Seeing Red

S06E19

The previouslys start with practically every scene from "Entropy." Seriously. Just go read the recap.

And we open with a pan across Willow's room to reveal Tara and Willow all cuddled up in bed. Tara? Sprawled across the bed, glowing post-coitally, looking like she's all sexed up. Willow? Hunched and hiding under a sheet, looking like she's afraid of going to the dentist. The camera zooooooooms in for a close-up of the kiss. Willow purrs about how "good this could feel…without the magic." Tara gently corrects that "there was plenty of magic." Willow really looks very pretty here without the girl-paint being spackled on. She looks like Classic Willow. I miss Classic Willow. And Classic Xander, and Classic Giles, and Classic Buffy. Willow muses about how the time is getting away from them, but balks at Tara's suggestion that they get up. The subject turns to Buffy. Willow seems really upset for her and speculates that "something might be going on. With Spike and Buffy." "They've been sleeping together," Tara quickly interjects. Y'know, at first I was going to bust Tara's chops for revealing a confidence, but I think it was pretty clear that Willow was going to find out the truth very soon anyway, and getting her shocked reaction out of the way in private with Tara so that she could be a supportive friend for Buffy can only be a good thing. Plus Tara, y'know, dies and shit later, and it's no good to speak ill of the dead. Willow can't believe the news at first, and then is nine kinds of selfish when she wants to know if everyone knew but her. Blah blah blah. Saint Tara reveals to Willow the path of caring and supportiveness, and Willow gets up to see if Buffy has snuck home in the middle of the night.

Willow knocks on Buffy's door clad in an oversize sport shirt. The door opens to reveal a made bed. Dawn hears the commotion and runs out of her room, wondering if Buffy is home. Tara stumbles out of the master bedroom wrapped in a sheet, and Dawn goes atomic offering to make herself scarce "in the basement. Where I can't hear ANYTHING. Ohmygod!" She squeals in delight and trots off.

Buffy breaks down a door and yells out, "Let's make this quick." She descends into the Lair of Dim and rifles through some papers. Eventually she comes across a white board that reads, "Too Late." As she tips it to read, a huge buzz saw comes whirling through the wall. And another. And another. And another. Huh. If Warren wants to be a villain instead of a two-dimensional annoyance, maybe he shouldn't look to Wile E. Coyote for inspiration. I wonder how they had time to booby-trap the lair, what with the quick exit and all. Upon rereading this section, I'm stumped as to how I could be sure that the Dimsters were pressed for time. I cannot remember a single thing about what spurred Buffy to finally get off her duff and go after them. ["The spy-cams. Another one of Buffy's self-centered reasons for finally going after a season-long villain." -- Ace] Talk about the banality of evil. Anyway. Evil buzz saws of doom. Buffy ducks and then does a flippy thing, quickly escaping up the stairs. She stops to collect her breath on the lawn and discovers that her oxblood leather blazer has a deep gash on the front. Ruh roh. You know how Buffy gets about her leather.

Credits. Now with ninety-three percent more Tara. Don't get used to it.

Summers home. Dawn and Buffy are discussing her latest adventure while Willow and Tara trip down the stairs hand-in-hand. They're so happy and fun-loving that you'd never, ever guess that Something Terrible was about to happen. Unless you've seen a television show before. And I know I said before that I wasn't going to speak ill of the dead, but mocking the dead's clothes is still fair game, right? Oh, okay. I'll be nice. The witches canoodle and kiss to the "aw"s of Summers Sisters. Ah, UPN. It's so nice to see a network that isn't afraid to touch these tough, socially current, hot-girl-on-girl-action-oriented issues. Buffy plays catch-up with everyone and gives the papers she rescued to the witchlets. Willow suggests calling Xander, but Buffy thinks that he needs some alone time. Dawn suggests that Spike could comb the demon bars; Buffy cuts her off with, "Spike's not part of the team." Dawn gets all pouty: "So. He's. Not. Going to be around anymore?" Get with the program, Shiny McWhiny. He hasn't been around since "Bargaining," practically. "What about Anya?" asks Tara, providing to a quick segue to…

…a curly-haired blonde, martini in front of her, sobbing quietly at the bar. The camera pulls back to reveal Anya "consoling" her victim. This one's boyfriend slept with her sister. Or, as she puts it, "He cheated on me with my fat, ugly sister." Huh. Maybe he cheated on you for being a miserable little witch who would call your own sister fat and ugly. Anya tries to egg her on to make a wish, but then gets caught in her own little theatre of pain. Wah, wah, wah. I may not like Anya as a character, but her delivery consistently cracks me up. The Wronged Party chimes in with, "Men suck. I wish Carl would…" But Anya is too caught up in her own drama to heed her cue.

