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Cordelia: What I don't understand is how Xander can
just walk into
hell?
Giles: Many believe hell may not be a place so much
as a nebulous,
amorphous concept, and thus it is quite capable of
transmuting
itself into any manifestation that will be
comprehensible to
someone with Xander's organs of perception.
Cordelia: (again in desperation) But how can Xander
just walk into
hell?
Oz: One foot in front of the other, Cordy. If hell
wants him
there, it will let him in and it will reveal itself
to him in any way he can understand.
Giles: Exactly. I just hope Xander has no special
areas of
vulnerability.
Willow: Why is that?
Giles: Well, because the creatures there are after
one thing only--souls--and they will
exploit any weakness in him. They will want to keep
his soul there. I hope you're not going to tell me
about a chink in his armor.
Oz: More like a rusty hole left by a dull can
opener.
Giles: What?
Oz: Willow, show him what we found. Giles needs to
know this.
Willow: (retrieving a folder from a side table) Oz
went to the library and printed this off microfilm.
It's out of the old Sunnydale Gazette, from
thirteen years
ago.
She hands Giles a few 8-1/2 X 11 sheets of paper. He
looks at the
headlines.
Giles: (reading) 'The McAllister Case. A Day Care
Nightmare? by
Brian Willey, staff reporter, Sunnydale
Gazette.
Presecutors are prepared, today, to begin presenting
their evidence
in the child molestation trial of the century. Lead
Prosecutor
Lucy Damon, who will present the state's case, will
introduce
testimony that several children were systematically
sexually abused
at the McAllister Day Care Center in Sunnydale from
September 1984
to approximately February 1985 and the ages of the
children
reportedly assaulted were 4 and 5. On trial are
George McAllister
and his wife Elizabeth, who owned the center, and
four other
teachers who worked there during this period of time.
In a
bizarre twist, McAllister would sometimes dress up as
a clown to
entertain the children and it is alleged that it was
while he was
dressed up in his clown costume that he would
actually victimize certain
of the children.
Giles: (pauses, then continues to read) What sets
this case apart
from most others of this nature are the number of
participants and
the fact that for the first time the children
themselves will be
allowed to testify, although they will not do so in a
way that will
subject them to cross-examination, but rather their
interviews with
health care professionals, which were filmed, will be
viewed and
admitted into evidence. Defense attorneys have
fought the
admittance of this heresay evidence into the record,
on the grounds
that, according to defense psychiatric experts, much
of what these
chidren say are childhood fantasies or are based on
their
susceptibility to subliminal suggestion by the
examiners. "Their
methodology is closer to the one employed in the
Salem Witch Trials
rather than an examination of the facts of an actual
crime, which, by the way,
they can't even prove was committed." said Roy
Garton, defense
attorney describing the prosecution's case. The
judge, however,
the Honorable Justin Richards, has ruled that the
jury can make the
decision as to whether the children are fantasizing
or not.
Independent forensic medical evidence showing whether
the children
suffered injury or physical trauma was inconclusive
and these
alleged crimes could not be independently verified by
any adult
witnesses who would come forward. In addition the
defense team
plans to put on the stand, as witnesses for the
defense, people
who, in the course of a normal day, made random,
transitory visits
to the day care center; these people will all testify
they saw no
suspicious activities.'
Giles: And you think that Xander was one of the
children who
attended this day care center?
Willow: (sad, not speaking)
Oz: Willow, knowledge is power. (To Giles) He was,
and he
testified on camera for the trial. Also, afterward
he went into a
kind of self-imposed autism that lasted almost two
years, so
whatever happened to him affected him most seriously
and very
deeply.
Giles: This is bad. Sad for Xander, if he was
somehow harmed as
a child, but just as serious now, as this is just the
kind of thing
that those who are in control in hell would love to
use against
him. See, things of this nature give the dark forces
a handle to
use to torment those who venture forth.
Cordelia: Why am I the last to know any of this?
That poor boy.
But that explains a lot. Still, this doesn't excuse
him for not
telling me where he was going.
Willow: (to Giles) Cordy's very upset Xander didn't
tell her he
was quote-unquote leaving town.
Giles: Well, Cordelia, he probably felt you wouldn't
understand.
Sorry, that didn't come out well. From what I can
gather, he
probably didn't feel anyone would understand, not
just you.
Cordelia: He was right.
