A slayer, trying to escape her destiny comes to a new town looking for a fresh start, but finds anything but.
Vampire Slayer Buffy Summers hopes to start anew in the small town of Sunnydale. However, she soon finds that she can't outrun fate, as not only is her new home a fountain of supernatural activity, but her arrival coincides with the arising of a great evil. Now Buffy must embrace her responsibilities to help her new friends.
Following their encounter, Buffy's new friends are now aware of vampires and that she is a Slayer. Before they can get adjusted Watcher Giles discovers the nature of the Harvest. They must now put a stop to an event that will free the dreaded vampire known as the Master and bring with him a literal Hell on Earth.
In an attempt to lead a normal teenage life, Buffy auditions to be a cheerleader. She soon discovers that someone else wants to make the squad and is casting spells to cut out the competition.
Xander's hormones shift from Buffy to Miss French, a substitute for the deceased biology teacher. While tracking his killer and a dangerous vampire, Buffy begins to figure out that there's more to the new teacher than meets the eye.
While trying to maintain a normal dating life, Buffy finds it interrupted by the fulfilment of an ancient prophesy that foretells the rising of a vampire known as the Anointed One, a powerful warrior to the Master.
Along with four bullies, Xander becomes possessed with a hyena spirit and they begin to roam the school as a pack, taunting and picking on weaker students. However, their behaviour begins to become increasingly animalistic and even dangerous, leaving Buffy, Giles, and Willow to undo the possession before things get worse.
As the Master ramps up his attacks on the Slayer, so does the romantic tension between Buffy and Angel. Ultimately, a moment of weakness between the two leads to the secret that Angel has been holding back since their first encounter.
Willow begins an online relationship with a boy named Malcolm. Worried about who Malcolm is and his motives, Buffy begins investigating and soon she, Xander, and Giles discover that Willow is actually chatting with Moloch, a demon who draws devoted followers. Originally bound in a book, he is now trapped in cyberspace where his access to knowledge has him becoming more dangerous than he ever was as a flesh-and-blood demon.
The Scoobies go up against their most horrific obstacle yet when the new principal puts Giles in charge of the Sunnydale High School talent show and forces Buffy, Xander, and Willow to participate. In the meantime, something is killing and harvesting body parts. Their prime suspect soon becomes a creepy ventriloquist dummy who may have a life of its own.
Sunnydale finds out that nightmares do come true when everyone's worst fears begin manifesting in reality. The only connection is a young boy seen around each incident who is himself being stalked by a monstrous looking man.
As Cordelia prepares to become May Queen, she is distracted by an assault on those close to her. Discovering the culprit is an invisible girl whose condition came from being ignored by those around her, Buffy and friends must set aside their differences with Cordelia in order to protect her from a revenge plot.
Buffy learns of an ancient prophecy that foretells the rising of the Master and her subsequent death. Horrified to learn this, she struggles to defeat her fate, either by avoiding it or facing it head-on.
Buffy returns from L.A. to begin the new school year. It soon becomes evident that Buffy's behaviour has changed for the worse, and everyone suspects that it's linked to her fateful encounter with the Master. Unbeknownst to the gang, the Anointed One and his followers plot to resurrect the vampire, forcing Buffy to stop them or face the Master again.
The Scoobies discover open graves that are the result of a collective grave robbery. After happening upon the bodies with missing parts, they find out that someone is trying to construct a woman. With no missing heads, Buffy races to stop the wannabe Dr Frankenstein from taking a fresh one and completing their twisted science experiment.
Between Snyder and her mother, Buffy dreads Parent-Teacher night. However, it might be moot given the upcoming Night of Saint Vigeous where the Anointed One and his followers plan to attack in full force. Things are made even worse by the arrival a vampire named Spike who has killed two Slayers in the past and promises to make Buffy his hat trick.
An Incan mummy is released and assumes the identity of the foreign exchange student living with the Summers. Xander is immediately smitten with her, and while the two begin a loving relationship, he and the others are unaware that she must drain the life force from others to remain alive.
