"Passion"
Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Cordelia hang out at the Bronze as Angelus watches. He voices over that passion “lies in all of us” and will “stir…open its jaws, and howl.” He follows the Scoobies as they leave, and winds up entering Buffy’s room while she’s asleep that night. “Passion rules us all,” he voices over. “And we obey. What other choice do we have?” In the morning, Buffy wakes up to see an envelope on her pillow. She opens it to see a sketch of her sleeping. She takes it to Giles and tells him that Angelus must have been in her room the night before. “A visit from the pointed tooth fairy,” Xander quips. Cordelia worries that, since she once invited Angel into her car (see “Some Assembly Required”), he’ll be able to enter again whenever he wants. Buffy asks Giles if there’s a spell to reverse the invitation or put up a barrier to keep him out, and he says he’ll look into it. The Scoobies’ conversation is interrupted when Jonathan and another girl enter the library looking for books. Xander tries to chase them off, apparently having forgotten that the library is for more than just Scoobies meetings. The Scoobies leave, making Jonathan wonder where they are when he comes out of the stacks for help.
Giles tells Buffy that Angelus is trying to throw her off of her game instead of just attacking her and killing her. She says that Angel told her about torturing Drusilla’s family when he was obsessed with her, and realizes that she’ll need to tell Joyce something to keep her safe. Giles tells her that she can’t give in to her passions or let Angelus affect her. In other words, ignore him and he might leave her alone. After one of her classes, Jenny asks Willow to start off class the next day in case she’s late. Willow is nervous but excited about the prospect. Buffy and Giles arrive, and Willow tells Buffy that she has to show Jenny respect because she’s still her teacher. Giles tells Jenny that Angelus was in Buffy’s room and mentions that he’s looking for a spell to keep him out. Jenny gives him a book and tells him that she came to Sunnydale out of duty to her tribe, but didn’t realize that she would wind up falling in love with him. She says that she wants to make things up to him, but he replies that he’s not the one she should be apologizing to.
That night, Buffy finally tells Joyce that Angel, whom Joyce only knows as the guy who was supposedly tutoring Buffy in history (see “Angel”), is her ex-boyfriend. She says that he’s been following her around and tells Joyce not to invite him in if he comes by the house. Later, she chats with Willow on the phone as Willow complains about Angelus’ actions. She spots an envelope on her bed and opens it find her pet fish strung together. Later, Willow goes to Buffy’s house, where they try to protect themselves with garlic and crosses. Buffy says that she can’t believe how much Angel has changed, and Willow points out that he still only thinks about her. Drusilla brings a puppy to the warehouse for Spike to eat, but he’s not in the mood to be coddled. He’s fed up with Angelus taking over his position as master of the house. Drusilla is pleased to have them fighting over her. She suddenly has a vision and tells Spike and Angelus that “an old enemy is seeking help.” In the morning, Jenny heads to a magic shop and tells the owner that she wants an Orb of Thesulah. He gives exposition about the orb being a “spirit vault for the rituals of the undead” and tells her that he mostly sells them as “new age paperweights” (see “Becoming, Part 1”). He mentions that the ritual she would use the orb with is lost, but she tells him that she’s working on translating the text. The owner asks why Jenny needs the orb, and she replies that she’s going to give someone “his soul.”
At school, Xander is saddened to hear that Buffy and Willow had a sleepover the night before without taking pictures for him. Willow heads off to start Jenny’s class, and is disappointed to see that Jenny’s there on time. Buffy approaches Jenny and tells her that she knows she feels bad, and should keep it up. She adds that Giles misses Jenny, though he never says anything, and that Buffy doesn’t want him to be lonely. Buffy catches up with Giles, who tells her that he found a spell to retract Angelus’ invitation into her house and, to her delight, Cordelia’s car. That night, Buffy and Willow hang up a cross in Willow’s room, into which Angel was invited in “Lie to Me.” Willow mentions that her father won’t be happy about her hanging up a crucifix, and admits that she has to go to Xander’s house every year to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas (which is worth it, because Xander does the Snoopy dance - see “The Replacement”). Cordelia asks Willow if she knows that her aquarium is fishless. She spots an envelope on Willow’s bed and hands it to her, but it’s actually for Buffy - it’s a sketch of her mother sleeping.
