floor and Giles saves her. Willow finally convinces him that the spirit is not Jenny. A swarm of wasps arrives and surrounds the school. Everyone recuperates at Buffy's while she continues to show her anger towards James. Buffy goes to the kitchen where she finds a sign for the 1955 Sadie Hawkins dance in her pocket as James' voice whispers, "I need you." She heads to the school where the wasps part for her to enter. Willow finds the ad and everyone rushes after Buffy, but they cannot enter the school. Angelus appears in the halls as Buffy, now possessed by James, talks to him as if he were Grace. They repeat the ghosts' argument until, at the climax, Buffy pulls out a gun and shoots Angelus. He falls off of the balcony as though dead. Buffy, still possessed by James, goes to the music room where "James" plans to kill himself. The possessed Angelus arrives just in time to stop Buffy from pulling the trigger. They exchange apologies and kiss. The spirits leave their bodies and are finally finding peace. Buffy and Angelus break away from the kiss, and Angelus, disgusted at what he has been doing, pushes Buffy away and flees. Angelus and Drusilla leave Spike after Angelus taunts him and Spike breaks free from his wheelchair after. Production details Scriptwriter Marti Noxon said that prior to working on Buffy, she had written several times about ghosts, which for her are figurative expressions of the need for "repentance and second chances", drawing on her own family background. "I realize that I was constantly telling the story of my family and fears," she says. Noxon was influenced in her storytelling by the movies Poltergeist and Truly, Madly, Deeply, which featured a widow who was unable to move on after the loss of her husband. Reception The AV Club described the episode as "a really beautiful episode that raises the subtext of the season to the surface in a surprising and emotionally powerful way" and "a story about obsession and repetition". BBC praised the direction and the script, and stated that "it's impossible not to be charmed by the whole picture. The ending, where Buffy and Angel re-enact James and Grace's final moments, is such a compelling twist that it suddenly seems that the rest of the episode was written to explain the finale, rather than the other way around."