Season 2, Episode 19

Written by Marti Noxon

Directed by James Whitmore Jr.

Original Airdate: 28 April 1998

"Something weird is going on. Isn't that our school motto?"
Xander
 

REGULAR CAST

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

• Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase

• David Boreanaz as Angelus

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

GUEST CAST

• Meredith Salenger as Grace Newman

• Christopher Gorham as James Stanley

• John Hawkes as George

• Brian Reddy as Bob

• James Marsters as Spike

• Juliet Landau as Drusilla

• Armin Shimerman as Principal R. Snyder

CO-STARRING

• Miriam Flynn as Mrs. Frank

• Brian Poth as Fighting Boy

• Sarah Bibb as Fighting Girl

• James Lurie as Mr. Miller

• Ryan Taszreak as Benjamin Straley

• Anna Coma-Hidy as 50's Girl #1

• Vanessa Bednar as 50's Girl #2

SYNOPSIS

• At the Bronze, Buffy is approached by a boy named Ben who's looking for a date for the Sadie Hawkins dance. Still severely scared from her relationship with Angel, Buffy rejects him harshly claiming that she's not going to be dating ever again. While Willow attempts to heal Buffy's wounds, she finds it is no use, and Buffy decides to leave and check in with Giles. In the halls of Sunnydale High, Buffy runs into two students having a fight. The guy pulls out a gun and points it at the girl. Buffy breaks it up in time for the two to remember what happened, but they don't remember why. The gun has also disappeared.
  
  The next day, Principal Snyder has a field day trying to blame Buffy for the incident that happened that night. While waiting in his office, a yearbook from 1955 falls off the shelf. After Willow finishes teaching her class, Giles comes in to check on how she is doing. She gives him a rose quartz that she found in Jenny's desk. In class later that day, Buffy starts daydreaming about a relationship a student had with his teacher. As she comes back to the present, she finds that the teacher has written "Don't walk away from me bitch!" on the chalk board. While Buffy tries to explain her concern for the weird activities, Xander finds a monster arm coming out of his locker and it grabs him. Buffy helps him break away, but when they re-open the locker there is no arm to be seen.
  
  Giles is intrigued by the case as usual and looks forward to looking into the possibility of a ghost. Meanwhile, Angelus, Spike and Drusilla are moving into a mansion. Angelus, being his usual self, flirts with Drusilla in Spike's face. While Giles is studying in his office later that night, he hears an argument between a man and a woman out in the halls. Thinking that he's heard Jenny, he goes to stop the argument, only to find that he has arrived too late. The janitor, who was arguing with a teacher, has shot her and she's fallen over the balcony of the school, dead. Giles is convinced that it's Jenny that's haunting the school. Buffy, Xander and Willow can't believe how positive he is that it's Jenny.
  
  Buffy, Xander and Willow head off to the computer lab to talk. Willow searches on her laptop for information about what happened in 1955. They find out that the student and teacher in Buffy's dream, James Stanley and Grace Newman, died that year on the night of the Sadie Hawkins Dance. James killed Grace after people began to talk about their affair. She has tried to break it off, but he pulled out a gun in anger and shot her. In pain, James then committed suicide. Meeting with Cordelia, the group head to the cafeteria for lunch. Cordelia is complaining about the Sadie Hawkins dance. A scream pierces the room, and they find out that their food has been transformed into snakes. The room begins to empty quickly and Cordelia is bitten on the face by a snake.
  
  Outside, she receives medical attention while professionals gather up all of the snakes. Snyder talks to the police chief about the incident and reveals that he knows that there is a Hellmouth beneath them.
  
  At Buffy's house that night, Willow devises a plan to contain the spirits. They head off to the school where they prepare. Buffy continues to suffer from flashbacks of the night Grace and James died, while Cordelia finds herself in the girls bathroom examining her bitten face. Xander goes to the cafeteria, while Willow walks the halls. Giles startles her when she walks by the library. Giles is trying to summon Jenny's spirit and asks Willow to leave.
  
  Buffy hears music coming from the Music Room and goes there, only to see Grace and James dancing inside. James' face suddenly changes to a gory mess, startling Buffy. Cordelia looks in the mirror to find that her face has turned a gory red colour. On the stairwell, Willow begins to sink into the floor. She cries out for Giles and he rushes to save her. Willow finally convinces him that the spirit is not Jenny. The clock strikes, and everyone implements Willow's plan. They light candles and start chanting. The candles blow out and a swarm of wasps enter the school. Everyone rushes out, and turn back to find the school surrounded by wasps.
  
