"When She Was Bad"
Buffy returns to Sunnydale after a summer in LA with her father, & she's a little different... almost Cordelia-like, only worse because Buffy's fully aware of her mean actions and their effects. The reason is that she's still miffed about the whole her-being-killed-by-the-Master thing. She's got reason to worry about her past foe. See, the anointed one is still alive, & his followers are convinced that if they get the blood of all the people who were in the room when the Master died, combined with Master-bones, that the Master will be flesh again. Buffy must save her kidnapped friends. Once she does & kills the anointed one's followers, Buffy gets over her experience with the Master by sledge-hammering his bones to bits. Thankfully, Buffy's friends forgive her for her less-than-Buffy behavior.
"Some Assembly Required"
The discovery of dug-up graves lead the Scooby Gang to discover that someone is making a person out of parts. They figure it is these two guys- Chris & Eric- but don't know why, yet. Chris' brother, Daryl, died a year or so before. Daryl was a football hero, admired by many. When he died, Chris brought him back. Daryl is so lonely now that he begs Chris to make him someone to love. They've used parts from already dead people, but they need a fresh head. Cordelia becomes an unwilling donor. Buffy comes to the rescue & Daryl willingly dies in flames. Other occurrences in this episode are that Giles & Jenny Calendar share their first date, & Buffy & Angel are basically together.
"School Hard"
Buffy is bullied by Principal Snyder into organizing a Parent-Teacher night for the school. Unfortunately, they have crashers. A new unconventional vampire has arrived in town looking to run the place. His name is Spike, & he has a sickly girlfriend named Drusilla with him. We learn Angel sired, as in made a vamp, Spike. Buffy's mother relationship is tested, but Joyce comes out feeling that Buffy's someone who can take care of herself & others. In the end, Buffy's mom saves the day by hitting Spike over the head with an ax. Afterward, Snyder & Police cover up the incident by claiming it was a gang on PCP. Lastly, Spike decides to take over the vamp-scene by force. He kills the anointed one, & him & Dru go to see what's on the tele.
"Inca Mummy Girl"
Xander develops a crush on an exchange student. Her name is Ampata- well, sorta. See, Ampata was a boy exchange student, but an ancient Inca mummy had been awakened & needed to feed. It fed off the real Ampata & assumed Ampata's identity. All fake-Ampata wanted was a normal life. When she was 16, she was offered as a sacrifice & that's why she is what she is. It's not her fault, but she's still killing people sustaining her human qualities. She sorta falls in love with Xander, which utterly depresses Willow because Xander likes her back. But, Will's unluckiness in love could soon end, as a guitarist named Oz takes notice of Willow in this episode. Anyway, Buffy & Giles figure it out about Ampata & save Xander before Ampata's kiss becomes fatal. In the end, Ampata just dries up from lack of life & falls to bits.
"Reptile Boy"
Buffy & Angel have a tisk over Buffy's desire to date Angel. Buffy & Giles have a tisk over Buffy's desire to have some fun time. The tisks combined make Buffy want to cut loose. A bunch of Frat guys need to bring sacrifices to a demon that brings them wealth. With Buffy feeling scattered, she decides to attend a party at the Frat. Her & Cordelia become the sacrifices. The Scooby Gang crash, & help take care of some of the Frat guys, but Buffy ultimately does the slaying. In the end, the Frat guys go to jail, & Angel decides to give this dating thing a try.
"Halloween"
On Halloween, the demons shy away. However, a guy named Ethan Rayne has come to Sunnydale. Using magic he makes everyone turn into what costume they are wearing for Halloween. Willow becomes a ghost, Xander becomes an army guy, & Buffy is rendered helpless as an 18th century girl. Spike uses this as an opportunity to kill Buffy. But, Giles gets to Ethan before that & changes everyone back to normal. See, Giles knows Ethan. They go way back. To when Giles was bad.
