7.4

Episode 7.4

"Flashback"

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

October 14, 2001

Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Spike was implanted with a chip by the Initiative. Dru came back for Spike, but he offered to kill her for Buffy. Spike found out the chip didn't work anymore, but elected to stay in Sunnydale to protect Dawn until he figured out what he wanted to do about it, if anything.

The episode opens with the Scooby Gang watching tv at the Summers� place. Dawn mentions during a commercial break that Josh, a boy from school, asked her out for the following night. Buffy goes into overprotective mode, and Dawn calls her on it, saying that her memories may have been implanted by monks, but they were nonetheless accurate, and wasn�t Buffy seeing Angel at Dawn�s age? Buffy glares, and Dawn seems to realize how bad of an example that was. Buffy relents and says she just worries because of the whole Hellmouth thing. Willow agrees, pointing out how she, Xander and Buffy had the worst luck with dating when they were her age. She starts rattling them off� �Internet demons, adulterous werewolves�� Buffy continues, �brooding vampires, secret military experiment soldier guys�� Without looking up from the tv Xander cuts in �giant praying mantises, rejuvenated mummies, evil slayers��evil cheerleaders�� At the last he looks up at Dawn and the others, who are all staring at him. �Not that you�ll probably have to worry too much about the last two, but still. Forewarned is forearmed.�

Dawn tells them she�s lived on the hellmouth long enough � and gotten enough training from all of them � to know a normal boy apart from a vampire. And Josh is definitely a normal boy. She asks Buffy again if she can go, and Buffy relents. We hear Buffy�s voice over �I just don�t want you getting hurt; there are a lot of bad things out there.� as the scene changes to Spike leaving Willy�s bar. At first we think he�s one of the �bad things� out there, but then the camera pans back to reveal several dead and bloody bodies strewn about the parking lot. Spike looks bewildered.

Opening Credits.

At school the next day, Dawn�s teacher is passing back english reports. Dawn�s is an A, and she smiles. Behind her, a boy at another desk tosses a note up that lands at Dawn�s foot. She surreptitiously picks it up and unfolds it to read his question as to whether or not she can go out that night. Smiling, she writes back a big �Yes�, adds a smiley, folds it up, and tosses it back to him, still facing front.

Cut to Spike�s apartment, where it�s dark due to all of the thick drapes hanging over the windows. The camera pans around a chair facing the door, and we see that Spike is sitting in it, a crossbow trained at the door. He pauses for a moment to take a swig from a flask, but his vigilance on the door is unwavering. After a moment there are scratching sounds at the door, and it opens to reveal Drusilla. Spike says he kinda had a feeling it was her, but doesn�t drop the crossbow. He asks why she�s there. She slinks in, and says that she got tired of L.A��.Angelus didn�t want to play anymore. Spike asks her again, and Dru reveals that she knows his chip doesn�t work anymore. She kneels in front of him in the chair, and turns the crossbow aside. She comes on to him, and tries to tempt him to go away with her and re-live their reign of terror, relive the good times, and a flicker of temptation shows on Spike�s face before he tells her to get out. Drusilla smiles knowingly and leaves, and there�s a shot of Spike�s face as he thinks.

Flashback, England, 1880. The camera follows the back of a woman with brown hair, wearing period dress as she negotiates a path through throngs of partygoers at an upscale gathering. She enters a group of people standing around the fireplace to greetings of �Cecily, dear!� They make conversation, during which the shot pans around the faces of the women in the group. Cecily offers the woman next to her a platter of finger foods, asking if she�s hungry. The woman�s face is revealed; it�s Dru. In gameface, she replies �famished�, and starts feeding. Everyone freaks out and starts screaming, and several of the women faint. Across the room, Spike has also erupted into a feeding frenzy from among the group of men he was chatting with. Screams are heard elsewhere in the house, and Dru smiles dreamily and dances around the room as she kills, commenting that Daddy and Grandmother have arrived. She comes to a stop in front of Cecily, who is quivering with fear. Dru taunts her, drawing out her terror, and Cecily appeals to �William� to help her. Spike grins with malice and chooses his new vampire ties over his human ones, and sinks his teeth into Cecily�s neck; killing her.

In Dawn�s room, Buffy�s giving Dawn last-minute advice on self defense manuvers. Dawn laughs and says that Josh is a normal guy�a good guy, and she won�t need to worry about any of that stuff. Besides, she can take care of herself. She admits to Buffy that she�s mostly worried he�ll think she�s weird�or somehow be able to see that she�s not quite human, or something. She just hopes that nothing strange happens on the date. Josh arrives and Dawn bounds downstairs to meet him, Buffy, Tara and Willow all hanging around pretending not to hover. The two teens leave, and Willow comments that it feels like yesterday that Giles was admonishing Buffy for neglecting her sacred duty to go out on dates. And look, now Dawn was dating. Buffy suddenly feels old, and Tara suggests that maybe she just needs a boyfriend in her life to add a little spice. Buffy quickly declines, attributing her reluctance to all of her past failed relationships. She decides to go patrol, and leaves. Willow and Tara sit there for a long moment before Tara asks "Should we call Xander?� Willow nods. �Yeah, he said he wanted to go.� She gets up and goes to the phone, dialing Xander�s place. �Xander? She just left. Right. Meet you across from the movie theatre in ten minutes�

Commercials.

