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WARNING: SPOILERS!!!
Updated
27 May, 2003
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SERIES 7
Episode 1
Lessons:
Halfway around the world, Giles has brought Willow to England to help her
recover. She's being schooled in a coven to control her power, and is learning
how everything in the universe is connected. She struggles in her understanding
and yearns to be the Willow she once was.
The next morning at the Summers house, Dawn gets ready for the first day of
school, and a well-dressed Xander arrives with the architectural plan for the
new building. Buffy accompanies Dawn to school and they meet the new principal,
Robin Wood. Dawn takes off for class, and Buffy wanders around her old stomping
ground. In the bathroom, Buffy spies a small, curious-looking charm. Thinking
nothing of it, Buffy looks up in the mirror. Surprise! There's a dead girl
behind her who doesn't look happy. Another dead guy leaps out at Buffy shouting,
"Get out, get out, get out!" There's definitely something fishy going on. The
Slayer busts into Dawn's classroom just as the girl is awkwardly introducing
herself to the class, then embarrasses her even further by declaring she's in
danger. At a café, Anya and her demon pal Halfrek drink coffee and insult the
lovestruck couple singing in the corner. Halfrek tries to be kind to Anya, but
she makes it known that gossip among the demon community says Anya's gone soft,
ever since Xander. But more importantly, there's also talk that there's
something brewing lately. Something bad.
Back at the school, Buffy finds Xander and fills him in on the ghosties in the
bathroom, while across campus, Dawn is attacked by a pencil-wielding dead guy.
After excusing herself to the bathroom (bad choice), Dawn hears crying in one of
the stalls and discovers a frightened girl. Suddenly, familiar ghosts appear,
and the two are dragged through the floor, leaving a rather large hole in the
brand new tile. Dawn awakens with her new friend in the basement of the school,
and they find another lost student who was just looking for a place to smoke.
But Dawn is armed with a gift Buffy gave her that morning: a cell phone. When
Buffy locates the zombies, a fight ensues, and it becomes clear they're spirits
of the dead killed on school grounds angry that the Slayer failed to protect
them. Buffy gets past them and throws open a door expecting to see Dawn, only to
discover a disheveled and scarred Spike , who speaks in riddles. He manages to
tell Buffy that the dead guys are manifestations from a spell and a talisman for
the spell has to be destroyed. After another call from Dawn, Buffy phones Xander
to fill him in on the talisman deal. Buffy locates Dawn and fends off the
zombies, while Xander storms the hole-y bathroom to locate and destroy the
charm. When he does, the dead guys disappear, but it remains unclear who cast
the spell. Out of the school basement, Buffy comforts Dawn and her new friends
as the principal looks on. After seeing the connection she made with the kids,
he offers Buffy a part-time position mentoring troubled students. She jumps at
the chance.
Spike's still below, and he's confronted with a being unlike any other in
Sunnydale. Well, sort of. First it appears to be Warren. Then it morphs into
Glory, then Adam, the Mayor, Drusilla, the Master. All dead, but maybe not so
much. As the Master talks of the wild ride coming to Sunnydale, he adds, "It's
not about right. It's not about wrong." The being morphs into a final image --
Buffy -- and concludes, "It's about power."
Episode 2
Beneath You:
Frankfurt: a young punkish girl
sprints frantically through the city, chased by two robed baddies whose gleaming
daggers look familiar. They catch her, killing her instantly. They depart, but
the girl opens deadened, vacant eyes and says, "From beneath you, it devours."
At that moment, Buffy awakens from a nightmare about the dead girl, and echoes
her final words. She knows there are other girls out there like her, dying,
doomed.
The next morning Buffy sets off in an unsuccessful search for Spike, who earlier
that morning had been ranting and raving in the school basement, terrified of
something he couldn't see.
Willow prepares to leave England, and while she's afraid of screwing up again,
she's more frightened that her friends will reject her. Giles does his best to
convince her it's time, and she goes on her way.
That night, a young woman, Nancy, walks her dog, only to have it unceremoniously
sucked into the ground by a big and growly worm. Screaming, Nancy takes off
running and literally bumps into Xander, who brings her to Buffy's. They make a
plan to go after the thing, and Spike appears in the doorway, prepared to lend a
hand. It's strange--he looks totally normal, well dressed, good hair, the works.
He lets it slip that Buffy has already seen him back in town, and Xander and
Dawn are livid.
Buffy knows she needs Spike's help, so she hesitantly accepts, and sends Xander
to take Nancy home. Buff and Spike check out the hole where the dog got munched,
and Buffy is clearly spooked, remembering Spike's attempted rape. She can't
forgive him, but senses something different about him. He doesn't fill her in on
the whole soul thing, but does say that whatever ate the dog is long gone. After
Xander walks Nancy home, the two start making eyes at each other when that pesky
worm returns and rips open the floor to attack. They make a break for it,
running high enough up some stairs so the worm can't get to them. Nancy starts
to crack, complaining that things can't get much worse, especially after her
recent breakup with an abusive boyfriend, Ronnie.
Xander has a thought, and asks if Nancy has done any wishing lately about the
guy. Turns out she did, and Anya's to blame for turning Ronnie into a worm. The
gang (plus Nancy) confronts the demon at the Bronze, but she is unapologetic for
having turned him not just into a teeny tiny worm, but a giant Sluggoth Demon.
When Anya looks at Spike, she sees something new: a soul. To keep her from
revealing his secret, Spike hauls off and punches Anya more than once, and both
their demon faces are revealed. Buffy breaks in and pummels Spike in return as
he taunts her for taking out her repressed anger on him. Before she can do any
real damage to the Vamp, Xander realizes Nancy is gone, and Buffy takes off
after her.
On the street, Nancy is going home when the worm comes tearing after her, and
Buffy (with Spike following) literally swings to her rescue. Spike prepares to
spear the worm, but there's only one problem: at the moment he stabs the thing,
Anya reverses the spell and the worm turns back into a very human Ronnie. Since
his chip is still in place, Spike cries out in pain after harming the human. He
loses it, practically switching personalities as Buffy calls for an ambulance to
tend to Ronnie's injury. Spike warns of the Big Bad coming, repeating, "From
beneath you, it devours." He takes off, and Buffy trails him wondering what's
up.