"Lie To Me"
We learn that Angel made Drusilla a vampire. He found her as a human, killed everyone she loved, drove her crazy, & then made her a vamp. An old friend of Buffy's has come to Sunnydale. Sadly, he isn't there on the up & up. Ford has brain cancer & feels that the only way for him is to become a vampire. He makes a deal with Spike to trade Buffy for immortality. Buffy figures that out, but a trap is already set by then. A group of wantta-be vampires & Buffy are up for the feeding, offered by Ford. Buffy manages to fight off Spike & free everyone. Even though Spike didn't get Buffy, he shows his unconventional nature by honoring his side of the deal. Ford becomes a vampire, & Buffy stakes him.
"The Dark Age"
Ethan Rayne returns as we learn about Giles' past. When Giles was young, he revolted & got involved with a group of magic practicers. To invoke a high, a demon named Eyghon was summoned. Somehow, the demon was summoned again & was killing everyone in the magic group. Ethan & Giles are the last. Jenny Calendar gets possessed by Eyghon, & Willow finds a way to transport the demon-spirit (it can only be transported to someone unconscious or dead) into Angel because he's dead. The vamp in Angel, kills the demon.
"What's My Line" pts. 1 & 2
Spike is planning a ritual to revive Drusilla back to health. He wants everything to go smoothly, so he hires the order of Taraka- a group of determined assassins- to kill Buffy. While Angel strives to protect Buffy, Spike nabs Angel, who it turns out is essential to Dru's revival because he made Dru a vamp. Meanwhile, Cordelia & Xander kiss in spite of themselves, & Oz & Willow finally meet & there is attraction there. A girl named Kendra enters the scene. She is another slayer, she was called when Buffy drown in last season's finale. Together, Buffy & Kendra botch Spike's plans, kill the Tarakan assassins, & save Angel. However, even though Angel lives, the ritual still worked. Drusilla was revived, & Spike, hurt from his fight with the slayers, was left wheelchair-bound. Afterward, Kendra leaves, having completed her assignment. Cordy & Xander still can't fight their attraction, & Willow & Oz are flirtatious.
"Ted"
Buffy's mom gets a boyfriend, so naturally Buffy is looking to see Ted (the bf) in some shady light. However, she has reason to think Ted's a bad guy. He is. Ted's a robot, that's original maker cloned of himself to reek revenge on his deceitful wife. Now, robot Ted keeps finding women like real Ted's wife to punish. Buffy takes care of the robot, & Buffy's mom is once again single.
"Bad Eggs"
Buffy comes up against two vampire brothers, Lyle & Tector Gorch. Tector dies, but Lyle gets away. Also, a big underground demon is using student's parent-egg projects to take control of the eggsitters & make them work to spread it's eggs. Everyone but Buffy & Xander become affected, so the two must stop the rein of the egg-monsters, otherwise known as Bazors. At the end, Buffy & Angel share kisses on Buffy's window sill.
"Surprise"
Buffy's prophetic dreams cause Buffy to worry about Angel's safety. It's her 17th birthday & the gang throw her a party (where Willow & Oz share their first date) that's crashed by the news of the big bad guy of the week, called The Judge. The Judge has the power to burn alive anything with human feeling by touch. Buffy & Angel have an encounter with the Judge, who is brought together by Drusilla, but escape. The encounter leaves Buffy & Angel with the need to seize the moment. The two confess their love for each other & then share one night of passion, but peace doesn't last long as Angel awakens in pain.
"Innocence"
Angel & Buffy's night of true happiness causes a trigger in Angel's soul-curse. See, the gypsies put a clause so that Angel would lose his soul if he ever were content with himself & his life. Now Angel is soulless, & evil, & out to get Buffy. He joins up with old pals Spike & Dru, & this the Judge, to reek havoc. Meanwhile, we learn that Miss Calendar is a descendent of the gypsy tribe that cursed Angel, & was sent to Sunnydale to watch over Angel. She didn't know what would happen, the lose of soul thing, but it still causes rifts between Jenny & the Scooby Gang. Also, Willow learns about the Xander/Cordelia affair & is hurt. Buffy must deal with that she's lost Angel as she's known him in order to fight the evil that Angel has become. She's rids the world of the Judge, & has a showdown with Angel. But she can't kill Angel. So he leaves to reek havoc on the world. And her.