  In the mansion, Drusilla gets a vision. Angelus watches her dance about as she tells the story of Buffy meeting with death. He again flaunts his romantic relationship with Drusilla in front of Spike. As Angelus holds Drusilla tight against him, anger rips through Spike's eyes. Later at Buffy's house, everyone is recuperating while Buffy continues to show her anger towards James. Giles tries to help, but Buffy's own experiences are making it difficult for her to forgive anyone. She rushes off to the kitchen where she finds an advert for the Sadie Hawkins dance in her pocket. She heads to the school where the wasps part for her to enter. Back at the Summers house, Willow finds the advert and everyone rushes after Buffy. They have no way of getting inside the wasp-ridden school, so all they can do is hope that there is no one who can help her re-enact the events.
  
  Angelus appears in the halls as Buffy, now possessed by James, talks to him as if he were Grace. Angelus finds her behaviour freaky until the spirit of Grace is able to get a hold of his body. They continue the fight as it happened and Buffy pulls out a gun. She shoots Angelus and he falls off the balcony dead. 'James' rushes off to the music room where he plans to kill himself. 'Grace,' unable to be killed by bullets due to her possession of Angelus' body, wakes up and makes her way to the music room just in time to stop James in Buffy's body from pulling the trigger. They exchange apologies and kiss. The spirits, now able to pass on, leave the bodies of the former lovers. Buffy and Angelus break away from the kiss and Angelus realizes what he has been doing. Throwing Buffy aside, he rushes off. Buffy copes with what happened, while Xander, Willow and Cordelia check out the school for any remains of snakes or wasps.
  
  At the mansion, Angelus scrubs furiously at his body, knowing how close he has been with Buffy. Drusilla and Angelus go off to feed and as soon as they leave, Spike finally gets out of his wheelchair and kicks it aside: Spike is back and he means trouble.

TRIVIA

• Meredith Salenger's name is misspelled Salinger in the credits.

• Joss Whedon claims that it was David Boreanaz' performance in this episode that convinced him that David could hold his own spin off.

• When the episode was originally screened in America, it was followed by a public service announcement about teen suicide. The announcement, co-sponsored by Cedars Sinai Medical Centre's Teen Line and the American Association of Sociology, was voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar.

• When Willow suggests an exorcism, Cordelia replies "Are you crazy? I saw that movie: even the priests died!" She's referring to the 1973 movie The Exorcist. The film was banned in the UK for more than fifteen years.

CONTINUITY

• After a few previous hints, it's revealed that Principal Snyder knows that the school is on the Hellmouth, and is in collusion with Mayor Wilkins and the authorities. Snyder flinches when he hears Mayor Wilkins' name - and we discover why in season three. Principal Snyder was given the job of Sunnydale High Principal because the City Council thought he could help keep the Hellmouth's existence a secret.

• Angelus is still, perhaps surprisingly, wearing his claddagh ring, but unlike Surprise, the heart is now pointing outwards, indicating that it doesn't belong to anyone anymore.

• Willow is still teaching Jenny's computer class, from her teaching plans, and will continue to do so until the season finale.

• At one point, while looking for options to rid themselves of the ghosts, Xander suggests they nuke the school. The Scooby Gang blow up Sunnydale High in Graduation Day (Part 2).

GOOFS

• The first time the Scoobies come out of the school and stand back to look at what has happened, you can see that Buffy is hugging Xander. Later on, when Buffy has already entered the school, the rest of the gang gather outside and try to figure out what they are going to do. You can see Buffy's legs there even though she is meant to be inside the school.

• When the group are in the library, Xander slams his book shut and you see it is a few inches from the edge. In the next shot you see that the books are right at the edge of the table.

• When the yearbook in Snyder's office falls off the shelf, it lands open. When Buffy reaches down to pick it up, however, it is closed.

• Giles, Willow and Xander stand outside the school watching the entrance after Buffy goes in. Why didn't they see Angelus entering the school?

When She Was Bad | Some Assembly Required | School Hard | Inca Mummy Girl | Reptile Boy

Halloween | Lie to Me | The Dark Age | What's My Line? (Part 1) | What's My Line? (Part 2) | Ted

Bad Eggs | Surprise | Innocence | Phases | Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered | Passion

Killed by Death | I Only Have Eyes for You | Go Fish | Becoming (Part 1) | Becoming (Part 2)