Cave. Andrew cowers on the floor in front of a demon that's ready for a little snack. But he's really just a decoy so that Warren and Jonathan can zap it with some sort of demon cattle prod. Andrew takes the shock stick from Warren and zaps the demon a few more times, because he is an impotent little coward who can only face things when they're already incapacitated. Warren stops him with, "We need him fresh!" Andrew declares that he's finished being the bait, and Warren says that if "this works. time we'll be the thing everyone's afraid of." "What now?" queries Jonathan. Warren tosses him a knife, saying, "It's your turn, Sparky."

Cut to Spike in his crypt, putting some "medicine" in his daily glass of blood. "Does it help?" asks Dawn from off-screen. She's hanging in the doorway. Dawn expositions that she's on the way to spend the night at Janice's to give Tara and Willow some couple time. "So the birds are flying again?" says Spike. "Ain't love grand?" he continues in his best "I am a serious thea-tuh ack-tor" voice. He meanders over to sit in his chair. Dawn is all, "You're not going to be coming around anymore, are you?" Spike tells her that it's "complicated." Dawn is in pain. Spike's attitude is pretty much, "Go away. I'm sulking about not being able to bang your big sis anymore." Dawn wants to know if Spike loves Buffy. She gleans from his silence that he does, and proceeds to lecture him about the Anya situation, saying, "Then how could you do that to her? I don't know what happened between you two. What you did last night? If you wanted to hurt Buffy, congratulations. It worked." Having fulfilled her role as plot device, Dawn leaves silently.

By Sep

Caves. A demon like the one we saw earlier walks through a shimmery force field on his way to pick up some takeout Chinese or something. Warren and Jonathan emerge from a nearby crevice. Jonathan pads up wearing the skin of the recently electrocuted demon, as only these particular demons can pass through the force field. Warren warns him to be sure that none of his human skin is showing, and slams the demon's face skin over his head. "It's still wet," complains Jonathan. Warren pushes him through the barrier and asides to Andrew, "I wasn't sure that would work." "You think he knows?" asks Andrew. "I don't trust that leprechaun." Warren reminds him to "stay frosty." Jonathan trudges back through the barrier with a box that contains what appear to be mystical Ben Wa balls. Jonathan pulls off the demon head skin and is all gooey-wet underneath. Gross. Apparently these Ben Wa balls, instead of doing whatever the hell it is they normally do (because I certainly wouldn't know), give the bearer strength and invulnerability. Warren grabs his balls and looks like he's enjoying it a leetle too much.

Wah. Whiny chick rock. Xander strolls down the street to Der Zauber Kasten. Inside, Anya is half-heartedly dusting. Whiny chick rocker wants us to know that "nothing survives." Xander watches Anya a bit through the window and then moves on.

Tara. Willow. In bed. Somewhere that might not be at the Summers home. Possibly Tara's new dorm room? Willow is tapping away on her laptop. She finds something interesting. Blueprints. Tara suggests cross-referencing them with the county clerk's office, but Willow is against that plan because it involves getting out of bed.

A bar -- the Bronze? Bartender pours Xander another shot of something, but absentmindedly splashes his hand. A toothy brunette observes, "You're all wet." Xander quips that "it's a good thing [he's] part fish." Flirty, flirty banter. You know, some people might think to check whether the person coming onto them in a place like the Bronze is jailbait. In Sunnydale, it might be more prudent to check for horns and a soul. If I lived there, I'd put a sign in my bedroom that said, "NO soul? NO service." Might save a lot of heartache. Which reminds me of a game my friend and I used to play. We'd be out shopping and see a sign that could be taken in a more puerile manner than intended, and one of us would whisper to the other, "I want that sign in my bedroom." And then we'd giggle. Because our collective age was about twelve. The top contenders? At the deli: "Ask for a taste! Tasting is encouraged!" By the knockoff Lava Lamps at one of those Gifts That Everyone Looks At But Never Buys stores: "I'm HOT! Please ask for assistance." Anyway. Back to the show. Xander isn't doing so well with the flirting, going into a full rant about Anya. Enter nerds. "All right," observes Warren. "Let's make some noise."

Graveyard. Buffy spars with a vamp. As he's dusted, he gets in one more killer punch. Buffy isn't expecting it, and it knocks her right into a headstone, which breaks from the impact. Ow.