Oz: He didn't tell you Cordelia because he thought
you might talk
him out of it, and he didn't want to be talked out of
it. He told
me so himself. He said he was going and didn't want
to be
stopped and that talking to you might have stopped
him.
Cordelia: And that makes it okay? Well, it IS
better, but still
not okay. Gotta go. I'll have someone drop those
clothes off for
Mr. Whistler. Anything else?
Giles: No, Cordelia. I suppose you can go.
Cordelia gets up and leaves.
Willow looks over at Oz who looks away, then looks
back and
sheepishly shrugs. He mouths, 'So I lied?' and
shrugs again.
Giles: Oz, it might help if you could get a
newspaper account of
this Day Care Trial AFTER IT WAS OVER, to see how it
turned out.
I seem to remember something about it--it made the
papers in
England--but I can't remember what was said.
Oz: Sure. Will do.
Cut to Angel in Hell at Ladies's Room
Venue.
Angel goes through a door and enters a Ladies's Room.
There's a
girl in there looking at herself in the mirror. On
the side of her
face she has a zit and she sighs and shrugs and
pushes at it and
sighs and postures and puts her hands on her hips.
Suddenly the
giggling sound erupts all around him and Angel is
startled and
cringes, then he looks around for a speaker or
wherever the sound
is coming from. Seeing nothing, he is suddenly
randomly convulsed
with pain but then he gathers himself and then goes
right past the
girl and out the other door.
Cut to Xander in Hell in the Phone Room
Venue.
The lady is chasing down a ringing phone on a
expansive floor literally filled with
phones of various shapes and sizes. Xander enters
and stops,
watching her for a second, and then he prepares to
leave, having to
step gingerly over a few scattered phones. She
scrambles forward
and answers a few phones with no response but then
she comes upon
the one that was ringing. She listens. Xander is
about to leave
through the other door. She looks up at him.
Phone Room Lady: Hey. (He ignores her because he
doesn't hear
her. She listens to her phone and picks up a
cordless phone and
flings it at him. She hits him in the back and he
turns; she
motions for him to come to the phone. He removes the
cotton from
his ear.) It's for you.
Xander: For who? Or is it, For whom?
Lady: (listening) Alexander.
Xander: (walking toward the door) Take a
message.
Phone Room Lady: No, it's for Xander.
Xander: (that stops him in his tracks) Well?
(turning) who is it?
I know it's not Whom is it.
Phone Room Lady: (into the phone) And who may I say
is calling?
(She listens) Angel.
He grins and goes over and takes the phone out of her
hand.
Xander: Yeah, where are you? I lost the directions
to your house. Was I supposed to take a right or
left at Acathla Boulevard? I
need to find you quickly.
Then he thinks and pounds the phone into his
forehead.
Xander: Wait a minute, how could you know I was
here?
Giggles: (giggling softly) I told him. We've got
him right here.
Would you like to talk to him?
Split screen. Xander and Giggles on the
phone.
Giggles is made up as a clown with a white face, a
red ball nose,
too-long red hair, and a circular ruffled collar.
His manner is
cheerful but his mouth is painted in a scowl and
sharp teeth have
recently been painted fanging downward from his
mouth.
Xander: Okay, Mr. McAllister, put him on.
Giggles: Wait, first, Alexander, I want to discuss a
little matter
with you. (Xander goes to hang up the phone.) Wait
just a minute,
young man. I think you owe me a bit of an
explanation in a little
matter of some lies told by a child. Xander
hesitates.
Cut to the living room of Buffy's house.
A hand opens the hypodermic case and replaces the
injector with
another and then closes it again.
Cut to Buffy's Room.
The room is dark. A clock dial provides the only
light. The door
opens and the person entering is framed for an
instant in the hall
light but her profile is absolutely gorgeous. Her
hair is piled
upon her head and she is wearing high heels and a
dress that
accentuates her curvaceous shape. It is obviously
Cordelia,
dressed to kill. She has a little penlight on a
keychain and she
shines it over toward Buffy who lies quietly and then
toward the
night table where she sees the hypo case. Advancing
she shines the
light on the case and opens it but discovers it
empty. She pauses,
thinking. Then she shrugs and starts back to the
door, but she
stumbless on something on the floor and she almost
falls down. She shines
the light down and Willow is lying there motionless.
Cordelia
screams.
