Season 3, Episode 5

Written by David Greenwalt

Directed by David Greenwalt

Original Airdate: 3 November 1998

Xander "Oh, God! What did you two do to each other?"
Buffy "Long story."
Cordelia "Got hunted."
Buffy "Apparently not that long."

REGULAR CAST

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

• Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase

• David Boreanaz as Angel

• Seth Green as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

GUEST CAST

• K. Todd Freeman as Mr. Trick

• Jeremy Ratchford as Lyle Gorch

• Fab Filippo as Scott Hope

• Ian Abercrombie as Old Man

• Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins III

• Eliza Dushku as Faith Lehane

CO-STARRING

• Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson

• Jason Hall as Devon MacLeish

• Jack Plotnick as Deputy Mayor Allan Finch

• Billy Maddox as Frawley

• Joseph Daube as Hans Gruenshtahler

• Jermyn Daube as Fredrick Gruenshtahler

• Lee Everett as Candy Gorch

• Tori McPetrie as Michelle Blake

• Chad Stahelski as Kulak

SYNOPSIS

• At the Bronze, everyone discusses plans for a limo to the Homecoming dance. Buffy's unsure about going until Scott comes up and finally asks her to go. She leaves early, and goes to visit Angel. He's pacing at the mansion, which is mostly because he's hungry for blood - which Buffy brings to him. He listens as she tells him that she's met someone else and that he's dependable. She will still keep helping Angel to get better, but she's moving on.
  
  The next day at school, Scott dumps Buffy. He claims that she is too distant and then leaves her standing in the halls, still a bit confused by it all. Twin Germans are watching her through binoculars, the image of which is then fed into a video transmission and is sent to a man in a wheelchair, who is with Mr. Trick. Mr. Trick says that Buffy's the target. Meanwhile, Buffy misses the school photos for the yearbook due to being absent on the day they were announced. Cordelia elects to tell her, but gets distracted by her duties as a competitor in the Homecoming Queen polls. Instead, Buffy is training with Faith in the library where they then make plans to go to the dance together. Xander and Willow set up plans to get ready for the dance.
  
  Meanwhile, Mr. Trick has assembled a group of killers to compete in "Slayer Fest '98" which is his plan to kill both Buffy and Faith: the Germans Gruenshtahler Twins, led by the man in the wheelchair, Lyle Gorch and his new wife Candy, a hunter named Frawley, and a strange demon who is part of the Kulak clan. Buffy is very angry when she finds out that she's missed the pictures because of Cordelia. The two yell at each other and Cordelia mentions that she'd like to see Buffy try to win the crown. Buffy agrees to her challenge and says that she will win it.
  
  That night, Xander is getting dressed up in his tux while Willow tries on various outfits that will hopefully make Oz say, "Oh." After several outfits and discussions with Xander about how far they've gotten with their respective partners, she comes out dressed in a long black gown. The two start dancing, when Willow questions whether she'll be able to dance in the dress. The moment intensifies and leads into a passionate kiss. They both break away, denying that it ever happened and blaming it on the clothes.
  
  Meanwhile, Buffy has gotten into the battle mood for Homecoming, but finds that after she presents this strategy to her friends, they are already helping Cordelia. Things get pretty intense as Buffy and Cordelia resort to mean and rude tactics to beat the other one out of the race. While all of this is going on, Mr. Trick's assembled killers are preparing for the competition, each in their own way. Buffy corners Willow and asks her to show her the database she's made for Cordelia so that she can see what kind of work she has cut out for her. Willow agrees, feeling guilty about the kiss and also about abandoning Buffy to help Cordelia. The two German twins are listening to Buffy and Willow talk and find out about the plans for a limo. Buffy later finds out that Cordelia has been bribing voters with money, which leads to yet another argument. This one is quickly broken up, but not before Buffy and Cordelia have their chance to call each other some more nasty names.
  
