Buffy  Season 4 Episode Guide

Eppisode 1:

The freashman

With their first semester at the University of California - Sunnydale almost upon them, Buffy waits in the cemetery for a vampire to rise while Willow helps her register for classes. One class they're taking together is a psychology course taught by Professor Walsh, who has an impressive reputation. Distracted with course selection for a moment, Buffy fails to notice her intended target rising out of his grave. The vampire attempts to sneak up on Buffy and Willow from behind, but the sight of their arsenal of stakes, arrows, and crosses forces him to find a meal elsewhere.On the morning of her first day of college, Buffy finds herself overwhelmed by the sheer size of UC-Sunnydale. While wandering around in a vain attempt to find a building, Buffy bumps into Willow, who is considerably more excited with the college experience. Soon after, they find Oz standing about. Having played on campus several times with his band, Oz has gotten fairly acquainted with the setting, enough to know more than a few faces walking around. Buffy and Willow check out the library, which is enormous in comparison to Sunnydale High's. On the way there, Willow updates Buffy on what Giles and Xander have been up to over the summer. While Xander set out on a mission to drive across America, Giles has been enjoying his unemployed status. After the library, Buffy and Willow head to the bookstore. There, they meet Riley, one of Prof. Walsh's T.A.'s for the psych class they're taking. Willow impresses Riley with her present knowledge of the subject. Riley leads her over to another section of the bookstore, leaving Buffy with nothing to do but tag along. Afterwards, Buffy returns to her dorm room and meets her roommate, Kathy, who has just moved in. Although a fairly nice person, Buffy finds her to be a little too enthusiastic. She also isn't too thrilled with the Celine Dion poster that Kathy puts up on the wall. That night, Buffy learns the hard way that Kathy is an obnoxiously loud sleeper.The next day, Buffy attends a pop culture class that she hasn't registered for yet. While asking a nearby student if there are any openings left in the class, Buffy attracts the attention of Prof. Riegert, who makes it crystal clear that Buffy has no chance of getting into the class. He then orders her to leave the room immediately. On her way to psych class, Buffy runs into Riley just outside the classroom. Although he remembers Willow perfectly, Riley has trouble recalling meeting Buffy the previous day, let alone her name. Inside, Buffy takes a seat next to Willow and Oz. At the start of class, Prof. Walsh informs the students that her class is anything but a blow-off course. Later that night, Buffy meets another student by the name of Eddie. Besides taking Psych 105 together, what Buffy and Eddie also have in common is their general discomfort with college life so far. While they walk towards their respective dorm rooms, Buffy and Eddie discuss security blankets that get them through the daily grind. For Eddie, it's a copy of "Of Human Bondage" that he always keeps near his bed. After they part ways, Eddie has an unfortunate run-in with a gang of vampires, led by a blonde named Sunday. Shortly after, the vampires rob Eddie's room of all of his belongings. They leave a forged good-bye note on the bed before splitting.At psych class the next day, Buffy tries to find Eddie in the class, but to no avail. She goes to Eddie's residence hall. Eddie's R.A. takes Buffy to the room and shows her the space that's completely empty, save for the note on the bed. Buffy reads the note while the R.A. tells her that it's fairly common for some freshman to take off this early. Before she leaves, Buffy finds Eddie's copy of "Of Human Bondage" in his nightstand. Meanwhile, Sunday and her vampire lackeys sift through Eddie's stuff. Disappointed with their findings, Sunday decides that she needs someone else to find a better victim, and the just-turned Eddie is her choice for the job. She heads to Giles' apartment for help, but soon learns that Giles is not alone in the apartment. Dressed only in one of Giles' dress shirts, an old friend named Olivia greets Buffy as she enters the apartment. When Giles steps out, Olivia leaves the two of them alone in the living room. Buffy tells Giles about the missing student. In response, Giles reminds her that without a Watcher officially assigned to her anymore, Buffy will have to take care of such matters by herself. Later that night, Buffy sees Eddie walking around the campus. When she catches up with him, Buffy realizes Eddie is no longer the human student she met the previous night. After a short fight, Buffy finishes Eddie with a stake to the heart. The Slayer soon realizes that she has an audience. Spinning around, Buffy meets Sunday. While the rest of the vampire gang surrounds Buffy, Sunday battles the Slayer one-on-one. In no time, Buffy realizes that this fight is much more difficult than she expected it to be. When Sunday gains the upper hand by snapping her opponent's left arm, Buffy decides to retreat. That night, the unbearable pain in her arm makes it impossible for Buffy to sleep.The next morning, Buffy sees Willow and Oz having a pleasant conversation with another student. Instead of joining her friends, Buffy turns the other way and heads home. Joyce is surprised to see her daughter home this early in the semester. After Buffy learns that her room has been filled with her mother's crates from the gallery, the phone rings in the kitchen. Buffy answers the phone, but no voice comes from the other end of the line. Buffy hangs up and goes back to her dorm room, only to find that all of her stuff has been stolen. A good-bye note similar to Eddie's rests on her bed. Down in the dumps, Buffy heads to the Bronze. For a split second, Buffy thinks she sees Angel standing at the bar, but a second glance reveals it to be a complete stranger. Suddenly, Xander surprises Buffy with his unannounced presence. Xander tells Buffy the story of his summer vacation, which involved a road trip that pretty much never happened, his car dying in the middle of nowhere, and a job at a ladies' club that, for one evening, forced Xander to join the ranks of male strippers. Realizing that Buffy shouldn't even be in the Bronze, Xander gets her to confess her troubles at school. Knowing that her self-confidence is shot, Xander tells Buffy that she's been nothing but a magnificent inspiration, and that he considers Buffy his hero. With her spirits lifted, Buffy uses Xander's assistance to track down Sunday to an abandoned fraternity house. They spy on the vampires through a skylight on the roof. Unable to see her weapons chest, Buffy sends Xander back to her dorm room to retrieve the necessary equipment. After Xander takes off, the skylight gives way under Buffy's weight, sending the Slayer down onto the hard floor below.While Buffy tries to fight Sunday again, Willow and Oz read the note on Buffy's bed while Kathy wonders what's going on. Fearing that they somehow drove Buffy away, Willow drowns herself in guilt. Xander suddenly arrives and subtly hints to Willow and Oz that Buffy is in trouble. Unable to find the weapons chest in the room, they head for Willow's room to get supplies. Back at the frat house, Buffy spots her weapons chest in the corner of the room. Before she can reach it, Sunday steps in front of her and holds up the Class Protector award. When Sunday breaks it, Buffy goes into overdrive, using a flurry of kicks and one-armed attacks on the hapless vampire. The rest of the gang tries to make a run for it, but Xander, Willow, and Oz arrive just in time to reduce them to dust. After taking the fight out of Sunday, Buffy sends the vampire flying across the room with a punch from the same arm that Sunday thought was broken. Xander, Willow, and Oz watch as Buffy hurls a stake right through Sunday's heart. After gathering all of Buffy's stuff, the gang heads outside to see Giles running towards them, carrying several weapons in his arms. Giles apologizes to Buffy for trying to teach her a lesson in independence. He vows to help the Slayer out in any fight that comes her way. While the gang heads back to Buffy's dorm room, one of Sunday's vampire lackeys that managed to escape roams through the park. Suddenly, he is hit by a couple of taser shots. The electric volts send him to the ground, immobilized. As the vampire watches, an anonymous team approaches him, dressed in black and carrying rifles.

Episode Synopsis by: Alan Hufana, taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

 

Eppisode 2:

Living conditions

After hearing Cher's "Believe" for the umpteenth consecutive time, Buffy decides it's time for her nightly patrol. She tells Kathy that she's going out for a cup of coffee. Before Buffy can make it out of the room, Kathy mentions that some of the milk in their fridge is missing. Buffy confesses and takes off from Stevenson Hall. Outside, Buffy meets up with Willow, who listens to her friend talk about the trials of living with a new roommate. While Buffy and Willow part ways, a demon with orange wrinkled skin and glowing green eyes watches from behind the bushes. A sound nearby kicks Buffy into alert mode, but she soon realizes that it's only Kathy, who has decided to join Buffy for a drink. Suddenly, Buffy hears what is undoubtedly a growl. She pushes Kathy out of the way just as a demon attacks her. Buffy fights back, finally forcing the demon to retreat. As Buffy helps an unsuspecting Kathy out of the bushes, the demon rejoins his partner. They believe that they have finally found the one they've been after.The next day, Buffy visits Giles at his apartment. After she describes the demon to Giles, he wonders why Buffy is there instead of at school. Buffy admits that she's staying out of the dorm until Kathy goes to class. Meanwhile, Kathy futilely attempts to remove the stains on her sweater from the previous night. Giving up, she decides to take a look through Buffy's closet. Kathy finds a sweater to her liking, then notices Buffy's weapons bag on the floor of the closet. Later, Buffy cuts into the cafeteria line in an attempt to avoid Kathy, who is standing further down the line. The student whom Buffy cut off, Parker, decides to introduce himself. He gives Buffy a lesson on how to effectively utilize their meal cards. At the end of the line, Parker heads towards his friend's table, while Buffy joins Willow, Oz, and Xander at the other end of the dining room. During their conversation, Kathy takes it upon herself to join the group at their table, uninvited. Buffy quickly recognizes what Kathy's wearing, who believes that it's only fair since Buffy caused the stains on her own sweater. As Kathy tells the others about herself, Buffy watches in horror as a glob of ketchup falls from Kathy's hamburger onto the sweater. That night, Willow tries to talk on the telephone while her roommate throws a party at the same time. On the other end of the line, Buffy throws out more complaints about her roommate. Hearing Kathy just outside the door, Buffy hangs up. While Kathy sits on the bed and flosses her teeth, Buffy tries to fit her apple into the stuffed fridge, in which every item is labeled with Kathy's name, including each individual egg. When Buffy turns around, she realizes that Kathy has closed her window. Buffy opens it back up and hits the sack. After falling asleep, Buffy has a dream about a demon placing a scorpion on her stomach, pouring blood down her throat, and sucking a mysterious light out of her mouth.In the morning, Buffy tells Giles and the others about her dream. Kathy appears and tells them about a dream she had the previous night. While Giles and the gang are shocked to hear a description of the exact same dream, Buffy is more concerned with her growing irritation and hatred for Kathy. Later that night, the two green-eyed demons stand before a fire and begin to summon another named Tapparich. When Buffy returns to her dorm room, she finds Parker talking to Kathy inside. Apparently, they have been talking and getting to know each other for quite some time before Buffy walked in. After Parker leaves, Buffy and Kathy face off once again. This time, Buffy decides to help herself to as much of Kathy's carton of milk as she can handle. Elsewhere, Willow worries about Buffy steady change in personality. Oz tells her that he'll go find Buffy and see what's up. On his way to Buffy's patrol route, Oz passes by a group of students. One of them, a short girl, draws Oz's attention for a brief moment. As Oz looks back, the girl also does a double take with Oz, sensing something. Figuring it's nothing, Oz continues forward, failing to notice the army of rifle-carrying soldiers running towards the girl and her friends. During the patrol, Buffy tries to put her hatred for Kathy into words, but she only ends up destroying a park bench with a kick of pure hatred. Before going to bed, Buffy tries to get some reading homework done. However, Kathy's toenail clipping proves way more distracting than it should be. In retaliation, Buffy starts tapping her pencil. What follows is Cher's "Believe", Buffy's earmuffs, and the torturous crunching of Kathy's hard-boiled egg shell. Having had enough, Buffy goes to bed and has the same nightmare she had the previous night.Buffy wakes up the next morning to see Kathy squirming in her bed, apparently having the same dream. Later, Willow talks to Kathy in the dorm hallway about Buffy. Seeing Buffy approaching, Kathy takes off. Willow then listens in fearful concern as Buffy declares that Kathy is evil and must be killed. Buffy tries to explain that she took a sample of Kathy's toenail clippings and realized that they continued to grow by themselves. However, Willow has already concluded that her friend has gone off the deep end. Willow tells her to talk to Giles, then calls him up to warn him of Buffy's arrival. Buffy enters Giles' apartment and is greeted by a falling net from above. Giles, Xander, and Oz rush out to restrain Buffy with ropes, fearing that her murder plan must be stopped at all costs. Buffy leads Giles to the toenail clippings in her bag and tries to convince them that she's right. However, Giles believes that Buffy has been possessed by the demon she fought in the woods. While Xander and Oz take positions as watch guards over the restrained Slayer, Willow tries to warn Kathy about Buffy's intentions. Kathy's response of Buffy's come-uppance only scares Willow more, and she leaves shortly after getting a call from Oz. Back at the apartment, Buffy frees herself from the ropes and tricks Xander and Oz into coming close enough for her to knock them out.Buffy returns to the dorm room in hopes of finishing Kathy once and for all. When Kathy lands a hard backhand against her roommate's face, Buffy grabs her by the face and pulls with all her might. The human skin comes off, revealing the same kind of demon that Buffy encountered several nights ago. While they battle, Xander and Oz regain consciousness just as Willow arrives at the apartment. Back at the dorm, Kathy informs Buffy that she escaped from another dimension, and now her elders have followed her in hopes of bringing her back. The only way they can recognize one of their own is by sensing the absence of a soul, so Kathy has been sucking out Buffy's soul the past few nights. Giles learns of this Ritual of Mok'tagar through research and quickly checks the toenail clippings. Confirming their continuing growth, Giles goes out into the living room to tell Willow, Xander, and Oz what he has learned. Since Buffy has already escaped, Giles decides that he and Willow must perform a spell that will reverse the effects of the ritual. While Xander and Oz head towards the dorm, Buffy and Kathy tear up their room in the name of beating the crap out of each other. Just as Kathy attempts to finish her assimilation of Buffy's soul, Giles and Willow complete the spell. Buffy's soul leaves Kathy and returns to its original host. Suddenly, the demon Tapparich appears in their dorm room. Kathy tries to plead her case, but Tapparich has heard enough. He opens a portal that sucks Kathy and himself back into their own dimension. Now that Kathy is officially no longer a student at UC-Sunnydale, Willow decides to leave her party-crazed roommate and move in with Buffy. Things are finally looking up, although a forbidden bite from Buffy's sandwich drives the Slayer to focus her evil eye on Willow.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 3:

The harsh light of day

While Dingoes Ate My Baby performs onstage at the Bronze, Willow listens to Buffy discuss her relationship with Parker, who is playing a game of pool not too far away. On his way out, Parker offers to walk Buffy back to the dorm, and she readily accepts. Outside, while Devon and Oz load their equipment into the van, Willow encounters Harmony for the first time since graduation. Suddenly, a sharp pain strikes Willow's neck as she discovers that Harmony is now a vampire, feeding off of her former classmate. Before Harmony can take too much blood, Oz pulls her off of Willow, who immediately raises her cross. Harmony takes off, but not before warning Willow and Oz that her own boyfriend is going to be fairly upset. Meanwhile, Parker and Buffy discuss their pasts while walking to Stevenson Hall. When Parker notices the scar on her neck, Buffy tosses out a cover story about an angry puppy. Parker then tells Buffy that his father died a year ago. Stopping for a moment, Parker asks Buffy to join him at an upcoming party at one of the frat houses. Upon finally arriving at room 214 in Stevenson Hall, Parker and Buffy move in for a goodbye kiss. Their lips never touch, for Oz and Willow rush down the hallway to tell Buffy about Harmony. After Parker leaves, Willow describes the event while Oz cleans the wound and applies a band-aid. Little do they know that Harmony's boyfriend is none other than Spike.The next morning, deep beneath the streets of Sunnydale, Spike goes over the city plans, planning his next course of tunneling. Frustrated and bored, Harmony persuades Spike to take her to a party for some fresh food. Later that night, while working a part-time job at Giles' apartment, Xander gets a surprise visit from Anya. Under the impression that they're a couple, Anya tells Xander about his constant presence in her dreams. Shocked and confused, Xander tries to convince Anya that they don't have a relationship. At the party, Parker and Buffy run into Spike and Harmony. After some brief introductions, Spike flees the scene. Buffy follows him outside and gets into a sparring-and-trash-talking session. Harmony arrives shortly, explaining that Drusilla left Spike once again. Before Spike can retreat, Harmony mentions the Gem of Amara. Furious, Spike grabs Harmony and leaves. Buffy heads to the nearest phone and calls Giles to tell him about Spike, Harmony, and the Gem of Amara. Giles describes the gem as "the vampire equivalent of the Holy Grail", but he also explains that it doesn't actually exist. While Buffy heads back inside to find Parker, Anya visits Xander once again, this time in the basement of his house. When Xander reaches into the fridge to offer her a drink, Anya drops her dress to the floor while his back is turned. Paralyzed by what he sees after turning back around, Xander can only listen as Anya describes her plan to get him out of her mind once and for all: to have sexual intercourse with him. Xander tries to resist, but he soon crumbles and gives in to Anya's demands. Back at the party, Parker talks to Buffy about his beliefs on fate. Going with her instincts, Buffy passionately kisses Parker, then follows him back to his room for the night.Buffy wakes up the next morning to find that she's alone in Parker's bed. As she tries to gather all of her clothes, Parker walks in with a few cups of coffee. Before Buffy leaves, Parker promises to give her a call later in the day. Buffy returns to her room, only to find Giles at the computer with Willow. Giles brings Buffy up-to-speed on his research concerning the Gem of Amara. From what he's learned, the gem may not only be real, but it could also be located in Sunnydale. After Giles leaves, Willow demands details about Buffy's night with Parker. At the Harris residence, Anya tells Xander that she's finally over him. When Xander mutters a simple "okay", Anya gets upset and leaves. Meanwhile, Harmony wakes up Spike by writing a love note on his back. In the tunnel, Spike and his vampire cohorts realize that they're close to the crypt they're looking for. As hours, then days, go by, Buffy constantly checks her answering machine, never getting a single message from Parker, while Spike finally drills through the ground of the crypt.Inside the crypt, Spike approaches a beautiful necklace with a shining emerald in the middle of the room. While he puts it on, Harmony tries on various rings and tiaras. Spike reaches for a nearby cross, believing that the Gem of Amara has rendered him invincible to all vampire weaknesses. However, a burning pain accompanies Spike's handling of the cross. Fed up with Harmony's constant rambling, Spike tries to dust her with a make-shift stake. However, the hole in her chest quickly reseals. Spike immediately identifies the Gem of Amara on the ring that Harmony put on. He takes it from her and heads up to the surface, where the sun is still shining. While walking around campus, Buffy finds Parker telling the story of his deceased father to another pretty girl. Pulling him aside, Buffy tries to find out what's been going on. Parker informs Buffy that she mistook a little fun for a serious commitment. Crushed and dejected, Buffy watches Parker as he walks off. A familiar voice gets Buffy's attention, and she turns just in time to see Spike's fist. While they fight, Giles and the others follow a lead from a news report to the tunnels beneath Sunnydale, while Xander goes to Stevenson Hall to find Buffy. There, he runs into Anya, who he quickly brushes off due to current circumstances regarding Buffy's whereabouts. Underground, Giles, Willow, and Oz question a distraught Harmony, but she flees before divulging Spike's location. Back above ground, Spike assaults Buffy both physically and verbally, ridiculing her failed relationship with Parker by likening it to the aftermath of her passionate night with Angel. Xander finds them and tries to help out, but Spike handles him effortlessly by throwing him into a nearby post. Buffy finally gains the upper hand and removes the Gem of Amara, causing Spike to suddenly retreat from the burning rays of sunlight.Back at Giles' apartment, Buffy announces her decision to give the Gem of Amara to Angel. With a planned gig in Los Angeles, Oz agrees to take the ring with him. Later that night, Buffy tries to figure out with Willow what went wrong between Parker and herself. Deciding she needs some time alone, Buffy lets Willow go an ahead to the dorm room. Buffy silently walks down the sidewalks of UC-Sunnydale, confused and dejected. Unbeknownst to Buffy, Anya and Harmony are doing the exact same thing. As the moon illuminates the otherwise dark campus, the lonely trio continues along, their paths never crossing.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 4:   