Summers home. Buffy enters the bathroom. Sighing. Moving slowly. Still in pain. She begins to draw a bath. Spike voice-overs from off-screen and, judging by the sound quality, possibly out of state, "Are you hurt? You're not moving so well." He enters and closes the door behind him. Ye gods, he's looking very gaunt! Between him and Buffy, I don't think there's a rounded corner in the place. Could be worse. Spike could look like Angel. Angel: The Bloated Avenger. He'll smother you with his double chin! Buffy tells Spike to get lost. He doesn't. He insists that they have to talk. Buffy, arms folded across her chest, is not amenable to that plan. Spike has come to apologize. "I'm sorry. Not that it matters anymore. But I needed you to know that." Because he cares about her. Buffy points out that if that's the case, he might want to stop sleeping with her friends. Spike explains that he actually went to Der Zauber Kasten to find some sort of spell.

By Sep

Graveyard. Buffy spars with a vamp. As he's dusted, he gets in one more killer punch. Buffy isn't expecting it, and it knocks her right into a headstone, which breaks from the impact. Ow.

By Sep

"You were going to use a spell on me?!" says Buffy angrily, and Spike starts to lose his temper too. He snaps that the spell wasn't for her, it was for him, that he "wanted something" to make his feelings for her stop. Buffy looks steely-faced, then sad. She doesn't say anything. Spike then sighs that Buffy should've let Xander kill him, and Buffy says she couldn't. Spike's a little excited at this and asks why, but Buffy's only answer is, "You know why." I think a better answer would have been, "Please leave. I don't want to ask you again." I mean, seriously! She's injured, she's in a bathrobe, she's in her house in the bathroom. It's no place for an uninvited conversation with the rejected lover. And if he'd refused to leave after she'd said please, I would have loved to see her kick his ass and throw him down the stairs and out the front door. I mean, fuck. Couldn't Spike call up and beg to talk to Buffy over coffee like a normal evil ex-boyfriend? Buffy, holding her sore back, goes to turn on the water in the tub, denying that she stopped Xander because she loves Spike. He accuses her of lying, and she starts to yell at him, then stops herself. She says that she does have feelings for him, but they aren't love, because she can't trust him. Spike laughs and dismisses trust, extolling the virtues of "great love," which is "wild, passionate and dangerous. It burns and consumes." Methinks Spike has been moping about and watching a bit too much Passions lately.

Buffy points out that all that burning and consuming leaves nothing behind. It can't last. Spike doesn't, can't hear her. He approaches her, telling her to stop hiding her love. She very patiently -- much more patiently than he deserves at this point -- tells him to "stop this." He grabs her by the waist, telling her she loves him; she pushes him away. The editing gets very choppy at this point, short snips inter-cut with longer ones. He paws at her torso, and she exclaims, "No. Oh, no. Stop it! Spike, stop it!" Meanwhile he insists over and over that she loves him. As they struggle, Buffy is backed up against the tub and loses her balance. She falls, dragging the shower curtain with her, and slams first her injured back and then her head on the edge of the tub. As she tumbles to the ground, Spike pins her against the tub and tries to hold her head to kiss her face. All throughout this, Buffy repeatedly tells him to stop and attempts to push his head away. I think she's injured and a little stunned from the fall, and mostly utterly stunned from the nature of the attack. Plus, it's a back injury. Those really hurt, as anyone who has ever had one will tell you. Often and loudly. (Hi, Les!) She struggles to crawl away, and we get a creepy voyeur camera angle from the ceiling of the room. Buffy squirms on the floor on her stomach; I think she's trying to reach the door. Spike throws himself on top of her. He turns her partially onto her back and pinions her hands.

Ace: Really? He's a midget.
Sep: Seriously. Knockout gorgeous. I've seen pictures.
Ace: But still! Midget! Miniature human.
Sep: And it's not like he's a particularly well-formed small person. He's got this weak chin and he's kinda pudgy. I mean, he's no fun-size Adonis.
Ace: We're so mean.
Sep: Whatever. He can just cry on the shoulder of the latest Hollywood Amazon he's bedding.
Ace: How do you know this?
Sep: I saw a picture on the net somewhere. Or maybe I made it all up. One of the two.
Ace: You were surfing the net for Danny Strong porn!
Sep: Shyeah. I'm all about the pint-sized pornography.

Jonathan then suggests that he and Andrew ditch Warren, but Andrew interrupts, "Warren's the boss. He's Picard. You're Deanna Troi. Get used to the feeling, Betazoid." He walks off. Jonathan looks anxious. Elsewhere, Warren engages in some terribly written and executed dialogue as he tries to charm the brunette he's latched onto. The woman's tall boyfriend then come over and tells Warren to get lost. Warren has other plans; apparently, the boyfriend, Frankie, is someone Warren went to school with. He does a whole song and dance about how Frankie used mess with him in gym class, then tells him, "Go walk." Frankie gives Warren a shove, but finds he can't move him at all. He struggles until Warren punches him across the room with one easy blow. Warren then knocks down a couple more guys who attack him and cockily tells the room, "Let's party!" See? Terrible dialogue. Smashing open the register and grabbing some money, Warren baby-talks to three terrified women: "Don't worry, babies. Daddy gonna give you some too!" Yuck, on a number of levels. At the same time, Xander exits the restroom (we know this because there's an incredibly and unbelievably loud toilet flush noise on the soundtrack). Xander spots Warren bothering the women and comes to their assistance with a few quips. Warren, however, asks Xander for a shot at Anya, making reference to the Spike/Anya liaison. So Xander punches Warren, who doesn't flinch. Xander grabs his arm in pain; a few insults are exchanged, and Warren ends up smacking Xander across the bar. He stands over Xander, whose face is bloody, and snarls, "Let's see how popular you are without a face!" I dunno, it worked for the man in the iron mask. Jonathan rushes up and reminds Warren that they are working on a time-sensitive project and it's really time to go. The Stooges leave.

Xander comes in the front door of the Summers home. First Spike and now Xander? I see that the seasons-old tradition of never locking the doors in Sunnydale continues. Xander, his face all bruised, calls out that he's found Warren. He stops talking when he spots Spike's duster draped over the banister of the stairs. He grabs the coat and stomps upstairs, where he somehow knows that Buffy is in the bathroom, and enters without knocking or anything. He's angry that Buffy is still seeing Spike, but stops ranting when he sees her sitting in the corner, still in her bathrobe. "What did he do? Did he hurt you?" he demands, and the camera shows us a large bruise on Buffy's inner thigh. "He tried. He didn't --" says Buffy, and Xander starts to storm out of the room, presumably in pursuit of Spike. Buffy stops him with a quiet, "Don't." We then hear the door downstairs slam again, and Willow bounds into the bathroom with news of an important discovery. I know these guys are old friends, but this is ridiculous! Bathroom = privacy! I get ticked when Latch makes an uninvited entrance when I'm taking a bath. But that's mostly because one of her favorite pastimes is to splash water on my face. Seriously. Willow is stopped by the strange tableau but when she asks what happened, Buffy tells her, "Nothing."

Later, Buffy (now dressed), Willow, and Tara sit at the dining room table; Xander stands nearby, holding an ice pack to his face. Willow and Tara say they've deciphered everything except some hand-lettered documents on parchment. Xander then identifies them as love poems written in Klingon. Whatever. After Buffy being sexually assaulted and Warren brutally murdering Katrina and beating the crap out of four people just a few minutes ago, I'm just not in the mood for more cheap "nerds lurve Star Trek" jokes. Moving on. The CD that Buffy saved from the Lair of Dim was full of "blueprints and schematics" to things like "banks, armored car routes, [and] corporate vaults." The Scoobies deduce that the Stooges are going on a major crime spree. Buffy's worried that she can't watch all the possible targets at once, but Willow assures her that they've identified one target that will be attacked tonight. Xander warns Buffy of Warren's new "Mighty Mouse" strength.