A noise can be heard on the steps. Giles comes
through the door
and turns the light on. He surveys the scene and
immediately comes
forward and bends toward Willow. He wants to say
What? to
Cordelia, but can't get it out.
Cordelia: I don't understand. I just found her like
this.
Giles: She doesn't seem conscious. (He notices the
hypo on the
floor under her leg. It's no longer full, so part of
it has been
injected.) I don't understand. It was only glucose.
What could
have gone wrong?
Whistler: (who comes through the door after Giles)
No, I switched
it back. I replaced it again with the tainted blood
of the Slayer.
That's the only way to get the Slayer back. The
volunteer DOES
have to die so the Slayer can live. I lied to you to
get you to
talk her into dying for the Slayer. Protecting the
Slayer is
really my mission here on earth. And I will do it at
any cost.
Giles is incredulous and distraught. He tries to get
up to lash
out at the weird little man, but at that point he is
so completely
defeated, his legs won't support him. Visibly
shaking with his
grief, Giles sinks back and suddenly the tears come
to his face and
then he cries unabashedly like a baby and, then
completely ignoring
Whistler and Cordelia, he reaches down and picks up
Willow's body
and cradles her and he kisses her and puts his head
next to hers
and he sways her back and forth.
Giles: (crying up to Cordelia) It was a stupid
game, don't you
see? I made it a game to lie and I, in fact, began
to enjoy the
lie, to enjoy the power to know and to exploit my
knowing, and I had
Willow's complete trust, and I mislead this sweet
girl, and I sent
her to her death.
Cordelia: (looking uncomfortable and then looking
over at Whistler) Oh, my
god.
Cut to Angel in Hell.
Angel is being held by two of Darla's henchmen. He
struggles.
They are standing in front of a forest of trees, some
of which have
been chopped down. Darla looks menacingly at Angel.
Xander is
also being held but is curiously inert. Suddenly
Angel stops
struggling. Just as suddenly Darla steps forward
with a stake in
her hand and thrusts it forward toward him. Angel
is
helpless to resist and when he is staked he flies
apart in a cloud
of dust.
Cut to Buffy's room.
Buffy awaken with a start. She has just seen Angel
staked in a
very real dream and she is disoriented. She hears
someone crying in agony.
The voice is familiar.
Buffy: (from the bed) What's going on? Giles, is
that you
crying? I wouldn't have thought. (She looks over
the side and
sees that Giles holds Willow) What's wrong with
Willow?
Whistler: Nothing. Nothing's wrong with Willow.
She'll be fine.
Giles, she'll be all right. Giles, that's it. It's
done. The spell of
the potion is broken. Pull yourself together,
man.
Giles: (looking up in agony) What do you mean? How
could you do
this? How could I have ever trusted you?
Whistler: Almost, not quite. Not "How could I have
ever trusted you?" (He
pulls a thin piece of paper out of his shirt pocket.)
The answer
our judges were looking for--the EMOTION we needed
someone to
express to dismantle the mystical lattice of the
potion was--see,
here is the abbreviation key. I made certain you
didn't see me
remove this from the potion bottle in the Dumpster:
'HCIHBSS?'
(He hands it to the weakened Giles who looks at it
with a
bewildered look on his face.) It's a very distinct
but fairly
complicated emotion, and the imps use it frequently
to trigger
their potions because it's usually so difficult to
achieve.
HCIHBSS? stands for the question: How Could I Have
Been So Stupid?
That's the emotional state that one must go through
to break the
spell. Sorry, Giles, but you were the only one I
knew who has
sufficient maturity and pride in his erudition to
produce it. I knew you were
capable of attaining the exact emotion required and
in the
intensity necessary to be effective. I used
you--sorry. Your Willow will be
fine. She just injected herself with some of a very
strong
sedative, some that I brought from the hospital--the
same stuff that I
used on Hank Summers. Trust me, if you ever can
again, she'll be
okay.
Buffy: Hey, what's going on?
Whistler: You were under a weakness spell, but Giles
broke it.
Giles: Yes, after very nearly having a heart attack. No, actually Willow broke it, as long as she will be all right. Willow took a bullet for you, Buffy.
Giles lays Willow's head down onto the ground and
scoops up a
stuffed animal to place under her head.
Buffy: Oh? Oh. Giles, ignore the dust bunnies.
