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| 105 Life Serial Original Air Date: October 16, 2001 Written by: David Fury & Jane Espenson Directed by: Nick Marck Guest Cast: Danny Strong (Jonathan) Adam Busch (Warren) Tom Lenk (Andrew) Paul Gutrecht (Foreman) Winsome Brown (Woman Customer) Christopher May (Male Customer) James C. Leary (Wrinkly Demon) Alice Dinnean Vernon (Mummy's Hand) Buffy returns home unexpectedly bearing fried chicken only to find that Willow, Giles, Dawn and Tara have just finished dinner. To avoid the awkwardness of the moment, they all decide to finish off dinner with a piece of chicken. Dawn gets right to the point, questioning Buffy about her meeting with Angel. Buffy tells them it was intense but prefers to keep the details to herself and even Dawn agrees. Giles hesitantly brings up the subject of the rest of Buffy's new life. Buffy is unsure about the future. She thought about returning to school, but it's mid-semester. Willow and Tara suggest that she audit some of their classes until the next registration. Giles has a hard time coming up with a response to her plans. Jonathan is warning his allies that the Slayer is a formidable opponent, as they finish work on a van designed to carry out their evil plans. Warren reminds Jonathan that their plan to test their skills against Buffy will help determine the best way to attack her. He shows off the nine spy-cameras and begins to detail the sophisticated electronic equipment installed in the rear of the van, but quickly loses Jonathan. They plan to use the black van for covert surveillance of Buffy. They round the corner of the vehicle to find Andrew, the third of the Evil Nerds, airbrushing a detailed picture of a shattered Star Wars Deathstar across the entire side of the spy van. Jonathan begins to argue with him about the trivial details of the drawing, when Warren interrupts them to remind them that they are supposed to go unnoticed. Andrew agrees to paint over the artwork and Warren looks forward to tomorrow when they hatch their plan against Buffy. Buffy joins Willow's Sociology class for a discussion of the "Social Construction of Reality" and is surprised to hear Willow refer to her Professor as "Mike". The class begins a rapid-fire, polysyllabic discussion of the individual's perception of reality as it is influenced by the society of which the individual is a member. Buffy is lost in the first five seconds. She is awed at the brainpower that Willow and her classmates are casually throwing around. Willow tries to encourage Buffy, but it does little good. Tara meets them in the hallway after class and Willow still tries to sound upbeat about Buffy's abilities, only that she is out of the rhythm of college. A man bumps into Buffy hard and plants a small disc on her, before running off into the crowd. Down the hall, Warren speaks into a microphone on his lapel, while his two partners, in the van, tap into the school security cameras. As Warren waves to them over the monitors, he tells them that he has successfully tagged Buffy and they can begin. A satellite-like dish rises from the roof of the van and begins a high-pitched hum. Buffy and Tara pause on the way to Art Appreciation class. Tara gives Buffy the large, illustrated textbook for the class. Buffy looks at the book for a few seconds. There is a strange humming sound and when Buffy looks up, Tara is in the middle of telling a story and some time has passed. Tara just thinks that Buffy got lost in thought about the book. Confused, Buffy bends to take a drink at the water fountain as Tara begins another story. Buffy hears the noise again and suddenly Tara is all the way down the hallway, calling to Buffy to hurry up. Buffy's cursing confirms that she knows something is very wrong. Warren joins his accomplices in the van and they confirm that his device is working. Buffy rushes to catch up to Tara, but the classroom doors close in her face. The same noise occurs and Tara's class is over, the students file out past Buffy. Buffy tries to explain what happened to Tara, but as she looks at the clock on the wall, the hands begin to race around it's face. Buffy finds herself alone in the hallway. For some reason, Tara isn't even there. Buffy rushes from the class building, calling after Tara, who doesn't hear her. Suddenly, the people walking on the grounds begin to speed up until they are just a blur. Buffy gets hit by a couple of these fast-moving students and seeks shelter under a cement picnic table. In the van, the Nerds can hear over their microphone, that Buffy realizes that something is wrong with her. She begins to search her body for any clues to the sudden phenomenon. They watch through the bug's "eye" as Buffy finds the device. She pulls it from her clothes, but before she can examine it closely, Warren hits the self-destruct, causing the bug to vanish. A confused Buffy emerges from other the table to a normal world again. Warren's teammates confer and award his scheme a score of 220. Warren challenges Andrew to beat him and Andrew eagerly accepts. Buffy walks with Xander to the construction site. Xander has managed to get Buffy a low-level job with the building company he works for. If it weren't for him, she would have to work retail at Giles' store, which she dreads. Along the way, she explains that since she had no proof of what happened to her at the college, Giles isn't even