WWDD: S2E16 “BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND BEWILDERED”
While Buffy and Joyce spend Valentine’s evening on the couch with TV and snacks, Dawn munches on tortilla chips in the kitchen, taking stock of her many boxes of chalky, heart-shaped class valentines. Before Buffy receives Angel’s rose delivery, Dawn abandons the open bag and darts upstairs to work on her real project—recording the perfect mix tape for Xander by waiting for her favorite songs to come on the radio and hitting “record” at exactly the right moment. It takes her the entire next day and night to capture the perfect mix.
When her masterpiece is complete, she asks Buffy to take it to Xander at school. Buffy agrees, but whenever Dawn mentions Xander, Buffy’s expression turns dreamy and strange. Before school, Buffy bluntly announces that Xander will never like Dawn “that way,” and that she shouldn’t set herself up for disappointment. Dawn is even more crushed when Joyce gently agrees that she is too young for Xander. On the way out, Buffy grabs a raincoat—but the tape stays behind.
After school, Dawn,distraught, runs straight to her room and collapses on her bed with Buffy’s Discman, blasting “How Do I Live” so loud she doesn’t even hear Xander and his friend Cordelia downstairs. It isn’t until they flee to Buffy’s room that Dawn realizes something is awry. When she hears Cordelia scream Xander’s name, she rushes to her door, only to find it locked. Dawn pounds on the door, confused and furious, until the crowd of women shouting outside pulls her attention to the window.
Through the chaos, she spots Angel—and beside him, a familiar dark-haired woman with an eerie smile. The woman’s eyes meet Dawn’s. “Such a pretty green thing,” she croons. “Still shining and bright.” Angel tugs her away before Dawn can say anything. When it’s over, Buffy apologizes, but Dawn is upset—Xander was in the house, she never saw him, AND he still didn’t get the tape. Her outrage falters when Buffy explains it was all a spell, and something inside Dawn shifts…
Magic is real.