Fear itself

On the night before Halloween, during a pumpkin-carving get-together at Xander's place, Buffy leaves the gang a little early to spend some time alone. Outside, Buffy knocks a demonic-looking figure to the ground. Still recovering from Parker's rejection, she barely reacts to the realization that it was merely a guy in his Halloween costume.At school the next day, the sight of Parker drives Buffy out of the cafeteria just minutes into the lunch period. Willow tries to help out, but Buffy prefers the easy way out. Her growing preoccupation does not go unnoticed by Professor Walsh, who threatens to kick Buffy out of the class if she has any more absences. Riley suggests to Buffy that she should take a break from her worries and just have fun for Halloween. Meanwhile, Josh and Edward, two members of the Alpha Delt fraternity, prepare their house for a haunted party. While Josh puts the finishing touches on a knife-wielding skeleton, Edward hands over a bag of fake spiders, as well as a book that contains an appropriate symbol to add to the party's freaky ambience. When Josh complains about their stereo system's quality, Edward offers to call Oz to remedy the situation. After school, Oz brings his stereo over to the Alpha Delt house, with Xander tagging along. As Oz sets up the new sound system, Xander notices the symbol being painted on the floor of the attic by Chaz, another fraternity member. Oz accidentally cuts his finger while trying to tweak the sound quality by trimming the speaker wire. When he shakes some blood onto the floor, the painted symbol sends a rippling shockwave throughout the house that nobody notices. Suddenly, what was once a fake, plastic spider resting on the floor is now a living, walking creature.Without a date of her own, Buffy feels left out as she accompanies the gang to the party. After being swayed from patrolling by Giles, Buffy wears an old Little Red Riding Hood costume, thanks to some last-minute alterations by Joyce. Willow embodies the persona of Joan of Arc in her medieval garb, while Oz completes the picture with his name tag reading "God". Sporting a James Bond-esque tuxedo, Xander tells the others that Anya, whom he invited earlier that day, will be a little late on account of costume-finding difficulty. The gang's stroll to the party is momentarily interrupted by the sudden appearance of masked commandos armed with rifles. They quickly turn and run, leaving the gang to mistake them for average Halloween celebrators. While Buffy and the others make their way to the fraternity house, the guests at the party soon realize that something is obviously not right. Bloody eyeballs, dead guests, and other horrific sights send the partygoers into chaos. In a rush to get away, Josh takes a fatal tumble down the main staircase, snapping his neck at the bottom step.Moments later, Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Oz arrive. Real spiders and bats that appear to be fake at first quickly alert the gang to the trouble that lies ahead. Hidden inside a closet, they find Chaz huddled in the corner, too scared to come out. While trying to get any information from Chaz, Buffy fails to notice the skeleton that approaches from behind, the knife still in its hand. A slash at Buffy's back sends her into automatic pilot, flooring the enemy in one blow. Before it even hits the floor, the skeleton reverts to its plastic state. After inspecting the attacker, Buffy realizes that the closet that Chaz was hiding in is nowhere in sight. Having had enough, Buffy orders the others to evacuate and get Giles for help. Willow disagrees, believing she can conjure a guiding spell that will lead them to where they need to go. Their argument splits the group in two, with Oz following Willow while Xander tries to support Buffy. However, Xander soon realizes that he can no longer be seen or heard by Buffy, who starts a search for her seemingly lost friend. Oz, in the meantime, begins to transform into his wolf state, despite the fact that the full moon is still weeks away. Unable to control himself, Oz lashes out at Willow before running off to prevent any more harm.Outside, Anya finally arrives in a big, white bunny costume. Unable to find the front door where it's supposed to be, Anya walks around the house and spots a terrified guest screaming through one of the windows. As Anya looks on, the window suddenly vanishes from the facade. She immediately seeks out Giles, who goes through his books to find answers. After locating what he needs, Anya returns to the house with Giles, who employs a chain saw to get them inside. Meanwhile, Willow attempts the guiding spell. The appearance of a tiny, green sprite leads Willow to believe she succeeded. However, the sprite rapidly multiplies into an uncontrollable swarm that chases Willow from room to room. Elsewhere, a door mysteriously lands Buffy in the basement, where she finds herself restrained on the floor by the arms of zombies. As she struggles to break free, Josh appears and taunts her mercilessly. When Buffy finally escapes, she ends up in the attic, where the rest of the party guests shiver in fear. She finds Oz, who has returned to his human state. Willow arrives shortly, followed by Buffy's sighting of Xander in another corner of the room.Back together, the gang tries to make sense of what's going on. Xander points out the symbol on the floor, which Willow identifies as the Mark of Gachnar, a fear demon. They conclude that their fears are being manifested so that Gachnar can enter their reality. Suddenly, a buzzing chain saw marks Giles and Anya's entrance into the attic. Giles produces the book he found on Gachnar, which describes several ways of preventing the summoning. Halfway through Giles' reading of a sentence involving the destruction of the symbol, Buffy sends her fist through the Mark of Gachnar. Unfortunately, the rest of Giles' reading informs Buffy that she has just brought forth Gachnar. A bright light shines through the hole in the floor, and the gang watches as Gachnar emerges... as a diminutive demon no taller than several inches. While suppressing her own laughter, Buffy puts a quick end to Gachnar with one stomp.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 5:   

Beer bad

In the middle of her psych class, Buffy daydreams about an uncharacteristically apologetic Parker, who begs her forgiveness after a surprise vampire attack. Professor Walsh's lecture snaps Buffy back to reality, and she looks down a few rows to see Parker putting his trademark moves on yet another female victim. After class, Xander finds Buffy and Willow and tells them of his recent employment as bartender at the campus pub.That night, Buffy stops by the pub and sees Parker entertaining a girl at one of the booths. She bumps into Riley, who gives her the lowdown on Parker's womanizing habits. Buffy pulls up a stool at the bar, where Xander is finding some difficulty getting into the groove of the job. Fed up, Buffy is getting ready to leave when she is stopped by several guys who demand her presence at their table. Seeing Parker leave the pub with his latest prize, Buffy decides to accept the guys' offer. In no time, she finds herself guzzling several glasses of beer with her newfound friends. Meanwhile, at the Bronze, Willow notices Oz's overwhelming interest in the on stage band, Shy. He is particularly drawn to the lead singer, Veruca, a familiar girl who seems to share a mutual interest in Oz. Elsewhere, a man prepares a mixture of several chemicals and stores it in a keg of Black Frost beer, the same brand that Buffy was drinking with the guys earlier.The next morning, Willow returns to the dorm and finds Buffy deeply fascinated by their television set. On their way out to psych class, Willow has to remind her roommate to get dressed. At class, Buffy eyes a classmate eating a sandwich. Buffy snatches the sandwich and hungrily scarfs it down. Later, Oz stops by Stevenson Hall and tells Willow that he's been invited by Veruca and her band to watch their show that night. Willow opts to take a pass, leaving Oz to go alone. While Oz heads to the Bronze, Willow decides to drop by the Grotto, where she finds Parker sitting by himself. She approaches Parker and proceeds to berate him for causing Buffy so much distress. In his defense, Parker tries to explain his philosophy of short-term relationships.As Willow settles into the conversation, Buffy throws back another round of beers with the guys at the pub. Concerned with their increasingly primal behavior, Xander forces a reluctant Buffy to call it a night and head back to the dorm. Deciding that the other guys have had enough as well, Xander asks them to pay the bill. While he collects the money, one of the guys heads to the bathroom. Moments later, he emerges as a hairy, caveman-like grunt. While he knocks Xander to the floor, the others undergo similar transformations. Xander scares them off with his lighter, then runs into the back room to warn his boss, Jack. However, Jack reveals to Xander that he made the special formula in order to get back at the pretentious students.Back at the Grotto, Parker attempts to lure Willow into seeing things his way. On the contrary, Willow doesn't buy his act for a second. Just as she's about to leave, the caveman storm into the grotto, dragging a couple of helpless girls inside with them. Before they can escape, Willow and Parker are knocked unconscious by the rampaging savages. Meanwhile, Xander gets Giles and takes him to Buffy's dorm, hoping the beer hasn't transformed the Slayer yet. Upon entering the room, they find Buffy drawing figures on the wall and pounding her chest, although her physical features are still unchanged. Xander and Giles try to secure Buffy, but she flees from the room.Xander tracks Buffy down outside, but their attention is soon drawn to a pillar of smoke rising from the Grotto. Buffy makes it there first, and she finds the place going down in flames. Recognizing Willow on the other side of the flames, Buffy leaps to her friend's side. Buffy then spots a window wide enough for them to escape through, so she leaps up to kick it open. The cavemen take the escape route, followed by the two girls left behind. Xander helps Willow out through the window as Buffy pushes from inside. Instead of exiting right away, Buffy picks up a large piece of wood and inspects it thoroughly. Nearby, Parker regains consciousness and begs Buffy for help. Buffy swings the wood onto Parkeršs head, knocking him back to submission. She then drags him outside.Soon, ambulances and fire trucks arrive on the scene to save what's left of the Grotto. Xander locks the cavemen in a van, knowing that the effects of the beer will wear off in several days. In a strange reenactment of her daydream from the other day, Buffy listens to Parker asking her to forgive him. Still under the influence of Jack's formula, Buffy responds by clobbering Parker with the wood once again.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 6:

Wild at heart

After Buffy dusts a vampire on campus, she complains to herself about the recent lack of any real challenges. From afar, Spike watches the Slayer with a few musings of his own. Suddenly, without warning, Spike is struck in the back by a taser, sending him to the ground. Unable to move, Spike is dragged off into the woods by a team of commandos.At the Bronze, Buffy and Willow notice Oz's focused attention on Veruca's performance. Buffy tries to help Willow out by feigning interest, but Xander and Giles offer no such support. The next morning, Willow wakes up beside Oz and tells him that she's planning to attend a three-day orientation for a local Wicca group. Since these are the same three days for Oz's monthly werewolf transformations, Willow is reluctant to go. Oz insists that she go, for he can take care of himself for the next few days. After psych class, Willow heads to the cafe to meet Oz, whom she finds talking to Veruca at one of the tables. She tries to join the conversation, but Oz and Veruca's music chat leaves Willow out in left field. Sensing some discomfort, Oz leaves abruptly, and Veruca does the same shortly. Buffy finds Willow sitting at the table alone and pulls up a chair. Willow expresses her concern over Oz's apparent interest in Veruca, but Buffy assures her friend that Oz would never destroy their relationship.As the sun starts to set, Oz retreats to an abandoned crypt at the cemetery, where his personal cage is set up. He locks himself inside and waits for the coming change. When the wolf takes over, Oz rams himself against the door of the cage, trying to escape. The hinge gives away, allowing Oz to get out. Moments later, on her way home from the office, Professor Walsh is stopped in her tracks by werewolf Oz, who chases her through the bushes. Maggie Walsh's escape route is cut off by a second werewolf, who gets set to attack. Seeing the first werewolf behind her, Maggie jumps off to the side just as both werewolves lunge forward. The two werewolves collide and start to claw at each other, giving Maggie an opportunity to get away. When the sun rises the next morning, Oz wakes up on the ground and finds himself naked, scarred... and right next to a blissful Veruca.In need of clothes, Oz and Veruca head to a nearby laundry room and raid one of the dryers. While Oz throws on some fitting clothes, Veruca expresses her joy with being a werewolf, including her ability to remember some of the events that occur while she's in her altered state. Veruca informs Oz that he'll be able to retain his memory in a matter of time, and that he is the werewolf not just three days per month, but rather every single day. Oz refuses to believe a word of what Veruca is saying, and he takes off to see if anybody was attacked the previous night. Following Xander's advice to talk about her problem, Willow visits Oz at his place, where he is busy going through the current newspapers. When Oz shows some reluctancy in getting intimate with her, Willow backs off and tries to get him to open up. Failing to do so, Willow leaves Oz alone. Meanwhile, Professor Walsh tells Buffy and Riley that she was attacked by a pair of wild dogs the previous night. Familiar with this scenario, Buffy visits Giles and tells him about the attack. He wonders if Buffy has spoken to Oz about this, and she explains that she's heading there next. Buffy finds Oz at the cemetery, working on repairs to the cage. She asks Oz if he knows anything about the attack or any other werewolves in the area, but Oz denies any knowledge.With sunset approaching on the night of the full moon, Oz waits in the cage for Veruca to arrive. When she does, Oz orders her to get inside the cage to prevent any more incidents. Although she doesn't want to be locked up, Veruca realizes Oz's unstoppable desire for her. Oz pulls Veruca inside and kisses her furiously, locking the cage just as the transformation takes place. The next morning, Willow stops by the crypt with some breakfast. When she sees the two naked figures on the floor, Willow goes into shock. Oz wakes up and tries to explain that he did what was necessary, but Willow refuses to believe that keeping all of this to himself was the right thing to do. When Veruca speaks up, Oz demands her immediate departure. Turning back to Willow, Oz tries to convince Willow that this had nothing to do with her affair with Xander. Unconvinced, Willow runs off, eventually ending up on the streets of downtown Sunnydale, completely detached from the rest of the world. Buffy spots Willow in the middle of the street, as well as a speeding car headed right for her friend. Buffy tries to save her, but she's too far. Luckily, Riley sees Willow and pulls her out of the way with less than a second to spare. Buffy thanks Riley before taking Willow back to Stevenson Hall.After making sure that Willow is okay, Buffy leaves to find Veruca. She stops by Oz's place for assistance in tracking down Veruca. Armed with a tranquilizer rifle, Buffy follows Oz through the woods as he tries to locate the source of Veruca's scent. When they find a pile of her clothes on the floor, Buffy figures that Veruca planted them to throw Oz off her trail. Immediately, Oz realizes that Willow is in danger. He takes off in a hurry, while Buffy tries to catch up. Suddenly, Buffy runs into a masked commando, who is also armed. Their collision sends the weapons to the ground, and they get into a brief struggle. After a few well-placed kicks and punches, Buffy grabs the tranquilizer rifle and continues in the direction that Oz was headed. Meanwhile, in one of the science labs, Willow prepares to cast a vengeance spell on Oz and Veruca. Before she can complete the spell, Willow realizes her inability to go through with it, and she terminates the incantation. At that moment, Veruca enters the lab and locks the door behind her. With the sun setting into the horizon, Veruca attacks Willow just as Oz arrives on the scene. As they gradually take on their werewolf forms, Oz and Veruca battle each other. Determined to put an end to all of this, Oz ends Veruca's life by viciously gnawing at her throat. Turning his attention to Willow, Oz lunges to attack. However, his assault is put on hold by Buffy, who grabs his leg and pulls him in the other direction. One shot from the tranquilizer rifle puts Oz's frenzy to rest, allowing Buffy to take care of her traumatized friend.The next day, while Buffy talks to Giles about her roommate's despair and the mysterious commando in the woods, Willow walks into Oz's room to find him packing his clothes. Oz tells Willow that he knows the werewolf is a part of him all the time, and he can't allow himself to be around her or anybody else until he can figure out what to do. Despite her anger over his betrayal, Willow doesn't want Oz to leave. Unfortunately, Oz's mind is already made up, and he leaves behind the one woman he truly loves. As tears flow forcefully from Willow's eyes, Oz can no longer hold back his agony. Choked up, Oz takes one last look at the house before pulling away from the curb and driving off, unsure of what to do, where to go... or when to come back.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 7:
 
