The gang has reconvened at Buffy's house and are taking refreshments in the living room. Giles bright-sides, "The good news is none of you girls were shot." So is it bad news that Xander wasn't shot, or does Giles just consider him one of the girls? Either way, that's not too flattering. They continue discussing James's spirit; Giles explains that he's trying to "resolve whatever issues are keeping him in limbo. Wh-wh-what exactly those are, I'm not..." "He wants forgiveness," interrupts Buffy, who is not seated in the living room with the others but rather standing off to one side with arms crossed, leaning against a wall. Giles explains that forgiveness is impossible, and Buffy snaps, "Good. He doesn't deserve it." Giles gently reproves Buffy, saying, "Forgiveness is an act of compassion, Buffy. It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it." "No," retorts Buffy ardently, "James destroyed the one person he loved the most in a moment of blind passion. And that's not something you forgive. No matter why he did what he did. And no matter if he knows now that it was wrong and selfish and stupid, it is just something he's gonna have to live with." Xander points out that, strictly speaking, James isn't living with anything these days, and Buffy storms off into the kitchen. Everyone gets that she's really talking about herself and Angel there and not James, right? Oh good. I just want to make sure everyone playing along at home can keep up.

In the kitchen, Buffy reaches into her leather jacket and pulls out a folded piece of paper. She unfolds it to reveal a flyer for the Sadie Hawkins Dance of '55. She sets the flyer on the kitchen island, and as a faint male voice says, "I need you," she takes off out the kitchen door.

Back in the living room, Willow wonders if they should go back inside the school; Giles counsels against it, saying that "the spirit is too angry, too too powerful."