She finds him at a church and, through his ravings, deduces he's gotten his soul
back, all for her. Now Spike is dealing with the guilt from his past, compounded
by voices in his head, and the voice of the demon that's coming. He wants to
rest and slumps against a cross. Buffy watches as the smoke rises from his
burning skin.
Episode 3
Same Time, Same Place:
Buffy, Xander and Dawn wait at the airport for
Willow to return from England. Buffy is a little nervous about what to say, but
Xander isn't concerned, even after Buffy mentions that Willow left her training
early. They continue to wait until everyone has left the plane, but Willow
doesn't show up. Literally. Seems that Willow did leave the plane, hoping for a
reunion with her pals, but she walked right by them - they were invisible to
her. And vice versa.
That night, a boy tags a wall with spray paint, until his work is cut short by a
long-nailed, shadowy figure that jumps out at him with an unearthly scream.
Apparently, he should have found a more constructive use for his artistic
talent.
Willow goes home to an empty house. She reacquaints herself with the room she
shared with Tara, briefly reliving the moment she lost her. There's no one
around to comfort her, so she lies on the couch, despondent. During those same
moments, Buffy, Xander and Dawn get home to an equally empty house. They commune
on the couch, not realizing they're sharing space with Willow, who's there, but
not.
The next day, a solitary Willow heads over to the dilapidated Magic Box. Anya is
still cleaning the debris out of the store, and she's not exactly thrilled to
see the woman who destroyed it in the first place. Ultimately sympathetic, Anya
sends Will in the direction of the new high school, since Buffy's got "some kind
of job helping junior deviants." Willow doesn't find them on school grounds, but
she does find something particularly gross: a dead body. Of course, Xander and
Buffy are there, checking out the very same body of the dead spray-painting boy.
One detail spooks them: the body is flayed. Their first thought: Willow's back.
At the school, Willow finds Spike talking nonsense in the basement (surprise!).
He's no help to her after she explains about the murdered boy, but it turns out
he's actually having two conversations: one with Willow, and one with Buffy and
Xander. Buffy incorrectly infers from Spike's confused chatter that Willow is
involved in the boy's death.
Willow goes back to Anya, who reluctantly agrees to help with a locator spell to
find demons in the area. After the spell indicates a powerful demon in the
woods, Anya confides that wreaking vengeance all over the place isn't as fun as
it once was. Willow relates completely, and the two come to an understanding.
At the Summers house, the gang researches demons that flay skin. Though Buffy
still suspects Willow, Dawn finds a demon called Gnarl that sounds about right:
it flays, and eats, the skin of its victims. Charming. They enlist Spike to
track the demon, since it seems the baddie will have left a trail of blood to
its abode. Spike leads them to a cave not realizing Willow is there as well.
Willow crawls in the cave at the same time the gang does, and when Gnarl takes a
swipe at Dawn, the Scoobies bolt and seal the cave, trapping Willow inside.
Gnarl taunts the witch for being left behind by her friends, then lashes out at
her, paralyzing her with his poison.
Back at home, Dawn is paralyzed from the poison as well, and Buffy learns that
the paralysis lasts until Gnarl is killed. When Anya arrives to stay with Dawn,
she reveals that Willow is probably still at the cave, fighting the demon on her
own. Suddenly Anya's demon expertise is in demand, and her friends drag her off
to the cave to help Willow.
Gnarl is enjoying carefully peeling strips of skin from Willow's stomach when
the gang bursts in. They still can't see Willow, but Anya can. At the vengeance
demon's instruction, Buffy gouges out the eyes of Gnarl and kills him, releasing
both Willow and Dawn from their paralysis. Soon, an injured Willow reappears
before their eyes, incredibly grateful that her friends haven't left her alone.
In the morning, Buffy interrupts Willow as she's meditating, using magic to heal
herself. Willow reveals that she inadvertently made herself invisible by
thinking she wasn't ready to see her friends. Buffy regretfully admits she
suspected Willow was the killer, but her friend understands. Weakly, Willow
continues to meditate, but Buffy reaches out her hands to help, and they begin
to heal her injuries together.
Help:
Buffy and the gang scout out a funeral
home, looking for a potential vampire. They are all stressing lately, especially
Buffy, who is gearing up for her first official day as a counselor. Her stress
level doesn't stop her, however, from easily dusting a matronly vamp as she
rises from her coffin.
The next day, Xander and Willow stroll in the sun and, reaching the cemetery,
Willow makes her first visit to Tara's grave. She lays stones atop the
headstone, then kneels and traces Tara's name tenderly.
Buffy faces her first students. She handles varied issues with good advice, but
one student stands out: Cassie. She is troubled, and lets it slip that on Friday
she's going to die. Worried that Cassie may be the subject of parental abuse,
Buffy and Xander make an ill-conceived visit to the girl's home. Though her
father is obviously three sheets to the wind, he appears to genuinely love his
daughter. Meanwhile, in the school's library, sinister-looking red-robed figures
circle a burning tray. In the tray's center is a photo of Cassie.
Buffy hunts down Spike to see if he knows anything, and while he's definitely
disturbed about something (as usual), he has nothing new to offer. Buffy checks
out Cassie's friend Mike, but he seems totally harmless.
That night, the red-robed figures are back, and their leader is Peter, one of
the arrogant boys Buffy counseled earlier in the week. The guys are scamming to
get rich quick, and Peter figures calling up a demon and offering a human
sacrifice might be a good idea. Yeah, right. Peter starts the ritual, but Buffy
tears off a red robe--the guy she grilled earlier finally told her the whole
deal. She knocks Peter down easily, but he's already called up a nasty-looking
demon, and it wants blood. Buffy's in trouble, but Spike comes to the rescue,
brandishing a flaming torch. Buff grabs the torch and goes after the demon while
Peter takes a walloping from Spike, who flinches from the chip in his head with
every punch. Buffy defeats the demon and Spike frees Cassie, who whispers to a
confused Spike, "She'll tell you. Someday, she'll tell you." Buffy leads Cassie
to the library door and saves her a second time from a booby trap. However, all
her efforts are for naught: Cassie's eyes soon go blank, and she crumples to the
floor. Turns out the end was inevitable: there was a hole in her heart.
Episode 5
Selfless:
Willow unpacks and settles back in her old
room with the gang's help. As they set things up, the subject turns to Anya, and
how she's eased up on the whole vengeance thing.
