rise.   The Master sends the A-1 out to find Buffy. Meanwhile, Jenny has been brought up to date, and Giles is preparing to fight the good fight on his own.  Brother Luka, the crazy monk,  has sent out a message telling them that the A-1 is a kid.  Buffy hears this, and knocks Giles out to keep him from going after the Master, or from trying to stop Buffy.  She goes outside and meets the brat himself, and lets him lead her down to the lair.  Xander and Willow arrive in the library, and find out that Buffy's gone off to die.  Xander goes to Angel to find out where Buffy's going.   He comes with a cross, and tells Angel he WILL lead him to Buffy.  Angel realizes that Xander's in love with Buffy, and Xander asks "aren't you?" In case Buffy fails, Giles, Willow, and Jenny Calendar try to figure out where the Hellmouth is going to open.  Meanwhile, Buffy arrives in the Lair.  She tries to kill the Master, but he ends up besting her.  Just before he kills her, he tells her that if she had never come to him, he would not have had the power to leave the Lair.  Then he drinks her blood, and drops her in a pool of water, where she drowns.  The Master rises.  The gang thinks that the apocolypse might be taking place at the Prom at the Bronze, but when Jenny and Willow try to leave, they find that all of the vamps in town are headed for the school.  Cordelia shows up in her car, and Jenny and Willow jump in, saying they need to get to the library.  Cordelia floors it, and drives through the school to the library. Angel and Xander hear the Master rising, and rush down to Buffy, still in the pool of water.  Angel runs down and pulls her out (breathing heavily...I'll get to that later), and realizes she's dead.   Xander performs CPR on her, and Buffy comes back to life.  At the library, the vamps are all trying to break in, and Giles can't figure out why they're coming THERE.  Unbeknownst to them, the Master is up on the roof of the school.  In the lair, Buffy learns that the Master has risen, and she and Angel and Xander head for the school to stop him.  (Great scene here, w/ the theme music)  At the school, Buffy heads for the roof, while Angel and Xander keep the rest of the vamps off her back.  In the library, Giles finally figures out that the library is sitting right on top of the Hellmouth when this big icky slimy creature (thankfully not CGI) starts crawling out of the hole in the floor. The Master is shocked to discover that Buffy is alive.  They fight, and he tries to trance her again.  It doesn't work, and she knocks him through the skylight.  He falls onto a conveniently upturned (and jagged) table leg in the library below.  It pierces his heart, and he dies.  The apocolypse is averted, and the Hellmouth closes.  Everyone heads for the Bronze.  Flaws:  Okay, the obvious one is Buffy's hair.  When she goes down to face the master, most of her hair is up in a pony tail, and curled.  When Angel pulls her out of the water, her hair is suddenly not in a pony tail anymore.  The other one is more of a discrepancy...Angel says that Xander must perform the CPR on Buffy because Angel "has no breath".  We think, okay, fine...dead guy, no breath, that makes sense.  It would make even more sense if he wasn't breathing really heavily from running down to where Buffy was.  Secondly......okay, so he doesn't process the oxygen he breathes in (I deduce this from later episodes where they mention his not having a heartbeat..no heartbeat..ergo no blood flow...ergo no oxygen carried, etc)...so why should this stop him from sucking in some oxygen, then blowing the same oxygen back out into Buffy?  In fact, his breath would be better for CPR because he wouldn't have any carbon dioxide in his.  This subject is kind of a sore one...for a continuation of it, of a sorts, check the flaws under "Surprise", in season 2.  The only other problem was the Master's death.  Every other vampire killed on this show has turned to dust.  Why did the Master have bones left over? Thoughts on the Episode:  A thoroughly enjoyable season finale.  I hate cliffhangers, and the lack of one here made me happy.  Also, SMG did a great job with her first really "emotional" scenes, when she found out she was going to die. The direction was great, and the acting from everyone involved was also superb.  Best scenes included the slow-mo from the beginning.  Best Line: Xander:  "That's okay...I'm just gonna go home, lie down, and listen to country music...the music of pain."

"Prophecy Girl"

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