I Only Have Eyes for You
On the night before the sadie Hawkins Dance, Buffy is heading toward the library, only to encounter a boy about to kill a girl with a gun. As soon as Buffy knocks the gun from his hand, though, both of them regain their senses-the pair have no idea why they were fighting-and the gun disappears. Later, in Principal Snyder's office, something knocks the 1955 yearbook off the principal's shelf in front of Buffy, and then, while bored to tears in history class, she gets a vision from the '50's of a Sunnydale High student named James and a teacher named Miss Newman, who seemed to have a relationship. Strangeness continues as Xander is attacked by a dessicated arm in his locker, snakes start appearing in the school, and a janitor and a teacher play out the exact same scene as the two students did earlier-but without Buffy to interfere, the scene results in the janitor shooting the woman. Willow discovers the story of James and Miss Newman, who had an illicit afair in 1955, and on the night of the Sadie Hawkins Dance, he killed her and then shot himself in the head. The Slayerettes figure it's a poltergeist: James's spirit trying to resolve the conflict. An attempt at an exorcism fails, and finally the spirits confront each other again-this time with James inhabiting Buffy and Miss Newman inhabiting Angel.
Willow gives Giles a stone that she found in Jenny's desk. "She told me it's a rose quartz-that it has healing powers. I thought she'd want you to have it". Later, Giles convinces himself that the poltergeist is Jenny, even though there's no evidence to support it. Buffy's unresolved issues over Angel color her judgement throughout the episode, both preventing her from accepting an invitation to the dance and in dealing with James's spirit, for whom she has no forgiveness.
Buffy has a dream with visions, but unlike her prophetic dreams, this shows the past, is very specific in its imagery, and is provided by the ghost of James. Willow is still teaching Jenny Calendar's computer classes, and Spike secretly gets up out of his wheelchair at the very end. More hints that Snyder and the town authorities know more about the local weirdness are dropped.
Email: jonlaframboise@yahoo.com
