Unfolding ancient vampiric prophecy is the central theme as Buffy tries to adapt to a dualistic life... or is it a duelist life? Her friends are with her most of the time, but a split during an investigation goes terribly awry.
Action is there, mostly hand-to-hand combat with uglies and Buffy. A new face is pulled into the mix while dramatic romantic tension swirls around the group. High school is hard enough socially, these baddies from the underworld complicate the problem.
Revealing character development overall, nice to see a progression in the story rather than one-off jump-in jump-out episodes, yet viewer friendly to pull in those who haven't seen the show before.
Excellent episode, the only drawback I think was a bit of 'rinse and repeat' formula as we've seen a lot of these elements in previous episodes. Still, entertaining show and plenty of draw to see more.