We fall to pieces

S06E18

Previously, everyone dumped everyone else, the Legion of Dim spied on Buffy, Dawn's kleptomania issues were exposed, and oh yeah -- Buffy, in a hallucinogenic fugue state, tried to kill all her nearest and dearest. Just another day in Sunnydale.

Two vamps run through a cemetery, pursued by the Legion of Dim riding ATVs with big stakes on front. Huh. I don't think you could actually stake a vamp in the heart with those things. That's kinda lame. Where are the super-soakers with holy water? Andrew worries that the vamps are going to get away, and Jonathan expositions that they desperately need the disk that the vamps are carrying. One of the vamps knocks a nerd off his ATV, and the others quickly crash, thus giving the vamps time to make a run for a nearby gate. They think they're home free, but in actuality they've got Slayer problems. Buffy fights with the vamps, and while she's so occupied, Warren creeps up behind her and grabs the dropped disk. Suddenly one of the vamps rises into the air, and the camera pulls back to reveal Spike sitting on top of the gate, effortlessly swinging the vamp by the collar. He asks how Buffy is handling things, and although she's struggling slightly, she claims to have the sitch under control. Spike offers to take care of the vamp he has restrained if Buffy will do one simple little thing for him. Buffy has obviously heard all of this before; she doesn't miss a beat in exasperatedly saying that she's not going to tell her friends about them. Now that their "relationship" is over, I can't figure out why Spike would want the Scoobs to know so badly, except to try to exert some weird control over her. After refusing Spike's deal, Buffy neatly calls Spike's bluff by saying that while she won't tell the Scoobs, he is more than welcome to, since the events of the last episode have shown her that even when she tries to murder her peeps, they looooove her, so they'll be able to deal with her sleeping with Spike. Can I just give Buffy two cheers and a few hearty props for finally standing up to Spike's creepy emotional manipulation? Faced, Spike! Of course, Buffy's logic only holds up if she forgets everything she's ever known about Xander. The writers certainly have. Buffy turns to walk away as Spike lets his captive loose (why didn't that dumb vamp wiggle out of his coat at some point?). The vamp quickly runs after Buffy instead of running the other way to save his own undead ass, but stops and turns with a look of total "Da fuck?" when Spike calls out, "In that case why don't you sleep with me again?" Buffy nonchalantly stakes the vamp and sighs, "Because I don't love you." "Like hell," sulks Spike. Delusional much?

Xander's new apartment that I've been unable to come up with a catchy name for. Sep keeps trying to sell me on The Non-Basement of Debasement, but I think she's lost her edge. The set dressers are really overdoing it with the red light that's everywhere, but I guess it's not as anvilicious as if they had used blue light. Because Xander is, quite clearly, feeling blue. He's sitting on the floor, listening to country music and drinking out of a dark brown bottle that's supposed to be beer, but he's cleverly covering the label so parents across the land can tell their kids that it's only sarsaparilla. He looks purty sad. Oh well. He gets up, grabs his coat off the chair, and takes off. As he walks down the front walk, the camera pans over to some bushes, and Anya steps out from behind them, looking like some sort of misplaced Spiegel model in her sensible gray turtleneck and mulberry overcoat. She turns to the camera and says, "The worsted wool of this stylish yet affordable coat will keep you warm on the endless string of cold and lonely nights after your beloved leaves you at the altar. It also comes in heather gray!" Also, her hair looks like chicken-fried ass. I guess she's in pain too.

Buffy, Willow, and Xander are hanging out in the Summers's dining room, where Willow is attempting to trace the signal from the hidden camera. She says she should be able to snag the signal as soon as she can "tap into the fiber optic network." If you say so, Red. Willow types and taps on her laptop (which we all know always makes for fascinating television) as Xander muses that if the culprit is not Spike, then they all know who it is. Buffy grits out that she wants to find the Dimsters.

