7.16 Storyteller
In an old library with a roaring fire, dressed in a smoking jacket and holding a pipe, Andrew introduces the camera's audience to Buffy, Vampire Slayer. Andrew narrates the play by play as Buffy battles with vampires in the graveyard. However, the dramatic show is cut short as Anya knocks on the bathroom door and wonders what he's doing as he sits in plain clothes in front of a video camera. Buffy finishes off the vampires in the graveyard as a video camera totting Andrew emerges from the darkness. He raves about the great footage he just got, but Buffy hardly excited that he's tagging along with her. In the present, Anya again questions Andrew's actions and he explains that he's trying to document the gang and their battles to help inform those of the future. Later, Andrew talks to the video camera and uses his big white board to explain Sunnydale and some of the bigger mystical elements it houses and the major Big Bads they're dealing with. In the kitchen, Andrew introduces the Slayers in Training to the camera, saving Xander and the other Scooby gang for later interviews. Buffy and Spike arrive at the house as Dawn and the potentials enjoy a variety of cereal and Andrew begins to introduce Buffy and the Scooby gang to the camera. In a video fantasy, Andrew imagines Buffy seductively pouring cereal, Spike entering the kitchen shirtless, Anya eating from a bunch of grapes, and some random blond woman. His fantasy is interrupted as reality Buffy notices that Andrew is still filming the gang. Buffy begins to inform the gang about her vision and Andrew takes the opportunity to sneak out of the room. Another video fantasy begins as Andrew imagines himself as the leader of the Trio. Returning to the real world, Andrew begins filming the gang again and as Buffy continues to talk, Andrew observes Willow and Kennedy then recounts his encounter with Dark Willow. Altering the past, Andrew imagines himself standing up to Evil Willow and deflecting her power while Jonathan meekly hides behind him. Buffy arrives at the school to find two boys fighting, a shy girl turning invisible from not being noticed and various other disturbances. Buffy finds Robin and as she explains the strange yet familiar craziness filling the school, she bandages a cut on his forehead he received from a thrown rock. Andrew films Dawn, then catches Willow and Kennedy kissing in the living room. Buffy explains to Robin her suspicions about the Seal of Danthzar and how she thinks they need to deal with it. Andrew interviews Xander and Anya again and questions their ruined wedding, causing the two to talk to each other about what happened and what feelings still exists between them. Buffy and Robin check out the uncovered seal in the school basement and as Robin gets too close to the seal, a dark evil comes over him as he accuses Buffy of her involvement with Spike in a demonic voice. Buffy pushes him away from the seal, breaking the evil hold over Robin and he doesn't remember anything that happened. Down in the basement, Spike tells a camera-carrying Andrew to get lost, but after a lighting correction from Andrew, Spike repeats his verbal assault, performing for the camera. Upstairs, Xander and Anya talk about their love for each other, watched by a hidden camera, which is reviewed later by Andrew. Buffy and Robin arrive at her house and inform Andrew that they have to deal with the Seal and he's the key person to help. Meanwhile, in the school basement, five students surround the seal and place their hands over it, making a white light emerge from it. In Mexico, 2002, Andrew and Jonathan wake up from the same nightmare of their pasts and the evil haunts them. In the present, the gang drill Andrew for information about the seal as they try to force memories from him by using a special charm. The recount of the past continues and when Andrew is alone, the First in Warren's form questions Andrew's progress and a knife he was told to get. Willow asks where the knife is now and finds that Andrew hid it in Buffy's kitchen. The writing on the knife is in a language that speaks to the seal and Willow takes the opportunity to research the knife and find a solution to their seal problem. Buffy, Spike, Robin and Andrew arrive at the school and find it destroyed by student riots. Andrew tries to film their walk through the halls as the surprisingly strong students attack. After they finally subdue enough students and get to the basement access, Spike and Robin staying in the halls to guard the entrance while Buffy takes an unwilling Andrew downstairs. Andrew revisits his memory of killing Jonathan, but he remembers being forced a lot harder than he actually was to kill. Listening to his explanation, Buffy comments on how she saw Robin get affected by the seal and Andrew suddenly changes his memory explanation to fit with Robin's actions. Buffy and Andrew enter the basement room carefully and find the five students standing around the seal, their eyes freshly cut and sealed like the Bringers. In the Summers' basement, Xander and Anya revel in the aftermath of having sex again. They start to talk about moving on with their lives and then fade into an awkward silence. At the school, Spike and Robin are attacked by more students and Robin makes a failed attempt to stake Spike. Buffy battles with the new Bringers while Andrew picks up the camera and begins to record again. Once she's through with them, Buffy pulls out the knife and advances on Andrew as she reveals that in order to close the seal, they need to spill the blood of the one who opened it in the first place. Buffy lays down the reality of their probably fatal future and scares him into tears. Buffy holds Andrew over the seal and he cries, spilling his tears onto the seal. The seal closes and Buffy reveals it was tears the seal needed to close, not blood and she was just forcing the tears from him. The students in the halls finally relax from their evil possession and the fighting stops. Later, a sad Andrew talks to the camera in the bathroom again, confessing that he probably will die and he deserves to. Without another word, the camera is shut off.