Amends

Angel is awakened by a memory/dream of him killing a young man. He goes out into town and sees Buffy, who is Christmas shopping. They have a lack of conversation, and then he sees the ghost and runs off.

Buffy shares her concerns with Willow and Xander, Cordy makes a brief appearance, and Oz comes up. Willow and Oz have a heart to heart, where he expresses how much he misses her. In short, a reconciliation occurs.

Buffy and her mother go shopping for a tree and Joyce suggests that they invite Faith to dinner. She lays the guilt trip on Buffy and she agrees. They split up and Buffy comes across a series of dead trees.

Buffy goes to visit Faith and invites her to Christmas Eve dinner. Faith blows her off and tells her that she's been invited to a party.

After having another nightmare, Angel goes to see Giles. They share an uncomfortable moment, but Giles invites him in, with a crossbow for protection. Angel tells him about his dreams, and suddenly becomes agitated when he sees the ghost of Jenny appear behind Giles. Giles can't see her, so he doesn't understand when Angel runs out.

Angel has another dream; this one at a Christmas party where he kills a servant girl. After he has bitten her, he looks up to see Buffy in the dream. They both wake up with a start.

Angel gets up out of bed, incredibly creeped out. The ghost of Jenny appears again. He apologizes to her, and she tells him not to. As she speaks to him, she morphs into another of his victims.

Buffy seeks help from Giles after having that dream, and he says they will try to help Angel. Xander offers to help. Willow joins the research party and tells Buffy about her plans with Oz for the holidays.

Angel is continually haunted by many different ghosts, who tell him that he was a worthless human being before he was a vampire. He crawls into a corner and falls asleep.

At the library, Buffy has fallen asleep in the stacks. She and Angel begin to dream. Full fledged "moment of true happiness" dream. Towards the end of the dream, Buffy sees some very weird creatures, and Angel changes and bites her. They both jolt awake. Jenny convinces Angel that if he kills Buffy, he can be guilt free.

Giles comes across the answer. The ghosts are a form of "The First", the ultimate evil. The weird guy in her dream, were warriors of the First. Xander and Buffy go to Wilie's bar to find them. They find that the guys are most likely underground.

Oz goes to Willow's house and finds her on the couch with a red number on and Barry White playing. She tries to seduce him, but he tells her he'd like to take it slow.

Faith shows up at Buffy's and says that the party thing fell through. She comes in and they do the gift thing. Buffy goes upstairs and finds Angel in her room. He is super stressed and is being haunted by the First right then. He stares at her neck and has urges to kill her. He fights it and tells her to stay away from him. He walks towards her, being coaxed by Jenny; and then suddenly dives through the window.

Buffy goes to Giles and he informs her that if Angel is off his rocker, she might have to kill him again. They research and Giles finds a bit of information, that makes Buffy suspect that they're at the tree farm place with the dead trees. She goes there and begins to dig. When she reaches the underground, she finds the guys who called the First chanting. She makes a witty comment and kills them.

The First in the form of Jenny appears and tells Buffy that Angel is going to kill himself. The First disappears and Buffy runs to the mansion. She finds him outside, waiting for sunrise.

She pleads with him not to do it, but he won't listen. He tells her he wants to be with her and lose his soul, and part of him doesn't care. He believes he's worthless, and she tells him how much he matters to her. She tries to get him inside, but he knocks her down. They fight more, and then; it begins to snow. The flurries fall and the sun doesn't come up. And so, Buffy and Angel spend Christmas together; walking in the snow.

The emotional content of all the recent episodes, proves true again here. Once again, the stand out scene is a highly emotional one between Buffy and Angel. The scene on the hill top with Buffy pleading with Angel was reminiscent of I Only Have Eyes For You (and I love that episode!).

Considering this is Joss's first attempt at a Christmas episode and he didn't torture us with anything to hokey, you have to give him credit. I liked seeing Miss. Calander again, that was nice. The scene with Giles and Angel was good. I always love seeing Anthony Stewart Head have a chance to get away from the Giles sterotype and actually develop his character.

As a Buffy/Xander fan, I appreciated the moment they had outside the bar. It was just another great lead in to the relationship Joss obviously has planned. But, I didn't like how Xander all of a sudden made nice and offered to help. After all the anger we saw in Dead Man's Party and Revelations, that was just too easy. If it wasn't for the fact the the whole episode had enough emotional content, I would ask that the scene include more anger and redemption from Xander. Oh, well.

Gee, so much happend in this episode... Willow and Oz. I felt uncomfortable with Willow seducing Oz. Sure, it was Willow coming out of her shell and all, but it was slightly pathetic having her throw herself at him. It just struck me as wrong. Also, what was with the lack of Cordy? All she is now is a breif foil to Xander at the beginning of each episode. What's with that? She may be leaving, but that doesn't mean she disapears!

Overall, this was a great episode for many reasons. Basically all the ones I've gone over! Definately a keeper.