Just in time for Dawn to start her freshman year, they've rebuilt the old Sunnydale High School on the original site.

The only thing worse than the first day of high school is being walked to class, and then babysat by your mom-haired sister who happens to expect demons and vampires around every corner. To be fair, it is still on a Hellmouth.

Dawn gets a taste of the high school horrors she'd only heard about. Along the way she makes friends with a girl and a boy that, in the words of the bad guys, no one would miss. Hmm, hot, well-dressed gal with attitude hanging out with a geek and a freak. Sounds familiar, huh?

And on the other side of the world…

Giles and Willow slowly learn how to teach a bad witch new tricks. Under the guidance of Giles, Willow studies with English Wiccas about energy and the inter-connectedness of the world. Rather than Giles taking on the role of watcher and trainer, as we'd seen him do with Buffy for so many years, his relationship to Willow is more of a psychological confidante as she deals with the guilt from her reign of terror.

Those clever Buffy writers understand how much we enjoy the feeling of superiority one has upon recognizing a good inter-seasonal parallel, but that we also get bored easily if it's too familiar.

Joss Whedon and Marti Noxon did some cool things with the music and lighting that added to the creep factor at times. One might be reminded of a traditional horror film with the spooky lighting, haunting music and mummy/ghost/demon things chasing everyone around. As always, the writing was awesome, answering just enough of last season's questions to distract us for a moment from the fifteen new ones they put in our head tonight.

A few random reflections on tonight's episode: