Welcome to Rewatching Buffy, the part of the blog where I rewatch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each Tuesday evening, you’re invited to join me as I attempt to rediscover what made me love this show 21 years ago.

Spiral

• Picking up where we left off last week, Glory just ripped a hole in the wall of Tara’s dorm room and Tara, in her lack of sanity, identified Dawn as the Key.
• So Buffy grabs Dawn and takes off.
• Willow pulls a quick spell that buys Buffy a few seconds… but that’s pretty much it.
• Glory heads Buffy and Dawn off as they try to cross a road.
• “Any last words?” asks Glory.
• Buffy, always the clever one, says, “Just one: truck.”
• At which point Glory is hit by an 18-wheeler.
• Then she promptly turns back into Ben. Convenient, no?
• Everyone meets up at Xander’s apartment. Buffy has no idea how they got away from Glory.
• The truck couldn’t have stopped her for long.
• Buffy is not ready to fight her. She knows she can’t win in a fight.
• Buffy wants to run.
• No one is really on board with running away. But no one has a better option, either.
• Ben returns to Glory’s apartment and laments his lot in life. Then he mentions a part of why he was trying to become a doctor was the hope of finding the right combination of drugs that could keep Glory buried.
• The gang waits for Buffy’s next steps in the run away plan.
• And Spike pulls up in a Winnebago with covered windows so he can drive in the daylight.
• Giles and Xander protest Spike’s presence, but Buffy won’t have any of it.
• He’s the only one strong enough to stand a chance of protecting Dawn if anything happens to Buffy. He stays.
• Remember that knight that Buffy fought and Glory later brain-sucked? His buddies checked him out of the hospital.
• And he sort of reveals that he knows who the Key is…
• So now it’s not just Glory… The Knights of Byzantium want the Key, too.
• But they want to destroy the Key, simply to keep her out of Glory’s hands.
• On the road, Tara begins chanting that it’s all dark. Simultaneously, the crazy people in the hospital are saying the same thing.
• It’s almost time for whatever ceremony Glory needs to perform with the Key.
• Dawn and Buffy have a talk. Buffy can’t believe she’s running away.
• The scary things are supposed to flee from her, not the other way around.
• “At least things can’t get any crazier,” says Dawn. Shut up, Dawn.
• At that moment, an arrow comes through the back of the RV.
• The Knights have arrived. On horseback.
• That’s one slow RV…
• Buffy climbs up on the roof to fight one of the knights while others climb up with grappling hooks.
• Now… most of the knights that get thrown off the RV, I think they’ll live. But then Buffy throws an ax into one’s chest. Don’t think he’ll make it.
• Just when they think they’ve lost them, one more knight on horseback comes at them head on, throwing a spear through the windshield.
• Giles tries to move in time, but it hits him on his left side.
• He loses control of the Winnebago and it topples over on its side.
• Other than Giles, everyone is pretty much okay and they manage to get to an abandoned gas station.
• More knights show up and begin bombarding the place with flaming arrows.
• Meanwhile, Willow works on a protective spell to keep the knights out.
• One of the knights gets inside and Spike quickly learns he’s no good in this fight, since they’re all human.
• The knights’ leader gets in just before Willow’s invisible barrier goes up.
• The general gets tied up and Buffy questions him.
• “The Key is the link. The link must be severed. Such is the will of God.”
• Buffy pleads with the general, they are not their enemy. It’s not Dawn’s fault that she’s the Key.
• Meanwhile, Tara starts to go nuts. Well… more nuts.
• She’s trying to get away, shouting that it’s time.
• All the other insane folks begin breaking out of the hospital. It’s time.
• When the crazy knight starts talking about time, one of the others mercy kills him so that he cannot be an instrument of the Beast.
• Giles talks with Buffy as if it’s his death bed. And he could be dying. It’s a pretty bad wound.
• He tells her how proud he is to be her Watcher.
• Buffy gets Willow to open a door so she can communicate with the knights on the outside. She wants them to allow someone to come and treat Giles.
• She calls Ben and he arrives sometime later. If only the knights knew who he really was.
• He treats Giles and shoots a glance at Dawn. Could he be capable of killing Dawn just so he could go on living his life without Glory interfering?
• Spike really injured his hands in the battle, so Xander helps him light a cigarette. They have a nice little moment.
• Are they becoming friends?
• No… absolutely not.
• The general tells Glory’s origin story. She was one of three gods ruling in a demon dimension.
• The other two feared her power and struck before she could take over for herself.
• She was sent to earth and bound in the form of a newborn human male.
• Kill the man, Glory dies, too.
• Then he tells the Key’s origin story. It was created to break down the walls of reality.
• Once the Key is activated, dimensions will bleed into each other. Chaos will reign.
• Later, the general talks to Ben, trying to convince him to kill Dawn.
• As Ben checks up on Giles, he begins to feel Glory coming back.
• He begs them to let him out, but it’s too late.
• Glory’s first move is to kill the general.
• Then she grabs Dawn, pokes a hole in Willow’s barrier, and she takes down the entire army of knights.
• Buffy collapses… completely overwhelmed…
• The Slayer lost.
• Body count: Humans – All the knights…