Buffy and Giles are out Vampire Slaying (as you do) and Giles criticises her technique. Giles discovers a ring left behind by the newly dusted vampire and a little research reveals it to belong to a member of the Order of Aurelius. However, no more work can be done as a student enters the library. he's called Owen and he's looking for a book by Emily Dickinson.

In the cafeteria, Buffy and Willow gossip about Owen. They try to avoid guessing what the green stuff is that is supposed to be food and Buffy decides that they should go and sit with Owen who is on his own. Cordelia gets the same idea and 'accidentally' knocks Buffy and her food flying.

Cordelia asks Owen if he'd like to go to the Bronze with her, but he brushes her off and asks Buffy out instead. She accepts, but as always the life of the Chosen One gets in the way, this time in the form of a prophecy. So, instead of being at the Bronze, having a life, she is stuck in the cemetery with Giles waiting for the Anointed One to rise. The Anointed One will rise from the ashes of five to lead the Slayer into Hell.

After, Buffy and Giles spend most of the night sitting in the cold, Giles gives in and lets her go and salvage what is left of her date with Owen. Unfortunately, when she gets there she see that Cordelia has taken the advantage and is dancing, very intimately, with Owen for all to see. Buffy, sad, leaves.

Meanwhile, a minibus carrying five people crashes into a vampire standing in the middle of the road. As the driver gets out to check the vampire, he steps into their trap. All are killed by the vampires.

The next day, Owen seeks out Buffy and asks her out. Xander watches, upset by this (well he does *like* her!). As Buffy is about to leave on her date, Giles appears with today's newspaper, whose headline story is the deaths of the minibus passengers. He insists on going to check it out, but Buffy refuses to join them and goes on her date with Owen.

Giles goes to the funeral home by himself and is met by a couple of nasty looking vampires. he fends them off with a cross, and barricades himself in an office in the funeral home. Willow and Xander find him and he sends them to get help.

They go to find Buffy.

At the Bronze, Angel shows up and asks her why she isn't helping the others to foil the prophecy. Eventually, Willow and Xander turn up and tactfully tell her that there's trouble at the funeral home. Owen wants to tag along, but Buffy orders him to stay put. Which he doesn't.

Buffy puts Willow and Xander in charge of keeping him alive and puts them somewhere she hopes is safe. Buffy goes to find Giles and discovers him hiding on top of a corpse in cold storage.

After barricading the door shut, Willow, Xander and Owen discover the strange man from the minibus is in there with them, and he's a vampire.

They quickly unbarricade the door as the only thing keeping the vampire from them, a glass window, is breaking. As they make theor escape, they run into Buffy who tells them to get away and go somewhere safe.

She tries to take care of the so-called Anointed One, but retreats back to Giles for weapons. Unfortunately the vampire followed too and he knocks Giles out and throws him towards the cemetoriun incinerator. Giles knocks the button which lights the fire.

Buffy isn't strong enough and the vampire overpowers her. But just at that moment, Owen comes in and rugby-tackles him, so buffy can scramble free. The vampire smashes Owen's head against the metal door of a cold-storage chamber. Owen slumps to the ground, supposedly dead.

Buffy is, understandably, quite miffed at the casual murder of her date and beats the vampire into a mushy pulp before pushing him into the incinerator.

Happily, Owen isn't dead, just knocked out, and comes around soon after. Buffy offers to walk him home, but he refuses so Willow and Xander make sure he gets home safely.

The next day, Owen seeks out Buffy again wanting to go on another adventure. Buffy realises that he only likes her for her slaying, so, sadly she turns him down. After he walks off, Buffy goes to find Giles and he tells her about how he become a Watcher and how he wanted to be a Pilot (or a grocer)

Thinking that they have foiled the Master's plan they are quite pleased with their day's work, but what they don't know is that the Annointed One did rise, and they didn't kill him. In his lair the Master welcomes a young boy, Colin, the Anointed One.

Our View -
The first of (many) examples of Slaying getting in the way of Buffy's social life. Poor girl.
Our Score - 4

The Professional view
This epsiode takes a whle to get going, with a slow build up to a strong climax. Buffy's overty girly attempts to interest Owen are an obvious highlight. The double-bluffs over the identity of the Anointed One are well handled too.
Their Score - 6