In the Dimsters' lair, beta-nerd Jonathan lights a candle as the usual crappy, twinkly soundtrack plays. He props up the disk from the teaser in front of the candle as Warren and Andrew look on. After a sprinkling of magic powder, the disk begins to glow brightly, and the candle shoots out a beam of light that goes through the disk and then focuses on a map lying on the floor. The map is old and appears to say "Map of Sunnydale" across the top. I say "appears" because it was hard to read, what with my cheap VCR and dinky TV. As the beam pinpoints a location on the map, Jonathan leaps up in glee and cackles, "They're digging in the wrong place!" Then he and Andrew do a happy jig arm-in-arm. Okay, not really, but they might as well have, considering what a direct, um, "homage" this scene is to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Between this and the "Short Round" thing earlier, I'm wondering what's with all the references to movies in the Indiana Jones series. Jonathan says, "There. There's where we have to go," and it seems that Warren is threatening to dispose of him ("Well, now that we've found out where we're supposed to go...") when the map catches on fire. Much shouting.

Der Zauber Kasten. Anya and Spike do shots with the conveniently-left-behind-by-Giles shot glasses they have found. Spike, without using Buffy's name, complains about her "real for you" speech earlier in the episode. Anya is totally not concerned with Spike's romantic anguish and just wants to get back to the topic of Xander. She whines, "Nobody seems to care enough to do anything," and if I cared at all about her character or her stupid relationship with Xander, I might stop to ponder what she seriously thinks other people are supposed to "do" about the failure of her relationship. But I don't care, so I don't have to bear that burden! Whee! Back and forth between Spike and Anya about how awful Xander is and how Spike would take him on himself if not for the chip. Big words, impotent boy. Anya's attempts to get Spike to make a wish about Xander are not successful.

Lair of Dim. Jonathan runs back into the room with a fire extinguisher and whines about Warren and Andrew putting out the fire with his blankie.

Willow, tapping and typing, says she might have the signal.

Anya and Spike, doing more drinking and complaining about their humanity and chip, respectively. They both claim they were going to just "use" their partners, but then get soppy. "She was so raw. Never felt anything like it," muses Spike, which just gave me a giant "ew" because I could only think how uncomfortable that must have been for Buffy. Somebody should tell her they have creams for that. More commiserating about how they began to care about the other person's opinions and changed to suit them.

Typing. Tapping. Willow says there are "firewalls and booby traps," but assures Buffy and Xander, "Hey, I'm still me." Ego much, Willow? And most fans this season would argue that you are not at all you. Tapping. Typing. Did Hollywood learn nothing from The Net? Willow discovers that there are other cameras.

Spike and Anya. Toasting and drinking. Nothing they did was enough. Spike complains that he saved the Scoobies even though he "can't stand" them, and Anya agrees, "Me either! I hate us." She bitches that they never say what's on their minds, and Spike assures her that she does and that's why she's the only one he wouldn't bite if he had the chance. Sorry, but I don't buy this scene at all. I find it utterly unconvincing. I don't believe these people are drunk, I don't believe that Spike ever thought twice about Anya's personality and whether he would bite her, and I don't believe the very contrived drunken sex that's upcoming. Maybe that's because I was spoiled for this whole scene? Lauding forthright women, Spike slurs, "Drusilla was always straightforward. Didn't have a single buggering clue about what was going on in front of her, but she was straight about it." Is there a difference between being straightforward and simply not having any filter between what goes through your head and comes out of your mouth? Because I'd say Dru was suffering more from the latter condition. Spike accuses the Scoobies of being "uptight and repressed," and adds that the gang couldn't deal with him and Anya because "we should have been dead hundreds of years ago and we're the only ones who are really alive." Spike's alive like the lilies of the field. He toils not nor does he spin. Anya and Spike stare into each other's eyes, and the wretched soundtrack plinks conspiratorially.

Credits. No Oz, and only one shot of Giles. And people wonder why I don't give a crap about this show anymore?

