7.1

Episode 7.1

"That Men Do"

written by: A. Jean Clayton a.k.a. silver

September 01, 2001

Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Buffy realized that her blood could be substituted for Dawn�s, and leapt into the portal, closing the doors between dimensions, sacrificing her own life for her sister and the rest of the world. Buffy was brought back from the dead by a spell done by Willow, and struggled to readjust to a life she�d thought she was done with. Dawn rebelled under the authority figure Buffy presented, having gotten used to taking care of herself (via lessons in tactics and maneuvers by Giles and Spike) over the summer Buffy was dead. Giles realized he�s no longer needed as Watcher, and returns to England. Anya takes over running the Magic Box. Xander and Anya get married, and live together in what was formerly Xander�s apartment. Willow and Tara continued college, and Willow entered a teaching program. She began work as a Teacher�s Aide. Tara dabbled as a palm-reader at a local Tarot shop called �The Mystic Mind�. Buffy, for once without any �adult� direction, realized that the insurance Joyce had paid for the house, but the continuing bills and needs for both her and Dawn were ongoing. She found a job and struggled to balance slaying, keeping up with Dawn and working all at once. Spike�s chip stopped working. Faced with the prospect of returning to his old ways, or saving Dawn from a Ghorka demon, Spike saved Dawn and later wondered why he�d made the choice he had. Convinced that he was �broken�, or else had �caught a soul� from the Scooby Gang, he decided to stay in Sunnydale until he figured things out; doing the one thing he was sure of: protecting Dawn and teaching her how to take care of herself. Buffy and Spike discussed his feelings for her; Spike revealed that while he knew they could never really have anything, he believed that it was falling in love with her that had started the change in him that resulted in who he was now. Buffy pondered the coincidence of having helped to change the destinies of two vampires in her lifetime.

And now, the season premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

We open in the Magic Box, where Buffy is telling Xander, Anya, Tara and Willow about how she spoke with Giles earlier that day, and that he�s doing well. She mentions that he says he�s found a job that he really enjoys. Xander says she sounds kinda wistful about it, and Buffy admits that she feels like she needs a little direction in her life. Xander makes a crack about the career assessment they all took at Sunnydale High, and remembers that Buffy was slated for police work. Buffy glares at him, and Willow clears her throat, reminding Xander that he�d been chosen to be a prison security guard. Xander tries to quash the image, after Anya gets kinda turned on by the idea of Xander in uniform. Tara says it actually doesn�t sound like a bad idea...it would be kind of combining her slaying with her real job. Killing two birds with one stone.

Cut to the training room of the Magic Box, where Buffy and Spike spar with Dawn. Dawn appears to be holding her own pretty well, and even manages to take Buffy by surprise once. Spike is pleased at her progress, and takes most of the credit. Buffy pfft�s him, and tells Dawn she should go home and get some sleep. Dawn reminds Buffy that she�s not a little kid anymore, and should be able to decide for herself when it was time to turn in. Buffy acknowledges Dawn�s point, and Dawn yawns and decides sheepishly to go home and go to bed anyway.

Straightening up in the training room, Spike tells Buffy she should lighten up on the Nibblet. He says she�s coming along pretty well, and he dares that she�s more mature than Buffy was at her age. Buffy retorts that at Dawn�s age, she had to send a re-souled Angel to hell to avert the end of the world. She also points out that Spike was one of her enemies then. Spike concedes the point.

Thinking about it, Buffy admits that she still worries too much about Dawn...that her over-protectiveness won�t go away, just because Dawn�s a year or two older. Spike sees through to her real fears, and accuses her of being afraid she�ll mess up Dawn�s life, due to not being able to be just like Joyce. Buffy admits that she still misses her mom, and doesn�t think she�s doing as good a job as Joyce would have been able to do. Spike tells her she�s doing fine�better than a lot of other people under similar circumstances, and suggests that she should devote a little time to herself. Buffy says that she�d kind of like to get back in school, something she�d never been able to do after dropping out when the whole Glory fiasco was going on, but that there�s just no way she can take care of Dawn, hold down a full-time job, and go to school all at once. But she feels like she needs to get a real adult life. That it�s time to grow up. Spike suggests getting a real career, as opposed to the jobs she takes to make money to pay the bills.

Cut to Buffy walking through the cemetery on patrol before going home, thinking about direction. Pickings are slim, and she�s about to head home when she hears something. She follows the sound to two figures on the ground in a clear spot in the graveyard�one of them kneeling over the other, with his hands wrapped around a knife protruding from the woman�s chest. He looks up and sees her, snarling, then bounds away. Buffy starts to give chase, but then turns back to the woman on the ground, hoping she�s still alive. She�s not.

Opening Credits.

