This time it's Xander's turn to burst into the bathroom. He too stops short of falling into the big gaping hole. He's pretty excited about it, sure that it means "contract-y goodness" for his crew. He makes his way to the sink to look for the talisman. I just have to say that the show's practice of adding a "-y" suffix to everything has completely ruined my ability to speak English properly. This summer, when Britboy accused me of being…let's just say "differently correct" about something, I snapped back with an indignant "I'm not errorful! I'm wisdomy!" Since then, it's been a running joke between us. To the point where I'm suspicious of any words ending in "-ful" or "-y." When writing a paper last week, I actually had to spend the better part of a minute puzzling out if "helpful" or "helpy" was correct. And although "helpful" is correct, I still think that "helpy" is funner. Certainly funner than realer words.

Basement. Dawn is on the floor, struggling to free herself from the grasp of the janitor zombie spirit thing, when Buffy arrives on the scene to start kicking some ass. Buffy tells Dawn that they need to keep the zombies "at bay." She whirls Dawn's makeshift weapon, which was really a clever theory, but in execution looks exceedingly stupid. And this is television, so I think I'm correct in expecting that stuff to look cool. Buffy looks like an unbalanced, whirling, dairy-fat dervish. (Bad, bad outfit.)

Meanwhile, as Buffy gets down with her bad pat-of-butter self, Xander crawls along the floor of the bathroom in search of the talisman. He finds it under the sink. Right before he can destroy it, he's set upon by Zombie Girl, whose preferred mode of attack seems to be of the "gimmie a piggyback ride RIGHT NOW" variety. Xander struggles to crush the talisman, and as soon as he succeeds, the zombies disappear. Buffy leads the troops to find an exit.

Upstairs, she gives Shiny and the Whiners some last-minute advice. Kit hugs Buffy, but Carlos quickly puts his foot in it by saying, "You are the coolest mom ever." Dawn springs into action, giving Buffy a quick kiss on the cheek and leading her band of misfits away. On cue, Principal Wood appears on the scene. Doesn't this guy have an office? The one on the Hellmouth, for instance? He notes that he observed Buffy getting Kit and Carlos to actually attend class. Principal Wood surprises Buffy by offering her a job as the school's new community outreach person non-counselor…thingy. Buffy's face lights up, and she readily accepts. He wants to make sure that she heard the bit about the payment not even being enough money to fold, but she assures him that she'll work it into her schedule.