Willow, Oz, Xander, and Cordelia attempt to cover Buffy's Slayer responsibilities, with mixed results. Grieving over Angel, Buffy has exiled herself to Los Angeles, working at a diner, Helen's Kitchen, under the name "Anne". Buffy meets Lily, a member of a former group who romanticized vampires and were saved by Buffy. After Lily's boyfriend Rickie goes missing, Buffy reluctantly agrees to help. Buffy saves an old man who walks into traffic, but he dies soon after. Buffy realizes that he is Rick
Buffy has been cleared of Kendra's murder, but Principal Snyder refuses to allow her to return to Sunnydale High. Joyce and Buffy's friends find it difficult to welcome Buffy back to Sunnydale. Joyce brings home a Nigerian mask called Ovu Mobani (which means Evil Eye), which she hangs in her bedroom, and invites Buffy's friends over for a dinner party to celebrate her return. Buffy's friends, wishing to avoid talking to Buffy about their feelings of abandonment, invite Oz's band. Meanwhile, a de
Two vampires, Mr. Trick and Kakistos, arrive in Sunnydale. Buffy is readmitted to school by a reluctant Snyder. At the Bronze, Buffy sees a young woman leaving with a vampire. Fearing for her life, she follows them, but watches the woman kill the vampire, introducing herself as the Slayer Faith. Faith's arrival causes tension, as she appears more enthusiastic about her role than Buffy, and flirts with Scott Hope, Buffy's potential love interest. Scott asks Buffy on a date. She initially accepts,
Giles reveals that a student was mauled to death overnight. Oz is a prime suspect, as a window to Oz's cage was open. Willow collects a hair sample from the victim, hoping to determine who killed him, but the test is inconclusive. That night, Buffy is attacked by a rabid Angel. She subdues him and chains him up. Buffy visits the school counselor, but finds him dead. Pete loses his temper with girlfriend Debbie over a bottle with a green liquid inside. He transforms into a monster and attacks Deb
Buffy nurses Angel back to health in secret. Scott breaks up with Buffy, telling her that she seems too distracted. Buffy, angry that Cordelia did not tell her about yearbook photographs, decides to compete with Cordelia for the title of Homecoming Queen. Preparing for the dance, Willow and Xander flirt with each other and share a kiss, despite their ongoing relationships. Spies, working for Mr. Trick, overhear Buffy saying that she and Faith will ride together in a limo to the Homecoming dance.
Buffy struggles to manage her time between her friends, Giles, Joyce, and Angel, eventually caught by Joyce and Giles in a lie about her evening. Snyder tasks Buffy with selling chocolate bars to raise money for the band. The chocolate proves extremely addictive, and causes the adults to act increasingly immaturely. Buffy and Willow find The Bronze packed with adults partying. Buffy, realizing that the chocolate is responsible, decides to visit the factory. On her way there, she finds Giles and
Gwendolyn Post arrives, claiming to be Faith's new watcher. She warns that a demon named Lagos is seeking the Glove of Myhnegon, a powerful gauntlet. While searching for the Glove of Myhnegon, Xander sees Angel and Buffy together. Angel shows Buffy the Glove of Myhnegon. Xander rushes to tell Giles of Angel's return, finding him with Gwendolyn. Giles and the others confront Buffy later, with Giles angry that Buffy concealed Angel's return. Gwendolyn visits Faith, promising to be a strict watcher
Buffy receives her SAT scores and ponders a future outside Sunnydale. Willow goes to a magic shop, looking for ingredients for an anti-love spell to end her and Xander's mutual attraction. Spike, who has returned to Sunnydale, kidnaps Willow and Xander and forces Willow to cast a love spell on Drusilla, who has left him. Spike visits Buffy's home and talks to Joyce. Buffy and Angel intervene and attack him, but he refuses to tell them where Willow is. They agree to cooperate with him while he se
Willow attempts to repair things with Oz, but he tells her to leave him alone. Cordelia, heartbroken over Xander, meets Anya, who tries to help her move on. Anya gives Cordelia a necklace. After Cordelia says that she wishes Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, Anya turns into a demon, then vanishes, and Cordelia is transported to an alternative reality. Soon after, Cordelia learns that Sunnydale is overrun by vampires, as The Master has taken over Sunnydale. Cordelia tries to tell Giles, but Will
Oz and Willow make amends and get back together, although Oz decides to take things slowly. Buffy, at Joyce's request, invites Faith over for Christmas, but she refuses. Angel visits Giles, asking for help about vivid dreams of his past crimes. Angel sees a vision of Jenny Calendar, and runs out, panicked. Soon after, Buffy tells Giles that she was in Angel's dream, and they begin to investigate. Angel's dreams intensify, and tell him that his pain will end if he kills Buffy. Giles suggests that
Joyce joins Buffy on a night of Slaying and finds two dead children. Giles theorizes that the children were victims of an occult sacrifice. Joyce speaks out in front of the whole town against monsters, witches, and Slayers. Willow and Amy Madison, who have started a coven, soon become suspects after police search their lockers and find material related to witchcraft. Joyce forbids Buffy from seeing Willow again, and suggests that Buffy has not helped Sunnydale despite her Slaying. After Buffy le
