A New Man

Buffy is starting to see more and more of Riley and less of the Scooby Gang. A birthday party is held for her, at which Giles meets Riley and generally feels out of place. His estrangement is further fuelled by Buffy's admiration for Maggie Walsh. Giles decides to visit her and leaves 'hating her' for suggesting that Buffy has obviously not had a father-figure in her life.

Whilst Buffy is out with Riley, Giles realises that an evil prince is going to rise and create chaos within moments. He enlists the reluctant help of Xander and Willow only to find that nothing out of the ordinary (perhaps not the right term for Sunnydale) has happened in the tomb where the prince is supposed to rise. Willow and Xander suggest that perhaps The Initiative have already cleaned up. Giles finds out that everyone, including Spike, knew that Riley was a commando except him and is quite offended. He tells Willow and Xander to leave and he will stay behind just in case only to find that Ethan Rayne is back in town.

Giles, upset over his meeting with Maggie and the Scooby Gang leaving him out of the loop, he goes out drinking with Ethan only to wake up the next day transformed into a Fioral demon; a generally aggressive and destructive creature. He doesn't realise that he isn't speaking English to everyone else, but Fioral so he goes blundering into Xander's basement for his help. Needless to say, Xander is very 'upset' at the prospect of being killed by a ranting demon and throws objects at him to make him leave which he does. It's definitely one of the funniest scenes in the episode, only rivalled by Spike's reaction when he finds Giles talking to himself in the graveyard and can understand him because he happens to speak Fioral.

Giles has to pay Spike $200.00 to help him by driving his car to Ethan's place and letting Buffy know he is Giles, all whilst the effects of the demon's personality are starting to influence him resulting in an hilarious chasing scene after Maggie Walsh!

Spike crashes the car, Giles arrives at Ethan's to persuade him to break the spell at the same time as Buffy and Riley. Only at the last moment does Buffy realise (after stabbing him) that it's Giles because only he could look that annoyed at her. Ethan is taken away by the Initiative for behaviour modification.

These episodes just keep getting better and better and funnier and funnier I'm happy to say.

Regular characters: Spike, Anya, Xander, Willow, Buffy, Giles, Riley

Villain: Ethan Rayne

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