I have a lot of mixed feelings over this episode. The main plot involving the frat boys is extremely dumb and boring, but everything else is pretty relevant and interesting. For each really dumb moment there seems to be a great moment to make up for it. For example, the scene where the moronic frat boys are dressing Xander up is made up for by the fabulous piece of character development from Willow when she bursts out in anger at Giles and Angel. It's basically a roller coaster continuously switching between great and terrible.
I suppose I'll begin with what went right. The first scene is a great moment for Willow, Xander, and Buffy. It's so fun and cute to see the three of them all snuggled up together trying to understand what the heck is going on in this foreign music video they are watching. Another interesting topic brought up early is Buffy's reaction to killing vampires changing as a result of having "fuzzy feelings" for one. It's a shame that there's no follow up and direct conversation about this issue after it is mentioned here. Anyway, this scene ends with Buffy putting on her pout face in the hopes of making Giles soften up his stance on her social life, which is also quite cute.
This brings me to the great scene in the graveyard where Angel tries to shut down Buffy's social advances (second quote below). Angel basically 'warns' Buffy that this relationship is going to be extremely unusual and will undoubtedly get out of control. Buffy thinks she knows what she's getting into, but she really doesn't. Willow is the one, in a great scene later on, who convinces Angel to loosen up a bit, but in retrospect I'm not so sure this was a good idea. Angel seems to be the only one aware that his relationship with Buffy can only end in sorrow, but his attraction to Buffy and the pushing from her friends convince him to move forward with the relationship.
Another great scene later on is when Willow has an unrestrained outburst on Giles and Angel about their attitude towards Buffy. Willow lays it on them saying, "you never let her do anything except work and patrol" to Giles and "you don't have time for a cup of coffee!?" to Angel, among other things. This is another step in Willow's development as a more confident and strong individual.
Unfortunately, the main plot is the root problem of this episode. Even from the early scene where the girl tries to run away from the frat boys in robes you can tell this isn't going to be a remotely interesting plot. The early suspicions are quickly proven true when we discover that those frat boys worship a some kind of reptile demon. I don't know why writers think a plot like this can ever surpass mediocrity. It doesn't matter how well written an episode with a plot like this is, the idea is just too bad for it to work.
Anyway, all the strict lectures from Giles along with Angel pushing away her advances are contributing factors in persuading Buffy to accompany Cordelia to this college frat party she knows she won't have a good time at, even though she claims otherwise. This leads to some good acting by SMG when she repeatedly nearly downs an alcoholic drink, then finally does. We soon find out that she was predictably drugged, but instead of being raped she's taken down to the basement to be fed as a sacrifice to the reptile demon. She of course breaks free (though she should have put in an effort to break free sooner) which leads to a boring action climax where the group comes in to help and Buffy stabs the demon's tail. Yawn.
So there's a lot of really good character development and dialog mixed in with a really bad plot and a boring final action sequence. I must say, though, that the character stuff tends to outweigh bad plots. So while this isn't a great episode, there is a lot of good stuff in here to make it a decent one.