Buffy feels she has no social life due to Giles's taxing schedule and Angel's reluctance to dating. She rebels by setting aside her better judgement and going with Cordelia on a double-date with a couple of college boys. What they do not know is that the fraternity they belong to has built its power on a long tradition of worship and sacrificing girls to a demon.
While chaperoning trick-or-treaters on Halloween, Buffy, Xander, and Willow, as well as several others in town, find themselves transforming into the personas of their costumes. Spike sees the chaos as an opportunity, especially when he finds that Buffy is now stuck in the role as a helpless noble woman.
Buffy is visited by Ford, an old friend her old high school. While she is relieved that she doesn't have to hide her Slayer identity from him, a jealous Angel, along with Willow and Xander, discover that Ford is himself hiding something from Buffy.
Giles learns that he can't outrun his sins when a demon he helped summon during his rebellious youth comes back for he and his then circle of friends. With the demon now narrowing its target onto Giles, he soon finds those closest to him in danger due to the reckless past he had hoped they would never discover.
Career Week at Sunnydale High leads Buffy to question where her Slayer duties will leave her in terms of a stable future. In the meantime, she must be on guard for the Order of Taraka, a collection of assassins who Spike has sicced on Buffy to distract her as he tries to find a way to restore Drusilla to full health.
The revelation of a new Slayer relieves Buffy of worry of her duties, but she soon finds herself back in battle when she discovers that Spike has taken Angel who is the key to curing Drusilla. The two Slayers must coordinate their methods to stop the upcoming ritual.
Buffy discovers that her mother has a boyfriend. Everyone quickly takes to Ted, except Buffy. While many dismiss it as stepfather issues, the more Buffy finds out about Ted, the more her dislike for him is justified.
As if hunting down a couple of cowboy vampires is enough for Buffy, she also has to take care of an egg for a health class assignment. After a few tireless nights, she discovers that there's something amiss with her egg.
Buffy's 17th birthday is approaching, but she is more concerned about Angel, due to a troubling dream where he was killed by Drusilla. The fear is not unwarranted, as a healthy Drusilla and wheelchair-bound Spike have begun assembling The Judge, a powerful demon with the ability burn to down humanity.
As if the apocalyptic situation with The Judge isn't bad enough, the curse inflicted upon Angel has been lifted. With no soul, Angel has reverted to his evil ways and joined forces with Spike and Drusilla. Buffy must now put aside her feelings for the man she once loved and come to terms with the monster he's become.
With Buffy dealing with the loss of Angel, Cordelia is frustrated with Xander, and Willow yearns to develop a more affectionate relationship with Oz.
Meanwhile, a werewolf is on the loose in Sunnydale, and the Scoobies race to find out who it is. They must stop the creature, not just from others, but also for its own sake, as a hunter aims to kill it to sell its pelt.
Under pressure from her friends, Cordelia breaks up with Xander, on Valentine's Day of all days. Hoping to get her back, he has Amy preform a love spell for him. Unfortunately, it has the opposite effect, making every woman in sight but Cordelia go crazy over Xander.
At Buffy's urging, Giles and Jenny try to reconcile their relationship. As Jenny is on the verge of cracking a spell that could restore Angel's soul, Angel's emotional torture of Buffy is getting worse, eventually leading to an act that will haunt Buffy and friends for a long time to come.
Buffy is overcome with the flu and taken to the hospital. She is eager to get out due to a phobia of hospitals that stems from a childhood incident, but soon discovers that something is stalking the children's wing.
A violent lovers spate is reenacted again and again in the halls of Sunnydale High School. With the spirits of a student and his teacher repeatedly possess people and carrying out the murder-suicide that occurred forty-three years eariler, the Scoobies scramble to put an end the tragic cycle.
A creature appears to be targeting members of the swim team. With two already found by nothing more than their skin. Buffy keeps a watchful eye on the most likely next target, while the others try to find out about the origin of the monster.
Buffy has resolved to finally fight Angel just as he plans to awaken the demon Acathla and suck the world into Hell. However, her decision is clouded by the discovery of Jenny's spell that could restore Angel's soul.
