Welcome to Rewatching Buffy, the part of the blog where I rewatch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each Tuesday evening, you’re invited to join me as I attempt to rediscover what made me love this show so many years ago.

Him

• Spike is Xander’s new roommate.
• Xander’s not big with this plan.
• Neither is Spike.
• But the school basement is making him crazy, so this has to do for now.
• Dawn and Buffy discuss her feelings for Spike… things are clearly complicated for the Slayer.
• As Buffy leaves, Dawn continues a monologue about the futility of chasing relationships…
• Until she sees him after football practice in his cool letter jacket.
• Nice throwback with the theme from A Summer Place playing when Dawn first notices this guy.
• Back in Season 2, when Devon asked Oz what a girl had to do to get his attention, he joked that it involved a feather boa and the theme from A Summer Place.
• Buffy stops by Anya’s place and saves her from a demon assassin sent by D’Hoffryn.
• After the demon is slain, Buffy convinces Anya to stop being a hermit and help them with whatever this big bad is that’s coming.
• Back at the school, Dawn awkwardly encounters RJ.
• Not in a cute awkward way… an awkward awkward way.
• To try and impress him, Dawn decides to dig out Buffy’s old cheer outfit and try out to be a cheerleader.
• It doesn’t go well.
• Dawn shuts herself in her room and Buffy tries to coax her out with pizza and movies, but she’s melting down.
• When another player replaces RJ as starting quarterback, Dawn pushes him down the stairs so that RJ will return to first string.
• This lands Dawn in the principal’s office, but it’s her word against his and since this guy has a history of dishonesty, Dawn’s not in trouble.
• But when Dawn mentions RJ being back to starting quarterback, Buffy becomes suspicious of her sister.
• RJ is impressed that Dawn faced down Principal Wood and asks her out.
• At the Bronze, Buffy points out RJ to Xander and Willow.
• They start to make fun of the skank he’s dancing with… until they realize it’s Dawn.
• Buffy forces Dawn to leave, but then she’s attacked outside the Bronze by one of the cheerleaders, who also happens to be obsessed with RJ.
• Buffy manages to break up the fight.
• Back at school, RJ’s in trouble with Wood for getting girls to do his homework for him.
• Buffy calls him over to give him a stern talking to about disregarding the feelings of all these girls who seem to be crazy about him.
• And she maintains her righteous anger right up until the moment he puts on that jacket, turning her into the same drooling school girl that Dawn has been.
• Cue the them from A Summer Place again…
• Buffy tells Dawn that she checked RJ out and that, while he’s not a bad guy, she advises Dawn to back off as she’s coming on too strong.
• The next day, Buffy pulls RJ out of class and into an empty classroom.
• After letting him talk about football for a while, she starts making out with him.
• Naturally, Dawn witnesses the kissing and, devastated, runs out of the school.
• Xander finds Dawn outside and goes in and catches Buffy before she can go further than is probably legal.
• He gets Buffy home and everyone but Buffy and Dawn are convinced that there’s some kind of love spell going on here.
• Doing some research, they find out they went to school with RJ’s older brother, a big time jock back in the day.
• Xander and Spike go to talk with the former classmate, who’s kind of a loser now.
• Turns out, RJ used to be a quiet kid who was into comics and poetry.
• Then he started wearing his big brother’s letter jacket.
• Also turns out that jacket once belonged to their dad and he made a big deal about how he met their mom wearing that jacket.
• Anya and Willow are still researching when RJ shows up at the house looking for Buffy.
• But he’s wearing the jacket… and Anya and Willow are under the spell.
• That’s right… the theme from A Summer Place.
• The competition begins.
• Willow wants to use magic to turn RJ into a woman.
• Buffy claims she could kill Principal Wood for him.
• Anya goes to rob a bank for him.
• Dawn… meanwhile… decides the only thing she can do is die for him, lying down on the train tracks.
• Xander interrupts Willow’s spell just in time.
• Wood is working in his office when Buffy approaches his window… with a rocket launcher.
• Spike tackles her before she can fire.
• Willow performs a locator spell to find Dawn, whom Buffy saves just before a train can run her over.
• Xander and Spike decide to stage a mugging and rip the jacket right off RJ.
• They burn the jacket and the spell is broken.
• Oh… and Anya definitely got away with robbing that bank.
• Body count: Demons – 1