| Written by: | Joss Whedon |
| Directed by: | Joss Whedon |
| Starring: | Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase David Boreanaz as Angel Seth Green as Oz Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles |
| Guest Starring: | Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers Julia Lee as Lily Carlos Jacott as Ken Mary-Pat Green as Blood Bank Donor Chad Todhunter as Rickie |
| Co-Starring: | Larry Bagby III as Larry James Lurie as Teacher Michael Leopard as Roughneck Harley Zumbrum as Demon Guard Barbara Pilavin as Old Woman Harrison Young as Old Man Alex Toma as Aaron Dell Yount as Truck Guy |
While the other characters attempted to fight vampires, Buffy traveled to another dimension to free oppressed humans.
Andrew Hoelich rose from his grave only to meet Willow. She distracted him long enough for Xander to grab him from behind. Unfortunately, Oz was a little slow to pull out a stake, so Hoelich was able to break Xander's grasp and run away. The music swelled as Oz pulled back and tossed his stake at the fleeing vampire, only to have the stake bounce harmlessly off of a nearby grave.
The three analyzed their failure, focusing more on Willow's prefight taunt rather than on the tardy staking. Xander, and especially Willow, wished that Buffy were still there and wondered what she was doing at that moment.
We next see a romantic scene with Buffy and Angel on a beach. It ended when Buffy woke up, looked outside her apartment, and saw a rather run-down neighborhood.
At her job in a diner, Buffy, wearing a nametag saying "Anne," moved from a couple of crude customers to a young couple, Lily and Rickie, who blew nearly every dollar they had on matching tattoos. Buffy was rather upset when Lily appeared to recognize her, so she asked another waitress to cover for her.
On the first day of school, Willow was quite pleased to see Oz until he told her that he neglected to finish his classes from the previous year. She was rather upest at this even though this meant that he could be on the show for another year. Cordelia was as eager to see Xander as he was to see her until they actually met, when they were rather cold.
Still in uniform, Buffy wandered around the city hearing people tell her that they are no one. Lily caught up to her and identified her as Chantarelle, one of the vampire worshippers from "Lie to Me." While they were talking, an old man wandered between them and onto a street. He stood as a car drove toward him for five seconds without stopping or slowing down. Eventually Buffy ran into the street and pushed the man out of the way and ended up being hit herself. The driver claimed that he did not see her and was surprised to see her get up and run away.
Buffy ran into Ken, a social worker who ran a shelter for troubled teens. He suggested that maybe she should stop by because she looked like she needed help.
At the Bronze, Xander and Willow were moping about Cordelia and Buffy respectively. Xander was also upset about their poor kill ratio over the summer when chasing vampires. Xander got the idea to use Cordelia as bait.
At Buffy's house, Giles showed up to say that the latest alleged Buffy sighting did not pan out. Joyce expressed her frustration at Giles for having a relationship with Buffy that Joyce did not know about.
Lily approached Buffy and told her that Rickie was missing. Buffy very reluctantly agreed to help look. They eventually split up, and Buffy searched an abandoned building. She found the body of the man who was standing in front of the oncoming car. Buffy looked as his arm and found Rickie's tattoo.
Lily switched between refusing to believe that Rickie was dead and blaming Buffy. Buffy was not in the mood for either and told Lily off. Lily left and ran into Ken, who claimed that Rickie was back at the shelter.
Meanwhile, Buffy broke into a blood donation center to see if they did something to Rickie that caused him to age. The nurse on duty did not like the idea of Buffy breaking in and looking through personal files, but she did tell Buffy that she gave the names of the healthy ones to Ken.
In Sunnydale, Xander, Willow, Cordelia, and Oz went out vampire hunting. Cordelia did not like the idea of being bait and argued with Xander while Andrew Hoelich stalked Willow. They started to argue about other topics when Willow's scream interrupted them. Oz managed to rescue Willow and Xander started to tangle with Hoelich. Cordelia shoved Hoelich onto Xander's stake, ending the fight. Xander and Cordelia then proceeded to kiss.
Buffy showed up at Ken's mission just as Lily was about to be "cleansed" in thick, black goop. Ken stopped Buffy for long enough for Lily to be dragged in. Buffy and Ken soon followed.
They found themselves in a holding pen. Ken was whining about how hard it was to glue a latex human mask on his demon face before he showed Buffy and Lily the factory complex, complete with sparks, flaming liquid, and laborers dressed in smocks. Ken told them that they would spend the rest of their lives there, where they would experience 100 years in just one earth day.
A guard made clear to Buffy, Lily, and the other new arrivals that they were now "no one." Buffy, however disagreed and fought back. She managed to recover a hammer and a sickle-shaped weapon from guards and held them off for a while until Ken managed to get a knife to Lily's throat. He let Lily go as he started to brag about how he deals with rebels. Lily used the opportunity to push Ken off of a ledge.
Buffy broke free and managed to get Lily and the other new arrivals out just before the portal to the demon dimension was sealed. Later, Buffy told Anne that she could take over Buffy's apartment and job. Buffy even let Lily take over the name "Anne." Buffy then left for Sunnydale and her mother.
This is not a typical episode of Buffy, which is a good thing. This episode shows that the show does not simply fall into predictable formulas.