Giles slowly gets to his feet but then he suddenly
lunges and
attacks Whistler. Getting behind him, he pins his
arms back.
Giles: Buffy, do you still have your Slayer
equipment here? I'd
like to handcuff this guy to some pipes in the
basement until
Willow recovers for certain. If she's not 100% okay,
I'm going to
dismatle HIS lattice.
Willow tries to turns over on the floor. She opens
one eye, yawns,
and goes back to sleep.
Joyce: (appearing at the door, also yawning, but
then she smiles
when she sees that Buffy is awake) Now, I understand
what you were
talking about, Giles, looks like our Buffy's snapping
back quickly
once again. (she sees Cordelia) Oooh, don't YOU
look nice?
Cordelia: Well, I was waiting for someone to notice.
(to Whistler)
And you, you strange person, are not a nice man.
Give me back my
father's clothes.
Cut to Xander in hell in the phone room.
Xander is on the phone. Split screen with Giggles.
He
hesitates.
Giggles: Wait just a minute young man. Don't you
think you owe me
an explanation? Don't you think there's a little
matter we need to
talk about. A little matter of some lies told by a
child. Do you
remember your lies? Were they little, white lies?
No, I don't
think so. (Xander is tortured and his face twists
with internal
anguish. Giggles continues) Were they big, bad,
ugly lies?
Evidently. The police thought so, or they would not
have put
Giggles in jail. And when Giggles was put in jail
and everyone had
thought he had done bad things to the children,
Giggles's life was
completely ruined. You knew that. (Xander backs up
against the
wall and begins to sink to the ground; he is crying
and shaking his
head.) Giggles had nothing else to live for, then,
because nothing
would ever be the same again. No one would ever
believe that
Giggles had not done the horrible things the children
said he had
done--after all, why would the children lie?--so
Giggles ended his
life. (An odd thing begins to happen to Xander's
hair--it begins
developing patches of white.) And that's how I ended
up here in
Hell, for eternity. Suicide equals automatic
hell--you know that.
And you are responsible. For my being here. For
destroying my
life. I will live in hell for eternity and it's your
fault.
Xander: (his voice pitched high, childlike) But I'm
only a child .
. .(He cries) They trick me. They trick all the
kids. The
prosecuters are trying to make a name for themselves
on a high-profile case. They use us against each
other, child's fantasy
against child's story; they make us lie and then
force us to lie
some more.
Giggles: Well, thanks for the info, but it's a big
load of
nothing; how much good does it do me to know that
NOW?
Xander: (in his defense--still his voice in the
higher register)
They give us facial signals as to what is the right
answer and what
is the wrong answer--every child can read adult
facial signals--
that's how we know when our parents are displeased
with us. Then they tell me what Johnny said, and ask
me if I'm calling Johnny a liar, because Brenda said
the same thing. Then
they have those dolls with the stupid body parts.
Oh, my . . . (He turns
his head from side to side.) I try to tell them . .
. (His hair
is completely white by now.)
Giggles: No, you didn't. You didn't try. You just
lied and lied, right through
your rotten little baby teeth, you evil little creep.
You should
have been the one to die.
Xander: (crying) No, no, I try . . . but they won't
listen.
Giggles: Well, sonny boy. We WILL be keeping you
with us down here in
hell. Your soul needs to stay here. No one here has
done
anything worse than you. You ruined my life and
condemned me forever to this place.
YOU did. Liars like you deserve to be punished
forever. Here in
hell. You're staying, kiddo.
Cut to the Senate Committee Hearing Venue.
Angel runs through the middle of a US Senate
Committee meeting with
a witness giving testamony. They barely give him a
notice.
Cut back to the Phone Room Venue.
Xander looks dazed and confused. He uses his right
hand, the one
on his broken arm, to push the phone in his good left
hand away
from his head, and he puts the phone down. The woman
is off on one of her scrambles and the phantom phone
rings and
rings. He shakes his head and slaps himself and
semi-crawls over
to the table with a box and the comment cards on it.
He takes a card and a
pencil and begins writing. He looks really confused
and, for a second, his eyes
cross and wander; then he seems lucid again and he
looks down at
himself and inside his jacket. While he looks
confused again, he
begins to write some more.
Cut to the Lion Tamer's Venue.