sure that what she saw was real. Buffy meets a cold reception from the foreman that she will work for. He gives Xander grief about recommending a small girl for the job. The other men on the crew are clearly not happy with Buffy joining them. Everyone thinks that she is not up to the hard labor of the job. Despite Buffy's nervousness, Xander must leave to supervise a sheet-rock crew in another part of the building. The supervisor hands out assignments, but the men told to haul the steel inside begin to complain that they wouldn't want to be unfair to women, maybe Buffy should haul the steel. The foreman agrees. One member of the crew tries to give Buffy friendly advice to not overexert herself, just to prove that she's tough. He warns her that the steel I-beams are several hundred pounds each. He and the other men are struck speechless when Buffy casually hefts one of the beams and carries it easily on her shoulder. Later, Buffy is explaining to one of the other men that she might consider pursuing construction work as a career. She wants more than just a job and it makes a certain kind of sense for her. The man is short with her, telling her that she works too hard on a job where you get paid by the hour. She needs to slow down before she endangers their paychecks. The Evil Nerds spy on Buffy again from their van. Andrew takes up panpipe and begins to blow a few notes. On the job site, Buffy stops for water, but hears a noise without seeing anyone. It puts her on guard so, when the foreman approaches her, she is startled. Before they have time to talk, Buffy must shove him out of the way of a gray demon with two eyes and large mouth composed of several layers of flaps. It also has two soft tentacle-like protrusion from each side of the head, like soft horns. The foreman hits a cement wall hard and falls unconscious but safe from the fight. Two more creatures join the attack on Buffy. She manages well against them, using the tools on the job as weapons and knocking a couple of the demons through the fresh walls. While Buffy stabs one to death with a shovel, the others threaten a couple of Buffy's co-workers. She manages to distract them and crushes the neck of one with coiled metal electrical conduit. Each time she kills one, the body turns into a foam-like substance and "evaporates" in a couple of seconds. She finally manages to force the head of the last demon between the legs of a collapsible elevated platform. Buffy rips out the equipment's hydraulic lines, causing the platform to slowly lower, decapitating the demon with it's collapsing legs. In the van, Andrew is disappointed in how quickly Buffy was able to defeat his demon plan. He begins an argument with Warren over who gets to look through the huge "Big Eye" binoculars. Warren shoves him and Andrew fails against the car horn. The van suddenly erupts into the beginning notes of the Star Wars theme song, which catches Buffy's attention. The other evildoers look angrily at Andrew who reminds them that he only agreed to paint over the mural. Before Buffy has time to investigate the van, Xander runs up and assumes that Buffy had a fight with the jerks she works with. The foreman assumes that Buffy attacked him, when she shoved him into the wall. Buffy tries to explain to Xander that she was fighting off a demon attack. Xander is upset that Buffy's presence has brought demons onto his job site, that there is a lot of costly damage done to the site and that there is no proof left behind that demons were even there. Buffy tries to get the threatened men to back up her story, but they won't admit that they were terrified and had to be rescued by a girl. Xander tells Buffy that he believes her. He suggests that she is obviously being targeted by someone and that she should see Giles immediately and begin to work on the problem. Buffy realizes that this is Xander's polite way of firing her and she leaves quietly. Buffy tries to sound upbeat as she begins her job at the Magic Box. Giles has dragged out a ton of books to begin research on Buffy's latest clues. Anya and Giles give Buffy some reminders on procedures at the store, as the Evil Nerds watch and listen through a skull with a lens in it's eye socket, secreted on one of the shelves. The bad guys are bored watching the routine at the store and begin to wonder what Buffy is doing by trying all these different jobs. Warren and Andrew wonder if they should try to tap into a cable channel with pornography, when Jonathan announces that he is ready for his plan to begin. His partners in evil can't help but laugh every time Jonathan refers to his Magic Bone, which is a part of his spell. He manages to calm them down enough to begin a spell in Latin over a burning parchment. The parchment begins to smoke and quickly fills the van with choking white smoke. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. Giles gives Buffy one last helpful tip to concentrate on customer service, instead of just selling stuff. Anya tells Buffy to go make a sale to the woman that just entered. On her way across the store a man asks Buffy, which candle is more romantic. Buffy quickly chooses the lemon-scented one over the slug-scented. The woman is looking for a mummy's hand to do a prosperity spell. She called ahead to make sure that they had one and she wants to buy it. Buffy makes a lame mummy-daddy joke before going into the basement to find the hand. As she reaches for it, the hand leaps from the counter and chokes her. Instinctively, Buffy flings the hand away and stabs it with a nearby knife. The woman is horrified that Buffy would try to sell her a dead mummy's hand and worse, Buffy pretends that it's not really dead, just playing dead. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. Giles gives Buffy one last helpful tip to concentrate on customer service, instead of just selling stuff. Buffy is confused and tries to tell Giles that this already happened, but he isn't listening. In the van, Jonathan explains that Buffy will relive the same time until she satisfies a customer. Anya tells Buffy to go make a sale to the woman that just entered. She suggests that if Buffy is nervous, she should just picture herself naked. On her way across the store a man tries to ask Buffy, which candle is more romantic, but she hands him the lemon-scented one before he can finish the question. The woman is surprised to find that Buffy already knows she is looking for a mummy's hand. Buffy tries to tell the woman that they don't have one, but she called ahead to make sure that they had one and she wants to buy it. The woman insists and Buffy seems to realize that she is going to be forced to follow out the events to a satisfactory conclusion. Inside the van, Warren teases Jonathan that Buffy figured out the way out of the spell real fast, but Jonathan is convinced that Buffy will be stumped for a while anyway. In the basement, the mummy's hand is tense and pensive as Buffy approaches with ice cube tongs and a knife. The woman is horrified that Buffy would try to sell her a dismembered mummy's hand. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. Anya is surprised that Buffy already knows the woman needs a mummy's hand. Buffy tells her that even if she explained Anya wouldn't remember it later. Anya worries that things are moving too fast for Buffy, but Buffy assures her that's not a problem. Giles gives Buffy one last helpful tip to concentrate on customer service, instead of just selling stuff. Buffy tells him that she is going to marry Bob Dole and raise penguins in Guam, but he isn't listening. On her way across the store Buffy slaps a lemon-scented candle into the man's hand, before he can ask for help. Buffy goes to the basement and soon she is trying to pull the mummy's hand off of the woman's throat. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. On her way across the store Buffy ignores the man and the woman and walks out the door of the Magic Box. But instead of finding herself on the street, she only comes out through the doorway from the back room, to find herself, once more, on the sales floor of the Magic Box. Buffy stares dully at the mummy's hand as it threatens her with ice cube tongs. From the basement she can hear the bell over the door ring, as a woman enters the Magic Box. Buffy goes to the door and rips the bell off the wall. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. On her way across the store Buffy throws the man a slug-scented candle and tells him that he hasn't got a chance with his date anyway. The villains in the van watch, with delight, as the woman is horrified that Buffy would try to sell her (another) dead mummy's hand. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. Giles tries to give Buffy one last helpful tip to concentrate on customer service, but instead she rips his glasses from his hand and stomps on them. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. Buffy grabs the woman and tries to make her confess to being the cause of the time-looping. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. Buffy hits the man below the belt with a thrown candle. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. Buffy can only stand there sobbing. The bell over the door rings and a woman enters the Magic Box. Buffy tries to convince the woman that there is something wrong with the mummy's hand. She then offers to order another mummy's hand and have it delivered directly to the woman's home. Buffy then rings up the sale and satisfies the customer. The Evil Three begin to tally up Jonathan's score. He tries to get points for how long he tormented Buffy, but Andrew reminds him that, in the real world, very little actual time passed. Inside, Giles and Anya congratulate Buffy on her first sale... until Anya notices that Buffy failed to charge a delivery fee. Giles is ready to shrug it off due to Buffy's inexperience, but Anya suggests that they deduct the cost from Buffy paycheck and Giles thinks that that is fair. Buffy puts her nametag on the counter. The bell over the door rings as Buffy leaves the Magic Box. Buffy is doing shots with Spike in the lower level of his crypt as she explains the weird trouble she has been having lately. She also mentions the others troubles of school and money. Spike wonders how long Buffy is going to let someone keep trying to destroy her and scoffs at the idea that Giles books are going to help. He suggests that they knock heads in the underworld until someone tells them the answers. He sees life as much simpler that way and thinks that Buffy would enjoy it too. She tells him that he's drunk as they finish the booze in his flask. He thinks that Buffy is an underworld being like him, destined to work in the shadows. Buffy wonders if there is more alcohol in this underworld world where