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| 69. The I in Team Original Air Date: February 08, 2000 Written by: David Fury Directed by: James A. Contner Guest Cast: Marc Blucas (Riley) Emma Caulfield (Anya) Amber Benson (Tara) George Hertzberg (Adam) Leonard Roberts (Forrest) Bailey Chase (Graham) Jack Stehlin (Doctor Angleman) Lindsay Crouse (Professor Walsh) Willow and Xander try to teach Anya poker, but she is not enthusiastic. Xander is looking forward to becoming a success at selling "Boost Bars" nutrition bars. Buffy is out with Riley Finn and while her friends talk about the couple, Anya reveals that she doesn't understand the difference between a spanking new boyfriend, like Riley, and a new spanking boyfriend, like Xander. To distract from her embarrassing revelation, Xander brings up the big question - can they trust the Initiative? Meanwhile, a heavily armed team of Initiative commandos tracks someone through the dark woods. One of their members goes flying and his attacker jumps from the bushes... its Buffy. She wades into them and quickly begins to whittle their numbers. Only one man, Riley, is left standing when Prof. Walsh calls an end to the exercise. She compliments Buffy on evading them for 42 minutes and dispatching them in 28 seconds. After Walsh walks away, as the commandos recover, Graham compliments Buffy, Forrest grunts at her and Riley gushes over her. From a distance, Prof. Walsh watches. The next day, in the cafeteria, Buffy is boring Willow with her macho tales of pseudo-Slaying. Willow does manage to confirm their plans to go to the Bronze tonight to make up for the time that Buffy hasn't spent with her friends. When Riley comes into the room, Buffy is so distracted that WIllow might as well be sitting alone. Giles enters Spike's new place, which is a dark crypt with dirt and leaves all over the floor and cobwebs hanging throughout. Giles has come to pay Spike the $300 he earned by helping out when Giles was transformed into a Fyarl demon. Giles hesitantly suggests that since Spike can only hurt demons and his situation is a low one, that perhaps he was meant to serve a higher purpose. Spike throws him out and makes clear that he wants nothing to do with Buffy and the Buffettes. Buffy and Riley are discussing a big decision, but despite his hesitation, Buffy really wants to go through with it. So together, they descend into the Initiative complex. From the elevated steps off the elevator, Buffy takes in the view of the Initiative complex's main floor. They tease each other about jetpacks and hush-hush projects. Just before a playful kiss, Prof. Walsh interrupts them. Buffy is almost giddy over what she's seen, until Walsh hands her a briefing packet to study - homework. Walsh does manage to deadpan a joke about eating the packet when Buffy's done reading it. She then shows Buffy, The Pit, a sunken area in the center of the main floor. It is lined with a silvery foil and it is where the technicians and doctors work on the HSTs, Hostile Sub-Terrestrials. Walsh points out to Buffy, Dr. Angleman, their head of Science, who is an expert in xenomorphic behavior modification. When Buffy lets slip that she has seen the results of his work (in Spike), she covers by saying that she saw something like it on TV. To change the subject, Buffy asks about a fenced-in area and she is shown the Armory. Buffy inspects a tiny microphone headset with a built-in video camera, until Walsh takes it away from her. Each device also contains a way to monitor the wearer's heart rate. Buffy notices another security area, but she is not invited to tour that one. Walsh gives her an ID card, official Initiative-only pager and welcomes her aboard. Willow is admiring and envying a Doll's Eye Crystal that has been in Tara's family for a long time. Tara suddenly tries to give it to Willow, but it's too valuable for her to accept. Tara is crestfallen, until Willow offers to do some spells together with it. Tara awkwardly invites Willow over tonight, but Willow cannot accept. Willow tries to explain that she has a special group of friends getting together and Tara quickly makes an excuse to leave. At the Initiative, Prof. Walsh enters a secured room, #314. Dr. Angleman is there and he wastes no time telling Walsh that Buffy is probably going to be trouble. Walsh admits the possibility, but she is more concerned with the part-man, part-demon, Adam, lying on the examination table. Only a small jagged section of his human face remains. The rest of his mostly pale-green body has numerous wires and probes attached. That night Willow, Xander and Anya wait for Buffy at the Bronze. Xander is ready to leave, but Willow begs him to give Buffy more time. She knows that Buffy won't miss this special time they had planned to spend alone together. Just then, Buffy arrives... with Riley and his team. Anya pulls Xander away to dance and Riley and crew go for drinks. Willow tells Buffy of her disappointment that the party isn't exclusive and lets slip that she had someone to invite. Buffy apologizes, but when she teasingly asks whom Willow wanted to invite, Willow, for the second time, decides not to tell Buffy about her new friend, Tara. Buffy begins to rave about working with the Initiative and Willow wonders how deeply Buffy should get involved with them. She also reminds Buffy of Rayne's warnings about demons ready to commit mayhem over something called 314 (#068 - A New Man), but Buffy trusts Riley and not Rayne. Suddenly, all the Initiative beepers go off. Riley tells Buffy that "Mother" is calling them. Prof. Walsh briefs everyone on the Polgara demon (Sub-Terrestrial #67119), for which they have an approximate position. Dr. Angleman tells them that long bony spears emerge from the palm-side of its wrists and they want the creature captured without harming its arms. When Buffy asks why, the look on Angleman's face indicates that they are not used to dealing with questions. They cover by saying that they need the arms for study. When she asks what motivates the creature, so she can better fight it, they tell her it is mindless. When they suggests that she might want to borrow some protective clothing, she jokes about the idea and decides to stick with her haltertop. They finally, just stop taking questions and tell Riley to begin the operation. He makes his team assignments