After a training session in the mansion, Buffy and Angel
get a little too close for comfort. With her eighteenth
birthday almost upon her, Buffy is anxiously awaiting to
spend some time with her father at an ice show. Later,
at the library, Giles leads Buffy through a study of
vibratory stones. Despite being a little fidgety, Buffy
manages to concentrate on one of the stones.
Afterwards, Buffy battles with a vampire in the park. Just as she is about to deliver
the final blow, something surges through Buffy's body, and she suddenly finds
herself powerless. The vampire quickly takes the upper hand, knocking her to the
ground and turning the wooden stake on the Slayer herself. Buffy panicks, but she
is still able to stun the vampire with a headbutt and push him off of her. She grabs
the stake and aims it straight up as the vampire leaps onto her. In an instant, the
vampire is nothing but dust.
Giles enters the library the next morning to find Buffy
practicing her aim with throwing knives. As the random
placing of the knives on and around the target shows,
the Slayer is not herself. Giles ensures Buffy that she'll
be okay. Outside, Buffy downplays her friends'
enthusiasm over the upcoming birthday, suggesting
that a party may not be the greatest of ideas, given her
tainted history with such social gatherings. Later that night, Buffy notices a
birthday balloon floating in her kitchen with what appear to be an envelope and
tickets attached to the string. As Joyce informs her that Hank won't be able to free
up enough time to take her to the ice show, Buffy folds up the envelope without
even opening it.
Meanwhile, three men are hard at work inside an old, abandoned
boarding house. One of the men, Quentin Travers, looks on as his two associates,
Blair and Hobson, work on laying bricks in several of the doorways. At the library,
Buffy tries to indirectly ask Giles to take her to the ice show, but he is more
interested in making her study the vibratory stones. After Buffy finally gives up her
futile effort, Giles instructs her to concentrate on the fault inside the large blue
stone. As Buffy stares at it, she suddenly loses all touch with the outside world.
Giles checks to make sure Buffy's in a trance, then takes an injection kit out of his
bag. He injects a strange, green fluid into Buffy's arm. After he finishes the task
and puts away the kit, Giles waves his hand in front of the fault, breaking Buffy's
trance. Unaware of what just happened, Buffy decides to call it a night and leaves
Giles alone in the library.
Outside of school the next morning, Buffy notices a guy
harassing Cordelia. Buffy walks up to the guy and grabs
him by the arm. However, she suddenly realizes that
she doesn't have enough strength to do anything to the
guy, who casually shoves her to the ground with that
one arm. Buffy finds Giles in the hallway and tells him
about her disturbing loss of strength. Giles doesn't
show a great deal of concern, although he definitely knows why Buffy is going
through this. Giles speaks with Quentin at the boarding house, voicing his
disagreement with the Watcher Council's insistence on subjecting Buffy to the
Cruciamentum. The Cruciamentum is a test which all Slayers must endure when
they reach the age of eighteen in order to prove their instinctual skills and
resourcefulness. To do so, the Slayer must survive an encounter with a vicious
vampire while trapped inside a small space. In this case, Buffy must defeat an
insane vampire, Zackary Kralik, in the confines of this boarding house.
After Giles
leaves, a loud, painful scream emanates from Kralik's coffin. Blair and Hobson
open the coffin and give Kralik his pills. Giles returns to the library, where Buffy,
Willow, Xander, and Oz try to find any relevant info in the books that might explain
her loss of power. While Buffy continues to search for answers, Kralik's screaming
keeps Blair and Hobson from getting any rest. While Hobson takes a break, Blair
opens the coffin to learn that Kralik wants more pills. As Blair goes to the kitchen
to fill the glass with water, Kralik screams to cover up the sound of his
straightjacket ripping at the seams. Kralik then tricks Blair into stepping close to
the coffin and grabs him by the throat with his freed arm before sinking his fangs
into his neck. At the mansion, Angel gives a book of poetry to Buffy for her
birthday. Unfortunately, Buffy is distracted by her power loss to fully appreciate
Angel's gift. Buffy fears that she may have lost what made her special. Angel
consoles her by confessing that he watched her long before she moved to
Sunnydale, admitting that he lived her then every bit as much as he does now.