The Initative
While eating lunch at the cafeteria, Riley and two of his friends, Forrest and Graham, talk about Buffy, whom they watch from a distance. While Forrest and Graham have no trouble admitting their approval of Buffy's physical attributes, Riley can't get past her strange behaviors. Meanwhile, Spike finally regains consciousness from the taser shock. He finds himself in a mysterious holding cell with an electrified, glass door. Looking around, he realizes he is in one of many similar cells, each containing an imprisoned demon.At Giles' place, Xander and the former Watcher conclude that the commandos are most likely human, meaning that Buffy won't need any assistance taking care of this threat. Their boredom is short-lived, however, when Buffy arrives and tells them of her plans to cheer up Willow by taking her to a party at Lowell House that night. Given her prior arrangements, Buffy assigns Giles and Xander to patrol duty. At the end of psych class, Willow points out to Riley that he didn't call out Oz's name while taking attendance. Riley explains that Oz dropped the course and won't be coming back. When Willow tries to convince him otherwise, Professor Walsh makes it clear that Oz is gone from the class for good. Buffy overhears this and gives the professor a piece of her mind before taking off after Willow. Later, Riley tells Forrest and Graham about Buffy's confrontation with Walsh. When Parker passes by, Forrest tries to get some details on Buffy. Parker's chauvinistic attitude results in a punch to the face from Riley's fist. Outside, Riley comes to the realization that he really likes Buffy. Seeking out Willow at her dorm, Riley asks Buffy's roommate for some helpful advice. In light of her recent heartbreak, Willow is not too keen on helping Riley hook up with Buffy, but she eventually decides to give him the benefit of the doubt. Willow mentions the party, which Riley identifies as the one being held at his house later that night. They agree to use the party as a prime opportunity for Riley to talk to Buffy.Meanwhile, Spike paces back and forth in his cell when a blood pack drops from the chute in the ceiling. Before he can sink his teeth into it, Spike hears a voice from the other side of the wall telling him that the blood is drugged. Another vampire, Tom, explains to Spike that the drug is used to render the subject unconscious, at which point they are experimented on. A few moments later, a pair of scientists arrive at Spike's cell to take him to the lab. Thinking he's out of commission because of the empty blood packed next to him, they unlock the cell and pull him out. Suddenly, Spike attacks the two scientists, freeing Tom from his cell in the process. While trying to escape, Spike and Tom encounter an emergency squad armed with stakes. Spike hurls Tom into their arms and makes a run for it, leaving Tom to suffer the dusty consequences. Reuniting with Harmony at their old lair, Spike announces his plans to finish Buffy once and for all. Fed up with his tired routine, Harmony takes Spike's belongings outside and prepares a bonfire. Before she can light the match, Xander finds her, and two get into the most pathetic "fight" the world has ever seen. After backing off, Xander learns from Harmony that Spike is back in town.Shortly after arriving at the party, Willow walks up to Riley and gives him some last-minute pointers on dealing with Buffy. Unfortunately, Riley chokes at the key moment and ends up making a fool of himself in front of Buffy. After a pep talk on the couch, Riley tries again while Willow heads back to the dorm. Before he can get very far, Xander arrives and takes Buffy with him. Observing their comrade's defeat, Forrest and Graham tell Riley to meet them downstairs. While Riley attempts to save some of his dignity, the trio enter a hidden elevator and descend to an underground complex. After getting out, they pass by several demons and supernatural creatures undergoing tests, scientists in white coats, and transports loaded with armed commandos. They finally meet up with their boss, Maggie Walsh, who informs them that one of the subjects, Spike, has escaped. She orders Riley to lead the recovery mission, explaining that the subject's escape could endanger the security of their organization, the Initiative.Back at Giles' place, Buffy gets the info on Spike's return from Xander and Giles. Before she can leave, Xander gives Buffy a flare gun which he requisitioned during his military state on Halloween a couple years ago. Xander persuades the reluctant Buffy to signal them if she gets in trouble. Meanwhile, Spike invades Willow's room. Not giving her any chance to escape, Spike throws Willow to the bed and lunges for her neck. However, an intense shock delivered straight to the brain stops Spike every time he tries to bite Willow, keeping her relatively free of harm. After a moment of confusion and consolation, Willow sees her opportunity to stun Spike and get out. Just as she reaches the door, the power is shut down through all of Stevenson Hall. Wearing night vision goggles, Riley, Forrest, and Graham enter the dorm and break the door open. Willow tries to escape, followed by Spike. He tries to sink his fangs into the commandos, but the painful shock keeps him from doing any real damage. In the heat of the battle, a punctured fire extinguisher fills the hall with a thick cloud. Buffy arrives and fires the flare gun, blinding the team through their night vision goggles. With the mask still on and his eyes momentarily blinded, neither Buffy nor Riley can identify each other and as they fight one-on-one. Spike flees, with Forrest and Graham unable to give chase. Unable to subdue his opponent, Riley aborts the mission and takes off with the others.

Later, Maggie Walsh expresses her stern disappointment with the team's failure to recapture Spike. Riley reports that the implant they used on Spike renders him virtually harmless. The next day, Riley spots Buffy walking around on campus. Feeling a little more confident this time around, Riley strikes up a conversation which Buffy finds strangely enjoyable. They walk the rest of the way together, completely unaware of what each other was up to the night before.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 8:
 
Pangs
At the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Cultural Partnership Center at UC Sunnydale, Dean Guerrero introduces the curator of the new facility, Professor Gerhardt. After finishing her speech, Prof. Gerhardt turns the digging duties over to the nearby workers, one of whom is Xander. No sooner does the digging begin when the ground gives way beneath Xander's feet, causing him to fall into an underground chamber. It is the remains of a lost Sunnydale mission that was buried by an earthquake in 1812.Later that night, Buffy senses a mysterious presence somewhere outside of the dorm, but she can't place her finger on what it is. Unbeknownst to Buffy, Angel has arrived in Sunnydale to follow up on a foreshadowing vision that his partner had. Knowing only that Buffy will encounter some great danger in the near future, Angel stands hidden in the bushes outside of Stevenson Hall, staring up at the window of his former love's room. Turning back to her roommate, Buffy decides that they should have their own Thanksgiving celebration, seeing how Joyce is out of town for the holidays. Although she is opposed to the genocidal history of Thanksgiving, Willow agrees to the plans for her friend's sake. Buffy then decides to hold the dinner at Giles' home.At Elsewhere, Riley, Forrest, and Graham decide to give up their search mission for the time being. Forrest reminds them that Spike can't hurt anybody. Sure enough, Spike has seen better nights as he desperately tries to survive on an empty stomach. Meanwhile, Anya visits Xander's place to find out why he hasn't returned to the digging site. She soon realizes that Xander is overwhelmingly sick. As Anya tends to Xander's needs, a green mist rises from the Sunnydale mission site and drifts into Prof. Gerhardt's office. Settling over a display case that contains an early 1800 Chumash knife, the mist materializes into an Indian spirit warrior named Hus. Before she can make a sound, Prof. Gerhardt is grabbed by the invader and sliced at the neck by the jagged edge of the knife.Buffy and Willow investigate Prof. Gerhardt's office the next day, looking for any clues concerning the nature of the attack. While Willow tries to figure out why one of Gerhardt's ears was missing from the corpse, Buffy notices the empty spot in the display case where the knife once rested. Afterwards, Buffy unpacks several bags of groceries in Giles' kitchen while she describes the findings at the office. Giles is familiar with the Chumash tribe, but he can't explain why a peaceful group would be involved in Gerhardt's murder. On her way out, Buffy is momentarily stopped by the same sense she experienced earlier. After Buffy brushes it off and leaves, Giles calls Angel out of hiding to talk about the murder. Angel recommends contacting Father Gabriel, who may know more about what's going on. When Giles expresses his discomfort with keeping Buffy in the dark, Angel insists that knowledge of his presence would only distract Buffy and make her more vulnerable.Downtown, Buffy and Willow shop for the remaining items on the Thanksgiving dinner list. When Riley appears to talk to Buffy about his trip home to Iowa for the holiday, Willow leaves the two alone and enters the nearby coffee shop. Inside, she encounters Angel, who quickly fills Willow in on the details concerning his return to Sunnydale. Meanwhile, Spike tries to find comfort in Harmony's arms, but she refuses to let him reenter her life. Later, Buffy follows Giles' referral to Father Gabriel's church. What she finds is the hanging corpse of Father Gabriel, along with an Indian warrior cutting off the body's ear. Buffy engages in battle, but Hus' declaration of vengeance for his people's suffering causes Buffy to break off the fight.On the morning of Thanksgiving, Buffy tries to prepare the dinner while Giles and Willow get into an ethical debate over what to do with Hus. Having researched the persecution of the Chumash people nearly two centuries ago, Willow ponders the idea of trying to help Hus in some way. On the other hand, Giles acknowledges the fact that Hus has murdered two innocent people and needs to be stopped. Xander and Anya arrive, arousing numerous questions about his deteriorating health. When Willow and the others conclude that Hus is inflicting that which was done to his people, Xander is diagnosed with the same diseases that befell the Chumash people: malaria, smallpox, syphilis, and so on. Suddenly, another knock at the door concerns the group. Buffy and Giles open the door to find a desperate Spike, who offers information on the Initiative in exchange for shelter and food. After tying Spike to a chair, Buffy sends Willow, Xander and Anya to warn Dean Guerrero of a possible attack. Unfortunately, their warning falls on disbelieving ears, and the trio find themselves heading back in defeat. Suddenly, Angel appears, much to the shock of Xander. Angel quickly figures out that Buffy is Hus' next target, leading the group to race back to Giles' place immediately.A barrage of arrows signals the invasion of Hus and several Chumash warriors that he has summoned. As Buffy and Giles duck for cover, Spike is impaled by several projectiles, each narrowly missing his heart. When Willow, Xander, and Anya return, Hus decides to give up the arrow attack and challenge Buffy face-to-face. While the gang futilely tries to fend off the invulnerable attackers, Angel arrives to help turn the tide. Back inside, Buffy learns that Hus' knife is the only thing that can wound him. Hus transforms into a large bear in an attempt to overpower Buffy, but the Slayer manages to fatally stab Hus with his own knife. Dissolving into green mist, Hus and the other Chumash disappear.Now that Thanksgiving dinner has finally commenced, Buffy tries to look on the bright side of things. However, a steadily recovering Xander accidentally spills the beans on Angel's assistance, casting a spell of silence over the stunned Slayer.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 9:
 
Something blue
Still mourning the departure of Oz, Willow stops by his old place. Looking around at all the stuff Oz left behind, Willow remembers happier times. The next evening, Buffy and Giles try to get any useful information from Spike concerning the Initiative, but he proves to be less than cooperative. While taking a break, Giles goes along with Willow's suggestion to cast a truth spell on Spike. After picking up the necessary ingredients for the spell, Willow stops by Oz's place again. However, Oz's entire room has been cleared out, leaving nothing but an empty mattress and drawers. Back at the dorm, Willow fights through tears to tell Buffy that Oz had Devon deliver the rest of his belongings. Faced with the fact that Oz may never return to Sunnydale, Willow sinks deeper into depression.The next day, Willow joins Buffy and Riley at their private picnic. Her somber attitude quickly casts a cloud over the budding couple. Later, at the Bronze, Buffy, Xander, and Anya spot Willow on the dance floor, having a peculiarly good time. When Willow returns to the table, a tell-tale bottle of beer signals the gang to her source of sudden happiness. Xander tries to help out, but Willow wards him off with mockery. Buffy pulls Willow aside and tries to convince her that this is a painful stage in life that everyone has to go through. Willow refuses to believe this is the only way. Later, after Buffy falls asleep, Willow sneaks into the bathroom and casts a spell, one that grants Willow the power to have her will done.Early next morning, Willow checks to see if the spell worked. However, she fails to make anything happen simply because she says so. A knock on the door signals Giles' visit to the dorm. After inquiring why Willow forgot about the truth spell, Giles expresses his concern over Willow's involvement with spells, given her current condition. Insulted, Willow proclaims to Giles that he doesn't understand what's going on, that he doesn't "see anything". Suddenly, Giles notices a significant loss in his vision, and he excuses himself from the dorm. Soon enough, Willow's words result in Buffy and Spike's surprise engagement, while Xander is labeled a "demon magnet".Buffy and Spike begin to plan their upcoming wedding, much to Giles' disgust. As if things couldn't get any worse, Giles eventually goes completely blind, sending Buffy out to get ingredients for a spell that Spike offers to help with. Outside the shop, Buffy's trip back is postponed by the sight of a nearby bridal shop. Riley sees Buffy and walks over, only to learn of her upcoming wedding to a much older guy named Spike. Appalled by this news, Riley takes off. Meanwhile, Xander and Anya's intimate moment is rudely interrupted by an invading demon. Just as they drown it in the sink, another demon arrives, sending Xander and Anya running to Giles' place as fast as their feet can allow them. Once there, they quickly learn of Giles' blindness and the rather disturbing development in Buffy and Spike's relationship. Suddenly, Xander realizes the connection between these events and Willow's words. While they head out to look for their friend, Willow enters her dorm room, where the demon D'Hoffryn awaits to transport her to the world of Arashmaharr.The burnt circle on the floor is immediately recognized by Anya as D'Hoffryn's doing. While they pass through the cemetery, Anya tells the others how D'Hoffryn contacted her 1,120 years ago while she was in an emotional state similar to what Willow is going through. D'Hoffryn made Anya a vengeance demon, and he makes the same offer to Willow, who doesn't know what to say. At the cemetery, demons chase the gang into a crypt. Anya tries to summon D'Hoffryn while the others work on barricading the entrance. Before Anya can finish, the demons break through the barricade. Back on Arashmaharr, D'Hoffryn shows Willow what is going on in the cemetery. Shocked to see the results of her spell, Willow rejects the offer and asks instead to be sent back to her friends. Although he is slightly disappointed, D'Hoffryn sends Willow to the crypt, where she quickly reverses the spell. While the demon that Xander and Anya were fighting vanishes into thin air, Buffy and Spike nearly go ballistic in light of their kissing spree.The next day, Willow bakes countless piles of cookies in hopes of earning her friends' forgiveness. Afterwards, Buffy convinces Riley that she was merely putting on an act in front of the bridal shop. More than relieved to hear this, Riley heads off to class, leaving Buffy to hope that she can indeed have a perfectly normal relationship.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 10:
 