Joyce returns home from grocery shopping and is met by Angelus. He begs Joyce to convince Buffy to get back together with her, telling her that he needs Buffy. Nervous, she tries to get into the house but drops the bag she’s carrying. Angelus tries to help her with her food (and, if you watch carefully, you can see him accidentally whip an orange out of the frame) and says that Buffy will die without him. Joyce replies that she’s calling the police and struggles to get the front door unlocked. “I haven’t been able to sleep since the night we made love,” Angelus tells her. Joyce tells him again to leave her and Buffy alone, and when she opens the door, he tries to follow her inside, but finds himself unable to. Buffy and Willow come downstairs, Willow chanting something in Latin, and Buffy informs him that they’ve “changed the locks.” Giles goes to Jenny’s classroom and finds her still there, working on the translation of the ritual. She tells him that Buffy said he missed her and he tries to act nonchalant. She says that she has some news for him and asks if she can talk to him later; he invites her to stop by his place. Drusilla heads to the magic shop Jenny was in earlier and asks the shopkeeper what he talked to her about.
Jenny triumphantly completes the translation and saves it on a disk, printing out a copy at the same time. Suddenly, she looks up and gasps - Angelus is sitting in the back of the room. She tells him that she has good news, and he says he knows that she went to the magic shop and got an Orb of Thesulah. He gives the exposition that it’s used to “summon a person’s soul” and hold it until it can be returned to his or her body. He throws the orb past her and it shatters against the chalkboard. As Angelus goes over to the computer, Jenny slowly makes her way towards the door but finds that it’s locked. He shoves the computer to the floor, where it catches on fire, and places the printout of his “cure” into the flames. When he looks up at her, he’s vamped out. Jenny tries to hightail it out of the room, but Angelus grabs her before she can. She gets away from him and they begin a game of cat and mouse in the hallways of the school. He catches up with her on a landing, grabs her, and says, “Sorry, Jenny, this is where you get off.” He snaps her neck and drops her body to the floor.
Giles goes to the Summers’ house and is let inside by Willow, who gives him Jenny’s book so that he can revoke Angelus’ invitation into his apartment. She tells him what happened with Angelus and Joyce, unsure of whether he knows that Buffy and Angel had sex, since he’s “a librarian and all.” In Buffy’s room, she explains Willow’s chanting and use of herbs by saying that Angelus is superstitious. Joyce asks if he was her “first,” and Buffy assures her that he was her only. She tries to get out of having “the talk,” but Joyce points out that Buffy didn’t even tell her that she was dating Angel, and therefore Joyce should be allowed to ask as many questions as she wants. Buffy admits that she made a mistake, and Joyce chastises her for cutting her out of her life. “I guess that was the talk,” she says. “So how’d it go?” Buffy asks. Giles goes home and quickly lightens up when he hears opera music and sees a rose on the front door. He heads inside, calling out to Jenny, and spots champagne in the living room, as well as a note that says, “Upstairs.” He goes up, walking past roses on each step, and enters his bedroom to see Jenny’s body lying on his bed.
Later, the police ask Giles to come to the station for questioning, and he asks to make a phone call first. Angelus watches through the Summers’ windows as Buffy receives the phone call telling her that Jenny is dead. She is shocked into silence by the news. Willow takes the phone from her and begins sobbing when Giles tells her what happened. Xander and Cordelia stop by to pick up Buffy and Willow, and the four head over to Giles’ apartment to see if he’s there. Buffy worries that he’ll do something he shouldn’t, and, indeed, he’s preparing to head out with all of his weapons. He’s found a pencil sketch of Jenny’s dead body.
