Opening montage. Now, just let me say that I found the scene where Spike tries to put the bite onto Willow funny the first *million* times I saw it. But if I see it with the "I can hurt demons" scene spliced onto the end I'm gonna ... well, I'm not going to *do* anything but I'm tired of it, okay?
After the montage we arrive at Xander's basement flat. He, Willow
and Anya are playing poker and discussing Xander's new money-making scheme;
selling some kinda of healthy yet tasteless energy
bars. They are also discussing the lack of Buffyness in their
life. Which is understandable, Will
says, with a brand spanking new boyfriend."
"Yes, we've enjoyed spanking," Anya says at which point Xander changes the game from poker to 52 Pickup and the subject to the Boy Commandos. Generally the three of them, and specifically ex-demon Anya, have deep reservations about the whole Initiative thing.
Cut to Buffy being jumped by the Initiative. Buffy is putting
down commandos in a clearing, using
number three as a human shield to protect herself from a taser.
This is obviously a move she picked
up from Xena although she didn't slit his throat afterwards.
But I degress. Prof. Walsh calls a
halt. Just in case you hadn't figured it out this was all a training
exercise and it took them 48
minutes to find Buffy and 23 seconds to have their asses handed to
them. Prof. Walsh is amazed.
Buffy is modest. Riley is so parental-smug-proud at the thought
that his little woman just beat the
crap out of three of his best friends. I worry about him sometimes.
We now go to the song and opening credits (Oz still no, Spike and Riley
still yes and the phrase "Is
Buffy still in the credits?" doesn't work nearly as well as "Is
Giles still in the credits?"
We return to the next day in the cafeteria discussing their previous
evening. Buffy is happy-proud
and bragging sort of about how she impressed Prof. Walsh and
how long it took human shield to stop twitching. Willow, who says
her night was light on the Action Pack said that her evening of
teaching Anya to play poker was fun. Except for the Anya and
the poker part. But tonight would be a "just like old times" with
the four of them Bronzing (apparently one ex-demon replaces both Cordy
and Wolf Boy). Riley enters the room and grabs a twinky for lunch
to which Buffy tells Willow "Oh, he's so going to be punished." To
which Willow replies "Everyone's getting spanked but me."
This show had a lot of clever change of topics. They were all
obvious to the audience because we
knew what was going on but not to the characters. Nice combo
of writing and acting, in my opinion. Xander got the first one, Willow
this one.
Anyway, now off to the Giles and Spike Road Show Denouement. Giles
goes to Spikes crypt and pays him off for his help when he was a demon.
Spike takes the money, counts it and then tells Giles that they're through,
the town *is* big enough for the both of them and they should keep as much
of
it between them as possible.
Riley now takes Buffy into the dungeon. She is impressed with
it's size and cleanliness. Prof.
Walsh gives her some papers to read and then eat when she's finished.
Riley assures Buff that this
is a joke (the eating paper bit) but Buffy doesn't seem convinced.
Buffy is taken to the armoury
where she is impressed by the toys, especially a $20,000 Commando-Cam
that didn't make it onto
Letterman. She almost let's it slip that she knows about their
"conditioning" the Sub-Tees but
cleverly changes the subject. (Number three subject change if
you're keeping track)
Back to our favourite Wiccans now. Tara is showing Willow a doll.
It is an old and valuable spell
focus and Tara wants to give it to Willow. Willow says she couldn't
accept such a valuable heirloom but would be happy to do some spells using
it sometime. Tara says how about tonight? Willow says that
she has some specfic-people-plans otherwise she'd love to either do the
spells or invite Tara along. Tara says she understands and basically
gets all tongue tied and rushes off as soon as she can to her next class.
You get the impressions she just tried to do something that took a lot
of
courage and is not terribly surprised that it didn't work out.
Needless to say expecting something
not to work out does no in any way lessen the pain of said not-working-outedness.
And now, the dark secret on which the show hinges. Prof. Walsh goes into Room 314 (which we all remember was the number that Ethan warned Giles about because Willow reminds Buffy of it) where she talks to Dr. Frankenstein (I forget his real name but he's got to be evil because he wears black scrubs.) They are creating ... a monster! Part demon, part human, part Steve Austin they have cobbled together a demon hunting demon. Obviously neither of them read Mary Shelley.
Cut to the Bronze where Buffy is, surprise, an hour late. Xander
is advocating bailing when in she
walks with the A-team. Buffy apologizes for bringing the Commando
Boys but they were throwing a welcome to the Initiative party for her and
she couldn't dump them. Willow says that's fine but if
Willow had known it was a free for all she would have invited someone.
Buffy asks someone who?
Willow says just a hypothetical someone and (subject change four!)
doesn't Buffy think thing are
going too fast with the Commando Boys? The Scotty Gang realizes
that they're outwardly good guys but their motives, agenda and purpose
aren't known. Buffy is saved from seriously thinking about this by
multiple paging which causes her and the Commandos to go rushing off to
the dungeon to be briefed by Prof. Walsh and Dr. Frankenstein on a demon.
Buffy stands, a splash of red in a sea of olive drab. (Don't you
think you should suit up?/No, too Private Benjamin. Besides I
patrol in this halter all the time.)
Doctor Frankenstein says that the demon has arm spikes and they're not
to harm the arms. Buffy asks why? Doctor F says so they can
study how they work. Buffy asks what is the demon's motive as that
can help determine what it's actions are likely to be? Doctor F says
it's non sentient and
destructive. Buffy raises her hand again. Prof. Walsh says
save the questions until the Doctor is
finished. The Doctor says he's finished. Prof. Walsh says
remember that this is a capture and is
there any questions...pause..."Buffy?".