Angel opens a door and it's suddenly a cage door in
the center of
a circus cage with the lions on one side and a man on
the other
side with a chair and a whip. The man keeps dropping
the chair out of fatigue
and the lions advance and then when he recovers and
whips them they
retreat to their perches. Angel picks his spot and
walks slowly
but steadily through the middle of this scenario.
The lions growl
but do not advance. Then he runs toward the door on
the far end of
the cage.
Cut to the Phone Room Venue.
Angel enters the room and a phone hits him on the
shoe as the lady
is sprawling forward, trying to reach a ringing
phone, and she sends
several other phones flying toward him. He looks
over to his right
and sees a young man with white hair looking confused
and he is being
whispered to by a circus clown with a red nose,
flaming red hair and a hideous
mouth. The sound of a low giggle can be heard. He
looks closer
and can't believe his eyes.
Angel: Xander?
Giggles: (looking up, giggling, shaking his head)
No. Just
someone who looks like him.
Angel: Is that you, I've been hearing, doing all
that laughing?
Giggles: Why, yes, young man. Just spreading joy.
Spreading joy.
Angel: Well, no one laughs down here unless they're
enjoying
themselves. And get away from him. Don't you think
I recognize someone feeding
when I see it?
Giggles: Make me.
Angel advances and grabs the man by the collar and
pulls him to his
feet. The man, in coming up, swings and hits Angel
in the
stomach. Then he slams Angel into the wall with
surprising force. Angel slumps to the
floor. The clown picks up the table, pulls a leg
off, and clearly knows what Angel is, and he is
about to stake Angel. But then suddenly from across
the room a stream of water hits him and he shrieks.
He is being squirted by Xander, and he cries out
in pain and drops the table leg. Xander squirts him
again, and the
clown cries out and runs toward the wall and then is
gone, having passed right
through it. Angel recovers and gets up.
Angel: Xander? What happened to your hair?
Xander: (dreamily) Oh, Cordy likes it this way.
Says I look
nouveau or something. And before that it was
quote-unquote quote-unquote--I forget the
quote-unquote. Imagine that?
Angel: We've got to get you out of here. That
clown? What do you
have in your squirt gun?
Xander: (lazily) Holy water.
Angel: Hey. Good idea. Got one for me?
Xander: (almost distracted) Oh? Yeah, I'm armed to
the teeth.
You can have one. Was going to bring Super Soakers
but they waste
too much water. (Xander reaches in his jacket and
hands one
over.)
Angel: Let's get a move on. I've got a posse after
me.
Xander: (spaced-out) Okay, Angel, gird your loins.
Always wanted
to say that, but you can't really, with the girls
around and all.
But since it's just us guys, gird your loins.
Angel helps Xander to his feet and Xander is
unsteady. He puts
Xander's good arm around his head and walks with him
to the door
and begins to exit just as the far door opens. It's
Darla, and
both Angel and Xander hear them, turn, and open fire
with their squirt guns. A cry of
pain can be heard as the door closes again.
Angel: That worked for the time being.
He gently puts Xander down next to the opening side
of their excape
door.
Angel: I guess we should just stay here for a while.
We can
defend this door as well as any other door. What do
you think?
Xander: (dreamily) I guess so. I just wish I could
remember;
there was something I wanted to tell you.
Angel: Well, what are you doing here in the first
place?
Xander: I forget.
Angel: Are you here alone? Did anyone else come
here with
you?
Xander: I can't remember, but I don't think so.
Angel: (exasperated) Well, what DO you know
something about?
Xander: Birthin' babies? I knows all about birthin'
babies.
Angel: Oh, yeah? (he chuckles despite the
predicament) Hey, I
finally got one. 'Gone with the Wind', right? Well,
your mind
can't be that impaired.
Xander: (confused) You finally got one? Well, it's
about time.
No, I AM confused. I've just been saving that one.
My mind
doesn't want to focus. I wouldn't have remembered
the name of that
movie if you hadn't said it. Something's wrong with
me.
Angel: (turning his back on Xander and facing the
far door. A
phone rings and the woman goes scrambling. He
ignores her.) You
must be here because of Buffy, I'm just guessing.
You're not here
for me; you're here for her. I know you love
Buffy--so do I.
Xander: Yes, I love Buffy. I can't help it. But
you have hurt
her and will again. I hate you for that.
Angel: So you have risked your life and probably
your soul for
her. To help me. If we somehow make it out of here,
I owe you.
