Giles points out that she can use her duty to block out the distractions in her life. Her coldness in Season Seven makes me realize just how poor an idea that is. The press their respective points a bit more until Giles bites out that everyone has to do things they don't want to, and that she's got training and patrolling, so she'd better do her homework, not dawdle with her friends, and just generally suck things up. This lack of sympathy is a low point for Giles's character for me, although I understand that they're setting him up for a healthy dose of dramatic irony in "The Dark Age." Buffy pouts. Giles says that tactic won't get to him. Buffy cutely pouts some more. Giles: "It's not getting to me." Aw. Even in the worst Giles scenes, they give me something to like.

Outside, Buffy sits on a railing. Xander and Willow join her. Willow asks if she shouldn't be doing her homework. Buffy: "I'm dawdling. With my friends." Take that, ogre Giles! Wait -- I didn't mean that! Can I make it up to you? Uh, sorry. Cordy blows by, bumping into Willow on the way. A black BMW, complete with tinted windows and open sunroof, pulls up, and Cordy goes to it. The driver rolls down the window. It's Frat Jerk. Next to him is some milquetoast, blandly attractive guy. He's exactly how I would have pictured Aaron Buerge from having read Shack's The Bachelor recaps, except I've seen pictures of Buerge now, but you get the point. Evil Frat Jerk, whose name is Richard, smarms, "Cordelia." Aaron Buerge In My Mind's Eye sees Buffy. From his reaction, it looks like Little Aaron Buerge just snapped to attention. Richard The Evil Frat Jerk says that they're having a "little get-together tomorrow night at the 'house.'" Cordy belly-fake-laughs. Hee. Richard is mildly put off, but Cordy recovers to say that she'd love to go. Richard, apparently having felt the breeze from Little Aaron Buerge's salute, asks Cordy who her friend is. Cordy's all, she's not my friend. Aaron Buerge In My Mind's Eye says Buffy's "amazing." Cordy: "She's more like a sister! Really! We're that close." Hee. Can you imagine if Joyce married Cordy's dad all Popular-style? Richard suggests Cordy invite Buffy to the party, and Cordy, after a beat, agrees.

Xander is suggesting the three of them watch Indian TV again that night, but Cordy stomps up and tells Buffy that Richard and Aaron Buerge In My Mind's Eye want to meet her. Buffy says she doesn't want to meet any frat boys. I can understand that sentiment, although it's always fun to see which ones go gay after the right amount of alcohol. I am so setting myself up here. Cordy grabs Buffy: "And if there was a God, don't you think He'd keep it that way?" One of the more subtle meta-references to Joss's atheism. Richard, who has gotten out of the car, smarms, "Hi, sweetheart. I'm Richard. And you are?" Buffy snits, "So not interested." She starts to walk off, but Cordy pulls her back, saying she's a "little comedian." She must have written this episode, then, because it's a joke. Richard asks if she plays hard to get. Aaron Buerge In My Mind's Eye cuts in that Richard is just "easy to resist."