Lots of willow/tara stuff!SPOILERS!!
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The nerd troika cook up a demon, but it's actually Katrina, Warren's ex-girlfriend, who is very human and behind the demon's face. Buffy doesn't see this and slays the girl - or did she? Turns out that she would have died anyway and Buffy was probably doing her a favor, but Buffy tries to turn herself in to the cops.
Buffy's impending admission of guilt sends Spike off the deep end. He can't face the thought of losing Buffy to prison. So what does he do? He attacks her and injures her enough to knock her out, then takes her to his crypt where he keeps her under lock and key until he can find Willow and have her look at the girl's body. But the body has disappeared and what's left behind isn't human excretion so they convince Buffy that she isn't a murderer. That doesn't help Buffy's state of mind though as guilt continues to overwhelm her. Guilt over the girl. Guilt over being with Spike. Guilt over not providing Dawn with a good lifestyle.
Buffy and Dawn share a tender moment where Dawn tells her it's okay to make mistakes. Dawn "confesses" that she's been stealing stuff for months and that yanks Buffy out of her stupor. She screams at Dawn, telling her that the social services will remove her forever if she messes up like that and gets caught. She tells her that if her grades continue to downslide and the stealing continues, she'll send her to live with their father.
Random stuff for Buffy's Birthday episode:
Buffy tries to break things off with Spike, who brings the Slayer a kick ass gift, until Dawn makes a wish that leaves everyone grounded in the house with no means of escape. In such close quarters, Spike and Buffy succumb to passion, unaware that someone witnesses their entire exchange.
Someone finds out that Buffy and Spike are sleeping together and they tell Buffy that it's normal for her to reach out to Spike and try to find her place, but her place isn't with Spike.
Willow and Tara are also confined in the house together and they argue about Willow's use of magick. Willow says that she could probably magick them out of the house, but witness how she's not. She hasn't even thought of using magick. All she's done is wiggle doorknobs and cry. No magick there. Tara says that the only reason she stopped doing it is because Dawn almost died and forced her hand. Willow says she stopped doing it because SHE, Willow, is slowly dying inside without Tara. She says her heart is so broken and her mind is so distracted that she probably couldn't levitate a pencil anymore. And the funny thing is, she misses Tara too much to miss the magick.
Tara tries to walk away and can't. She goes back to Willow and kisses her. She tells her that she won't move back in, but they can talk and *try* and maybe go on dates because she misses Willow as well and believes that she wants to do the right thing.
A demon is locked in with the gang and has the ability to possess random members of the scooby gang. Once possessed, it verbally attacks other people after racking the victim's brain and gaining their thoughts. It makes Xander tell Anya that he thinks growing old with her will drive him to drinking, eating too much, and possibly suicide before he's thirty. Anya tells Xander that she thinks his penis never healed properly after the Chumash tribe, because she's unsatisfied. Buffy tells Dawn that she's a hindrance and a "curse". Dawn tells Buffy that she wishes she had never come back from the dead at all. Willow tells the gang that the biggest mistake she made was staying behind with them and not going off to school where "normal" people are. You get the picture....
Spike's the only one who doesn't get possessed and he's the one who figures out what kind of demon it is and how to dispel it. When the gang can finally leave the house, no one does. They all just sit down and look at each other like they don't know who or what to believe anymore.
Other random stuff:
Riley miraculously appears in town and will catch Buffy and Spike in a massive lip lock and completely lose his head. He tries to attack Spike, but Buffy intervenes and tells him that he doesn't understand her or Sunnydale anymore and he should go. A woman appears and says, "Riley, honey? Oh! You must be Buffy!"
The woman is Sam, Riley's wife. She's *perfect*. Riley can't confront Buffy right then about what he saw her doing with Spike, and Spike mocks him a bit before he leaves in anger at Buffy for not defending what they have.
Buffy agrees to work with Riley's men to track this nasty breed of demon who are submerging on the hellmouth. Sam, the wife, leads one team and Riley and Buffy go alone. Riley confronts Buffy, telling her he KNEW that she only wanted a demon. Buffy tells him that if he hadn't left her, she'd still be with him and maybe she wouldn't have died. Riley is thrown by the news that she died and hugs her. Spike is spying and gets furious. Buffy shoves Riley away and tells him to save his compassion for his wife. Riley says that he never expected to fall in love with someone else. Buffy starts to say "Neither did I!" but catches herself. It's not lost on Riley who totally goes off on her, shoving her back against the wall and telling her to wake up. Spike will kill her if he ever gets the chip out and he can't guarantee how long the chip will work. Buffy says she can take care of herself. Riley says that Buffy's problem is that she's so busy taking care of herself that she can't let anyone get close enough to do it for her.
AND the demons attack. Buffy gets mangled pretty good. So does Riley. Spike joins in, doing a fair share of damage, then Sam and co. show up after hearing Riley's distress signal. It's a bloodbath. That breed of demon is unbelievably strong. Somehow, the good guys prevail and as Buffy looks on, Sam and Riley lovingly tend to one another's wounds ... Spike is still beating up on one of the demons, not worrying at all about how hurt she is. She stares back and forth, as if realizing for the first time the differences between them.
The next day, Riley and Sam prepare to leave town. Buffy gives Riley a sweater he left behind and hugs him, whispering that, "I was there when the helicopter took off, Riley. You just didn't see me. I didn't make it in time and I tried. I did try."
Riley leaves looking very unsure of his decisions.
Buffy visits Spike and tells him that this is really it. She's not playing anymore. They're finished. He has two weeks to get out of town or she'll kill him. Spike hands her a stake and tells her not to postpone the inevitable. He's not going anywhere and killing him in two weeks or killing him now won't matter. She can't do it. She draws the stake back with every intention of killing him, but she doesn't. He reaches out and touches one of the cuts on her face and asks her if she's okay and tells her that he woul have come to check on her the night before, but someone had to dispose of the demon bodies and Riley's crack team wasn't about to.
She seems almost moved by his tenderness. Almost. She backs away and shakes her head, telling him that her decision stands. If he is staying in town, he's staying away from her or else.
Spike doesn't get out of town, but he does bring a date to Anya and Xander's wedding. He rubs Buffy's nose in it, kissing the woman's neck, ignoring Buffy's glances and snide comments. Finally, she breaks down and retreats to an empty room and Spike follows her. She asks him if he plans on taking his "catch" home with him. He says of course he does. She asks if he still loves her. He says he will love her until the day he dies, but he won't be her stomping ground anymore. He's tired of her being all hot and cold. She tells him that she misses him. He says he knows how that feels, but it's all her doing. She tells him that she can't stand the thought of knowing that he's taking that woman home with him. He tells her that she's just a poor substitute for the real thing and he's just going through the motions. She cries, but says that no one can know about them and he should leave because seeing him is too hard. He starts to leave, then tells her to sleep easy knowing that he won't be taking the woman home with him afterall.
"We're pathetic, eh luv?"
"Yeah, Spike, we're pathetic."
"At least I'm not pathetic *and* in denial."
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