Okay, main focus here is going to be on Willow/Xander/Cordelia/Oz (so be prepared for some reading...) like promised but I do want to take a moment for Jenny first. She will, however, be getting her own, final, post. Probably tomorrow.
Jenny's final episode was "Passion," which is the third of these next four episodes. Jenny and Giles finally start to pick up the pieces of their relationship in this episode, with Jenny even admitting she is in love with Giles. After apologizing to Giles for everything he tells her that it is not his forgiveness she needs, but Buffy's. Jenny decides the best way to get Buffy's forgiveness is to "cure" Angel. She does not tell anyone of her plans. Buffy does actually try to start to forgive Jenny this episode, by telling her that Giles misses her. But she also makes it clear during that exchange that she is still mad and wants Jenny to continue to suffer.
Meanwhile, Angel spends this episode looking for ways to hurt Buffy while Buffy, Giles, and company spend this episode looking for ways to remove Angel from their lives. They succeed and are able to uninvite Angel from both Willow and Buffy's homes. Angel interrupts them while they are working the spell on Buffy's home. Frustrated and angry at the turn of events he looks for a way to hurt them. And he stumbles across Jenny, who Drusilla has informed him has found a possible way of restoring his soul. After destroying the computer Jenny was using, and then burning the printed copy of the spell, Angel chases her down to kill her, ultimately snapping her neck instead of feeding off of her. He then takes Jenny to Giles's home - where they have not had the time to do the uninvitation spell yet - and sets everything up for a romantic evening with a dead woman in Giles's bed.
Willow, Xander, Cordelia, and Oz have a bunch messy and complicated relationships both individually and collectively which has some serious pain in the future for them.
First there is Willow and Xander. Willow has always been in love with Xander - who has never returned her feelings - and now she is finally starting to get over it with Oz. When she walks in on Xander and Cordelia kissing in "Innocence" it puts a temporary strain on her and Xander's friendship. Willow even points out to Xander that Xander would rather be with someone that he hates then be with Willow. Which, ouch. But honestly, I think Willow is more hurt that Xander wasn't honest with her. Which the flip side is how could Xander be honest when he knows that everyone hates Cordelia and he himself probably has such mixed feelings about it. Just when things seem to get better they get worse again in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" when a love spell gone wrong has Willow desperately chasing Xander. Willow is really hurt after the spell is reversed - no doubt not only because of her long term feelings for Xander but because she was just finally starting to get over them with Oz.
Then there is Willow and Cordelia who are starting to form a real friendship despite their dislike of each other, and Willow's hurt over Xander's betrayal. Their budding friendship has been going on all along before Willow finds out about Cordelia and Xander but it really comes out in "Phases." In "Phases" there is a scene with the two of them at the Bronze together complaining about their boyfriends. Cordelia is, amusingly enough, complaining about Xander and Buffy as well as Xander and Willow to Willow and Willow is complaining about the lack of a relationship with Oz who is supposed to be her boyfriend.
Meanwhile, Willow finally gets her relationship with Oz in "Surprise" only to be almost immediately frustrated with it. In one of the most amusing "asking someone out for a first date" scene ever, Oz hints to Willow that he wants to ask her out but he is nervous. Willow asks him if it helps to know that she is going to say yes. Oz responds that it does help and then asks her out. Willow immediately has to turn him down because of a prior commitment to Buffy's birthday party. Then she asks Oz if he would like to go with her. Oz says he doesn't want to crash the party but Willow tells him he could be her date. Of course, Buffy's birthday is a complete and utter disaster all around but out of it Willow and Oz get their first date.
In "Innocence" after she finds out the truth about Xander and Cordelia she tries to get Oz to make out with her while they, along with Xander and Cordelia, are out to steal a weapon for Buffy to use on The Judge. But Oz is astute enough to realize that she only wants to do it to hurt Xander. He turns down her offer saying that while he does want to kiss her he doesn't want to cheapen it by it being over revenge. He also tells her that in his fantasy of kissing Willow, it is Willow who kisses him. What he is trying to tell Willow, but she doesn't see, is that he does want a relationship with her but only when she is ready to have a relationship with him. And that he doesn't want any potential relationship between them to be tainted by her feelings for Xander. I think he does know that Willow is in love with Xander and for now he is content to wait.
This, however, makes Willow frustrated. She and Oz start to date but nothing happens - not even a single kiss. She doesn't understand how Oz can claim to have feelings for her but not act upon them. However, I think in Oz's eyes, he is in love with Willow but wants to know that Willow at least returns some semblance of those feelings. Maybe she doesn't have to return his feelings of love right away but she does need to have more feelings for Oz and less for Xander. He could even be frustrated in return but he has such a calm, zen-like nature and approach to life that no frustration ever shows. Willow expresses these frustrations to both Cordelia and Buffy with Buffy finally telling her that maybe she needs to make the first move. Willow, however, is afraid that this will make her look like a slut.
Things finally come to a head between Willow and Oz in "Phases" when Oz decides to pull back after realizing he is the werewolf Buffy is hunting. He turns down a chance to spend time with Willow. He sees it as protecting Willow from himself - as well as probably protecting himself from Buffy (who went from determined to stop the werewolf but protect it to now angry at the werewolf for killing someone and determined to stop it no matter what) and an opportunity to figure out what is going on with himself. To Willow, though, enough is enough. She can't figure out why Oz seems to like her but not only won't act on it and is now pulling away from her. She goes to his house to finally confront him, refuses to leave when he asks her to, and sees him turn into the werewolf.
