Season 6, Episode 11

Written by David Fury

Directed by David Fury

Original Airdate: 7 January 2002

"We're your arch-nemesises...ses..."

Warren

REGULAR CAST

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

• Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins

• Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers

• James Marsters as Spike

• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

GUEST CAST

• Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson

• Adam Busch as Warren Mears

• Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells

• Daniel Hagan as Frank

• Susan Ruttan as Doris Kroeger

CO-STARRING

• Jessa French as Cleo

• Kelly Parver as Girl in Park

• Jeffrey Jacquin as Meter Man

• Dwight Bacquie as Security Guard

• Lyndon Smith as Little Boy

• Melina Webberley as Little Girl

• Elin Hampton as Co-Worker

SYNOPSIS

• Buffy and Dawn help Willow remove all magical temptations from the house by packing up all magic supplies from her room. Downstairs, they remove more items from the living room and Buffy searches the couch for anything that may have slipped between the cushions. Instead of something magical, she finds Spike's lighter that reminds her of a night with him. Warren, Jonathan and Andrew finally complete a new gadget with the help of the diamond they stole. Warren plays around with the gadget and reveals it to be an invisibility ray when he aims it at a recliner and the chair disappears from sight and is later brought back. They are pleased with their product and the power they possess with the ray.
  
  The next morning, Buffy talks to Willow about how she's feeling, but Willow hasn't improved too much. Dawn comes downstairs before school, mad at both girls for the accident that left her with a broken arm. Spike shows up, covered in a smoking blanket, explaining he was only out for a stroll, but Buffy knows better than to accept that explanation. Willow slips away and Spike questions the whereabouts of his lighter. Spike talks about her hair and how much he likes it and feels her up, but Xander intrudes before it can go any further.
  
  Xander comments on Spike's useless attempts to woo Buffy and the kind of women who would be involved with Spike, then Buffy reminds Xander he's there to take Dawn to school. As Xander and Dawn leave, Buffy encounters a social worker on the front porch who is there for a meeting about custody of Dawn. Although Spike is more concerned with his lighter than Buffy's meeting, he gets out of the way when Buffy indicates the meeting is important. The social worker, Doris Kroger is not impressed with Buffy's parenting habits and Dawn's worsening behaviour in school leave Buffy in a difficult spot where her guardianship of Dawn is in grave danger. Doris leaves, but Spike hasn't left yet and still wants his lighter. He pins Buffy against the door and removes the lighter from her pocket before leaving.
  
  Upstairs, Buffy cries and takes a scissors to her hair in response to Spike's opinion of her long hair. Her haircut is far from professional and she later goes to a salon to have the damage fixed. The super villains prepare to make themselves invisible and spy on the occupants of a tanning salon, but Andrew and Jonathan fight over the invisibility ray and it accidentally goes off. With her new shorter haircut, Buffy is in the path of the ray along with several other objects and they all become invisible.
  
  Wedding plans are discussed by Xander and Anya at the magic shop before a newly invisible Buffy shows up. She doesn't know how it happened, but Buffy has some fun with her new state while her friends are more concerned with turning her back. When Buffy leaves, Xander and Anya consider how the Slayer was turned invisible and the intentions behind it. At the house, Willow tries to use magic to get a book off a shelf, but stops before she can float it over to where she is. Xander talks to Willow about Buffy's invisibility and there is some miscommunication between them. Willow is offended that Xander would think to blame her even though that really wasn't what he intended to do.
  
  Buffy plays around with her invisibility and plays games with unsuspecting people. She visits Doris Kroger at her office and taunts her with words and visual deceptions. Doris is unnerved by a message Buffy left in the case file and the social worker's boss decides to redo the meeting with Buffy Summers. Willow and Xander investigate the scene where Buffy was turned invisible and examine the other objects that were also made invisible. At his crypt, Spike receives a visit from an invisible Buffy who attacks him and rips at his clothes.
  
  Research continues at the Magic Box as an invisible traffic cone covered in spray paint to make it visible is studied and it is discovered that the invisible objects turn to mush after a period of time. Warren works on the invisibility ray while Andrew and Jonathan talk about saving Buffy. Xander shows up at Spike's crypt and finds Spike in naked, in his bed, "exercising." What Xander doesn't know is that Buffy is there and is the reason for Spike's strange behaviour. When Xander departs, Spike gets angry with Buffy because she was teasing him during Xander's visit and she sees no harm in it. He tries to get her to leave, but she convinces him to let her stay.
  
  Willow searches for information on the black van that had been following Buffy and is suspected of being connected to the visual disappearance. Having been thrown out by Spike, Buffy returns home and unintentionally frightens her sister. As Dawn leaves, disturbed by and angry with her sister, Buffy finds a message on the answering machine from Xander that informs her of what will happen if she isn't made visible again soon. Willow discovers the location of the van's owner and discovers the lair of the super villains. As she looks around, she's captured by the invisible villains and taken hostage. Buffy receives a call from the villains directing her to an arcade where the Slayer can find her captured friend.
  
  At the arcade, Buffy finds Willow and the invisible villains. Warren attempts to use the ray to kill Buffy but Willow notices and a fight breaks out. Willow fixes the ray and returns the villains and Buffy to their visible states. Buffy and Willow are shocked and the super villains leave, throwing out a lame threat before trying to leave behind a cloud of smoke. They are seen running away, but not followed. Buffy figures out that she doesn't want to die anymore and since Willow survived the whole day without really using magic, they're both pleased with their own progress.

TRIVIA

• This is the first episode without Amber Benson since last season's Into the Woods. In fact, this marks only the sixth episode without the character since she was introduced in season four's Hush.

CONTINUITY

• After making social worker Doris Kroeger look crazy, Buffy whistles part of her song 'Going Through the Motions' from Once More, With Feeling. She whistles "I can't even see, if this is really me" - a fitting choice for the episode.

• Andrew noted in Flooded that he attacked the school play with flying monkeys. He tells Buffy that here.

• Buffy name checks Marcie Ross and Xander asks if Buffy's been feeling neglected, both references to Out of Mind, Out of Sight.

GOOFS

• There are sun rays on Spike in the kitchen yet he doesn't burn.

• While on the computer in the Social Services office Buffy types "All work and no play makes Doris a dull girl". We see the 'B' key being pressed. But the letter B is not used in any of these words. She also doesn't press the 'A' key.

• Not necessarily a goof, just an observation: Why is it that every time Anya changes hair colour and style, no one says anything, but as soon as Buffy cuts her hair everyone notices?

• In the scene where Invisible Buffy talks to Dawn in the kitchen, there is a pan on the stove which disappears then appears again.

• In the beginning of this episode, Buffy throws Spike's lighter in the box with all the magic stuff, but later on, Spike reaches into Buffy's pocket and pulls the lighter out.

Bargaining (Part 1) | Bargaining (Part 2) | Afterlife | Flooded | Life Serial

All the Way | Once More, With Feeling | Tabula Rasa | Smashed | Wrecked | Gone

Doublemeat Palace | Dead Things | Older and Far Away | As You Were | Hell's Bells | Normal Again

Entropy | Seeing Red | Villains | Two to Go | Grave