| Written by: | Douglas Petrie |
| Directed by: | Douglas Petrie |
| Starring: | Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris Emma Caulfield as Anya Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers James Marsters as Spike Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg |
| Guest Starring: | Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells Iyari Limon as Kennedy Clara Bryant as Molly Sarah Hagan as Amanda Indigo as Rona Kristy Wu as Chao Ahn Lalaine as Chloe and the First Evil DB Woodside as Principal Wood |
| Co-Starring: | Camden Toy as Ubervamp Felicia Day as Vi Sharon Ferguson as Primitive (First Slayer) Geoffrey Kasule as Shadow Man #1 Karara Muhoro as Shadow Man #2 Daniel Wilson as Shadow Man #3 |
Principal Wood's shadow puppets gave Buffy some insight on the origins of slayers and on what is to come.
Buffy wandered around at night to observe the sleepy potential slayers. Unfortunately, they are now much more numerous. She was approaching Chloe, who was crying, when the First Slayer berated Buffy and said that it was not enough.
Spike and Anya were walking around complaining about all the potential slayers and Anya's frequent hints about reenacting a scene in "Entropy" when a demon attacked. Spike administered a couple of blows before taking Anya away.
At Sunnydale High, Principal Wood noted the increase in violent activity at school. Buffy theorized that it was the usual Hellmouth rumbling that takes place at this point in the season and continues until the season finale. He gave her a bag that strongly resembled one seen in "Restless" and said that it was something that should have been passed down the slayer line to Buffy. He also said that he wanted to see her headquarters.
She brought him home. He did not think much of Andrew and his big board, but he found Kennedy playing drill sergeant with 16 potential slayers to be more impressive. Kennedy was having a lot of fun. Willow nervously tried to explain what they were doing while carrying several weapons and was quite grateful to learn that she did not need to keep secrets from Wood.
Meanwhile, Anya chewed Spike out for not killing the demon who tried to kill her. Buffy and Principal Wood interrupted. Wood was not impressed with Spike and soon challenged him to a macho contest. Spike was not reluctant to participate.
Dawn looked through Wood's bag and described its contents to Buffy. The main item was a box that she could not open. Furthermore, the instructions were not in English. Dawn joked about flunking out and paying people to do her homework as they walked into a room, only to find Chloe's dead body. A few of the potentials gathered to hear the First Evil, posing as Chloe, rant a bit.
Most of the characters gathered with some extras in the living room. Most were sad, but Buffy was angry. She proceeded to berate and verbally abuse several people in the room, including Anya and Spike.
Buffy decided that it was time to find out what was in the box. Dawn narrated as Xander assembled puppets. It told the origin story of the slayer, starting with the earth followed by demons followed by men who found a girl and chained her to the earth. The puppets spun, moved around, and eventually created a visual effect in the center of the room. Buffy decided that it would be a good idea to jump in.
Unfortunately, this involved an exchange. Soon after Buffy jumped in, a demon came out. It easily fought Xander, Willow, Principal Wood, Kennedy, and Dawn. Xander decided that Willow needed to do another spell, but Anya had far less faith in Willow's ability to perform spells without changing her hair color than Anya did in "Older and Faraway." Willow was also reluctant, but Kennedy, Xander, Principal Wood, and Spike all believed that she should try something.
Buffy found that she was in a desert similar to the one in "Restless." She met three men who spoke to her in Swahili. She wanted information, but they just wanted to boost her power. She tried to claim that she was just dreaming or seeing a hologram until one knocked her out.
Willow nervously tried to start the spell. At first, she claimed that the spell would take a while, but then her eyes went black as she blasted Dawn and Kennedy with magic.
Buffy found herself in chains. The three men wanted to infuse Buffy with a black visual effect representing demon essence that would help her with the upcoming fight. Buffy decided that she did not want to do this and broke from her chains. The men tried to fight her, but they were no match. The one who was left standing gave her a vision.
Spike went after the demon. First, he went to his old home in the Sunnydale High basement to fetch his coat (formerly owned by Principal Wood's mother). Wood was not happy to see Spike wearing it. At first,the demon did well against Spike, which he quite enjoyed. Eventually, Spike broke its neck.