UC Sunnydale. Willow waits outside a classroom and excitedly runs after Tara when she emerges. Willow: too damn upbeat. Tara: far too glib. Willow laughs too much at a throwaway comment from Tara, which is supposed to endear her to me but really makes me want to box her ears. "So this is becoming kind of a regular thing -- you and me after class?" queries Tara. "Only this time you stuck around." Willow isn't quite sure if she's busted for stalking her ex and makes an uh-oh face, but then Tara quickly inserts, "She's just a friend." This is in reference to the girl that bussed Tara on the cheek in the last episode. Willow invites Tara out for coffee, and Tara agrees that she's free tomorrow. Suddenly Willow and Tara seem to have been replaced by huge, anthropomorphic chickens in bad outfits -- what with all the head bobbing and squawking -- as they have a little stupid misunderstanding about whether they meant that they could bring dates to Caffeine Summit or if they are each other's dates.

Streets of Sunnydale. Buffy and Dawn walk down an open-air shopping promenade. Buffy suggests that they browse in a store, but Dawn nixes that idea, because it's one of the eight million places that Dawn stole things from -- in this instance, a toothbrush. Buffy razzes Dawn about the inherent uncoolness that is stealing tools of dental hygiene before they engage in a sisterly fight about who gets to drive the blame train for the whole affair. Buffy suggests visiting the pet store, and in response Dawn quips that she can't go there either because she stole "a pocket full of goldfish." Which was almost funny. Dawn is down on the puppy-captivity featured at the pet store, but finally agrees that they should check it out, since it's the only store around she can "show [her] face" in. Buffy expositions that it won't last forever, since Dawn has returned all of the merchandise that she'd nicked, "and we're paying for the rest." "I'm paying for the rest," asserts Dawn earnestly. Yeah? With what? You have no money. You have no job. As far as I can tell, you neither earn an allowance nor do anything that would allow you to earn an allowance. Unless you're going to shave off that shiny hair of yours and sell it to a wigmaker like Jo did in Little Women, you should either cram it or work in a reference to babysitting. Blah, blah, blah. Dealing with long-dangling plot points has never left me so bored.

Legion of Dim's Underground Lair. Jonathan is doing something with the stolen disk, utilizing one of those made-for-TV chemistry sets with the vials of different colored liquid and the squiggly tubing. I wonder if there's a whole cottage industry dedicated to these scientifically useless set-ups? Warren is in a big hurry, but Jonathan won't be rushed, because "if something goes wrong it's gonna surge and we'll be deader than an ex-girlfriend." Warren asks him to repeat that last bit, and Jonathan snaps something about trying to get some work done. Warren tries a different tactic, calling him "Short Round" and placating him with the possibility of the world becoming his evil oyster if he'd only let it. Jonathan doesn't seem swayed, telling Warren that after this particular mission is complete, they're going to go their separate ways. Warren wanders off to the background to talk to Andrew, who is wearing a shirt plastered all over with girly goldenrod and cornflower blue needlepoint flowers. I know! He must be wearing one of those magic chameleon shirts which blends into a background, and he was just sitting on an awful fugly couch. It's the only logical explanation. Andrew tells Warren that Jonathan has that "same look on his face -- the one that he had that time I highlighted in his Babylon 5 novels." Realization explodes onto Andrew's face as he continues, "Right before he told his mother on me! Warren, I don't think we can trust him." Warren coolly says that, luckily, they don't have to "for that much longer." "Is it gonna be that soon?" asks Andrew with a sad tone in his voice, making it clear that Andrew and Warren have already talked about getting rid of Jonathan. "It's gonna be soon," promises Warren. Of course, there was some sort of dairy joke in there that went over the heads of Andrew and the viewing audience, minus the residents of Wisconsin. Ah, dairy humor. The hallmark of every well-crafted show.

