Previously on Buffy: Willow killed Warren. Giles took her to England to recover, but then sent her home. She was scared to go and worried her friends wouldn't take her back. Anya went back to the vengeance trade. Spike got his soul back. Only thirty-five seconds. Thank goodness these are getting shorter.
We don't get a running girl at the beginning of this episode. Aw, I missed having a running girl to start me on my way. I'm all confused, because I thought Mutant Enemy was setting up a thing -- you know, an opening theme. A running motif, you might say if you liked bad puns (and I do!). I also like order. I like structure. Don't take that away from me, Joss!
Close-up on a clock that reads 9:24 (PM). Pan down into an airport setting and passengers disembarking from a plane. Two kids bicker as they exit the plane, and their dad reprimands them. As the passengers leave, they walk past Buffy, Dawn, and Xander (who's holding a large, hard-to-read sign.) Xander fretfully asks the others if Willow will "get" the sign, and Buffy snots that Willow won't be able to read it because it's so "pale." Turns out Xander wrote the sign (which reads "Welcome back, Willow") in yellow crayon. He explains that it was a "thing" from when he talked Evil Willow out of destroying the world last season. Dawn asks Xander to remind her again about what he said on the bluff, but she's just kidding, because the others have "heard the crayon speech a few times." "My mouth saved the world!" asserts Xander. That conjures up a few scary images. And hey, Mutant Enemy! Knock it off with the meta-quipping and quit gunning for my recapping gig. Dawn's all "yeah, whatever" because she's nervous about seeing Willow again; Buffy's not sure what to say to Willow and worries that the meeting will be strange. Xander says Giles wouldn't have let Willow "leave unless she completed that…whatever…recovery course," but Buffy makes a little face. Turns out Willow didn't finish the course. Dawn's pretty upset and grits out, "She didn't finish being not evil?" Buffy tries to assure them that Giles said it was necessary for Willow to come back and that they shouldn't worry about it. Xander notices that everyone has debarked the plane and the flight attendants are closing the doors. "Everyone's off the plane, so where's Willow?" he asks.
A new scene. Close-up on a clock which reads 9:24. Pan down into an airport setting and passengers disembarking from a plane. Two kids bicker as they exit the plane, and their dad reprimands them. This time, though, Willow is walking right behind him. She looks around the arrival area, obviously expecting that someone will meet her. She walks right past where we saw Buffy, Dawn, and Xander standing in their version of this scene. The flight attendants disembark. Willow looks around, unsure of what to do. "Welcome home, me," she says to herself.
We're at a dark construction site. The camera pulls in close on a boy who's defacing part of the site with an elaborate spray-paint tag. He doesn't notice something creeping closer from behind him. The creeper whispers, "All alone," and then makes a little gesture with its hand, clicking its scary-ass long nails together. Uch. Since I was little, I've have a visceral aversion to those long, curly nails featured in books like The Guinness Book of World Records, so I'm grimacing already. The creeper asks if the kid is frightened to be alone, and the kid turns around and asks, "Is somebody there?" The kid has a shag cut, and I entertain myself briefly with the idea that it's Connor, come to Sunnydale to lock everyone up in a box and deep-six them. But he's not Connor -- he's just our victim of the week. The kid tries to bravado that the creeper better "clear out," but he gets attacked and screams.
The camera pans slowly across the Summers's front porch. Willow knocks on the front door but doesn't receive an answer. She picks up her luggage and heads for the back door, where she knocks again. She then tries the knob and lets herself in. I…I…I don't even have the words. Last week we saw that Buffy and Dawn don't seem to lock the doors when they're home, and now it seems they don't lock them when they go out? My god, Buffy, you're the Slayer! Why are you making it just that much easier for your enemies to kill you in your bed?! Why couldn't the prop people give Willow a key to jingle so I wouldn't have to lose sleep at night thinking about all the demons that could just waltz into Buffy's house, hide in a closet, and kill her at their own demony leisure? Willow calls for Buffy, but the house is empty and silent. Willow heads upstairs. One of the bedrooms has a little sign on it that reads "Buffy," and Willow enters. Yep, Buffy has moved into Joyce's old room, because there's that strange connecting door to Dawn's room. There's a long, long pan around the room, including a pause on some clothes thrown on the end of the bed, and then a long shot of the window Tara was standing in front of when she was shot. Willow touches the window sadly and hears the shot, breaking glass, and her own voice exclaiming, "Tara?" She turns from the window and spots some pictures on Buffy's desk or dresser. They're hard for me to make out with my terrible UPN reception, but Willow doesn't appear in any of them. Willow wanders slowly around the room and then picks up Buffy's organizer. How nosy! I see they didn't teach her any manners over in England. Is she hoping someone left her a note there? She reads the page, which is titled "Family Numbers" and has the number for Buffy's work, Xander's office, and Dawn's cell phone. A dog barks outside, and a door slams. Willow drops the organizer and runs downstairs. However, the house is still empty. Willow sits down on the living room sofa and then curls up into a sad little ball.
The microwave clock reads 10:41 PM. Wait, it takes over an hour to get home from the airport in Sunnydale? C'mon. That works only if the airport is in another town. Or if Buffy, Dawn, Xander, and Willow all hung around the gate for a long, long time after we left them. Buffy, Xander, and Dawn enter the house through the front door. It seems they've spoken with Giles, because Buffy says Willow definitely got on the plane in London. Xander theorizes that perhaps Willow got off the plane during her layover in Chicago. Oof. I just saw all of Buffy's outfit, which appears to be a droopy, sheer cotton nightgown over jeans. Only the very top part is lined, so you can see her stomach and the waist of her pants through the fabric. She looks like a larva in that get-up. Makes Dawn's breast-cupping, ruched polka-dot top and black pants look like the height of fashion and sensibility. They speculate as to where Willow could have gone, and Dawn suggests that "ducking Giles" means Willow is still evil. Lacking in sense, certainly. They go to check their messages, and Xander slams the front door shut. Just then they hear clicking noises, like shoes on hard wood, and all stop to peer upstairs. Dawn asks, "What was that?" and they head up the stairs, calling for Willow.
A little later, Buffy comes back downstairs and tells Dawn that Willow is definitely not in the house. I hope she checked for monsters in the closet too. She's also conferred with Giles, who hasn't heard anything. Everyone sit down on the sofa. Xander asks, "Is he throwing a tasteful British wiggins?" Buffy says he is, and while it's nice to have them refer to Giles and all, I'd still rather actually see him, of course. Buffy adds that Giles feels terrible about misjudging Willow's state of mind. She suggests, "Maybe it's something about us she couldn't face." Xander suggests that Willow was worried about their forgiveness, and Dawn breaks in, pointing out that Giles is blaming himself and Buffy and Xander are blaming themselves. She adds, "Is anyone going to blame Willow?" Forgive me, but I'm starting to like this stern Dawn a little. Buffy gives Dawn a look, but Dawn isn't having any of it. She asks if anyone "around here will starts asking for help when they need it." No, Dawn. Because then there would be no hour-long dramas or soap operas and television as we know it would vanish, leaving behind twenty-four hours a day of boring normal people begging Oprah and Jerry Springer for help with their boring problems. Buffy agrees that if Willow flipped out, that's her problem, and they can only be there for her if she actually shows up. Then there's a very long shot of all three of them looking sad. They slowly fade away, and we instead we see Willow, who has fallen asleep on the couch. She sleeps. Possibly in real time, considering how long the camera lingers on her.
Willow's still asleep on the sofa, but now it appears to be the day. She wakes up and walks over to the phone. She hits speed-dial and asks for "Mr. Giles." Giles on speed-dial? I wish I had that phone. The person on the other end of the line explains that Giles is in a "council meeting" all day and can't be interrupted. "Council" like Council of Watchers, or like town council? Has Giles decided to fill his days by campaigning for local government? Nah, probably not. I just don't see Giles, after years of fighting evil on the Hellmouth, being satisfied with setting local tax rates and replacing people's lost garbage bins. Willow hangs up the phone and looks around the house. Long, slow crane shot of her standing all alone in the living room.