I've risked my life for you, and vice versa, but
never my soul.
Name your price.
Xander: My price? Ok. Ok, leave her alone. You'll
only hurt her
again, you know that. She's too good for the both of
us.
Angel: (continuing to look away from Xander, he
cannot prevent his
eyes from tearing) You're right. I . . . will leave
her alone.
(He hides the fact that he's brushing tears away as
he continues to
look at the door.) (He says) I will . . . leave her
alone. (again
almost to get used to the sound of it.)
Angel hesitates, clears his eyes and turns back
around but is
horrified to see the Clown in the room again. It's
whispering to
Xander, who looks to be in agony. Angel squirts the
Clown and it
yelps in pain, and he continues to squirt it as it
again runs away.
He gives chase and scatters some phones but manages
to kick the
Clown in the ass as it passes into the wall and
disappears. Angel
looks back at Xander and Xander looks drained.
Hearing a noise and
whirling around, Angel is just in time to see the far
door fly open
again, and he squirts as hard as he can in that
direction. The
sound of someone squealing in pain is heard, but then
is
immediately squelched as the door closes. He looks
down at
his squirt gun and notices, through the clear
plastic, that it is
almost out of holy water. He goes over to Xander and
reaches
inside Xander's coat and finds two more guns; Xander
offers little
resistance and is kind of cross-eyed loopy. Angel
leaves one
pistol inside Xander's coat pocket and takes the
other. At that
point Xander seems almost catatonic.
Xander: (whispering) Not good enough.
Angel gets Xander to his feet and props him against
the wall in the
corner.
Angel: You stay there for a moment. We gotta do
something,
otherwise they'll just keep opening that door and
we'll just keep
squirting and we'll soon run out of water.
Once he's certain that Xander will stay on his feet,
Angel creeps
toward the siege door. He listens. The phone rings
and it
startles him. The woman goes on her wild chase once
again. He
takes the sleeve out of his pocket and places it in
his left hand
and quickly pulls the door open. Darla and three
demons are
standing there with their arms crossed. He wets them
down before
they know what's hit them and they shriek in pain and
flee.
Allowing the door to shut, he turns to go back for
Xander and views
with alarm that the clown is half-way in and half-way
out of the
wall, but it is again leaning towards Xander's ear
whispering to
him. Angel runs back squirting and the clown pulls
back into the wall
so Angel goes over to Xander and gets under his good
arm and walks
him to the other door and pulls it open. He
practically carries
him through.
Cut to the hallway at the top of the stairs at
Buffy's
Giles stand in the hallway with Willow (standing on
her own with a
cane) and Cordelia, who has by now changed back to
casual
sweats.
Giles: (contritely) Girls, I just wanted to say how
sorry I am
that I lied to you. My intentions were good, but I
exhibited a careless disregard for your safety that
is totally
unforgiveable. If that odd little man, Mr. Whistler,
were not on
our side, and I'm still not certain we can totally
trust him . .
.
Willow: Forget it, Giles. I would still trust you
with my life,
because I know who you are, and that you would rather
die yourself
than knowingly hurt us. You see, we girls always
know that about
you guys, don't we, Cordelia? It's a femininely mystical
thing.
Cordelia: Shsss. Willow, you're never supposed to
reveal that to
a male. If THEY knew how much we KNOW about them. .
. (she comes
over and moves toward Giles who doesn't know what to
think and he
begins to cringe but then he holds his ground,
determined to take
his medicine, and she unexpectedly plants a kiss on
his cheek)
Giles, you're Mr. Straightarrow, and I mean that in
every best
sense of the word, and I wouldn't have you any other
way. But you
never did say how I looked last night?
Giles: (blushing) Like every male's dream?
Cordelia: That's the right answer. All is forgiven.
So, Giles, are you going to be all right now, because our
breakfast is getting
cold? (He nods shyly.)
Willow and Cordelia enter Buffy's bedroom where Buffy
and her
mom are already engages in animated conversation,
laughing. Giles is left
alone on the landing. He wipes a tear out of the
corner of his eye and
shakes his head.
Giles: (to himself) How could I have been so
stupid?
Giles descends the stairs and joins Oz on the couch.
Oz is reading
some papers and Giles picks up some and begins
reading also.
Laughter can be heard from upstairs.
Oz: What's going on up there?