By Ace

Dawn walks into the kitchen, spies a cluster of syrup bottles on the counter with Buffy manning the grill, and hesitantly asks if they're now an "International House of Something." Buffy chirps that it's just a "breakfast kind of morning," and asks Dawn what kind of syrup she'd like on her pancakes. "Syrups have kinds?" is Dawn's response. How can someone know about IHoP but not about flavored syrup? Buffy ignores this and suggests that they stay in for some sister time this evening. Dawn "ums," and Buffy worries that she's turned into the mom that tries too hard. Dawn's lip gloss is really, really shiny. Blindingly so. It's as if she decided that, since she doesn't have a character arc like last season, the shiny hair must not be cutting it, and she has upped the shiny ante in an effort to get more screen time. Dawn suggests that, instead of Buffy hanging with Dawn at home, that Dawn go patrolling with Buffy. Buffy sarcastically nixes the idea. In response, Dawn brings up the fact that the gang used to patrol all the time when they were Dawn's age. Instead of pointing out that by the time she wasn't that much older than Dawn, Buffy had DIED to save the world, and that patrolling isn't all shits and giggles, Buffy just reminds Dawn that she's really only eighteen months old. Dawn protests that all the bad stuff in the world is going to find her one way or another simply because of her family connections. Buffy doesn't point out that creepy things are usually drawn to Dawn through her own stupidity. That and the big neon "I'M A POTENTIAL HOSTAGE, AND NONE TOO BRIGHT TO BOOT" sign that follows Dawn around.

Espresso Pump. Willow fills Tara in on the penis monster from "Doublemeat Palace." Willow sums the monster's appearance up with, "If I wasn't gay before." Oh, right. Willow. Gay. They didn't mention that for, like, at least five minutes. I almost had time for the searing pain of the last anvil blow to my head to fade. Anya wanders up, and her hair has gotten much worse than last time we saw her. It's like the stylist told her, "Now tilt your head down, Emma honey, I just want to dry it a little underneath," and then forgot her under the dryer and got engrossed in the sixty-five-minute process of shining Michelle Trachtenberg's hair. Willow hugs Anya for some reason I can't explain, since they always seemed to kind of hate each other. ["'Kind of'?" -- Sars] Anya waves her hands around a lot and mumbles before sitting down. Willow makes a hollow "if there's anything we can do" offer, but of course she made it to Anya, who jumps right on that train. "You're lesbians so the hating of men will come in handy. Let's talk about Xander."

What follows is a montage of scenes, all set to the "wacky" hippo ballerinas music, in which Anya tries to get Dawn, Willow, Tara, and Buffy to wish something awful to happen to Xander. Hey, gang! Isn't it funny the way Anya is attempting manipulate Xander's closest friends into making his penis to explode or his "brains and guts to go blooey" by exploiting some of the gang's worst fears? Isn't it even more of a thigh-slapper that if one of the gang fell for this ploy, these awful things would ACTUALLY HAPPEN to Xander? Oh, yeah. That's comedy. In HELL.

Anya gets frustrated and gives up on Tara and Willow, shrieking, "God, what kind of lesbians are you? If you love men so much, go love men!" Oh, okay. That's funny.

Skip to Anya on Buffy's porch. Anya is at the end of her tether with trying to get Buffy to wish unspeakable pain on one of her most stalwart friends. Dontcha just feel for Anya in this scene? Anya pouts about how much Xander hurt her. Can't we talk about my pain for a moment? Specifically, the pain caused by Buffy's flared pants with squiggly designs down the side? I guess this answers the age-old question of what to get the toreador-slash-marching band enthusiast who has everything. Buffy is just about to sympathize with Anya by wishing for something when Xander wanders up. I wonder -- if Buffy had wished that everything had worked out between Anya and Xander, could (or would) Anya have been able to grant that wish? Xander seems to want to talk to Anya, but she stalks off after snapping bitterly, "Well, congratulations! They all still love you even after what you did to me." Xander wants to go after her, but Buffy stops him, telling him that Anya needs time to cool off. Xander throws a small fit and kicks the crap out of a little gnome hiding in the hollow of Spike's Stalking Tree (I think. There may be more than one tree in the front yard). Buffy's attention is drawn to the gnome, wondering how "that creepy little thing" got into her front yard in the first place and quipping that if she had known it was there, she would have crawled out of the grave much sooner than she did. Xander bends down to clean up the pieces and pulls a camera out of the gnome's hat. He says, "Looks like someone's been keeping an eye on all your ins and outs," and I snort, "Um, yeah, that would be Spike. But he's not the one who planted the camera." Xander can't hear me, of course, so he jumps to the conclusion that, given Spike's past behavior, he was the one who planted the gnome-cam.