Hush
During one of her increasingly common naps in the middle of Professor Walsh's psych class, Buffy dreams that she is called to the front of the lecture hall for a demonstration with Riley. As their lips meet in a passionate kiss, the lights dim and the rest of the class vanishes. All that Buffy can hear now is the voice of a young girl in the hallway outside, methodically chanting an eerie nursery rhyme about not saying a word, needing seven of something, and a group called the Gentlemen. As Buffy and Riley walk out the door, they see the girl standing at the far end of the hallway, carrying a small box in her hands. When Buffy turns around, she sees a tall, gray-skinned man wearing a suit and a devilish smile. Startled out of her slumber, Buffy heads out of class with Willow. Riley meets up with Buffy, while Willow takes off for her Wicca group meeting. Outside, after coming up with fake plans for their evening, Buffy and Riley move in for their first kiss. However, a slight flaw in Riley's excuse ruins the moment, and the two postpone their intimacy for another day.Giles gets a call from Buffy, who describes all of the details she can remember from her dream. Shortly afterwards, Xander and Anya arrive, arguing about the extent of their relationship. Giles breaks up their debate by requesting Xander's assistance in taking custody of Spike while a guest comes over. Despite protests from Xander, Anya, and Spike himself, Giles insists that he get some much-needed privacy. Meanwhile, Willow comes to realize that nobody in her Wicca group actually practices witchcraft. When Willow suggests that they focus on casting some spells, only one other girl, Tara, seems remotely interested in this idea. After the meeting, Willow complains to Buffy about her disappointment in the so-called Wicca group. Buffy, in the meantime, has her own problems concerning the need to dodge the truths about her profession around Riley. Underground, in the Initiative facility, Forrest listens to the same complaints from Riley.That evening, Giles greets his old friend, Olivia, at the door. Wasting no time, they get right to business, starting with the kissing. Meanwhile, Xander ties Spike to a chair before hopping into bed. Hours later, after much of the city has fallen asleep, one of the Gentlemen from Buffy's dream approaches a box in the town's clock tower. When he opens it, the voices of Sunnydale's residents leave their bodies and drift into the box.It doesn't take too long after waking up the next morning for Buffy and Willow to realize that they can't hear themselves speak, let alone each other. A peek out into the hallway reveals that everybody else in the dorm has been affected as well. Hoping to get to the bottom of things, Riley and Forrest enter the elevator that takes them down to the underground lab. Halfway down, the elevator stops, and the security system requests either agent's voice code. Unable to fulfill that requirement, Riley tries to recall the override code as poisonous gas fills the elevator. Once safely outside the elevator, Riley and Forrest find Walsh waiting for their arrival. Walsh orders her agents to patrol the city in casual dress, preventing any riots or similar chaotic events from getting out of hand.Outside, Buffy and Willow survey the traumatized people of Sunnydale. While some people attend silent mass, others make a profit by selling message boards with neck straps. After arriving at Giles' place with their newly-purchased message boards, Buffy and Willow greet the others, who are watching a newscast about the situation in Sunnydale. According to the news, it is believed to be a massive outbreak of laryngitis, and all routes into and out of the city have been blocked off for the purposes of quarantine. As nighttime arrives, both Riley and Buffy walk the downtown streets, breaking up any fights before they escalate. When they see each other, Buffy and Riley embrace and share silent sentiments. Before splitting up again to take care of business, Riley pulls Buffy into his arms and lowers his lips to hers.After everybody calls it a night and heads home to get some rest, the Gentlemen emerge from the clock tower, accompanied by gruesome lackeys who wear unfastened straight-jackets. While the lackeys can barely walk in a straight line, the Gentlemen's feet don't even touch the ground. Instead, they silently hover above the streets and sidewalks as they seek out their victims. Unable to sleep very well, Olivia climbs out of bed and walks downstairs. When she looks outside the window, the sight of the Gentlemen patrolling the streets causes her to jump back in alarm. One pair of Gentlemen enters Stevenson Hall and arrives at their destination, room 118. Several knocks awaken the lone freshman inside. As soon as he opens the door, the lackeys pin him to the bed while the Gentlemen come closer. Unable to scream, the helpless freshman can only watch in absolute terror as one of the tall men produces a scalpel, which he uses to cut into the boy's chest.The next morning, Buffy passes by room 118 and sees the body, while Giles reads several articles in the newspaper about identical murders. In each case, the heart was removed from the victim's chest. When Olivia finishes her sketch of the creature she saw the previous night, Giles recognizes it and pulls out a book of fairy tales. Assembled in an empty lecture hall, the gang watches as Giles presents a slide show of transparencies that explain their situation. According to Giles, the Gentlemen need seven hearts. In order to keep the victims from screaming, they have stolen everybody's voices. Now, the only thing that can kill them is an actual human voice ­ not a recording, as Willow suggests.That night, Tara uses the student directory to locate Willow's residence hall and room. When she accidentally trips outside and drops her books, Tara fails to notice the Gentlemen and lackeys approaching from behind. Soon enough, Tara realizes the danger she's in and starts running towards Stevenson Hall. Once inside, she bangs on the closest doors. Unfortunately, nobody is willing to take the risk of opening their door. With the Gentlemen closing in, Tara races upstairs to the second floor and tries several more doors. The loud knocking in the hallway wakes up Willow, and she heads towards the door to investigate. Tara watches the door in front of her open up to reveal another one of the hideous demons, carrying a freshly-extracted heart in his hand. Tara turns and runs, colliding with Willow, who falls and severely twists her ankles. Seeing the pursuing Gentlemen, Willow heads back downstairs with Tara.Ending up in the basement laundry room, Willow looks for something to barricade the door. Spotting a vending machine several yards away, she limps over and tries to push it. Even with Tara's help, Willow can't move it very far in her condition. Willow then tries to lift the machine telekinetically, but her limited experience makes the task impossible. Realizing Willow's true capabilities of witchcraft, Tara joins hands with her injured partner. Together, they slam the vending machine up against the door as if it weighed nothing. At Giles' apartment, a slight misunderstanding and a large helping of coincidence lead Xander to believe that Spike has just bitten into Anya's neck. As Xander proceeds to land numerous punches on Spike's face, Anya wakes up and shows to Xander that nothing happened. When Xander drops Spike and immediately kisses her, Anya realizes just how much Xander really cares for, putting an end to their little argument.Meanwhile, Buffy patrols the city once again, only this time she's armed with her crossbow. Riley is also on duty, carrying a heavy-duty stun gun. Their encounters with the Gentlemen's lackeys leads them both to the clock tower. After subduing their opponents momentarily, Buffy and Riley raise their weapons at each other. Just as soon as they realize who they're aiming at, more lackeys arrive to interrupt the unexpected reunion. While taking care of his own struggle, Riley manages to catch a glimpse of Buffy landing a blow that sends the lackey flying across the room. Their fight takes them upstairs, where the Gentlemen wait with scalpel's in hand, hoping these two attackers will provide the remaining hearts that they need. Buffy spots the box on the table and recognizes it from her dream. Unable to reach the box herself, Buffy signals to Riley to destroy the box. After misinterpreting her intended target the first time around, Riley successfully smashes the box into debris. Instantly, the voices of Sunnydale return to their rightful owners. With her voice back, Buffy lets loose a high-pitched wail that lasts long enough to cause the Gentlemen's heads to explode.As order is slowly restored around Sunnydale, Willow learns that Tara has been studying witchcraft ever since she was a small child. When Willow tries to downplay her own abilities, Tara assures her new friend that she is indeed a powerful witch. Meanwhile, confronted with the knowledge that Giles' stories about monsters and demons were true all this time, Olivia tries to decide where she stands on all this. Back at Stevenson Hall, Riley stops by Buffy's room and steps inside. They know they need to talk about the previous night's revelation, but the only thing that comes out of Buffy and Riley's mouths at the start of the conversation is the same silence that the people of Sunnydale have gotten all too familiar with.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 11:
 
Doomed
After Buffy finally breaks the silence lingering in the room, Riley tries to figure out who she really is. When Riley withholds information on his own secret identity, Buffy offers her own description of what he does for a living. Surprised by Buffy's accuracy, Riley turns the spotlight back on her. However, Riley is not at all familiar with the name Slayer, so Buffy encourages him to find out on his own. Just as Riley is about to leave the dorm, they notice some rattling coming from the rat's cage, followed by a sudden earthquake. Although the quake is relatively brief, it's more than enough to alarm Buffy.A short while later, Willow returns to her room and tells Buffy about an aftershock party at Porter Hall, due to the entire building being blacked out. Buffy turns down the invitation, instead heading over to Giles for some answers. While Buffy fears that something bad is coming, Giles insists that the earthquake was nothing out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, Spike finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into depression. No longer the fearsome night stalker he once was, Spike cannot comprehend how he ended up living in Xander's basement. Underground, Riley asks Forrest about the Slayer. According to Forrest, the Slayer is nothing but a myth. Over at the aftershock party, Willow runs into Percy West, whom she tutored last year at Sunnydale High. In another room, a lone student finds himself in a sudden encounter with a large, green demon with several spines protruding from the back of its head. Before he can run or scream, the demon slashes the boy's throat, spilling blood all over the floor.When Willow overhears Percy referring to her as a geek from high school, she wanders away from the main party crowd. Ending up in a dark room, Willow feels her way to the bed and lies down, wishing that she were somewhere else. When the power is restored to the building and all the lights turn on, Willow realizes that she is not alone in the bed. Lying next to her is the body of the boy, drained of its blood. Carved on the boy's chest is a symbol that consists of an eye inside a triangle. Willow shows a drawing of the symbol to Giles, who immediately recognizes it as a sign of the apocalypse. Buffy recognizes the symbol, and she grabs the crossbow on her way out to the cemetery. Finding a mausoleum with the symbol carved on one of the walls, Buffy enters and spots the demon collecting the bones of one of the skeletons. Engaging the demon in battle, Buffy quickly realizes its great strength. After delivering a blow that lands Buffy on her back, the demon escapes with the bones it stole from the mausoleum. Riley arrives shortly and tells Buffy which way the demon ran. Before she takes off in that direction, Buffy informs Riley that she can't continue their relationship any longer.Back at Giles' apartment, the gang learns that Buffy's enemy is called a Vahrall demon. One of the passages in the demon's description leads Willow to another book that describes a ritual called the Sacrifice of Three. Along with the sacrifices, the ritual requires the blood of a man, the bones of a child, and something called the Word of Valios. Assuming it's the title of a book, Xander and Willow head to the library. When they stop by Xander's basement for supplies, they find Spike trying to kill himself with a stake. Uncomfortable with the idea of letting the harmless vampire die, Willow and Xander take Spike with them to the library in order to keep an eye on him. After coming up with nothing at the library, Spike mocks Willow and Xander's belief that they play an important role in Buffy's duty. Meanwhile, Buffy runs into Riley while patrolling the streets. Riley tries to convince Buffy that she can't make it through the rest of her life alone. Unable to describe her full history with Angel, Buffy turns a cold shoulder to Riley. Back at the apartment, Giles researches the ritual further. He comes upon an illustration of the Word of Valios, which turns out to be fifteenth-century talisman. Rummaging through a box of valuables, Giles discovers that he had the talisman all along. Before he can get out of the house, Giles realizes he has visitors in the form of three Vahrall demons.While the gang tends to his wounds, Giles tells them that the Vahrall demons are attempting to open the hellmouth. Reluctantly, Buffy, Xander, and Willow return to Sunnydale High, accompanied by an irritated Spike. As they enter the crumbling halls of their old high school, Xander accidentally steps on the remains of late Mayor Wilkins. The gang finds the three Vahrall demons chanting around a gap in the floor. While Buffy attacks, Xander and Willow work on retrieving the blood, bones, and talisman in order to prevent the ritual from being completed. One of the Vahrall demons grabs the jar of blood from Xander's hands and dives into the hole. Realizing that the demons themselves are the three sacrifices, Xander warns the others. Tired of taking a beating from another one of the Vahrall demons, Spike smashes his fist into the demon's face. Instead of receiving immediate shock to his brain, Spike feels absolutely no pain. Realizing that the implant does not prevent him from harming demons, a wave of unadulterated joy overcomes Spike as he wails on the Vahrall demon. Caught up in the excitement, Spike picks up the demon, who grabs the bag of bones before being lifted up into the air. Xander and Willow's warnings come too late as Spike throws the demon, along with the bones, into the hole.Another earthquake signals the near-completion of the ritual. As Buffy hurls punches and kicks at the demon, Riley comes to her aide. Managing to escape the attack for a brief moment, the third Vahrall demon grabs the talisman and drops into the hole. Riley hooks up a cable from his belt to Buffy's, and the Slayer dives in after the demon. Through the rumbling of the quakes, Riley manages to pull Buffy back to the surface. As Riley pulls her up by her right hand, Buffy drags the demon out of the hole with her left. Having failed to complete the ritual, the Vahrall demon dies, and the earthquakes stop. Afterwards, Riley unsuccessfully tries to explain his camouflage outfit to Xander and Willow, who immediately figure out that he's one of the commandoes. When he spots Spike, Riley can't recall where he's seen him before.The next morning, Buffy pays a visit to Riley's room. Having revealed his identity to Buffy and her friends, Riley prepares himself for some dark consequences. What he doesn't expect is the kiss that Buffy plants on his lips. In the meantime, Spike shuts off the television in Xander's basement. Before Xander and Willow can protest, Spike insists that they get out and continue the fight against evil. For a dead man, Spike has never felt more alive.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 12:
 
A new man
Willow bursts into her dorm room, interrupting Buffy and Riley's private moment. Informing them of a demon threat, Willow leads them downstairs. Instead of an otherworldly creature, Buffy finds herself lured into a surprise party for her nineteenth birthday. Shortly afterwards, Buffy finds Giles and introduces him to Riley. Feeling a bit left out of the young crowd at the party, Giles discomfort is only strengthened by meeting Buffy's boyfriend, having no knowledge that she was even dating somebody.The next morning, Spike prepares to move out of Xander's place and find a place of his own. Despite Anya's insistence, Xander refuses to offer any parting gifts. Giles, in the meantime, comes across a passage in one of his texts that details the rise of the Demon Prince Barvain. Realizing that this event will occur by the end of the day, Giles calls Willow and asks for Buffy's whereabouts. In Professor Walsh's office, Riley discloses Buffy's secret identity to Maggie. Surprised to learn that the Slayer is more than a myth, Maggie tells Buffy that she may be granted access to the Initiative laboratory in a matter of days. When Riley describes the number of hostiles he has handled to date, Maggie asks Buffy to tell them how many she has taken down. Outside, Riley expresses his shock over Buffy's impressive statistics. Suddenly feeling inferior in light of his girlfriend's abilities, Riley wonders how he himself would do against Buffy in combat. A little while later, Giles arrives at Maggie's office, hoping to find Buffy. A short conversation reveals that Giles and Professor Walsh's approaches to teaching students are wildly different. While Giles sees Buffy's independence as a sign of strength and maturity, Maggie dismisses it as the result of a missing father figure in Buffy's life.During a sparring session in the gym, Buffy kicks Riley squarely in the chest, launching him several yards into a stack of floor mats. While Buffy profusely apologizes, Willow and Xander accompany Giles into the cemetery, hoping they're not too late to stop the Demon Prince Barvain. Immediately after entering his crypt, Giles realizes that the floor should be destroyed by now. When Willow offers her theory that the Initiative probably eliminated this threat days ago, Giles has no idea what she and Xander are talking about. After they bring him up to speed about Riley and Professor Walsh's involvement in the Initiative -- as well as Anya and Spike's knowledge about these facts -- Giles nearly goes ballistic. Dumbfounded by all the information that was completely unknown to him up until now, Giles lets Willow and Xander go home. After Giles gives up and exits the crypt, Ethan Rayne emerges from the shadows, pledging to give his old friend a nasty surprise. Giles hears a voice from inside the crypt, so he reenters and meets up with his nemesis. Before Giles can beat him into submission, Ethan grabs his attention by warning him of an impending danger.After relocating to a nearby diner for a few drinks, Ethan informs Giles of a rising threat that has shrouded the demon world in fear. Knowing only that the demons refer to this threat by the number 314, Ethan believes that its intrusions from the human world into the affairs of the demon reality is "throwing the worlds out of balance." Many drinks later, Giles and Ethan reach the conclusion that the world has moved on without them. Hoping to get lucky that night, Ethan writes down his number and address for their waitress, who half-heartedly takes it. Later, Willow gets together with Tara to perform a complex spell that involves the levitation of a rose, followed by the removal of its petals. After they successfully lift the rose from the floor, Willow and Tara watch as it suddenly darts all over the room before finally smashing into the floor.In the morning, Giles wakes up and stumbles out of bed. When he reaches his mirror, Giles sees the reflection of a hideous demon staring back at him. While Giles tries to figure out what has happened to his body, his uncontrollable strength causes great damage to the stairway, telephone, and even his own clothes. Throwing on a blanket, Giles rips his front door from its hinges and heads over to Xander's place. He tries to wake up Xander without scaring him, but this fails drastically when Giles realizes that he is actually speaking in a demon language that Xander can't understand. Flying out of bed, Xander starts throwing objects at the intruder while screaming at the top of his lungs. Giles retreats, terrorizing the neighbors on his way out. Meanwhile, Buffy talks to Willow about her sparring session with Riley. Willow mentions the presence of a dark force that caused her spell to go awry the previous night. She then suggests to Buffy that she should talk to Giles soon, since he is apparently feeling left out lately.After dark, Giles finds Spike in the cemetery. Instead of attacking the demon, Spike recognizes Giles. Telling Giles that he is now a Fyarl demon, Spike informs him that he can also speak the Fyarl language. Needing some help in finding Ethan to reverse the spell, Giles offers to pay Spike. On their way to the diner, Giles feels himself slowly being taken over by the demon's desires. While trying to fight off the violent urges, Giles spots Maggie Walsh walking down the street by herself. Giles gets out and chases her away before returning to the car. At the diner, Spike learns from the waitress that Ethan is staying at the Sunnydale motor inn. During the trip to the motel, Spike spots one, then two humvees following them. Giles jumps out, while the pursuing cars continue to follow Spike. Shortly after he loses them, Spike accidentally crashes Giles' car into the wall of a building.Meanwhile, Buffy and the gang arrive at Giles' apartment and find it totaled. The torn clothes on the floor lead them to believe that Giles may have been seriously harmed. Riley arrives in response to a series of 911 calls that reported the sighting of a large demon in the neighborhood. When they find a passage in Giles' books about the Fyarl demon that matches Xander's description, Buffy deduces the possibility that the mystical force that Willow felt was caused by a spell being performed to gain control of this Fyarl demon. Following the book's information that the Fyarl demon is vulnerable to silver, Buffy grabs a letter opener on the way out. Along with Riley, she breaks into the magic shop and discovers that Ethan has been there recently. When Riley orders a search on Ethan's location, they track him down to the motel. Before they leave, Riley mentions that Maggie has ordered him to prevent Buffy from getting involved any further. Refusing to keep the Initiative's orders from getting in the way of her vengeance for Giles, Buffy disobeys and continues out the door.Trying to pack up and get out of town, Ethan gets a surprise visit from Giles, who is now almost completely under the influence of his demonic rage. Ethan tries to convince Giles that he won't be able to reverse the spell if he is killed, but Giles is beyond reasoning. Buffy arrives just as Ethan is thrown into a table. While Buffy and Giles wage war on each other, Riley does some damage of his own on Ethan. Just as Buffy stabs Giles in the chest with the letter opener, she suddenly recognizes who she's been fighting all along. Fortunately, the imitation silver does not cause any harm to Giles. Moments later, Ethan completes the reversal spell, returning Giles to his human form. When he asks Buffy how she recognized him, she tells Giles that his eyes gave him away. Ethan, in the meantime, is escorted outside by Initiative agents, who plan to rehabilitate him immediately.After Buffy apologizes for failing to keep him informed on what's been going on lately, Giles asks her to be cautious in dealing with the Initiative. Convinced that Ethan was sincere about what he said at the diner, Giles wants Buffy to stay alert. Underground, Riley assures Maggie that Buffy is on their side and will prove to be a valuable ally. As Riley takes off, Maggie enters a restricted-access security room. Inside, she scans her ID card through a reader to unlock and enter another door, one that's marked simply with a number: 314.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 13:
 