Same location, only Buffy is now surrounded by cop cars with flashing lights, an ambulance, and several police officers cordoning off the crime scene. One random cop is standing with Buffy, asking her questions about what she saw, as the body is wheeled away on a gurney into the ambulance. Buffy tells the cop that she didn�t really get a good look at the guy, but remembers him as being in his mid thirties, with dark brown hair. He also had a vivid scar along the jawline on the left side of his face. The officer looks startled, but thanks her for the information, giving him a card with his number on it in case she remembers anything else. The card reads �Officer Grant, Sunnydale P.D.�

Early the next morning Buffy stops by Willow and Tara�s place before work, passing by Tara as she leaves for class. She tells Willow what happened the night before, and how the cops are investigating the case. She says the cop who took her statement seemed frustrated at the crime, and thinks they were already investigating this guy. She knows they�ll do the best they can to catch him, but she says that sometimes the cops don�t have all the same resources her very own scooby gang does, and frequently don�t know how to deal with the supernatural perpetrators they track down. Willow grins and offers to do some research for her during her free period in the library at school that day. Buffy thanks her and leaves for work, after saying that she�s got a weird feeling about this guy.

Cut to Buffy at her current job, working as a self-defense instructor at the Y. Officer Grant comes in to ask her if she�s remembered anything else from the night before. She says no, but that she hopes they�ll catch this guy before he hurts or kills anyone else. Grant admonishes her for walking alone in the cemetery at that time of night, and Buffy smiles and says she can take care of herself. Grant looks at the student whose butt she had thoroughly just whipped on the mat, and says he can see that.

Commercials.

At the caf� on main street, Willow meets Tara for lunch. She tells Tara about the murder the night before, and that she couldn�t find any information on the web about any kind of demon activity matching the way the victim had been mutilated. Tara wonders if that means that maybe the perpetrator is human? Willow decides to research that possibility next.

At the Summers house after school, Buffy congratulates Dawn on the A she got in her writing class. She mentions that Dawn gets way better grades than Buffy ever did in high school. Dawn retorts in Buffy�s defense that she (Dawn) hasn�t had to go through half of what Buffy has. Buffy says that everyone has to face their own demons�no one gets the easy way out. And Dawn had to go through Joyce�s death, too. They share a silent moment, and Dawn asks what�s got Buffy so down. Buffy says that she�s just worried about being in the right place tonight, to stop this guy if he tries to hurt anyone else. She asks Dawn to stay in tonight, and Dawn replies that she was supposed to train with Spike. At Buffy�s insistence, she relents and says they�ll train there, at the house.

At the Mystic Mind, Tara finishes reading the palms of a young couple, and greets the next customer who comes into the room. It�s a man with a clenched jaw, and no expression on his face.

Back at Buffy�s, Willow drops by to share with the slayer what she�s learned that day. She tells her how she couldn�t find any demonic precedent for the ritual-feel of this murder�so she started to look for human possibilities. Buffy is aghast when Willow produces information from papers in Los Angeles and San Francisco about a serial killer who ritualistically stabs his victims in cemeteries. A human. One eyewitness had described the killer as having a scar on the left side of his face.

Tara takes the killer�s hand in hers, and traces the lines on his palm. We can see the scar on his face now. She starts to tell him normal things about his life, but he�s not interested. He wants to know how long he�s going to live. Tara starts to get a weird vibe off of him, but obligingly follows his lifeline, only to find out that it�s very short. She stutters over the answer, and the man becomes impatient; he yells at her. Tara finally tells him that it's short�she doesn�t think he has long to live. He gets upset, and Tara gets flashes, seeing him in the cemetery, running, chasing someone. Then she sees through his eyes as he looks up and sees Buffy stumbling upon him with the corpse. She gasps, and then she sees him running through a different cemetery, chasing someone else. She jerks away from him, and the man glares at her and leaves. Tara calls Buffy and tells she doesn�t know how she saw what she did, but she�s afraid she�s just met the killer, and that he�s going to kill again. Buffy rushes from the house.

Cut to Buffy running through the cemetery, looking for the guy and his victim, hoping she�s not too late. She hears a scream to her right and runs in that direction, finding the guy attacking another woman, though she is as yet uninjured. Buffy runs up and yanks the guy off the woman, sending him flying back into a tombstone. She tells the woman to run, then turns her attention back to the man, who�s picked himself off the ground, and is now wielding a knife. They trade blows, but Buffy is obviously the better fighter, and she soon knocks him flat on his back. The woman behind her screams again though, distracting her when she turns around to see what the matter is. Another man has entered the clearing, but Buffy sees that it�s Officer Grant. He yells and gestures behind her, and Buffy whirls back just as the killer tackles her. She knees him while on the ground, and he falls off her. Grant jumps in to immobilize him, and Buffy shouts that he�s got a knife. But too late, Grant is stabbed in the arm and he recoils in pain. The killer raises the knife to plunge again, but Buffy kicks the knife out of his hand and he takes off running, leaping over several tombstones. Buffy looks to see that the woman is all right, but hysterical. Grant is kneeling on the ground, his hand clamped over his bleeding forearm.

