Teaser
12A) "And we're good friends, and it's time to take the next step." MISLEADING WORDS: "Joss just loves to play with our heads! For...[a short time, it actually seems like Xander is] asking Willow out...[This is due to] partial context, a storytelling technique used again in [the third season's] Lover's Walk...[when a scene of Cordy being injured is immediately followed by a funeral, which, only after a few moments, do we realize is not hers.] This moment encapsulates the Xander-Willow relationship, from Xander's side. He practices on Willow, rehearses his relationships with women. He learns from her, but she's a safe female, one who he would never consider for a romantic relationship. The irony here is, of course, that Buffy sees him the same way (not as a rehearsal, but as a "safe" male friend). He's devastated by it. Willow may see the parallel; she certainly doesn't seem surprised that Buffy [later] turns down his invitation to the dance."--Vickie, Sat, 11/02/02 at 12:13:50 See 3F, 4EE, and 10U
12B) "It's a time for students to choose, um... a mate..." MAIN THEME FROM "PROPHECY GIRL": This episode has recurring themes of "spring, sex and adolescence, fertility...[Here, Xander speaks of mating rituals.] Cordelia is kissing Kevin. There's the unspoken attraction between Giles and Jenny, and the more bitter unrequited love between Xander and Buffy, and Willow and Xander. And Buffy's still uncertain as to where she stands with Angel. Buffy's mother tells her about meeting her father at a similar event (see 12GG). This is the Spring Fling, and Spring is a time of mating, as Xander observes, it is the time of new life, and Lambs, rather than sheep. And Buffy is both the Lamb, and the Huntress (see 12AAA)...[In this episode, Buffy is reminiscent of the Roman goddess of the hunt, Diana, who is] also...associated with spring...and with girls evolving from virgins to mothers...[She is also] chaste, and beautiful, and carries a bow...[j]ust as Buffy is carrying a bow as she sets off to meet the Master. The 'baptism', the drowning the Master subjects her to is a kind of ritual sacrifice, and Buffy, dies, and is born again, feeling new and different, during spring time (see 12MMM). Spring is life, but her hands are bloody (Editor's Note: This refers to later in the episode, when Buffy washes her hands in a bathroom sink, and blood spurts out of the faucet.). And Buffy's rebirth is traumatic. But when she is reborn, there are many references to her beauty: she "got all pretty" and "I may be dead, but I'm still pretty". I take it as a pointed reference to her youth, as opposed to the punchbowl mouth...[Master]. Buffy fears death, fears mortality because she is alive, and her nearing end is made more poignant because it occurs during springtime...[The Slayer, by definition, is a liminal figure--neither at home in the human nor supernatural worlds--and Buffy never] appears more liminal than here...[S]he is on the threshold between childhood and adulthood, on the very dangerous boundary. She is sexually attracted to Angel, but hasn't slept with him. She's hardly begun her life, and yet she's already facing the journey to the land of the dead. Everything in this episode stresses her youth, her innocence (white dress and all!) - she is the "lamb". The Master is the personification of death in life, of age. His life is unfruitful, destructive, the very opposite of fertile youth. Xander can bring Buffy back to life with his breath, but Angel, the Vampire cannot. He cannot give life, nor make it (see 12III)." In this episode, Buffy is both Diana and Iphigenia, the virgin sacrifice from the myth. Iphigenia, incidentally, was sacrificed by her own father, in penance for having earlier accidentally killing one of Diana's sacred stags. Diana sent huge storms at sea, preventing Agamemnon, Iphigenia's father, from bringing his troops to the Trojan War, until he sacrificed his daughter. Likewise, Buffy makes her sacrifice (of herself) for the good of her people.--Rahael, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 03:36:09, with some minor additions by Rob See 28EE.