The 'I' in team
While Willow and Xander try to introduce Anya to the challenges of poker, Maggie Walsh applauds Buffy's latest training exercise with the Initiative's top agents. In less than a minute, Buffy manages to overcome Riley's squad with nothing but her own two hands and feet.At the cafeteria the next morning, Buffy and Willow tell each other about the previous night. After Riley walks in, Willow makes sure that Buffy remembers their planned get-together at the Bronze later that evening. Meanwhile, Giles pays a visit to Spike's new home in the cemetery. Giles tries to motivate him towards joining their cause, but the only thing that Spike is interested in is the money that Giles owes him. Swearing off any future relations with the good guys, Spike orders Giles to leave. Later, Riley accompanies Buffy on her first trip into the Initiative laboratory beneath the surface of Sunnydale. Upon stepping out of the elevator, Buffy marvels at the vastness of the facility. Maggie Walsh greets them and escorts them to the central testing area, which is called the Pit. Buffy notices an unfamiliar pair of demons that are being observed by scientists, and Riley tells her about the difficulty of their capture. By the armory, Maggie shows Buffy a communication camera headset prototype that also reads the heart rate of whoever is wearing it. After the tour, Maggie issues a pager to Buffy in order to alert her to any future missions. Once the Slayer is gone, Maggie enters the restricted-access 314 lab, where Dr. Angleman is working on their secret project: a hideous biological weapon that they are creating out of various demon body parts. Named Adam, his completion is not too far away.Meanwhile, Tara gives Willow a gift in the form of a rare Dolls-Eye crystal. When Tara explains that it once belonged to her grandmother, Willow respectfully turns down the offer. Tara then invites Willow to hang out at her dorm room later that night. Having made prior engagements with Buffy and the others, Willow regretfully turns down a disappointed Tara once again. At the Bronze, Buffy arrives late with Riley, whose friends tag along. Willow wonders if Buffy needs to slow things down and be more cautious, seeing how they still know very little about the Initiative and how Ethan Rayne's 314 warning factors into any of this. Before their conversation gets very far, the incessant beeping of the pagers pulls Buffy, Riley, and the others out of the Bronze and back to the laboratory. With Xander and Anya off on their own, Willow heads over to Tara's dorm.During the mission briefing, Maggie and Dr. Angleman explain the squad's objective. They must capture a Polgara demon, which defends itself with bone skewers that extend from its arms. Dr. Angleman makes it perfectly clear that they must leave the demon's arms unharmed, which prompts a series of curious questions from Buffy. Afterwards, Riley assigns Forrest and Graham to head the Beta team, while Buffy accompanies him on the Alpha team. Out on patrol, Graham spots Spike walking through the woods. Failing to capture him with a net, Graham fires a tracking device into Spike's back as he makes his getaway. Distracted by Forrest's call on the radio, the Polgara demon takes Riley by surprise. Buffy rushes in to attack, while Riley and another agent ready their tasers. A drop kick to the demon's chest by Buffy gives them the opening they need, and soon the Polgara demon is stunned into submission. Stimulated by the fight, Buffy and Riley spend the night together in bed, consummating their relationship under the watchful eye of a hidden surveillance camera in the ceiling of Riley's room. Unbeknownst to either Buffy or Riley, Maggie Walsh sits in a secret room, watching their lovemaking on a monitor.Pleased to wake up next to Riley in the morning, Buffy revels in her newfound happiness. When Buffy asks Riley if he knows anything about 314, the ringing of the telephone immediately breaks up their moment. Reporting in for duty, Riley stops outside the restricted-access security door. Curious about what Buffy said, he peers through the window and sees another door with the same number inscribed on it. Interrupting Riley's investigation, Maggie orders him to lead the Beta team in recapturing Spike. Once Riley leaves, Maggie informs Dr. Angleman that Buffy is apparently aware of their secret experiment. While Maggie prepares their back-up plan, Dr. Angleman completes the amputation of the Polgara demon's left arm. On the surface, Spike retreats to Giles' apartment for help. When Xander identifies the object in Spike's back as a tracking device, they conclude that the Initiative will be on their doorstep in no time. Meanwhile, Buffy returns to her room and finds that Willow's bed hasn't been slept in. Willow arrives shortly, but another series of beeps from Buffy's pager prevents the two from going into any detail regarding the events of the previous night. After Buffy takes off, Willow gets a call from Giles, who requests her assistance. At the apartment, Willow recites a spell that ionizes the surrounding atmosphere, thus obscuring the tracer's signal. As soon as Giles successfully removes the tracking device, Xander flushes it down the toilet, bringing an abrupt end to Beta team's mission.In the Initiative lab, Maggie briefs Buffy on a basic reconnaissance mission. After notifying her of a possible hostile roaming the sewers, Maggie equips Buffy with the com-cam prototype and a taser. Soon after beginning her mission, Buffy detects the target heading towards her from up ahead. When two axe-wielding demons step around the corner and confront Buffy, she immediately recognizes them from the Pit at the Initiative laboratory. Realizing that something is up, Buffy aims her taser and pulls the trigger. Instead of firing an immobilizing bolt, the weapon short-circuits in Buffy's hands, forcing her to drop it. In an instant, a steel gate drops behind Buffy, sealing off her escape route. As Buffy engages the demons in hand-to-hand combat, Maggie watches the struggle via the com-cam headset. During the struggle, Buffy's headset is knocked off her head and falls to the ground. The view from the camera, along with the terminated heart rate, leads Maggie believe that Buffy has been successfully eliminated. Back in the sewers, Buffy lures one of the demons into taking a careless swing with his axe. Buffy dodges the weapon, which sinks into the chest of the other demon. With one down and one to go, Buffy disarms her opponent, sending the axe into the nearby water canal. However, the demon strikes back, knocking Buffy to the ground before retrieving his axe. Noticing that the taser is still short-circuiting, Buffy grabs the sabotaged weapon and throws it into the canal. In seconds, the demon is electrocuted to death.When Riley returns from his failed recovery mission, Maggie informs him that Buffy is dead. Unable to comprehend what he's hearing, Riley is overwhelmed with grief. Suddenly, his eyes fall on the set of monitors behind Maggie, which show Buffy adjusting the com-cam to a suitable angle. Maggie's act is cut short by the sound of Buffy's voice, and she turns to hear the Slayer threaten her with payback. Realizing his boss' deception, Riley leaves the premises, refusing to acknowledge Maggie's orders to stop. Back at Giles' apartment, Spike vows to stay in Sunnydale until something is done about the implant in his head. Buffy arrives shortly afterwards, and she tells the others that the Initiative is not what it seems.Inside the 314 lab, a furious Maggie Walsh paces around the motionless body of Adam. She declares her intent to get Riley back and get rid of the Slayer once and for all. Suddenly, a sharp pain rips through Maggie's chest. When she looks down, she recognizes the tip of a bone skewer protruding from her chest. Moments away from death, Maggie slowly looks over her shoulder to see Adam standing behind her. As Maggie drops to the floor, Adam looks down at her now-lifeless body and affectionately says, "Mommy."

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 14:
 
Goodbye Iowa
After Buffy details the events in the sewers, Spike suggests that Riley is probably in on it. The others offer their own opinions, but Buffy refuses to believe that Riley knew anything about Maggie's plot. As far as Maggie's reasons go, they surmise that Buffy must have been getting too close to something, such as the significance of 314. Deciding that all of their lives are in danger from the Initiative, Buffy orders the gang to stay in Xander's place for the time being. Just as Giles objects to this course of action, Riley arrives at the apartment to see if Buffy is okay. Buffy tries to explain what happened to her, but Riley has trouble buying the fact that Maggie or the rest of Initiative is hiding something. However, Spike's presence distracts Riley from the subject at hand. Finally recognizing the vampire, Riley turns the tables on Buffy, demanding her excuse for harboring a known target of the Initiative. Spike takes off, leaving Buffy and her friends to focus Riley on the more important matter at hand. Still in denial, Riley leaves on his own.Emerging from the underground lab and onto the surface for the first time, Adam slowly takes in his surroundings. Adam soon comes upon a lone young boy in the woods. When the boy's curiosity falls on the bone skewer in Adam's left arm, a knowing grin forms on the face of Maggie's creation. The next morning, Buffy and the gang greet the new day with a news report on the television regarding the brutal murder and mutilation of a young boy in the woods. When the reporter mentions a skewer as the probably murder weapon, Buffy assumes that Maggie sent the Polgara demon after her. Meanwhile, Dr. Angleman enters the 314 lab and tries to find his way in the darkness. Slipping on a pool of blood, Angleman immediately spots the body of Maggie Walsh. On the surface, Forrest grills a returning Riley with inquiries regarding the previous night. Taking Forrest into his room for privacy, Riley admits his conclusion that Maggie tried to have Buffy killed. However, Forrest won't believe that Maggie's reasons were anything but legitimate. Forrest goes on to express his feeling that Buffy probably deserved whatever Maggie had in mind for her. Just as their debate begins to heat up, Graham interrupts the scene with news of Maggie's death.The sight of his murdered mentor is almost too much for Riley to bear, as Forrest attributes her fatal wound to the act of a wooden stake. Seriously disturbed by this accusation, Riley challenges Forrest. Dr. Angleman breaks the two apart, demanding a moment of respect for their fallen comrade. Riley and Forrest listen as Dr. Angelman mentions the recent escape of the Polgara demon. Angleman then informs Riley and the rest of the team that the government has ordered them to cease all operations until further notification. Knowing that Dr. Angleman has no real authority over them, Riley orders his troops to patrol the entire town of Sunnydale and permanently eliminate the Polgara demon. At the cemetery, Forrest and Graham inspect Spike's crypt, but they leave without locating the vampire's hidden resting place. Buffy, in the meantime, arrives at the crime scene to search for any traces of the Polgara demon's trail. Riley arrives shortly and informs Buffy of Maggie's death. Back at UC Sunnydale, Willow stops by Tara's room. After they discuss the spells they performed all-night recently, Willow suggests that they perform another spell, one that would conjure the goddess Thespia to locate any demonic energy in the area. After constructing a basic map of the town on the floor, Willow pours a handful of the potion into her hand and Tara's. While Willow blows her portion onto the map as the spell requires them to do so, Tara stashes her handful of the potion under her bed. When Willow opens her eyes, she believes that the spell was a total failure.Meanwhile, Buffy pays a visit to Willy's bar, hoping to get some information on the whereabouts of the Polgara demon. However, Willy hasn't heard anything about the demon since it was originally captured by Buffy and the Initiative. As Buffy turns her line of questioning to the Initiative and 314, Riley walks in and immediately spots Buffy. Further confused by Buffy's apparent socialization with demons, Riley demands answers from the Slayer. Buffy notices the uncontrollable trembling in Riley's hands, which forcefully grab her by the shoulders. When a woman tries to leave the scene, Riley draws his gun and levels it at the frightened patron's head. Buffy and Willy try to talk him out of it, but Riley cannot manage to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, anymore. Finally, Riley lowers his gun and slumps onto the counter, allowing the terrified woman to make a hasty exit. After Buffy brings him back to Xander's apartment, Riley struggles to understand what is happening to him. As Riley declares the loss of everything he's ever held to be true, Buffy notices a crimson rash on his hand. Riley's nails continuously scratch at the rash, and Buffy pulls his hands apart. Pulling a scarf from her hair, Buffy wraps the garment over Riley's wounded hand before getting him to rest. By the laundry machines, Giles and Anya tell Buffy of the inconsistencies between the young boy's murder and the documented behavioral patterns of the Polgara demon. Suspicious of Riley's deteriorating physical condition, Buffy believes that there is more to it than grief. She asks Xander to accompany her on an investigation of the Initiative laboratory. After Buffy passes the retinal scan and gains entrance to the main elevator, she changes into a scientist's lab coat and glasses while Xander wears the fatigues he's been keeping in his basement. As they roam through the facility, Buffy and Xander overhear a conversation between Dr. Angleman and another scientist. According to them, the Initiative soldiers have been fed performance-enhancing chemicals unknowingly through their food. Since Riley dispatched the team that morning, the soldiers have been experiencing severe withdrawal. Most of the soldiers have returned to the lab, but Dr. Angleman insists that they find Riley soon, due to his vital importance to their project. Back at Giles' apartment, Riley abruptly gets out of bed and asks for Buffy. When he realizes that Buffy has infiltrated the Initiative, Riley gets dressed and heads for the stairs. Willow tries to block off his exit, but Riley shoves her to the floor and heads up the stairs. In the lab, Buffy and Xander follow Dr. Angleman through a security door and confront him inside the room. When Dr. Angleman tries to warn Buffy that her presence has probably been alerted to security by now, Riley appears with news that the security monitors are currently off-line. Buffy turns her attention back to Angleman, who confesses that Maggie was responsible for the attack on the Slayer. When Dr. Angelman begins to reveal the details of Project 314, Riley decides that he's heard enough and doesn't want Maggie's memory to be tainted by these accusations. Buffy tries to convince him that she's only after the truth, but Riley's psychosis has reached the point where he believes his own girlfriend is responsible for everything that has happened recently. Before their argument can escalate, the body of a soldier hits the floor not too far from where they are standing. Buffy, Riley, Xander, and Dr. Angleman look up to see Adam, who has returned to his place of creation. Dropping down to the floor below, Adam pulls from his pocket a stack of computer disks that he retrieved from the lab. Inserting them into a disk drive in his chest one by one, Adam recalls files that detail his own existence as a "kinematically redundant, biomechanical demonoid". After inserting a disk labeled "Finn", Adam tells Riley how the two of them are connected in the eyes of the late Maggie Walsh. While Maggie literally constructed Adam with various parts of humans, demons, and machines, Professor Walsh was also responsible for creating Riley. Although Riley has a true biological family in Iowa, it wasn't until he met Maggie Walsh that he started his path to becoming the soldier that he is today, due in part to the chemicals that he was fed daily. When Adam offers to disclose the full scope of Maggie's plan for the two of them, Riley puts a stop to the back story by aiming his gun at the creature. In a blinding instant, Adam shoves the gun aside, knocks Buffy to the floor, and sends Riley flying across the room with a thunderous punch. After flooring Xander easily, Adam extracts his bone skewer and drives it through a fleeing Angleman, who dies instantly. Riley makes another attempt to fight, but Adam quickly stabs the soldier's torso with his bloody skewer. Down for the count, Riley can only watch as Buffy tries her hand at fighting Adam. Unfortunately, her blows have virtually no effect on Adam, who crushes her to the floor once again. As the rest of the Initiative squad tries to bust into the room, Adam escapes through a ceiling vent. Just as his feet disappear into the shaft, the rest of the team barges in, completely unaware of the departed Adam. Riley confirms Buffy's story that Adam was responsible for his own injury as well as Dr. Angleman's murder. While the troops launch a search for the creature, Forrest orders Buffy to back off and let them take Riley to a military hospital.Elsewhere, Spike waltzes in to Willy's bar for a drink. However, Spike gets a greeting in the form of a severe beating from several of the demon patrons. Disgusted with Spike's apparent alliance with the Slayer, the demons threaten the vampire outcast with a merciless death if he doesn't wise up soon. The next morning, Buffy and Willow try to figure out what to do about Adam, while also wondering about Riley's fate. Buffy fears that her boyfriend is completely alone in the Initiative infirmary, but such is not the case, for Riley still has her scarf wrapped around his hand to motivate a quick recovery.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 15:
 
This years girl
In a sundrenched dream, Buffy visits the comatose Faith through some sort of telepathic connection she shares with her fellow slayer. Just when they seem to be getting along, Faith motions her stomach. The knife Buffy stabbed her with still protrudes, dripping with blood. Meanwhile, in Xander's basement, Buffy, Willow and Giles discuss how to destroy the unstoppable Adam, while Xander works on repairing the faulty blaster that Professor Walsh gave Buffy. The Slayer, however, seems equally concerned with the condition of the injured Riley who is in the questionable care of the Initiative. Just then, Riley wakes up in the medical unit of the underground headquarters. As he attempts to leave to see Buffy, Forrest intervenes. It appears that their standoff can only result in a fight. Meanwhile, as Faith lies in her own intensive care unit, she dreams of a pleasant picnic with her deceased father figure, Mayor Wilkins III. The serenity is disrupted when Buffy appears and murders the Mayor with the same knife she stabbed Faith with. That night, Xander and Willow go on patrol with Buffy in search of Adam. Instead of finding the demon-cyborg, they come across one of his morbid biology projects. A red, horned demon is strung up between two trees with his chest cavity splayed open for dissection. Back in Xander's basement, he and Willow listen to Buffy's plans to liberate Riley from the Initiative headquarters. Surprisingly, Riley shows up at that moment and embraces Buffy.Still dreaming, Faith sees Buffy chasing her through a rain drenched cemetery. When she falls into an open grave, Buffy jumps in after her. After an unseen battle, Faith alone emerges from the six foot hole. Back in reality, her eyes explode open as she awakens from her coma. Disoriented, the groggy Faith rips out her IV and wanders down the barren Coma Ward halls. She comes across a teenage visitor who she forces to tell the date and explain what happened on Sunnydale High graduation day. With ambiguous intentions, Faith storms out of the hospital unnoticed by the staff. Meanwhile, alone in Buffy's dorm room, Riley and the Slayer share a tender moment of affection. Riley explains that he is afraid to leave the Initiative, no matter how corrupt they may seem. He feels that without the soldier in him, he's got nothing. Buffy reassures him that he's much more than just a soldier. Meanwhile, at the hospital, doctors and FBI agents search the hospital frantically for the missing Faith. The teenage girl she encountered is found unconscious and badly beaten. The head nurse makes a secretive phone call to an unknown organization telling them to mobilize a team.Faith wanders the streets of Sunnydale planning her next move. After seeing the bombed out structure that was Sunnydale High, she secretly visits Giles' house. Through the window, she watches Buffy, Xander, Willow, Riley and Giles receive word of her escape. Buffy makes plans to confront Faith before continuing her mission to destroy Adam. With this knowledge, Faith is one step ahead of Buffy and surprises her by showing up on the UC Sunnydale campus while Buffy and Willow chat during a class break. Faith dispenses with the pleasantries and shatters Buffy's hope for peace by announcing her plans for revenge. In the middle of campus, a fast and furious fight ensues that is cut short when the police show up looking for Faith. The Slayer-turned villain takes out both cops on her way out of the situation. Later on, Willow and Tara go on recon around the campus in search of the elusive Faith. Willow describes Faith to Tara as a slutty primadonna who throws around Boston slang like "wicked" and "five by five". Giles and Xander take over the recon that night, armed with the blaster that Riley fixed. Instead of Faith, though, they come across Spike smoking a fag in an alley. When they ask his help in locating Faith, he tells them that when he finds her he'll tell her where they are and then watch her kill them all. He can't believe they would seek his help for nothing in return.Back at the hospital, a helicopter lands and three mysterious suited men exit to meet with the head nurse. Faith encounters a demon in an alleyway who says he has a package for her from a mutual friend. Instead of inquiring about details, she breaks the demon's neck and opens the package, which contains a video tape. On the tape is the Mayor who explains that if she's watching, it means he's dead. He tells Faith to open the accompanying package. Inside is a bizarre metallic trinket that was forged by an evil accomplice of the Mayor's. He tells her that with the object she's going to go out with a bang.Buffy and Riley sit in Buffy's dorm room discussing Faith. Buffy explains that Faith is tougher than Riley can imagine. Meanwhile, Faith shows up at Mrs. Summers' house and punches her out. When she comes to, Faith is holding her hostage in her bedroom, while trying on her makeup. Without warning, Buffy comes crashing through the window and tackles the unsuspecting Faith. The two Slayers erupt into a brawl through out Mrs. Summers' house, destroying doors, windows and tables. In the heat of battle, Faith slips the Mayor's metallic token into her palm and grabs Buffy's hand. Feeling its awesome power, the two gladiators are jolted momentarily. As they snap out of it, Buffy throws Faith a right cross that finally puts her down. When Joyce enters, she notices something different and almost evil about her daughter. She doesn't think anything of it when Buffy says she's "five by five".

