Buffy is fighting an ineffective vamp in a cemetery at night. She gets the better of him and quips, "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Buffy, and you're history," as she dusts him. Giles pops up from behind a tomb and, checking his notes, criticizes Buffy's execution and technique in offing the vamp. As Buffy scoffs, Giles informs her that she's expending too much "time and energy" and instead her technique should be "plunge and move on." Sounds like too many guys I knew in college. Uh, anyway, as Giles speaks he notices the dusted vamp has left behind a signet ring, although I don't know why a vampire's accessories would stay behind when their clothes seem to always vanish. Giles tells Buffy that he's not sure of the origin of the ring, but that it seems to imply that her recent slaying was not random. He of course is eager to consult his books. Why is Giles so surprised to find a ring? Most of the vampires we see sport an accessory or two.

We see a huge dusty book slamming down and then the ugly mug of the Master, who is reading a passage from the book concerning "the Anointed, the Master's greatest warrior." The rest of the passage says that the Anointed will come, the Slayer will not know him and "he will lead her into Hell." Heavy, dude. "As it is written, so shall it be," muses the Master. For some reason, I'm not entirely sure why, on this rental tape I have captioning in Spanish instead of the usual English closed captioning. Which means that as part of Ace's Buffy Learning Hour, I can tell you that "As it is written so shall it be" in Spanish is As' est‡ escrito y que as' sea. We get a long shot of the Master's cavern, and the set has obviously been expanded since "The Harvest," because it's much more obvious this time around that the Master is trapped in a ruined church. Which is a theme I seem to recall getting recycled in season four. Okay, wait, I'm getting distracted from oh-so-important exposition here. The Master approaches three vampires and continues reading. Apparently "five will die and from their ashes the Anointed shall rise." The vampires are members of the Brethren of Aurelius, who have to meet the Anointed One and lead him to the Master. The Master scolds the Brethren for allowing one of their membership to get slain by Buffy the night before. He chokes one of the vamps, trying to impress upon them the importance of not letting the Slayer get in the way of his (Master) plan.