12C) A car is parked... CONTINUITY CHECK: "Cordelia's car is missing her famous 'Queen C' license plate in this episode."--Cactus Watcher, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 10:04:57
12D) "What was that?" CONTINUITY CHECK: "Next season, in Phases, we get this same scene again, only then it's Xander hearing noises and Cordy who's seriously into the smoochies."--Vickie, Sat, 11/02/02 at 12:13:50
12E)"That's silly. Who would be out there?" THE TWIST: "This is…a classical Joss riff on the B-horror movies which Buffy so successfully turns on their ear. In this case the idea is that two teens who are engaging in the 'socially dangerous' behavior of making out are about to be slaughtered by some horrible monster. The humorous part of course is the fact that not only are they not going to be punished for their action but the blonde who usually gets killed has in fact dispatched the Beast."--submitted by Charles Phipps
12F) "Three in one night. Giles would be so proud." COMES IN THREES: The number "three" is a number known throughout literature, fairy tales, and religion as a magical or mystical number. Jack had three magic beans; the fairy granted the poor man and his wife three wishes; the ball in the Grimms Brothers' version of Cinderella, Ashputtle, lasted three nights; there were three bears; three billy goats gruff; three witches in Macbeth, and so on and so forth. This magical number is also associated with the Christian religion, in the form of the Trinity (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost), the number of hours Jesus was nailed to the cross before he died, the fact that he died at the age of 33, to name a few (pardon the pun). Here the number "three" is probably again being used to signify a Christian symbol being turned on its head by the vamps of the Buffyverse (see 1AA), as well as a portent of the coming apocalypse (see 12Q). See 12AAA.
12G) "Shake, Earth!" WHEN THE EARTH GETS BELLY-RUMBLINGS: Throughout the run of the show, Sunnydale suffers a number of earthquakes, which, interestingly, sometimes seem to not be part of the evil forces' plans to destroy the world, but rather the earth's visceral reaction to its coming doom. The next earthquake will occur in the fourth season's Doomed, as a portent to the Vaharall demons' attempt to destroy the world (incidentally, this episode's earthquake is referenced in that episode). "This seems in some respects to echo the Gaia theory that the world is a living entity and possessed of its own form of magic and perhaps even a sentience." This theory will be the way Willow uses to learn and respect magic in the seventh season. A case where it seems like the villain's attempt to destroy the world caused the quake is the earthquake that results from Willow's attempt in Grave. One debatable case is the original quake in the past that trapped the Master, in his attempt to open the Hellmouth. Did that earthquake occur as a result of the Master's attempt to open the Hellmouth, or was the fact that it trapped the Master proof that the earth was in fact retaliating against the Master's plans? Both are interesting theories to consider.--submitted by Charles Phipps, with paraphrasing and additions by Rob
Act One
12H) "Are we safe in here?" UNSAFE: This line is particuarly significant, because, of course, the answer to Buffy's question is "No." The library, which has become the homebase of the Scoobies, and the center of their operations, the place where they meet to figure out how to defeat all of the baddies, can probably be classified as one of the most dangerous places in all of Sunnydale, because it is located directly over the Hellmouth, a fact we learn at the end of this episode. What delicious irony that even home cannot be classified as a safe haven in Buffy's world. It also symbolically ties in to the idea that to defeat the enemy, one must learn everything about him or her, and sometimes tap into the same darkness that created the enemy. What better way to do that then to study directly over the source of all mystical evil in Sunnydale?
12I) "I went hunting last night..." SLAYAGE: The use of the word "hunting" is very interesting here, (it is also used by the Master later in this episode--see 12AAA) since, usually Buffy tries to distance herself from that term, because it implies (a) that she might be enjoying herself, taking pleasure in the kill, and (b) that the vamps are not just her adversaries but her prey. In the fifth season premiere, Buffy vs. Dracula, that most infamous vampire tries to force Buffy to confront the darkness within herself; he forces her to acknowledge that she is a hunter, and although she would like to think of herself as merely a warrior for good, her power to fight darkness is due to her own internal darkness. Usually, Buffy describes her nightly vampire hunts as the more innocuous term, "patrols."--Vickie, Sat, 11/02/02 at 12:13:50, paraphrasing and additions by Rob
