Best Buffy Episode I just love this episode. Xander really carries it, something he's failed to do in the other Xander-center episodes IMO. Cordy is absolutely withering in her disdain for Xander and, of course, HOT. The monster plot is at first mysterious and ominous and later a beautiful in-joke. Jack O'Toole is brilliantly psychotic. His gang is pretty bleh, but they serve their purpose. Even Faith is interesting and sexy in this episode. The denouement is brilliant both in the gang's discussion of the monster and Xander's penultimate confrontation with Cordy.
Xander will forget the life lessons he's learned in this episode, but for one brief shining week he gets to be the man.