Little do they know Anya's responsible for the deaths of twelve frat boys --
looks like her latest vengeance spell wreaked a little more havoc than she may
have intended. Thinking back, she recalls her life in... Sjornjost, circa 880.
Anya, originally called Aud, plays with -- gasp -- bunnies! She's a bit jealous
that Olaf, her sweetheart, might be running around on her with a bar matron.
Anya was kind and generous in those days, but according to Olaf, seemed to still
have the annoying characteristic of always speaking her mind and taking things
literally. Some things never change. On the UC Sunnydale campus, Willow sees
Anya stumbling out of the frat house, looking freaked. She investigates the frat
house and is horrified by the discovery of the dead boys. She hears a cry, and
finds a girl sobbing in the closet mumbling, "I take it back" over and over.
Apparently the girl's boyfriend had broken up with her in front of his friends,
and she'd made a wish that they'd all know what it felt like to have their
hearts ripped out. A demonic spider conjured up by Anya appeared and took care
of the wish. The very same spider attacks Willow, but she uses magic to toss it
through a window. For a moment, though, there's an eerie glimpse of Dark Willow
as she fights the demon, which unnerves her.
Back in 880, the townspeople chase after a huge troll -- it's Olaf! Aud cast a
little spell on him after discovering his little infidelity with the bar matron.
The demon D'Hoffryn appears, impressed by Aud's magical ingenuity, and asks Aud
to join his demonic family. He calls her Anyanka, and says if she'll join with
him, she will realize her true self. In Anya's apartment (current day), Hallie
visits a guilt-ridden Anya. She's reeling from the deaths of the frat boys, and
Hallie does her best to console her. Anya is relieved, until an extremely pissed
off Willow arrives. The witch demands an explanation of the bloodshed, and
though Anya declares, "They got what they deserved," she still seems unsure of
herself.
Meanwhile, Buffy and Xander are on the hunt for the spider, but it finds them
first. It attacks Buffy, but she fights it off and chops it with a well-aimed ax.
After they return home, Willow fills them in on Anya. Xander is furious that
Willow didn't tell them about Anya's evil deeds earlier, but he falters when
Buffy reveals that she has to kill Anya. Xander leaves to warn Anya, and when
Buffy asks Willow to help her, Will turns her down. After Buffy leaves, the
witch calls on D'Hoffryn for a little chat. Xander finds Anya at the frat house,
but Buffy's right behind him. The Slayer is armed with a sword, and she uses it
with force when Anya goes all demon-y. Buffy stabs Anya in the heart, but that's
not enough to fell a vengeance demon. Buffy is about to finish her off when
Xander intervenes, much to Anya's dismay. D'Hoffryn appears in a cloud of smoke
at Willow's behest, and Anya pleads with him to take back what she did to the
frat boys. She's willing to sacrifice herself. D'Hoffryn goes for the throat --
he takes back the spell and revives the boys, but ends the life of Anya's
dearest friend Hallie instead. Anya is devastated, and Xander tries to offer
comfort. However, the former demon needs to find out who she really is on her
own, and with tears streaming down her cheeks, she walks off into the night.
Episode 6
Him:
Dawn develops a major crush on a hunky
jock, which turns into a comic free-for-all when Buffy, then Anya and even
Willow fall for the same guy. Thad Luckinbill ("The Young And The Restless") and
musical artists The Breeders guest star.
Episode 7
Conversations With Dead people:
Joyce visits Dawn from the beyond, Buffy
has a revealing chat with a Vampire and Willow receives a ghostly visitor whom
she believes may well be Tara, all of which portend an imminent, unpleasant
future. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Andrew return to Sunnydale for some inevitably
unpleasant mischief. Kristine Sutherland returns as Joyce, Buffy and Dawn's
deceased mother.
Episode 8
Sleeper:
Fearful
that Spike may be killing again, the gang's investigation into his mysterious
behavior climaxes in a formidable confrontation between him and Buffy.
Meanwhile, Giles makes what may be a cataclysmic discovery that could affect
everyone's future. Musical artist Aimee Mann guest stars as herself and performs
the song "Pavlov's Bell."
Episode
9
Never Leave Me:
Andrew struts through town in a
long black leather duster, doing his darndest to look tough. Warren needs him to
kill again.
Buffy's got Spike tied up in her room (to a chair, alas), and he's hungry.
Andrew tries to complete his killing task with a teeny, tiny pig. Even the pig
is too wily for him, though, and escapes, so Andrew heads to the butcher shop
for some blood: a serious tactical error. As he's leaving, Willow bumps into him
and chases him down an alley. Despite his false bravado he's no match for an
angry Willow. She drags him home with her and demands to know why he needs the
blood. Anya and Xander convincingly play Good Cop/Bad Cop on Andrew, and after a
bit more pushing, he breaks. In the other room, however, Spike is alone, and the
morphing First Spike appears and hums a little tune. The gang regroups
downstairs, and oddly, Xander is the one who figures out what may be going on
with Spike. Spike ends up chained in the basement, and Buff goes to him to
explain their theory. Just then, black-robed guys storm the house, breaking
windows and coming through walls. It's an ambush. Meanwhile, in an empty field
Principal Wood is digging a grave. As he was leaving work that night, something
drew him to the basement of the school. He found Jonathan's body, and brought
him to the field. Whoa. The Scoobies are nearly overpowered by the bad guys,
also called the Bringers. Buffy and Dawn find some measure of success, and
eventually they are able to fight off the baddies.
In London, the Watchers' Council makes plans to mobilize against the coming
demon. They've been hit from all sides, but decide to head for the Hellmouth.
Sounds like a good idea, but there's one problem: the building explodes in a
ball of flame. No more Watchers' Council.
The Bringers have Spike at the Hellmouth, and they nail him to a huge carved
symbol as he screams. They carve figures into his skin as the First morphs into
Buffy, and she taunts him mercilessly. Finally, they hang him over the Seal of
Danzalthar and watch his blood fall upon it. The Seal illuminates, then finally
breaks open, delivering a huge, freaky-looking and very gross, uh, thing. It's a
Vampirish, demony something-or-other, and it definitely looks pissed.