12J) "Look, I broke a nail, okay?" PUTTING PRIORITIES IN ORDER: "This entire scene (Buffy/Giles) is a masterpiece of the standard BtVS juxtaposition [of] horror/humor...We know that something serious is going on (the earthquake, Giles' research, too many cocky vampires), but Buffy wants sympathy for a broken nail. This re-emphasizes the just-a-girl/slayer dichotomy. Giles is too focused on a serious threat to empathize with the broken nail."--Vickie, Sat, 11/02/02, 12:13:50
12K) "I wanna dance with you." CONTINUITY CHECK: "Of course, Buffy does dance with him in the very next episode, the first of the new season. In When She Was Bad she uses the sexual implications of dance to try to get both Xander and Angel angry at her; Angel because she's dancing with someone else, Xander because she both tempts him and taunts him. The dance is all they'll ever share. See 13HH. In Fool for Love, Buffy askes Spike if dancing is what he thinks, she and he have been doing. He replies that's all they've ever been doing."--Cactus Watcher, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 10:04:57
12L) "Well, Willow's not looking to date you." AND I THINK I'M KINDA GAY: This joke has obviously taken on greater significance since the fourth season, when Willow actually did come out as a lesbian. At this point in the show, however, there didn't seem to be any implication about this. In many cases, people may not realize they are gay until later in life, although subtexually one could possibly read her friendship with Buffy, and her later jealousy of Faith for taking up Buffy's time, as the possibility that she might have a bit of a crush on Buffy, albeit a subconscious one of which she is not fully aware. When Willow meets the bisexual vampire version of herself in Doppelgangland, she doesn't identify any of the vamp's traits as any of her own. An offhand remark of Angel's, however, implies that they may have more in common than Willow might realize at the time.--Rook, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 03:55:53, paraphrased and expanded on by Rob
12M) "I'm sorry. I--I just don't think of you that way." BUFFY CLUELESS: This is the first time that Buffy learns of Xander's crush on her, and how serious his feelings for her are. Note that she is genuinely shocked by the revelation, but also treats him sensitively. See 4EE.
12N) "I guess a guy's gotta be undead to make time with you." XANDER VS. VAMPS: "Aside from just Xander's jealousy about Angel, the intentional meanness of the comment and Xander's reaction to the situation in general parallels and may be the root of some of his reactions to the Anya/Spike tryst...[and the revelation that Buffy had slept with Spike,] in Seeing Red.--Rook, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 03:55:53
It is interesting to compare this rather mean, cutting statement of Xander's to what the hyena-possessed Xander said to Buffy, about Angel. See 6DD.
12O) She turns and watches him leave. FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: This episode had quite a few interesting scenes that were never filmed, perhaps due to time or budget constraints. After Xander leaves Buffy here, in the shooting script, a hailstorm of pebbles starts falling out of the sky, alarming Buffy and quite a few other students, who have to run for cover. This is another sign of the impending apocalypse.--"Prophecy Girl" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume Two
12P) "A cat last week gave birth to a litter of snakes." UNSOLVED MYSTERIES: Interestingly, Cordelia's boyfriend, Kevin, later in the episode, will jokingly say that he doesn't know why Cordy think's he's so sweet, since he's usually "mean as a snake."
12Q) "This is apocalypse stuff." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: In the original script, Jenny tells Giles that all of these bizarre events occurred within three miles of Sunnydale, a fact which was left out of the final version, perhaps in order to stress the fact that these events are having global impact and are not just a localized event at Sunnydale. Although Sunnydale is where all of the damage and destruction will begin, it will soon spread, as evidenced by the strange events happening all over the world.--"Prophecy Girl" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume Two
12R) "I helped you cast that demon out of the Internet." CONTINUITY CHECK: This line refers to the events of I, Robot...You, Jane.
12S) "I got this, this crazy monk e-mailing me from Cortona..." CONTINUITY CHECK: The first scene of I, Robot...You, Jane also takes place in Cortona. See 8B.--Sophist, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 09:41:18, paraphrased by Rob
12T) "The Anointed One? He's dead!" CONTINUITY CHECK: Giles is here referring to Andrew Borba, the evangelistical vamp that Buffy dusted in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date, at which time she was under the assumption that he was the Anointed due to the pseudo-religious mumbo jumbo he was spewing (see 5YY).--paraphrased from a submission by Charles Phipps
12U) "...Aura needs help, um, moving the coolers." CONTINUITY CHECK: We met Aura in Welcome to the Hellmouth, gossipping with Aphrodesia about Buffy. See 1T.
