Buffy the Vampire Slayer is now an official phenomenon. During its second season, it gained viewing figures TV company executives would kill for. This means that it now, like The X-Files, has to live up to its audience's high expectations.
Anne has a lot to deliver, and it doesn't really fulfill its early promise. Buffy is now working in a diner under the pseudonym of Anne (hence the title), and trying ignore her destiny as the Slayer whilst getting over the death of her lover Angel, who she had to kill to save Earth, just as he returned to his old 'nice' self. Talk about angst. However, when an old acquaintance turns up needing help, Buffy is thrown back into her weird lifestyle once more.
The main problem with Anne is that it's not a very engaging story. A bunch of people are apparently being aged to death by some mysterious evil dude, so Buffy nips off to sort him out and then decides to head back to Sunnydale. It's not really made clear just why she makes any of the decisions shown in the episode, apart from because it is necessary to continue the series. It's as if the writers couldn't decide what to do with her once they sent her away, and now have to get her back as quickly as possible.
On the plus side, there are some fun moments with Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Oz trying to continue Buffy's work with little success while she's away, and an interesting exchange between Joyce Summers and Giles when she blames him for Buffy's disappearance that would be interesting to follow up at a later date (although I still think it'd be cool if they got together).
Overall, a rather average episode, showing that a lack of the main Buffy ingredients (vampires, comedy, clever plotting) is not going to help the show.
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