With Giles being tortured by Angel to reveal the secret to awakening Acathla, Buffy is in a race against time. Even with an unlikely ally helping her, Buffy will have to face heartbreak and hardship along her way to face Angel alone.
Buffy is lying low by settling for a lonely life in L.A. However, her old life comes back when someone from her past comes to her in need of help.
Meanwhile, the Scoobies take on slaying duties, as Joyce continues to come to grips with the secret life her daughter kept from her.
Buffy now back in Sunnydale, feels unwelcomed and unwanted by her friends and mom. If that weren't bad enough, she also has to deal with zombies crashing her homecoming party.
Buffy meets a new rogue slayer by the name of Faith, who was called on after the death of Kendra. Buffy soon learns that Faith has a lot of problems, which end up becomming Buffy's problems as well when she learns Faith was followed to Sunnydale.
When a vicious murder occurs at Sunnydale High, the gang begins to think Oz may have been behind it. Meanwhile, Buffy discovers a wild Angel, who has returned from a hell dimension.
Buffy and Cordelia go head to head as they battle it out to win the title of Homecoming Queen. They soon realize they have bigger problems while being hunted as a part of Slayerfest '98.
The adults begin acting like children after consuming chocolate bars sold by Sunnydale High students. Buffy and her friends soon find out that Ethan Rayne is back and is to blame for the current situation.
Things heat up after everyone finds out that Angel is back in Sunnydale and Buffy has kept it secret. Meanwhile, Faith's new watcher is not all that she seems.
Spike returns to Sunnydale, blaming Buffy and her friends for losing Drusilla. He has Willow make him a love spell while he holds her and Xander hostage.
When Cordelia wishes that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, the demon Anyanka grants her wish. Now the entire city is stuck in an alternate reality where the vampires have made a feeding ground out of Sunnydale.
Angel's past comes back to haunt him when he starts seeing the spirits of those he killed while he was Angelus.
When Buffy's mother discovers two dead children in the park, she goes on a witch hunt of sorts trying to rid Sunnydale of all evil.
It is said that once a Slayer reachers her 18th birthday, her watcher must strip her of her powers and have her engage in combat with a fierce monster. However, Giles isn't like most other watchers.
Taunted by Cordelia, uncool Xander sets out to improve his image and gets more than he bargained for by way of ferocious demons, the walking dead and an unexploded bomb before he earns a night of passion with Faith. Unfortunately, his solo heroics go unnoticed by Buffy and the team, who are preoccupied with a nest of hideous bird-like creatures threatening to reopen the Hellmouth.
New watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, arrives from England, full of dire warnings about the activities of a demon called Balthazar and his sinister acolytes. Meanwhile Buffy gets a taste of the dark side when on patrol with companion Faith - but unfortunately, their vampire-killing spree ends in the accidental death of a mortal.
When Faith feels no guilt for the human she unintentionally killed, she ends up alienating herself from Buffy and is slowly being lured to the side of evil.
Due to a failed spell, an evil Willow from an alternate dimension falls into Buffy's world and tries to make this world more like hers.
With the ascension quickly approaching, Faith and the Mayor try to steal Angel's soul in an attempt to bring him over to their side.
A fight with a demon leaves Buffy with the ability to read minds. When she hears a fellow Sunnydale High student thinking about killing the entire school, she goes on an all out hunt to find the person and stop them.
Buffy and her friends decide to strike against the Mayor directly, and steal a magic box crucial to his Ascension. However, their plan is foiled when Willow is captured by Faith and used as leverage.
On Prom Night, Buffy has to deal with Angel leaving her, as well as one of her fellow students planning to unleash his hell beasts on the students during the senior prom.
As Buffy's Graduation Day approaches, Faith is instructed to poison Angel as part of the Mayor's plot to distract Buffy's attention from the Ascension.
Ascension Day heralds the ultimate battle, as Buffy and her friends prepare for a face-off against the Mayor and a horde of vampires during Graduation.