Spike is walking down an alley way when he comes across Drusilla feeding off of a young man, whom she lets drop when she sees Spike. Spike asks if the boy�s dead, and Dru mocks him for caring. He checks the boy�s pulse, but he�s dead. Spike warns Dru that Buffy�s still the slayer, and it won�t take her long to catch up to Dru if she keeps going around killing Sunnydale�s residents. Dru starts acting psycho, and talks about Buffy being �filled with light�, and calls her the key. Spike snorts and matter of factly says that Buffy�s not a key�knowing first hand that Dawn is. Dru keeps repeating �the key, the key, the key� over and over to herself, and Spike derisively says that her wires are crossed. Dru replies that he�s wrong, and talks about soldiers, �march, march, march�. Spike�s confused. �The Initiative? They�re all gone, Dru.� Drusilla seems to sober, and she confidently walks up to Spike, trailing a hand across his chest. She reminds him of the mindless killing they used to enjoy together�the carnage they created. Spike looks tempted again. �And what about my naughty Spike?� she asks. �Is he all gone?�

Flashback, 1969. New York.

�All Along the Watchtower� plays from an off-screen stage as a huge throng of listeners sways to the music. Everywhere people are lighting up, making out, or in general just sitting around looking stoned. Spike and Dru push through another group of people, Dru giggling, and Spike grinning maliciously. He shoves one young man in his path, and the guy reacts with anger, shoving him back. Spike vamps out, and the guy recoils��the man next to him grabbing his arm and trying to pull him away. The first guy crossly says �Sod off, Ethan�this bugger deserves what�s comin� to �im.� * Ethan *, a bit less under the influence than his friend, takes stock of Spike�s menacing demeanor, and hauls his friend off. �Come along, Ripper��the girls are waiting for us��

Spike sneers, and looks around at all of the unsuspecting, defenseless people. He comments to Dru that it�s like taking candy from a baby, and quickly finds a stoned flower person to feed upon. Drusilla laughs madly as he throws away the hippy and spaces out.

Back in 2002, Dawn and Josh come out of the movie theatre, and Dawn quickly shoots down Josh�s idea of cutting through the cemetery to get to the ice cream shoppe. She instead suggests they take a walk through the woods first. They head off, and a moment later Tara, Willow, Xander and Anya come out of the movie. Tara complains about how bad the movie was, but Xander and Anya don�t think it was all that bad. Tara turns to them. �When your child is 17 would you want her watching that smut?� Xander and Anya freeze. On the sidewalk, Willow has spotted Dawn and Josh and calls for the others to come before they lose sight of them.

Elsewhere, Buffy�s on patrol and she comes across the body of the guy Drusilla killed earlier. After checking for a pulse, she jogs over to a phone booth and anonymously calls emergency services; then leaves.

Interior, Willy�s bar. Spike nurses a tumbler full of blood at the counter, while Willy wipes down the bar with a rag. Buffy comes in and Willy complains to Spike �How many times I tell you it�s bad for business, her coming in here?� Buffy bites back a response, but we�re left with the impression that this is a routine argument, and done more for show than anything else. Buffy sits down next to Spike and tells him about the guy she found in the alley. At his total lack of response, she goes on to tell him she found fresh blood stains in the parking lot in front of the bar. Spike tells her he knows who the guilty vamp is, and Buffy wants to go track him down. Spike stills her, and says he�ll take care of this one. Buffy asks if he�s sure, and he says yes, which she accepts. Changing gears, she tells him that Dawn is out on a date, and Spike goes into over protective mode, and he and Buffy agree that this guy will get pummeled if he so much as touches Dawn. Willy observes that they�re acting like a married couple, worried about their kid. Spike and Buffy look at each other, horrified.

Cut to Dru walking along the street. She scares a guy and his date walking by, and they go running. Giggling to herself, Drusilla enters the park.

Commercials.

In the park Dawn and Josh are walking along. Josh tells her that he really likes the stories she writes in class, and speculates that she�ll probably be a famous author some day. It�s a cute moment as Dawn is happy at the praise, and that she�s having a perfectly normal moment with a perfectly normal guy. She obviously likes Josh.