Spike slams into his crypt. He looks pained and angry as he recalls attacking Buffy in the bathroom and the way she begged him to stop. He grabs his bottle of vodka and downs a glassful. As he again recalls himself telling Buffy, "I'm gonna make you feel it," his fist closes and smashes the glass he's holding. He looks surprised and then shakes out the glass shards. Just then, Clem comes in the open door, holding a paper bucket and saying he just dropped by with hot wings to watch a Knight Rider marathon. Spike's all angsty, though, and just mutters, "What've I done?" He then looks confused and continues, "Why didn't I do it?" More labored thinking before he groans, "What has she done to me?" And that's the point, folks, when I realized there was just one more iota that I could add to my dislike of Spike. I thought my contempt for him was complete long before this episode, only enforced by his attempt to rape Buffy into loving him. But then here he is, telling himself that all this is something she's "done" to him, and I do actually manage to hate him more than I did a few seconds ago. Clem wonders who Spike is going on about and then figures it out, asking, "Oh, the Slayer, huh? Got it. Did she break up with you again?" Spike sulks that he and Buffy were "never together. She'd never lower herself that far." Well, maybe you could rape her into it, Spike. Oh, wait. You already tried that and it didn't work. Clem says the Slayer is a nice girl, but "hey, issues." He tells a little story about a cousin of his who was "resurrected by some kooky shaman" and turned out a mess, and I normally love Clem, but I wish he would shut up and go away so Spike can get on with the business of lying out in the grass until sunrise gives him a charcoal tan, or chopping off his own head, or wedging a stake in the doorframe and running at it full tilt, or dousing himself with the remainder of that vodka and juggling some lit matches. Because he's going to finally do something noble and simply remove himself from the show now, right? Wrong? Sigh. You're right, he's not. He's just going to whine about himself some more. Me, me, me, me, me. That's your problem right there, buddy. Spike asks Clem, "Why do I feel this way?" And just let the record show that it is not at all clear what "way" he's talking about. The love? The need? The obsession? The supposed regret that didn't seem to last long? The pain in his hand from crushing glass? The pangs of hunger brought on by the aroma of delicious hot wings? He doesn't specify. Clem says that love's a funny thing, and Spike wonders, "Is that what this is?" No. No, it's not, you sick bastard. Spike then blithers on about the chip "squirming in [his] head." Clem suggests a wet cloth, but Spike's not done bitching. He says things used to be clear, because Slayers were his enemies. He killed them. But things changed with Buffy, which he blames on the chip, all "steel and wires and silicon." Except he pronounces it "silicone." No, no, Spike. Chips are made of silicon. Silicone is what your pec implants are made of. He continues, re: the chip, "It won't let me be a monster and I can't be a man." Why don't you try being a pile of dust, then? You haven't tried that yet; I'll bet it's a good look for you. "I'm nothing," he concludes. Well, finally we agree! Clem tries to cheer Spike up by telling him that things change.

Amusement park. Banner that reads "Opening Night." The park is empty except for some guys loading money bags into an armored car. The armored car guys attempt to drive away, but Warren is holding the back wheels off the ground. He pushes the car up and then tips it over. Andrew and Jonathan are watching. Andrew "can't wait to get [his] hands on" Warren's orbs, but Jonathan is skeptical that they'll be getting the chance. Warren yanks the door off the back of the car but stops when Buffy shows up, quips ready. She jumps down on him, but he easily tosses her aside. Warren calls her "super-bitch," and Buffy points out he "has a problem with strong women." Because we didn't all figure that out in Warren's first appearance on the show last season when he built himself a sad sexbot. Or when he abducted, humiliated, and killed Katrina. Nope, we're stupid and can't be trusted to see things ourselves. Instead, they must be explicitly spelled out in the text. They fight, and Buffy isn't doing too well at first, but she does manage to smack Warren aside using the armored car door. He slams into a stone gateway and then stands under it, taunting her until the whole thing falls down on his head. Andrew's all anguished until he realizes that Warren is digging himself out of the rubble and is ready to rumble. Then Warren actually says, "Oh, wasa mattah, baby? You nevah fight a real man befoah?" He really, really does say it that way. I don't get that. Warren never talked that way in episodes. He tried to be all Rat Pack cool, not I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.

Amusement park. Buffy and Warren fight. She can't beat him, because he's invincible and all. As they fight, Andrew chants, "Kill her! Kill her!" What a disturbing little man. Warren and Buffy are exchanging quips and blows when suddenly Jonathan jumps on her back. To Warren and Andrew it looks like a futile attempt to take out the Slayer, but Jonathan uses the opportunity to tell Buffy to "smash [Warren's] orbs." Dude, she was already trying. Oh, those orbs. Buffy throws off Jonathan and attacks Warren again, but he tosses her into a park bench. He stands over her, ready to finish the job, and quips, "Say goodnight, bitch." As he pulls back his arm, his carefully crafted orb pouch is revealed, clipped to his belt. Buffy grabs the pseudo-scrotum and smashes said orbs. That Buffy, such a ball-buster! Geddit? Big sigh. All the power races out of Warren; Buffy faces him and, as commanded, says, "Goodnight, bitch!" She knocks him down and then advances on him, saying he'll pay for the crimes he's committed. However, Warren has other plans. He scrambles to his feet and rips off his jacket, revealing a jet-pack strapped to his back. He powers up, and as he jets away he, in classic villain style, vows to get his revenge on Buffy. "Oh, c'mon!" groans Buffy, watching him go, and I heartily agree. Where was this jet-pack hiding? Why didn't anyone see a big honkin' bulge under his jacket? Why wasn't it damaged in the melee? Why do I even still care enough to ask these questions? Oh, right. Money. Andrew then throws off his jacket; he too is wearing a jet-pack. Jonathan whines that he didn't get one. "This round to you, but the game is far from over," declares Andrew pompously, and then promptly jets right up and smacks his head on the roof of the porch he's standing under. I have to admit that I laughed out loud the first time I saw that. I know, there's no excuse. You have my apologies and I'm sure it won't happen again. Jonathan looks guilty, and Buffy looks exasperated.