Willow goes over to Tara's, says that her earlier plans fell through
so if Tara wanted to do something... Tara says sure and smiles the
smile of someone just handed a large bowl of ice cream
and is really happy although they suspect that someone is going to
take it way and replace it with
an order of liver because ... ah, you know the smile.
Buffy and Riley and the A-team are tracking Polgara. Buffy is
worried that all her questions have
upset the Prof. and Riley does agree that questions are not the norm
in the Initiative. But, Riley says, Prof. Walsh likes you - she liked
you before I did. Buffy begins to question how it is possible for
Riley to have ever not liked her when we cut to the Beta Team where Riley's
ex second in command is grousing because Riley chose Buffy as his 2inC.
Beta Team spots Spike coming home from the 7-11 and shot him in the back.
While reporting in to Riley the A-team is jumped by Polgara.
This is the part of the show where I suddenly figured out how my dad felt when we use to watch Soap and One Day at a Time. There's just some things you don't want to know that your kids know, you know?
Riley whips out his collapsible combat baton (Freud anyone?) and he and Buffy attack Polgara. They cut from fight to Riley and Buffy making love with no sound but song with a lone female vocalist. Buffy distracts Polgara long enough for Riley to zap him. They look at each other and Buffy asks "So, what do you want to do now?" and we go back to the love making with Prof. Walsh watching.
This is out of order but it's easier to explain but Prof. Walsh and Doc Frankenstein decide that although Buffy would make a powerful ally she's too free willed and has too much influence over Riley to be "safe". So they decide to off her.
Buffy wakes with a look of confusion and fear, turns and finds Riley who asks "Weren't you expecting to see me?" NO STUPID SHE WASN'T!!!! This is the first time she's slept with a guy that hasn't turned into a heartless bastard monster. (Even in the "lost day" Angel episode he left with Doyle before she woke up.) However, morning cuddles are pre-empted when Walsh pages Riley and puts him in charge of retrieving Hostile 17/Spike.
Buffy goes to the dorm and sees both her and Willow's unslept bed.
Willow arrives and sees both her and Buffy's unslept in bed. "Out
all night?" asks Buff. "You too?" asks Will. "Yeah," says Buff
and then her pager goes off forestalling the need for confession.
Which is good because Willow seems a little nervous. (I do *not*
think anything, especially the wild thing, happened between Willow and
Tara but Willow is still very unsure of this new thing that's happening.)
Buffy leaves and
Giles calls Willow to say that he needs her at his place.
Oh, why? Sorry - Spike ran to Giles for help. After giving
back the money Giles have him for
helping Giles and Xander and Anya begin to remove the slug that Spike
had been shot with. Xander recognizes it from his soldiery Memory
Bank (tm) and Willow does an ionization spell which makes it hard to track.
Wiccan magic in the 20th century. Xander flushes the device, Riley
figures out what happens and Commando Boys head back to base.
Meanwhile Prof. Walsh tells Buffy that there is something in the sewers.
Likely a low level threat
and possibly just raccoons. She gives the Buffster a taser and
the Commando-Cam and sends her off, warning her it could be dangerous.
"Danger is my birthrate," says Buffy and right there is the
difference between the Slayer and the Initiative. Buffy quickly
finds DemonA and his bud, DemonB. (They look like Quarren from the
Star Wars universe. They're armed with big single bitted axes - I
half expected a double bit labrys but, well, I have issues.) Buffy
recognizes them as ones she saw on her tour, tries to shoot them and finds
that her taser doesn't shoot, just gives off little crackling sparks.
She fights, is knocked down and the little heart beat monitor goes flatline.
The
watching Prof. Walsh looks a little sad in a cold and expressionless
way and glances around to make sure no one was watching her watch.
Buffy is not, however, dead. No, Buffy is merely pissed beyond
belief. She downs one demon and
proves that she did apparently pay some attention in high school science
classes by tossing the taser into the puddle of water where DemonB is standing.
Water conducts electricity. A most impressive looking display of
pyrotechnics. There were no Buffy Quips (tm) for the
fight so you know that she's upset.
Riley arrives at the Dungeon to tell Walsh that Spike escaped.
Walsh, in an incredibly good acting
job of bad acting, tells him that Buffy ran off to take down two escaped
demons and god knows she
tried to stop her or make her wait for a back up but well...
Behind her we see on the monitor Buffy setting up the Commando-Cam so
that it's broadcasting her
face. She tells Prof. Walsh, and Riley, that Walsh's little plan
to kill her with her pet demons failed. "If you think that's enough
to kill me, you don't know what a Slayer is. Trust me when I say
you're going to find out." Riley storms away, ignoring Prof. Walsh's
orders and entreaties to stay.
At Giles' Spike ignores Giles's advice to leave town. He want's
to stay until they put him back the
way he was. Giles tell him, "As long as the Initiative is in
operation it's not safe for you here." "No," says Buffy walking in,
"it's not safe for any of us."
Final scene. Prof. Walsh is doing a butch, Alpha Bitch monologue
in the lab where Adam is. It's
along the lines that Buffy doesn't scare her, that Buffy can't be allowed
to stop the Initiative or Walsh, that Riley will come around when Buffy
is dead, that Buffy's death will be for the greater
good (Xena ref #2), that Buffy has no idea who she's dealing with and
when she least expects it...
And Adam spikes her through the back.
"Adam?" she says before falling to the floor.
"Mommy." says Adam.
Fade to black and Joss' name as the first credit. I love this man.
Random thought on closing: