It's Halloween and to celebrate, Dawn decides to go out on the town with her friend, who's asked some boys along. Sadly, the boys turn out to be vampires and it looks like curtains for both of them...
Yes, it's the traditional Halloween episode of Buffy, and we know from past experience that vampires and demons take the night off so there won't be any of those around. Don't we? At the start of the episode, we're led to believe the main villain of the piece is a sweet-looking old man with a very sharp knife who seems to have plans for anyone who crosses his path, especially when Dawn pops round. So it's a neat trick to pull when the old man, just as he's about to put some kind of evil plan into effect, is killed by one of the boys accompanying Dawn, revealed to be a vampire.
However, this is about the only surprise pulled in this fairly average tale that moves along the key plotlines once more (Xander and Anya reveal their engagement, Willow' increasing use of magic troubles Tara and leads to a rather creepy outcome when Willow wipes Tara's memory to keep her on-side) without really providing much of a plot of its own. That said, there's lots to love here. There's plenty of great one-liners and one of the best all-in fight sequences the show has given us in a long while, a vampire battle with some great moves from all involved, the long-awaited moment where Giles finally shows he can hold his own, Spike in fine form teaching his idiot brethren a lesson, and Buffy coming up with great new ways to despatch her foes and there's a certain amount of fun to be had with the Summers girls falling for vampires. The introduction to this fight is also excellent, one vampire saying 'Can we fight now?' after discussion of Dawn inadvertently dating a vampire and Buffy checking for innocent bystanders: 'Did anyone come here just to make out? Aw, that's sweet. You run.'
My main problem here is that after last season I don't believe Dawn could be this stupid. Halloween aside, after all the danger she's been in, you'd think she'd be a whole lot wary than she is here, and even though she sees off a vampire, I have real trouble finding her motivation in getting into this situation in the first place. Then again, for a two-year-old, she's doing pretty well getting her first kiss already. Fun but a little empty.
***
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