 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 63. The Initiative Original Air Date: November 16, 1999 Written by: Douglas Petrie Directed by: James A. Contner Guest Cast: Marc Blucas (Riley Finn) Lindsay Crouse (Professor Maggie Walsh) Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall) Leonard Roberts (Forrest) Bailey Chase (Graham) Adam Kaufman (Parker Abrams) Riley Finn is grading papers, in the cafeteria, while his friend, Forrest, is watching the girls go by. Most are deserving of comment, but the one that makes Forrest stop his chattering, at least for a moment, is Buffy. Our Slayer, normally a graceful warrior, is doing a dead-on "Clark Kent" impersonation, including snapping the handle off the soft ice cream machine. Another friend, Graham, joins them and they watch as Buffy fumbles through getting her lunch. Two of them can only notice how sexy she is, but Riley seems totally uninterested. Riley thinks she is peculiar and "off". He also doesn't think much of her past involvement with Parker Abrams . Forrest is disappointed in his friend, since he feels that the fact she is a babe erases any number of negatives she might have. Spike is just waking from his encounter with the commandos. He finds himself in a white, tiled room about ten feet square. He is "shocked" to find that one door of his cell is electrified unbreakable glass. The view is of a large hallway composed entirely of similar cells, side- by-side, stretching out of sight. People in lab coats with clipboards walk the hallways. Xander reads, as Giles draws a sketch of the commandos. Sadly, he feels they have very little to contribute in helping Buffy solve the mystery of these men. She arrives and tells them that she must take Willow to a party, in hopes of relieving her depression over the fact that Oz has left town. Giles and Xander will have to take patrol duty tonight. Meanwhile, Spike paces in his cage. A small overhead panel releases a plastic packet of blood. Before he can bite it open, a neighboring vampire prisoner tells him that the blood is drugged. He tells Spike that the pattern is - prisoners are starved, fed drugged blood, then they are taken away and never come back. He also tells Spike that he was caught while fleeing from Buffy. Spike mistakenly assumes that Buffy is somehow behind the mysterious organization. After Psychology class, Willow tries to convince Riley to continue to carry Oz's name on the class rolls, but Prof.Walsh interrupts and insults Willow's desire to make an exception to the rules on attendance. She assumes that Willow's request is a selfish attempt at special treatment and doesn't realize that it's a small symptom of Willow's hope that Oz will return soon. By the time she is done, Willow is close to tears and leaves. Buffy confronts Walsh and accuses her of indifference to Willow's obvious pain. Walsh confirms Buffy's theory, by putting on the face of the tough, professional professor, there to teach and not to comfort her students. But after Buffy leaves, Walsh professes to Riley, that she likes Buffy. He still thinks Buffy is peculiar. In Xander's basement apartment, Giles eats stale chips, as Xander pours over his stock of Army equipment. Xander tells him that two years ago, when a spell turned everyone into their Halloween costumes, he not only became an Army guy for an evening, but he remembered enough of the military information he magically gained, to requisition a stockpile of goods, before the knowledge faded. Riley is playing Frisbee in the student lounge, while describing to Forrest the scene between Buffy and Walsh. As Parker Abrams comes down the stairs, Forrest corners him to tell them more about Buffy. A small group of guys gather as Parker confirms that he did have sex with her, but she wouldn't go away afterwards. He compliments her ability in crude terms and then tells a nasty joke about discarding women after sex, with Buffy the obvious punchline. Riley delivers a punch to Parker's jaw, which flattens him. As Riley walks the campus with his friends, Forrest and Graham, they are explaining to him how lucky he is that Parker is too embarrassed to make trouble about Riley's assault. When pressed, Riley is forced to admit to them and himself that he became enraged, not by Parker's attitude, but because Buffy was being ridiculed. Forrest tells him that calling a girl peculiar is the first sign of attraction and now Riley realizes what they figured out a long time ago - he likes her. He takes off in the other direction to see Buffy. Outside Spike's cell, two men in lab coats roll up a stretcher. They use a key card to open his cell and go inside to retrieve the unconscious Spike. Before they can secure the stretcher's restraints, Spike grips one of the men by the throat. The other man tries to inject Spike, but fails. When Spike