Here we have humor and action deftly woven together to create an absolutely wonderful episode. The only complaint I have is that at the end, when Buffy becomes herself again, she knocks Spike on the floor and lets him run away without any effort to keep him trapped. She could have beaten him to a bloody pulp until someone got her a stake. Aside from that, though, there is much fun to be had here!

The episode begins with a vampire filming Buffy, with a video camera, fighting a different vampire. We soon discover that this video is meant for Spike. He is studying the Slayer in even more detail, preparing for their next encounter. Not only is it great seeing Spike checking her out like this, but James Marsters has this uncanny ability to hold your attention when he's on screen. Spike is just such a fun character to watch, regardless of the plot. Juliet Landau doesn't slouch either as Drusilla. She manages to convey this sense of extreme helplessness and utter creepiness at the exact same time. How that is possible I do not know.

I'd like to quickly mention that I really appreciate the continuity of the smaller stuff, like Devon checking out Cordelia in "Inca Mummy Girl" (2x04), so now they're trying to date (Devon doesn't show up). A little more significant in plot is Buffy and Angel trying to meet for coffee. The entire last episode dealt with the fact that Angel didn't want to get together with Buffy for a coffee. It's just really refreshing to see this stuff remembered and built upon.

Anyway, I enjoyed seeing Buffy wondering if Angel would prefer she were a noble woman from his time. This naturally leads to the scene in Ethan's costume shop where she goes all wide-eyed and cute over the pink princess dress. She gets the dress from Ethan Rayne, who casts a spell to turn people into their costumes. It is really cool seeing what everyone thinks of the new, helpless, Buffy. Cordelia says it best by saying, "what's that riff?" Everyone else is pretty confused by her transformation except for Willow who gets to take charge of the situation all by herself.

Willow gets a ton of character development here. She finally gets a big dose of self confidence, which is an important step in her ongoing journey to becoming a very powerful individual. She hides her skimpy outfit out of shyness but then, post-spell, is forced to walk around in it. Until Giles asked her "the ghost of what?" she hadn't even noticed that she looked all skimpy. This goes to show that when things get out of hand and Buffy's not around to take charge, she has it in her to take command and acheive that self-confidence.

The whole concept of this plot is just really fun. A lot of roles get to reverse and all the characters are stronger for it. As mentioned before, Willow gets to take charge, but Buffy becomes the opposite: helpless. Seeing Buffy that pretrified is very new, and of course Spike loves it. Xander also gets in the action, literally this time, and just all around kicks ass. He beats up Larry to protect Buffy when earlier in the episdode Buffy protected Xander from Larry. Xander's "beating up that pirate gave me a weird sense of closure" is a hoot. Giles also gets some development which is a result of his dialog with Ethan. We find out that they know each other and that Giles has quite the unsavory past. This adds some intrigue and depth to a character that was hanging around the two-dimensional mark.

Overall there is a ton of good stuff in here. Lots of subtle and not-so subtle character development mixed with a fun plot and great acting. This is a very fun episode to watch and new people who are just getting into the show always love it. I'm right there with them, this is a great stuff.