Sunnydale main street. Another brief crane shot of Willow walking, and then we see her approaching the destroyed Magic Box. Hey, she had all her luggage with her. Why didn't she change her clothes? God knows when I get off a transatlantic flight, the first thing I want to do is burn my icky airplane clothes and take a long, hot shower. As Willow approaches the shop, Anya comes out carrying a box. Anya flinches back towards the shop when she spots Willow, who hurries towards her, asking her to not run away. Anya demands to know what Willow is doing in Sunnydale and adds in an accusatory tone, "I thought you were with Giles studying how to not kill people." Anya wants to know if Willow came back because she's all better, or because she's there to "bring about a fiery apocalypse of death." Willow has to admit that neither option is true, but says she has been studying and will be fine. Anya snarks that she remembers the last time Willow claimed she was all better, and that she's "spent a lot of time since then cleaning the debris out of [her] ex-livelihood." Willow is apologetic; she wants to help because she "feels really responsible." Angry, Anya snaps, "You feel really responsible? You are really responsible!" Willow apologizes again, and Anya replies that vengeance demons don't care much about "sorry." They prefer to exact painful revenge that causes people to say, "Oh God! Please stop hitting me with my own rib bones." "Go on! Say whatever you want," offers Willow. "Rib bones and so forth. I deserve it." She nods, and they stare at each other. Anya's disappointed, because it's no fun to bitch out someone who welcomes the tirade. I bet I could still find ways to make that fun.
Willow apologizes again and sits down on the curb. That jet-lag from London can really hit you hard. Large signs on the Magic Box indicate that it's "unsafe" and "closed." Anya put her box down and sits to Willow. They smile at each other. There's a long, long pause during which Willow removes an artifact from Anya's box and then finally asks, "So where is everybody these days?" She sounds a little too innocent, trying to hide the fact that she can't find Buffy. Anya explains that she's moved into her own apartment and that vengeance is taking her all over the world. As she speaks, Willow fiddles with the three-horned skull or whatever it is that she's holding. She asks about Dawn and Xander and then breaks a horn off the skull. Oh yeah. Willow's not going to ruin Anya's stuff anymore. Under Anya's glare, Willow returns the artifact to the box. Anya is interested to find out that Willow hasn't seen Buffy, Xander, or Dawn yet, and suggests that they're probably "still mad" at Willow. Gesturing, she adds that the other Scoobies have been "a lee-tle temperamental lately." She starts to explain about the "mix-up a few days ago" with the Ronnie Worm, but Willow interrupts to ask where she could find the Scoobies. Anya tells her to check the new high school and recaps Buffy's nebulous job, Spike's insanity in the basement, and Xander's construction job. Willow's all, "Spike's what, huh?" Anya tells her that Xander should be at work already, and Willow looks overwhelmed.
Sunnydale High construction site. It's the large excavation we saw in the beginning of the episode. Willow walks up to the fence and calls for Xander. Getting no reply, she clambers down a conveniently placed ladder and walks past the graffiti we saw the kid spraying earlier. She spots something on the ground and recoils in horror. The camera pans downs to scattered clothing and an entirely flayed body -- the kid's, presumably. Guess the props department didn't want to waste the flayed man they prepared for the end of last season. Paint that many veins and you want to get your money's worth, you know? The camera spins around and lands on Xander and Buffy. Buffy makes an "ew" face, and Xander looks away. Xander found the body earlier, then gave his crew the day off and called Buffy "right away" to investigate. "I gotta get a job where I don't get called right away for this stuff," answers Buffy. We hear a clattering noise. It's Willow, frantically hurrying up the ladder, but when Xander looks over, he doesn't see anything. "Maybe Willow is back," says Xander, in reference to the flayed body.
Sunnydale High School. Willow, looking very disoriented, walks down a hallway. She finds the basement access door, still marked "No student access" and still mysteriously unlocked. Oh, wait. It's not mysterious, because nobody in Sunnydale ever locks any doors. Maybe they wouldn't need that damn sign if someone would just take a little trip down to the Home Depot and buy some damn locks for the doors. Willow heads downstairs and is shocked when Spike jumps out at her, shouting, "This is my place! You need permission to be here. You need a special slip with a stamp." Whuh? Willow crinkles her brow in concern at Spike's state, but he's off ranting before she can really get a word in. He wanders off from her, talking about walling things up and putting hearts back in. He turns to the wall and addresses it: "You're worse than ever, you are." Long pause, and then Spike slowly approaches the wall as Willow watches in the background. "You've been gone since --" he says, and Willow replies that she had to go. She then tells him she found a body, and he asks, "Is there blood?" Willow confirms that there is, and that she can't find Buffy or Dawn. She continues that the victim was skinned, and asks Spike what could be responsible. Spike turns his head towards her and says, "You did it once. I heard about it." Willow looks very worried and asks if it could be something other than her. Spike has turned his head back towards the wall. He steps forward, and softly admires her: "Look at you. Glowing." When Willow tries to get his attention again, Spike gets very agitated. He steps back, clutching his head, and says he needs to hide. "You know what I did," he mutters, and Willow is confused. "What you did?" she asks. "You didn't do anything, did you?" Well, that's what they've been trying to sell me on the boards for years, but I still ain't buying it. Spike gets an amused look on his face. "Everyone's talking to me." Then, like he's figured something out: "No one's talking to each other." Willow tries to get him to concentrate on her, but Spike roams about, saying that someone isn't there and then, "Button, button. Whose got the button? My money's on the witch." Willow is freaked out and confused.
