Along with all the creators from Season Nine, Victor Gischler and Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Nicholas Brendon joined the team.

[2] Buffy and her friends must quickly get to grips with the new rules of magic created at the end of Season Nine when they encounter a new breed of vampires which can shapeshift, walk in sunlight, and which is generally harder to kill.

They consider the needs of various mystical groups willing to make peace with humans including a mutually non-lethal agreement with the majority of the world's vampires, led by Harmony Kendall.

Meanwhile, Willow, ends her relationship with the demon witch Aluwyn, having grown apart, and Xander and Dawn decide to take things slow.

Buffy is able to put the events of Season Eight, in which Angel was influenced by a higher power into being a villain, behind her, but there is initial awkwardness in the group as they attempt to confront Archaeus.

D'Hoffryn informs Buffy that a portal Archaeus was using, which opens into hell dimensions, is called the Restless Door and is being repaired by an alliance of enemies faced by the gang this season: the Old One, the Soul Glutton; the siren, Mistress; and the flesh demon, the Sculptor, who wish to overrun Earth with demons.

Giles grows close to the Fae folk who accept him in both mind and body, though his favoritism of them leads to some tension with Buffy.

The Scoobies find and overwhelm the Siren Mistress and Soul Glutton, to escape, the two destroy the Restless Door; creating an unstable portal that will consume Earth unless Dawn as The Key can close it.

As the Scoobies leave, Buffy wishes D'Hoffryn's Council could just kill the Soul Glutton and Siren Mistress without their help.

After killing the two, D'Hoffryn tells Ghost Anya she was a copy he made and now that she has activated her vengeance powers she becomes corporeal.

While the Scoobies are desperate to reach Dawn and Xander in the hell dimension Anharra, D'Hoffryn kills all the other members of the Magic Council and takes their expanded abilities.

They reject an offer from W&H lawyer Lilah Morgan to help them find a route home, as that would allow the Senior Partners to return as well.

Jonathan returns, tormenting Andrew in an attempt to break up the Scoobies, after he is offered a living body and a life as a vengeance demon by D'Hoffryn.

Giles is disgusted the Fae and the rest of the magical community have agreed to terms with D'Hoffryn, believing him too powerful to fight.

Buffy's increasingly aggressive tactics over the book and finding Xander and Dawn put a strain between her and all the Scoobies leading Spike to want to break up with her.

After D'Hoffryn fatally burns her, the other vengeance demons reject him, and the Scoobies pursue him back to his homeworld, Arashmahar, and kill him, having given Dawn the ability to open portals.

She annoys Buffy over three days, calling her a relic that is no longer special since she broke the rules to give all the Slayers power, but also warns her that someone is apparently trying to kill her.

Harmony interrupts Buffy and Spike's date night, implying they have relationship problems, and the three of them stop an out-of-control streetcar from hurting anyone.

Many of the town's residents have mutated into magical creatures, and Angel is forced to adjust to this new status quo, making an ally in London police officer Detective Brandt and relying on previous local friends Alasdair Coames and the Fairweather sisters Lavinia and Sophronia.

Angel is initially frustrated by the half-demon Pearl from Season Nine and a plot run by mutated magical pixies that leads him to the witch Amy Madison.

Amy is vengeful for the events of Season Eight, and has gained great power from Magic Town's energy intending to kill Willow.

Meanwhile, Faith begins working for Kennedy's Slayer bodyguard corporation but doesn't fit in and prepares to quit until she learns Buffy's ex Riley Finn has gone missing in South America.

Angel learns following the creation of the new Seed of Wonder, responsible for all magic in the universe, in Buffy, that Fred's essence was brought back when Illyria's body reconstituted.

While Angel is away, Faith and Fred are called by Detective Brandt to look into a recent trend of murders caused by vampires in the London area.

Realizing the connection to the deaths in Angel's dreams and a local Prep School, Faith & Fred go undercover as the gym teacher and lunch lady respectively.

Faith and Fred decide to wait for Angel to return to figure out their next move, while Mary visits her father who is researching an ancient statue.

Angel's return causes Drusilla's vampires to wreak havoc on Magic Town while they capture Nadira.