Writer: Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali

Director: David Semel

Original Air Date: 3.31.97

After moving away from the "Annoited One" plot in Episode 4, the arc move directly back to it in this episode, one full of foreshadowing - both about the story itself and the Buffy cult following as a whole - and the first that seriously looks at the complications of having a love life while being a Slayer.

In the opening salvo, Buffy kills a vampire and is then critiqued by Giles. They find a ring holding a sun and three stars, a ring indicating the Order of Aurelius (Marcus, perhaps, it's never explained - though it should be noted that Aurelius in the show writes of "five shall rise" whereas Marcus Aurelius is considered one of "The Five Good Emporers;" for a brief history lesson, he was emporer for 19 years and was a great intellectual and military leader). The ring is a symbol of a warrior being summoned by the Annointed One to kill the Slayer.

At the same time, Buffy develops a crush on a bookworm boy named Owen who loves Emily Dickinson. This should have been a red flag, for Dickinson's poetry might be good, but it's not, well, as Giles put it:

Giles: "She quite a good poet for-

Buffy: "For a girl?-

Giles: "For an American.

As an aside, not nearly enough humor was mined from Giles being surrounded by the ignorance of all things literary that is American youth. Though plenty of humor comes from it - Giles remarks in this episode the books being checked out at the library was something he was coming to think was a myth - more could have been done.

Anyway, Buffy has a date with Owen at the Bronze, something that conflicts with the rising of the warrior sent to destory the Slayer. After Giles's calculations of the rising appear to be innacurate, it's off to the Bronze for Buffy.

In Owen we find the central conflict of Buffy as a teenager and as a Slayer. She wants to have a normal life, but her calling makes it difficult. In Owen, we find an outsider who is fascinated by morbidity - his love of Dickinson the obvious tip-off - but not understanding how Buffy hates it. Owen is us, so to speak, as Buffy viewers, those intrigued by morbidity, but only from a safe distance. One could argue there is a vague metaphor for war and war films here, but I wouldn't go that far for it might be reading a bit too much into it (and everybody laughs, for all of these exercises read way too much into what is, it must be remembered, a television show).

In Owen, to repeat a theme, we also find the forced Buffy-Cordelia competition, something launched after Cordelia feels threatened by Buffy after Episode 1. Cordelia decides to like Owen at the same time Buffy does, which makes no sense since he is a bookworm, and Cordelia seems to otherwise go for jocks and fraternity/wealthy types.

After the first missfire, Buffy finally gets her date, and hilarity ensues. No, seriously, it does. While the Giles humor might not be mined, the perpexion that people have concerning Buffy's relationship for what is supposed to be Giles the School Librarian, not Giles the Slayer Watcher.

Giles finds himself at a funeral home when all hell breaks loose. Xander and Willow have followed him, all while Buffy is on her date.

At the Bronze, Angel interrupts Buffy's date with Owen. He tries to explain to her that serious issues are taking place on a night when, well, all hell is in the process of breaking loose.

It is here that Xander and Willow break in on the date and spirit everyone off to the funeral home (this episode unfolds much like an episode of "Fawlty Towers," if that is even remotely possible).

Xander and Willow must now keep Owen occupied while Buffy searches for the five, and the warrior turns out to be a hillbilly who died in a car wreck. While Buffy searches in vain, the hillbilly/super-vamp chases the trio around the funeral home. Ground zero comes in the Crematorium, where Buffy eventually dashes him into the fire.

By the end, we find that Owen wants nothing to do with Buffy. Cue the sad music.

Herein is more of the genius of Buffy. It's not that she doesn't want a normal life - she does - it's that a normal life can't have her. Owen is a representation of all of us, I suppose, in that we like reading about all the creepy-crawlies.

Yet Owen wants to see Buffy again. She finds that he's attracted to the danger-filled life, and he's developed a fetish for it. He wants to slay with Buffy again. Buffy doesn't want the abnoramlity - she already has enough of that - and in a normal person she can't find the normality that she so desperately craves.