Spike lives. The demon bar is jumping as Buffy and Spike arrive. Buffy grabs a bottle of Tequila from the bartenders hand and drinks a shot from it, making a face at the taste. Spike leads her to a back room where four demons are playing cards. One of them objects to letting a demon-killer into the game, but Spike convinces him to leave instead. Buffy is surprised that Spike wants to sit in on a card game and asks him privately what happened to the plan to kill demons until they got answers. Spike suggests being sneaky instead and pumping the card players for information. Spike joins the table. Buffy is then shocked to find out that the currency in this game is kittens. Spike tries to cajole one of the demons into giving him a stake and is irritated when Buffy playfully offers to give him one of hers. Buffy takes another pull on the Tequila. The Three Nerds cruise the night in their van. A discussion of their new "super-villain" status quickly leads to an argument over which actor was the best James Bond. Spike is finished winning everyone's kittens and they begin to accuse him of cheating. Spike reminds them that one of them has X-ray vision, but the demon claims to not be cheating. A wrinkly demon gets upset until an ace peeks out from the folds of his skin. The demon claims the card got lost in his skin a long time ago. The tension rises as the wrinkly demon tells Spike that Buffy's smooth skin makes her ugly. Another demon suggests that Spike can leave peacefully if he leaves his winnings behind. Spike then accuses them of trying to cheat him. Spike warns them that if they want to start trouble they will face both him and the Slayer. Buffy quickly says no to that idea, leaving Spike on his own. She doesn't mind beating up people for information, but not over who gets to eat the kittens. She tips over the "purse" and the demons scurry to retrieve the tiny felines. Buffy leaves and Spike follows. Spike catches up to her in the bar. She's angry at him, but mostly angry at what a lousy day of failures she has had. She is upset that the only company she can find when she wants to go out for drink is a cheating, toothless, kitten-hoarding vampire. Spike is chagrined that Buffy knows he was cheating. She also accuses him of being drunk. Then she storms out. Inside the evil super-villains' van, the James Bond argument continues. Outside the bar, Buffy spots the van. In the van, Warren and Andrew get physical in the heat of the argument, until Jonathan points out that, on one of the video monitors, Buffy is approaching the van. Warren tells Jonathan to grab his Magic Bone and then Warren and Andrew giggle uncontrollably. As Buffy draws closer a large, devil-like demon with big skin-covered wings comes around the front of the van. The demon tries to convince Buffy that he is much more powerful than her and she should retreat. He is distracted when the black van drives off and Buffy attacks him. She kicks him in the chest, but falls backward, off-balance. As Spike helps her up, the demon claims that he has been mortally wounded and will return to his home dimension to die. He throws a smoke bomb on the ground. In the smoke and their drunken state, Buffy and Spike fail to notice that the demon simply runs away. Besides Buffy is feeling too sick to fight anymore. The demon runs up to the van complaining about how badly Buffy injured him. Warren and Andrew quickly tell him to change and hide in the back of the van. With a few words, Jonathan ends the spell and changes back into his normal small, weak form. He's too small for the demon's loincloth to fit him and is greeted with a sheet as he climbs into the back of the van. He grimaces because even though he had a demon's form, he didn't have any extra strength or ability to withstand the Slayer's kick. Warren calls their attention to the fact that they now have a lot of computer telemetry on Buffy's abilities. They can analyze her, looking for a weakness that they can exploit. Besides that they also have made a major discovery with their sophisticated equipment - free cable pornography! Giles gives Buffy a glass of water as she emerges from the bathroom, suffering mightly from her hard drinking. Giles apologizes for not finding any answers in his books, but Buffy assures him everything turned out okay for now. Through the pain of her hangover, she feels the pain of her failure. Giles tries to reassure her that she was being tested but she didn't falter. Buffy regrets not finding a way to take control of the situation and blames herself. Giles thinks that she is expecting too much of herself to defeat a new demon and find a job all in one day. But Buffy reminds him that her creditors are expecting a payment and now. Giles has a difficult time with the words, but gives Buffy a check for apparently a large amount of money. Buffy is amazed at Giles generosity. She is obviously very moved by his actions. She tells him that his attempt to care for her brings back feelings of security that she hasn't felt since her mother died. Giles kids about being compared to a mother, but Buffy assures him that he doesn't deserve to be compared to her uncaring father. Giles suggests that he would make a good handsome Uncle. Before she goes to tell Dawn the good news, she tells Giles that it makes her feel much safer to know that he'll always be around to help her. Summary by: OBCooke at EpisodeGuides.com |