Willow is worried because Oz hasn't tried to make a move on her yet. Xander and Cordy are making big with the smoochies in her car, when they suffer a case of lupus interuptus. There's a werewolf in town, and tracking it is Gib Cain, an unreconstructed great white hunter. That night, Buffy and Giles track the wolf, but run into Cain instead. He tells them the werewolf is attracted to sexual tension, so Buffy goes to the Bronze to try and capture it. There, she sees the beast, but it escapes. It goes to the woods to sleep, and awakens the next morning as a bemused Oz. Larry complains of being bitten by a huge dog the previous week, which makes the gang think that he is the wolf, so Xander confronts him, but finds out instead that Larry is gay. Willow is still concerned that Oz doesn't like her, so she goes to his house that night. He wolfs out and chases her, almost killing her until Buffy arrives and shoots Oz-wolf with a tranquilizer gun. Willow and Oz (later, as a human) finally kiss.
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Willow and Oz seem to have the beginnings of a Thing, but, Willow complains to Buffy, Oz seems to be reluctant to make the first move. Meanwhile, Xander and Cordelia are making out in her father's car, which would be great if Xander would just stop yammering about Willow and Oz. Then he thinks he hears something, and now Cordelia's really getting miffed. Suddenly a hairy, clawed arm punches through the ragtop of the car. Cordy shakes the thing and drives off.
The next day, Xander's pretty sure it was a werewolf that attacked them. The prospect gives research-guy Giles a happy, and they decide they have to trap the werewolf rather than kill it because it's a person most of the time. In gym, Buffy and her friends discuss the way the full moon brings out the animalistic qualities in people. School bully Larry displays a bandage where he was bitten by a dog a couple weeks ago, and Oz sympathizes, noting that he was bitten by his young cousin. Larry displays his animalistic qualities by tormenting a girl named Theresa. That night, Buffy and Giles search the local makeout spot for the werewolf, but are coming up empty when Buffy stumbles into an animal trap and is menaced by a man with a gun.
Realizing that Buffy is not a werewolf, and leaping to some unsavory conclusions about her and Giles' presence in the park, the man introduces himself as Cain. He says he hunts werewolves for the high price their pelts bring in Asia, and explains that they're drawn to sexual heat. Meanwhile, walking home, Theresa runs into Angel, who offers to escort her home. Buffy and Giles go to the local sexual heat hotspot, the Bronze, and just in time, too — the werewolf has dropped in (literally) and scared the patrons away. Buffy manages to get a chain around its neck, but it escapes into the alley, finding Theresa's body — and Angel. The two animals face each other warily. Back in Giles' car later that night, Buffy hears a report of Theresa's death, linking it to the recent spate of "animal maulings." Buffy and Giles assume the werewolf killed Theresa, and Buffy feels guilty about not having stopped it when she could. They go home, abandoning the search for the night, and as the sun rises, the werewolf transforms into Oz, who wakes up naked in the woods with a bemused "Huh."
Oz calls his aunt to discover if the cousin that bit him was a werewolf, and his suspicion is confirmed. He goes to the library to find Buffy and friends, but as he walks in he hears Buffy resolving not to let the werewolf kill again, saying that she'll have to kill it first. Oz clams up, and watches as Xander calls on his hyena experience to attempt to figure out who the werewolf could be. He decides it must be Larry the bully, and he goes off to confront Larry. Then as Buffy watches, Willow asks Oz to help her look stuff up, but Oz says he has to go and leaves abruptly. Xander confronts Larry, who misreads Xander's suspicions and admits that he's gay, assuming Xander is too. Later, Xander and Buffy, working on a hunch, go to the funeral home and confirm that Theresa was the victim not of a werewolf but of a vampire. Then Theresa, now a vampire herself, awakens, saying, "Angel sends his love," just before being staked by Xander. Shaken, Buffy and Xander share an intense moment. That night, Oz prepares to shackle himself for the evening when Willow, acting on Buffy's advice, shows up at his door to make the first move. Oz tries to send her away, but as she watches he turns into the werewolf.
Willow runs from Oz, and the chase attracts the attention of Cain the werewolf hunter. Something distracts the werewolf, saving Willow, who runs to the library and gets Buffy and Giles. Cain baits the werewolf with some raw meat and corners him, ready to shoot him, when Buffy and Giles show up with a tranquilizer gun. Buffy and Oz fight, which keeps Oz from being shot by Cain, but Oz throws Buffy into Giles, knocking them both down. Willow shoots Oz with the Phenobarbital dart before Cain can fire a more fatal shot. Cain scoffs at Buffy's "spinelessness," but Buffy wrecks his gun with her bare hands and runs him out of Sunnydale. The next day, Willow tells Oz she's okay with his being a werewolf, and things are even happier between them when she kisses him.
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Larry: "That little innocent schoolgirl thing is just an act, right?"
Oz: "Yeah. Yeah, she's actually an evil mastermind. It's fun."
Buffy: "What guy could resist your wily Willow charms?"
Willow: "At last count? All of them. Maybe more."
Buffy: "Well, none of them know a thing. They all get an 'F' in Willow."
Willow: "But I want Oz to get an 'A'! And, oh, one of those gold stars."
Buffy: "In other words, your typical male."
Xander: "On behalf of my gender, hey!"
Giles: "Yes, let's not jump to any conclusions."
Buffy: "I didn't jump. I took a tiny step, and there conclusions were."
Oz's reaction to waking up naked in the woods: "Huh."
Willow: "Well, I like you. You're nice, and you're funny, and you don't smoke. Yeah, okay, werewolf, but that's not all the time. I mean, three days out of the month I'm not much fun to be around either."
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