Buffy and Xander wander about in the basement. Xander notes that blueprints are no good in the basement because the walls seem to move about. Buffy doesn't react to this. What kind of screwed-up life do you have when ever-shifting walls are the least of your problems? They hear Spike ranting, "This is my place! You need permission to be here. You need a special slip with a stamp," and open a door to find him talking about putting hearts back in after they've fallen out. Buffy and Xander walk up and stand directly in front of Spike, and Buffy manages to catch his attention. He walks towards her, saying, ""You've been gone since --" "The church," finishes Buffy. She says he scared her and she "didn't know what to think." Spike nods in understanding. There is absolutely no indication at all in this scene as to when Buffy left the church, or what state or physical location Spike was in when she left. One can develop whatever assumptions suit one's view of the Buffyverse, but there's a dearth of textual evidence to go on. Xander says they've come for a reason. Spike's eyes dart over to where Willow is standing and he asks, "Is there blood?" Buffy and Xander follow his eyes, but see nothing down the hall. They assume that Spike must know about the killing from having seen the body himself. When Spike says, "You did it once. I heard about it," Buffy ignores that and says, "Spike, we need to know who did this." Spike smiles and steps towards her. He surveys her intensely and softly admires, "Look at you. Glowing." "Spike. Please," pleads Buffy, with a quick flick of her eyes towards Xander. Spike's repentant. He steps back, touching his head and saying he should hide his face. "You know what I did," he mutters, and Xander snarks, "Boy. He's extra useful today." Buffy hushes him, and then Spike has a revelation: "Everyone's talking to me. No one's talking to each other." Buffy decides that she and Xander should leave, and Spike calls after them that someone isn't there. Buffy and Xander are still leaving when Spike calls out, "Button, button. Whose got the button? My money's on the witch."
Buffy and Xander turn back, surprised, as Spike concludes, "Red's a bad girl." When I first watched it, I could see how this scene led Buffy and Xander to feel even more suspicious of Willow. What I didn't realize until rewatching is that Spike is actually indicating knowledge of Willow creating her own invisibility. Cool. Buffy is worried that Spike's talking about Willow, but Xander dismisses it because of the crazy pants Spike's sporting this season. Buffy suggests that Spike has seen Willow (hello to the dramatic irony), and Spike fills Willow in: "They think you did it. The Slayer and her boy. They think you took the skin." Buffy and Xander step back towards Spike, and Buffy asks if something is in the basement with the three of them. "Something that killed?" Who in the basement at this point hasn't killed, Buff? That's no way to narrow down the options. Xander is disgusted that Spike described him as Buffy's "boy," but Spike has moved on to new matters. He tells Buffy and Xander that he has to go, as there are "things here without permission." He takes off down the hallway, saying he needs to check authorization. Aw, Spikey has a new job. He's the hall monitor of the damned! Can you imagine what a letdown that must be for a vampire? One day, you're a bad-ass wreaking havoc. One pesky soul later and you're the smitty kid everybody hates, standing around in the hallway officiously checking bathroom passes.
