Buffy the Vampire Slayer: S1E7

We finally get the low-down on this Angel character.  I have to say that I don't remember Angel having a tattoo on his back and I wonder if it plays any significance later in the series or is only used in this episode to identify Angel with Angelus in the Watchers' Diaries.  Do they ever explain what the tattoo design is?

What I like about this episode is that you don't have these characters ready to jump into a relationship despite their differences.  They recognize that they shouldn't be together, even though they have a great attraction to one another, and desperately try to do the "smart" thing.  How often do you see teenagers behaving in a logical and mature manner?  Even if you take into account that certain other pop-culture vampires force their loved one to wait until marriage for any serious physical action.  That other series, which shall remain nameless for now,  has the girl so anxious to be with the guy she doesn't care about the dangers.  It's only through his superiority that she is "saved" from her own desires.  But in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we have two characters who understand the consequences of their hormones and make the conscious decision to stay apart.

Isn't that what young people should do?  To fully understand their desires and make the best decision without succumbing to them without reason?  And this really establishes Buffy and Angel as equals, emotionally speaking, even though he is "like 224 years older" than she is.  He has had years to grow and mature, yet here is this 16 year old girl who is able to make an equally mature and difficult decision.  And it's not bringing him down to her level either.  It sets them up as an evenly matched pair for the relationship they eventually begin later on in the series.

On a different note:  Darla uses a pair of handguns when confronting Buffy.  Clearly, she knows of the slayer's abilities and isn't taking chances or she has a desire to torture her victim a little before finally killing her.  I am going to guess it's somewhere in the middle.  We see that Darla is jealous of the budding romance between Angel and Buffy and I can't help but think this has something to do with her sadism.  I think it also sets these vampires apart from others in fiction.  Most vampires rely on their strength and vampire powers to attack and kill victims, but the BtVS vamps have no problem with taking advantage of what the modern world has to offer.