As Buffy begins college, she learns that it's not all that different from high school and that her work as slayer is never finished, when a new vampire, Sunday, and her army of goons begin abducting college students and making it seem as if they had run away.
Buffy is convinced that her strange new roommate, Kathy, is a demon. However, nobody believes her as they just assume that she's gone insane.
Spike returns to Sunnydale in search of a magical ring of invincibility, and this time he has another femme fatale at his side - Cordelia's former sidekick, Harmony. As a recent addition to the ranks of the undead, she's gained a new lease on "lifelessness", and a voracious appetite - for Willow.
When Buffy and her friends decide to check out a fun haunted house on Halloween night, they discover that the house actually is haunted, with them trapped inside it.
Xander lands a job in the college bar, where Buffy sees Parker kissing someone else. Hurt and confused, she seeks solace with a gang of rowdy students - whose beer turns her into a rampaging neanderthal.
Oz seems to be attracted to mysterious musician by the name of Veruca. Willow shows her jealousy toward this female singer, who actually turns out to be a female werewolf.
Spike is held prisoner in an underground laboratory, by a mysterious military organization, known as the Initiative. He soon escapes and sets out to exact revenge on the Slayer - little suspecting the shock in store for him.
On Thanksgiving, Buffy encounters the restless and vengeful spirit of a Native American, whose people were wiped out by white settlers. During a tense confrontation, the Slayer fights a losing battle against her formidable foe - but fortunately, a mysterious protector watches over her from the shadows.
Willow casts a disastrous spell which happens to make her every wish come true, without her even realizing it.
Buffy and gang head back to Sunnydale High School to stop an impending apocalypse.
Giles is turned into a demon, forcing him to track down slippery sorcerer, Ethan Rayne, in the hope of reversing the process.
Buffy begins to distance herself from her friends as she starts spending more and more time with Riley and the Initiative.
The Initiative falls apart following Maggie Walsh's death, while Riley is aghast to discover he was surreptitiously fed addictive drugs, and begins to doubt everything he ever held dear - including Buffy.
Faith awakens from her coma and immediately comes after Buffy, seeking revenge on her and her loved ones.
Faith, having switched bodies with Buffy, goes around tarnishing Buffy's good name.
Still reeling from her discovery about Riley, Buffy tries to find out why school misfit Jonathan has become a local hero in Sunnydale.
A weird occurence takes place at a fraternity party when Riley and Buffy have sex in the frat house. It turns out that they are the ones who spark the spooky events that are taking place.
Oz learns to control his werewolf nature and returns to Sunnydale, but his unexpected reappearance casts a shadow over Willow and Tara's growing relationship.
Spike joins forces with Adam and manages to turn the gang against each other, while Angel's return to Sunnydale provokes a violent reaction.
Adam gains control of Riley's mind and attempts to create an army of invincible soldiers to destroy the Initiative, but Buffy has ideas of her own. She and her friends break back into the Initiative to put a stop to Adam- for good this time.
After the powerful spell they used to destroy Adam, the gang gathers at Buffy's house for a night of relaxation and videos. However, when they fall asleep, they find they are caught in a web of wild dreams, pursued by a mysterious figure.
As the shadow of night falls over Sunnydale, the Slayer is brought face to face with the most infamous vampire ever to have stalked the Earth, the legendary Count Dracula.
Harmony and her vampire gang plan Buffy's death, while a jealous Dawn adjusts to life with her overworked sister.
A demon splits Xander into two separate beings, one with his best characteristics and another with his worst. Unfortunately his friends seem too busy with their own problems to help, especially Riley, who fears his love for Buffy is unrequited.
Spike attempts to force a surgeon to remove the pain-inducing microchip from his brain, while Riley resists medical attention, fearing Buffy will lose interest in him if he's left without his strength.
Just as a mysterious new villain, Glory, arrives in Sunnydale, Buffy finally learns the truth about her new sister Dawn, and where she comes from.
Tara's family, convinced she will turn into a demon on her next birthday, come to Sunnydale to take her away.
After a near death experience, Buffy, wanting to find out more about what it means to be a slayer, has Spike recount the stories of the slayers he has killed in the past.