Anya opens her front door and finds Willow standing there. Willow wants Anya's help, and Anya replies that she doesn't have any money. "I don't want money," exclaims Willow, barging into the apartment past Anya, who snidely suggests, "Come in. Enjoy my personal space." Willow is agitated, but when she tells Anya she found a dead body at the high school, Anya isn't very impressed. "Yes, that can happen," she answers matter-of-factly. Willow explains the flayedness of the body, and then she and Anya simultaneously accuse each other, "Was it you?!" "No!" they both answer. Anya tells Willow that Buffy will think she (Willow) did it, and Willow says she wants to find what did do it and "do something right." Anya sees right through her and suggests that Willow is more interested in exonerating herself than in setting things right She adds that perhaps Willow even believes she might have killed the boy, and Willow starts to protest, then stops and asks, "When did you get all insightful?" Anya confides that she's actually "surprisingly sensitive." Willow again asks for help, and I guess Anya agrees, because we cut to later in the darkened apartment. Anya and Willow are sitting on the floor in Anya's apartment with a map between them. Candles are the primary source of light in the room, and Anya asks, "This isn't going to get all sexy, is it?" Hee -- because the show used casting spells as a sort of sexual metaphor for Tara and Willow and why am I even telling you guys? You know this stuff! Willow says she'd be shocked if the spell-casting led to the sexy and then asks Anya, "Do you have your powder?" "Oh, I ate that," Anya teases, not succeeding at keeping a straight face. Aw, she's very cute this episode. I just wish she'd smash that power center and be done with it. Willow glares until Anya grabs her powder. Willow explains that the spell will locate demons on the map. It's the same spell that Tara purposefully messed up in "Goodbye, Iowa."
Anya worries that the demon-locating lights will hurt the carpet, but Willow claims they won't. They scatter their powder over the map, and tiny lights appear, with a large concentration in the center of the map. Anya waves at the little light representing her and asks about the "clump" in the middle. Willow explains that those lights are at the high school, where "it's all Hellmouthy underneath." Yes. I believe Anya knows that. Is Buffy really drawing in enough new viewers this season to make this sort of exposition necessary? I'm also wondering if those demons indicated on the map are deep underground and would have to open the Hellmouth to get out, or if they're wandering around in the basement with Spike. Anya continues the exposition by reminding us that "things have been stirring lately." The little lights on the map get progressively brighter, and then the paper catches fire. Willow stamps out the flames and surveys the map as Anya inspects the burn mark on her carpet. The part of the map indicating the school is totally burned out, and Willow finds another largish burn hole close by. With TV magic, she decides that it represents a strong demon near the location of the body, a demon that's alone. What does "alone" have to do with what she knows about the demon (which is to nothing)? She suggests that the demon might be hiding in the woods or a cave; as Anya cleans up the carpet, she complains that Willow's theory is pretty "thin." I have to agree. Why couldn't it equally well be one of the many, many demons located at the school (the location of the killing), especially since Willow knows about the creepy basement and all? Willow tells Anya to teleport over and check it out, but Anya has to admit that she's recently discovered teleporting "isn't a right, it's a privilege" -- D'Hoffryn punished her for undoing her vengeance spell "last week" by limiting her teleporting to official business only. Apparently D'Hoffryn lifted his rule about teleporting whole cloth from the California DMV informational booklet. I know there's been some controversy about the timeline in this episode, but it seems that everything except Anya's reference here leads us to believe that this episode takes place just a few days after "Beneath You." Since Anya herself earlier referred to those events as a few days ago, I'm thinking that either the "last week" line is a very tiny mistake in the script or we've seen a few days, including a Sunday and a Monday, leading the very literal Anya to refer to those events as last week.
Anyway. "I have to file a flight plan and everything," grouses Anya. Willow sympathizes, and Anya admits that, overall, she just doesn't find the vengeance as "fulfilling as [she] remember[s]." Willow's a tiny bit surprised, because she had the sense that Anya "really enjoyed inflicting." Not so; Anya now finds it very upsetting. Willow ponders and then asks, "Is it like you're scared of losing that feeling again and having it be okay to hurt people? And then, you're not in charge of the power anymore because it's in charge of you?" Anya gets a shocked look and say that despite the melodrama, that's exactly how she feels. It might be nice to see Willow and Anya becoming real friends, which I don't really think they were in the past. Too bad there's not a special word for "person dating your friend, whom you are nice to when you see them and might even end up spending a lot of time with, but not without your friend there, and you would never just call this person up for lunch or whatever." Because that's what Willow and Anya were before. I bet the Germans would have a word for it. They have words for everything. There's even a German word for Formica! Anya gives Willow an endearing little head bob as she says, "It did get a little sexy, didn't it?" Willow briefly gets a come-hither look, but then horror crosses her features, and she pleads her monster-finding excuse and goes to grab her coat. Anya asks if Willow has tried to do a spell to locate the missing gang. Willow forlornly tells Anya that she already thought of that, but her spell told her that Buffy and Xander don't exist.
