This may contain spoilers.
Summer's over and Buffy and gang return to school, but Buffy is acting strange, she's mean and distant and according to her father has been all summer. In reality she is suffering from last seasons finale, the near fatal meeting with the Master.
What this episode deals with is the problems of trying to protect your friends from .... well basically oneself. Buffy does this by acting mean towards Xander, Willow and even Cordelia. But one can not help but sympathize with her (I mean she was killed by the Master and then revived by Xander) after what she's been through, this however is almost always the wrong way to do it as is also shown here.
This dosn't leave the audience with one of the best episodes of the show, it even has some of the worst make-up and props seen in the show (Make-up on the main Vampire and the Master's Skeleton is obvious made out of plastic or rubber). While the idea is okay for the first episode of a season the production team didn't put that much effort into it and I was left with a feeling that this was just one to get over with.
Sarah Michelle Geller does a good job as the distraught teenager and Armin Shimerman is as always a hoot with his portrayal of Principal Snyder. I just love his strong dislike of the kids at Sunnydale high.
I give this a 6 out of 10 as I didn't feel that entertained in comparison with most other episodes, except by the scenes with Principal Snyder.
Summer's over and Buffy and gang return to school, but Buffy is acting strange, she's mean and distant and according to her father has been all summer. In reality she is suffering from last seasons finale, the near fatal meeting with the Master.
What this episode deals with is the problems of trying to protect your friends from .... well basically oneself. Buffy does this by acting mean towards Xander, Willow and even Cordelia. But one can not help but sympathize with her (I mean she was killed by the Master and then revived by Xander) after what she's been through, this however is almost always the wrong way to do it as is also shown here.
This dosn't leave the audience with one of the best episodes of the show, it even has some of the worst make-up and props seen in the show (Make-up on the main Vampire and the Master's Skeleton is obvious made out of plastic or rubber). While the idea is okay for the first episode of a season the production team didn't put that much effort into it and I was left with a feeling that this was just one to get over with.
Sarah Michelle Geller does a good job as the distraught teenager and Armin Shimerman is as always a hoot with his portrayal of Principal Snyder. I just love his strong dislike of the kids at Sunnydale high.
I give this a 6 out of 10 as I didn't feel that entertained in comparison with most other episodes, except by the scenes with Principal Snyder.