"Phases"
The full moon is out as Willow wonders why things aren't moving faster with Oz. It could be because Oz is going through some changes. His cousin Jordy bit him, & as it happens Jordy is a werewolf. When animals start getting mauled, Oz has worries. Oz touches no human, & the one they suspect was killed by a werewolf was actually killed by Angel. Anyway, Willow goes to confront Oz on his unusual behavior & finds out first hand what Oz is. Thankfully no one gets hurt, & wolfy-Oz takes a nice long nap. At the end, Willow decides that three days out of the month as a wolfer isn't enough to make her not want to be with Oz.
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
Cordelia's friends snub her after learning about her & Xander. So, she dumps him on Valentine's day. To retaliate, Xander asks Amy, who's taken up her mother's witchy craft, to do a spell to make Cordy want him again. It back fires & every girl in Sunnydale, but Cordy, goes crazy for Xander. Giles has to get Amy to put aside her emotions long enough to reverse her spells. Afterward, Cordy snubs her friends in loo that she's not a sheep, & she can date whoever she wants to date.
"Passion"
Angel steps up his harassment of Buffy. He leaves her pictures showing that he comes in & out of her house, he kills Willow's fish, he goes after her mom- they have to get a spell to deinvite him. And he does another really bad thing, although the true purpose of his action is not known to them for several months. He breaks Jenny Calendar's neck & places her on Giles' bed. Giles goes after Angel, & Buffy has to save Giles from death. Afterward, Buffy realizes it is time for the kill with Angel. And a disk falls behind a desk, unseen by all... the disk? Well, it's the true reason Jenny was killed. She'd found the curse to give Angel back his soul. Dru, with her psychic ability, knew; so Angel killed Jenny, but not before she saved the spell to a little yellow disk... now behind her old desk, unknown & unseen.
"Killed By Death"
An invisible demon is preying on children infected with the flu. Buffy gets put in the hospital by the flu & a little fight with Angel. Buffy figures that the demon is called Kindestod & it can only be seen by those with the flu virus. Buffy also remembers that it was this demon that killed a cousin of hers as a child. Buffy infects herself with a strong flu so she can see this invisible-to-the-flufree demon. Buffy breaks it's neck, & then all is well.
"I Only Have Eyes For You"
A ghost is reenacting the events around his death at Sunnydale High. He was having an affair with a teacher & when she broke it off, he shot her & then himself. People are acting these events out, & people are dying. Meanwhile, Angel decides he's done playing with Buffy, now's the time to kill. Angel & Drusilla's romantic behavior toward each other is severely angering Spike. Buffy is feeling guilty about Angel. Giles is pretty much gone & convinced that Jenny is the ghost, so Willow must take charge & try to exercise the spirit. It doesn't work. James, the ghost, has taken an attachment to Buffy because of her quilt toward Angel, because it's like his guilt about the teacher, Grace. He draws Buffy to the school, & Angel shows, wanting to finally give Buffy that last torture- when the reenactment takes place. Only Buffy is James, & Angel is Grace. Buffy shoots Angel, but since he's a vampire, he doesn't die... so Grace goes to James & they make amends. Their spirits at rest, they leave the world. & Buffy & Angel are left in an embrace which he quickly pushes away from & runs off into the night. He goes back to Spike & Dru, & once Dru & Angel leave for a kill, angry Spike revels that he doesn't need the wheelchair any longer.
"Go Fish"
Members of the Sunnydale swim team are turning up eviscerated, as in nothing but skin. The Scooby Gang assumes it's a beast eating the victim's insides. However, it is actually the swimmers themselves shedding their skin & becoming fish-monsters. See, they thought they were receiving steroids, but actually were receiving doses of chemicals to make them fishes for "the win". Buffy, with the help of undercover swim team member Xander, figure out what's what, stop the evil swim coach, & the swim team boys get plasma treatments to reverse the effects of their fishy treatments.