Casa Summers. Dawn is down with the computer research. Buffy gets up from the table all agitated, and Xander follows her. Buffy burbles that she needs to take some action. They're called away from their discussion by Dawn, who has found Gnarl -- a demon who secretes a paralyzing compound from his fingernails and then peels and eats the skin from his immobile victims. Gah. The flesh-peeling and eating would be yucky enough, but the whole fingernail detail sends it totally over the edge into stomach-turning. Because of the eating aspect of this cheery, hours-long process, Dawn calls him a parasite. Too bad he came five seasons too late. I think Gnarl would have been very happy with those husks of skin the swim team left behind when they mutated into sea monsters. Or maybe he doesn't like take-out. Buffy expresses doubt that this is the right demon, but Dawn proudly reminds Buffy that there was no pool of blood around the victim, and since Gnarl likes a little drink to wash down his skin, it has to be a match. I still say they came up with the concept for this demon during a late-night brainstorming session at KFC. I can just see Jane E. getting all grossed out by Fury eating the skin off of his breast and thigh meal and just leaving the rest. Xander tells Dawn that she's "terrifying," and then suggests that they could ask around at Willie's. "Or we could be smart," counters Buffy, saying that whoever is responsible for this grisly deed must have left traces of blood. Certainly enough of a trail to track if you have the right equipment.
Cut to the woods, where Buffy has checked Sunnydale High's blood tracking equipment out and is busy putting it to good use. Spike strides through the woods, a babbling brook of insanity. Xander, Buffy, and Dawn trail behind at some distance. A possibly out-of-breath Xander mumbles that they should have leashed Spike. Buffy is all, "Yes, let's tie ourselves to the crazy vampire." Dawn starts geeking out over the prospect of putting together a detailed demon database, but then loses all her feminist cred by admitting that it will also allow her to wear more high heels. How? I don't know. This, like the Xander bragging about saving the world all summer, was apparently just another in-joke. There's a third one, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is. Xander runs smack into Spike, who is now standing stock still and looking intently at something in the distance. "That's it. End of the line. Everyone off." Spike turns and leans in to whisper emphatically to Xander, "Keep your ticket -- you'll need that." Buffy is unimpressed with the "rock cliff" that Spike has led them too. "Rock cliff"? What are cliffs usually made of in the Buffyverse -- Nutter Butters? Xander mocks, "Maybe it's a vicious skin-eating rock cliff." Spike, momentarily lucid, gives him a "I know you work in construction, but how much of a tool are you?" look as he moves back the branches of the bush to reveal a small cave entrance in the cliff.
Close-up on the entrance to the cave. It's a tight fit, but Willow manages to crawl inside and looks around cautiously. Gnarl has helpfully accessorized the walls of his cave with flaming torches so that we can always get a clear view of the action. Why would a skin-eating demon go to that much trouble?. Maybe he's expecting a lady friend and wants to set a romantic candlelit mood. Whatever. A clattering pebble sound and a quick shot of Gnarl scurrying across the cave. "All alone" reverberates a Gollum-esque voice.
Outside the cave, Buffy, Xander, and Dawn squeeze through the entrance. They too look around. Buffy hears a noise. "Something's moving in here," says Dawn, all freaked.
Willow wanders around some more. Gnarl taunts her with, "Look at the shorn lamb. Is it the cold wind? Or is it the flock is nowhere to be seen?"
Cut to the Scoobs. "Poor little lamb all alone," we hear, as Dawn gets an "uh, can I go home and wash my hair right NOW?" look on her face. She wanders a little away from the group, giving Gnarl an opportunity to dart out of the darkness and slash her across the stomach. Buffy and Xander rush to her aid, but Dawn is already starting to lose the use of her limbs. As they hustle Dawn towards the exit, Buffy says that they'll have to deal with the demon later, but that they should "seal him in" so he can't escape.
Which of course leaves Willow sealed in as well. She whirls around upon hearing the sound of rocks being piled up in the mouth of the cave, trapping her in with the scary voice. She screams. Gnarl laughs, and there's this cool violin screech thing that is very reminiscent of the earlier seasons as we go to commercial.
Back from commercial, Gnarl still hasn't tired of taunting his victim. Willow sends a quick incantation to the Goddess beseeching her to revoke Gnarl's powers. Gnarl is less than impressed. I can't for the life of me understand what the hell he's saying (he has the delivery of a slide whistle), but the gist of it is that he's immune to magic. Willow doesn't try to levitate the rocks blocking the cave's exit, or bury Gnarl under a bunch of rubble, because the rules governing the use of magic in this week's episode require that she be trapped and helpless at the demon's mercy.
