As Buffy attempts to figure out what is wrong with her mother, a new arrival in Sunnydale looks like becoming a major threat…

Okay, this is where it all starts. After five weeks of puzzlement, we find out who Dawn is and the season villain (presumably, anyway) is introduced. Meanwhile, Giles opens the magic shop for trade, Anya gets a job and Spike tries to deal with his recent epiphany. There’s a lot going on here, but somehow the episode seems rather slow. Kicking off with some monks running for their lives from ‘the Beast’, it seems like there’s going to be plenty of action, but it still doesn’t quite flow properly, possibly due to trying to do too much in one story.

What it does have is some great comedy. Everything centring around Giles and the magic shop is brilliant. Buffy’s arrival to be greeted by a Watcher dressed as a wizard is priceless and perfectly timed by both the people involved. Giles’ reaction to firstly no customers and then more than he can cope with provides a great comic backdrop to more serious events, not to mention Anya’s method of dealing with customers. Spike’s encounter with Buffy is also very funny, even more so when we see the pile of cigarette butts left on the ground. The new villain (the aforementioned ‘Beast’) makes a good opening impression with some quality lines and a superb dust-up with Buffy where the Slayer really seems to be out of her depth. The last time that happened was with the unstoppable Adam, and this challenge looks even tougher.

Buffy’s realization that Dawn isn’t really her sister is also well done, if overlong, with particular credit going to the effects as Buffy wanders from room to room with each flashing ‘on and off’ to show what the house should look like. After the early confrontation, it also makes the final scene of the ‘sisters’ quite touching.

Aside from the slowness of the episode, the other reason it loses a mark is being a little incoherent, telling the viewer a lot in a short space of time that probably takes a couple of watches to take in. Dawn is a key of some sort, but it’s not totally clear to what, and Buffy has to protect her. It’d actually be good to see Dawn stay after this season ends, as she’s a great character to have around, and this set-up might enable that. The Beast’s identity/race etc aren’t revealed, and it’s a little convenient for a monk to turn up to handily tell Buffy everything she needs to know. I’m still rather confused by the whole thing, but hopefully things will get clearer in time. Not a bad episode then, just a puzzling one, given that it was designed to be revelatory instead…

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