If you remember, last season introduced us to Buffy's little sister Dawn - played by Michelle Trachtenberg - who turned out to be the "key" wanted by a the evil god Glory and also saw the death of Buffy's mom. During the much hyped season finale, Buffy decided to make the ultimate sacrifice of her own life to save Dawn and left us all hanging as to whether she was really dead or not.

Well, she really was dead but thanks to her Scooby Gang, now being led by our favorite red-headed Wiccan Willow (American Pie's Alyson Hannigan), she is brought back to life just in time to save Sunnydale - yeah, I know, as usual - from some alien motorcycle-riding marauders with facial issues who have learned that the town is currently being protected by not the real Slayer, but rather the infamous Buffy Bot. However, the problem is that when they brought Buffy back to life they forgot she would be brought back where she was - in her coffin. After digging herself out of her own grave, Buffy was understandably just a dad bit shocked, but thanks to sister Dawn was coaxed off the ledge of a tower that was beginning to collapse and brought back to her senses.

While most of the episode was devoted to the resurrection of the Slayer, it also highlighted new issues with the supporting characters. For example, you know how Sears has a softer side? Well, Willow definitely has a darker side. The first episode shows her beginning to mess with some really dark stuff, so dark it includes killing helpless wild animals. And there's no doubt her power has increased as she is able to speak directly into the minds of her cohorts and was able to raise Buffy after putting up with some heavy tests by the higher powers. Reports on upcoming episodes have mentioned that Willow will become even more involved with black magic, which will definitely put some strain on her relationship with her lesbian lover Tara (played by Amber Benson).

As for Xander (the hilarious Nicholas Brendon) and demon-turned-human Anya (Emma Caulfield), if you saw last season's finale you may remember Xander performing a post-apocalyptic proposal to Anya and her hasty agreement. Well, due to the fact they haven't announced their engagement yet and Xander's obvious reluctance to do so, I'm convinced this wedding is not going to happen anytime soon. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

A sad but interesting side note to the season premiere "Death Becomes Her" is the exit of Buffy's watcher Giles (played by Anthony Stewart Head), whose departure was hinted to in the beginning of the episode and was complete by the first half of the two-hour show. While on Buffy the reason for Giles' move back to England was because he couldn't deal with Buffy's death, in real life Head reportedly wanted to relocate back to his native England to be closer to his family and star in a Buffy spin-off created for the BBC by Joss Whedon. Giles lovers don't despair - he is expected to make a few cameo appearances later in the season.

Although I hate to see him go, in some ways it's a good move even if Whedon hadn't intended it this way. After the death of Buffy's mom, Giles is really the only last adult character on the show that had a real contact with the group. At the same time, by most Buffy fans he has also been seen as Buffy's surrogate father, which was great during her high school days but is not needed now. All the characters on Buffy are legal adults and having Giles around was not making this point clear enough. And this point needs to be made clear as not only are the characters now adults, but most of Buffy's loyal fans are also adults. Most viewers began watching in high school when Buffy and friends were in high school, but now these viewers are grown up and want to still be able to relate to the show. This idea is not at all uncommon - look at Beverly Hills 90210. I myself was a major fan who began watching while in high school and could relate to Brenda and Brandon and their issues with school and parents. However once the stars hit college, as did I, the parents suddenly disappeared, as did mine when I moved away to college. I now needed to relate to adult-aged college students that didn't have parents harping over them as much anymore and had other, more mature issues to deal with.

Now that the tone for the new season has been set, I'm starting to wonder what's going to happen. For example, how is the whole coming back to life thing going to affect Buffy in the long run? And more importantly, will there be a second slayer making an entrance soon? Heck, it happened once already when Buffy died for a few minutes during season one. There have also been hints to an actual romance heating up between Spike (James Marsters) and Buffy, as well as the possibility of another spin-off show centered on Dawn. Whatever happens, it looks like this season is going to be to die for.

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C.E. Pelc is a freelance writer and music lover living in California.

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