Episode Summary by: Zach Peacock, taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 16:
 
Who are you?
Police and paramedics are on the scene at the Summers' house, investigating the aftermath of Buffy and Faith's battle. Faith is brought out on a stretcher as a detective thanks Buffy for somehow knocking her unconscious. When he calls Faith a kid though, Buffy becomes defensive and retorts that she's tougher than he thinks. Faith has obviously transferred her spirit into Buffy's body with the Mayor's amulet.Back in the living room, Joyce can't understand why her "daughter" is acting so cold and shallow. She can't even bring herself to hug Joyce. Faith, in her new body, retires to take a bath and explore herself. She looks in the mirror and practices acting as Buffy-like as possible. For the most part she overdoes it though and ends up looking foolish. The real Buffy wakes up in the hospital in Faith's body. When she tries to go save her mother, the police restrain her and load her full of sedatives. Back in Tara's room, she and Willow discuss their "relationship". Willow explains that she hasn't introduced her to her friends yet because she likes to have something that is just hers. Tara reassures her that she is hers. Meanwhile, Faith goes through Buffy's room and tries on her clothes. When she comes across Buffy's wallet, she orders a flight for 10 am the next morning. Joyce informs her that Giles and the gang are waiting to meet her at Giles'. Faith decides she wouldn't mind seeing what her enemies are up to and leaves to head over. The real Buffy is simultaneously waking up again, this time in the backseat of a police car. Suddenly, the police car is rammed by an armored truck and the cops knocked unconscious. The same men who met at the hospital after Faith came out of her coma, jump out of the back of the vehicle. They smash the police car window and drag the girl they think is Faith, out. The stone-faced men inform her that she is under arrest in the name of the Watcher's Council.Back at Giles' house, Faith enters and greets the unwitting gang. Giles informs them that "Faith" has been extracted to England by a Council Retrieval Team. When Willow announces her repulsion of Faith, Faith does everything she can to act natural and restrain from killing Buffy's friend. That night, Faith takes advantage of her new sexy body, by cutting a rug at the Bronze. She runs into Spike who just assumes it is the same old Buffy. But instead of her normal righteous self, this Buffy rubs against Spike, titillating him. She tells him she could "have him" if she wanted and then leaves him frustrated, angry, and thirsty for revenge. Elsewhere, a group of marauding vampires enter their lair to find Adam waiting for them. When one of them attacks, Adam easily defends himself, tearing the vamp's head clean off. He tells the other four bloodsuckers that he has a plan to help them unite.Under the guard of the Watcher Retrieval Team, Buffy tries to convince the men that she's not Faith. The less-than-professional soldiers just mock and spit on her. Back at the Bronze, Willow and Tara arrive to hang out. Willow sees "Buffy" and decides to finally introduce her to Tara. Faith decides to have a little fun with Tara when Willow leaves them alone to get a drink and mocks the apparent feelings she has for her Wicken companion. Suddenly, Willow returns and points out a vampire leaving the club with an oblivious girl. Faith, forced to act as Buffy would, leaves in pursuit. She slays the vampire in the parking lot with a broken pool cue and helps the girl to her feet. When the shaken young lady thanks her sincerely for saving her life, Faith seems to feel good about it for a split second. When she returns inside, Willow announces that she is taking her friend home because she isn't feeling well. When she mentions Riley, Faith decides to leave too and pay Buffy's boyfriend a visit.When Willow and Tara arrive at Tara's room, they discuss "Buffy's" behavior. Tara feels that the energy she gave off was fragmented and Buffy couldn't have been her normal self. The two Wickens decide to perform a ritual that opens a passage to the netherworld where Willow could visit Buffy's body on an astral plane and investigate her inner self. Meanwhile, the outer self of Buffy is busy turning Riley on. When Faith gets a little too kinky though, Riley starts to suspect something is wrong with his normally conservative girlfriend. Before he can question her, Faith seals his lips with a more romantic kiss. Later, when they rest in a post coital embrace, Willow and Tara's ritual begins to take effect. Surrounded by a ring of energy, Willow's spirit leaves her body and enters Buffy's. Faith rolls out of bed and questions the other inhabitant of Buffy's body. Riley watches confused as his girlfriend argues with herself schizophrenically. Faith seems to finally suppress Willow's intrusion and return to bed.In a subterranean cave, Adam lectures to his new pupils. He wants to use his small vampire posse to spread the word of his coming apocalyptic attack on humanity. The next morning, Faith leaves Riley's room before he wakes up. On her way out the door, Forrest confronts her about disturbing Riley while he recovers from his injuries. When he criticizes her profession by calling her a killer, Faith finds herself defending what Buffy does. Confused about why being called a killer offended her, she storms out the door to catch her flight. At the shipyard, Buffy makes a flight of her own. When one of the guards reaches a tranquilizer gun into her room, she grabs it with her feet and kicks the guard in the head. After a couple more slick moves, she jumps into the driver's seat of the armored truck they picked her up in and drives it through the front of the shipyard warehouse. When she shows up at Giles' house in Faith's body, her ex-Watcher is understandably shocked. To prove it is her, Buffy lists things that only she could possibly know about Giles, like the fact that he had sex with her mom. Just then Willow and Tara show up. They show Buffy and Giles a Katra they conjured which is a small, glowing green orb they have in a charm box. Willow explains that all they have to do is bring Buffy and Faith together to employ the Katra which will switch their spirits back to their rightful bodies. Suddenly they notice a breaking newscast on Giles' television. A group of citizens are being held hostage in a church by unknown assailants. At the airport, Faith is watching the same newscast.Inside the church, the vampires that Adam took under his wing are the ones tormenting the frightened Sunnydale locals. When Faith shows up outside, she runs into Riley who still thinks she is Buffy. When she tells him she wants to go inside and do some slaying, Riley tries to stop her from entering alone. Faith shrugs him off and goes in anyway, driven by some force to help the innocent people inside. She takes on Adam's followers in a grueling fight that rumbles throughout the church. After slaying three of them she is pinned down by the leader. Out of nowhere, Buffy stakes him from behind. But rather than thanking her, Faith attacks Buffy. After a knuckle-splitting flurry, Buffy is able to grab Faith's hand and switch their bodies back with the power of the Katra. Faith, now in her original body, jumps up and runs out of the church. Later, in Riley's room, Buffy explains to him what happened. She is angry to find out that Riley unknowingly slept with Faith, but relieved with the knowledge that she probably won't be returning for a while. Meanwhile, somewhere far away, Faith somberly rides across the countryside in the boxcar of a train she apparently hopped leaving Sunnydale

Episode Summary by: Zach Peacock, taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 17:
 
Superstar
At the cemetery, Buffy, Willow, Anya and Xander battle two acrobatic vampires. Buffy manages to stake them both with some help from her friends and decides to check out the tomb they came out of. The gang follows her into the dank chamber where they encounter a nest of vampires feasting on a body. Greatly outnumbered, they decide to retreat before their presence is noticed. Needing help, they go to the one man that can aid them. After walking into a lush mansion, they approach a massive desk and ask the person concealed behind the chair for help. The chair swivels around to reveal Jonathan Levinson, the Sunnydale High geek, looking suave and dangerous. At Giles' house, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya, Jonathan and Giles discuss their plan of attack on the vampire nest. Jonathan has all the answers and the group decides they should pretty much stick behind him. When they enter the tomb to do battle, vampires rush at the gang from all sides. Buffy manages to kill two of them but Jonathan emerges as the real hero, dusting vampires right and left with a crossbow while kicking and flipping his way across the room. When the group emerges from the tomb, there's plenty of paparazzi waiting to score a candid photo of the leather-clad Jonathan. When Spike appears on the scene, Jonathan is quick to confront him. With no need to attack the harmless ex-vamp, Jonathan settles for giving him a good tongue-lashing and swaggers off.That night at Tara's, Willow details the night's action as they make a collage on the wall. Tara is intrigued by Willow's tale and asks how Buffy is doing with Riley since he inadvertently slept with Faith. Willow assures her that they'll get over it as she puts the last cut-out Jonathan head on their tributary collage. Meanwhile, in Riley's room, Buffy and Riley attempt to smooth out their crumbling love life. When Riley tries to give Buffy a kiss, she just can't get Faith out of her head and has to leave. She decides to get some sage advice from Jonathan whom she meets at a diner. Between signing autographs for starstruck fans, Jonathan explains to Buffy that her hang-ups with Riley are in her head. If she wants everything to be alright with him, she needs to let herself love him. Later, Colonel George Haddoway introduces himself at the Initiative Headquarters as the new Commander In Chief until someone else is appointed to take over command. In briefing the soldiers on Adam, he introduces Jonathan to give his perspective. Jonathan, in military fatigues, shows the men a blueprint of Adam's body. He explains that there is a cache of Uranium 235 that will keep him alive forever. Cutting his head off or stabbing him in the heart will not stop him; his body needs to be annihilated.After the meeting, Jonathan gives Riley some advice on how women want to be treated. He explains to Riley that Buffy needs to be reassured that Faith meant nothing to him and her sexual maturity can't compare to Buffy's sensuality. That night at Jonathan's mansion, a young woman is trying to catch a glimpse of her idol from the backyard with binoculars. Suddenly she is attacked by a bony, wolf-like demon that she barely fends off for the time being. Meanwhile, at the Bronze, Buffy, Riley, Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara enjoy drinks and discuss Jonathan. Suddenly he hits the stage in a white tuxedo and sings a lounge song dedicated to Buffy and Riley. This inspires the troubled couple to reclaim their love for each other. Suddenly Karen, the fan who was attacked by the demon at Jonathan's estate, comes running in having narrowly escaped its slashing claws. The gang takes her back to Jonathan's where she describes it in detail. When she draws a symbol she saw on its head, Jonathan begins acting suspicious. He tells everyone that it is nothing more than an animal from the nearby woods that he will take care of on his own.Meanwhile, Adam and one of his followers gather information at a house they invaded. When Adam sees Jonathan on television, he tries to explain to his vampire soldier that reality has been changed. Everyone is under a spell except himself because his molecular structure is more in tune with the surrounding world than any human, demon or member of the undead. Across town, when Tara enters her building on her way to bed, she is attacked out of the blue by the same demon that was outside Jonathanšs house. She is instantly pinned beneath the howling beast but manages to whip together a spell that shoots dust in its face. With her attacker distracted for a moment, she bolts out from beneath it and bounds into a janitor's closet. A few hours later she is found by a student huddled up in shock, and brought to Willow and Buffy's room. When Buffy comes home, she shows the symbol that Karen drew to the still rattled Tara. Tara states that it was present on the demon's head that attacked her. Buffy begins questioning Jonathan's bizarre lack of compliance to help find the creature and calls a meeting at Giles'. When the gang gets there she explains that it seems impossible that Jonathan has done so many great things, including coaching the US Women's soccer team to an Olympic Gold. She explains a theory that they could be living in an alternate universe that could be created by a spell like the ones Anya used to create. She shows them a photo in a Jonathan Swimsuit Calendar in which the same symbol from the demon is displayed on his back in scar tissue. Suddenly Jonathan walks in and questions their inquisitive glances. When asked about the scar, Jonathan gives a bizarre explanation that seems to satisfy everyone but Buffy. Buffy asks Jonathan to go on patrol with her to put the demonšs reign of terror to an end.At the cemetery, Buffy and Jonathan come across Spike, lurking by a tomb. To extract information from him, Buffy threatens to put an embargo on the butchers that supply Spike with blood. The reluctant Spike discloses the location of a vampire lair that was recently invaded by something powerful. Knowing that this is probably the handywork of their demon, the Slayer and the hero leave in pursuit. Meanwhile, back at Giles', Willow finds Jonathan's symbol in one of the Watcher's medieval tomes. It says that the bearer of the symbol has performed an augmentation spell, affecting how everyone perceives him or her. She immediately figures out that Jonathan must have used it to make himself a para-god. It continues that, with the spell, comes a force of evil to counter the power of its conjurer. The only way to end the spell is to kill its evil spawn. It dawns on them that the demon Buffy and Jonathan are after is obviously the spinoff of the augmentation spell and Jonathan will probably do anything he can to prevent it from being destroyed. Meanwhile, in the cavernous lair that Spike pointed them to, Buffy and Jonathan come across the demon. Rather than helping it kill Buffy, Jonathan realizes that the charade is going to hurt people he actually cares about and helps her fight it. When it has Buffy on the edge of a vast pit, Jonathan attempts to sacrifice himself, tackling the demon into the pit. At the last second Buffy catches his ankle as the demon plummets into darkness and Jonathan is returned to his normal self.The next day the gang sits on the front lawn of campus, marveling at the fact that they have full memory of worshipping the high school twerp. When Jonathan shows up to apologize, Buffy explains that people aren't necessarily as mad at him for creating a demon that endangered lives, but for treating them as sock puppets in his game. Jonathan leaves remorseful, but before he does he tells Buffy that he did mean what he said about letting herself love Riley. That night, as Buffy and Riley sink into a passionate kiss, their relationship is restored.

Episode Summary by: Zach Peacock, taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 18:
 
Where wild things are
While on patrol, Buffy and Riley tag-team a vampire in the cemetery. Suddenly a blue, horned demon joins the vampire to form a tag-team of its own. While Riley serves the vampire a stake, Buffy makes fast work of the howling demon. Afterwards, Buffy and Riley are too turned on from fighting to report back to Giles. They choose instead to head over to Riley's for some "tension relief". Later that night, Riley wanders through the Initiative house, driven by an unknown obsession. When he arrives in the bathroom and turns off the dripping shower, he can finally go back to bed. The next afternoon, an ice cream truck pulls up to a curb in a quiet neighborhood. Behind the wheel is Xander, with Anya riding shotgun to keep her boyfriend company on his new job. Anya begins questioning his virility because Xander wasn't in the mood for sex the night before. The defensive Xander tells her that he'll have sex with her right then and there in the back of the van. When he starts unbuttoning his shirt, the only thing that stops Xander's kink is the fact that ten children and a parent waiting for ice cream are staring at him. Meanwhile, Buffy, Riley, Willow, Tara and Giles meet in a study room. They discuss the bizarre pairing of demon and vampire in the previous night's battle. Giles explains the rarity of an alliance between these opposing members of the undead. Before their discussion can get too theoretical, Buffy and Riley's hormones force them to leave for a pre-class quickie. Again that night, back in Riley's room, the horny couple copulates while other members of the Initiative stoke a fire in the living room downstairs. As Buffy and Riley's passion reaches a crescendo, a fireball erupts out of the fireplace and engulfs one of the unwitting soldiers. Forrest is barely able to smother the flames with a wall banner before his friend is seriously burned.The next night, Anya walks through downtown Sunnydale when Spike jumps out of an alley and grabs her. He tries to scare her into giving him money but Anya is far from frightened. When Spike asks why she isn't with Xander, he has obviously hit a sore spot with her. Over at the Initiative house, the young militia throws a raging party packed with college kids, including Buffy and her friends. Willow asks Xander where Anya is and he tells her that he just isn't in the mood for his girlfriend tonight. Meanwhile, Anya is at the Bronze having drinks with Spike. They both reminisce about the days when they had the power to make people do whatever they wanted. Tortured with thoughts of Drucilla and Xander respectively, they wish they were still evil enough to maim them both. Back at the party, one of the soldiers tries out some sleazy lines on a girl he's hitting on. When he puts his hand on the wall, an orgasmic sensation rushes through his body. After getting the girl to do it, he starts getting his friends to touch mysterious spot. Meanwhile downstairs, Xander flirts with an attractive girl named Julia, who digs his sense of humor. On the stairway, Willow and Tara discuss horseback riding. When Willow puts her hand on Tara's knee, Tara stands up disgusted and tells her to get away. The confused Willow tries to apologize but Tara runs into the bathroom. Just then, Anya and Spike show up at the party. Xander walks up and expresses his anger at Anya for trying to make him jealous. When Spike pokes fun at Anya's distressed boyfriend, Xander announces the arrival of Hostile 17 to the party. When none of the Initiative pay any heed to the scene, Spike realizes that they don't recognize him anymore and heads in to mix it up. Anya has had enough of Xander and breaks up with him on the spot. The infuriated couple goes their separate ways to enjoy their newfound single life. When Xander sees Julia in a spin the bottle game, he decides to join in. On his first try, the bottle lands on Julia who he gives a little peck on the cheek. Julia grabs Xander in a bizarre fit of passion and starts sucking on his face. When she snaps out of it and releases the liplock, she runs into a bathroom embarrassed.Meanwhile, Willow enters the bathroom that Tara ran into. The room is empty, but when she opens the shower curtain, she finds a little boy drowning himself in the tub. As Willow grabs a hold of him, he disappears. When she turns around, the pasty-faced boy is standing there staring at her. Downstairs the bottle from the spin the bottle game starts spinning like a top until it explodes. While these bizarre events unfold throughout the house, Buffy and Riley's love-making grows more and more intense. Xander, Willow and Tara all meet up and run to Riley's room to get Buffy. The door is entwined by living roots that grow and multiply sporadically. Suddenly, the house is rocked by an intense earthquake that causes the party-goers to flee. One girl runs right at Anya but passes through her like a ghost. Forrest and another soldier jump in the hidden Initiative elevator and head for the underground base to find out what is going on. Xander, Willow, Tara and Anya all regroup outside the front door of the house. The earthquake has stopped and the house is now deserted. When Xander tries to rush back in to find Buffy, he is ejected by an invisible force. The gang decides they need Giles to tell them what's going on. They rush to the coffee house where Giles told them he would be spending some adult time. When they arrive, they are shocked to find him in the center of the room, entertaining people with a song on his guitar.Back at Giles', Willow finds an old newspaper article detailing the use of the Initiative house as an orphanage back in the 50's. When they discover that the Mistress of the house, Mrs. Holt, is still living in Sunnydale, they decide to pay her a visit. The sweet old lady that begins telling them about her "children" turns out to have a deep rooted psychosis. Apparently she would punish the children for, what she considered, their impure hormonal thoughts. To cleanse the girls she would cut their hair off and to cleanse the boys she would hold them underwater in the bath. After Giles gives Mrs. Holt an earful for emotionally damaging children, the group storms out. In the hallway, Giles explains to them that whatever is going on at the house is a result of the energy released from the deep emotional trauma and spiritual damage to the children. The people they were seeing, like the girl who ran through Anya and the boy in the bathtub, were poltergeists rather than ghosts. They were released by the damage done to the children's souls so many years ago. The anomaly must have been caused by the intense sexual energy of Riley and Buffy lately. Giles explains that since Riley and Buffy are the catalyst, they will die if the poltergeist leaves before their sexual energy runs out.Tara takes Willow and Giles to her room to conjure a spell that will distract the poltergeists. This will buy Xander and Anya enough time to find Riley and Buffy. While the two Wickens and the Watcher concentrate, the poltergeists of the children suddenly appear around them. This allows Xander and Anya access to the house through the front door. As they make their way up the vine-covered staircase towards Riley's room, Willow, Tara and Giles lose the spell and the children disappear. Xander and Anya are instantly thrown from the staircase to the living room below. Xander's body is dragged through space to the bathroom. He is thrown into the bathtub and held underwater as the children appear around the tub looking in at him. Anya picks herself up and charges back into the vines, even as one tears through her hand. She fights her way to the bathroom and pulls Xander out of the water. Together they rush back into the living vines and battle their way through. The vines coil around them and slash at their faces like a snake pit. When they finally reach Riley's door and smash it open, Buffy and Riley separate to cover their naked bodies. This severing of the sexual coupling instantly evicts the poltergeist and causes everything to turn back to normal. The next day in the cafeteria, Riley and Buffy explain that some supernatural force was driving them to constantly make love and they had no idea what was going on outside the room. When Willow says how horrible that must have been, Riley and Buffy share a glance of disagreement.

Episode Summary by: Zack Peacock, taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 19:
 
New moon rises
Willow and Tara stroll through campus and discuss getting a pet cat that they would share. As they hold hands, their smiles indicate that they feel perfectly comfortable with one another. They meet Buffy, Riley, Anya and Xander at Giles' house to discuss demon activity. They can't explain why Buffy is finding almost zero activity on her patrols. Giles thinks that Adam must have something to do with it, but their discussion is cut short when the door swings open to reveal Oz. Without any explanation as to where he's been, he tells Willow that he'll meet her at her place later to talk. When Tara sees how speechless Willow is, she decides to leave herself. That night on patrol, Buffy and Riley come across a tentacle-headed demon that they make short work of. Afterwards, Buffy tries to explain to Riley the complications of Willow and Oz's relationship. When he finds out Oz is a werewolf, he asks why Willow would be stupid enough to fall for someone who tries to eat her once a month. Buffy is appalled and calls him a bigot for being insensitive to the complications of love. Meanwhile, Oz shows up at Willow's room. He brings her outside and points to the sky. Willow looks up to see a full moon. She hugs him joyously and asks what he did to change back to a human. He tells her that he'll explain later, he has something more important to discuss. Since Xander told him that Willow doesn't have another guy, Oz was hoping he could try to mend their severed love for each other.Out in the cemetery, three members of the Initiative are attacked by a fast-moving enemy that manages to floor them instantly. Before it takes off, one of the men looks up to see that it is a werewolf. The next morning, after talking all night, Oz gives Willow a blanket he acquired on his world travels. He explains that in Tibet he met a Warlock that trained him how to quell the werewolf within him and be free of its full moon powers. Oz invites Willow to sleep next to him for a while, but Willow decides she would rather go to a more friendly breakfast. While she freshens up in the bathroom, Tara comes to the door. When Oz answers, she decides to leave and come back later. Meanwhile, in Riley's room, Buffy wakes up still upset about Riley's comments the night before. She tries to explain to him that there are different variations of demons and believe it or not, some are good. Riley is beginning to understand her when Forrest shows up. He announces that Willys died and Graham can barely walk after the werewolf attack. Buffy goes home to find Willow sitting on her bed alone. She asks how it went with Oz and Willow tells her it's complicated. Without saying it outright, she announces her romantic feelings for Tara. Buffy at first feels weird about her friend's new revelation, but is quickly supportive. Meanwhile, Spike wakes up in a tomb with Adam standing over him. After punching him in the stomach to no avail, Spike realizes Adam has him beat. The human-demon hybrid explains to Spike that he has come to help him. Back at UC Sunnydale, Willow shows up at Tara's and tells her that nothing happened between her and Oz the night before. Tara says she'll stay friends with her no matter what happens. Willow tearfully embraces her, confused about just who she wants to be with.When Oz runs into Tara later in the halls, he tells her he's coming back to school. Before Tara can excuse herself, Oz smells Willow on her. His werewolf instincts tell him instantly that they are emotionally involved in some way. As Oz gets angry, he suddenly begins to transform into a wolf. Before it takes his body over completely, he warns her to run. Tara ducks into an empty lecture hall with Oz in wolf form, hot on her heels. As he lunges at her something knocks him out of the air. Riley, Forrest and other members of the Initiative rush in, having just shot Oz with a tranquilizer. Before Tara can explain to them that it's a human, they haul it back to the base. Back at the tomb, Adam offers to remove the chip from Spike's head if he helps him get to Buffy. He just has to help them out a few times to build their trust, and then set them up for a trap. Meanwhile, everyone meets at Giles' to come up with a plan to liberate Oz. In the headquarters of the Initiative, Oz wakes up trapped in a steel cage. He is put back to sleep and wakes up again strapped to an operating table. As Initiative scientists run tests on him, Riley tries to convince them to take it easy. He is finally escorted out of the room for his sympathies. When an electric shock turns Oz back into a werewolf instantly, they determine that negative stimulation causes his transformation. Back at Giles', Buffy decides to infiltrate the headquarters with Xander and Willow. Suddenly Spike shows up and announces that he can show them the back way into the compound. Meanwhile, Oz wakes up naked in a cell, bruised and beaten from the tests. In an unexpected turn, Riley shows up and gives him some clothes. As they try to escape, a squad led by Forrest stops them before they can even get up the stairway.Riley is put in a cell and approached by a Colonel. He tells his soldier that ever since he started going out with the Slayer, it has made him a traitor. The Colonel tells him that if he doesn't help the Initiative take out Buffy and all of her friends he will go to the grave in disgrace. Meanwhile, Anya and Giles cut the power to UC Sunnydale, including the Initiative compound, while Spike shows Buffy, Xander and Willow the secret entrance. They catch the sleeping Colonel off guard and force him to lead them to Riley and Oz's cells. By using him as a hostage, they are able to march right through the compound and release their friends. Back outside, Riley and Buffy go to the bombed out remains of Sunnydale High for shelter. When Riley admits he was wrong about Oz, Buffy tells him there's more he needs to know. She begins the complicated task of explaining her relationship with Angel. Meanwhile, Oz tries to sort things out with Willow in his van. The only thing that can make him upset enough to turn into a werewolf is her. Since Willow is happy with Tara, he knows that the best thing for both of them is if he takes off again. They share a tearful embrace and Willow leaves. She shows up at Tara's room with a candle to light the still powerless dorm room. To Tara's shock, Willow tells her that Oz is gone and they can finally be together uninhibited. As Willow blows out the candle, the two Wickens embrace.

Episode Summary by: Zack Peacock, taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 20:
 
The Yoko factor
Colonel MacNamara talks about Riley's defection with an unidentified military or government official over a live video link. To the Colonel's surprise, the man in the video monitor wants to get Riley back, and Buffy may be the key. Meanwhile, Spike warns Adam about the threat that the Slayer brings, but Adam only welcomes the challenge as part of his 'plan.' He convinces Spike to distract Buffy's friends so that Buffy will have to fight alone when his plan comes to its fruition. Spike happily agrees. After a physically and emotionally exhausting trip to LA, Buffy returns to her dorm room to find it empty. Meanwhile, Xander visits Riley at the burned out remains of Sunnydale High to drop off some clothes and offer some human companionship. In true Xander form, he inadvertently lets Riley know the facts behind Angel's curse, and the fact that Angel and Buffy had sex to set the curse off. Riley doesn't take the news well, despite Xander's attempts to comfort him.Back at his house, Giles is deep into a solo rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" when Spike suddenly announces his presence. Spike offers to steal files with information about Adam from the Initiative in exchange for amnesty from the stake and a large amount of cash. Giles agrees to the offer, but Spike will only take the word of the Slayer, not a retired librarian who is no longer a respected authority figure. As Spike leaves, Giles lets Spike's words sink in and wallows in feelings of inadequacy. Tara and Willow discuss future class schedules and living arrangements in Tara's dorm room. As Willow decides on taking a chance on Drama class, Tara asks Willow where she plans on living next year. Willow expresses her doubts about living with Buffy the following year. The next morning, Riley shows up at Buffy's door in Xander's clothes. The two share an uncomfortable moment when Riley inquires about Buffy's trip to LA. When Riley figures out that Buffy is not ready to talk about it with him, he leaves abruptly. Meanwhile, Xander and Anya bring Spike some supplies to help him break into the Initiative. Spike uses some fake rumors about joining the Army to get into Xander's head, and before long, Spike has Xander believing that his friends think of him as a useless member of the group.On patrol later in the day, Buffy runs into Forrest outside the mouth of a cave. The two reluctantly agree to patrol the cave together after Forrest expresses his dislike for Buffy. Just as Forrest accuses Buffy of ruining Riley's military career and Buffy learns that she may have been Riley's first serious Girlfriend, Adam interrupts their growing squabble. Adam quickly proves to be too much for both of them, and kills Forrest when he tries to fight back. Realizing she is outmatched, Buffy runs out of the cave, but falls in her haste and knocks herself unconscious on some rocks outside the cave. Later that night, Spike delivers the 'stolen' disks to Giles' house. He gives the disks to Willow to encode and demands his money from Giles, who is well into a drinking binge after Spike's last pep talk. Spike immediately moves in on Willow, telling her that Buffy and Xander have been talking about her and Tara's relationship as a just a phase in Willow's "trendy" behavior. Willow is noticeably distracted from her work decoding the encrypted disk, and begins to doubt her friends' loyalty and honesty.Back at the Initiative, Colonel MacNamara and another officer discuss the overcrowded state of the Initiative's holding cells when an emergency call for help comes over the radio. Riley intercepts the mayday call on his radio and goes to the scene to help the endangered soldiers, only to find that Angel is the culprit. The two engage in an acrobatic fight when Angel expresses his intent to see Buffy, but both fugitives must flee the scene when backup from the Initiative finally arrives. When a bruised and beaten Buffy returns to her dorm room, she receives an unexpected visitor in Angel. Before Angel can explain the purpose of his visit, Riley bursts into the room wielding a pistol. As Buffy tries to make sense of the situation, Angel and Riley exchange childish quips and blows until Buffy shoves them apart, threatening to put them both in the hospital if they continue bickering. She and Angel step out into the hall and Angel explains that he came to Sunnydale to apologize for leaving things on such a bad note in LA. After a moment of mutual understanding that their lives have naturally separated, Angel leaves, but not before expressing his disapproval of Riley. Amused, Buffy returns to a distraught and confused Riley.Spike returns to Adam's lair, drunk in his apparent success of breaking up the Scooby Gang. When Adam questions the level of Spike's success, Spike makes the analogy of the "Yoko factor." He explains that everyone blamed Yoko Ono for breaking up The Beatles, when in actuality, they just naturally grew apart, just as the Scooby Gang is. Feeling that he has fulfilled his part of the agreement, Spike asks for the chip to be removed from his head, but Adam has one more thing in mind for Spike. Back in Buffy's room, Buffy tries to explain the purpose of Angel's visit and Riley expresses his true love to Buffy, regardless of her past with Angel. After reaching an understanding, Buffy tells Riley about Forrest's death at the hands of Adam. Back at Giles' house, Spike's plan starts to take effect. As Willow, Tara, Giles, Xander, Anya and Buffy try to figure out how to face Adam, everyone's insecurities and suspicions about the rest of the group begin to surface. Minor accusations and old fears turn into a huge venting session, and Buffy eventually storms out of the room claiming that she doesn't need her friends anymore. Spike's plan is successful - the Scooby Gang has broken up. Back at Adam's lair, Adam receives a welcome visitor who he has been expecting: Riley.

Episode Summary  taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 21:
 