"What's this?" sighs Spike, holding up the gnome-cam and wearing a god-awful patterned shirt last seen in an mid-'80s Phil Collins video. Remember that whole 1980s paisley revival? Well, first it was the Paisley Underground, and then it went mainstream, and you youngsters have no idea what Granny Ace is babbling about, do you? Buffy's brought the camera to Spike in his crypt; she's facing him with her arms crossed and a particularly disappointed schoolmarm-ish look on her face. She points out that the item in question is a camera and then tells Spike it was being used to spy on her home. Shuffling off a little responsibility, she finishes up by saying that "Xander thinks" Spike planted the camera. Spike has a few choice words for Xander, then catches Buffy's continuing sour-lemon face. He groans in disbelief that Buffy would even think he would spy on her. Yes! How dare you, Buffy! Spike would never spy on you! And he never, ever has! Never, ever has he stood all night in your front yard, or followed you around on patrol, or snuck into your house to poke through your drawers, sniff your clothes, and steal your underwear. Nope, never. Buffy points out the ridiculousness of Spike trying to claim the high moral ground here, and he backpedals a little. "I don't hurt you." And unbelievably, Buffy agrees, "I know." Jesus, someone have Willow whip up some more of that antidote from last episode, because Buffy's still just a little insane. I guess Spike, Buffy, and the writers just want us to forget a couple of episodes called "Crush"and "Intervention," and more recently, "Smashed," "Dead Things," and "Normal Again." And in fact, wasn't the high-blown and not-at-all clichéd theme of "As You Were" that You Always Hurt The Ones You Love? Or maybe I imagined that. It was many long weeks ago.

By Ace

Anya gets frustrated and gives up on Tara and Willow, shrieking, "God, what kind of lesbians are you? If you love men so much, go love men!" Oh, okay. That's funny.

Lair of Dim. Jonathan runs back into the room with a fire extinguisher and whines about Warren and Andrew putting out the fire with his blankie.

Willow, tapping and typing, says she might have the signal.

Willow is finally picking up the camera signals, and finds that cameras are spying on the Doublemeat Palace, the Bronze, UC Sunnydale, and Xander's construction site. She types and taps to "pinpoint" other signals.

Spike pours out the last of the Evan Williams whiskey and gives it to Anya, who sniffles. She holds his hand and thanks him for listening to her and understanding. She confesses that she's been "coming on all hell-bent and mad" when actually she "can't sleep at night, thinking that it was [her] fault, somehow." Spike shushes her, and Anya confesses what might be her deepest fear: "What if he never wanted me, the way I wanted him?" Spike runs his hand through her hair -- or at least tries to, since I'm betting the snarly, brittle curls give him some resistance. He gives up the hair stroking as a bad job and instead lays his hand on her face. Throaty-voiced, he says, "[Xander] would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to want a woman like you." This is what I can't buy -- that Spike has any sort of respect for or interest in Anya at all. Anya wonders why Xander did what he did, and Spike replies, "The two of them, they're weak is all." He fondles her face and moves in for a kiss. Anya stops him a few times and pants, "What are we doing?" "Moving on," declares Spike, and they begin kissing.

Now follows the part that would have been suspenseful, or interesting, or something, if I hadn't been totally spoiled and if it hadn't been already shown in the promo. Willow is trying to lock in on more camera feeds while Spike and Anya kiss noisily. Anya tells Spike she's only doing this because "[she's] lonely and drunk and [he] smells really good," and he smiles at her honesty.