Xander and Buffy drag Dawn though the woods. Dawn tells Buffy that she's "really sorry," in that voice you use when you're practicing to be a ventriloquist. Buffy tells her that she shouldn't worry about that, and in fact should be proud that her research skills correctly identified the demon, as her paralysis proves. My silver lining is that Dawn is practically unable to speak.
Cave. Willow. Gnarl gets all excited about the "tasty gifty" of Willow that the Scoobies left for him. Apparently he's been watching this show far too long as well. Even demons aren't immune from the cursed "-y" suffix. Gnarl is tired of being all talk and decides that it's high time he got down to fixing some dinner. He darts up and slashes Willow across the stomach. She falls back on the cave wall as the poison starts to take hold. We see Gnarl's shadow in profile on the back of the cave wall. Creepy. "They were here. Here they were. And there they went. Gone all gone what a pretty song," he chants as his shadow fingers stroke Willow's hair. Ew! I have to say, they did do a pretty good job of making Gnarl creepy. Of course, the skin-eating thing helps. Then his real fingers stretch out all long and green to grab Willow's well-turned ankle as he drags her into the middle of the cave. "Love the gifty," he says, as we finally are allowed a direct look at Gnarl. He's a lot skinnier than I thought. I mean, I was always taught in health class that the skin is the most fattening part of all. "Can't wait to unwrap it," he says as he enthusiastically clicks his fingernails and makes smacking noises. Yuck. He brushes Willow's frozen hand off her stomach and bends over to slurp at the blood beading up from her wound.
Casa Summers. Buffy and Xander carry a very stiff Dawn into the living room. They dump her face down onto the sofa while I squeal in delight. "Face up!" Dawn attempts to shriek in protest. Buffy goes to check the website that Dawn was using to see if there's an antidote for the poison. Xander comforts Dawn, saying she'll "be doing the limbo in no time." "Yeah. As the pole," grits Dawn. Snerf. Either MT is an actual ventriloquist or that was a voice-over. There's no way she would have been able to articulate the voiceless bilabial stop in "pole" so clearly otherwise. See, Mom? I do pay attention in class. Success! Buffy has found the info. She plays with Dawn a moment, telling her that the paralysis is permanent, before revealing a split second later that she was mistaken -- it's permanent only as long as the demon is alive. That means returning to the cave. Xander protests that they can't leave Dawn unattended because "what if she vomits?" Buffy gazes down at Dawn: "Do you think she'll vomit?" Hee! SMG's nonchalant delivery cracks me up. Buffy goes off to phone Anya to ask if she's available for "vomit patrol."
Cave. Gnarl is (hideously) cutting designs onto Willow's stomach with his (disgusting) fingernails and (annoyingly) referring to himself in the third person. He licks the blood from his fingers. Then he rips the first strip of skin from Willow's tummy and chows down. Willow looks unhappy. Since she's paralyzed, that's about the best she can muster.
"I bet she's dying," chirps Anya in reference to Dawn. Buffy, strapping on a big knife in a calf-holster, insists that Dawn is merely paralyzed. Anya gets an idea. "Did you try this?" she asks, moving Dawn's legs straight up into the air, where they stay unaided. Xander: "Oh! You're poseable." Hee! "Poseable?" says Buffy, coming over for a closer look. Anya poses Dawn into a sitting position. Dawn is ticked off, but I think this is exactly the kind of lampooning her character needs to make the fans hate her less. But as hee-larious as poseable Dawn is, I'm distracted by Anya's hair, which was pretty short in the last episode but is now past her shoulders. I guess D'Hoffryn considers teleporting to be a privilege, while hair extensions on demand are a right. Buffy, protein-packing in preparation for some physical exertion, asks Anya where the nuts she's chowing down on came from. "Brazil," answers Anya. Hmmm. I'm guessing that might be important later. Anya tells them that there's no need to thank her for sitting with Dawn, as she's having a "benevolent" day. "Helping Willow. Helping [the gang]." After a few seconds, Buffy twigs to what Anya is saying, and Anya reveals that Willow is looking for Buffy and went to some cave to try to find her. "Shall I make her salute?" she asks in reference to Dawn. "That'd be very cute." Hee! I want a poseable Dawn for my birthday! Once Buffy realizes that Willow is trapped in the well -- er, cave, and that Anya is familiar with Gnarl, she holds out an axe to Anya and requests the honor of her presence in that special way that Buffy has: the direct order. The gang files out, but Buffy doubles back to slap the TV remote into Dawn's hand.
