Season 3, Episode 1

Written by Joss Whedon

Directed by Joss Whedon

Original Airdate: 29 September 1998

"I don't want any trouble. I just wanna be alone and quiet in a room with a chair and a fireplace and a tea cozy. I don't even know what a tea cozy is, but I want one."
Buffy

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 Angel

• Seth Green as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

GUEST CAST

• Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers

• Julia Lee as Lily/Anne Steele

• Carlos Jacott as Ken

• Mary-Pat Green as Blood Bank Nurse

• Chad Todhunter as Rickie

CO-STARRING

• Larry Bagby III as Larry Blaisdell

• James Lurie as Mr. Miller

• Michael Leopard as Roughneck

• Harley Zumbrum as Demon Guard

• Barbara Pilavin as Old Woman

• Harrison Young as Old Man

• Alex Toma as Aaron

• Dell Yount as Truck Guy

SYNOPSIS

• Sunnydale is lacking a Slayer, and the Scooby Gang are trying to temporarily take her place. They attempt to slay, but they're just not the Slayer. Meanwhile, Buffy has taken up residence in Los Angeles, where she's living in a tiny apartment and working as a waitress at a diner, Helen's Kitchen. She dreams about being on a beach, where Angel finds her. He tells her that he'll never leave, not even if she kills him. She then wakes up.
  
  The next day, school starts in Sunnydale and Willow finds disappointment when Oz tells her that since he didn't graduate and didn't go to summer school, he's stuck repeating senior year with her. She doesn't know what to think about it. Giles continues his search to find Buffy, following all the leads he has, only to be disappointed by them. Xander and Cordelia, having been away from each other all summer long, both look forward to seeing each other, but seem to have forgotten how to talk to each other.
  
  While working in Helen's Kitchen, Buffy, using her middle name Anne as an alias, finds herself subjected to sexual harassment by a couple of guys that she waits on. She also encounters homeless teens Lily and Rickie, who are looking for a meal for the minor change they have. After recognizing the girl as vampire worshipper Chanterelle, Buffy leaves the diner, claiming to not be feeling well, and heads to her apartment where she just sits, staring at a can of food. While Buffy is still alone and roams the streets in search of solidarity, Giles returns from his failed search to talk to Joyce. She's afraid to leave the house in case Buffy calls or shows up. Giles tries to comfort her and tells her not to blame herself. She doesn't; instead, she blames him for taking her little girl away and having a secret life with her.
  
  Xander, Willow and Oz mope at the Bronze, listening to the depressing music and talking about how terrible their slaying technique is. Xander suggests they use bait... Cordelia. That night, Lily, the former Chanterelle, finds Buffy on the street and they discuss their previous lives. Lily asks Buffy is she has any money and wants to go to a rave. Buffy says she wants to be alone, but is willing to give Lily the money to go and spend with Rickie. An old man walks past them rudely, and then stops in the middle of the street as an oncoming car comes towards him. Buffy rushes out and pushes him out of the way, only to be hit by the car instead. People gather around her and try to call for help, but she claims to be fine and runs off. She runs into a guy, named Ken, who's passing out flyers about a group home and knocks all of his flyers to the ground. As they pick them up, he tries to make friends with her and tries to get her to visit the home. She declines, claiming she is just fine.
  
  At the Sunnydale Cemetery, Cordelia complains about being chosen as the bait. Oz checks to make sure everyone is "packing" with stakes and crosses and they all move to a hiding spot. Cordelia follows after Xander and attempts to tell him that she didn't miss him over the summer and accuses him of having a summer fling. Just then, a vampire comes up from behind Willow and attacks her. Oz knocks the vampire off and attempts to stake it, but is thrown to the ground. Xander tries too, and then Cordelia tackles the vampire and all three go down to the ground, the stake impaling the vampire and leaving Cordelia on top of Xander. The two kiss passionately.
  
  In Los Angeles, Lily goes to Buffy, telling her that Rickie is gone and that she's worried that something's happened to him. She's looking for Buffy's help. They go to the blood bank that day to see if the staff have seen Rickie. Lily and Rickie go there occasionally to get some money. The nurse says she hasn't seen him, and Buffy leaves with Lily to go search for Rickie. Buffy finds him dead on the streets, after drinking drain cleaner, with one problem: he appears to be about eighty years old.
  
  When Buffy tells Lily, she doesn't take it well and leaves. When she hits the streets, Ken finds her and convinces her into coming to the family home, telling her that Rickie is already with them, and not dead. At the blood bank, Buffy goes searching through the files trying to find out what happened to Rickie. The nurse shows up and after Buffy makes it very difficult for her not to cooperate, she says that she just gives the names of the healthy ones to 'him.'
  
  Meanwhile, Ken has gotten Lily to change clothes for the "cleansing" and leads her into another room. After a failed attempt to go in undercover, Buffy just kicks down the door of the home and finds Ken with Lily over a pool of black. However, it's too late for Lily, and she's sucked in. Buffy tries to save her, but Ken tries to keep her out. Instead, both of them fall through the black pool and into another dimension. Ken reveals himself as a demon, who had a human face glued on, and he sends his guards after the girls. The two are finally caught and told that they will be living in this Hell dimension for as long as they can serve as useful slaves.
  
  When the opportunity presents itself, Buffy reveals herself and fights off all the demons. After many rounds, she is stopped when Ken holds Lily at knifepoint. Distracted by a lecture he's presenting to Buffy, Ken ignores Lily, until she pushes him off a platform and he falls. Buffy tries to escape with all the others through a large iron gate. As she tries to get underneath while holding the heavy gate up, Ken pushes her through and in turn, gets impaled by the stakes on the gate. Buffy smashes in his head, making a strange reference to Ghandi: "Well, he was really pissed off."
  
  After giving Lily her identity as 'Anne,' Buffy leaves and heads back to Sunnydale. Back at home, Joyce opens the door to find her daughter on the front steps. After a few moments, they hug.

TRIVIA

• Stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt has a non-speaking cameo in this episode as the guy who holds the door at Family Home open when Buffy tries to bluff her way in, and who then tries to slam it in her face when she fails. He previously appeared as a vampire in Ted.

• David Boreanaz's credit as a series regular gives away the surprise of his return. The new season is celebrated with a new, updated title sequence which includes a credit for Seth Green, who is promoted to a regular cast member from this episode. The theme music, and the series' logo have also changed slightly.

• Carlos Jacott, who plays Ken in this episode, appears as Richard in Angel's The Bachelor Party and also as Lawrence Dobson in the pilot episode of Firefly.

CONTINUITY

• Lily, who takes the name Anne here, makes a new life for herself that's seen much later in Angel season two's Blood Money, The Thin Dead Line and as late as season five's Not Fade Away.

GOOFS

• While in hell, Buffy's shirt changes colours, and she also changes her shoes. The stunt double wears different items than Sarah Michelle Gellar.

• There is a discrepancy in the spelling of Rickie between Lily's tattoo and the nurse's forms in the blood bank. This could be explained by the nurse's possible misspelling.

• Why doesn't the guy who knocks over Buffy even try to stop? He must have seen her, or at least the guy she was saving!

• Willow screams and Cordelia runs towards her. In the next shot, Cordelia is standing still.

• Why didn't Willow know that Oz didn't finish school?

Anne | Dead Man's Party | Faith, Hope and Trick | Beauty and the Beasts | Homecoming

Band Candy | Revelations | Lover's Walk | The Wish | Amends | Gingerbread

Helpless | The Zeppo | Bad Girls | Consequences | Doppelgangland | Enemies

Earshot | Choices | The Prom | Graduation Day (Part 1) | Graduation Day (Part 2)