When Glory creates a snake-like beast to go find out who or what is the key, Buffy must stop it before it reports back to Glory. Meanwhile, the results of Joyce's CAT scan show a 'shadow' in her brain.
A creature from another planet lands on Earth and only seems to target people who aren't all right in the head. Buffy must stop him when he goes after her mother, days before her brain surgery.
Buffy and Riley have a major blowout when she finds out how he's been spending his nights. Then Riley, feeling inferior to Buffy tells her that he is leaving on a mission to Belize, unless she give him one good reason why he should stay.
Willow and Anya's bickering cause them to accidentally conjure up a troll when they are left in charge of The Magic Box in Giles' absence.
The Watchers Council come to Sunnydale to test Buffy's slayer skills. They also reveal to her the truth about Glory and who she really is.
Buffy's birthday party is ruined when Dawn finds out that she is the key and runs away, endangering herself and the world when Glory finds her.
When Spike professes his love for Buffy, she is disgusted by it. Meanwhile Drusilla is back in Sunnydale to cause some trouble.
A very powerful robot programmed to be the perfect girlfriend will stop at nothing to find her hiding boyfriend, and will kill anyone who gets in her way.
In this harrowing episode, Buffy comes home to find her lifeless mother laying on the couch.
Buffy, already dealing with her mother's funeral arrangements and trying to cope with her death, now has to worry about Dawn trying to bring Mrs. Summers back from the grave.
Since Spike can't have the real thing, he has Warren build him a Buffy robot which ends up fooling her friends. Meanwhile, Buffy goes on a quest with Giles.
Somone close to Buffy pays the ultimate price after Glory mistakes them for the key.
Buffy, realizing that Glory cannot be defeated, decides to take her friends and flee Sunnydale before she hurts anybody else.
With Buffy in a catatonic state, Willow must enter her mind and snap her out of it and bring her back.
With Dawn in Glory's hands and about to be used to destroy the world, Buffy and her friends face off with Glory one final time, and Buffy ends up paying the ultimate price in order to save her sister and the world.
Buffy's friends try to cope with Buffy's death and are left to defend Sunnydale without her. Meanwhile a gang of marauding demons threaten to jeopardize their plan to bring the slayer back from the dead. To complicate matters, Giles contemplates leaving Sunnydale to come to terms with the loss.
Buffy is back from the dead, but since her friends are left unaware that their spell worked, she is forced to claw herself out of her own grave. She wanders around town, disoriented as the demon gang continue to destroy Sunnydale.
As Buffy tries to adjust to her life again, she and her friends are visited by a demon that forces them to deal with the repercussions of the Slayer's resurrection.
Buffy faces off against one of her most formidable foes yet - bankruptcy- in a drolly scripted mosaic of money problems and demonic menace. The death of Buffy's mother last season left the Slayer as the head of her household, and Buffy's brief demise hardly eased the Summers' strained finances. So when the water pipes burst and their basement floods, a bank loan is their only option. But, alas, Buffy has no collateral. Plus, she's the target of the obnoxious M'Fashnik Demon, employed by three nerdy would-be super villains. Lucky for Buffy, Giles has returned from England after hearing the news about her resurrection.
Buffy tries to find her niche, as she goes through a series of jobs, while villains Jonathan, Warren and Andrew unwittingly put the Slayer through a series of tests to find her weakness.
Buffy's friends celebrate Xander and Anya's engagement, while Dawn puts herself in danger when she sneaks out with friends to engage in some Halloween-night mischief.
In this musical extravaganza, a demon, Sweet, comes to Sunnydale and forces the town to sing their most private, and sometimes shocking secrets to one another. This causes Buffy's friends to finally learn the truth about where she really was while she was dead.
Buffy and her friends all lose their memories and forget who they are when a spell that Willow casts goes horribly wrong. They decide to take on new identities, but slowly begin figuring out who they really are and what it is that they do.
The chip in Spike's head malfunctions, allowing him to prey on people again; Willow reunites with a formerly furry friend, who also practices black magic, and the two enchantresses go on a tear.