grabs at the man, Spike suddenly recoils in pain. One technician pushes Spike against the other prisoner's cage. The other vampire offers to show Spike the exit. As the other tech approaches, holding the hypodermic, Spike pushes the man holding him onto the needle. Changing to full vampire mode, Spike subdues the remaining technician. The two escapees make it through a doorway, but when guards emerge from an elevator, Spike pushes his new ally into them and escapes. Riley finds Willow alone in her and Buffy's dorm room. He asks Willow for help in getting to know Buffy better, but Willow wants to spare her friend another doomed relationship, and in Willow's frame of mind, all relationships are obviously doomed. But Riley's sincerity and respect for Willow's loyalty to Buffy appear to win her over, a little. She offers that Buffy likes cheese. She gives him a few other tips and tells him that they are going to tonight's party. Riley's house is holding the party, so he hopes to meet Buffy there. When Willow warns him not to try anything, he scoffs at the idea. By telling her, that it's way too early to think in those terms, since he barely knows Buffy, he makes more points with Willow. Although Buffy has never seemed to take notice of Riley he is encouraged to know that he has some help, but Willow informs him, unconvincingly, that she is not his ally. Harmony is hanging a unicorn poster on the wall of her hideout, when Spike returns. He is greeted with a slap to the face. She remembers that he tried to stake her before he abandoned her. A smile and a few contrived compliments manage to win her back, in an instant. She is saddened, though, that his first order of business is killing the Slayer. She tries to convince him, that him and her "celebrating" his homecoming should come first. Giles stands near-by, as Xander scans the woods with binoculars, maintaining a constant purple-prose narrative, until Giles is forced to ask him to shut up. Willow and Buffy arrive at the party. Immediately, Willow sends Buffy to meet friends with the excuse that she is going for a soda. Willow goes straight for Riley and tells him that Buffy's dress for the evening indicates that all that will be allowed is dancing and light-hearted fun - nothing serious. Since Riley is still bewildered, Willow suggests dancing. Riley pleads incompetence and Willow recommends light sincere conversation. Before sending him off, Willow informs him, that if he does Buffy wrong, Willow will kill him. Riley talks to Buffy, but comes up lame at the start and never recovers. In the woods, Xander is mad that Giles decided to split up. He finds Harmony, in a small clearing, pouring gasoline on a pile of clothes and scattered items. He threatens her with a staking and she is not impressed. With a slap and a kick, the battle begins. With overly dramatic music and slow-motion effects, Xander and Harmony engage in a "sissy-fight" of frantic slapping and kicking, in perfect mimicry of a serious Slayer battle. A stalemate is reached when each has the other's hair in their grasp. After they both let go, Xander decides to quit before he's bitten. He turns to leave, but not before Harmony has a chance to pour her heart. She explains that she is burning Spike's things, because he has left her again to go after the Slayer. Before she can finish her story, Xander is gone. At the party, Buffy is dancing away. Willow and Riley sit on the couch, as wallflowers. Riley is shook, by his inability to make an approach to Buffy. As Willow attempts a pep talk, she is shook by the sound of "Dingoes Ate My Baby" on the stereo - Oz's band. Riley quickly tells a friend to change the music and Willow again finds herself liking Riley's sensitivity. She decides to go home and asks Riley to tell Buffy as an excuse to start a conversation. This time Riley is interrupted by Xander's call to arms. Forrest comes up to rib Riley about his failure with Buffy and kid him that Xander will probably get lucky with her. Riley, Forrest and Graham walk down a hallway to a full-length mirror. A green horizontal light shines from the mirror and moves over their faces. As they continue kidding each other, a computer voice verifies their retinal scan and opens a hidden elevator door. Riley speaks into a wall plate and the computer verifies the voice pattern of Special Agent Riley Finn. As Riley laments, what girl would want a relationship with someone who hunts demons at night, they arrive at work. The underground complex is reminiscent of the secret headquarters of any James Bond villain. An open space several stories tall houses armed guards, technicians, electric-driven vehicles, computer consoles and demons. In a sunken pit, the lab coats are studying several varieties of demons, bound to stretchers. Riley and his friends meet Prof.Walsh and she