Buffy tries to retain some normality in her life by trying out for Sunnydale High's Cheerleading squad, but tryouts are canceled when one of the girls spontaneously combusts. A few days later, after the squad has been chosen, strange things begin happening to its members, and Giles suspects that a witch is responsible. The chief suspect is Amy Madison, 3rd alternate on the squad, who seems to be getting a lot of pressure from her Cheer Queen Mother to be part of the team. Buffy is then hit by a deadly draining spell and she and Giles go to Amy's home to confront her mother and reverse the spell. They discover that Mrs. Madison is the actual witch ? she's switched bodies with her daughter in order to relive her glory days. With Amy's help and her mother's spell book, Giles manages to reverse the spells, returning Buffy to health just in time to defeat Mrs. Madison with one of her own spells.
TEACHERS PET Buffy receives a warning from Angel about a dangerous new vampire in Sunnydale whose hand has been replaced by razor sharp blades. When her biology teacher turns up decapitated in the lunch room fridge, Buffy and the gang are quick to blame this new vamp. However, things aren't all they seem with the new substitute, Miss French, who is a little too good at raising the boys' temperatures and, it turns out, scaring evil vampires with razor sharp blades. When Xander and other male students who were helping Miss French begin disappearing, Giles remembers a story of a creature, not unlike a praying mantis, that preys on male virgins. Buffy, Giles and Willow rescue the guys from Miss French's basement, dusting the evil vamp and slicing and dicing Miss French in the process.
NEVER KILL A BOY ON THE FIRST DATE
Buffy is beginning to feel the lack of a boyfriend in her life, but when the quiet and mysterious Owen starts to pay her attention, things start to look up ? no matter how much Cordelia tries to interfere. Meanwhile the Master is planning the coming of the Anointed One, a powerful vampire who will help him fight the slayer. Giles also knows of this prophecy and, after a suspicious bus crash involving a known criminal, calls Buffy in to help, messing up her dating plans. Nothing happens, and Buffy remains unconvinced about the prophecy, so she goes out on a date with Owen the following evening rather than checking out the mortuary with Giles. However, Giles gets in to trouble with a group of vamps and Buffy has to go and help, with an unknowing Owen tagging along. Buffy fights the criminal, now turned vamp, finally finding the strength to kill him after he hurts Owen. The following day Buffy decides that perhaps dating is too dangerous after all, but at least the prophecy didn't come to pass... or did it
THE PACK
Buffy and the gang are on a school trip to the zoo when Xander sneaks into the quarantined Hyena cage to help a boy that is being picked on, but he and four others are infected by something and begin to act strangely. Buffy suspects something is wrong when Xander starts being mean to Willow and hitting on her a little too strongly, but Giles shrugs it off as teenage angst. He is forced to change his mind however when the school mascot, a piglet, is eaten, followed by Principal Flutie. Buffy, Giles and Willow lure them back to the Hyena cage and after a run in with the keeper manage to restore the Xander and the others back to normal.
ANGEL
After Angel helps Buffy fight off an attack from a group of fierce vampires, they go back to her place to hide out. Angel stays the night (and the next day) and when Buffy returns home from school they kiss for the first time, but Angel pulls away and when he turns back we discover he is a vampire. The next day Darla goes to Buffy's house posing as a classmate and Joyce invites her in, Darla then drinks from Joyce but leaves in time to frame Angel. Buffy then goes to confront Angel, but discovers the truth and that he is not evil as he has had his soul restored by a Gypsy curse. Darla, however, interrupts, accompanied by two guns, in an attempt to kill Buffy, but Angel stakes Darla instead, and then disappears I,ROBOT..YOU JANE Willow has a new boy friend she met on the Internet and Buffy and Xander are worried about who he is. Also it seems that when doing some scanning Willow accidentally released a demon trapped in a book into the Internet and now he is causing havoc with files and recruiting helpers. After two of his goons attempt to kill Buffy she becomes suspicious that he may be Willow's new friend. Giles does a binding spell with the computer teacher, Miss Calendar, while Buffy and Xander track down Willow who has now gone missing. The spell works and the demon is trapped in a robot body that has been built for him but he doesn't last long as Buffy electrocutes him.
THE PUPPET SHOW
Giles has been put in charge of Sunnydale High's annual talent show by the new student-hating principal, Snyder. Buffy, Xander and Willow find it all very amusing until they too are forced into participating by Snyder, who sees them, especially Buffy, as trouble makers. Things get worse, however, when a member of the cast is found with her heart removed, leading Giles to suspect there is a demon at work harvesting organs. Buffy first suspects Morgan, a fellow student who has been experiencing extreme headaches, but when he turns up minus his brain the suspicion moves to his creepy dummy. Sid turns out to be hunting the demon himself and helps Buffy track it down, saving Giles just before he becomes the demons next victim.
NIGHTMARES
Everyone's nightmares seem to be coming true at Sunnydale high ? Xander goes to class in his underwear, Giles loses the ability to read, and time flies during Buffy's surprise test. Buffy keeps seeing a young boy around campus and begins to make a link when one of the students is attacked by a strange monster who keeps saying lucky nineteen. Buffy discovers that the boy she sees is actually lying in a coma in hospital after being attacked. Buffy, Willow and Xander try to find the boy to help him wake, and discover that the monster is a nightmare projection of the boy's baseball coach, who put the boy in the coma. Buffy makes the boy face up to his fears and all returns to normal, with Xander stopping the coach from avoiding the law.
OUT OF MIND,OUT OF SIGHT
Cordelia's friends are being attacked by an invisible force and nobody is sure what is happening; Buffy hears laughing but finds nothing when she follows it. The gang concludes that it may be an invisible person, and the prime suspect is Marcie Ross ? a girl whom no one seems to remember, even though she was in everyone's classes. Giles, Willow and Xander follow music they think is Marcie, only to find themselves trapped in the boiler room with a gas leak; they are rescued by Angel. Meanwhile, Buffy and Cordelia are kidnapped by Marcie and taken to the Bronze, where Buffy luckily manages to escape and stop Marcie before she disfigures Cordelia. After she has caught Marcie, two government officials enter, taking Marcie away to be 'rehabilitated'.
PROPHECY GIRL
Xander finally gets the nerve to ask Buffy out, and she feels bad when she has to tell him that she doesn't feel that way about him. Things get far worse, though, when she overhears Giles and Angel discussing a prophecy saying that the Master's ascension is at hand and that she will die trying to stop him ? at this she shouts out, telling Giles that she quits. But the vampires are growing stronger and after an attack at the school she decides it is time to face the Master. She is led to him by the Anointed One and is quickly overcome, the Master draining her blood and leaving her face down in water. Xander finds Angel, telling him she has gone to face the Master, and the pair set off to help, arriving to find her apparently dead. Xander, however, performs CPR and Buffy awakes feeling stronger than ever. Meanwhile, Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Ms. Calendar are fighting off vampires and a huge monster that has come from the Hellmouth at the school. Buffy arrives back at the school to face the Master again and this time wins, throwing him through a glass roof onto a wooden shard below. At this, the monster disappears back into the Hellmouth and the gang retire to Bronze to relax