Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike killed Principal Wood's mom and Principal Wood knows it. Currently on Buffy... actually, it's not very current. It's 1977 and Spike and Nikki the Slayer are fighting with young Robin watching. Things look bad but Robin knocks over a trash can letting his mom get the upper hand. Spike withdraws telling her that they'll meet again. Nikki praises Robin for staying hidden and reminds him that although she loves him that the mission, the job is the most important thing. Young Robin grabs a fallen stake and suddenly we are currently in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Spike, Buffy and Principal Wood are fighting a group of vampires. Principal Wood goes down and Spike saves him which causes Principal Wood to squeeze the stake so hard blood flows. Cut to credits.
Okay. Giles has a little bitty rock that Willow magically implants in Spike's head (in a fairly chill inducing CGI effect) that brings the trigger into Spike's conscious. Flashback to William the Bloody Awful Poet reading his mother his latest piece of work. She loves it and praises him before coughing up blood into a handkerchief. We've seen Moulin Rouge - we know what this means. William sits with her as she sings "Early One Morning" to him. Spike vamps out and attacks Buffy and the rest before regaining his composure. He tells them what the trigger is and that it was a little song that his mother use to sing to him while he was a baby. Buffy thinks problem solved but Principal Wood and Giles both think that Spike is still a tool of the First Evil S&L and a liability to be written off. Giles agrees to stall Buffy while Principal Wood kills Spike.
OH! Andrew answers the phone and tells Willow that she has a call from some effeminate guy from LA called Fred. Willow tells Buffy she has to take off for a few days but hopes to be back with good news. Buffy tells her to hurry back.
Flashback around now to Dru and William returning home. William is all excited because they're going to kill half of Europe, just the three of them. Dru is less than thrilled. William's mom, all pale and trembly enters the room. William is all happy that he's able to help her. To cure her. He assures her that it will only hurt at first.
Giles takes Buffy to the graveyard and has her training on Richard the Vampire while giving her greater good/ needs of the many outweigh needs of the few or the one as long as the one is Spike and not Giles. Buffy, being blond for a reason, finally figures out that Giles is stalling her and runs off to rescue Spike.
Sort of meanwhile, at Principal Wood's garage, tastefully decorated in homemade crosses, Wood trigger's Spike with WinAmp and some incredibly peppy folk singer. Not the Loreena McKennitt version. Anyway. Principal Wood then proceeds to beat the snot out of Spike. Flashback to William and his mum. Who very quickly lets him know that she has absolutely no intention of spending eternity with a bad poet and how liberating it is to finally be free of his clutching fingers. She vamps out, telling him that it will only hurt at first but William stakes her, telling her he's sorry. Wood asks why he's sorry and Spike tells him that he wasn't talking to him and proceeds to beat up Wood. Then Spike thanks him for curing him, getting him to realize that the hateful things were said to him by a demon and that his mum really did love him. He then vamps out and puts the bite on Wood.
Buffy arrives as Spike is leaving the garage. Spike shows her the still breathing Wood and tells her that he gave Wood a pass because he killed his mother. But he leaves no doubt that if Wood looks at him funny he'll kill him. Buffy goes into the garage to talk to Wood where she passes on Spike's warning. Then she tosses in the threat that she'll let him. Because she has a mission and that is the most important thing.
Later that night Buffy checks on the sleeping Dawn before confronting Giles. Giles makes no apology and begins to tell her more words of wisdom. But she tells him she's learned everything she wants to from him. And slams the door.
Fade to black.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
I just had this thought before watching the show, Buffy saying something like
"I don't want murderers in my home" and Willow saying "Right. Spike, Faith,
Andrew, Giles, Anya - you're with me." Things like that amuse me.
Oh my God. Spike has a mom with TB. Had a mom with TB. Rice is going to sue Whedon's tail if he's not careful with the Lestat comparisons.
A show without Faith is like a show without sunshine. Or at least the dark, gritty edgy sunshine that is Faith.
Buffy tells Wood she has no time for vendettas. Let's hope she feels the same way when Willow shows up with her Slayer.
RANDOM QUOTES
Dru: "You, you want to bring your mum with us?"
Giles: "So you really do understand the difficult decisions? That any one of us
is expendable during the war?"
Buffy: "Have you heard my speeches?"
Robin: "She was my world!"
Spike: "And you weren't hers. Doesn't that piss you off?"