Giles asks Kendra to show him exactly where in Draemius's writings she read about the Order of Taraka. They share a tee-hee about how dry the book is. Buffy to Willow: "Hello and welcome to Planet Pocket Protector." Never mind that Willow is probably just as interested in Draemius's writings, you insensitive clod. I'm really not a huge fan of Buffy in this episode. Can you tell? Giles interrupts the nice moment to tell Buffy that Snyder was looking for her, and it would be wise for her to make an appearance at the Career Fair. Kendra notes that Buffy's a student at SHS. "Right, of course. And I imagine she's a cheerleader as well." Ha! Trumping Buffy's snitticisms with a meta reference that's funny and not overblown! Who would have thought? Buffy looks a bit cowed, and Giles chuckles that she actually was a cheerleader, and "it's a funny story." Okay, Buffy may be a bitch this episode, but I can't exactly blame her for not seeing the humor in an episode where she was about a minute from death. Anyway, Kendra and Giles walk off as Buffy, less snottily and more wistfully, says, "Get a load of the she-Giles." She goes on that Giles would love her to be more of a book geek, but Willow nicely points out that Giles is enough of a book geek for the both of them. Buffy muses that maybe being replaced as the Slayer wouldn't be so bad. The words "normal" and "life" are used in conjunction, which makes me in turn want to combine the words "shut" and "up." She also says that maybe she could do "Career Day stuff," so don't be surprised when the Career Day comes back to bite her in the ass.

Xander sits on a box in the Summers basement as Cordy paces nervously. To point out another ridiculousness that makes me think that Marti Noxon penned this subplot during a very short break from writing "Spike + Marti 4 Eva!!!!!!" over and over in her Trapper Keeper, why can't the bug man re-form and poke something under the door to remove the duct tape? He could probably do it stealthily enough so they wouldn't hear him, and could then go buggy again and get in. And if not, no harm in trying. Whatever. Xander and Cordy have one of those fights that you know is going nowhere good. Xander's content to wait until Buffy comes to rescue them. Since they're almost certain to be missed, and Giles knows where they went, that does seem like the safest plan. However, Cordy's in full-on freak-out mode, and snits (okay, it's not just Buffy) that they can't wait for someone else to decide to be a hero. Xander points out that she's the one who let the guy in in the first place, and I'm forced to agree with him yet again, further proving the general bizarreness of this subplot. Cordy says she's going to leave, and opines that Xander probably would just let a girl go off to her doom alone. Xander: "Not just any girl. You're special." Heh. They start arguing in that too-close fashion, so if you're among the sighted, you know what's coming. You also know what's coming if you're among those non-sighted people that have the gift of hearing. And if you're unlucky enough to have neither of those abilities, I'd still put your chances at about fifty-fifty. After the classically-scripted exchange of "I hate you!" "I hate you!" they mack to the accompaniment of overblown dramatic music. They pull away from each other, horrified. Xander: "We so need to get out of here." Cordy: "Mm-hmm!" Ha!