12V) "Willow! I really like your outfit!" CORDY NICE?: It seems like ever since Cordy's minor breakthrough in Out of Mind, Out of Sight, she has been softening ever so slightly (but definitely not in public!). Now, not only does she actually seem to be falling for a boy, and not just wanting him for his looks and popular status, like she did Mitch in the last episode (see 11C), but she actually stoops so low as to compliment Willow on her outfit, something she earlier would have dropped dead rather than do. In fact, the first interaction we ever saw between Willow and Cordy on the show involved Cordy mocking Willow for her dorky clothes (see 1N and 1O)! Now, granted, Cordy is lying about Willow's clothes, and to prove how honest she is (see 11UU), freely admits it and the fact that she is attempting to use Willow, immediately after Willow calls her on it. But earlier on in the show, Cordy would never have (a) been so head over heels over a guy in the first place; (b) shown any niceness to Willow, despite what dire straits she was in; nor (c) admitted that she needed help from a social underling such as Willow. Last week, Cordelia recognized that Buffy was someone who could help her, so she went to her (see 11OO); this week, she does this to Willow. Yes, progress is definitely being made, in baby steps!
12W) "I'd talk to you at the dance and everything." CORDY SELF-ABSORBED: For every time, we think Cordy is improving, we are reminded not to jump the gun too quickly. Note how Cordy thinks that bestowing Willow with the privilege of speaking to her at the dance is a worthwhile and valuable trade for Willow's help. She couldn't imagine that anyone of Willow's status wouldn't be thrilled at this opportunity. Cordy later uses similar manipulation to get Buffy to go with her to the doomed frat party in the second season's Reptile Boy.
12X) "You think I wanna go to the dance with you and watch you wish you were at the dance with her?" WILLOW STRONG: You have to give Willow credit here. She gives up the chance to go to the prom with Xander as her date, something she's always dreamed about, because she knows it isn't real. He wouldn't be going with her because he had feelings for her, but because he couldn't go with Buffy. And although she doesn't come out and say it, these words are the closest Willow comes, at this point, to revealing her feelings to Xander. With their brother/sisterish type relationship, it never occurred to him that Willow might be hurt by being his second choice. Later, Xander will make a similar decision to Willow's when in Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, Buffy throws herself at Xander due to a love spell gone wrong, but he refuses to take advantage of her, as painful as it may be for him to admit that her feelings of attraction for him are merely an illusion (see 28OO).
12Y) "Tomorrow night, Buffy will face the Master. And she will die." THE WEIGHT OF PROPHECY: "One of the more mythic elements Joss Whedon plays with is the very fact of immutable destiny (see 12JJ, 12PP, 12QQ, and 12EEE). Oedipus Rex which was used as the play in The Puppet Show by Willow, Xander, and Buffy is the perhaps perfect example of this (see 9NN). Oedipus does his best to escape his destiny just as his father tried to avoid being killed by his son and their knowledge of the future availed them nothing but fufillment of it (Oedipus marrying his mother and killing his father). Joss does not argue destiny is immutable but he is quick to point out what we think is meant by it is not always true which usually works against the heroes instead of in their favor."--submitted by Charles Phipps
Act Two
12Z) "So, that's it, huh?" SLAYAGE: This is the first time Buffy is fully hit by the weight of the fact that Slayers do not, historically, have good track records for long lives. In fact, just about all of them have died at young ages. In the ends, it ends up being Buffy's friends, her links to humanity, that keep her alive.
12AA) "I'm making it that simple! I quit!" QUITTING: This will not be the last time that Buffy "quits," although the next time she will not quit her slayage, but, rather, quit working for the Council and carry on as a free agent. At the moment, though, the weight of this decision is great, because, unlike when she considers leaving the slaying life in What's My Line?, there is no replacement or backup. If she abandons her duty now, the world may very well end. Of course, we will soon learn that since the Master needed the Slayer blood in order to rise, Buffy's best decision really might have been to quit at this point. Doncha love irony?
12BB) ...yanks the cross from her neck. CONTINUITY CHECK: This is the same cross that Angel gave Buffy as a gift in Welcome to the Hellmouth (see 1KK).
12CC) "I Fall to Pieces", by Patsy Cline, is playing on the radio. MUSICALLY SPEAKING: This choice of song "is most appropriate for this episode because Ms Cline[, the singer] died suddenly in an accident at a relatively young age at the height of her popularity."--Cactus Watcher, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 10:04:57
The title of this song will later inspire that of a first season Angel episode.
12DD) "Mom, let's go away!" RUNNING AWAY: This is not the only time Buffy will consider running away from her problems. In fact, she actually will at the end of the second season, when her pain over sending a souled Angel to a hell dimension in Becoming II and her mother's hastily-worded ultimatum that she discontinue her slayage or never return, leads her to shirk her duty and her responsibility and take on a new identity in LA (Anne). The only other time Buffy does this is in the fifth season's Spiral, but in that situation she does so because she feels that the evil goddess Glory is too powerful for her to fight and win. Also, in that case, she takes her friends and loved ones with her. Buffy suggesting to her mom that they run away also foreshadows the time in Graduation Day when she will tell Joyce to leave Sunnydale for her own safety, as Buffy stays and fights the Mayor.--Rook, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 03:55:53, paraphrased and expanded upon by Rob
12EE) "Nobody asked you?" BUFFY DATELESS: "In all of the major social events shown [through the run of the series], Spring Fling in this episode, and Homecoming and the Prom in season three, Buffy never seems to have a date (but she always has a dress)." Her lack of a date is always due to either her slayage commitments or pining over Angel.--Rook, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 03:55:53
12FF) "I saw you eyeing it at the store." THE KINDNESS OF JOYCE: Here we have yet another poignant reminder of what a good mother, and kind person Joyce is. As has previously been established, no, she does not fully understand Buffy, but she loves and supports her individuality (see 3AA and 3BB). And even when she may ostensibly be misinterpeting Buffy, as in this scene, she is not so far off the mark. She believes that Buffy is upset that she couldn't get a date, and she is partially right. What she does not know is that the reason behind Buffy's datelessness, and the reason she couldn't go with the boy she wants, is more outlandish and mythic than she could ever imagine. She does know, however, that Buffy was eyeing that dress in the store. And that is enough for her. Whether it was too costly or not, she wants her daughter to have that dress, and buys it for her, even though Buffy doesn't seem to be going to the prom. And that dress definitely does the trick. Although Buffy is not yet ready to return to her duties, the dress does get her on her way. She stops feeling sorry for herself, and decides to go to the dance. Willow is the final factor that gets Buffy to face the Master, but Joyce helped her out a great deal here, by showing her that, to some extent, she can experience the life of a normal girl at times. And in the end, she slays the Master and goes to the prom.
12GG) "And that's a much funnier story that you will *not* get to hear." JOYCE WILD?: "Joyce Summers despite her rather beneficent, responsible, "Yearbook staff" personality (see 3AA) was perhaps a bit wilder than Buffy gives her credit for. Her behavior in Band Candy[, in which all of the adults of Sunnydale were reverted to their teenage selves] reflects a woman who was attracted much like Buffy to darker individuals and untroubled by the acts they commited." Of course, there is a question in Band Candy as to whether we see accurate depictions of the adults when they were teenagers, or whether the spell caused them to act as exaggerated, stereotypical versions of irresponsible kids, or whether it is a little bit of both (exaggerated version of their teenage selves).--submitted by Charles Phipps, with additions by Rob
12HH) "Must be nice." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: In the original script, this line is followed by a short scene in Angel's apartment, where he awakens from a nightmare to find the Anointed One sitting at the foot of his bed. Collin has come with a warning for Angel to stay out of the Master's way. He leaves, and Angel seems genuinely scared.--"Prophecy Girl" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume Two
12II) She sees the death and devastation. FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "The boys on the couch are horribly dead. In the foreground lies a girl's body, just as dead. The place has been trashed."--"Prophecy Girl" by Joss Whedon, available from PocketBooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume Two
12JJ) There's a bloody handprint on the TV screen. VISUAL SYMBOLISM: "Willow's reaction to the horror of the moment is beautifully portrayed by the scene's ending whiteout. Marti Noxon will use this same technique when Dawn finds Tara['s corpse]...in the...[sixth season] episode, Villains."--Vickie, Sat, 11/02/02, 12:13:50
POP CULTURE TIME: The show playing on the television is the classic Disney cartoon version of The Three Little Pigs, interesting not only "because of the tendency to refer to the major seasonal villains on...[Buffy] as "Big Bads", as in 'Big Bad Wolf,'" but because disaster struck as a result of the pigs shirking their responsibilities, just as we know disaster will strike should Buffy shirk hers. In the original fairy tale, the two pigs are eaten by the wolf, since they are too lazy to build houses strong enough to withstand his mighty huffs and puffs. In the Disney version, however, all three of the pigs survive at the end, which perhaps can be seen as foreshadowing the fact that even though it seems that facing the Master will definitely lead to Buffy's death, prophecies can be overturned and subverted...and death may not be so final, after all.--Rook, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 03:55:53, with additions by Rob
12KK) "...it wasn't our world anymore. They made it theirs. And they had fun." GOING TOO FAR: What made this vampire attack affect Willow so emotionally, to her core, where the others had not? The difference lies in the fact that Willow had grown used to seeing vamps and other demons and horrors come out at night to prey on the people of Sunnydale. But seeing it in the broad daylight, in her own turf, done to her fellow audiovisual nerds really struck a chord with her. It was both the carnality of the act, and how the bodies were propped up, in a cruel mockery of their formerly alive selves, set against the color and music of the cartoon. The difference in this vampire attack was that something that was usually relegated in Willow's mind to the dark, shadowy world of night has just converged on the daytime, making it seem all the more real and frightening. When creatures of the night can also affect their victims when the sun is shining, nowhere is safe and nothing is sacred.
12LL) "I like your dress." REAL LIFE/FANTASY: This line is a perfect example of Buffy's ability to so perfectly mix the magic and mythical with the mundane. Willow's best friend is about to go off to fight the hardest battle she's ever had, but at the same time, is still a teenage girl whose spirits would be lifted just by knowing that she's wearing a pretty dress. Again it's that clash between Buffy's desire to be a normal teenage girl, and the fact that she's the latest descendant in a line of mystical warriors. Willow's simple line, "I like your dress" means so much more than what's at face value. She's bridging the gap between the two sides of Buffy.
MOTIVATEY WILLOW: The fact that Willow is the one to inspire Buffy's return to her duty is a beautiful symbolic bookend to the season, since Willow being in danger is what brought Buffy back into slaying in the first place, in Welcome to the Hellmouth (see 1TT).--Vickie, Sat, 11/02/02 at 12:13:50, paraphrased by Rob
12MM) "The part that gets me, though, is where Buffy is the Vampire Slayer. She's so little." UNDERESTIMATING BUFFY: This is a nice reversal of the usual stereotype that men would not believe a small girl, like Buffy, capable of beating them up. In this case, a woman is surprised that Buffy is a warrior!
12NN) "Aurelius wrote of the Anointed One..." CONTINUITY CHECK: We first learned about Aurelius and the Anointed One in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (see 5*2).
12OO) "I know." BREAKING TRADITION: The fact that Giles is willing to face the Master in Buffy's place proves that his time with Buffy truly has changed him, and the way he handles his job as a Watcher. Here he is actually breaking every rule of his profession in order to protect Buffy, who has become much more than a Slayer to him, but also a daughter figure. Just as Buffy is a more humanistic Slayer, so is Giles a more humanistic Watcher, and his ability to stand up to such ancient tradition proves that she has helped him grow just as much as he has helped her. Giles' willingness to break the rules here is one of the reasons that Buffy will later be so hurt when he, with great reluctance, drugs Buffy for the Cruciamentum in the third season's Helpless, as is his duty. She had become used to him being her friend that she had forgotten that, traditionally, his job does not allow for such a relationship.
CONTINUITY CHECK: "This is the first time Buffy punches out Giles. The next time it is also, because he is being foolhardy. In Passion, Buffy punches him to keep him from throwing his life away in his grief over Jenny."--Cactus Watcher, Thurs, 10/31/02 at 10:04:57 See .
12PP) "It's okay. I know who you are." SIGN OF THINGS TO COME?: The prophecy stated that the Slayer would not know the Anointed One, and yet here Buffy tells him that she knows who he is. Although this prophecy was presumably meant to refer to the earlier time when Buffy had misidentified the Anointed One (see 5YY), the fact that Buffy can identify him here is a subtle clue that Buffy is already beating the prophecy. She had fulfilled the prophecy by "not knowing" the Anointed One, and now does; similarly she will fulfill the prophecy by dying, and then come back from that as well.--inspired by a submission by Charles Phipps