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The second season kicks off after the summer...we open on Willow and Xander walking through the park, playing a guessing game over movie lines.  Xander reflects that the summer has been really boring, and there's been no vamp activity.  He says he's actually anxious to get back to school..Willow deduces that this is because he's still hot for Buffy.  Xander denies it, and they share a moment where they almost kiss.  Suddenly a vampire shows up, but is picked off of them by Buffy, who just got back in town.  She  finds out that this is the first vamp attack in Sunnydale since she left for L.A, and comments that it's almost like they waited for her.  They tell her that they buried the Master's bones, and performed a ritual while she was gone.  Meanwhile, Buffy's mom and dad have a conversation about how Buffy seems to be really distant...even more so than normal.  Principal Snyder commiserates the woes of the repopulation of the shool (he really doesn't like students), but Giles is distracted when Miss Calendar shows up.    The gang meets up with Giles, and tells him about the vamp slaying the night before.  Giles shares that the Hellmouth may be closed, but it's still there.  Weird things can still happen.  This is actually a very funny moment...Giles says "I must consult my books", and Xander calls 8 minues and 33 seconds...he'd had a bet with Willow that within ten minutes Giles would have to consult his books about something     :) Training in the library that afternoon..Giles is taken aback by Buffy's vehemance and ferocity.  She seems to be extremely focused, and we realize that she is still haunted by her death in the season finale.  Meanwhile, in an abandoned warehouse, there is a new congregation of vampires, led by the Annointed One.  At school the next morning, Buffy is joined by Willow and Xander.  Giles shows up and tells her might have a lead on the recent vampire activity.  Buffy says they'll deal with it, and Giles says "Oh I don't know...I killed you once, it shouldn't be too difficult to do it again".  Suddenly he turns into the Master, and tries to kill her while Xander and Willow look on.  She wakes up from the dream, and finds Angel in her room.  He's come to see how she is, and also because he's missed her, but Buffy gets on the offensive with him. He warns her that the A-1 is gathering forces, but he doesn't know why.  Buffy wails on him some more, and Angel makes to leave.  Right before, he turns his back and says "I missed you."  Buffy responds, but he's already gone and doesn't hear her.  That day at school, Cordelia asks the gang if they've been fighting demons that summer.  They try to explain to her that this kind of stuff can't be mentioned to people who don't know Buffy's the Slayer.  Buffy is cruel to Cordelia, and Xader and Willow finally get an inkling that there's something wrong with her.   They talk about it at the Bronze that night before Buffy shows up.  Elsewhere, some of the vampire congregation are digging up the Master's Bones.  Buffy shows up and has a little convo with Angel.  He tries to find out what's wrong, thinking he's done something to make her mad (and it bothers him...big sigh), but she wails on him and tells him "there is no us"  and that she's moved on to the living.  To further alienate Angel, Buffy lays the whammy on Xander, and dances seductively with him...making both Angel and Willow jealous.  Upon leaving the Bronze, Cordelia confronts Buffy about her bitchy behavior.  She tells her if she doesn't straighten up, she's "gonna loose the loser friends" she has.  Buffy leaves, and Cordelia is abducted by some vampires.  She's taken to the abandoned warehouse, where she finds Miss Calendar has also already been taken.  While walking home from the Bronze, Buffy walks past the Master's grave and finds that his bones are gone.  The next morning at school, Willow, Xander and Giles are trying to figure out what's wrong with Buffy.  Giles thinks she's just still upset over being killed..ie, she's got issues.  Buffy shows up and tells the group that the Master's been taken.  She states that the vamps are going to bring the Master back to life, and Giles says he's never heard of a revivication spell being performed successfully, and Buffy wails on him for not telling her it was a possibility.  In the course of the conversation, she also snaps at Willow and Xander. In the library, Giles figures out that for the ceremony the vamps need the blood of the person closest to the Master at the time of his death.  Buffy thinks that means her, because of the "connection" they obtained by killing eachother.  Just then, a ransom note is thrown through the window attatched to a rock, telling Buffy to go to the Bronze before it opens, or else Cordelia will be killed.  She makes the others stay there, and goes alone.  On the way to the Bronze, she comes across Angel.  He wants to help her, but Buffy gets defensive and puts him down, telling her she doesn't trust him, and trying to pick a fight with him.  Inside the Bronze, Buffy and Angel find a vampire decoy who looks like Cordelia.  Buffy leaves the vamp in Angel's care, and she runs back to school, smelling a trap.  At the school, Giles has discovered that the translation actually means "the blood of the people who were NEAREST to the Master at the time of his death...Giles, Willow, Miss Calendar, and Cordelia.  They realize it's a trap just as vamps enter the library, and take everyone but Xander.  Buffy arrives at the library to find it a mess, and Xander mad as hell.  He blames it on her, saying if she'd been with them, if she hadn't had these "issues", it wouldn't have happened.  They figure out what's going on, and go back to the Bronze to torture the vamp decoy and find out where their friends have been taken.  Buffy, in her newfound viciousness, tortures the vamp by dropping a cross in her mouth and holding it shut. At the warehouse, Giles, Jenny, Willow, and Cordelia are hung upside down over the Master's bones.  Buffy, Angel and Xander show up, and Buffy attacks the vamps while Angel and Xander free the others.  The A-1 escapes, but Buffy kills all of the other vamps.  Then she picks up a sledgehammer that one of the vamps was gonna use on her, and smashes the Master's bones.  She breaks down in tears, and Angel comforts her.  The next day at school, Buffy's worried that everyone will hate her because of the way she acted, but all is forgiven. Flaws:  An editing problem, really.  One scene shows Buffy's mom driving Buffy to school.  Buffy is wearing a Pink lacy shirt with spagetti straps, and Audrey Hepburn sunglasses.  Joyce asks her what's wrong....etc.  We don't see much of Buffy that day at school....but the next day (after having gone to the Bronze and danced w/ Xander and seen that the Master's bones were taken), Buffy shows up in the same outfit, with the same hair and everything.  That scene in the car should have been on THAT day.  Thoughts on the Episode:  I didn't really enjoy this episode, other than the cool Cibo Matto music, and the scenes showing Angel's jealousy.  We do kind of get a glimmer, however, that if Buffy weren't in the picture, Xander and Willow might have gotten together.  After spending the whole summer Buffy-less, Xander and Willow are almost kissing.  But Buffy shows up and Xander melts all over again.  Best Line:  Principal Snyder:  "It always gets me...one day the campus is bare...completely empty.  And the next, there are children, everywhere.  Like Locusts.  Crawling around; mindlessly bent on feeding and mating..destroying everything in sight in their relentless, pointless desire to exist."

"When She Was Bad"

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