Buffy loses her Slayer strength during a fight with a vampire and is nearly killed. During a training session, Giles hypnotizes and drugs Buffy. Meanwhile, the head watcher, Quentin Travers, prepares a test for Buffy's 18th birthday, including a captive drug-addicted vampire, Kralik. Kralik escapes, turning one of Quentin's assistants, Blair, into a vampire and killing the other. Out at night, Buffy runs into Kralik and Blair. Without her powers, she is forced to run, but Giles rescues her. Gile
Buffy, Faith, Willow, and Giles work together to defeat several demons that Giles later identifies as members of the Sisterhood of Jhe, who are intent on opening the Hellmouth. Xander, feeling increasingly insecure about his role in the group, borrows his uncle Rory's car hoping it will make him useful, but accidentally rear-ends school bully Jack. Jack threatens Xander with a knife, but Xander covers for Jack when police arrive, gaining his respect. Jack takes Xander to the cemetery, where they
Buffy and Faith's new Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, tasks Buffy with finding an amulet belonging to the demon Balthazar. Joined by Faith, they defeat the vampires named El Eliminati and recover the amulet despite being outnumbered. Faith interrupts a class test to take Buffy to another vampire nest, and after a successful hunt the two go out dancing together. Angel warns Buffy and Wesley that Balthazar has returned. Buffy gives Angel the amulet for safekeeping. Buffy and Faith track down Balthaz
Divers recover Allan's body in the river, where Faith had dumped it. Wesley asks Buffy and Faith to investigate his murder. Buffy confesses to Willow, who advises her to seek Giles. Faith, however, has already told Giles that Buffy killed Allan. Giles orders Buffy into his office, but tells Buffy that he knows Faith has lied. Wesley overhears their conversation and contacts the Watchers' Council. Xander offers to help, revealing that he has slept with Faith, upsetting Willow. Xander visits Faith
Willow continues to investigate the Mayor. Faith alerts him of the attempt, and the Mayor tells Faith that he plans to have Willow killed. Anya, desperate to regain her powers as a vengeance demon, asks Willow to help summon her amulet. The spell goes wrong, calling Willow's vampire form to Sunnydale. At the Bronze, Xander and Buffy run into Vampire Willow, and are horrified when she reveals her vampire face. Other vampires attack Vampire Willow, but she easily overpowers and recruits them. The
Buffy and Faith encounter a demon, claiming to have Books of Ascension for the Mayor and offering to sell them. Faith tracks the demon down on the Mayor's orders and kills it, recovering the Books. She visits Angel, confessing to a murder and acting distressed. Faith tries to seduce Angel, but he rebuffs her. Faith and the Mayor plot to remove Angel's soul, with help from a demon. Faith returns to Angel along with the demon, and they perform a spell in an attempt to remove his soul. The spell ap
Buffy get infected with blood from a slain demon and soon gains the power to hear people's thoughts, with the exception of Angel's. Initially she finds the new ability useful, exploiting it to gain an advantage in class. However, her friends are uncomfortable at Buffy hearing their innermost thoughts, and the voices soon become overwhelming. Buffy overhears one student making a threat against the school before collapsing in the cafeteria. Giles takes Buffy home, while Willow organizes an investi
Buffy asks Wesley to leave Sunnydale after graduation, but Wesley forbids it. Buffy offers to act proactively to stop the Mayor's plans for Ascension. Faith steals the Box of Gavrok at the docks and delivers it to the Mayor. Buffy learns of this, and plans with the others to steal and destroy the Box, over Wesley's objections. The heist is successful, although Faith kidnaps Willow. Buffy and Wesley argue over whether to trade the Box for Willow, Oz settling the matter by smashing a vessel contai
Joyce visits Angel, telling him that he cannot stand in the way of Buffy's future. On patrol together, Angel breaks up with Buffy and says that he plans to leave Sunnydale after the Ascension. Xander runs into Cordelia at a clothes shop. They get into an argument, during which Cordelia reveals that her family is poor now. A monster breaks into the shop and kills a boy wearing a tuxedo. Wesley identifies the beast as a hellhound, and deduce that a malcontent student, Tucker Wells, plans to use th
Faith kills Professor Worth on the Mayor's orders, causing Buffy and Giles to investigate. Anya reveals that she has previously seen an Ascension, explaining that the resulting demon will be much stronger than anything the group has faced. The Mayor interrupts the meeting, threatening the group. Giles stabs him, but the Mayor is unharmed. Buffy convinces Joyce to leave town for her own safety. Willow searches desperately for a spell to stop the Ascension, but finds nothing. Oz calms her down wit
Buffy visits Angel and forces him to drink her blood, allowing Angel to recover. When he comes to he takes Buffy, now near death herself, to hospital. Nearby, the Mayor is informed that Faith is alive but in a coma from which she may never recover. The Mayor tries to suffocate Buffy, but Angel stops him. Buffy has a dream in which Faith tells her that even the Mayor has human weaknesses. Buffy wakes up, recovered, and organizes a plan with her friends for stopping the Mayor. Xander and Willow re