You know, this show has a tough act to follow.

Anyway, previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Joyce died, Glory and Ben are the same entity but only Ben knows Dawn is the Key.

NOW, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy is picking out a casket with Giles and a freaked out Dawn.  Buffy worries about bringing Dawn along and, while Buff and Giles talk biz with the funeral director, Dawn lingers to stare at the casket.

After the credits we continue the funeral arrangements at the Summer residence.  Or at least, Buffy and Giles continue to set in motion the plans that Joyce had made if the operation was unsuccessful while Dawn, Willow and Xander listen.  Dawn is pissed that she wasn't involved in the planning now or when her mom and Buffy talked about it.  Dawn asks if she can stay at Willow's instead of being at home.  Buffy agrees.  Another aggrevation is that they can't get ahold of Hank Summers.  The number they had doesn't work so they've just left messages everywhere.  (When Joyce originally was diagnosed Buffy mentioned then that he hadn't got in touch with them when they tried to let him know.)

On the way out Xander and Willow run into Spike with another bunch of flowers.  Xander yells at him for trying to score points with Buffy at a time like this but Spike insists that the flowers were for Joyce because he liked her.  Spike throws down the flowers and leaves and Willow checks out the flowers - no card.

We now go to a BtVS first.  An actual funeral.  When it is over Buffy remains behind alone.  After a very nice edit and a couple of hours darkness falls and Angel shows up, apologizing for not coming sooner.  Buffy and Angel remain at the grave side for most of the night being needy and comforting.  Angel offers to stay in town as long as Buffy needs him and they kiss and then decide that perhaps he should leave fairly soon.

At Willow's place Dawn comes up with a great idea.  Totally ignoring the fact that you're not supposed to use magic to heal someone Dawn asks Willow and Tara to help her do a resurrection spell.  This is the part I found interesting.  Willow says it's a bad idea because these spells are super powerful so if they go wrong they blow up big.  Tara says it's a bad idea because it's wrong ethically.  Dawn pouts.

At Xander's place he and Anya are having sex (big surprise).  Anya theorizes that sex is particularily good right now because death makes you think of life and the thought that she and Xander can create life is a very powerful feeling.  After Xander has a momentary wiggins Anya assures him she's talking theoritically rather than immediately and Xander can appreciate the feeling as well.

At the hospital Jinx the Scaley tries to persuade Ben to get close to the Slayer in order to find out where the Key is.  Ben let's slip that the Key is "an innocent" and, when his brilliant attempt at trying convince Jinx that the Key isn't a person fails, he stabs Jinx.  Jinx makes it back to Glory so that he can deliver the information in true melodramatic style though.

Next day at Willow's she and Tara head off to breakfast but not before Willow sneakily pops a book out of the shelf which Dawn sees.  The book is mainly history but there is a section on resurrection spells.  When Giles picks her up and takes her to the Magic Box she starts picking up some of the stuff she needs.  She takes the stuff to Joyce's grave that night where Spike finds her and offers to help as long as she doesn't tell Buffy.   Dawn can't get the spell to work so Spike takes her to a local wizard who tells her that she needs a demon egg and a picture of Joyce.  He's kinda vague, however, on what Joyce will be like if the spell works hedging the "She'll still be my mother, won't she?" with the answer "More or less".  Spike and Dawn get the egg and then head to the Summer residence to do the spell.

Tara sees the empty space in the book case and adds two and two.  Willow says it's just a harmless history book but Tara is worried enough to phone Buffy who is getting home just in time to pick up the phone but not soon enough to stop Dawn from finishing the spell.  While Dawn waits for Joyce to arrive she tells Buffy why she's doing it.  To here it appears that Buffy doesn't seem to care about her or that Joyce is dead.  That this whole thing is just one chore that she has to do.  Buffy tells her that this is her way of dealing.  That if she stops "doing" then she'll realize for real that Joyce is gone and that she's the adult of the family.  That if she's not supposed to be the mom then who will take care of them?

A shadow crosses the living room window and there is a slow, even knock on the door.  And Buffy, confronted with one last hope that it's her mom and things can be normal again, runs to the door.  But Dawn, finally realizing what the wizard and Tara where saying, tears up the photo so that, when Buffy opens the door, there is nothing there.  And both finally accepting that all they really have now is each other, hold each other and cry.

Fade to black.

Random Quotes

No quotes at the moment.  My copy is on loan to a poor Buffy-ite who missed the show.

Random Notes:
I will never, ever, ever be able to look at eggs, sunny-side-up again.

Willow slam one.  Gods but she is a lousy liar.  And has she some 'splaining to do when Tara gets off the phone with Buffy and has a moment to digest how and what Willow was saying rather than just the information she was giving.

Willow slam two.  I once saw an advertisement in a magazine that basically said "learn karate without the mumbo jumbo".  That's what Willow is doing.  She wants the power of the spells without the underlying and guiding beliefs about how those powers came to be and how they should use it.  Tara accepts the whole kit and caboodle.  Its wrong - we don't do even if we could.  For a show about monsters BtVS has a lot of grey areas so it's nice to see a character say no, this is always wrong.

When Dawn was telling Willow and Tara that they did not know how she felt neither Willow or Tara didn't contradict her.  Which leads me to believe that Tara hasn't told Willow and that Tara realized that she really doesn't know how Dawn feels.

I really wish they would reserve the word "wake" for what it actually means.  (This is the 1/4 Irish of me talking.)  A wake is where you prop the deceased up in a corner and tell stories and get drunk.  Which, in Sunnydale, could be very amusing when chances are so high that the deceased can join in.  Joyce and Buffy also missed the point of a wake.  It's not for the dead guy - they're dead.  It's for the living to let go.  Which, in Sunnydale, is not something people are good at.

Buffy has to stop internalizing her emotions or she's gonna get an ulcer.

Angel Notes:
One word: Harmony.  She may be getting same-old, same-old on Buffy but she rocked on Angel.  Actually, a few more words: Willow guest shot complete with jammies and toothbrush.  Plus Cordy's relief when she finds out that Harmony is a vampire and not some "big old lez-bo".  Plus David Fury wrote the show and the continuity between the two shows is very apparent.