Buffy becomes so intent on fighting her attraction to Spike that she fails to recognize Willow's descent into magical addiction and the dangerous situation it creates for Dawn.
A social services worker threatens to take guardianship of Dawn. Complicating matters, the three villains accidentally turn Buffy invisible, forcing the gang to rely on Willow's natural brainpower to save the slayer. Plus, in a moment of panic over her relationship with Spike, Buffy chops off her hair.
Buffy needs a job and goes to work at a fast food joint, the Doublemeat Palace. Fast food horror stories are taken to a new level, as Buffy soon discovers what really goes on behind the counters.
Buffy investigates why Spike is suddenly able to attack her, despite the chip in his head. Meanwhile, Jonathan, Warren and Andrew try to frame Buffy for murder.
Buffy's friends throw her a birthday bash she'll never forget. Due to a spell gone awry, everyone is trapped inside her home and is unable to leave.
Riley comes back to Sunnydale and makes Buffy question some of her recent decisions, including her relationship with Spike.
Xander and Anya's wedding day has finally arrived. Things are bad enough when Xander and Anya's families can't seem to get along, but a demon from Anya's past plans on breaking up the happy couple, by scaring off the already-nervous Xander.
Buffy is sent into a wild fluctuation between alternative realities - in one world she's the vampire slayer, in the other she's been institutionalized for severe delusional schizophrenia. With both worlds appealing and disturbing for different reasons, she faces a difficult choice of which reality to accept.
Xander’s remorse is not quite enough to satisfy Anya’s rage over their aborted marriage, as she seeks supernatural retribution. Meanwhile, as Willow and Tara begin renewing their romance, Buffy tries to end her relationship with Spike.
While Willow and Tara have reunited, Buffy's friendship with Xander is endangered following the revelation of her sexual relationship with Spike. In the aftermath of the heartache caused from his tryst with Anya, Spike is dead set to prove he truly loves Buffy, bringing him to carry out an unthinkable act.
Buffy is rushed to the hospital after being shot by Warren while Willow turns to the darkest of majicks in order to exact revenge on Tara's murderer.
One down, two to go. Willow has now completely gone to the dark side - fully immersed in the majicks - as she continues to avenge Tara's death. When her friends try to intervene, she turns against them as well.
As this thrilling story comes to a close, Willow having tried to destroy Buffy and all her friends, is too powerful for any of them to stop. Lucky for them, Giles returns with borrowed power to try and stop the all-powerful wicca from destroying the world.
Buffy takes Dawn to her first day at the newly restored Sunnydale High, only to discover that the school still hides the deep, menacing secrets of years past. Meanwhile, a remorseful Willow recoups in England and turns to Giles and the coven to learn to control her magic.
After her first day as Sunnydale's new guidance counselor, Buffy and her friends get right into investigating a subterranean monster, that is wreaking havoc on Sunnydale. Meanwhile, Willow has mixed emotions as she says her good-byes to Giles and leaves England to return to Sunnydale.
Willow's Sunnydale homecoming is more difficult than she or anyone else expected, causing the gang some concern that she hasn't fully recovered from her evil ways. Meanwhile, Dawn officially joins the hallowed ranks of the Scooby Gang as they hunt down a demon with baffling powers.
Buffy's role as a guidance counselor is severely tested when she tries to help a student who claims she is able to foretell her own, imminent death. Meanwhile, Anya struggles with being a vengeance demon, which takes an unexpected turn as she finds herself dispensing advice instead of curses.
When Anya grants a particularly gruesome vengeance wish, Buffy, Xander and the gang are forced to confront her choice to become a demon again. Meanwhile, in an attempt to return to some semblance of a normal life, Willow moves back in with Buffy and re-enrolls in college.
Dawn's crush on a football jock named RJ begins to concern Buffy when she notices a drastic change in Dawn's behavior. Believing her sister's actions are borderline obsessive, Buffy decides to have a talk with RJ. However, upon meeting him, she ends up finding herself madly attracted to him as well. Believing that supernatural forces are at play, Anya and Willow take their shot at investigating, only to find themselves the next victims of RJ's love. With all four women willing to go to drastic lengths to prove their undying love for RJ, it is now up to Spike and Xander to get to the bottom of the situation and reverse the spell.