After things are resolved - Oz is stopped without hurting anyone and without being hurt himself by both Buffy and the werewolf hunter in town - the next day at school Oz gives Willow an out. He tells her that if she wants he'll leave her life. Willow stops him, however, and tells him that she likes having him in her life and that while him being a werewolf complicates things it's not a deal-breaker. They start to go their separate ways when Willow runs back and kisses Oz finally sealing the fact that they are in a relationship and giving Oz what he truly wants - not only a Willow who wants to be in a relationship with him, but now also a Willow who doesn't mind the added complication of him being a werewolf. Willow leaves and Oz finally voices what everyone in the audience already knows - that he is in love with her.
Now on to Xander and Cordelia. After many episodes of sneaking into closets to make out and insult each other (actually, I think that only literally happened in one episode... it was just implied in the others...) their relationship finally comes into the open after Willow sees them kissing each other in "Innocence." Xander and Cordelia actually have a very sad relationship. They don't really like each other, they aren't quite sure why they are together, and they both feel the need to hide their relationship - not only because they know how their friends will react but because they are not even sure how they themselves feel about it. Add to this that Xander makes Cordelia feel very insecure and jealous. She knows that he is in love with Buffy, frequently accuses him of being in love with Buffy, and has to stand there while Xander does not deny it. She is constantly complaining that he cares more for Buffy and Willow then herself and he does nothing to dissuade her from feeling this way.
However, despite this, Xander does seem to care on some level for Cordelia. He is frequently seen protecting her and even gives her a necklace for a Valentine's Day present. She promptly breaks up with him because her friends want her to and he demands the necklace back to use it in a love spell on her which horribly backfires and causes every other woman in town to fall in love with him, but hey. And while one would think that Cordelia would be mad at him for trying to cast a love spell on her she instead is actually touched by the incredibly selfish gesture. It's probably a good idea that he didn't tell her he was doing it so he could break up with her instead so she would know how it felt. However, knowing Cordelia, that might not have upset her.
Cordelia's character, while staying the same, has seriously grown and changed. She went from selfish, shallow, and cruel to still selfish, shallow, and cruel but actually allowing herself to care for Buffy and her friends, go out of her way to befriend them with no personal gain for herself, and even start to fall in love with one of them.
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" begins with Cordelia dumping Xander to appease her friends and ends with Cordelia telling her friends that she will date whomever she wants to date "no matter how lame he is." And while Xander is not exactly thrilled by that last part, he does appreciate Cordelia standing up for him. However, while that may have settled things (more or less) with her friends, she still has a rocky relationship with Xander as she is left questioning how much of their relationship is actually real. This is especially true for the audience when Xander attempts to rebound with Buffy before he realizes that she is just under a spell. Does Xander actually feel anything for Cordelia if he willing to forget her so quickly the moment Buffy shows interest? Cordelia's feelings of jealousy and insecurity are very justified.
She knows her position is precarious. She seems to have a love/hate relationship with everyone - including Xander the one person who it should only be a love/love relationship with. Her relationship with Giles is even rocky. There is even an amusing moment in "Killed By Death" in which Giles was stuck with Cordelia's help and he whined about being stuck with her right in front of her.
Lastly, Xander and Oz. (I got nothing for Oz and Cordelia.) Xander seems to distrust Oz. In "Phases" he claims it is because Oz is both a senior and in a band (which seems to Xander to attract a bad element) however one can't help but wonder if what he is really upset about is Willow dating someone. No matter who Buffy shows interest in Xander finds a flaw. This makes one wonder ifthe same is true for Willow.
Meanwhile, Xander is actually able to get under calm, cool, and collected Oz's skin. When Willow falls under the love spell that was intended for Cordelia, and is rejected by Xander, she hysterically calls Oz on the phone and cried for a couple of hours. Oz actually seeks out and punches Xander for upsetting Willow so much. Whether or not Oz knows what fully went down between Willow and Xander is unclear. However he is clearly mad at Xander for not only upsetting Willow so much but possibly even for seemingly playing with her emotions and moving in on territory that Oz has finally marked as his own. Xander insists that he didn't touch Willow and Oz lends his help to the problem at hand.
Now, favorite episode? "Phases." "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" was a close second but Willow and Oz are my absolute favorite. In this episode Buffy and her friends try to track down and detain a werewolf that attacked Cordelia and Xander. Buffy also has to stop a werewolf hunter who wants to kill the werewolf for his pelt. After the werewolf seemingly kills someone Buffy has decided that maybe detaining the werewolf isn't enough. Meanwhile Oz realizes that he is the werewolf and has to wrestle with that along with the knowledge that he might have killed someone, that Buffy now wants to kill him, and that he should probably dump Willow for her own good. Buffy discovers that the werewolf did not kill anyone. Willow confronts Oz about their relationship and finds out that he is the werewolf and is forced to shot werewolf Oz with a tranquilizer gun after he attacks Buffy. In the end the hunter leaves town empty handed and Oz finally gets his wish when Willow kisses him. Pure Oz and Willow romance. It does not get better then this.
The four episodes:
Phases - Season 2, Episode 15
Synopsis - Oz discovers he is the werewolf that Buffy is determined to hunt down and Willow has finally decided that she and Oz need to establish just what their relationship is.
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - Season 2, Episode 16
Synopsis - Cordelia dumps Xander on Valentine's Day so he decides to get revenge with a love spell which backfires horribly.
Passion - Season 2, Episode 17
Synopsis - Jenny discovers a way to restore Angel's soul but Drusilla realizes what she is up to.
Killed By Death - Season 2, Episode 18
Synopsis - While sick in the hospital with the flu Buffy realizes that an invisible creature is killing children.