Episode 10
Bring On The Night:
Buffy and the Scooby gang struggle mightily to find
a way to destroy the Ubervamp and are relieved when they are joined in the
battle by the sudden arrival of Giles and three young would-be slayers. The gang
is having zero luck finding any information on the First, "the original evil,
the one that came before anything else." Buffy's worried about Spike, and runs
herself ragged. Her mother comes to her in a dream and begs her to rest. When
Buffy awakens, she's seriously wigged. Should she trust the dream? Andrew
finally wakes up and leads everyone to the bloodied Seal of Danzalthar. They
decide to cover it, and as they're leaving with shovels in hand, they run into
Principal Wood. He's also carrying a shovel, coming up with an excuse as lame as
the one Buffy and Dawn offer him (Burying a time capsule? Please.) There is
definitely something weird going on with him. At home, Willow tries to find the
Biggest Bad with a locator spell, but it backfires. The evil possesses her
momentarily, exploding out of her and terrifying everyone in the process. Willow
is horrified, realizing that any time she uses her power, she is liable to hurt
someone. Buffy cradles Will, then hastily decides to hunt down the First for
harming her friends. At the door, she's startled to find her former Watcher
alive and well, flanked by three would-be Slayers. Giles dryly explains, "We
have a slight Apocalypse." He gives the Scoobies the rundown on the situation:
the WatchersÕ Council has been destroyed, and most of the potential Slayers have
been picked off over the past few months. The First's plan is to kill off all
the future Slayers and their Watchers, then annihilate the current ones, leaving
nothing to fight the coming evil. Meanwhile, the Ubervamp from the Seal has been
kicking Spike around for some time. The First observes in the guise of Drusilla,
taunting Spike continuously. Beating, drowning, you name it, they do it to
Spike. He continues to fight back because of Buffy's faith in him. Giles and
Buffy go looking for the place where she first saw the Bringers years before. It
was underground near a Christmas tree lot, and (of course) she finds it by
falling through some dusty, tattered boards covering a hole in the ground.
Immediately, she's pounced on by the Ubervamp. They fight, then fight some more,
till Buffy stakes it. Large problem: it doesn't die. More fighting, until Buffy
manages to crawl out the hole she fell in. The thing follows her, but luckily,
the sun has just risen, and it crawls back into its lair. When the sun goes
down, the pressure on the Slayer mounts. Everyone's feeling it, especially
Annabelle, one of the Slayers-in-training. She bolts from the house into town,
alone and vulnerable. She doesn't get far before the Ubervamp takes her out.
Buffy finds her body, and the momentary distraction is enough to give the UV an
opening to knock her around. More fighting. They end up in an industrial
building, and Buffy's booty gets seriously kicked. She ends up buried under a
pile of debris, badly injured. The gang is at a loss, and Giles has no answers.
However, even with her painful injuries, Buffy seems to have embraced the fear
and chaos. She's realized there's only one thing to do: instead of waiting for
evil to come to her, she must start the war herself. "There's only one thing on
this earth more powerful than evil. And that's us."
Episode 11
Showtime:
A new girl, Rona, arrives in town at the bus stop,
and a welcoming committee surprises her. Okay, maybe not welcoming: it's the
Bringers, ready to attack. Luckily, Buffy saves the day, putting the dudes out
of commission fast. After Buffy gets back with the new recruit, she's frustrated
to discover the gang has no new information on how to defeat the First or to
rescue Spike. Giles has one idea, but Anya balks; it involves an oracle called
Beljoxa's Eye. Anya and Giles try to con the owner of a demon bar into opening
the portal so they can have a visit with Beljoxa's Eye. Giles dangles the
prospect of Buffy killing all of his patrons. That does it. He summons the
vortex, and Giles and Anya stumble through. Anya and Giles have a chat with
Beljoxa's Eye, and it informs them that something has disrupted the line of the
Chosen, giving the First a chance to wreak havoc. The Slayer herself is the
source of the disruption, and Anya believes that she and the rest of the
Scoobies are at fault for bringing Buffy back from the dead last year. Whoops.
The gang arrives at a huge construction site and they're terrified. Buffy
arrives on the heels of the Ubervamp and announces, "Welcome to Thunderdome."
Turns out Buffy, Will and Xander planned this turn of events to lure the Turok-Han
away from Spike's prison and, with a little luck, kill it. The First is a little
peeved.
Underground, Spike hangs from his chains, bruised and beaten. He sees Buffy
approach with a big knife and tells her, "You can't hurt me," but when he looks
into her eyes, he tearfully realizes she's the real thing. She cuts him down and
he nearly falls, but she holds him up and leads him home.
Episode 12
Potential:
Buffy enlists Spike's aid in graphic,
intensive training of the Potential Slayers in anticipation of the expected
cataclysmic return of The First. Meanwhile, Willow performs a spell that reveals
that another unexpected Potential Slayer is living in Sunnydale. While out
walking the neighborhood, Dawn runs into Amanda, who's had a bizarre night. She
stayed late at Swing choir practice and got jumped by some guy with a
crinkled-up face, and somehow she locked the guy in a classroom. Dawn, Future
Slayer, decides she's the girl to take on this job. They arrive at the room with
the Vamp inside, and are surprised when he leaps down from the ceiling to
attack. Dawn gets some good licks in, then grabs Amanda and runs. Dawn and
Amanda are about to be taken out by the Vamp when the Bringers inadvertently
save the day, bursting through the windows to get to their target. Only the
target isn't Dawn; it's Amanda. She's the real potential Slayer. Luckily, Dawn
knows her way around a science lab and turns a big flame on them to escape with
Amanda. The rest of the posse shows up just in time (thank goodness for cell
phones) and takes on the Bringers. Amanda somehow calls on her instincts and
wields a mean stake, dusting the Vampire and doing some damage to a Bringer.