The Scoobies arrive at Giles’ apartment, see that all of his weapons are gone, and decide that he must have gone to the warehouse. Cordelia asks if Giles is going to kill Angelus, and Xander announces that he should. Buffy agrees, but says that Giles is going to get himself killed instead. At the warehouse, Spike is lecturing Angelus on his stupidity for leaving Buffy presents instead of just killing her. Drusilla points out that Jenny was going to give Angelus his soul back, but Spike argues that Angelus is just making Buffy madder. Suddenly, a Molotov cocktail flies into the warehouse, quickly followed by a crossbow bolt that lands in Angelus’ shoulder. Giles is there, and this time it’s personal. He attacks Angelus and Drusilla moves to join in, but Spike holds her back, telling her, “No fair going into the ring unless he tags you first.” Angelus gets the better of Giles and is about to get his own revenge when Buffy arrives and starts fighting him. After a few minutes, she gets the better of him, but lets him go when she realizes that Giles could die in the burning warehouse. She gets him outside, where he pushes her away and demands to know why she came after him. “This wasn’t your fight!” he yells. She punches him and yells back, “Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” They hug each other and cry together as she says, “You can’t leave me. I can’t do this alone.”
Giles heads back home as Angelus voices over more about passion. Later, Giles and Buffy visit Jenny’s grave and he tells her that she was the first person he’s buried as a Watcher who he really loved. She says that she’s sorry she couldn’t kill Angelus for him and Jenny, but thinks that she’s ready now. Willow takes over Jenny’s class as Buffy tells Giles that she can’t hold onto the past. “Nothing’s ever gonna bring him back,” she says. As Willow puts some books down on Jenny’s desk, she doesn’t see that she’s pushing the disk with the restoration spell off. It falls to the floor between a cabinet and the desk.
MORAL, or CRAMMING COMPLEX ISSUES INTO A NUTSHELL: If your boyfriend turns evil, warn your computer science teacher.
R.I.P.: Jenny
GRADE: A Why are all of the classic episodes so sad?
MEMORABLE QUOTES - “Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping…waiting…. And though unwanted…unbidden…it will stir…open its jaws, and howl. It speaks to us…guides us…. Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have?” - Angelus’ first monologue
Cordelia: “That means he can come into my car whenever he wants.”
Giles: “Uh, uh, look, it’s - it’s classic battle strategy to throw one’s opponent off his game. He-he-he’s just trying to provoke you. Uh, to taunt you, to, to goad you into, uh, some mishap of some sort.”
Buffy: (re: Joyce) “I’m gonna have to tell her something. The truth?”
“Hey, how come Buffy doesn’t get a snotty ‘once again you boil it down to the simplest form’ thing? Watcher’s pet.” - Xander
Jenny: “I know you feel betrayed.”
“Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love…the clarity of hatred…and the ecstasy of grief.” - Angelus’ second monologue
“I’m sorry, but let’s not forget that I hated Angel long before you guys jumped on the bandwagon. So I think I deserve a little something for not saying ‘I told you so’ long before now. And if Giles wants to go after the, uh, fiend that murdered his girlfriend, I say, ‘Faster, pussycat! Kill! Kill!’” - Xander
“It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we’d know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank…. Without passion, we’d truly be dead.” - Angelus’ third monologue
Written by Ty King; directed by Michael E. Gershman
Xander: “Yep, you’re doomed to havin’ to give him and his vamp pals a lift whenever they feel like it. And those guys never chip in for gas.”
Xander: “The ‘nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah’ approach to battle?”
Giles: “Yes, Xander, once more you’ve managed to boil a complex thought down to its simplest possible form.”
Giles: “No. You-you-you-you can’t do that.”
Xander: “Yeah. The more people who know the secret, the more it cheapens it for the rest of us.”
Giles: “Yes. Well, that’s one of the unpleasant side effects of betrayal.”