Elsewhere in the park, Buffy and Spike are patrolling, having left the bar. Buffy keeps looking at Spike, and he says again in exasperation that Willy has no idea what he�s talking about. Just then they stumble across a fledgling vampire hiding in the bushes, and they give chase when he runs.

Cut to Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara as they walk through the park. Anya worries that they�ll lose Dawn and Josh if they fall too far behind, but Tara says that if they�re too close, Dawn will hear them. Suddenly the fledgling vampire comes barreling from out of nowhere, plowing into Xander before jumping up and continuing to run away. Xander barely makes it to his hands and knees before Buffy runs out of the foliage and jumps over him, chasing the fledgling. There�s a beat of silence before Willow starts to say �Was that Buffy?�. Xander gets to his feet just in time for Spike to come running out and collide with him. The vampire curses and jumps up, chasing after Buffy and the fledgling. The others stare at each other for a moment then leap into the pursuit.

In another clearing, Dawn and Josh have stopped to talk by a large tree. They flirt a bit, and Josh says that she�s not like other girls. Dawn says she is, and he starts to lean in to kiss her. Suddenly the fledgling emerges from the trees at one end of the clearing, races across, and disappears amid the foliage at the other side, getting their attention. Moments later, Dawn is surprised to see Buffy burst through the edge of the clearing. She says her sister�s name in shock, and Buffy doesn�t even break stride as she runs across the clearing. �Hey Dawn!� Dawn looks at Josh, trying to think of something that�ll make sense of what he just saw, but before she can even say anything Spike runs across the clearing after Buffy. He does a double-take when he sees Dawn�s proximity to Josh, and actually halts and walks back a bit. He threatens the boy �You. Keep your hands to yourself, or I�ll rip your arm off. And I can do it, too. Rip it clean off.�

Xander runs through the clearing and smacks into Spike before continuing through the leaves at the far end. Drawn back into the pursuit, Spike glares meaningfully at Josh and then runs after Xander as the rest of the gang runs by amid various �Hi, Dawn!� �s. In the silent aftermath, Dawn looks at the bewildered Josh and smiles weakly.

Cut to Buffy and the gang searching for the vamp, who�s apparently lost them. Buffy notices that Spike is missing, too. The scene switches to Spike as he comes across Dru feeding again. He tells her to let the boy go, but she doesn�t, though she does quit feeding for the moment. Dru tells Spike that he has to make a choice. That it�s easy to deny what he is when it�s fledglings and strangers he�s killing��but would he really kill her to save this boy? Not for the slayer�s love, and not to win a place with the humans, but because it�s the right thing to do?

Commercials.

Dawn and Josh are still in the clearing, and he wonders what in the world just happened, and who all those people were. Dawn explains that Buffy was her sister, and the four at the end were her sister�s friends. Josh asks about �the guy in the trench coat�, and Dawn says that he�s sort of an older brother type. A British, socially challenged, violent sort of older brother type. But she persists that she�s still normal, and says she�ll prove it to him. She leans in and kisses him just as the fledgling vamp rushes up behind Josh, impaling himself on the stake Dawn had ready and pointing outward. It dusts, and Dawn pulls back and smiles. �See? Just a normal girl.�

Cut back to Dru and Spike and the victim, and Spike tells her that this is the last time he�s gonna tell her to let the boy go. Drusilla mocks him. �You�ll never be one of them, you know that. They�ll never really accept you.� Spike tells her it�s more than that, and as Dru goes in to finish the boy, Spike attacks; freeing him. Spike holds Dru immobile as the kid escapes, and she thinks he�s toying with her; and calls him �my Spike�. He�s impassive as he looks down at her and says �Not your Spike��not �nymore.� and stakes her.

Flashback, Buffy and Spike are sitting on her back porch after Spike killed the Ghorka demon to save Dawn, and Spike�s wondering what�s wrong with him. He thinks he�s a deficient vampire. Buffy tells him there�s nothing wrong with him�he�s just found out that he actually cares about people. Spike whines that he never * used * to care about people, and accuses Buffy of breaking him; demands that she fix him. Buffy thinks she didn�t do anything, but Spike insists that it wasn�t until he fell in love with her that he started caring about people. He rambles on, saying that it opened a floodgate; did something to him. Was elemental in changing him to this course. Buffy denies it, and says that he changed for a reason, but it didn�t have anything to do with her. Spike says no� �you did something to me. And now�I don�t know if I can go back. More than that�I don�t know if I want to.�

Back in the present, Spike lets the wind blow the rest of Drusilla�s dust out of his curled hands. He takes a breath and starts to walk off when Dawn enters the clearing and sees him. She starts to tell him about her date with Josh, but then notices he seems kind of down. She asks him if he�s okay, and he thinks for a minute and says yeah, shaking off the mood that had settled over him. They walk off together and, as they exit the clearing, Buffy steps out from some bushes, having witnessed Spike dust Drusilla.

End Credits

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