REGULAR CAST

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
• Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
• David Boreanaz as Angel
• Seth Green as Daniel “Oz” Osbourne
• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

GUEST CAST

• Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
• Saverio Guerra as Willy
• Shane Barach as Daniel
• Edward Edwards as Travis
• Cornelia Hayes O’Herlithy as Margaret
• Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar
• Eliza Dushku as Faith Lehane

CO-STARRING

• Tom Michael Bailey as Tree Seller
• Mark Kriski as Weatherman

SYNOPSIS

Dublin, 1843. Angel is dreaming of his past, where he kills a man, Daniel, that supposedly was indebted to him. When he wakes up, unable to fall asleep again, he walks the streets of Sunnydale and runs into Buffy. They exchange a few words and then Angel freaks out, seeing the ghost of Daniel. The next day, Buffy tells her friends about her freaky encounter with Angel. They fill each other in on holiday plans and then Oz shows up, ready to talk to Willow. He tells her how much he misses her and that he’s willing to give their relationship another shot.

Buffy and Joyce go shopping for a Christmas tree and decide to invite Faith to Christmas dinner, but not Giles. Angel’s nightmares continue to haunt him, and he finally resorts to going to Giles for help. Armed with a crossbow, Giles invites him into his apartment and listens to Angel tell him about the dreams and how he wants to know why he came back from Hell. Their conversation is cut short when Angel sees Jenny, and runs off.

In another one of Angel’s dreams, he attacks a service woman, Margaret, but as he finishes her off, he looks up and sees Buffy there in his dream. They both wake up, realizing that they’re in each other’s dreams. Buffy goes to Giles and they plan to research the phenomenon so that they can find out what force is taking over Angel. Xander offers to help as well since saving Angel is a better option than being at home. Willow having joined in on the research party fills Buffy in on her getting back together with Oz.

Angel is still unable to sleep and encounter’s Jenny’s spirit at the mansion. He tries to apologize, but she doesn’t want to hear it: she just wants to make him suffer. He is then visited by the many ghosts of his victims, including Daniel and Margaret. Finally, nearly crazy from being reminded of what a monster he was, Angel begs for it to stop. Jenny offers him comfort and tells him to rest. At the library Buffy also falls asleep and both she and Angel are in the same dream again. This time, the two are making passionate love on Buffy’s bed. Looking over his shoulder, Buffy notices a creature with it’s eyes sewn shut just before Angel vamps out and bites her. They both wake up. Jenny tells Angel that he needs to kill Buffy.

Giles has found out that the force that is taking over Angel is called the First. It’s very powerful and impossible to kill. However, there are three priests, called Bringers, with their eyes sewn shut, which Buffy can kill, and hopefully this will put an end to the mental torment Angel is suffering from. Buffy and Xander visit Willy the Snitch, but he only says that the First may be underground. Oz arrives at Willow’s house with videos and finds that she has a bit more planned for the night. He tells her that he’s not ready to take their relationship that far, which she’s fine with and they just simply kiss.

At home, Buffy and Joyce are trimming the tree when Faith shows up. Buffy goes upstairs to her room, only to find that Angel is there waiting for her. Blind with the need to find peace of mind, he fights the urge to kill Buffy. He jumps out of her window, desperate not to kill her. Buffy leaves Faith in charge of watching her mother while she goes to Giles for immediate help. At the mansion, Jenny tries to convince Angel that he must kill Buffy. When he has made it clear that he can’t, he knows that his only other option is to kill himself with the sunlight.

After some more research, Buffy discovers that wherever the Bringers are, nothing will grow above or below. Buffy remembers a bunch of dead trees at the tree lot. She goes there and, in a circle of dead trees, she makes a hole into the ground which then leads her to the Bringers. She tears the place and the Bringers apart, and then encounters the First in Jenny’s form. They attack each other verbally for a while until the First mentions Angel, and then Buffy runs off to the mansion to stop Angel from killing himself.

She finds him atop of a hill, the sun only minutes away from rising. He tells her that he loves her and wants her so much that he’d be willing to loose his soul just to be with her. Buffy desperately wants him to come inside but he believes very strongly that he is evil and that he’s got to be strong for once, and die. They yell, and hit each other, and cry and tell each other how much they love the other. Buffy gives him one last chance to prove how strong he really can be and begs him to come in from the sun. Out of no where, snow begins to fall, covering the previously sunny and hot Sunnydale, in a beautiful white Christmas.

In her bedroom, Willow and Oz marvel at the snow. Xander wakes up in his backyard covered in it. Giles notices it from his apartment, while Faith and Joyce see it from the Summers’ home. On main street, Buffy and Angel walk hand in hand together through the snow.

TRIVIA

CONTINUITY

GOOFS