Like with many of the weaker episodes, much of the focus was on people we never saw before (or saw only once before) and may not see again. This meant that we saw much less of the other important characters than we should, particularly in a season opener. There would presumably be new people watching the show, and they really needed to see more of Willow, Xander, Giles, and the other important characters to have a good idea of what the show is like.
Willow, Xander, and Oz proved to be little match for Andrew Hoelich.
Buffy and Ken struggled as Ken tried to prevent Buffy from interfering with Lily's abduction.
With an assist from Cordelia, Xander managed to stake Andrew.
Buffy fought against Ken and the demon guards to free some humans from the factory.
The two attempts at vampire slaying were funny, especially Oz not even coming close to tossing a stake into Andrew Hoelich's back.
Buffy's Gandhi impression was also rather amusing, if a bit inaccurate.
Most of the characters were upset by Buffy's running away and by her continued absence. Willow objected to anyone talking as if Buffy would never return, and Joyce blamed Giles for Buffy leaving.
Meanwhile, Buffy was still trying to avoid anything that reminded her of her life in Sunnydale.
Buffy had a romantic dream about her and Angel on a beach.
Xander and Cordelia eventually get back together after being separated all summer.
Buffy is actively trying to avoid anything that reminder her of what she went through in the previous year. Ironically, or not, it was the opportunity to be the vampire slayer again that brought her out of her depression and allowed her to go home.
Giles had apparently made nine trips over the summer chasing down unsubstantiated Buffy sightings. These failures have not discouraged him from getting excited at a tenth sighting during this episode.
Willow said that she believed that Buffy will return and was upset whenever anyone said anything that suggested that Buffy would not return.
Joyce was also feeling upset about Buffy's absence. She said that she blamed Giles instead of herself, but she was not very convincing.
The most important thing that this show did was to get Buffy back to Sunnydale in time for the next 21 episodes of the season.
Lily eventually did some good by pushing Ken off the ledge, but her bungling also caused some of the problems. Otherwise, it was Buffy who led the rebellion and freed the new arrivals.
Buffy figured out that the old man was really Rickie. She was not correct when she suspected that the blood bank might have tainted his blood, but her investigation of the blood bank led her to Ken.
Oz gets a little consideration for failing to be ready for Andrew Hoelich when Xander grabbed Hoelich, but Ken wins this award for turning his back on Lily.
If one earth day = 100 years in the demon dimension, then Lily spent about 3.8 days in the time between when she fell into the dimension and when Buffy and Ken followed. Some sources consider this to be an error, but I disagree. Clearly, new arrivals are held until a sufficient number arrive. The handful that we saw probably took a little while to accumulate. It is possible that new arrivals are held until there are enough to be worth orienting.
Also, many wonder why Buffy did not rescue the other workers. The main reason was that she could not. She was lucky to get the ones that she did. Once she rescued them, the portal was sealed, preventing her from going back. The ones who were left behind were probably too far gone to go with Buffy willingly and would not have integrated well back on Earth.
Usually, Buffy's address is given as 1670 Revello. However, in this episode, the number on the curb in front of her house looked like "1315." The last digit was partially obscured, but the rest was clear.
"That's right, Big Boy, come and get it." Willow
"I've always been amazed with how Buffy fought, but, in a way, I feel like we took her punning for granted." Xander
"I wonder what our first homework assignment's gonna be. Hey, you're excited over Cordelia, OK? We've all got issues." Willow
"I appreciate your efforts to keep the vampire population down until Buffy returns, but if anything should happen to you or you should be killed, I should take it somewhat amiss." Giles
"You'd be cranky?" Willow
"Entirely." Giles
"Well, we try not to get killed. That's part of our whole mission statement, 'Don't get killed.'" Willow
"He didn't meet anybody over the summer, did he? No, who's he gonna meet in Sunnydale, but monsters and stuff? But, then again, he's always been attracted to monsters." Cordelia
"This is our year, I'm telling you, best football season ever. I'm so in shape, I'm a rock. It's all about egg whites. If we can focus, keep discipline, and not have quite as many mysterious deaths, Sunnydale is gonna rule!" Larry
"Joyce, you mustn't blame yourself for her leaving." Giles
"I don't. I blame you." Joyce
"I woke up, and I looked in the mirror, and I thought 'Hey, what's with all the sin? I need to change. I'm dirty. I'm bad with the sex and the envy and that loud music us kids listen to nowadays.' Oh, I just suck at undercover." Buffy
"I'm Buffy, the vampire slayer, and you are?" Buffy
"That was not permitted!" Ken
"Yeah, but it was fun." Buffy
"You've got guts. I think that I'd like to slice you open and play with them. Let everyone know, this is the price of rebel... waagh!" Ken
"Hey, Ken, wanna see my impression of Gandhi? [smash!]" Buffy
"Gandhi?" Lily
"Well, you know, if he was really pissed off." Buffy
In the battle in the factory, it was not clear who was killed and who was merely knocked unconscious. Television and movies generally (albeit falsely) view blunt objects as being nonlethal, so I am going to assume that those who took a blade to the chest died and those who were merely hit with blunt objects survived.
Highlight the space after each question to find the answer. It is strongly recommended that you do not do so if you have not seen episodes through the episode indicated.