Buffy reveals her Slayerness to Amanda, and the student is comically irritated
with her. She'd gone to see Buffy earlier that night, since the counselor had
said to come to her with her problems. At the front door, she got hit with a
strange orange light that made her feel all woozy--Willow's locator spell. Dawn
just got caught in the magical crossfire, then later met up with Amanda on the
street. The next morning, the girls embrace a new understanding of their powers,
as well as their new inductee. Dawn's feeling alone and dejected, but Xander
comes to the rescue. He knows how she feels, since he's been in the same boat
for years. Through his understanding and kindness, he makes Dawn realize that
even though she's not a Chosen, she's
Episode 13
The Killer in Me:
When
Willow starts to give in to romantic feelings for Kennedy, her guilty conscience
causes her to turn into Warren, Tara's killer. Also, the gang gets clues that
lead them to believe Giles may be The First, and Buffy helps Spike with what
seems to be his malfunctioning chip. Buffy and Spike locate the old Initiative’s
underground caverns, hoping to find a solution to the chip problem. When they
break in, they find dozens of demon corpses left to rot when the military sealed
the place. Unfortunately, the demons aren’t all dead, and one of them attacks
and drags Spike away. Buffy chases him, and ends up killing the demon just as
the lights come up. It's the military! Riley apparently got the message and
instructed them to do whatever Buffy needed. "I knew it," she cries, "a giant
government conspiracy!" They offer assistance to Spike about the chip, which
they can either repair or remove. It's up to Buffy. However, another crisis
arises for Kennedy, who realizes that Amy's not nearly as sympathetic towards
Willow as she pretended. Evidently, Amy's at fault for the Willow/Warren
transformation. Envious of her enormous power, Amy placed a hex on Willow that
allowed her to choose her own punishment. Out of guilt, Willow is now losing her
identity. Kennedy is not about to let that happen, but Amy snaps her fingers and
sends her to the Summers backyard just as Willow comes roaring in, gun in hand.
It's a reenactment of the day Tara was killed, only this time, Willow's the
would-be shooter. She raves at Kennedy, who's confused by Willow's ramblings.
Turns out Willow isn't feeling guilty for killing Warren, but for forgetting,
even for a moment, Tara. It's killing her to let go of her dead lover, but
Kennedy realizes the spell can be broken, just like in fairytales, with a kiss.
When she pulls away, Willow is herself again, and arms wrapped around each
other, they go quietly into the house.
Episode 14
First Date:
Buffy goes on a
date with Principal Wood, while Xander goes on date with an enigmatic woman. Giles finally explains how he
managed to escape the ax-wielding Bringer all those months ago: his "exceptional
instincts and years of training" saved his life. He soon realizes that Spike is now chipless,
since Buffy had the Initiative remove it and not repair it. Giles isn't pleased
at all, worrying over the safety of the Slayerettes as well as Buffy herself.
Buff trusts that Spike can be a good person, but he needs to be given the
opportunity.
As Xander woos a woman, Lissa, over rope at a construction demonstration, Buffy
decides to do some snooping in Principal Wood's office.
Robin catches her in his office, and to her surprise, Wood asks her out on a date, and she agrees.
After Buffy leaves, Wood lifts a wipe board to reveal a vast and very shiny
collection of knives. Sharp knives. Andrew's trying to set up the new microwave
when he's approached by the First in the guise of Jonathan. Playing on Andrew’s
guilt over having killed Jonathan, the First urges him to get Willow’s new gun
and kill the Potentials.
Xander is proud he has a date with Lissa, and Anya's jealous as hell. Buffy's
excited about her date, but Spike is...less jealous. Downstairs, Willow and the Potentials
do some Googling on the Principal and are surprised to find absolutely no record
of him at all. Spooky.
That night, Robin is taking Buffy down a seamy back alley to a restaurant she's
never heard of when they're jumped by a pile of Vamps. Buffy's convinced Wood
set her up, but as she's kicking booty, she notices he's helping her out. When
the Vamps are defeated, Robin leads a stunned Buffy into the restaurant. Buff is
awestruck to learn that not only does he know she's the Slayer, but that his
mother was the Slayer as well.
Back at the house, Andrew presents the gun to the First, then starts to clumsily
grill it for information about its weaknesses. "Are you wearing a wire?" a
suspicious Jonathan/First asks. Oops. Apparently Andrew IS wearing one so Willow
can listen in from the basement. Andrew's afraid, but he stands against the
First, even though it's verrrrry angry with him now.
Poor Xander: he's fallen into a familiar trap of dating demonic chicks. His
date, Lissa, is a baddie, and she hangs him up over the recently uncovered Seal
of Danthalzar in the school. She's going to drain his blood till the seal opens
and releases another Ubervamp.
Spike finds Buffy at the restaurant and drags both her and Robin to save Xander.
Robin's stash of very sharp knives comes in handy, and they all attack Lissa.
During the fight, Wood recognizes Spike's undeadness as the Vamp valiantly tries
to defeat Xander's demon date. Xander's blood starts the Seal opening, but when
Wood cuts him down, the Seal slams shut just in time.
At home, Giles berates the gang for focusing on romantic interludes instead of
Evil. Later, Spike decides he's going to leave town, so as not to put Buffy in
danger. However, Buff stops him, saying, "I'm not ready for you to not be here."
Wood recovers from the fight at his own home, and is approached by the First in
the guise of his dead mother. The Principal isn't even remotely willing to
switch sides, until the First reveals that he met his mother's killer that
night. It's Spike.
Episode 15
Get it Done:
Buffy dreams of walking through the house, checking
out the small army of girls taking up every inch of the house in sleep. In the
corner, she spies Chloe crying, then is jumped by the First Slayer, who tells
her, "It's not enough." She awakens spooked. Anya and Spike, meanwhile, have
taken off for a semi-date of drinking and debauchery when they are attacked by a
demon sent by D'Hoffryn to kill Anya. Instead of killing it, Spike just beats it
up and takes off with Anya in tow. He's gone pretty soft lately. Buffy decides
it's time for Wood to see where she does her real work, at home, with the baby
Slayers. They meet Andrew, who's cooking, Kennedy, who's training the
Slayerettes in fighting technique, and Willow, who's hauling weaponry. Wood has
a run-in with Spike in the basement, and the animosity between them is palpable.
Robin clearly wants to know all about Spike, but the Vamp can't figure out why.
