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Season 7, Episode 15
Written by Douglas Petrie
Directed by Douglas Petrie
Original Airdate: 18 February 2003
"The Hellmouth has begun its semi-annual
percolation. Usually it blows around May."
Buffy
REGULAR CAST
GUEST STARRING
CO-STARRING
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Camedon Toy as
The Turok-Han
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Felicia Day as
Vi
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Sharon Ferguson as
The Primitive
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Geoffrey Kasule
as
Shadow Man #1
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Karara Muhoro as
Shadow Man #2
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Daniel Wilson as
Shadow Man #3
SYNOPSIS
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At the school, Principal Wood and Buffy talk to a
couple of students caught fighting and once the boys are gone, they talk
about the increasing violence and strange occurrences around the
Hellmouth. He and gives Buffy a "Slayer Emergency" bag that belonged to
his mother. He hopes it will help her deal with the First and asks her
to call him Robin. At his request, Buffy brings Robin to her house,
introduces him to Andrew, then takes Robin outside to see the
Potentials. Outside, Kennedy is roughly guiding the other Potentials
through some fight training, but she has a bit too much fun with the job
and yelling at the other girls. Buffy and Robin talk about their
preparation efforts when Willow comes outside with an armful of weapons.
Buffy brings Robin downstairs to meet Spike, who's arguing with Anya
over his efforts to save her life the night before. Knowing what Spike
did to his mother, Robin questions Spike's good intentions and Spike
gets a bit upset when he finds Buffy has told Robin about his soul.
While Buffy gets sleeping bags set up on the floor, Dawn updates her on
the progress with studying the contents of Robin's mother's Slayer bag
and then jokes about not doing her real homework. The girls proceed into
another bedroom to prepare more bags but stop when they find Chloe
hanging from a sheet around her neck, dead. More potentials pile into
the hallway and see the sight as the First in Chloe's body appears and
teases them about the death. It uses Buffy's own words--and her
voice--against her to make the point that it's going to win and they're
going to lose.
Outside in the woods, Buffy works alone and covers the self-dug grave in
which Chloe is buried. Back at the house, Buffy verbally rips into the
entire gang and tells the girls that if they want to be killed, to just
act as stupidly as Chloe did. Kennedy and Xander stand up to Buffy and
her attitude but both are quickly shot down. When Anya speaks up, Buffy
questions what it is that Anya actually does besides receive freely
provided protection. Spike starts to leave and Buffy takes the
opportunity to tell him how weak he is because he's been holding back so
much. Later, the core gang plus Kennedy and Robin gather as they open
the Slayer Emergency kit. Inside are various weapons, tools, a book
written in Sumerian, and a locked box, which Buffy quickly breaks open.
The box contains shadow casters and a stand for them to be constructed
on.
Dawn reads a story from the text while Xander constructs the shadow
casters on a spinning stand. Once everything's in place, the puppets
spin and the shadows move on the wall as the text turns to English for
Dawn to read easily. It's discovered that an exchange must occur and a
blue cube appears in the middle of the room. Buffy realizes she has to
go in and jumps through the portal despite her friends' protests and the
complete lack of knowledge as to where she's going and how to get back.
A demon appears in exchange for Buffy and although the gang all try
their hands at beating it up, the demon tosses them all aside and leaves
the house.
Realizing they have to get Buffy back, the gang begins to brainstorm the
magic they must use to return Buffy. Kennedy pushes for Willow to try
whatever magic she can to get Buffy back, but Willow informs her the
consequences to reckless magic are beyond Kennedy's knowledge. Anya
suggests letting Buffy find her own way home since she's so superior to
them all. Dawn gets Willow thinking about the spell needed and Anya adds
in some useful information about the type of magic they must perform.
They realize they need to make another trade for Buffy's return and
Spike volunteers to go out and get the demon.
Buffy finds herself transported to a desert where she finds three
shamans called Shadow Men who speak Swahili, which she is able to
understand. They inform her that she is the last protector of the
Hellmouth and offer her not knowledge, but power, then one knocks her
out with a stick. At the Summers house, a sand circle is formed on the
floor of the living room and Willow sits inside of it as she begins the
spell. At first, it doesn't seem to work, but suddenly in a flash of
light, Kennedy and Dawn are thrown back and Willow lets out a violent
scream as her eyes turn black. Buffy finds herself chained in a cave
with the Shadow Men and they begin a ritual to give Buffy the power she
needs. They produce a box, which contains the spirit of a demon that was
used to create the very first Slayer. A black cloud emerges, aimed for
Buffy. She protests at the idea of being any less human, but she can't
stop the black cloud from reaching her, surrounding and filling her
body.
Spike digs his old duster out of some boxes in the basement of the
school then proceeds determinedly through the school. He passes
Principal Wood on the way, who comments on Spike's coat. Willow
continues to try the spell, but as the portal doesn't open, Xander
starts to worry she's getting in over her head. Determined, Willow
reaches back and sucks the life-force out of Anya and Kennedy, gaining
the power she needs to open the portal, and briefly, black hair.
Meanwhile, Spike battles with the demon and enjoys the reacquired
confidence to kill until he finally snaps the demon's neck and enjoys a
cigarette. Buffy breaks free of the chains and yells at the Shadow Men
for their attempt to give her the power of a demon. She uses the chains
to fight with the various men then breaks a battle staff belonging to
one of the men, making them all disappear but the leader.
Buffy asks him to tell her something new and as he silently provides her
with information, Spike returns to the house and drops the dead demon
into the portal. Buffy finds herself back at the house surrounded by the
gang as they all recover silently. Willow tries to apologize to Kennedy
and explain what happened, but the magical experience was more than
Kennedy ever expected and she's distant. Willow goes to check on Buffy
and they talk about Buffy's "pep talk" attitude and what happened with
the Shadow Men. Buffy starts to regret her decision to reject the Shadow
Men's power, and tell Willow about what she was shown that made her
second-guess the decision. Elsewhere in a large underground location,
millions of Ubervampires gather and rally for battle.
TRIVIA
CONTINUITY
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Anya is attacked by another one of
D'Hoffryn's demons. This is a result of the events in
Selfless,
and another demon had previously attacked her in
Him.
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Restless
is referenced a great deal in this episode: the bag that Robin gives
Buffy is the same one from her dream sequence in that episode; when
Buffy wakes in her dream from that episode she sees the Primitive
chained, which she also sees in this episode when she herself is
chained; Adam told her that she was a demon in that episode, and Buffy
discovers that the First Slayer was created using a demon's heart; and
finally Buffy once again goes to the desert that she visited both then
and in Intervention.
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Principal Wood recognises Spike's coat as
the one formerly worn by his mother Nikki the Vampire Slayer.
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Reference is made to Spike and Anya's
sexual encounter in Entropy.
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Willow mentions that Wood is 'so much
cooler' than Snyder.
GOOFS
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When Buffy and Dawn discover Chloe, the
door behind them is open one second and closed in the next shot.
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How did Chao-Ahn know what Kennedy was
saying in the training session? She can't speak English and the other
girls were moving too fast for her to copy their movements.
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
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