and Walsh gives the team some final tips. As if by habit, she asks if there are any questions and Buffy obliges her. Willow arrives at Tara's, feeling rejected by Buffy. Tara is delighted to see her. As Buffy and the Initiatives patrol, she is concerned about how Walsh feels about her, since she asked so many questions. Riley assures her that Walsh likes her and insists that she stop distracting the team, who needs all their concentration to fight demons, since their reflexes are slower than hers. Of course, Buffy will not let it go. In another part of the woods, Forrest is complaining to Graham that Buffy is splitting up their team. Graham suddenly spots Spike, whom they know as Hostile 17. Spike barely reacts in time to avoid a net. Graham shoots Spike with a tracer dart, as he flees. While taking the radio report on Spike, Riley is knocked down by the Polgara demon. Buffy attacks it and Riley regains his feet. As they charge the demon together, the scene shifts to Riley's room, where Riley and Buffy are coming together to kiss. Views of the two in desperate battle with the creature are interspersed with scenes of the couple making love afterwards. As they writhe in bed together, we see another view, from a black-and-white video monitor, as we watch a stone-faced Prof. Walsh, watch the lovers. The next morning, Anya and Boost Bar salesman Xander are at Giles' house when a frightened Spike arrives, using a tarp to shield himself from the sun. He is still running from the Initiative soldiers. Giles reminds Spike that he wanted nothing to do with them, but Spike reminds him that they are supposed to be good guys. Giles holds out for more and finally Spike returns what's left from the $300 Giles gave him earlier. Buffy awakes and, for the first time, finds her lover in bed with her on the morning after . Riley's alarm beeps and he takes his vitamins, as ordered. Buffy wonders why Riley doesn't wonder more about the Initiative. He follows orders and doesn't let what he doesn't know bother him. Buffy asks about 314, but they are interrupted by a call from Prof. Walsh. He leaves Buffy, without even asking Walsh why. As Riley walks through the Initiative complex, he pauses at a security door. Through a window in the door he can see, across the enclosed room, another security door labeled 314. Walsh finds him there and tells him to join the team that is tracking Spike. Later, inside Room 314, Walsh tells Angleman that the time has come to deal with Buffy. He agrees with her, while he transplants the Polgara demon's arms onto Adam. Giles is trying to remove the dart from a hole in Spike's back. Xander remembers from his pseudo-commando days that the dart is a tracking device and therefore, someone must be homing in on it. Unfortunately, Giles's skills are not sufficient to dig it out, quickly. Buffy and Willow arrive home at the same time, after both being out all night. Buffy is apologizing again for getting called away from the party,when her pager sounds off again. As soon as she leaves, Willow gets a call from Giles. Prof. Walsh briefs Buffy on a low-threat demon in the sewer tunnels. It may even be a false alarm, but she is given a Blaster rifle and a video headset, just in case. Before she leaves, Walsh promises to explain more about the Initiative when she returns. Spike is nearly passed out drunk as Giles sticks a probe deep into his back wound. Willow chants a spell to disrupt the tracer's signal by ionizing the air. Light bulbs suddenly flash and shatter all around the room and the groups' hair stands on end like fright wigs, signifying that the spell has taken effect. Riley's team loses a precise track on Hostile 17. In the tunnel, Buffy finds two demons carrying large battle-axes. She recognizes them as the same type that she saw Dr. Angleman working on in The Pit. She raises her Blaster and fires, but it merely sparks, smokes and shorts out. Behind her a metal gate slams down, blocking her only escape. Buffy engages both demons hand-to-hand, but the odds are against her. At the Initiative, Prof. Walsh calmly drinks coffee, as she watches the scene from the camera in Buffy's earpiece. All motion stops, when the blade of a battle-axe fills the camera's view and the signal from Buffy's heart dies. In civvies, Riley and his team prowl Giles' neighborhood, as the ionizing spell begins to wear off. Giles extracts the tracking device and hands it off to Xander, who runs from the room. Outside, Forrest is calling out the range as the signal approaches. The tracker indicates that Hostile 17 should be right in front of them. Then the signal passes. All of them are confused until Riley notices the manhole near their feet and realizes that the tracer is floating through the sewer system, flushed. Buffy is still fighting the two demons, but she has ditched her headset. She manages to get one creature to miss her and bury his ax into the guts of the other. She also manages to disarm the remaining monster and when he tries to retrieve his ax from a small pool of water, Buffy throws in the still sparking Blaster, electrocuting the demon. Riley arrives back at the complex to report their failure, but Walsh instantly begins telling him about the death of Buffy. He is still trying to absorb the shock, when on the monitors behind Walsh, Riley sees Buffy's face. Through the monitors, Buffy tells Walsh that she knows that she was set-up, then she destroys the headset. Riley walks away in silence, despite Walsh's frantic instructions to stop. Giles advises Spike to leave town, but Spike wants get the Initiative chip, that only allows him to kill demons, out of his head, first. Giles tells him that as long as he stays in Sunnydale, he is in danger from the Initiative. Buffy arrives to tell them that they are all in danger from the Initiative. Alone with Adam in Room 314, Walsh is quietly raging at Buffy. She plans for Adam to deal with the Slayer and hopes that Riley will forget Buffy after she's dead. Walsh's mad musings are suddenly interrupted, when the tip of a bony spear erupts from her chest. She barely has time to speak the name of her murderer, Adam, before she falls dead. Adam, a mixture of man, metal and monster stands over her and speaks the name of his victim, Mommy. Summary by: OBCooke at EpisodeGuides.com |
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