Commercials.

Grant is in the hospital getting his arm stitched up and bandaged. He�s questioning Buffy while he�s there about what she was doing in the cemetery that night. Buffy admits that she was afraid the murderer would try again. Grant wonders why she would think that, and Buffy reveals that she knows he�s a serial murderer. Grant is astounded, and says that that information hasn�t been released to the public yet. He demands to know how she knows. She says that she has �a friend who�s good with computers�. Grant grins wryly and says maybe the Sunnydale P.D. should hire �this friend� to work for them. After a moment, he says that maybe they should hire Buffy. Buffy actually laughs, and Grant says that he�s serious. He�s seen that she�s tough, she can take care of herself and others, and she obviously wants to put the bad guys behind bars. Buffy snerks that she probably wouldn�t make the height requirement. But she seems to kind of be thinking about it.

At the Summers house, Spike and Dawn are taking a break from training, and Spike asks where Buffy rushed off to. Dawn tells him a little about the murder, and says Buffy�s gone off to save the day yet again. They talk a little bit about Spike�s feelings for Buffy�Dawn insists he�s still in love with her, and Spike says he�s not. Dawn says you don�t just wake up one day and stop loving someone�and Spike says that that�s not what happened. He says that it was his love for Buffy that started everything. It started the change in him that led him to becoming who he was. It wasn�t the whole reason why he was fighting for the good side now, but it definitely had something to do with it. But he knew that Buffy could never really love him the way he�d wanted, and had eventually accepted it. Dawn snerks that she�s got a �recovering vampire� training her, and Spike mock-growls and attacks her. Dawn flips him and laughs at his surprised expression.

Cut to Willow arriving at home. She looks around for Tara, but doesn�t seem too surprised when she can�t find her. Cut to Tara closing up at the Mystic Mind. We see flashes through someone else�s eyes, watching her close up. The images rush toward us as the watcher moves in for the attack.

Commercials.

Buffy and Grant are in his police car, and he�s driving her home. They�re talking about how he became a cop, and Buffy wonders at how quickly he went through the academy. He explains that it�s actually kind of a weird situation. He says that the crime rate in Sunnydale is surprisingly high, and cops don�t seem to have long life spans there. As a result, neighboring precincts have begun to withhold loaning officers to the Sunnydale P.D., afraid they�d never get them back. This meant that they had to start recruiting from Sunnydale itself�and the shortage of cops on the street had led to a shorter, but more grueling training and screening process for would-be rookies. He explains that normally it takes two semesters of police academy before one can become certified to be a police officer, but that time has been cut down to two months in Sunnydale. Buffy seems contemplative. Grant thanks Buffy for saving his life.

Just then a call comes through on the CB, about some screaming heard at a magic shop in downtown Sunnydale. Buffy freaks out, wondering if it�s the Magic Box. Grant relays the request for more info, and the dispatcher says that it�s the Mystic Mind, and gives the address. Buffy tells Grant that her friend works there. Grant flicks on the police lights and they rush to the scene.

Tara hides in the aisleways of the Mystic Mind, listening to the killer stalk her from the front of the store. Using magic, she makes him think he�s heard a sound toward the rear of the store, and he starts in that direction. Tara edges toward the door. The killer hears her moving, and stares in her direction, trying to figure out where she is. Using more magic, Tara blinds the killer and escapes out the front door just as Buffy and Grant pull up. She tells them the killer is inside, and Grant pulls his gun, telling Buffy to stay outside, and enters the shop. Buffy tells Tara to get to safety, and goes in after Grant.

She wanders the aisles of the store, listening intently for any sound of the killer. She enters the door to the tarot-reading room, and as she clears the door the killer jumps her. They scuffle in the enclosed space, and Buffy has to stop her instincts to kill him. She clocks him a good one, and he goes down. Buffy calls for Grant, and kneels on the killer�s back with his hands behind him, in case he wakes up. Grant comes in and cuffs him. He says, �you know, I wasn�t kidding when I said we should hire you.�

Commercials.

At the Summers house the next morning, Xander drops off the paper. The headline reads �California Serial Killer caught by Sunnydale Citizen�. Xander cracks that it�s a far cry from the days when she was wanted for murder. He grabs a donut from Dawn, and then wonders whatever did happen to that murder charge? Buffy gives him The Look, and he backs down with a grin. Dawn asks Buffy what she�s got planned for today, since she�s off work. She thinks Buffy�s gonna be loafing around and catching up on her General Hospital. Buffy just smiles.

Cut to Buffy walking up the steps to the Sunnydale Police Station.

End Credits.

�Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

�The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.

�Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.�

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