Prime evil
While Buffy visits an empty Sunnydale High School, Riley wonders why he has paid a visit to Adam's lair. While referring to Riley as his brother, Adam explains that Professor Walsh implanted a behavior modification chip in Riley's central nervous system, and that he has activated to carry out his 'plan.' When Riley professes his intent to stop Adam, Adam tells Riley to sit, and Riley dutifully carries out his order. Adam continues to explain that Professor Walsh planned for Adam and Riley to be part of a master race that is better than both demons and humans. Spike makes an uninvited entrance, demanding the chip be removed from his head. Adam tells him that he must draw Buffy into the Initiative before he has met his part of the bargain. His plan is to have Buffy kill as many demons as possible before he kills her. Riley tries to voice his real opinion, but is quickly silenced by the behavior chip when Adam orders him to stop talking. When Spike realizes that there might be a hole in his plan to separate the Scooby Gang, he leaves Adam's lair to correct the situation. Willow and Tara stop by Giles' house to pick up her laptop and the disks, and Willow shares an awkward moment with a hung-over Giles. With the previous night's events, none of them know what to say, and their exchange seems like the beginning of a long goodbye.Buffy sits alone in her dorm room, thinking about the night before. She gets up and finds an old picture of Willow, Xander and herself, and has a quiet moment of reflection before assembling her weapons for the battle to come. Over in Xander's basement, Anya arrives to find Xander still lying in bed. Xander won't go to the unemployment office because he has been thinking about what Buffy and Willow had said the night before, and he is coming to believe that he is a loser with no future. Anya lies down beside him and tells him that no matter what his friends think of him, she still loves him. Buffy returns to the cave where Adam killed Forrest and finds Adam's lair, but Adam is not there. Adam, meanwhile, leads Riley into a secret area of the Initiative where he says the new race will begin. He tells Riley that Professor Walsh hid her secrets very well. Riley is shocked to see a scared, but re-animated Professor Walsh limp over to assist a re-animated Dr. Angleman operate on a body in the corner of the vast underground space. Realizing that Adam has killed Walsh and Angleman as part of his plan, he fears that Adam has the same planned for him. Just as Adam assures Riley that his fate is much greater than Walsh's and Angleman's, Forrest sits up from the operating table, brought back to life with a face made partly of yellow demon skin.Still patrolling the caves, Buffy runs into Spike, who inquires about the information on the disks that he gave to Willow. When Buffy tells him that they haven't been decoded, Spike tells her that even though they have had a falling out, they should still concentrate on decoding the disks. Knowing that Spike wasn't around to see their "falling out," Buffy begins to put things together. Just as Buffy begins to realize Spike's plan, Willow gets closer to decoding the disks in Tara's dorm room. Just before Willow has figured out how to break the code, the disks begin decoding themselves, spitting out information about the Room 314 Objective. As the disks decode, Buffy calls on the phone. Soon after, Buffy, Willow, Giles and Xander all meet in the middle of campus. Buffy explains to them that Spike instigated their battle of words by spreading rumors to each one of them individually. While they all realize that Spike had tricked them into their squabble, the doubts about the strength of their friendship remain. After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Buffy figures out that Adam was planning on releasing demons in the Initiative to kill the soldiers, then using Spike to lure her in to kill the demons, leaving him with hundreds of parts with which to build his new race of human-demon hybrids. When Xander asks if Adam is worried that Buffy will get in the way of his plan, Buffy realizes for the first time that Adam may be too powerful to fear her.Back in the secret Initiative lab, Riley sits bound in a chair, while Professor Walsh prepares him for his 'operation.' When he tries to talk to her, Forrest informs Riley that she is merely a walking corpse, but that he is more alive than he has ever been, and that Riley will be joining them soon. As Riley tries to tell him that they will never control him, Professor Walsh injects him with a clear liquid. Back at Giles' house, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles try to figure out how to defeat Adam. Willow suggests casting a spell to paralyze Adam, but the spell must be recited in Sumerian by an accomplished wicca in close proximity to the subject. Xander sarcastically surmises that they need someone with the strength and speed of Buffy, the magic expertise of Willow, and the linguistic skills of Giles. To Xander's surprise, Giles tells him that's exactly what they need. While they break into the Initiative house, Giles explains to Buffy, Xander and Willow that while an "enjoining" spell is powerful enough to defeat Adam, it is also very dangerous.As Buffy and Willow rappel down the elevator shaft into the Initiative compound, Buffy apologizes to Willow for what she had said. She tells Willow that she has been too wrapped up in her own life lately to be a good friend. Willow apologizes for keeping Tara a secret from Buffy and everybody else, and as the two embrace, they fall to bottom of the shaft. Xander follows them down, and when he lands, they gleefully embrace Xander, and tell him that they missed him. For the first time in a long while, the Scooby Gang is happy to be together, and ready to do battle. But when they pry the doors to the initiative open, they are greeted by a bevy of soldiers wielding guns. Adam and Spike watch Buffy and the gang being escorted through the halls by Initiative soldiers on closed circuit TV. When Adam sees that Buffy's friends are still with her, he orders Forrest to honor his agreement with Spike to remove the chip by tearing off his head. Spike puts his cigarette out in Forrest's eye, and narrowly escapes a gruesome death.In the Initiative control room, Buffy tries to tell Colonel MacNamara that Adam is planning an attack from within his own compound, from a secret lab built for the 314 Project. Unaware of any of these activities, the Colonel tells her that every inch of the compound is under surveillance, and that a tic couldn't get in without him knowing about it. Just as he professes his control over the situation, the power goes out, and a soldier at the controls informs everyone that backup generators are not responding, locking them all in the compound. From his secret control room, Adam opens the containment units, and the demons immediately pounce on two unlucky Initiative doctors. Buffy urges the Colonel to let her go and escape with his men, but he orders his men to take the infirmary and leaves two men to keep Buffy and the Scooby Gang under arrest. Buffy immediately dispenses of the two soldiers, and Willow takes the reigns at the control console. As they look into the monitor, they see the fierce battle going on throughout the Initiative compound. Blood and carnage are everywhere as the demons massacre the doctors and soldiers. Amidst the melee, Spike suddenly returns to his old self, the behavior chip somehow disabled. In a flash of fury, Spike manhandles a small battalion of demons en route to his escape from the compound. Back in the contol room, Willow uses the schematics of the compound to try and find a way out. Instead she finds a system of air ducts that supposedly lead to nowhere. Buffy speculates that the air ducts must lead to Adam's secret lab, so the Scooby gang sets out to find it.Armed with only stun gun, Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles run through the main operations room of the Initiative, knocking demons out of their way right and left. Willow narrowly misses being shot by a panicking Initiative soldier, and Xander saves Buffy by blasting a demon with the stun gun. Miraculously, they make it through the explosive battle unscathed, and enter into a small laboratory. They move a cabinet in the corner to reveal a secret door that leads to Adam's secret lab. Buffy pauses at the door and tells Willow to barricade the door behind her. Xander tells Buffy that he is still uneasy about Buffy going in alone, but Buffy assures him that with the magic spell, she will not be going in alone. With that, Buffy goes in, and Willow barricades the door. When Buffy enters the secret lab, she finds Riley bound in his chair. She asks Riley to tell her what is going on, but he is unable to speak. Adam comes out from the shadows and orders Forrest, Professor Walsh and Dr. Angleman to kill Buffy. Forrest grabs Buffy from behind and Walsh approaches with a medical saw.In the other room, Willow, Xander and Giles perform the enjoining spell as Buffy breaks free from Forrest and sends Professor Walsh to the floor with a swift kick. Buffy tries to take Forrest out, but Adam has made him too powerful and he throws her to the floor, breaking a bottle on the arm of Riley's chair. As Forrest wails on Buffy, Riley grabs a piece of the glass and cuts into his chest, painfully beginning to remove the behavior modification chip. As the spell in the other room progresses, Buffy gains some momentum, which is quickly crushed by Forrest, who slams her down onto an operating table and holds her down. On her way down, she breaks an electric cable coming down from the ceiling. As Walsh and Angleman approach Buffy, Riley rips the behavior chip from his body and gets up and tears the life-giving tubes from Walsh and Angleman, sending them to the floor, dead once again. Riley begins his rematch with Forrest as Buffy runs off to find Adam sitting at his system of closed circuit monitors. Buffy manages to break off Adam's trademark bone skewer, but to her surprise, his left arm mutates into a gattling gun and he opens fire in the small room. As Buffy dives behind one of the consoles, Willow, Xander and Giles complete the spell, and their powers rush into Buffy's body.Adam destroys the console with a single mortar shot, but Buffy rises from the rubble with magical, yellow eyes, speaking in Sumerian. Adam sends a long burst of machine-gun fire at Buffy, but the bullets are stopped by an invisible force field just inches from her. Back in the other room, Riley and Forrest are engaged in a fierce battle. Forrest throws Riley into a stack of Hydrogen tanks, causing them to leak. Riley picks one up and pushes Forrest back with it. Forrest grabs the tank and raises it over his head near the broken power line to hit Riley, who ducks behind one of the operating tables. As he swings forward, the hydrogen gas ignites, and Forrest is blown into tiny chunks of burning flesh. Back in the other room, Buffy uses the combined powers of Willow, Giles and Xander to ward off Adam's mortar attack. Buffy collapses Adam's weaponry telepathically, then in a blistering display of power, forces Adam against a wall, pierces Adam's chest with her hand, and pulls his Uranium power supply from his chest. Adam is no more. As Riley looks on, Buffy levitates Adam's power supply from her hand, and dissolves it into thin airWith their work done, the spell wears off and all Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles collapse with fatigue. A demon crashes through the barricaded door and almost gets to Willow, Xander and Giles, but Spike comes up from behind and snaps its neck. Giles scolds Spike for helping Adam with his plan but fatigue and the fact that Spike just saved their lives prevents him from doing anything about it. Buffy and Riley emerge from the secret lab, and the whole team goes to work securing the compound. Meanwhile, in a secret government conference room, the same powerful Government official who had spoken with the now deceased Colonel MacNamara proclaims the Initiative a failed experiment to harness the powers of the otherworld, and orders it burnt to the ground.

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com 

Eppisode 22:
 
Restless
As Buffy and Riley stand in the doorway of Joyce Summers' house, Riley tells Buffy that while he must go to a debriefing, he is in no danger of being put away for disobeying Initiative orders. Willow, Joyce and Giles look on as Xander appears from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn. Riley says his good byes to Joyce and the gang, and everyone retreats to the living room. Giles asks Joyce to join the gang in their Videofest, but Joyce declines, saying she is too tired. As Joyce takes a personal bowl of popcorn up to her bedroom, Xander pops "Apocalypse Now" into the VCR, claiming that they have enough videos to last them all night. But before the FBI warning on the tape is over, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles are fast asleep, physically and mentally drained from defeating Adam.Inside Willow's dream, she sits in Tara's room, painting a message in a strange language on Tara's back. Tara is concerned that they haven't found a name for Miss Kitty yet, but Willow is not worried. Tara tells Willow that everyone will find out about her, but Willow tells her that she doesn't have time to worry about what her friends think because she has to prepare for her Drama class. Willow gets up and opens the curtains and looks out into the arid dessert outside. Willow senses that something is out there, but she can't see it. Suddenly she finds herself walking through the halls of UC Sunnydale. As she turns a corner, she is joined by Xander and Oz, who inquire about her choice to take Drama class. She barely notices Oz, who informs her that he has always been there. Before she can open her locker, the bell rings, and she goes to class. She wanders into the backstage of a theater, where a bunch of people are hastily assembling their costumes for a play that is about to start. An orchestra can be heard tuning behind the curtains. Dressed as a Swedish mountain girl, Harmony approaches Willow and tells her that she is so excited to start the play. Buffy comes from behind the curtain, dressed as a 1920's flapper, and tells Willow that her whole family is out in the audience, and they look angry. A cowboy-clad Riley tells Willow that she could have a better part if she would have arrived on time.Confused, Willow tries to tell them that this is only the first drama class of the semester. As she tries to make sense of it all, Giles, the director of the play, comes in to rally the troops. He tells the cast that everyone Willow knows will be out in the audience, and that if they go out there and lie like dogs, this will be the best presentation of "Death of a Salesman" that they have ever seen. As they break from the huddle, a creature catches Willow's eye, but she can't make it out. A man next to her tells her that he has made room for the cheese. Confused, she turns around and walks into a corridor of curtains, where Tara waits for her. She tells Willow that everyone is starting to wonder about the 'real' Willow, and when they find out, they will punish her. As Buffy curses all males onstage, Willow tries to figure out who is following her, and as she turns around, Tara is gone. Suddenly a creature attacks Willow from inside the curtain, but Buffy rescues her and pulls her into an empty classroom. Buffy looks at Willow's clothes and tells her that the play is over, and she should take off her costume. When Willow tries to explain, Buffy rips off her clothes, leaving Willow in a young schoolgirl's costume. Suddenly, the classroom is full of Buffy's peers, and Buffy sits down and joins them as they mock her. As she starts to read her book report, the creature attacks her again, pouncing on top of her. She screams for help, but no one in the classroom seems to notice. Back in the living room, the Willow in the real world squirms in agony in her sleep.Xander 'wakes up' into his dreamworld back in Buffy's living room. Giles and Buffy watch a distorted version of "Apocalypse Now" while Willow writhes in her sleep. Xander walks up the stairs to go to the bathroom, and Joyce greets him at the top of the stairs, dressed in a sultry red nightgown. She asks Xander to come in and lay down with her, reassuring him that she has learned a lot about boys. Xander accepts the invitation, but heads for the bathroom first. As he steps into the bathroom and unzips his fly, he notices that he is being studied by a large group of Initiative doctors and soldiers. Uncomfortable, he leaves and walks across the hall, walking into another door that leads into his basement bedroom. Someone or something is trying to open the door at the top of the stairs, and Xander tells himself that that is not the way out. Suddenly, Xander finds himself walking through a park, and he comes across Buffy, Giles and Spike. Giles and Spike swing together on a swing set, Giles training Spike how to be a watcher. Buffy plays in the sandbox, and Giles asks her if she should be playing there. Suddenly, Buffy sits in the center of a vast desert. She tells Xander that she is way ahead of him, and refers to him as his brother. After a long silence, Xander makes a comment about always moving forward, then looks off in the distance to see himself selling ice cream to children out of his ice cream truck. As he moves to the front of the truck it is already in motion, and he sits down next to Anya. She tells him that she wants to get back into vengeance. As he tries to explain that society has rules about vengeance, he turns around to see Willow and Tara, both dressed very provocatively, making out in the back of the truck. Without moving their lips, they tell him that he is interesting and invite him to come back with them. Anya tells him to go ahead, so he climbs into the back of the truck. As he climbs over a box, he ends up in his basement bedroom again, calling for the girls, who are nowhere to be seen.The knocking at his door begins again, this time a little more fierce. As he turns around, the same man from Willows dream holds up a plate full of cheese slices, telling him that they will not protect him. As the door breaks down, Xander runs from his bedroom into the halls of UC Sunnydale. The halls are washed in green light, and no one notices Xander, or the creature chasing him through the halls. He runs into Giles, and Anya, who start speaking to him in French. He is picked up by a group of students, and suddenly he ends up inside the "Apocalypse Now" movie, walking through the forest in military camouflage. He ends up in a dark POW camp kneeling next to another one of the prisoners, Principal Snyder. Snyder tells Xander that he is a whipping boy, raised by mongrels to be a sacrificial lamb. Xander stands up to relieve a cramp and finds himself in Giles' courtyard, the creature from Willow's dream hot on his tail. He runs through Giles' house, into the halls of UC Sunnydale, through the door of Buffy's dorm room and a dark hallway, ending up back in his basement. The knocking at the door has become very fierce, and Xander whispers that that is not the way out. The door flies open and Xander's father walks down the stairs, scolding him for being ashamed of his family. As he gets close to Xander he shoves his fist through Xander's chest, pulling out his heart. As Xander looks up, he sees the creature from Willow's dream. Back in Buffy's living room, the 'real' Xander lurches in his sleep.Giles' dream begins with him trying to hypnotize Buffy, who merely laughs at his old-fashioned ways. Suddenly, Giles finds himself walking through a macabre nighttime Fair in the cemetery with Buffy and Olivia, who pushes a baby stroller. A pigtailed Buffy runs ahead, begging to play the midway games. She finds a game where she throws a ball at a wooden vampire figure, and misses. After Giles coaches her she hits the vampire and jumps up and down. Spike calls over from his crypt, urging Giles to come over before he misses everything, and Giles obliges. When he enters the crypt, Olivia sits in the corner, crying over an overturned baby stroller, and Spike poses for bunch of Paparazzi. As Giles tries to figure out what to do with all of this, he runs into the Cheese man, who is wearing slices of cheese on his shoulders and forehead. Appalled, he walks out of the crypt and into The Bronze, where Xander and Willow study Giles' books on the old library furniture. Giles comes in carrying another book, apologizing for his tardiness. Despite boasting a gaping chest wound, Xander seems to be more annoyed by having to attend Anya's comedy act, which he professes as his real reason for being there. As Anya tells jokes on the stage, Willow and Xander tell Giles that something is following them. He suggests that their old selves are following them. Suddenly Giles jumps onto the stage, and bursts into song, singing about how the spell they performed with Buffy must have released some primal evil. As the crowd gets into the music, he sings for Willow to look into the Chronicles for a reference to a warrior beast. A burst of feedback brings the song to a halt, and Giles traces the microphone cord backstage to find the source of the problem. He crawls back on his hands and knees until he finds a watch in the wires, then freezes as he realizes the creature is right above him. He tells the creature that he knows who it is, and that he can defeat the creature with only his intellect. As he tells the creature that it underestimates his powers because it never had a Watcher, the creature scalps him, and the 'real' Giles convulses in his sleep in Buffy's living room.Buffy 'wakes up' into her dreamworld in her dorm room. Anya, her roommate, begs her to wake up but she rolls over to go back to sleep. For a split second she sees the creature above her bed, before waking up again in her old bedroom. She stands next to Tara, asking her if she had come there to tell her something, then realizes that she needs to find her friends because they are not there. Tara tries to hand her a tarot card, but Buffy refuses. Tara tells Buffy that she doesn't know who she is to become, that she has even begun. Buffy leaves to find her friends and Tara warns her to return before dawn. Wandering through the halls of UC Sunnydale, she finds Joyce living inside a whole in one of the walls. Buffy asks Joyce to get out of the walls, but Joyce tells Buffy that she is happy living in the walls, and that she should go find her friends. Distracted, Buffy walks away and into a government map room, where she finds Riley and the whole human form of Adam sitting at a conference table. Riley informs her that his debriefing went well, that they made him the Surgeon General and that they are drawing up the next plan for world domination with coffee machines that think. Buffy disagrees with their plan of world domination, but Adam retorts by telling her that they are the same, they just go about their natural aggression in different ways. Buffy asks Adam what his name was before he was changed and he tells her that not a human alive would know. Suddenly, the alarm sounds, and Riley and Adam run off to build a fort.Buffy sees the bag at her feet and tries to tell them that she has weapons, but they have already left. She bends down to look in the bag, and finds that it is full of mud. With the mud on her hands, the only thing she knows to do is spread it across her face. As her mask nears completion, Riley interrupts her, telling her that now that she is not looking for her friends, she must go it alone. He leaves, and the sun bursts into the room, and Buffy walks out into the same arid dessert that she appeared in before. Tara comes out to speak for the creature, a primitive young woman who Tara identifies as the first Slayer. She professes that Slayers do not walk on the earth, and work alone, only to slay. Buffy tells her that times have changed, that she needs her friends and that she wants them back. The man with the cheese pops in without saying a word, and Buffy says that she's just going to wake up. With those words, the two Slayers engage in furiously fast fight. As they roll down a huge embankment, Buffy shouts out that the fight is OVER and wakes up out of her dream in her living room. As she gets up, the first Slayer jumps at her, and she realizes she is not out yet. The Slayer tries to stab her but Buffy just ignores her and sits down on the couch. As Buffy begins to give her hair care advice, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles snap out of their dreams simultaneously.Sitting at the dinner table, Giles surmises that they must have stirred the spirit of the first Slayer with their spell. They all agree that the Slayer's spirit was not good for sleep. As Buffy gets up to go take a shower, she tells the rest of the group that they were lucky enough not to have dreamed about the guy with the cheese. As Buffy passes by her bedroom, she looks in and hears Tara's voice repeat: "You think you know. What's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun."

Episode Summary taken from the official WB Buffy website (closed) previously buffy.com