Joyce visits Dawn from the beyond, Buffy has a revealing chat with a vampire, and Willow receives a ghostly visitor whom she believes may well be Tara, all of which portend an imminent, unpleasant future. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Andrew return to Sunnydale for some inevitably unpleasant mischief.
Fearful that Spike may be killing again, the gang's investigation into his mysterious behavior climaxes in a formidable confrontation between him and Buffy. Meanwhile, Giles makes what may be a cataclysmic discovery that could affect everyone's future.
After giving Spike a brutal third degree about his recent malevolent deeds, Buffy and the gang then kidnap and grill Andrew in a desperate effort to learn more about the growing evil forces that surround them all. At the same time, Buffy urgently contacts the Watcher’s Council to try to locate Giles in hopes that he may have some answers about the deadly, ever-encroaching evil.
As Buffy and the gang search for a way to annihilate an extremely powerful Ubervamp, Giles arrives in Sunnydale with three would-be slayers in tow.
Buffy struggles to protect potential Slayers from assassination by the Ubervamp while Giles and Anya petition a creature for information about the First.
Buffy enlists Spike’s aid in graphic, intensive training of the potential slayers, in anticipation of the expected cataclysmic return of The First. Meanwhile, Willow performs a spell that reveals that another unexpected potential slayer is living in Sunnydale.
When Willow starts to give in to romantic feelings for Kennedy, her guilty conscience causes her to turn into Warren, Tara's killer. Also, the gang gets clues that lead them to believe Giles may be The First, and Buffy helps Spike with what seems to be his malfunctioning chip, ultimately leaving Buffy with a hard decision to make.
Buffy goes on a date with Principal Wood, while Xander goes on date with an enigmatic woman he happens to work with.
The Summers home, densely packed with Slayer wannabes, suffers a surprising, grievous loss which ratchets up the gang’s attempt to rout the growing forces of evil. Meanwhile, Buffy makes a treacherous journey to try to obtain knowledge that will help in the battle against The First.
In this light-hearted episode, Andrew shoots a documentary, chronicling a day in the life of the scoobies and the potentials. Meanwhile, the Sunnydale High school is also experiencing problems when the Hellmouth is activated.
Giles, believing Spike has become a liability, teams up with Principal Wood, who also has animosity toward Spike. The two conspire to kill Spike behind Buffy's back. Buffy finds out about their plans and manages to save Spike, but loses all respect for Giles and decides to end her relationship with him. Meanwhile, Spike is flooded with memories of his mother and how he turned her into a vampire.
Faith returns to Sunnydale and joins forces with the growing Scooby gang just as The First empowers a dangerous new threat, the malevolent cleric Caleb. When Buffy decides to face Caleb head-on and test the wannabes, his power and viciousness stun her and the gang.
As Sunnydale's residents evacuate en masse, Faith rallies the demoralized potentials while an emotionally fragile Buffy endures another run-in with Caleb.
With Buffy no longer in charge, Faith leads the potentials into the sewers in search of weapons, but they are attacked by an army of vampires and discover a ticking bomb. Meanwhile, after Spike lifts Buffy's spirts, she goes to the Vinyard to face Caleb, and discovers a new weapon- a mystical scythe which will help her in her impending battle.
Buffy rejoins the group, as Giles and Willow do some research on her newfound weapon. Meanwhile, it seems that everyone else is prepared for the end, as they can feel something bad coming. Finally, Buffy faces off against Caleb with the help of an old friend, who pays her one final visit.
Buffy catches up with Angel, who has come to Sunnydale with the intention of helping Buffy in her impending battle. After Buffy refuses his help, he heads back to LA, but not before handing Buffy an ancient amulet which he says will be of help to her in battle. Buffy then heads back home, where she and her friends prepare to lead the potential slayers into the Hellmouth waging one final battle against the First Evil and his army of vampires.