The training of the new Slayers isn't going well, as they all believe they will die the first time they enter combat. Therefore Buffy decides to take on the Ubervamp in a fight to the finish.

It seems to have reached the point where there are too many characters to deal with. Aside from the usual gang, we've got Giles, a bunch of Slayers and Andrew all kicking around the house, and it's difficult to find something for them all to do. Andrew is particularly ignored here, as no one is willing to give him the chance to do something evil. If he's going to be kept away from the action all season, why bother having him around?

There's a bunch of stuff I like: the core team (Buffy, Xander and Willow) acting as trainers for the young new arrivals works well, as the three are now old enough and close enough friends to work as a cohesive unit and, as is literally proved, know what each other is thinking. In fact, the telepathy seen is excellent, especially the way we're not aware of what's happened until a little further down the line. The Potentials, on the other hand, continue to annoy, although the whole point of this episode is to stop their whining and make them better prepared to fight. Hopefully form here on they'll be a little more capable. At the moment, the only one showing much personality is Kennedy, who I actually believe could be a Slayer. The others don't really cut it, and frankly could do with Dawn showing them some moves and demonstrating that you don't need special powers to kick some ass.

I still have some problems with the Ubervamp. He's vulnerable to sunlight, fine. He's a formidable opponent, okay. But considering what a pasting Buffy took last episode, he seems to put up much less of a fight this time out, maybe because he realizes he won't win. Either that or Buffy is putting more effort in. After all, at the end of the day, he's still vulnerable to at least two of the traditional vamp tactics.

I'm more confident that Giles is real now, simply because he's a lot more like himself when he heads out with Anya to do some chatting with a demon made entirely of eyes. A very cheap demon, by all accounts. We're back to the portents again, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and the trip does remind me why Giles and Anya made such a fun team in the first place.

This is a better episode than the previous one, and it ends with a really lovely scene in which, after all his tortures, Spike is rescued by Buffy. But it's still only average. Something needs to happen to kick the story back in again.

***

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