Meanwhile, Blair rises in front of Kralik as a newly-turned vampire. He picks up an
axe and frees Kralik from his restraints.
Giles stops by the boarding house to check in on
things, but nobody seems to be around. After noticing
blood on the stairway railing, Giles grabs a make-shift
stake and opens Kralik's tomb. Finding it empty, Giles
goes to the kitchen and discovers Hobson's dead
corpse. Overcome by the grotesque sight and smell,
Giles runs out of the house. He needs to find Buffy, who
is walking the streets alone. She runs into Kralik, who grabs her jacket. Unable to
fight him as she normally would, Buffy turns and runs for her life. She tries to climb
over, then under a fence. Blair shows up and tries to pull her back, but Buffy
escapes and runs out into the middle of the street. Giles arrives just in time, and
Buffy jumps into his car. Back at the library, Giles tells the whole truth to Buffy,
showing her the syringe filled with an organic compound of muscle relaxants and
adrenal suppressers. He informs her that the effects of the compound will wear off
in a few days, but Buffy is too furious to care about that right now. Giles goes on to
tell her that he just invalidated the test by telling her about it ahead of time.
Unfortunately, Buffy refuses to listen or forgive him. As soon as Cordelia walks into
the library to do some research for a paper, Buffy asks her for a ride home. While
Cordelia drives Buffy home, Joyce hears a noise on her front porch. She goes out
and sees Buffy's jacket draped over a figure. Assuming it's Buffy, she bends down
towards the covered figure. However, it's not Buffy at all, but really Kralik. When
Buffy arrives home, she finds a polaroid of her mother and Kralik. She packs a
large amount of her slaying supplies into her bag and heads towards the mansion.
Tied to a chair and gagged, Joyce can do nothing but
watch as Kralik takes countless polaroids of her while
rambling about his hatred for mothers. Buffy walks in
through the main entrance of the boarding house and
looks around. As she realizes that all of the other exits
have been sealed by bricks, Blair locks the main
entrance, trapping the Slayer inside. Meanwhile,
Quentin visits Giles at the library and tells him that the Cruciamentum has begun.
Giles informs him that he disclosed all of the information concerning the test, but
none of that matters right now. He leaves Quentin in the library and races towards
the boarding house. Buffy encounters Kralik and tries to take him out with her
crossbow, but it's no use. He chases Buffy through the house. She takes refuge
inside a dark room. When she turns the light on, Buffy sees that the walls are
completely plastered with photos of her helpless mother. She runs out of the room,
and Kralik finally traps her in the hallway. Buffy attempts to ward him off with a
cross, but Kralik is so insane that he actually enjoys the pain it causes. Before he
can bite into her neck, Kralik is suddenly seized by his painful need to take his
pills. He fishes the medicine bottle out of his pocket. Spotting an opportunity, Buffy
grabs the bottle out of his hands and dives through a laundry chute. Landing in the
basement, Buffy finds Joyce on the chair. When Kralik reaches the basement,
Buffy tries to flee the scene with his pills. He rips the bottle out of her hands and
quickly grabs the nearby glass of water. After swallowing the pills with the water,
Kralik suddenly notices a burning sensation inside himself. Buffy holds out an
empty bottle of Holy Water. The blessed water soon disintegrates Kralik. As Buffy
works on freeing Joyce from the chair, both Giles and Blair crash into the
basement. Giles finishes the vampire off, then leaves with Joyce and Buffy.
In the library, Quentin commends Buffy on her
successful passing of the test. However, he has bad
news for Giles. Since he has demonstrated a
relationship with Buffy that the Council has deemed too
close, like the way a father loves his daughter, Giles is
relieved of his duties as Buffy's Watcher. Quentin then
tells Buffy that she will be assigned a new Watcher
soon. Struck by this revelation of how much Giles cares for her, Buffy calmly
allows him to tend to her wounds. Back at home, Buffy's friends try to make sense
of Giles' being fired... especially Willow, who almost refuses to believe the mere
possibility of Giles losing his job.