Sunnydale police station. Some officers lead the handcuffed Andrew and Jonathan inside. On the way, Jonathan snarls at Andrew, "Jet-packs! You jerks were settin' me up to take the fall!" Andrew's not listening, though, because he's too sad that Warren flew away and left him. Inside, Jonathan looks anxious as Andrew snivels more about how Warren used him and "never really loved…hanging out with us." The beta nerds are seated on a bench, and when Andrew asks if Warren will come back for them, Jonathan gives him a "you poor dumb shit" look.

By Sep

Spike. On the road, on his motorcycle. He stops to survey Sunnydale and deliver a little expository speech to thin air. "Get nice and comfy, Slayer. I'll be back and when I do, things are gonna change." "And when I do"? I think he meant "and when I am." In a last-ditch attempt by the writers to show that Spike is still evil, he then throws down his ciggie. Get it? Not only is Spike an attempted rapist, but he's also a smoker and he littered. Spike finally rides away. Right into the rising sun, I hope.

morning. Willow and Tara are in Willow's bedroom. They make with the innuendo and share one of their awkward kisses. Tara glances out the window and spots Xander, who is walking through the yard towards Buffy. The witches are excited that Xander and Buffy might make up, and Tara says it's "the best part," but of course Xander and Buffy aren't going to make up that way, so I'm not sure why Tara says that. In the garden, Buffy is poking at plants with a stick. She appears to be looking for something, and Xander asks her, "Time for the spring poking already?" Buffy clarifies that she's looking for any more hidden cameras, and tells Xander that, of the "evil trio," only Warren remains at large. Xander says she'll find Warren and that "he won't be much good without his friends." Buffy agrees, and she's obviously talking about the Scooby gang now. She looks at Xander all serious-faced, and then they sit together on a bench.

By Sep

"How did we get here?" asks Xander. "Scenic route -- long drive," replies Buffy. Xander admits to being hurt that Buffy didn't tell him about Spike, and she apologizes. Xander then admits that Buffy had every right to think he'd be a jerk about it, and he understands why she didn't tell him. They say they've both done things they aren't proud of, and Xander, near tears, admits, "I don't know what I'd do without you and Will." "Let's not find out," replies Buffy, and they hug. Buffy tells him she loves him, and then Xander spots Warren entering the garden. It's a sunny day in the yard; Buffy and Xander are dressed in light colors and Warren, still dressed in black from the night before, cuts a startling and out-of-place figure.

"You think you can do that to me? You think I'd let you get away with that?" shouts Warren. He laughs hysterically and then continues, "Think again!" He then raises his right hand, which contains a gun. See, 'cause Buffy emasculated him earlier, so he's back with a brutally effective phallic symbol to finish the job. Warren fires three shots directly at Buffy and Xander. Buffy shoves Xander to the ground. Warren then fires twice more as he runs out of the yard. A bullet shatters a window in Willow's bedroom. Tara and Willow are still talking; a spray of blood splatters across Willow's white shirt, surprising her. "Your shirt…" says Tara, who has a round spot of blood on her upper left chest. She then collapses to the ground. Willow drops to her knees beside her. In the garden, Xander gets up and brushes himself off. He then sees Buffy lying on her back, breathing heavily. Upstairs, Willow calls Tara's name and turns her face-up. She cries, "Baby, come on," and rocks Tara in her lap. Xander kneels over Buffy, who is bleeding from a wound, also in her upper left chest. Xander presses his hand to the wound. Buffy blinks slowly. Willow sobs, "No, no, no." Then a close-up of Willow's face as her eyes turn blood-red and crackle with light.

week. Willow goes after Warren and sews his mouth shut. Why oh why couldn't she have done that to Glory last season?