NY Daily News calls New Moon Rising "a landmark in TV history."

'Buffy' Character Follows Her Bliss

Something really significant happens at the end of tonight's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on the WB at 8. We don't see it, because the scene plunges into darkness and ends at that precise moment - but the dialogue leading up to that moment makes the episode a landmark "Buffy."

It's a landmark in TV history, period.

What happens is the shift from subtext to text of a very long-running, compelling and credible character development involving Alyson Hannigan's Willow.

In "New Moon Rising," after struggling with her own loyalties and emotions, Willow comes out and declares her love for Tara (Amber Benson) - a fellow college student, Wicca practitioner and potential lesbian.

A declaration of love between two women may not sound like a big deal, especially on a series so grounded in fantasy. After all, the relationships on "Buffy" are anything but typical:

Buffy's last love was a vampire and Willow's last and formerly only love, who shows up tonight as Seth Green's Oz makes a return appearance, is a werewolf.

Beneath the literally monstrous surface of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," though, is a churning turmoil of metaphors about love, death, commitment and fear. Sex, on "Buffy," is anything but casual; it can unleash demonic forces and change characters temporarily or permanently.

And despite the silly-sounding fantasy elements, "Buffy" serves up more real angst, and more mature explorations of what it means to be a young person with emotions and responsibilities and insecurities and torn loyalties, than any of the more "realistic" youth dramas, such as Fox' "Beverly Hills, 90210" or the WB's own "Dawson's Creek" and "Felicity.

The question about Willow's sexual orientation, for example, was first raised in the third season, when Willow encountered her evil, vampiric counterpart from an alternate-reality universe.

That character, a killer vamp in more ways than one, was openly and aggressively bisexual - and when it was pointed out that look-alikes in those two universes shared similar orientations, that knowledge was intentionally kept from Willow.

After a long, happy romance with Oz, however, the real Willow was heartbroken when he proved unfaithful and left her (it was because of werewolf urges, of course, one of the show's clearer sexual similes). Slowly but surely, she found solace in the soft-spoken Tara: sharing spells and confidences with her, and recently reaching out to touch her in a very tender manner.

This season, Willow has incorporated Tara into the gang - as a friend - and Tara, in turn, has pledged loyalty to Willow. Until tonight, that relationship has remained at one level; after Oz returns, however, and Willow confronts her own feelings, it escalates to another. This is unlike the coming-out episodes of ABC's "Ellen," where the character's sexual orientation made headlines and changed rather suddenly to reflect the personal lifestyle of its title star. This is, in fact, unlike anything else I can recall on regular prime-time television: a character evolving naturally over four seasons of stories and arriving at a place of sexual rediscovery. Once again, "Buffy" quietly, but assuredly, impresses and amazes.

(Tara talking to Willow)