Willow was struggling with a Latin spell until she sucked some power out of Anya and Kennedy and decided that the "mighty forces" had better accept her English. Eventually, Spike brought back the demon and Buffy reappeared.
Willow went to check on Buffy. Buffy was regretting not taking the power offered to her. Buffy also told Willow about the vision: hundreds of Uruk-Hai Turok Han.
One potential slayer did not make it through the episode.
The shadow puppet effect was neat.
Unfortunately, all the other potential slayers survived. Furthermore, there are a lot more of them.
We are back to Buffy delivering the tiresome speeches.
A demon attacked Anya, but Spike saved her.
The exchange demon fought several characters before Spike killed it.
Buffy fought the shadow men.
Anya wanted to revisit "Entropy."
Principal Wood's tour of Buffy's house was amusing.
Some of the characters were upset at Chloe's death.
Buffy is getting very frustrated at what she perceives as everyone else's lack of contribution.
Anya wondered if Spike asked her on a date and made repeated references to an event in "Entropy."
Kennedy is enjoying the benefits of making out with the slayer's best friend. She had a lot of fun playing drill sergeant, although Chloe's suicide may dampen her enthusiasm. She had both the gung ho enthusiasm from "Showtime" and the whininess of "Bring on the Night." She started the episode as enthusiastic about magic as she was in "Showtime," but that changed.
Buffy is getting very frustrated at the extent to which the people around her are trying not to use their powers.
Dawn apparently has an amazing ability to learn languages.
Spike does not like the idea of other people knowing about his soul. He appears to find the potentials as annoying as the audience sees them.
Anya agrees with Spike that the potentials are annoying. She views her role in the group as providing the necessary sarcasm.
Xander believes that it is his job to provide sarcasm.
Buffy is starting to alienate herself from those around her.
Buffy knows that there are a lot of ubervamps out there.
We get a little background on how the first slayer was created.
Willow gets the MVP for casting the spell to recover Buffy. Spike gets a lot of credit for killing the demon.
Dawn gets this award for translating the Sumerian text, which activated the shadow puppets.
This is a close race. Chloe deserves some blame for wimping out of the fight before it began. However, she did ensure that there would be one fewer potential slayer to whine, so she did some good as well. Buffy gets this award for alienating all of her friends/allies and for rejecting power that might become useful later in the fight.
Kennedy kisses Buffy's best friend, and, two episodes later, she gets to play the drill sergeant and hang out with the regular characters rather than the other potentials. Considering base rates, we can expect most of the rest of the potential slayers to be heterosexual. Therefore, we should expect them to be all over Xander soon.
I do not want my comments on Chloe's suicide to be construed as not taking the issue seriously in the real world. All my comments were aimed at a fictional character, one who was poorly drawn.
Considering the fact that the shadow puppets were passed down from slayer to slayer, one would think that the text would be translated into a modern language. Furthermore, if it were to be in an original language, why Sumerian rather than Swahili? I suppose that the lack of an ancient Swahili written language may have something to do with that, but there are still more logical languages that can be used.
"Would you let it go? You're like a dog with a bone." Spike
"So what?" Anya
"It's my bone." Spike
"The Hellmouth has begun its semiannual percolation. Usually it blows around May." Buffy
"Andrew is our... Actually, he's our hostage." Buffy
"I like to think of myself more as a guestage." Andrew
"She [Willow] really almost destroyed the world?" Principal Wood
"Yep." Buffy
"Remind me not to make her crabby." Principal Wood
"The First is coming, and then, look at us, the army. We've got a bunch of fighters with nothing to hit, a Wicca who won'ta, and the brains of our operation wears oven mitts." Buffy
"Did you know the ancient Sumerians did not speak English?" Dawn
"They're worse than the French." Buffy
"Aside from getting rescued, what is it that you do?" Buffy
"I provide much needed sarcasm." Anya
"That'd kind of be my job, actually." Xander
"That's it. The First hates puppets. Now, if we can just airlift Kermit, Fozzie the Bear, and Miss Piggy into town, the First would be a-running." Xander
"Nice coat, where'd you get it?" Principal Wood
"New York." Spike
"Screw it! Mighty forces, I suck at Latin, OK, but that's not the issue! I'm the one in charge, and I'm telling you, open that portal now!" Willow
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.