Lair of Dim. An alarm goes off, and Andrew expositions that someone has "tapped into [their] feed."

Anya 'n Spike. He pulls up her shirt.

Lair of Dim. The Dimsters run frantically for their computers.

Der Zauber Kasten. Spike clears the circular table with one swipe of his arm and lays Anya down on it, then climbs on top of her.

Willow. Trying to get the feed. Dullsville. She's located a camera in the Magic Box. She stands up and says, "Whoa!"

The Dimsters frantically try to shut down all their cameras. Warren then notices the Magic Box feed. Spike and Anya, having sex. Spike appears to still be wearing both his pants and his duster. Oh, so that's why Buffy was so "raw"! Zippers are hell on tender girl parts. The Dimsters are shocked at what they're seeing, and stop shutting down their systems. Warren wonders if they're looking at porn and claps his hand to his face a la Ozzy. He then figures out that they're watching Spike at the Magic Box. "He is so cool," pants Andrew, and then hastily amends, "I mean, the girl is hot too."

Buffy and Xander jump up to see what has surprised Willow; Willow ineffectually tries to stop Xander. Willow, Buffy, and Xander stare at the laptop in silence. Dawn then enters through the front door and, gasping, gets an eyeful of the demon-on-demon porn. Willow quickly claps her hand over Dawn's eyes. Xander stutters, and Buffy looks about to cry. There seems to be silent realization on the part of both Willow and Dawn, who look at the feed and then at Buffy; Buffy snaps, "That's enough," and leaves the room. Xander leaves too, and then Dawn follows Buffy. Willow babbles to the empty room and tries to make excuses for what they've all just seen. She then hears the front door open, and calling for Xander, she spots Buffy's weapon chest sitting open in the living room.

Xander marches down the street, carrying a big axe.

Dawn and Buffy are in the Summers's back yard. "So this is it? This is the stuff you've been protecting me from? You and Spike?" asks Dawn, her arms crossed. But she doesn't sound as snotty as usual, just sad. She wishes Buffy had told her, and Buffy says she didn't want to "admit it to [herself]." Dawn is very understanding, and sympathizes with the pain that keeping secrets must have caused Buffy. Just then Willow pops into the backyard (I initially typed "poops into the backyard," which is another story entirely) and says, "Buffy, Xander's gone! He took your axe."

At Der Zauber Kasten, the show is over. Anya slowly picks up her sweater from a tipped chair, and we see that the floor is littered with items that were formerly on the table. No words are exchanged as Spike buckles his belt and then heads for the front door. He's not even going to help pick up the mess? Sigh -- men. On the landing, Spike turns and shares a sad look with Anya, then gives her a respectful nod and leaves.

As soon as he gets out the front door, however, he's almost struck by the axe Xander has just swung. The axe lodges in the doorframe, and Xander struggles to free it but then gives up. He grabs Spike and throws him into the street, then up against a wall. In the distance, Buffy runs full tilt towards the scuffle. Xander punches Spike and shouts for him to get up. He taunts Spike for not fighting back (which of course Spike can't), and pulls out a stake. At this moment, Anya runs out of the store and shouts for Xander to stop; Buffy arrives and pushes Xander aside. Anya starts to say something, but Xander interrupts and tells her not to deny anything -- he saw "the whole beautiful show." Anya is shocked, then claims, "It was just a thing. I felt bad and he was just there." Boy, Spike gets that a lot lately, hmm? Spike spends much of this scene crouched/slumped against the wall, which is really distracting stage business, and I'm not sure why the director suggested or allowed it, because frankly? It looks stupid. Buffy fixes Spike with a glare and snips, "Didn't take long, did it?" Xander still hasn't noticed the undercurrent between Spike and the Slayer, and is instead expressing the suspicion that he, like Spike, was "just there" for Anya. She reminds him that he left her at the altar and that she doesn't owe him anything. He's appalled that her solution would be to "bang the first body" she could find, and Anya shouts that he has no right to judge her. His reply is that it's incredibly immature of her to try to solve their problems by getting him back for the hurt he caused her, and Anya counters sarcastically, "No, the mature solution is for you to spend your whole life telling stupid pointless jokes so that no one will notice that you are just a scared insecure little boy." Ouch. Well, that's going to leave a mark! There's been a lot of talk on the boards about how nasty Xander is in this scene, but it seems to me that Anya struck the first blow.

