Selfless
Episodes 127, #5 of Season 7
Summary
Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anya = vengeance demon. Just in case you forgot.
Willow and the gang are moving Willow into a room. Dawn is giving advice on how to fit in. Xander is all happy because he's single and someday he will date women. Not today though. But he's optimistic, the poor bastard, and he thinks Anya has settled down. Cut to carnage. Cut to credits.
Flash back warning. There were three of them, maybe four, and I know I'm going to put them in the wrong places. Bear with me.
We have a flashback to a medieval village. Aud and Olaf are happy raising rabbits although Aud wishes Olaf didn't spend as much time at the village tavern with the load bearing barmatrons and Olaf wishes Aud fit in a little bit better.
Willow is trying to talking to a professor about letting her back into classes, something the professor is happy to do because Willow was such a good student despite the slip in her grades at mid-terms. Willow sees Anya exiting a frat house and Anya makes some lame excuse about a new boy friend and lots of sex. Willow is doubtful, especially when she sees the blood on Anya's hand, and goes to investigate. She finds a bunch of dead guys and a girl in the closet chanting "I take it back". Seems the frat boys all got together so her frat boy boyfriend could dump her and humiliate her so she made a wish involving ripping out of hearts and then the spider came. What spider, asks Will just before the spider jumps her. Willow goes black eyes, snaps at the girl and fends of the spider. Then she phones Buffy at the High School and Buff and Xander go spider hunting.
Willow goes to Anya telling her she wants to help. Anya tells her no help is needed.
Flashback to the village again where Olaf is a troll. D'Hoffryn shows up and chats to Aud about the technique she used and offers her a job. Aud accepts and Anyanka is born.
Buffy and Xander discover another body and the spider's web. Xander gets knocked down a bunch but Buffy kills the spider after getting a few wicked scratches. They return home where Willow tells them that Anya summoned the spider demon and is responsible for killing about a dozen people. Xander asks why she didn't tell them earlier and Buffy says it's because Will knows that Buffy has to kill Anya now.
The conversation that follows is delightful. Because it harkens back on the entire run of the show. Xander accuses Buffy of starting to detach herself from the group like she always does. He asks how Anya rates killing when Willow, Spike and Angelus didn't and what makes this different. Buffy counters with that it's always different and complicated - that Spike was no longer a danger but Anya is, that Willow is human and Anya is a demon by choice, that she killed Angel so don't yell at her for making the hard choices because she is the Slayer and that's what she does. Xander storms off, Buffy grabs her sword and a jacket and Willow apologizes to Buffy that she can't help her kill Anya.
Flashback to a dining room during the Russian Revolution where Anyanka and Halfrek are toasting a successful vengeance while Moscow burns. Halfrek wants to have some fun but, for Anyanka, there is only work and vengeance is life.
Xander finds Anya at the frat house. They chat for a few minutes before Buffy shows up. They fight. Anya is in demon form and Buffy's match. Buffy impales her against the wall with a sword through the chest.
Flashback to Once More With Feeling. Anya sings about loving Xander. Or something like that.
Return to Anya stuck to the wall. Anya pulls the sword out and the fight continues. Buffy finally knocks Anya down and is about to decapitate her when Xander tackles her aside. D'Hoffryn arrives and, after a bit of rhetoric, asks if anyone has inquired what Anyanka wants.
Anya says she wants to take it all back. Undo it.
D'Hoffryn asks if she's aware of the price; the life and soul of a vengeance demon. Anya says do it. Halfrek appears and burst into flame.
Ha! Never go for the kill when you can go for the pain.
D'Hoffryn takes off. Anya leaves and Buffy tells Xander to follow her. They talk, Anya afraid that there is no her because all she's ever done is cling to what was there; first Olaf and then D'Hoffryn and vengeance and then Xander. Xander says that she shouldn't be a dope. Each one seems about to say something more, something that they consider important but maybe dangerous to say. They walk off in separate directions.
Fade to black.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
The politics of personality. Aud, sweet and simple, believes in the barter system and the giving of merchandise for good will and warm fuzzies. Anyanka believes that Communism is the answer to the world's ills and the perfect society. Anya is into capitalism with a capital capital.
And here I thought Anya's unique outlook on life was due to being a vengeance demon for a millennium. Apparently she's always been… odd.
FINALLY! You know, I'm a big Xander fan. He rarely disappoints me. And he didn't tonight. But at the end of season two, when he lied to Buffy about Willow's message, he disappointed me big time and I'm glad to see that he didn't get off Scot-free. I hope it's not dropped for another four and a half years.
I confess. I hit fast-forward through the song. I'll catch that in reruns.
Nice of them to spell it out. See Willow scared. See Willow use black magic (and we can tell because the evil contact lens are in). See Willow be snippy and mean. See Willow feels bad.
Dawn was amazingly absent for most of the show except for her little pep talk to Willow on how to bow to peer pressure.
Buffy was fricking annoying with her question about it Willow got into the course she wanted in the middle of the carnage update. And with the idea that Willow was more interested in school than the deaths. If that were the case we wouldn't have had the "stay and fight the good fight" just before blowing up the High School, would we?
Nice Angel mention and rah rah continuity. Looking for some Faith mentions now.
The subtitles were hilarious, expecially when they translated laughter. HA! HA! HA! Kudos to the cast for sounding like they actually knew what the hell they were saying.
Willow, sitting in the chair. Amazing how much energy Willow seemed to have while remaining almost totally static. And Buffy can't trust Willow because Willow doesn't trust Willow.
Anya is still a vengeance demon, right? The deal was D'Hoffryn undid the carnage. Hope they got the boy in the woods too.
Nice writing job on D'Hoffryn. Throughout the series he's been presented as almost nice. Solicitous of Willow in Something Blue and with Anya when she and Xander broke up. But at the end he only cares about his job, about his rep - not his "girls".
The room they were moving Willow into. If it was Buffy's old one, what the hell took them so long. If it was a dorm room, Willow moved out!
RANDOM QUOTES
Anya: (Upon seeing the carnage) What have I done?
Olaf: Trolls. They are wretched creatures indeed. The very thought of them makes me bend at the knee and flex.
Villager: Run! Hide your babies and your beadwork.
Aud: Vengeance.
D'Hoffryn: But only those that deserve it.
Aud: They all deserve it.
D'Hoffryn: That's where I was going with that, yeah.
D'Hoffryn: Behold D'Hoffryn, Lord of Aroshmaha. He who turns the air to blood and rains… Miss Rosenberg. How lovely to see you again. Have you done something with your hair?
D'Hoffryn: (Upon seeing the carnage) Ah, breathtaking. It's like someone slaughtered a Finch and Ambercrombie catalog.
Anya: You should have killed me.
D'Hoffryn: Oh, don't worry. From beneath you, it devours. All in good time.