I Only Have Eyes For You
A night at the Bronze does nothing to improve the Slayer's morale, as Willow
notices when she sees Buffy reject a guy. Willow tries to help her friend
out, but Buffy opts to stop by the school and see if Giles has any work for
her to do. Unbeknownst to her, a boy is fighting with a girl in the school
hallway. He holds up a gun, and the girl tries to leave the scene. The boy
then shouts, "Don't walk away from me, bitch!" Buffy arrives at the school
just in time to stop the boy from shooting the girl. Buffy knocks the gun
out of his hand, and the boy soon returns to his senses. While he and the
girl try to figure out what just happened, the school janitor points out
that the gun is nowhere to be seen.
The next morning, Principal Snyder calls Buffy to his office to let her know
that he'll be keeping an eye on her. After he leaves the office for a
minute, a book mysteriously falls out of the bookshelf. Buffy picks it up,
noticing that it's a yearbook from the Sunnydale Class of '55. Meanwhile,
Giles stops by the computer classroom, where Willow is still serving as the
substitute teacher. She tells Giles about some of the files and pagan
websites she found on the computer, then gives him a rose quartz that once
belonged to Jenny. Elsewhere, Buffy has a dream in one of her classes that
she's in the year 1955. She watches on as one of the students approaches the
teacher. They start to hold hands when someone else interrupts them. Just
then, Buffy wakes up from her dream and notices the teacher writing "Don't
walk away from me, bitch" on the chalkboard. He doesn't even notice it until
the students start laughing. In the hallway, Buffy tells Xander what
happened. When they reach his locker, a rotted arm reaches out of it and
grabs Xander, trying to pull him in. Buffy helps him loose, and the creature
disappears. When Giles finds out about this, he deduces that this is some
form of paranormal activity.
Later that night, one of the teachers, Ms. Frank, passes by George the
janitor on her way home. Suddenly, they begin to reenact the same
conversation that the boy and girl held the night before. While this goes
on, Giles is working in his office when he hears a female voice call to him.
He believes that it is Jenny's voice. When he walks out to investigate, he
sees George and Ms. Frank outside. Before Giles can do anything, the gun
goes off, sending Ms. Frank over the edge and onto the steps below. George
tries to flee the scene, but Giles tackles him. After the gun is knocked out
of George's hands, it suddenly vanishes into thin air. George has no idea
what just happened, so Giles fills him in.
The next day, Giles tells the others that he believes the ghost is Jenny.
They don't see how the pieces fit, but Giles remains set in his belief. In
the computer classroom, Willow looks up any previous shooting victims in the
school. She finds a record from 1955, when a student shot his teacher, then
himself. Buffy recognizes the faces from her dream, so she grabs a 1955
yearbook and looks them up. The boy was James Stanley, and his teacher was
Grace Newman. Buffy determines that they were having an affair. However,
Buffy feels no remorse for James's fate, for she feels he deserved whatever
punishment there was after shooting Grace. In the cafeteria, Cordy complains
about the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance when another paranormal event occurs.
This time, all of the food transforms into snakes, sending the entire school
population into panic. One of the snake bites Cordy's cheek before she swats
it away. After they evacuate the school, a team is sent in to clean out the
snakes. Principal Snyder talks with his friend on the police force, Bob.
Snyder knows that they're on a Hellmouth, but Bob demands Snyder to control
the situation, otherwise the mayor would have to get involved. That night,
Willow sets up a plan to exorcise the spirit from the school. To do so,
Buffy, Xander, Cordelia, and herself need to chant from different locations
in the school at midnight, forming what is called a Mangus Tripod. Buffy
elects to take the center position, since that is where the most danger
would likely occur. After they split up in the school, Willow runs into
Giles by the library. He is trying to contact Jenny's spirit, so Willow
leaves him alone. As midnight approaches, Buffy sees a vision of James
dancing with Grace in the band room. Cordelia inspects her wound in the
bathroom mirror, then watches in horror as the whole side of her face turns
red and swollen. Willow is suddenly pulled into the floor by an arm, but she
is saved by Giles. Buffy watches as James's face is replaced by a rotted
skull, which tells her to get out. The clock finally strikes twelve, so the
group does the chant simultaneously. However, it doen't work like it's
supposed to. A swarm of wasps invades the hallways, and everybody makes a
mad dash for the exit. They run to the street, then turn around to witness
the swarm surround the entire school.
At Buffy's house, Giles deduces that it is James spirit which is haunting
Sunnydale High. He is apparently trying to seek forgiveness from Grace, but
that can never happen since she dies before she can possibly forgive him.
So, he is doomed to repeat this scenario over and over again. While they try
to figure out a solution, Buffy hears a male voice call to her. Without
telling the others, she sneaks off to the school. The wasps part to allow
her access, and she walks right in. Inside, Buffy meets Angel, who has come
to finish things off. However, James spirit possesses Buffy, and she begins
to act out the scenario. Confused for a moment, Angel approaches and is
suddenly possessed by Grace's spirit. It all plays out the same way, only
this time, Grace (in Angel's body) gets up after being shot and falling onto
the steps below. In the band room, James (in Buffy's body) prepares to shoot
himself, when Grace stops him. She forgives him, and they share one last
kiss before their souls finally cross over, leaving Buffy and Angel in an
embrace, kissing like they once did in the past. When Angel realizes what he
is doing, he pushes her off and escapes.
Back at the Summers home, Buffy realizes that James never meant to shoot
Grace. Apparently, Buffy and James had more in common than she realized, for
they were both tormented by guilt. Meanwhile, at their new home in an
abandoned garden, Angel tries to cleanse himself from the vile kiss he
shared with his enemy. He takes Dru out with him to find some blood, leaving
Spike alone. After they leave, Spike rises from his wheelchair and kicks it
on its side, knowing that the time for his comeback is nearer than anyone
else thinks.
