The same symbol carved on the side of a mausoleum. Buffy bitches about how much time she spends in cemeteries and calls mausoleums "big, freaky cereal boxes of death." That strikes me as a line whose author couldn't bear to see it cut from the episode, but probably should have. Not because it's not funny, but because it really serves no purpose. Buffy hears noises inside and goes to investigate. Inside, a big ugly demon is removing very small bones from a very small casket and placing the bones in a sack. Buffy announces her presence, and the demon turns towards her and roars. She shoots him with a cross-bow bolt but it has little effect. They fight, and she kicks the demon out through the door of the mausoleum. He's much bigger than she is, and although she gets a few good blows in, the demon appears to be winning the fight, and throughout the fight the demon never lets go of his sack o' bones. He finally gets Buffy in a bear hug around her thighs, heaves her up in the air and throws her down back-first onto a large headstone. This is a totally realistic and painful-looking stunt that makes me gasp each time I see it. Ouch. Buffy falls to the ground panting as the demon runs away.

She hears a noise behind her and flips up onto her feet, whirling to encounter Riley. Uch. Give me a big nasty demon any day. Riley condescendingly comments on Buffy's flip, and she agitatedly asks him if he saw where the demon went. He's pretty nonchalant about the demon getting away and says, "You don't go after a demon that size by yourself." Buffy says that she does, and Riley bitchily gets out his walkie-talkie to confer with his other soldier-playing buddies. For some reason his code name is "Lilac," which might refer to the color of the sweater he has on. Buffy asks what Riley's doing there, and he says, "Duh, stalking you, silly." Well, that's what he should have said. Really, he says he was looking for her. Buffy is very distracted (end of the world to avert and all) and tells him she has to go after the demon. Riley assures her that the Initiative will get the demon, and Buffy haltingly explains that she cannot date Riley. She starts to mention dating Angel but thinks better of it, so she just tells him that he can't understand her life. Risk, doom, stress, blah blah blah. Riley is confused and insists that they like each other, so he doesn't understand why they can't date. Buffy mentions that going to high school on the Hellmouth was terrible and that he and she don't have as much in common as he thinks. She plays the Slayer card by explaining that he thinks demon-hunting is an adventure, while for her it's destiny. Sad music plays. Riley protests that Buffy "can change things," and he seems awfully sure considering that he knows nothing about Buffy and didn't even know what a Slayer was until that morning -- although, in Riley's defense, Buffy could have at least attemptedto explain it. Buffy tells him that her answer is no and walks sadly away. Riley stares after her with his jaw clenched.