Willow. In pain. Being eaten alive. Some more. Gnarl: "And if they return where will they find you? Inside me you'll already be." Y'know. Being eaten alive is bad enough, but the rhyming couplets? That's torture.
The gang races through the woods on the way to save Willow. Anya is trailing way behind. Xander yells at her to keep up. "Out of shape, " she gasps. "Teleporting." Heh. Buffy yells at both of them to hurry. Well, why don't you just run ahead then, Little Miss Supernaturally Blessed With Greater Than Mortal Endurance?
Willow whines and moans as Gnarl sucks at her insides. Buffy runs up and swings her axe at Gnarl. He wisely decides to retreat and regroup. "Where's Willow?" asks Buffy, looking around but obviously not seeing her. Anya, bent at Willow's side, is all, "Um. Here?" Xander bends down and feels the air on the ground to Anya, but his hand just goes right through her. "Behind you!" calls out Anya. Buffy makes a very narrow escape when Gnarl slashes at her with his poison claws. Her shirt is rent, but luckily Buffy's skin isn't. Buffy, angered into action over the destruction of her new knit top, takes on the demon. With a short little knife putting her in more danger from his poison claws than strictly necessary. What happened to that axe she had just a second ago? Anya calls out a reminder to "get him in the eyes." She kneels down to "comfort" Willow with a "Wow, you're really hurt." If you say so, Anya. Doesn't look so bad to me. Much less like Willow was paralyzed and had huge strips of skin flayed from her tummy and more like Gnarl held her down and exfoliated her a bit too long. Anya provides a blow-by-blow of the events. Willow is incredibly distressed because she still can't see Buffy and Xander. Anya reassures her that they're really, really there, and Willow does her best to get all emotional with, "They're here. They're here. I'm not alone." Oh, OUCH. Good thing Anya doesn't grasp the subtle insult in that. Back to the fighting. Buffy displays adaptability and impales Gnarl's foot with her knife, immobilizing him. She then gets up real close and sticks her thumbs in his eyes until they pop like jelly. God, this episode is gross. Xander is suitably icked out too. As the demon is killed, Willow is once again able to move, as is Dawn, who falls off the couch with a little squeal. Buffy and Xander still can't see Willow, though. Anya goes to fetch help. Buffy and Xander can't go, because then they wouldn't be there for the emotional, babbling reunion among the gang.
Pan up on Casa Summers. Buffy pauses at the doorframe of her old room, where Willow is sitting on her bed and meditating. She goes to leave, but Willow comes out of her trance long enough to call Buffy inside. Willow explains that she's all out of juice because she's busy "healing. Growing new skin." Y'know, Will, that'll just happen on its own. Buffy comes in to sit on her bed and makes a nervous joke about how Clem should probably cut back on the meditation. Willow says that she's "drawing power from the earth" because "Giles says that everything is part of the earth." It'd be better if Giles were here to say it himself. Willow leans back carefully. I'm already bored with this scene. No Poseable Dawn or Sassy Anya make Sep a disinterested viewer. Buffy wants to beat a quick retreat, but Willow begs her to stay. Buffy gives her a quick update on Dawn's research into what caused the blinvisibility, but Willow interrupts her: "I did it." Buffy looks troubled by the thought of Willow doing spells again, and even more troubled when Willow reveals that she did it unintentionally. Oh, that's comforting. At least last year Willow was able to control when she would cast spells. What a remarkable job the Coven did. Buffy masks her shock with, "It's okay. As long as you're all right." Then Buffy looks down and confesses that when the flayed people started showing up, Buffy thought that Willow was behind it. Buffy tells her that she wishes she were the kind of person who would give her friends the benefit of the doubt, but Willow very rightly points out that, as the Slayer, Buffy doesn't have the luxury of thinking the best of people sometimes. Willow starts to go into her trancy thing again. Buffy is all, "I thought you were too tired." Willow explains that it "hurts too much not too try," but at the same time it takes so much strength. Buffy scoots close to Willow and mirrors her cross-legged position. She explains that she's so full of strength that she's "givin' it away." They join hands and begin meditating to grow Willow some more skin. Oh, how touching. Anyone have any Ho-Hos? I'm hungry.