It's Buffy's birthday, so it's time to... what's the word.... celebrate? No, that's not it... Prepare! That's the one! Prepare for horror and bloodshed that is. Of course.
In a remarkably \"on the nose\" assessment of patriarchal power structures Buffy is having her physical agency reduced so that she can prove she's worthy of said physical agency. Or something. It's entirely barbaric and unnecessary so let's not waste time working out the actual purpose. She is to be locked in a building with an insane vampire and use her wits to defeat him. Until the whole plan goes sideways, said vampire creates a minion and goes out into the world. With the whole scenario compromised, the council scraps it and calls in help to deal with the now out of control vampire.... this just in... no they don't do that at all, they just let her walk into an even more dangerous situation, including an innocent hostage...
For goodness' sake.
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