Season 5, Episode 17

Written by Marti Noxon

Directed by Marti Noxon

Original Airdate: 16 April 2001

"Get him fixed, would ya? I wanna hear the whole story again, without all that annoying moaning."

Glory

REGULAR CAST

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

• Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins

• Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers

• James Marsters as Spike

• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

GUEST CAST

• David Boreanaz as Angel

• Clare Kramer as Glory

• Charlie Weber as Ben Wilkinson

• Troy T. Blendell as Jinx

• Amber Benson as Tara Maclay

• Joel Grey as Doc

CO-STARRING

• Todd Duffey as Murk

• Andrea Gall as Customer

• Alan Henry Brown as Funeral Director

• Darius Dudley as Minister

• Annie Talbot as Lady With Baby

• Noor Shic as Lady With Rosary

SYNOPSIS

• Buffy selects a casket for her mother with Giles and Dawn. Dawn expresses her concern about Buffy's choice, worried that their mother may not appreciate the choice. Later, the gang gathers for dinner at the Summers residence and discusses plans for the funeral, excluding Dawn from any decision making. Briefly, they discuss how Buffy's father has remained out of reach, then Dawn suggests that she stay with Willow after the funeral is over.
  
  Spike brings flowers to the Summers home but runs into Willow and Xander on his way. Xander gives the vampire a hard time, but Spike makes it clear that the flowers are a sincere gesture as he actually liked Joyce. A small group of people including the entire Scooby Gang gathers at a cemetery during the day for Joyce's funeral. Dawn leaves with Tara and Willow as the rest of the crowd also move away. Hours later, after the sun has set, Buffy still stands at the grave and Angel appears beside her. Dawn is still having a difficult time accepting the loss of her mother, so she asks Willow and Tara to help her perform a spell that will bring Joyce back. Willow and Tara are shocked and refuse, explaining that it is wrong to mess with matters of life and death with witchcraft.
  
  In bed, Anya explains to Xander how special it is to be able to have children and how sex has become much more than it used to be. Buffy and Angel talk about the loss of Joyce and Angel does his best to comfort Buffy when she talks about the events as they played out and how it will all affect her future. Buffy asks him to stay with her forever and the two kiss sweetly, but pull away, knowing nothing more can happen. He stays with her for the remaining moments before the sun rises. Ben encounters Jinx and stresses the fact that he will not help Glory and he is tired of her games. He makes a comment that leads Jinx to conclude that the Key is human and worried about Glory, he stabs the minion with a knife.
  
  The next morning, Dawn is sulking, still upset that her friends won't help her, but as Willow and Tara are leaving for breakfast, Willow magically moves a book on the bookshelf to make it noticeable. Alone, Dawn notices the book titled, "History of Witchcraft" standing out amongst the others. Later, at the magic shop, Dawn searches through books, sneaking up to the second level when Giles tells her that's where he keeps the most dangerous books. She leaves unnoticed with several items. While collecting dirt at Joyce's grave site that night, Dawn is caught by Spike who shocks her by offering to help and demanding that Buffy never find out.
  
  Meanwhile, Glory fumes about Ben after Jinx returns to her wounded. She quickly cheers up when he informs her that the Key is human. Spike takes Dawn to a man named Doc for help in resurrecting Dawn's mother. He provides them with all the supplies and information he has, tells them of the other materials he does not have and advises Dawn that the results could not be what she wants. He mentions the necessity for a picture of Joyce which he says will break the spell if it is torn. Spike and Dawn leave to find a Ghora demon and steal one of its eggs for the spell. He plays interference with the demon while Dawn gets the egg, even getting wounded in the process.
  
  Tara realizes that a witchcraft book is missing from the shelf and after concluding that Dawn took it, she and Willow decide to call Buffy. Buffy hears about Dawn's spell just as she is finishing it upstairs in her room. Buffy confronts her and the two girls yell at each other and cry about their different ways of dealing with their mother's death. A shadow of a figure passes by the front window followed by a knocking on the door. Buffy goes to open the door, but Dawn tears up the picture first. The sisters hug and collapse to the floor, crying.

TRIVIA

• Oscar winner Joel Grey makes the first of three appearances as Doc in this episode. Also, Todd Duffey makes his first appearance as Murk, and appears in every episode until the season finale.

CROSSOVER

• After hearing of Joyce's death, Angel comes to Sunnydale to comfort Buffy.

CONTINUITY

• Hank Summers, an already absent father, reaches new bad-father heights in this episode by not showing up to his ex-wife's funeral. Buffy says she's not been able to contact him as he is in Spain. Hank never comes to see his daughters after Joyce dies and leaves the two girls to fend for themselves.

• Willow sees no harm in letting Dawn read up on resurrection spells, which is an early sign of her carelessness when it comes to magic, a theme explored in season six. Tara says that all Wiccas once took an oath, promising not to attempt resurrection spells as they knew it could go very wrong. One assumes she changes her mind before Bargaining (Part 1) - or does Willow do it for her? The spell Dawn tries in this episode, is a different version of the one Willow used in the season six premiere, and the one she attempted to use to resurrect Tara in Villains.

• This episode marks the final time that we see Giles' apartment on the show.

• Ben mentions that had fun hitting Jinx, which happened in Checkpoint.

• Spike brings flowers to Joyce and mentions that she always had a 'cuppa' waiting for him, as seen in Lover's Walk.

• This is the first time Angel has visited Sunnydale since The Yoko Factor.

GOOFS

• As we see shots of the interior of the Summers' house before Joyce's funeral, you can see that there is no ceiling in her room.

• When Buffy tells Angel about whether she could have saved her mother if she'd been there at the time, she says, "They said 'probably' wouldn't have made a difference. The exact thing they said was 'probably'." The doctor's exact words were actually, "It's doubtful that this could have been dealt with in time." The paramedic just said, "There's nothing you could have done."

Buffy Vs. Dracula | Real Me | The Replacement | Out of My Mind | No Place Like Home

Family | Fool for Love | Shadow | Listening to Fear | Into the Woods | Triangle

Checkpoint | Blood Ties | Crush | I Was Made to Love You | The Body | Forever

Intervention | Tough Love | Spiral | The Weight of the World | The Gift