BUFFY: This isn't right.

PRINCIPAL WOOD: I know it doesn't look promising, but I swear this place is great. It's the best kept secret in town. It's just right down this way.

BUFFY: Well, it is one of the nicer dark alleys.

PRINCIPAL WOOD: I promise you, it's just a little bit further.

BUFFY: OK...

(they're jumped buy a gang of vamps. Buffy stakes a few)

BUFFY: You set me up, you son of a? (sees Wood fighting & dusting vamps himself) What?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: I guess we should talk. The restaurant's right there.

(... later, inside the restaurant ...)

BUFFY: This place is nice. How the hell did you do that?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: (chuckles) I've had a little practice. Never took on two at once before, but I have taken out a vamp here or there. And some demons.

BUFFY: So, you're freelance?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Hm... freelance? I guess that's a good way to put it.

BUFFY: And you know who I am?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: You're the slayer.

BUFFY: Right. OK, um, so I'm guessing that you don't work in an office 15 feet above the hell mouth because you enjoy educational administration?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Well, I actually do enjoy the work, but yeah. Yeah, you're right. I maneuvered myself into that school, that office?just like I maneuvered you there. The hell mouth draws the bad things in close, and now we're headed for something big, Buffy. Really big, and I need to be here when it happens. I want to help.

BUFFY: So, y-you didn't hire me for my counseling skills?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: (laughs, then sees Buffy's hurt look) They're valuable too.

BUFFY: Wh-why didn't you tell me about you?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: I wasn't sure about things yet.

BUFFY: Y-you didn't think you could trust me?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: No, no. No, I wasn't sure I was ready yet?ready to jump into this fight.

BUFFY: And now you are?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Well, now the fight is starting?or starting to start?and I don't have time to worry anymore. I have to do something.

BUFFY: So, you knew who I was before you even came here.

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Yes.

BUFFY: How? How do you know about slayers?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Right. OK. See, when I was a little boy, my mother was one. The one, actually?the slayer.

BUFFY: Your mother? Wow, I didn't know that any slayers had children.

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Well, I don't know of any others. She was killed when I was four. I still remember her, but it's a little...fuzzy? You know?

BUFFY: Um, something got her... a demon??

PRINCIPAL WOOD: A vampire. Oh, man, I went through this whole "avenging son" phase in my twenties, but I never found him. So, now I just dust as many of them as I can find. I figure, eventually I'll get him. That's probably why we got jumped outside. I'm not very popular with the bumpy-foreheaded crowd, and I bet you aren't either.

BUFFY: No. Not most of them. Um, so, do you have any slayer powers? I'm sorry, I?I'm just so floored. I-I have no idea what to ask.

PRINCIPAL WOOD: No, I don't have powers. No super-strength or mythic responsibilities. I'm just a guy with a few skills 'cause her watcher took me in and raised me.

BUFFY: So, you decided to tell me?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: That's right.

BUFFY: In a darkened, little romantic French restaurant?

PRINCIPAL WOOD: Um, yeah... Yeah, I'm not really sure how that happened, but yeah.

• Buffy & Principal Wood

written by: Jane Espenson; Transcribed by: CariCranberry. edited by me.. Full transcript at:
http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/season7/transcripts/136_tran.php