Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer... umm: Spike has a chip, the First Evil S&L is killing people, Amy is bad, Warren is dead, Tara is dead and Kennedy is hitting on Willow. This has got to be the deepest they've ever gone in the archives - they were digging up clips from season four here.
Anyway - now. Giles is off to take the Potentials on a field trip to meditate with all the Teen Slayers except Kennedy who has the flu. Spike has chained himself in the basement because, soul or not, he doesn't trust himself not to strangle the Teen Slayers in their sleep. An urge Buffy is beginning to share as she revels in the thought of only sharing her bathroom with six people. Just before we break for the opening credits Spike's chip fires causing severe pain.
Plot One: Buffy and Spike (aka it's her show so she has to be in it)
Buffy calls Riley, leaving a message that Spike's chip is malfunctioning. However, being more paranoid than Mulder she's not sure the message got through so she and Spike head to the former Initiative base to look for information. Or the happy warm drugs that the soldier boys used on Spike.
The base is still a slaughter house. It's spooky and dark and full of scavengers. Especially one really big scavenger who knocks Buffy across the room and drags Spike off for dinner. Buffy kills it. (Okay, there's about five minutes of Buffy and Spike fighting it but it was filmed so dark there's no details.) Once the Monster of the Week is dead the lights all pop on and a bunch of military guys are on the catwalk. They tell Buffy that Riley sent them and they check out Spike's chip. The chip's warranty is nearly up, apparently and it's Buffy's call - fix the chip or remove it.
Plot Two: Anya, Xander, Dawn and Andrew (aka the throwaway plot)
While Willow/Kennedy is busy with Plot 3 and Buffy/Spike with Plot 1 the other four receive a phone call from England and Giles' Watcher friend Robson. Seems he remembers the Bringer swinging at Giles' head with the big old axe but then nothing else. Immediately the four try to desperately remember if they've seen Giles touch anyone or anything. They can't.
Road trip! They drive to the desert and jump Giles who promptly decides they're all insane but explanations will have to wait until next week because we have to deal with plot three.
Plot Three: Willow and Kennedy. (aka the one we tuned in for)
Kennedy isn't sick with the flu. She's got a thing, a mission, a plan. A plan that involves paper umbrellas, the Bronze and Willow. A plan that works remarkably well because she scores a goodnight kiss from Willow.
Who turns into Warren.
At first everyone assumes that it's the First but another kindergarten memory convinces them that it's really Willow. Willow figures it's another one of her self imposed spells, like the no-see spell, and that she can handle it. Off she storms with Kennedy in her wake.
Unable to lift the spell herself she heads to the university's Wiccan group where she finds Amy. Amy is all nice and apologies and tries to do a spell to free Willow. The spell fails and Willow slaps Amy. Aghast she blames Warren and storms off leaving Kennedy on the other side of a barrier spell.
Kennedy grills Amy on what the heck is going on. Amy lets slip that she knows Kennedy is a Potential and, in true bad guy fashion, spills the entire plan. Willow, Amy explains, is just too damn loveable and powerful. She had more power in her pinky than all the rest of them and she used it to turn evil. And, to top it off when it was over everyone just accepted her back into the fold and it was all hugs and poor Willow. Kennedy says that Willow is losing herself in Warren which just amuses Amy. Kennedy postures and threatens and Amy teleports her to the Summer back yard.
Willow, meanwhile, is losing it. She's acting and thinking more and more like Warren. She heads to the gun shop, the one where Warren bought his original gun, and gets another. Carrying it she enters the backyard just as Kennedy pops in.
Kennedy tries to comfort Willow but she pulls up the gun, clearly enraged with Kennedy for causing Willow to kill her. Him, says Kennedy. But no, her. Tara, to Willow was alive, a part of her forever.
Right up until she kissed Kennedy and let Tara go.
Willow flips in and out of Warren, calling Kennedy names while appealing to here for help. Finally Kennedy figures it out, realizing that this really is fairly tale magic. Cautiously she kisses "Warren" and Willow returns. They help each other into the house where Kennedy is going to make some tea.
Fade to black.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Just some general musing here but I think Willow is one of those people who, when they're about to have a conversation with someone, they actually practice it a few million times in their head first. So, because of that, I don't think Willow has actually talked to anyone about Tara. I mean, I think she wants to but I also think she knows her friends. "Hey Xander, Tara's dead and I feel sad." "You feel sad? How do you think I feel? Tara's dead but at least she's not a vengeance demon making your life a living hell. Physically haunting and mocking you are every turn and... oh, hey. Wanna hear the yellow crayon story again?" Or, "Hey Buffy, Tara's dead and I feel sad." "You feel sad? She only died in your arms. LUXURY! You didn't have to stab a sword through her chest and send her to hell for a century of torture and pain." Or, "Hey Dawn, Tara's dead and I feel sad." "Tara's dead? Was that before you tried to kill me or after? Wait! It was both!" Or, "Hey Anya, Tara's dead and I feel sad." "You feel sad? Why is it always about you? What about me? I haven't had sex in over fourteen episodes and Andrew is starting to look good."
Okay. I feel better now.
Fix the chip or remove it. DUH! The only reason that the chip won't be removed is because Joss thinks we think he "can't".
It is so amazing to see Willow actually smile. Not that loopy grin like she flashed at the end of Family when Tara agreed to stay. But still, little smiles are just as good.
Agreeing with Andrew and Xander here. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is an excellant comic book.
Isn't Willow's stop Kennedy's stop? Unless they're taking advantage of the fact that there's some empty rooms for some alone time.
That's it? Hinting and dodging around since "Conversations with Dead People" and they solve the Giles thing in two minutes as the third plot line?
RANDOM QUOTES
Buffy: "It's not a book thing. It's a phone thing."
Spike: "Who you gonna to call? [pause] God, that phrase is never going to be useable again, is it?"
Buffy: "Remember when things were nice and boring?"
Willow: [pause considering] "No."
Buffy: "Have fun ... delivering the tea."
Willow: "Not if you're going to say it all dirty. [muttering] It's just tea."
Okay. I'm going to resist the urge to copy the entire Bronze conversation except for two.
Willow: "I just... what, can you always tell? Just from looking at someone?"
Kennedy: "No. No, of course not. That wouldn't be any fun. The fun part is the process. Of getting to know a girl. It's like... it's like flirting in code. It's using body language and laughing at the right jokes and.. and looking into her eyes and knowing she's still whispering to you, even when she's not saying a word. And that sense that, if you could just touch her, just once, everything would be okay. For both of you. That's how you can tell. There's a moment here, a real connection. Then. [pause] Or if she's really hot, you just get her drunk, see if she comes on to you."
Willow: "Why do you like me? You don't even know me."
Kennedy: "Have you seen you?
Kennedy: "How are you?"
Willow: "I don't know."