Buffy Logo 'Phases'
Story Code '5V15'

by Rob Des Hotel
and Dean Batali
Buffy

One night, Xander and Cordelia are kissing in her car when a werewolf suddenly attacks them. They survive the attack, and later inform Giles, who is excited as he has never encountered such a creature before. Elsewhere, Angelus attacks one of Buffy's classmates, Theresa, as she walks home. Buffy and Giles go hunting for the werewolf, planning to capture it so that they can then see into whom it transforms when the sun rises; they encounter a particularly unpleasant werewolf hunter named Cain, who aims to kill the beast. They track the animal to ‘The Bronze’, and arrive just as everyone is fleeing in fear from it, but are unable to capture the creature, which escapes into the night. When Giles and Buffy then learn that Theresa's body has been found, they leap to the conclusion that the werewolf is the killer. Elsewhere, as the dawn breaks, the werewolf reverts back to its human form: Oz! However, he unaware of his transformation, and has cannot recall how he got into the woods, or where his clothes are. Later, Oz discovers that his young cousin is a werewolf, and that when the child playfully bit him on the finger, passed the curse onto him. Then, when he overhears Buffy Willow, Xander and Giles discussing how they must kill the werewolf now that it has committed murder, Oz decides to run away from his friends. Concerned about how Theresa died Buffy and Xander visit the funeral home; they are just in time to see her rise from the dead as a vampire; after she delivers a message from Angel Xander stakes her, but Buffy is shaken by Angelus' actions. A worried Willow arrives at Oz's house to see what is bothering him, but the sun begins to set, and before her startled eyes Oz once more transforms into a savage werewolf. As Willow manages to escape the monster, Cain appears and pursues the beast, just as Willow runs to the library to get Giles and Buffy. Before Cain can kill Oz, Willow shoots the creature with a tranquilliser gun; Buffy then chases Cain out of Sunnydale. The next day, after Oz tells Willow that he plans to lock himself up in the library book-cage whenever the moon is full, she is able to reassure him that she still wants to pursue their relationship.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), David Boreanaz (Angel), Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles), Seth Green (Oz), Camilla Griggs (Gym teacher), Jack Conley (Cain), Larry Bagby III (Larry), Megahn Perry (Theresa Klusmeyer), Keith Campbell (Werewolf)
Directed by Bruce Seth Green

TX (US): 27th January 1998
TX (UK - Sky One): 4th July 1998
TX (UK - BBC): 20th January 2000

Notes:
*Featuring Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Oz, Cordelia, and Angel