begins a no-nonsense briefing on "Hostile 17's" escape. The men don commando equipment and prepare to track and re-capture Spike. Two additional three-man teams, all heavily armed, join them. Riley is in charge as the teams head out. Buffy is discussing with Giles and Xander her plan to confront Spike. She is eager for a final showdown, no team and no tricks - just one-on-one. Xander manages to convince her to carry a flare gun, to be used as a last resort, if she needs to call for help. Spike breaks into the college offices and gets Buffy and Willow's room number. Meanwhile, Riley's team comes across Buffy sitting on a park bench, hoping for Spike to show. Forrest suggests using her for bait, but Riley uses his rank to veto the plan. Instead, he strips to a tee shirt and approaches Buffy. Each tries to get the other to leave, so they can deal with Spike. Stubbornly, they both pledge to stay until the other leaves. But a distant scream causes both to bolt. Riley meets up with his team and they use a tracking device to hunt Spike. A depressed Willow lies fully clothed in bed. A knock on the door and a casual "Come in." brings Willow face-to-face with a vengeful Spike. He offers her a choice - death or death followed by vampirism. She screams, she struggles and Spike pins her to the bed, before bearing his teeth and going for her neck. Later, Spike is depressed because he cannot seem to bite Willow. Something in his head causes him intolerable pain when he tries to do what comes naturally, for him. Even though she has come so close to death, Willow cannot help but analyze the situation. Their discussion of his problem sounds like a couple discussing sexual impotence. He is embarrassed by his failure and she is willing to accept the blame, because she thinks she is not desirable. Spike is quick to assure her that he has fantasized about biting her. He even tells her about a fuzzy pink lilac outfit she wore once, that got to him. Outside, Riley's team uses a thermal-imaging device to pinpoint Spike's cool 62.3-degree room temperature body. Spike is still wallowing in self-pity over how unfair it is to be stricken at the young age of 126. Willow, incredibly, suggests that they try again later, before seizing the opportunity to bust a lamp over his head. Knocking out the lights in the dorm, Riley's team moves in using night vision goggles. As they bust open the door to the room, Willow runs into them as she escapes. Spike follows Willow and almost bites one of the commandos (Graham?), before the pain stops him. Another commando shoves a cloth bag over Spike's head and they seize him. Forrest insists that they need to take Willow because she may have been made into a vampire by Spike. Riley doesn't agree. As they argue, Spike manages to break free and the battle begins anew. He hits one of the men with a fire extinguisher and a taser directed at him ruptures it. In the confusion of darkness and gases, Willow crawls along the floor until Forrest captures her. He draws back to hit her with his pistol. Suddenly, Buffy arrives to protect Willow from all of them. She fires the flare gun, which blinds the commandos in goggles, as the flare ricochets around the hall. Buffy shoves Willow into their dorm room and closes the door. She then proceeds to pound everyone in the hallway. In the confusion, Spike escapes as Forrest and Graham try unsuccessfully to chase him. Buffy delivers a chair to the chin and a judo toss, before Riley decides to withdraw. As soon as Riley's team disappears down a side hallway, the lighting returns. At the Initiative's complex, Prof. Walsh is not pleased with no results. Buffy is described only as a big, strong guy, helping Spike escape. Fortunately, an implant they have placed in Spike's head make him incapable of harming "any living creature, in any way." Riley promises to capture Spike. Next day, Riley runs up to Buffy on campus and they both apologize for acting rudely last night. The attack is being described as a fraternity prank. Riley asks about Willow and admits that she is helping him with a project, the outcome of which is still uncertain. They share a friendly moment and walk across the campus together. Summary by: OBCooke at EpisodeGuides.com |
 |
 |
 |
| Disclaimer Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the property of Twentieth Century Fox, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, the United Paramount Network, and whoever else has a legal claim to it. All pictures in this site were collected freely from the internet and are believed to be in the public domain. If you are the owner of any of the images that appear on this site, please send an email to Spacenewt. This site is run by fans of BtVS, for Fans of BtVS. This is a strictly not for profit site. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied. |
|