Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
Air date: March 31, 1997

Summary:

Time for BuffyThe Master wishes to raise the Anoited One, who will be his primary weapon against the Slayer. Meanwhile, Buffy kills a member of the Order of Aurelius, the presence of the which alerts Giles to the Master's plan. While Giles tries to decipher the prophecies relating to the relating to the rising of the Anoited One, Buffy attempts to have a social life with Owen Thurman, a quiet student who likes Emily Dickinson. Their date, however, is cut short by the need to save Giles from a vampire attack at a funeral home--where he went in Buffy's place to see if the Anoited One would rise, so Buffy could have her date--made more complicated by Owen following Buffy. They believe that the vampire they find and kill is the Anoited One. Unfortunately, Owen turns out to be a danger junkie, and Buffy has to refuse to date him again in order to keep him safe.

 

The Pack
Air date: April 7, 1997

Summary:

Watch your backAmong the attendees at a school field trip to the zoo are Buffy and the gang, as well as the four biggest troublemakers in the school--Kyle, Rhonda, Tor and Heidi--and Lance, the nerdy object of their scorn. The quartet leads Lance into the closed hyena exhibit. Xander goes after them to keep them out of trouble--and all save Lance find themselves imbued with the predatory spirit of the hyena. Xander starts to hang around with the quartet, acting very un-Xander-like--including verbally abusing Willow. The five of them devour Herbert, the school's new pig mascot, and later, when Principal Flutie brings Kyle, Rhonda, Tor and Heidi to his office to accuse them of attacking the pig, they eat the principal alive as well.

Giles digs up references to "Primals," animal worshippers who can draw the spirits of animals into themselves. The keeper of the Hyena House--to whom Giles and Buffy turn to for help--is, in fact, one such Primal, and he attempts to draw the power into himself and out of the students. He succeeds, but then Buffy tosses him to the actual hyenas.

 

Angel
Air date: April 14, 1997

Summary:

After hovering on the periphery for several episodes, Angels' secret is finally revealed: he's a vampire. This realization does not come until he and Buffy admit their feelings for each other and share their first kiss. At first this leads Buffy to think that Angel's past actions are part of a plot to set her up for a fall, especially after she finds her mother in Angel's arms with bite marks on her neck. (In light of Angel's actions in the latter half of the second season, this is an even more reasonable assumption.) Nothing like vengence in the morning

Soon enough, Buffy learns the whole truth. Angel was "sired" (vampire language for turning a human into a vampire) by Darla 240 years before. Eighty years ago, he tortured and killed a Romany woman, and her clan put a curse on him: they restored his soul. He became a vampire with a conscience, a unique creature among the undead. Darla's attempts to bring him back to the Master's fold fail, and she winds up on the wrong end of a stake wielded by Angel.

 

I Robot--You, Jane
Air date: April 28, 1997

Summary:

Moloch vs BuffyIn fifteenth-century Italy, a monk is able to imprison the demon Moloch, the Corruptor, in a book as the actual text of the tome. Since the demon can be freed only if the words are read aloud, the monk seals the book in a box, where it remains for over 500 years--until it is opened in Sunnydale High School's library as one of Giles' new acquisitions. The book is scanned into the computer as part of a project developed by the school's computer-science teacher, Jenny Calendar--a freewheeling, hip-dressing, slang-speaking young woman who seems to be the diametric opposite of Rupert Giles. Scanning the book, however, releases the demon into cyberspace, and Moloch soon begins his work. As "Malcolm," he begins an online relationship with Willow, subverts Fritz and Dave, the school's biggest computer geeks, and uses a now-defunct electronics company to build himself a robot body.

With the unexpected assistance of Jenny--revealed to be a technopagan who is familiar with Moloch and other such creatures--Giles manages to bind the Corruptor into the robot body, giving Buffy the opportunity to kill the demon by blowing up the robot with a handy wiring box.