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The episode opens with Buffy and another girl, Sheila, in Principal Snyder's office being reprimanded for their classcutting/fight-starting attributes.  He decides to team them up together and put 'em in charge of the teacher/parent conferences taking place at the school a few days hence.  He says that their performance may affect what he tells their parents.  Cut to the Welcome to Sunnydale sign,  and a hot car runs it over.  Fade in the bad-ass music, and a wicked looking Vamp steps out, lights up a cigarette, and says "Home Sweet Home".   Inside an abandoned factory, the Annointed one is holding court.  One of the vamps surrounding him is promising that he will kill the Slayer.  Enter the Bleached-blond vamp who ran over the sign.  He calls himself Spike...and he says he will take out the Slayer for the Annointed One.  Amidst his swaggering, an etheral woman walks in..her name is Drusilla.....she is also a vampire, and she's with Spike.  They decide to stay. Spike agrees to "do" the Slayer for the Annointed One, if the A-1 agrees to keep the other vamps off his back. Cut to Buffy's bedroom, where Joyce has just found out from a flier about parent/teacher night.  She basically warns Buffy that she'd better get good reviews, or she's in trouble.  This is added to Principal Snyder's threats.  No pressure or anything, right?  At school the next day, Buffy and Willow are working on signs for the parent/teacher conference, because Sheila didn't show up.  Buffy wants to actually study with Willow that night, but changes her mind when Xander makes a crack about Angel meeting some other nice girl at the Bronze.  She maintains that she can do all of this at once as long as nothing mystical comes up.  At just that moment, Giles and Miss Calendar arrive and tell Buffy that the upcoming Saturday is the night of St. Vigius.  Principal Snyder shows up looking for Sheila, hoping she's ditched so he can expell her.  Buffy covers for her, and Sheila shows up.  Later at the Bronze, Buffy is trying to study French AND keep a look out for Angel.  They take a break to go dance, and Spike watches from the shadows.  Assessing his prey.  He tells one of his minions to "go get something to eat", and then moves to where Buffy will be able to overhear him.  He asks where the phone is..because there's "some big guy out there trying to bite someone".  Buffy hears, and runs outside.  She stops the minion from biting the girl..and dusts him.  Spike emerges from the shadows, and tells Buffy he's going to kill her on Saturday night. Cut to Sheila and some friends...the two friends are quickly picked off, but Sheila's stoned and doen't think it's weird.  She goes off with Spike.  That night in the library, Giles is trying to figure out who Spike is.  Angel shows up and warns them about Spike, and then vanishes. Spike and Dru have made themselves at home in Sunnydale, and talk about Prague, where they came from and where Dru had been attacked by a Mob.  She's weak from their attack, and isn't quite right in the head.  Spike has brought her to Sunnydale to "be restored by the hellmouth".  The next morning at school, the gang plus Cordelia are in the library whittling stakes and making up party trays.  Buffy vows to keep her mom and Snyder seperated the whole night, but they inevitably meet.  Snyder grabs her and whisks her off for a "talk".  Back in the library, Giles has figured out who Spike is.  His name was William the Bloody..he got his nickname by torturing his victims with railroad spikes.  More disturbing still is the fact that Spike has been up against two Slayers in his lifetime, and he's killed them both.  Joyce emerges from her talk with Snyder, and tells Buffy to get to the car, NOW.  She's not happy.  The conference is just winding up..but Spike and his minions crash it before it's over...he couldn't wait for Saturday night.  Buffy grabs her mom, the principal, and a couple others and locks them (and her) in a room.  They barricade all the doors..and the same thing is happening all over the school.  Giles, Jenny, and Xander are locked in the library, and Cordelia and Willow are in a broom closet together.  Giles sends Xander out through the stacks to go find Angel to come help them.  