Innocence

Mark here... this episode of Buffy is called , "Innocence", and whoa! It was much better than the last! This episode had much more of the emotion involved in Buffy's choice to sleep with Angel and was much less of the young adult fawning.

So essentially this episode starts with Angel's curse being broken. He runs out of the bedroom with Buffy and it soon becomes clear he has lost his soul and become Angelus.  Angelus eventually confronts Buffy and tells her that sex essentially meant nothing and she wasn't that good.  This would be awful for anyone but for a teenager, so tough!  Buffy eventually realizes what's up.  She also realizes that Jenny Calendar is not what she seems, thanks to a prophetic dream.  She confronts Jenny and the curse is revealed,  and the fact that it's broken.  Willow figures it out first and shows the first signs of adult Willow.  Willow up until now had been portrayed as the mousy nerd, and now she's starting to show a more complex side.  For instance, she is very upset on discovering the Xander-Cordelia romance, but she starts to realize the appeal of Oz, who genuinely likes her.  Of course, this may not be the best choice long term for Oz... but he's awesome!

Anyway, the episode ends and changes the status quo.  Angelus is now evil...

Hi Laurel here...Nothing much to add except I am also super excited about signs of life from Willow.  She is obviously a genius and there's no reason for her to act so mousy and insecure all the time.  I know she has not found her witchy power potential yet but it's nice to see her start believing in herself at least a little.  You go Willow!

We give this one 4 stakes! Just because the writing was better at conveying emotion and we got the inkling of more complexity in Willow's personality.