Later that night, Dawn and Buffy check in on the Potentials, only to find that
Chloe has hanged herself. As they stare at the body, the First appears as the
dead girl, going on about how it's going to win no matter what they do, blah
blah blah. When it disappears, Buffy has Chloe cut down and goes out to bury her
body, alone. Buffy opens a locked box inside the emergency kit, and it contains
a collection of shadow casters. According to the accompanying book, when viewed
in order the shadows tell the story of how the first Slayer was created. The
gang sets up the items, then watches as Dawn reads from an ancient, cryptic
text. First there was the earth, demons, men, a girl. The men chained the girl
to the earth to fight the demons, but to really understand what happened in the
past, the Scoobies must make an "exchange": a portal opens, Buffy dives through
it, and a giant demon with tusks appears and takes Buffy's place. The demon
kicks their butts and takes off into the night. Since Willow's the one with the
magic, it’s up to her to reopen the portal and retrieve Buffy. But they need to
get that demon back to make the exchange and bring Buffy back home. Buffy
arrives on a desert plain, alone. She finds a group of men, who explain she is
the last (not the latest) guardian of the Hellmouth, and they can give her the
power to fight evil. They knock her out and chain her, revealing that they are
the source of her power. The men created the First Slayer by giving her the
heart of a demon, and they want to do the same to Buffy. They release an evil
mist to merge with Buffy. While Willow unleashes her own power trying to
recreate the portal, Spike finds his old leather jacket (which Wood seems to
recognize) and, with his old swagger back in place, he takes off after the demon
and kills it. That’ll show Buffy he hasn’t gone soft! Meanwhile, Willow gets the
portal open, but only after taking power from both Anya and Kennedy, leaving
them collapsed on the floor. Finally, Buffy defies the evil mist swirling about
her, breaking free of the chains and knocking the men down one by one. Although
the last man declares that everything will be disrupted by her behavior, the
Slayer doesn't really care. He wonders how she'll save the world without the
power they had to offer, then touches her face for a moment, giving her a
vision. At that moment, the portal opens, and Spike tosses the demon through it.
Buffy is home, surrounded by her friends. Will goes to Buffy, who is grateful
for being brought back. However, Buffy thinks she may regret rejecting the power
the men offered, because the vision they gave her was of an enormous army of
ferocious Ubervamps, armed and ready to attack.
Episode 16
Storyteller:
When Andrew decides to take his video camera and
document a day in the life of Buffy and the Gang, he is unexpectedly and
unpleasantly forced to scrutinize his own dark past. At Sunnydale High, all hell
is breaking loose, literally. People are disappearing, mirrors are talking,
heads are exploding. Something's building up inside the school, and it's about
to blow.
Andrew sits Anya and Xander down for a chat, and brings up the fact that today
would have been their wedding anniversary. Xander's paid his dues as the bad
guy, but Anya still has feelings for him. Later, the two realize they still love
one another. Back at the school, Buffy and Wood investigate the source of the
problem: the Seal. Robin gets a closer look, but he's too close, He becomes
possessed momentarily, and his anger over Buffy and Spike's relationship
emerges. He almost spills it about Spike having killed his mother, but he breaks
out of his trance just in time. When Wood and Buffy get home, they grab Andy and
demand that he help them shut down the Seal, since he's the one that opened it
in the first place. But it looks like Buffy and Wood left the school too soon,
because back in the Sunnydale High basement five students circle the Seal, and
it starts to glow. Willow uses a crystal to pull out of Andrew memories of how
he learned about the Seal. He flashes back to his time in Mexico with Jonathan,
when he was first approached by Warren/First. Godhood was to be his reward. In
Mexico, Andrew located a knife somehow connected to the Seal, and used it to
kill Jonathan. He stored the knife in Buffy's kitchen, and after they find it,
they head for Sunnydale High. When Buffy, Wood, Spike and Andrew arrive, the
school is a complete wreck. Fires have broken out, spray paint is everywhere,
and what students remain are wreaking havoc. A mob of kids attack, and after
overpowering them, Wood and Spike stay at the door to the basement to keep
everyone away from the Seal. When they arrive at the Seal, five Bringers
(formerly students) await them. Buffy defeats the Bringers, but the real
fight--getting Andrew speak the truth for once in his life--has just begun. The
Slayer says she's learned that the blood of the one who opened the Seal will
close it, and she threatens Andrew with the knife. Buffy forces him to recognize
his action for what it really was: a murder, an act that he deserves to be
punished for. Andrew bursts into tears, deeply regretting his crimes. A lone
tear falls on the Seal, and suddenly, the Seal stops glowing. Buffy had hoped
the plan would work, and doesn't answer when Andy asks what would have happened
if it hadn't. Back home, Andrew tells his real story to the camera. He killed
Jonathan, and he probably won't make it through the next fight. Maybe he doesn't
deserve to. It's his most honest moment, and he shuts the camera off.
Episode 17
Lies My Parents Told Me:
As Spike struggles with haunting memories of his
past, Giles returns with a device that he hopes will find and deactivate the
trigger in Spike’s subconscious that The First is using to make him "vamp" out.
New York City, 1977: It's pitch black and pouring rain when the Slayer takes on
Spike, while her young son looks on from behind a bench. The fight ends in a
draw, and the Slayer, Nikki, explains to her son Robin that even though he wants
to stay with her, he can't. Her mission is to kill Vampires, and she must fight
alone. In the present, the boy has taken on his mother's duties--killing
Vamps--this time at the Slayer's side. Wood hates that Spike is also fighting at
their side, but as of now, there's nothing he can do about it. Later, Giles and
Wood are introduced, and Buffy gives the principal a quick rundown of their
history with Spike, his soul, the chip and the trigger implanted by the First.
Giles is concerned that the trigger is still active, and he's brought something
home to help. It's a Prokaryote stone, to be implanted in Spike's brain (with
Willow's magical help). The stone is sort of like therapy: it can root out the
nature of the trigger by unlocking his subconscious. When it's implanted, Spike
is transported back to... London, 1880: William recites some sappy poetry to his
mother, Anne, who tenderly approves of his talent. He loves her very much, but
he worries over her recent illness, which looks suspiciously like tuberculosis.
After her violent coughing fit passes, Spike sits at his mother's feet as she
sings a familiar tune. The tune is what the First chose as the trigger. In the
present, Spike turns, lashing out and throwing furniture around. Giles is
certain there's something more there that he's blocking, and Spike drifts back
again, remembering his rebirth as a Vampire. He and Drusilla visit his home, and
Dru is shocked to find that William wants to make his mother into a Vampire, so
they can be together forever. "It only hurts for a moment," he whispers to Anne,
as he bites into his beloved mother's neck. Wood takes advantage of a moment
alone with the former Watcher, and convinces him that everyone would be better
off with Spike dead. He needs Giles to get Buffy out of the house for a while,
and Giles agrees. Robin lures Spike to his "workroom," where the walls are
covered with crosses. He claims to be about to help uncover Spike's trigger, but
the Vamp realizes something's going on when Wood reveals that Spike killed his
mother. Robin pulls up an mp3 of the trigger song, and against his will, Spike
turns. He relives first seeing his mother as a Vampire, glowing with health and
vitality. But something’s changed. She's no longer the doting mother, but a
bitter woman who wondered how long it would take her wimp of a son to get
himself married and leave her alone. William is horrified, especially when his
mother comes closer and attempts to kiss him, telling him, "You wanted your
hands on me; perhaps you'd like to finish what you started?" Devastated, Spike
shoves her away, and a struggle ensues. "I'm sorry," he whispers, and stakes
her. For a moment, the true image of his mother looks upon her son gratefully,
just before she turns to dust. Meanwhile, Giles is trying to convince Buffy that
difficult decisions must be made in the coming battle, but Buff doesn't get it.
