Season 6, Episode 20
Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by David Solomon
Original Airdate: 13 May 2002
"Bored now."
Willow
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
-
James C. Leary as
Clem
-
Steven W. Bailey as
Cave Demon
-
Tim Hodgin as
Coroner
-
Michael Matthys as
Paramedic
-
Julie Hermelin as
Clerk
-
Alan Henry Brown as
Demon Bartender
-
Mueen J. Ahmad as
Doctor
-
Jane Cho as
Nurse #1
-
Meredith Cross as
Nurse #2
-
David Adefeso as
Paramedic #2
-
Jeffrey Nicholas Brown as
Vampire
-
Nelson Frederick as
Villager
SYNOPSIS
-
An ambulance arrives at the Summers house and
Xander leads them to Buffy's still body. Meanwhile, upstairs, a tearful
Willow begs for Tara to return to her and calls upon a demon to bring
Tara back to life. The demon denies Willow's request, explaining that
the death was natural and human and cannot be undone. Devastated and
angry, Willow kills the demon with a violent scream. Xander accompanies
the paramedics to their truck out front as a determined Willow exits the
house. He tells her Warren shot Buffy and she leaves on a mission while
Xander joins Buffy in the ambulance.
At the police station Andrew and Jonathan talk about the fact that
they're in jail and debate about whether Warren will be rescuing them.
Warren orders a round of drinks for a bar as he talks to a vampire and
brags about how he killed the Slayer. The vampire and demon bartender
inform Warren that Buffy's still alive, as the news just reported the
story. Willow barges into the Magic Box and heads directly for the black
arts books. Anyanka tries to stop her, but Willow literally stops her
from moving. Willow pulls the books off the shelves, sticks her hands
into the pages and sucks the words into her body. Her eyes and hair turn
black as she completely consumes the darkness. Dawn returns home from
school to an empty house and walks into Willow's bedroom, finding Tara's
dead body lying on the floor.
Warren visits Rack's place and showing cash, he demands protection from
the Slayer. Rack warns the man that his big concern lies with Willow,
who really wants him dead and she's got the power to do it. In exchange
for a lot of money, Rack gives Warren some powers to help him combat
against Willow. At a hospital, doctors and nurses struggle to keep Buffy
alive but soon their job is taken over as Willow enters the room and
orders everyone else out. Xander watches as Willow approaches Buffy's
body and raises the bullet from Buffy's chest and heals the wound. Buffy
wakes up and feels fine, but Willow is in a hurry to get to Warren.
Xander follows Willow's directions as he drives down a deserted desert
road and Buffy tries to reason with Willow about her choice to go after
Warren. Rushed, Willow takes control of the car and leads it to another
road where a city bus is approaching. She uses magic to take control of
the bus and once it is stopped, she orders Warren off the bus. He barely
manages to beg for forgiveness before she wraps her hand around his
throat and starts to strangle him. Willow is only angered more when she
finds that she was tricked and it was actually a Warren robot. Buffy and
Xander plead with her not to kill Warren, but she doesn't want to listen
and shoves them away as she departs. Buffy and Xander return to the
house and find Dawn huddled in the corner of Willow's bedroom, staring
at Tara's body. Buffy tries to comfort her sister, neither of them
really able to grasp the situation.
The coroner takes Tara's body away and Xander sees them out. When Xander
and Buffy begin to talk about Willow, Dawn jumps in with her view that
Warren should be killed. Buffy's disturbed by that and doesn't think
it's okay for Warren to be killed just because he killed Tara. Concerned
for her friend, Buffy wants it to end without Willow destroying herself.
Buffy refuses to allow Dawn to tag along, and instead, Dawn want to stay
with Spike. Xander is upset by Buffy's willingness to let that happen
and reminds her of Spike's actions the night before, but she's confident
Spike can't hurt Dawn and he is their only option. In Tara's dorm room,
Willow uses her shirt, splattered with Tara's blood, and magic to guide
the way to Warren.