"Becoming" pt.1
In this episode, pieces of Angel's past are shown. A scene appears in which Darla makes this drunken layabout into a vampire; a scene where Angel becomes obsessed with a psychic human named Drusilla who is striving to be "good & pure"; a scene where evil Angel is cursed with a soul by gypsies happy to see Angel feel so much pain for his past actions; & a scene where a good demon named Whistler introduces himself to a homeless vampire with a soul. Whistler tells Angel that he has a chance to become someone, he shows Angel Buffy (who is about to be called as the slayer). Angel's viewing of Buffy makes Angel decide to learn from Whistler. About how to survive & how to fight. Currently, Angel is out to end the world. A stone statue with a sword in it is actually a demon called Acathla that, with one breath, will suck the world into Hell. Angel is trying to pull the sword out, but it must be done in a certain ritual way that Angel doesn't know all the details for, so he decides to get someone who knows how to interpret- Giles. Meanwhile, Kendra is back in town because her watcher says big evil is a coming. And Buffy gets deja vu of the computer disk with the curse on it. The disk is found! & they understand what it is & why Jenny was killed. There is a huge debate on whether or not to do the curse, but they decide that it's safest. Angel has hashed a plan to get Buffy away from Giles- who he needs to learn how to do the ritual right. It ends up that Buffy is fighting Angel while Drusilla & vamps attack the library. The vamps break Xander's arm, knock Giles out, & push a bookcase over Willow. Then enters Drusilla, who hypnotizes Kendra with two fingers & then slashes the young slayer's throat. The vamps leave, taking Giles with them. Buffy reaches the library seconds too late & finds Kendra's body as Whistler's voice overlaps the scene with a speech on what matters is what you do after the big moments. Then, enter the cops with: "Freeze."
"Becoming" pt.2
Buffy runs from the cops, she's now a fugitive. She sneaks her way into the hospital to see if anyone is OK. Willow is in a coma & Giles is missing. Before Willow wakes, Xander tells her that he loves her. She says in half-sleep "Oz" & wakes up. Buffy is in search of Giles. She goes to his place & finds... Whistler. Buffy is too much in a hurry to listen to him. She leaves & runs into... Spike, who is looking to make a deal. He hates Angel & wants himself & Buffy to unite against Angel. It's the best plan, so Buffy goes along with it. Meanwhile, Buffy's mom sees Buffy slaying, & hence, she finds out what Buffy is. But she can't deal. Buffy has to go save the world when Joyce wants to talk. Joyce tells Buffy that if she leaves, she's gone for good. And, of course, Buffy has to go. Buffy goes back to the library to pick up a sword needed to take care of Angel, when there she encounters Principal Snyder, who tells her that she's expelled. Elsewhere, Angel's torturing of Giles isn't working to get the info Angel needs, so Dru uses her witchy ways to make Giles perceive Dru as Jenny, & he tells all. Buffy is almost ready to take on Angel for the final time, but needs to make a stop to talk to Whistler. Whistler tells Buffy that if Angel gets the sword out of Acathla, then she'll have to give him one blow to save the world, which'll send Angel & Acathla to Hell. Buffy is ready for the fight, Xander is there to get Giles out safely, only Willow has asked something else of him- to tell Buffy that Willow is trying the curse again- but Xander doesn't tell Buffy... The ritual is all done only Angel has yet to pull out the sword. Buffy attacks & Spike helps. Spike & Dru tisk, Spike knocks her out & takes her away. Angel gets the sword out & is about to kill Buffy when she regains her equilibrium. She's about to send Angel to Hell when... elsewhere, Willow is doing the curse, she gets possessed by something, & the curse is completed... something goes through Angel & he's her Angel again, but it's too late. If she doesn't stab him, the world will be sucked into Hell. So she kisses him, & sticks a sword in his chest. Afterward, there is nothing to do in Buffy's eyes, but leave Sunnydale. She gives one last look to see if her friends are OK, & then boards a bus to a destination unknown.