She's been making tough choices all over the place, but he remains adamant that
there's more to be done. He's priming her to accept allowing Wood to kill Spike,
but it's not until later that she realizes what's going on. Immediately she
takes off to save Spike. During the Vamp's visions, Wood's been beating Spike,
but the moment his memory ends, the real Spike is back. Wood's no match for his
strength and agility, and it's a rude awakening for the principal. Spike is
matter-of-fact about killing Nikki: they were natural enemies, and it's not
Spike's fault that eventually (however inadvertently) she abandoned her son. She
was the center of Robin's world, but the center of Nikki's world was slaying
Vampires, not being a mother. Wood is bitter, but Spike thanks him for clearing
up the trigger. He's made his own realization: that his mother's soul had been
taken over by a demon, that she truly loved him before she turned. He tells Wood
he appreciates the help, then Vamps out, saying, "Just wanted you to know that,
before I kill you." When Buffy arrives at Wood's home, she finds Spike leaving
the workroom. He spared Wood, but warns, "he looks at me funny again, I'll kill
him." To an injured Robin, Buffy explains that they need Spike, and if something
like this happens again, she'll let Spike kill him. "The mission is what
matters," she says, echoing his mother's attitude. Giles goes to Buffy, trying
to convince her that killing Spike was for the greater good. He's still
preaching when she replies, "I think you've taught me everything I need to
know," and closes the door in his face.
Episode 18
Dirty Girls:
A new Potential, Shannon, runs through the forest
at night, chased by the Bringers. She stumbles onto a road and is rescued by a
sympathetic minister type who promises to take her to Sunnydale. Shannon
realizes she’s in trouble when the priest, Caleb, starts spouting some seriously
twisted stuff about how she's a whore without a soul, and that the Bringers are
his "Boys." After heating his ring with a cigarette lighter, Caleb brands her on
the neck. He whispers a message to the girl to deliver to the Slayer, then stabs
her and throws her out of the car. Willow slams on the brakes when she spots the
girl lying in the road. Faith emerges from the car as well and they cart Shannon
off to the hospital. Faith is a little peeved that no one bothered to let her
know Potentials were getting killed. Faith convinces Willow to stay and watch
over Shannon while she goes to meet Buffy on patrol. Back at his vineyard
preacher Caleb is having a glass of wine while gabbing with the First in the
guise of Buffy. He's the one behind the Bringers' hunt for Potentials and the
destruction of the Watcher's Council, and plans to use Buffy's curiosity to lure
her to him. At Sunnydale High, Buffy and Principal Wood put their differences
aside just before Wood fires her from her job. He doesn’t want her distracted
from the mission, and no one's coming to school anymore anyway. Meanwhile, Spike
and Faith share a smoke and get to know each other. From her hospital bed,
Shannon reveals her burn and delivers Caleb's message to Buffy, "I have
something of yours." Buffy falls for it and decides she's got to pull her army
together and find Caleb's hideout. While Xander preps the girls for the fight,
Buffy and Faith return to the scene of the crime and follow a Bringer through
the woods. He leads them to the vineyard, and they return home to gather the
troops. When the group arrives at the vineyard, Buffy splits them in two sets,
one to go in with her and Faith, the other to hold their ground with Xander.
Inside, a huge fight with the Bringers ensues. The girls are holding their own
until Caleb emerges to confront Buffy. He pretends to recognize her power, then
hauls off and belts her across the room. Quickly, the fight turns even uglier
when Caleb kills one girl, and the rest of them get pummeled, even after Xander
brings in reinforcements. As they are retreating, Caleb corners Xander, asking,
"You're the one who sees everything, right?" Caleb brutally gouges Xander's eye,
much to everyone's horror. Spike breaks in as the preacher is about to take his
second eye, and he and Buffy drag Xander away. They've escaped, but with
injuries and casualties galore. Their army is decimated. In the hospital, Xander
and some of the girls are recovering, but their spirits are low. While Caleb
continues to spout his faux religious rhetoric to the First/Buffy, the real
Buffy walks the streets of Sunnydale, alone.
Episode 19
Empty Places:
Buffy and the gang attempt to recover from the
results of their attack on Caleb in various ways. Faith takes the potentials out
for a night at the Bronze, much to the chagrin of Buffy. Giles and Willow hunt
down information on Caleb that sends Spike and Andrew on a road trip to find out
more about the strangely powerful preacher. And Buffy has another meeting with
Caleb that leads her to want to make another attack against him, but dissension
is among the ranks and even Giles is against her. Buffy feels unwanted and walks
away.
Episode 20
Touched:
Faith claims leadership of the
Scoobies and the potentials as Buffy wanders the now deserted Sunnydale in
search of a place to stay. Chaos reigns at the Summers house now that Buffy's
gone. Everyone has opinions, and they all voice them simultaneously until Faith
takes over. Her recommendation is for everyone to get some sleep, but panic
erupts when the lights go out throughout town. The next day, there's another
group meeting, and Faith is large and in charge. The leader decides that
grabbing a Bringer and questioning him might help their cause. Kennedy acts as
bait by walking a quiet alley looking nervous. Like clockwork, the Bringers come
out to kill her, but they're thwarted by some much-more-confident Potentials.
The girls kick butt, and Giles lassoes a Bringer to drag home. Unfortunately,
the Bringer has no tongue, but Dawn brings up a spell that might help him
communicate with them. Andrew and Spike get home from their jaunt up to Gilroy.