Giles: Well, Buffy and her mom and Willow, too, I
guess, are
recuperating and Cordelia brought in some take-out
breakfast--there's some extra in the kitchen if you're
hungry. I guess it's like a
pajama party but in the morning.
Oz: Seems odd. Women certainly are resilient
creatures. Angel
and maybe Xander's in hell and that Bridget girl's
still running
around loose. And the girls seem so happy?
Giles: Yes, Oz. But this is not going to be one of those male bonding experiences where we're going to discuss women, because I,
for one, know nothing about them, certainly not as
much as they know about us.
I hate to break this to you but we're alike, you and
I. Straightarrow, I think is the term. You're a
little cooler than I am about it, but we
take everything far too seriously. I'm going to try
to lighten up
a shade. How about you? Join me? (Oz shrugs and
then nods.) And
you were right by the way. Your Slayer logic was
elegant. Fifi--has that been use--(Oz
nods)--Cosette?--(Oz shakes his head)--Cosette IS a
Slayer imposter. I called the real Phillippe LeMonde
and the real Claudia got killed while training; he's
currently
between slayers.
Oz: So what are we going to do?
Giles: We'll wait for Buffy to get better and have
her take care
of--Genevieve?[Ed. note: pronounced
JOHN-vee-ev]--(Oz nods)--ok, Genevieve.
Oz: Sounds like a plan.
Giles: So, do you have the final story on Xander's
part in the
McAllister trial?
Oz: It seems all defendents were convicted and were
sent to jail. George
McAllister and his wife got 25 years apiece. Almost
immediately
upon incarceration, Mr. McAllister committed
suicide--hanged
himself--in what a lot of people consider a kind of
admission of
guilt. Three of the others, teacher-ladies, got 10
years apiece. And
the other lady plea-bargained--admitted guilt--and
got 3 years;
and that was after she testified against the others.
But, you know,
after reading through these papers, I guess I don't
think any of them were
guilty of anything. Read this.
Giles: (after reading a bit) I see what you mean.
This article
lambastes the prosecution's case as being totally
based on innuendo
and the shielded testimony of suggestible,
impressionable children,
and the writer further insists that it was not a fair
trial in that
McAllister and the others were never able to 'face
their accusers.'
You American have such splendid laws if you'd just
enforce them.
(reads some more) Okay, in trying to reconstruct
what happened,
this writer pieced together that it all began when
one little girl
saw a portion of a porno tape her parents kept at
home, and she had
a nightmare about what she saw. Then her mother, not
knowing where
her information was coming from, misinterpreted the
girl's distress
as her reaction to something that had happened at
school. Then,
when a second young girl was questioned, using
details of the first
girl's story as the starting point or benchmark for
her
questioning, this second girl went along with this
fascinating
fantasy. Then other children were questioned, in the
course of
which they were given all kinds of new and strange
information and
they were told what the others had said, and then
these children
were "put on the spot," so they pretty-much told the
interviewers
anything they wanted to hear. Included among these
children was
one little boy who later recanted his testimony, but,
despite his
adamant protestations, the weight of the so-called
evidence at that
point was overwhelming, and his change of testimony
was dismissed;
the prosecution argued that he was merely in denial.
The writer of
this article worked backwards from the boy's revised
testimony--he
said that nothing had happened--and the writer
developed this
chilling scenario in which innocent people were
railroaded by
overly ambitious prosecutors in a grab for headlines
in a high-profile case. Didn't this Lucy Damon use
this as a springboard
into politics and isn't she now the deputy mayor of
Sunnydale. My
bet is the boy was our Xander.
Oz: That's the impression I got also. And I
confirmed that with
my uncle who remembers this case, and he said that
controversy has
swirled around Xander's testimony at the time. You
see, they couldn't print
a lot of stuff about children years ago, but everyone
knew who was
who, and that Xander was the child who tried to stop
the trial.
Giles: How sad. I can see now where it must have
been a heavy
load for Xander to carry around with him, a sense of
guilt for
McAllister's tragic death, a child feeling
responsible for a man's
total personal destruction. It must have been
overwhelming. I
hope those in hell can't use this against him.
They'll twist him
like a pretzel until he finally breaks.
Cut to Buffy's room.
The camera scans the pajama party. A musical
interlude. A tribute
to the beautiful women of Buffy. The song selection:
Send her my
love by Steve Perry and Journey.
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