In the locked room, Joyce notices that there was something wrong with the vamps's faces...Principal Snyder says they were a gang on PCP.  Snyder wants to get out of the room, but Buffy gets assertive and orders him to stay in the room, while she crawls up into the ceiling.  In the library Giles is wigging out..he wants to go out and help Buffy.  It becomes a moot point when she drops in on him from the ceiling.  She wants to distract the vampires, and entrusts Giles with getting her mom out.   Left alone, Snyder and another teacher are getting restless.  The male teacher tries to climb out the window, but is taken by vampires when he does.  Joyce had tried to stop them, and Snyder accused her of being just like her daughter.  Meanwhile, Xander has brought Angel, and asks Angel if he's got a plan.  Angel snarls and grabs Xander by the neck.  Inside, Spike is impaling the ceiling with iron rods, trying to get at Buffy.  She comes down in a hallway, however, and takes the vamps out there.  Sheila shows up. Angel shows up with Xander in a headlock, and greets Spike.  Spike is overjoyed to see Angelus, his sire and old mentor.  He asks if Angel has been up against the Slayer yet, and Angel tells him he "gave her the "i'm all tortured" act, and it kept her off his back when he fed"  Angel offers Spike a "bite" of Xander, before they go off to kill the Slayer. Sheila tries to kill Buffy, but doesn't succeed, and Buffy gets everyone out.   Meanwhile, Spike has guessed Angel's ruse...and Angel and Xander run out.  The rest of the vamps run outside and fight them, while Buffy battles with Spike.  Joyce has "sensed" something and turns back.  Just as Spike's about to pummel Buffy, Joyce hits him on the back of the head with the blunt side of an axe.   While he's lying on the ground, Joyce says in a cold fury "You get the hell away from my daugher!".  Spike is infuriated but, outmatched, flees. Outside, Snyder greets the police chief.  Snyder says "what would you tell them, the truth?" The chief decides he'll write the incident up as gang-related, kids on PCP.  Joyce says that Snyder had given her a bad report on Buffy, but doesn't care, now that she's seen firsthand how Buffy reacts in a crisis situation, thinking of others, and taking care of herself.  Back at the factory, Spike tries his hand at being sorry and abject for his failure, but the Annointed One has no mercy in him.  Spike gets fed up and throws the A-1 in a cage, and then raises it up by way of a pulley until the A-1 is bathed in the light coming in through the window.  Sizzle, sizzle, no more Annointed One.   Flaws:  This one was the director's fault.  When Buffy goes outside to prevent the girl from being eaten, and Spike's watching, she kills the vampire facing a big metal hanger door looking thing.  Seconds later, Spike walks out from the shadows of the hanger door.  He claps his hands sardonically, and begins speaking to Buffy.  We cut to Buffy, who turns around to face him.  Why would she be facing the other way? Thoughts on the Episode:  First and foremost, we see the destruction of the Annointed One.  Thank God, I was getting tired of typing A-1 every five seconds.  Secondly, we witness the arrival of the absolute best bad guy in all of Buffydom...Spike.  The Master wins in the evil contest, but Spike is still my favorite.  He was a refreshing addition to the show...evil, but funny, and obviously in love with Drusilla.  It wasn't long before he had me laughing harder than Xander did.    Now...Principal Snyder...you remember I said we'd talk about this from back in "The Puppet Show" in season 1.  After the bedlam, when the cops show up, the Police Chief says to Principal Snyder "I've gotta have something to tell them about this"   Snyder responds with "What do you suggest we tell them, the truth?"  The Chief realizes they can't do this, and says "Right....gang related, PCP"  We're led to believe that Snyder (and, indeed, the Police Chief as well) KNOWS the truth.  We were all very intrigued by who Snyder was, and what his agenda was.  Unfortunately, this never really pans out, and they leave his character relatively unexplored from here on.  Pity. Best Line:  Xander, when Angel vanishes without a sound yet again:    "All right, that's it.  I'm putting a collar with a little bell on that guy."

"School Hard"

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