  Willow and Xander try to resolve their problems later that night, but whenever one is thinking about Buffy and Cordelia, the other is thinking about them and the kiss. They resolve that they have to make Buffy and Cordelia get along. On the night of the dance, the limo comes to pick up Buffy who, instead of finding Faith in the limo, finds Cordelia and a note that tells the two of them to work things out. However, the Gruenshtahlers are driving the limo and take the two girls deep into the forest, thinking they are both Slayers. When the girls get out, a VCR and TV are waiting for them with a message from Trick giving them thirty seconds to run for their lives. When the girls run, they are nearly killed by Frawley, who having been distracted by Buffy gets his foot trapped in one of his bear traps and then gives up all the information as to who and what is out there in the forest hunting them.
  
  At the dance, Willow and Xander watch the Dingoes play, standing uncomfortably. Faith comes up to see what's up, but they say nothing. Giles then approaches the two and says that something terrible has happened and that they have to find Buffy. He's joking, but he doesn't get a laugh out of it. Meanwhile, Buffy and Cordelia find temporary safety in a shack, where they call Giles and warn him. Suddenly they are attacked by Kulak. The girls get out in time before a missile, launched by the Gruenshtahlers, goes off and takes out Kulak, leaving them shaken but unharmed.
  
  Back at the dance, Faith goes up to Scott who's dancing with another girl and mentions that the itching, burning and rash will go away as long as he keeps using the ointment. The girl is then afraid to go near him and Faith's mission is accomplished. Meanwhile, the Gorches have knocked out Giles in the library and are awaiting the Slayers. Buffy and Cordelia arrive at the library and fight with the Gorches. After Candy is killed, Buffy is knocked to the ground and Lyle goes after Cordelia. Putting her mouth to good use, Cordelia puts on a threatening show and scares him off. The girls then realize that their corsages (which were in the limo waiting for them) have transmitters buried into them.
  
  Mr. Trick is picked up by the Sunnydale police that night and taken to Mayor Wilkins. He makes a deal that Trick can't refuse, even though he has no choice but to go along with Mayor Wilkins' plans. Being led by their boss and following the sonar readings, the Gruenshtahlers are split up and Buffy gets one of them to follow her into one room, while the other goes into another room. Buffy attaches the transmitters to the twins and they fire, each of them killing the other.
  
  Afterwards, Buffy and Cordelia arrive back at the dance just in time to hear that the two other Homecoming contenders won in a tie. Dirty and tired, the girls leave, rolling their eyes at all the work that they put into this and the waste of time that it apparently was.

TRIVIA

• Sarah Michelle Gellar broke a bone in her hand whilst filming this episode. When she is standing in front of the white board in the library, you can see a bandage on her left hand.

CONTINUITY

• Mayor Richard Wilkins III is seen for the first time in this episode, having been mentioned in various earlier ones. He says that this is an "important year for him" which becomes more apparent later in the season when he reveals he's going to have an Ascension...

• Scott Hope breaks up with Buffy in this episode. He never appears again, but in Conversations With Dead People, Holden Webster tells Buffy that Scott's come out as gay.

• Buffy again references Hemery High, her former high school mentioned in the 1992 movie.

• Buffy and Willow talk about the potential Homecoming voters that would have voted for her if they hadn't been eaten by zombies in Dead Man's Party.

• Buffy's perfect high school moment finally happens during The Prom when she receives the Class Protector Award.

GOOFS

• Buffy crushes the bottle, which has juice inside. Why is Buffy's hand not wet?

• After Buffy and Faith finish their training session, Faith lays the punching pads on the table. In the next shot, she's still holding them.

Anne | Dead Man's Party | Faith, Hope and Trick | Beauty and the Beasts | Homecoming

Band Candy | Revelations | Lover's Walk | The Wish | Amends | Gingerbread

Helpless | The Zeppo | Bad Girls | Consequences | Doppelgangland | Enemies

Earshot | Choices | The Prom | Graduation Day (Part 1) | Graduation Day (Part 2)