The Master discovers a prophecy about a powerful Vampire known as 'The Anointed One' who will rise from the ashes of five dead and decides that having it on his team maybe the best hope of defeating Buffy. Giles informs Buffy of this prophecy, however, she is more concerned with pursuing pretty, but nerdy Emily Dickinson fan Owen. For some reason Cordelia tries to muscle in on the object of Buffy's affection, but he blows her off and instead asks Buffy out to the bronze. Buffy's joy is cut short by Giles who informs her that according to his reading the anointed One is due to rise on that night, meaning that Buffy instead has a date with him at the Sunnydale grave yard,
It soon becomes clear than Gile's calculation's may in fact be wrong, so Buffy decides to rush to the Bronze only to find Cordelia working her charms on Owen. The next day Buffy finds out that nothing happened, and gets her real date with Owen that night, however, as it turns out that Giles may have been right about the time of the anointed ones arrival if not the location, Buffy's non-Slayer duties and her day job collide.
This is another passable first season episode, which fulfils a narrative function in a solid, if unremarkable way. The Master makes an impact for a rare time on the show, Giles gets some great lines at Buffy's expense, and his whole lecture about her attempting to mix a normal life with her role as the Slayer is all very compelling, and credible. She gets in some good lines in response such as "If the apocalypse comes beep me" This is also Angel's strongest episode to date. True, all he really does is stare, and look a bit bemused and slightly jealous at Buffy's interest in Owen, but there is some progress for him, and I do enjoy the scene at the Bronze when he bumps into Owen and Buffy, and the decoded messages which he, Willow and Xander have give her to hide her identity.
There's an eye catching, if slightly contrived action sequence at the funeral home, a nice twist with the identity of the annoted one, and some emotional pathos with Buffy and Giles late on. Which brings me to the massive flaw of NKABOTFD which is that it lacks the emotional punch of the great episodes, and the main reason for this is because Owen just isn't a convincing love interest for Buffy. He is far too much of a wet blanket, with clunky lines, and no personality. Surely he most rank as the most unbelievable love interest of any she has on the show. The pace just drags when he is on screen, and the central plot of Buffy trying to date him sidetracks more important characters such as Cordelia.
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