Xander looks sick with pain, and it's his turn to twist the knife. "I'm not joking now," he grits out. "You let that evil soulless thing touch you." He points at Spike, who's still stupidly slumped against the wall, then continues, "You wanted me to feel something? Congratulations. It worked. I look at you and I feel sick 'cause you had sex with that." Yeah, Xander's just a little too happy to find a nice, high moral horse to climb on, isn't he? Don't forget who ditched whom at the altar, Angry Boy. Anya and Buffy both look rather ashamed. Spike finally stands up and makes his contribution: "It's good enough for Buffy." Defending Anya? Tired of being called names? Finally seeing his chance to let the cat out of the bag? Angry that Buffy didn't stand up for him? I'll let you make your own judgment. I hope Spike/Buffy and Xander/Anya are broken up forever. They were truly sick-making couples, and I'm seriously sulking that I had to sit through months of wacky wedding hijinks, only to end up here. Xander shrieks, "Shut up and leave her out of --" and then catches the look on Buffy's face. "Buffy?" asks Anya softly, her jaw dropped. Buffy can't find the words. Xander is broken; dropping his stake, he declares, "I don't want to know this. I don't want to know any of this!" and walks off. Buffy looks after him for a second and then fixes Spike with an icy, implacable look. She turns and leaves too. Spike complains about Xander messing everything up and says, "You know, I wish..." "Don't," Anya interrupts, looking lost and miserable. She walks back into the store and starts putting things back in order.

By Ace

Willow, tapping and typing, says she might have the signal.

By Ace

Lair of Dim. An alarm goes off, and Andrew expositions that someone has "tapped into [their] feed."

Anya 'n Spike. He pulls up her shirt.

Lair of Dim. The Dimsters run frantically for their computers.

Der Zauber Kasten. Spike clears the circular table with one swipe of his arm and lays Anya down on it, then climbs on top of her.

Willow. Trying to get the feed. Dullsville. She's located a camera in the Magic Box. She stands up and says, "Whoa!"

By Ace

Xander marches down the street, carrying a big axe.

By Ace

This is the world we made. Isn't it wonderful?

As that scene ends, we hear Tara saying, "Things fall apart. They fall apart so hard." She's standing in the door of Willow's room; Willow sits up, surprised to see her. Willow is studying? She's just found out that Buffy was sleeping with Spike, seen Spike and Anya having sex, and knows that Buffy and Xander have rushed to confront Spike and Anya, and she's…studying? I know Willow likes to do well in school, but girl, please! Tara walks into the room, saying that having coffee is not enough to fix everything. Behind her, we see Willow's dress from "Once More, With Feeling" hanging on the door. If I were a smart person, I would have figured out the first time I watched this episode what Tara was going to do . Because "once more, with feeling," you know? It's a hint. "Trust has to be built again, on both sides," continues Tara. "You have to learn if we're even the same people we were. If we can fit in each other's lives. It's a long and important process." Willow accepts all this silently, her face open. "Can we just skip it? Can you -- can you just be kissing me now?" concludes Tara, a world of emotion in her voice. Willow's face lights up, and she rushes into Tara's arms. They kiss as the episode ends. Sometimes a person is desperate and makes a mistake in taking an errant partner back. And sometimes a person has faith in their love and their former partner, and resumes the relationship before all the apologies are made or the trust is entirely rebuilt, and things still work out. To take a tiny bit of joy away from this episode, I'll try to believe that this case falls into the latter paradigm.