| abstract
| - The SAT results are in. Willow grouses over receiving a 'pathetic' 740 on Verbal, while Xander notes that her Verbal score closely resembles his combined scores. Buffy shows up, and looks positively shaken; her SAT score is a whopping 1430. The gang thinks that these scores could change Buffy's future. Buffy admits that it feels weird, because she was never sure she'd even have a future. Cordy brightly says that it's great, because the scores enable Buffy to leave and never come back. Everyone turns their heads to look at her. Cut to the "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign getting mowed down by a truck (again). We all know who the moron in question is. A bottle of liquor shatters on the pavement, and then Spike tumbles out. Giles is delighted when he is presented with Buffy's SAT scores. Giles suggests that she has an opportunity to have a first-rate educational experience, and she could leave Sunnydale and her Slayer duties to Faith. He warns her about seeing Angel, and she promises that nothing will happen between them because they are "just friends". Meanwhile, Xander and Willow are having second thoughts about going on a double-date with Oz and Cordelia. Willow is concerned that Oz and Cordelia will notice the attraction between her and Xander. Xander tells her that he wishes that they could just get rid of their feelings of lust. Spike, hellbent on revenge, makes a trip to see Angel, but promptly passes out on the doorstep. When morning comes, his left hand, lying in the sun, bursts into flames. He wakes up in a panic, sticks his hand in the nearby fountain, then scrambles into his car. Fine. Plan B: Spike sneaks into the back of a local magic shop during the daytime and asks the New Age-y storekeeper. We figure out that he means to curse Angel, and settles on leprosy as his preferred method. ("We don't carry leprosy.") Suddenly, Willow comes in with a shopping list. New Age Woman recognizes the items on the list as the ingredients for a love spell, but Willow explains that she wants the opposite effect, "kind of a de-lusting." Once she leaves, Spike comes out of hiding and kills the shopkeeper, having decided that a love spell to make Drusilla love him again would be "an even better idea." City Hall. Mayor Wilkins is playing golf in his office when his deputy alerts him to Spike's return. Wilkins agrees that they organize and send a "committee" to deal with the problem. In the school chemistry lab, Willow is working on the anti-love spell as Xander shows up. He picks up on the "evil church" smell, and they argue over whether their hormones are so out of control that Willow needs to resort to the black arts. Spike comes in and attacks Xander, knocking him unconscious, and announces that he needs to borrow Willow for a while. Spike drags Willow and the unconscious Xander back to the factory, where he explains his situation to Willow. He angrily threatens her life if she fails to work her mojo, then downshifts back to pathetic, sitting beside Willow on the bed. He whines that Dru thought he had gone soft after his alliance with Buffy, and was not "demon enough" for her anymore. He ends up weeping on Willow's shoulder. As he starts to lasciviously play with with Willow's hair, she squeaks and jumps up, then agrees to do the spell -- only to realize that she left a necessary spellbook somewhere. Spike growls, "Where?" Back at school, the Scoobies find the chem lab torn up and Willow and Xander missing. Buffy says she'll look for Xander and Willow, and dispatches Oz and Cordy to get Giles. Buffy returns to the library to get weapons, but the phone rings. It's Joyce, wanting to schedule a college talk. Buffy's impatient, but then hears Spike's voice in the background. "Hello, Joyce!" Joyce pours Spike some hot chocolate as he relates his sob story.(!) Joyce sympathetically says that Dru sounds "very unreasonable." Angel comes strolling through the neighborhood. He spots the couple talking in the kitchen and immediately makes a run for the doorway, but is stopped by the invisible barrier. Joyce, still under the impression that Angel is evil, orders him to leave. Spike makes goofy faces behind her back. Buffy arrives and spoils his fun by grabbing his throat. She (finally) invites Angel in, and Joyce is very confused at this role reversal. Spike gloats he's got their friends, and they had better help Spike if they want to see Willow and Xander alive. As Oz and Cordelia are driving to find Giles, Oz catches Willow's scent in the air ("a residual werewolf thing"). He turns the van around and races toward the factory. Spike whines about sobering up as he leads Angel and Buffy to the magic shop. Buffy's anxious to just stake him and be done with it, since Spike's probably just stashed her friends at the factory. Spike's eyes dart around awkwardly. The duo is appropriately smug over Spike's gin-soaked misery, but Spike says they're one to talk, pointing out that the last time he saw Buffy and Angel, they were fighting to the death; Now they're making "googly eyes" at each other." Buffy asserts that they're just friends, but Spike torpedoes that delusion: Xander wakes up to find that he and Willow are locked in the basement of the factory. They discuss what will happen to them. Deciding that the high probability of death is a mitigating factor, Willow and Xander kiss each other passionately -- just in time for Oz and Cordelia to find them. Whoops. Cordelia looks sick and runs back upstairs, but the stairs give way. Xander rushes over to see her lying face up on some rubble. She manages, "I fell." The camera pans down to show that she's been impaled on rebar. As they leave with the supplies, Buffy, Angel and Spike are surrounded by the "committee" of vampires sent by Wilkins. Spike addresses the leader of the pack as "Lenny," a former henchman of his. Buffy says she's just leaving, but Spike declares that if Buffy leaves him to die, then Willow and Xander die too. Buffy reluctantly joins the brawl. The three of them get herded back inside the magic shop, then barricade the windows. They await the onslaught. As the barricade falls, Lenny reaches Spike and wallops him in the face. "Yeah, I'd heard you'd gone soft. Sad to see it, man." Wrong thing to say, I'm guessing. Spike ducks a punch from Lenny, then repeatedly hammers his head against a able before staking him. Spike looks immensely pleased. In the foreground, the camera focuses in on a shelf filled with vials of holy water. Buffy yells at Spike to hit the deck, which he does as the barricade falls. Buffy and Angel let fly the vials. Repulsed, the vamps flee. Spike's elated to have had a good fight. Buffy asks about the spell. Spike shrugs, "Sod the spell. Your friends are at the factory." Buffy gives him an "I can't believe I'm so dumb" look. Spike jauntily says that all he needs to get Dru back is to quit whining and to be the man he was. He strolls out. Back at the factory, Xander finally reaches Cordelia, and begs her to hold on. Cut to a cemetery, where a funeral service is being performed. Buffy and Willow walk on by, chatting about how Cordelia survived the fall and is in the hospital. (Not cool, Mutant Enemy.) Willow whimpers that Oz is refusing to talk to her, and Buffy suggests time and groveling. Xander, a large bouquet of flowers in hand, knocks and asks if he can come into Cordy's room. He starts to babble, but doesn't get through a sentence before she cuts him off. "Xander?" She turns her head, and she looks wan and sad. "Stay away from me." Buffy visits Angel, and tells him that they are not friends; she explains that she is not coming back, because he does not need her help anymore, and she cannot maintain the lie about their friendship to herself. Or Spike, for some reason. Angel protests, and Buffy tells him that the only way they can see each other is if he tells her that he does not love her, something he cannot do. Meanwhile, Spike is back on the road, on his way to find Drusilla.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)