Buffy and Dawn show up at Spike's crypt, but find Clem staying there
instead. Since Spike is gone, Buffy asks Clem if Dawn can stay with him
for a little bit and he's more than happy to have the company. As she
leaves, Buffy asks about Spike and his whereabouts, but Clem has few
answers. Across the world, in Africa, Spike enters a cave, despite
warnings from one of the tribesmen. Inside the cave, Spike greets a
demon in the shadows, wanting a change. The demon assumes that Spikes
wants to return to his former self and he doesn't think Spike has what
it takes to earn that. Spike is confident though that he will and he
demands what he came for if he does. Xander talks to 'Anya' as she
recovers from Willow's magic. She reveals that she feels Willow's cry
for vengeance and Xander discovers that she's returned to being a
vengeance demon. They question Anyanka's loyalties but she's willing to
help them find Willow for Willow's sake, only.
Trees part as Willow walks through the woods, hot on Warren's trail. As
she reaches a small clearing, Warren sneaks up on her and plunges an axe
deep into her back. She recovers quickly though, her powers much too
strong to be hampered by an axe. He runs off again and tries to stop her
by sending a flying box at her that explodes into a ball of goo. She
freezes the flames, escapes the goo and then uses magic to tie Warren up
spread-eagle between two trees. Willow realizes Tara wasn't Warren's
first kill and brings out Warren's dead, ex-girlfriend, Katrina. Katrina
taunts him with comments about how she should have killed him a long
time ago and when Warren gets angry, Willow makes Katrina go away again.
All the while, Anyanka leads the way for Buffy and Xander to reach
Willow.
Willow decides Warren needs to feel what Tara felt when he shot her. He
begs for mercy as she describes the damage of the bullet and when he
continues to interrupt her, she sews his lips shut so she can continue.
She questions why someone like him gets to live when someone wonderful
like Tara has to die. When he's free to speak again, Warren apologies
profusely and tries to convince Willow that she's better than this. As
the others arrive, Willow rips Warren's skin from his body and then his
body is engulfed in flames and then disintegrates. Buffy, Xander and
Anyanka look on in horrified shock as Willow proclaims, "One down,"
before disappearing into thin air.
TRIVIA
-
During the original broadcast of this
episode, Amber Benson's silent portrayal of Tara's corpse lacked any
credit. When the episode was repeated and released on video, Amber
received a credit on the opening guest credits. She's also been removed
from the opening credits. This is Tara's last appearance on the show,
despite original plans from Joss Whedon to resurrect the character in
season seven.
-
Adam Busch, who played Warren, spoke at a
Buffy Convention about how pleased he was with the 'flaying'
scene. He joked that the actor who played 'skinned' Warren had much
better muscle tone than he did. Warren returns for five episodes in
season seven, despite his death in this episode.
-
The scene where Warren is skinned alive
by Willow was edited out when shown in most places. Marti Noxon said,
"The skinning of Warren was something Joss wanted. We pitched it to the
network, and the network said, 'As long as you only see it for 2.5
seconds, go for it.'"
CONTINUITY
-
Willow attempts to summon Osiris in order
to resurrect Tara, but the demon says no due to his resurrection of
Buffy, which of course happened in the season premiere,
Bargaining
(Part 1).
-
Andrew suggests that he was going to
carry Jonathan away during their escape attempt in
Seeing Red.
-
Warren visits the same demon bar as the
one seen in
Life
Serial.
-
Willow's 'Bored Now' comment was the same
as her vampire double's in
Doppelgangland.
GOOFS
-
In the woods, we see Warren run with
nothing in his hands but he's later holding an axe. Where did he get it
from?
-
You can see 'dead' Tara breathing while
Dawn is in the room with her.
-
The doctors are trying to fix Buffy's heart
while she still has her shirt on.
-
The amount of blood on Willow's shirt
changes from scene to scene.
-
Why wasn't there any blood on the axe
Warren hit Willow with?
-
Buffy's gun shot wound looks lower than in
did last episode.
-
When Willow is walking through the forest,
you can see ropes pulling the trees back as she walks by.
-
When Warren's skin flies off, there's no
bullet hole in his chest.
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
|