Season 7, Episode 9
Written by Drew Goddard
Directed by David Solomon
Original Airdate: 26 November 2002
"Shouldn't we stab him through the chest?
Isn't that what we do when these things happen?"
Anya
REGULAR CAST
GUEST STARRING
CO-STARRING
SYNOPSIS
-
Xander works to repair the living room window
while Dawn, Willow and Anya help clean up and discuss the potential
danger that is Spike. Wearing a trench coat like Spike's, Andrew is
coached by Warren to continue playing his part in the game. Warren
explains that because he can't take corporeal form, Andrew is a crucial
player and then he morphs into Jonathan to continue the encouragement.
Andrew stresses that he can't kill anymore, but Jonathan doesn't
consider that to be a problem. Buffy tries to offer comforting words to
Spike while she ties him down to a chair. He just instructs her to tie
the rope tighter so he can't get free.
Principal Wood lectures two students about damaging school property and
ultimately threatens the students into repairing their mistake. Dawn
drops by his office and informs him that Buffy is sick and unable to
attend work. Buffy calls Quentin Travers and asks about Giles, but he's
just as clueless as she is. He's with a group of Watchers and informs
them that they need to find Giles quickly. Buffy checks on Spike, but
he's struggling to control his blood lust after tasting so much human
blood. He vamps and snaps at her, but remains tied to the chair. Buffy
and Willow talk about Spike outside the room and Willow volunteers to
get him some animal blood to help ease his cravings.
Warren coaches Andrew on killing a pig, but Andrew fails miserably and
resorts to going to the butcher shop to get the blood they need. At the
butcher shop, Andrew orders an array of meats and pig's blood, but as
he's leaving, he literally runs into Willow and spills his purchases on
the ground. Andrew runs from her, but she catches up with him and uses
his assumption that she's evil to frighten him. She takes him back to
the house with her, pointing out his suspicious behaviour and purchase
of animal blood to the rest of the group. Xander and Anya interrogate
Andrew while he's tied to a chair, but he doesn't have any answers they
want to hear. Anya snaps and slaps Andrew before Xander pulls her out of
the room.
Upstairs, Buffy feeds Spike some of the animal blood as Anya and Xander
meet in the bathroom to rave about their performance with Andrew. Buffy
joins them and although none of them have information yet, they're sure
they'll get some soon. Back in the bedroom, Spike is calmed and talks to
Buffy about how little he remembers about his killing. She asks about
how he got his soul and he tells her about his extensive efforts. He
explains how he now understands that she used him in attempts to deal
with her own self-hatred. Also, now after falling in love with her and
acquiring a soul, he has come to hate himself.
Xander returns to Andrew and changes tactic to politeness. He unties
Andrew and offers him water while using Anya's ability to hurt men as a
threat. Anya comes charging in and attacks Andrew, intending to beat his
knowledge out of him. Buffy leaves Spike momentarily to investigate
Andrew's cries for help, but leaves as soon as Anya and Xander assure
her they have things under control. When she leaves, the morphing
version of Spike appears and starts to talk to the real Spike. Buffy
hears Spike talking through the door to her room and when she goes back
inside, she finds him acting different. He asks for blood, but as soon
as she turns away, he breaks free from his chair and knocks her down.
While Andrew leans against a wall and starts to talk to Anya about what
he knows in the next room over, Spike punches through the wall, grabs
Andrew, and viciously bites him.
Buffy pulls Spike off of Andrew and knocks Spike out with a powerful
kick. Buffy talks to the gang about Spike's strange behaviour and based
on Buffy's information, Xander concludes that some sort of evil is using
a song to trigger Spike's killer instincts. Buffy instructs the gang to
begin researching so they can figure out what they're dealing with. At
the high school, Principal Wood leaves his office, but detours through
the basement where he finds Jonathan's dead body on top of the symbol.
Buffy goes down to the basement to clean up Spike's wounds while he lies
chained up to a brick wall. He wakes up and doesn't understand why he
has no memory of his actions. He orders her to kill him because she
doesn't know what the real Spike is like and it's not something she's
prepared to handle. He taunts her with some of the evil actions of his
past. Again, he make judgments about her feelings and her need for pain
from men, but she doesn't let his verbal assault rattle her. She claims
to believe in him and thinks that he's changed and she shouldn't give up
on him yet.
Suddenly, the windows and doors break all over the house as robed
figures attack the Scooby Gang. In a deserted location, Principal Wood
buries Jonathan's body. The gang fights a vicious battle with the robed
figures attacking them. Dawn handles herself pretty well with a couple
of them while Buffy chases one upstairs and protects Andrew from being
killed. Most of the robed figures are disabled or killed, but they
didn't come for Buffy and the gang; they came for Spike. Down in the
basement, Buffy and Xander find that Spike's chains are empty and he's
nowhere to be seen. Buffy recognizes the faces of the robed figures as
harbingers representing The First ("Amends") and realizes that's who
they're dealing with. The ghosts haunting them, the games being played
on them and the impending danger that will come from beneath are all
connected to the First Evil.
Watchers report to Quentin about the numerous attacks on the Council
around the world. Quentin confirms that the First Evil is responsible
and orders the Watchers to prepare for their greatest challenge. Seconds
later, the Watcher's Council headquarters explodes. In the Sunnydale
basement, Spike is strapped to circular contraption and the robed
figures cut designs into Spike's skin. The First talks to Spike and
blames him for this happening to him. The First morphs into Buffy and
she talks as she watches the contraption and Spike raise up to the
ceiling and turning Spike face-first over the symbol on the ground.
Spike's blood falls onto the symbol beneath him, opening it and as the
First explains, allowing a real vampire to emerge.
TRIVIA
-
Tom Lenk, who plays Andrew, appears in
every episode remaining in the series' run. He becomes a regular for
season eight.
-
Camedon Toy, last seen as Gnarl in
Same Time, Same Place, plays the
Turok-Han for this episode and several more this season.
CONTINUITY
-
Andrew needs blood to open the Seal of
Danthalzar in the basement of the High School. He decides to use a pig
as a sacrifice, but has less luck that the hyena-possessed students did
with Herbert in The Pack.
-
Quentin Travers and his crew were last
seen in Checkpoint. They all die in
this episode, and the culprit is later revealed to be Caleb, who is in
allegiance with the First.
-
It's in this episode that Buffy
recognises the Bringers and their connection to the First that she first
noticed in Amends.
-
Buffy mistakenly believes that Xander's
knowledge of the trigger comes from
Halloween, in which he became a soldier.
-
The long-running joke where no one knows
who Andrew is continues as Spike asks who he is and is told that Andrew
is Tucker's brother. Tucker appeared in
The Prom - but Spike was no where near Sunnydale at the time.
-
Andrew refers to seeing Anyanka and Spike
have sex in Entropy.
-
Anya believes that the gang should kill
Spike by stabbing him through the chest, referring to Buffy's attack on
her in Selfless.
GOOFS
Lessons |
Beneath You |
Same Time, Same Place |
Help |
Selfless
Him |
Conversations With Dead People |
Sleeper |
Never Leave Me |
Bring on the Night |
Showtime
Potential |
The Killer in Me |
First Date |
Get It Done |
Storyteller |
Lies My Parents Told Me
Dirty Girls |
Empty Places |
Touched |
End of Days |
Chosen
|