Synopsis:
Three vampires jump Buffy as she is walking home from the Bronze nightclub. Angel appears out of nowhere and comes to her aid. Together they subdue the three vampires, but not before Angel takes an iron spike in the ribs. Buffy and Angel run for safety as the vampires struggle to their feet and give chase. Buffy decides to go to her house to administer first aid to Angel. The vampires are close behind, but pose no threat because a vampire cannot enter a home unless it's invited inside. Buffy and Angel decide it would be safer if he spends the night at her house.In the school library the next day, Xander grows jealous when he hears Angel spent the night at Buffy's. Giles is more concerned with the vampires, saying that the three warrior vampires are a sign that Buffy is starting to hurt the Master. When Buffy returns home to finish nursing Angel, they share a tender moment. He says he can't be around her any more, but then they are drawn into a passionate kiss. Angel suddenly and a little violently pulls away. Buffy screams. Angel is a vampire. Angel returns to his basement apartment to find Darla, an attractive vampire who serves as an assistant to the Master. She wonders what he's doing with a high school girl who happens to be a slayer. He says that he is neither mortal nor vampire.Giles does research on Angel and discovers that he is a vampire named Angelus who lived more than two hundred years ago in Ireland. Eighty years earlier he left Europe for America, where he lived alone, shunning other vampires and not hunting. Darla goes back to the Master and the child, Collin. Together they hatch a plan to make Buffy try to kill Angel so that he will be forced to kill her and return to their fold.Darla attacks Buffy's mother, Joyce, and tricks Angel into coming to her aid. When Buffy sees Angel kneeling over her mother (who has marks on her neck), she thinks Angel attacked her. Buffy resolves to slay him. Buffy finds Angel at the closed Bronze. They reluctantly begin to fight. Buffy suddenly has a clean shot at him with her crossbow. His face morphs back into its regular human countenance. She can't fire. He says that he killed his own family. For a hundred years he happily fed on anyone he could. Then he killed a gypsy girl and her clan put a curse on him. They restored his soul. He could no longer kill without conscience or remorse. He says that he hasn't fed on a living human being since that day.Angel confesses that he wants to kill Buffy. She sets the crossbow down and offers herself to him. He can't do it either. Darla suddenly appears, more than willing to take Buffy up on her offer. She says that she was involved with Angel for several generations. Darla proceeds to attack Buffy as Giles, Xander, and Willow arrive to help. Giles goes to the light-mixing board and manages to blind Darla with a strobe light. Angel then plunges an arrow into Darla's heart and she turns to dust.A few days later Buffy and Angel meet at the Bronze. She tells him her mother is going to recover. They know their relationship cannot continue. They share a good-bye kiss. Each has a painful expression as they part. Angel has the smoking imprint of the cross Buffy was wearing burned into his chest.