Bargaining, Part 1 (Part 1 of 2): His job as Watcher complete, Giles returns to England. Meanwhile, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara attempt a spell to bring Buffy back from the dead. They succeed, but omitted to remember that she would be brought back in her coffin. A gang of demon bikers interrupt the spell and the four scatter, leaving Buffy to dig her way out of her grave.
Bargaining, Part 2 (Part 2 of 2): Buffy, in a deep state of shock from her experience, enters Sunnydale to find the demon bikers wreaking havoc. She repels their invasion by killing the leader, but then prepares to commit suicide herself. Fortunately, Dawn manages to talk her out of it.
After Life: Buffy returns home, to an astonished Spike. Spike is furious at the others for not telling him, and also advises caution when dealing with magic of this magnitude. Meanwhile, a side effect of the spell brings a demon to Sunnydale attempting to kill Buffy. As the episode ends, Buffy tells Spike she was in heaven, and the spell ripped her out of it.
Flooded: Buffy learns that she is completely broke, something she's really going to have to deal with. Giles returns from England, and despite appearing delighted at Buffy's return, he later privately gives Willow a big ticking-off for messing with such magic. Meanwhile, Jonathan, Warren and Andrew (the Geek Trio) make their big entrance by hiring a demon to rob a bank.
Life Serial: Jonathan, Warren and Andrew set up tests to find Buffy's weakness. They don't. Meanwhile, Buffy tries to find something to do with her life. She doesn't.
All The Way: Dawn sneaks out for Halloween, and runs into a bunch of vampires who are "rebels" in that they go out for Halloween. Spike thinks that he's a rebel and that they're just idiots.
Once More, With Feeling: Well ... it's certainly different. This episode is a musical one, and while I don't think I can actually say it's good, it deserves credit for daring to try something like it. However, this is not an episode to watch with people who don't like Buffy. At the end, Buffy and Spike kiss.
Tabula Rasa: Willow agrees not to use magic for a whole week, but then casts a spell to make everyone forget that she had done so. Unfortunately, the spell backfires, causing everyone to lose their memories. When his memory is recovered, Giles returns to England for good.
Smashed: Buffy and Spike continue to have a secret relationship, which culminates by the end of the episode in their having sex. Meanwhile, the Geek Trio use a freeze ray to steal a diamond from a museum. Willow makes Amy the rat human again, and they go on a magical rampage through Sunnydale.
Wrecked: In a rather unsubtle drugs addiction allegory, Willow gets completely addicted to using magic. She recognises this, however, and swears to stay off it, after she almost kills Dawn while high on magical energy. Meanwhile, Buffy and Spike's secret relationship continues.
Gone: The Geek Trio invent or find an invisibility gun, which they accidentally use on Buffy. While Buffy marauds around Sunnydale getting revenge on people who have annoyed her recently (most specifically, the social workers who want to take Dawn away from her), the rest of the gang work to reverse the effects.
Doublemeat Palace: Buffy gets a job at a fast food restaurant, where the employees keep disappearing. Despite leading clues towards this being the boss' responsibility, it actually turns out to be because of an old woman who eats cherry pies. This was one of the most reassuringly bizarre Buffy episodes I've seen for a very long time.
Dead Things: The Geek Trio accidentally kill Warren's ex-girlfriend, Katrina, and try to blame it on Buffy. They almost succeed, as well. Buffy confesses to Tara her recent sexual activities with Spike.
Older And Far Away: Over this season, Dawn has been getting more and more miserable over the fact that no one seems to have any time for her. In this episode, she wishes people didn't keep leaving her. Unfortunately, she makes this wish to Anya's Vengeance Demon friend Halfrek, who thus ensures that nobody can leave Buffy's house after her birthday party.
As You Were: Riley reappears, complete with wife, who is among the most appalling actresses I've ever seen. Seeing her ex-boyfriend allows Buffy to see how destructive her own relationship with Spike is, and accordingly breaks it off.
Hell's Bells: Xander and Anya's wedding turns into a disaster after a demon seeking revenge on Anya disguises himself as a twisted and bitter version of Xander from the future, who warns the real Xander against the marriage. Though not taken in, Xander flees the wedding (and Sunnydale) anyway after deciding that he isn't ready for such a commitment yet. D'Hoffryn offers Anya her job as Vengeance Demon back.
Normal Again: A demon injects Buffy with a hallucinogenic venom which makes her believe that her life in Sunnydale has all been a delusion. Fortunately, Willow produces an antidote. Alternatively, you could read this episode as being the only one set in the real world, wherein Buffy emerges from her delusions briefly into the mental hospital where she has been for the last six years. Either way, a very good episode.
Entropy: Haven't seen it yet.
Seeing Red: Warren of Geek Trio fame acquires some orbs which make him super-powerful. Fortunately, Buffy still defeats him after Jonathan betrays the other Geeks and tells her to smash the orbs. Meanwhile, Spike speeds off out of town on a motorbike, presumably looking for someone to remove his chip, and Willow and Tara get back together. Jonathan and Andrew are taken into police custody, and the episode ends with Warren shooting both Buffy and Tara. Willow is understandably incensed and succumbs to the temptation to use magic again, with the undoubted intention of getting revenge. One hell of a good episode.
Villains: Tara's death causes Willow to go on a hunt for Warren with the intention of killing him, and Buffy, Xander and Anya attempt to stop her - but they're too late to save Warren from being skinned alive and incinerated by the distinctly pissed-off witch.
Two To Go: As Spike undergoes tests to determine his worthiness to "be returned to what he once was", Willow heads to Sunnydale jail to attack Jonathan and Andrew. Fortunately, Buffy, Xander and Anya rescue the two remaining geeks, and head to safety in the Magic Box, where they meet Dawn. When Willow locates them, she tries to murder Jonathan and Andrew, but Buffy stands in her way. Willow attacks her regardless. As the episode ends, a distinctly evil Willow stands ready to kill Buffy, but is suddenly repelled by a magical attack from ... Giles!!! Yes! He's back!
Grave: Giles and Willow have a magical battle, which Giles loses. Willow sucks all his magical power out of him, then sets off to destroy the world for no very good reason. Fortunately, Giles had implanted some kind of bug in the magic which Willow stole, so she repents when Xander convinces her that she is his best friend, no matter what she does. In the final scene, Spike passes the tests but discovers, to his intense shock, that he wasn't being tested on his worthiness to have his chip removed - more to have his soul restored ... Apart from the very last scene, this was absolute drivel.