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 22 years ago.

Bargaining, Part 1

• Y’all, Buffy died.
• Like, for real died.
• Not just drowned a little while the Master escaped his underground prison and Xander brought her back with a little CPR.
• Dead, dead.
• So everyone else is on patrol. The whole gang.
• They’re working with Spike while Willow directs everyone with telepathy.
• Oh, wait… there’s Buffy.
• No… just kidding… Buffybot.
• They’re not exactly a well oiled slaying machine, but they do manage take down two vampires.
• The robot is still clearly a robot, most noticeably when she speaks.
• This could be dangerous. They need the underworld to think the Slayer is still on duty so they don’t overrun the Hellmouth.
• They need the world of the living to think Buffy’s still around so Dawn isn’t shipped off to foster care. Or worse, to live with her dad in Europe.
• Willow and Tara have moved into the Summers’ house. They’re sort of the guardians behind the guardian that is Buffybot.
• Today’s a big day. Parent/Teacher day at Dawn’s school.
• Buffybot has to appear in public. But she actually does okay and sparks lively conversation in the classroom.
• Giles is preparing to move back to England. No Slayer, no need for a Watcher.
• Spike hangs out with Dawn while the gang is off doing a thing.
• Dawn insists she’s okay on her own, since she’s not the Key anymore. No one’s after her to open anything.
• But Spike insists even more. He’s not leaving her to get hurt. He made a promise to a lady.
• Buffybot is on patrol alone. She fights a vampire who hits her in the forehead with a bottle, exposing some circuitry.
• That’s not good.
• She glitches out and just starts walking into things.
• The Scoobies are meeting about something that Anya got her hands on: the Urn of Osiris.
• Willow declares, it’s time.
• Tomorrow night, they’re bringing Buffy back from the dead.
• Xander and Anya are hesitant. It feels wrong.
• Tara confirms that it is wrong, but it’s what they agreed to.
• And Willow puts her foot down. This is happening.
• Giles, Spike, and Dawn are to be left in the dark about this whole thing until Buffy is back and the spell worked out all right.
• In a way, they think they’re doing this to save Buffy. She was killed by mystical energy, so her soul could be trapped in some random hell dimension being tortured for eternity.
• Willow gets home and finds Buffybot there, still running into things, and gets to work fixing her.
• Dawn can’t sleep, so she goes into Buffy’s room where the robot is lying in bed, recharging. She curls up next to her.
• Next best thing, I guess.
• The next day, Buffybot is training with Giles. He’s testing her reflexes after her “injury.”
• Then he gets a bit introspective. Wonders if Buffy would have been better off without him. He’s ready to leave town.
• At a demon bar outside of town, the vampire that clocked Buffybot is bragging to a gang of biker demons.
• There’s no Slayer in Sunnydale.
• The leader of the pack gets annoyed with the vampire after receiving the good news, so he beheads him.
• Willow does some kind of preparatory spell in a scenic meadow.
• She calls out a fawn… that’s a baby deer, right?
• How sweet…
• Oh, then she kills it and collects its blood.
• So we’re dealing with some pretty dark magic if we need the blood of an innocent like that.
• With the others, she calls it “vino de madre…” not revealing that it’s baby deer blood.
• At the store, Anya discovers a good-bye note from Giles. He’s trying to sneak back to England.
• They catch him at the airport before he can fly away to let him know how much he’ll be missed.
• I think it was around this time that there was a lot of talk about giving Giles a spin-off of his own. It would have been called Ripper, Giles’ nickname from back in his seedier days.
• I’d have liked to have seen that show.
• Just before midnight, the gang begins the spell at Buffy’s grave.
• It gets scary. Pretty much dark magic at its finest.
• And it’s nearly interrupted when they hear the demon motorcycles driving into town. They’re tearing up downtown Sunnydale.
• Willow coughs up a rattlesnake. Kind of like that time Ron Weasley coughed up a bunch of slugs.
• Buffybot confronts the demon biker gang. This won’t end well, I’m sure.
• When the leader slashes her open to reveal more circuitry, she puts up a decent fight then runs to find Willow, which she’s programmed to do whenever she needs to be repaired.
• But Willow’s got some weird light show happening.
• The robot and the biker demons interrupt and shatter the Urn of Osiris.
• Willow passes out and the gang scatters to get away from the demons.
• Xander carries Willow off and she’s super disoriented. Xander breaks the news that the spell didn’t work.
• Meanwhile, in Buffy’s coffin, her rotting corpse is restored and returns to life.
• Do I give the body count a negative one?
• Body count: Vampires – 3