Spike is livid when he discovers Buffy's been ousted, and heads out in search of
Buffy using his acute sense of smell. Willow performs her spell, and everyone is
disappointed when it appears to fail. That is, until the Bringer starts speaking
through Andrew and declares himself "a drone in the mind that is evil." He
intones that the Bringers are building an arsenal, and that they watch the
girls' efforts without concern. "We will laugh at you as you die," the Bringer
adds, just before Giles loses his temper and slits his throat. Spike finds Buffy
asleep in a stranger's empty bed. She's emotionally decimated, unresponsive to
his efforts to convince her to go home and regain her place as leader. He truly
believes there's something at the vineyard that Caleb is protecting, but Buffy
has lost her drive to fight.Faith goes upstairs to rest, she's confronted by the
First, wearing the Mayor's face. He's his old lovably evil self, and warns Faith
that the animosity still lingering between her and Buffy may come back to
destroy her in the end. His argument shakes Faith to the core, especially when
he reaffirms how much he's always loved her.
Buffy regrets how she refused to form deep relationships with the Potentials,
and also with Spike. But Spike doesn't care: he admits he loves her for what she
is, and accepts everything that goes along with it. He touches something deep
inside her, and when she lies down to sleep again, she asks Spike to hold her.
Wood comes to talk to Faith just as the Mayor disappears, and gets her to
confess what has her so rattled. He relates his own experience with the First,
and how it finds a person's weak spot and exploits it. Their burgeoning
connection grows exponentially when Faith moves in closer, and Wood responds to
her kiss. The next morning, Andrew explains about the plaque he and Spike found,
and a worried Faith sends some of the gang out to check on Buffy. The rest go
looking for the arsenal. Spike wakes alone, a note on the pillow, since Buffy's
gone to the vineyard in search of whatever Caleb is guarding. She's found her
old inner strength, and surprises the heck out of Caleb with a serious
walloping. As they get into it, Faith and the girls find some Bringers guarding
the mass of weapons in the sewer. Pow, bang, kablam: the girls do some serious
damage. The Potentials defeat the Bringers, but Faith continues to look around,
sure that there's something they're missing. Buffy smacks Caleb down pretty
nicely, and slides into an uncovered trap door that drops into an underground
chamber. Looks like the Bringers have been digging underground, and a
beautifully crafted, deadly scythe juts out of a rock. They clearly couldn't
remove it, but Buffy gets a wide smile, knowing she's found the object she's
been searching for.
Meanwhile, Faith finds what she's been searching for: it's a bomb, set to go off
in eight seconds.
Episode 21
End Of Days:
Caleb is shocked when Buffy pulls the scythe from
the stone with ease. While Buffy watches with a smirk, Caleb and the First argue
over letting Buffy go, since the First is convinced Buffy is too powerful for
the moment. Caleb relents, and Buffy takes off, big axe-type thing in hand. The
bomb in the sewer goes off. It's not pretty, and the survivors regroup to pull
Faith from the wreckage. As they assess the damage, they hear something growling
in the darkness. They run, dragging Faith along, and are soon confronted by an
Ubervamp. But there's more than one, and they want blood. The girls are backed
into a corner. Meanwhile, at the Summers house, the rest of the potentials are
scarfing down treats Andrew has looted from the grocery store. Xander, Anya and
Willow return from their hunt for Buffy empty-handed, since their locator spell
only found the empty house she slept in.
The girls look doomed as the Ubervamps close in an attack, until Buffy crashes
through the ceiling of the sewer and quickly dusts the bad guys with her super
scythe. They gather the wounded and head home, Buffy wondering if she even wants
to take charge again. The girls blame Faith for leading them into a trap, but
Buffy defends Faith, saying she could have made the same mistake herself. While
Faith recovers, Giles, Buffy and Willow realize they need some information on
the scythe. Buffy can feel the power emanating from the weapon, but Will
doesn't: must be a Slayer thing. Willow doesn't find much information on the
scythe, but she does discover that the vineyard was once a monastery, and the
monks there told stories about an ancient pagan temple. At Buffy's request,
Xander chloroforms Dawn at the car and loads her in, unconscious. Even though
Xander wanted to stay by Buffy's side for their last battle, he agreed to her
last request to take Dawn away from the danger.
Caleb is furious Buffy got away with the scythe. The First has "merged" with
Caleb, and plans to do the same with everyone on earth to create a new world.
Right now, though, the First makes do with merging only with Caleb to provide
him with strength, and for a moment, it reveals its true self. Andy and Anya
loot the hospital with gusto, and Andrew realizes that for all her bluster and
bluntness, Anya really does love humans and all their imperfections. He's sure
he won't make it through the coming battle, but he wants to try. In the
meantime, the two engage in some serious battles of their own: wheelchair races
and crutch fights in the abandoned halls. With Willow's help, Buffy finds the
ruins of an unconsecrated burial ground behind the cemetery. She finds an
overgrown tomb, and once inside, she is surprised by an old woman. Once "one of
many," the woman was one of the group that created the scythe hundreds of years
before and placed it in the rock. It was made outside the knowledge of the
Shadowmen (later called Watchers), which explains why Giles had known nothing of
its existence. Since there was no one watching the Watchers, this woman became a
guardian for the Slayer. "Perhaps you can beat the rising dark, she tells Buffy,
“One way or the other, it can only mean an end is truly near." At that moment,
hands appear behind the woman's neck and break it. It's Caleb. Dawn wakes up in
the car with Xander, irritable and not a little groggy. When she realizes
they've left town at Buffy's request, she tazers Xander and turns the car
around, heading back to Sunnydale. Caleb is strong after his merge with the
First, and he makes some progress in defeating the Slayer. He gets the scythe
away from Buffy and holds it above her head, ready to make the kill, when an arm
comes out of nowhere and clocks him. It's Angel. He helps Buffy up, and offers
to fight Caleb, but she knows she must do it herself. Eventually, Buffy slices
Caleb in the gut, and he falls. Angel smiles and says, "At least you could tell
me you're glad to see me." She steps into his arms and kisses him. Spike watches
from the shadows, the First at his side. He doesn't look happy.
Episode 22
Chosen: Final Episode
Buffy, her friends and the Potentials are the
world's last, best hope to beat back the ultimate forces of evil. Hatching an
ingenious and daring plan to destroy The First and his minions, Buffy turns to
those closest to her to help save mankind, on the series' volatile finale of
BTVS.
Joss Whedon, the creator and executive producer of
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, wrote and directed this final episode.
