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 so many years ago.

Seeing Red

• Willow and Tara are back together and discussing the events of last week’s episode.
• Willow didn’t actually figure out that Buffy and Spike were sleeping together.
• But her conversation with Tara leads to Tara telling her that Buffy didn’t want anyone to know… that she was trying to figure everything out…
• Buffy uses Willow’s info to track the trio back to their lair, but they’re not around.
• Snooping around, she comes across some info that may help her find them again.
• Also, they wrote “Too late!” on a white board and Buffy seeing this, I guess, triggered a bunch of huge circular saws trying to slice her to pieces.
• Think, the first booby trap when Indiana Jones goes after the Holy Grail.
• Buffy gets the stuff she grabbed from the basement to the house and they start trying to track down the nerds.
• Willow suggests Xander, but Buffy doesn’t think they should bother him.
• Dawn suggests Spike, but Buffy shuts that down real quick.
• “Spike’s not part of the team.”
• They don’t really want to bug Anya, either.
• Because she’s busy being a vengeance demon… except she turns some girl’s issues into her own, overidentifying, and missing her chance to grant a wish.
• The nerds, meanwhile, are in a cave taking down some kind of demon.
• But the purpose is a little vague.
• Dawn, on her way to spend the night at Janice’s, stops by Spike’s.
• Why, Dawn? Ugh… you’re the worst.
• She asks Spike if he loves Buffy… really…? “Then how could you do that to her?”
• Which just pisses Spike off, because, in his defense, Buffy wasn’t exactly treating him great throughout their “relationship.”
• Purpose revealed… Jonathan is wearing the demon’s skin so that he can safely pass through a barrier that only the demons can pass through.
• He does this to retrieve a box containing the Orbs of Nabiscocon…
• No, that’s not really what they’re called, but I’m not sure how to spell what it’s really called and Nabisco sounds funny.
• These orbs provide the holder with superhuman strength.
• So, of course, Warren is the one who gets to use them.
• If the other two think for a second that he’s, at any point, going to share this new power, they should really stop kidding themselves.
• Warren proves his power by killing another demon with his bare hands.
• Then he promises the others that they’ll each get a turn with the orbs as soon as he’s done playing.
• Buffy visits Xander…
• Xander says he understands why Anya would hook up with Spike, but not Buffy.
• Buffy tries to open up, explaining that no one knows how hard it’s been for her since she was brought back.
• Just being alive again…
• Xander’s not exactly understanding.
• He points out that Spike doesn’t have a soul, just a leash that the government shoved into his brain.
• He asks if she’d trust Spike around Dawn if that chip ever stopped working.
• Xander goes drinking at The Bronze.
• Remember when that was a place for high school kids to hang out?
• The nerds show up and Warren’s ready to pick a fight.
• Buffy slays a vampire on patrol, as a Slayer does.
• Then she returns home, hurting and ready to relax.
• Spike shows up and confronts Buffy in her bathroom.
• She tells him to leave, but he won’t.
• He tells her that he went to Anya for a spell because he wants to make the feelings stop.
• Then he tells her she should’ve let Xander kill him.
• But she couldn’t do that.
• He assumes it’s because she loves him, but she denies it.
• Buffy has feelings for him, yes… but she doesn’t love him.
• Then he begins to force himself on her.
• This is a really difficult scene to watch.
• She manages to throw him off of her, but the damage is done.
• “Ask me again why I could never love you!”
• At this point, she realizes she should have stopped Spike a long time ago.
• Back at The Bronze, Warren is being super creepy trying to pick up some other guy’s girlfriend.
• And then he picks a fight with the guy.
• And the guy’s friends.
• No one is impressed.
• Xander misses out on the super strength portion of the show and confronts Warren.
• He makes an off handed comment about Anya hooking up with Spike, which convinces him to go for a gut punch.
• But that doesn’t go well and Warren knocks him across the room.
• Jonathan convinces Warren to leave, saying they’ll miss some thing they’re planning.
• Xander goes to Buffy and finds her on the floor of the bathroom, still in tears.
• Before he can really put two and two together, Tara and Willow arrive with info about what the nerds will be doing.
• Xander warns Buffy that Warren is super strong, but she’s okay with that because it means she won’t have to hold back.
• Back at Spike’s crypt, he’s feeling the guilt over what he did.
• Clem happens to stop by giving Spike a chance to talk through his next moves.
• He brags about killing two Slayers in his day.
• He’s blaming the chip for making him feel the way he does about Buffy.
• “I can’t be a monster; I can’t be a man… I’m nothing.”
• Spike decides it’s time to make a serious change.
• The nerds attack an armored car and Buffy shows up to stop them.
• Buffy and Warren fight… but why is Warren able to put up a fight?
• I mean, yeah, he’s super strong, but he doesn’t have the moves that Buffy has.
• Jonathan “attacks” Buffy in order to secretly clue her in on the orbs.
• She smashes the orbs and takes him down.
• Then he reveals he has a jetpack and flies away.
• Andrew has one, too… Jonathan not so much.
• But when Andrew tries to use his, he crashes into an overhang and knocks himself out.
• Jonathan and Andrew are arrested while Warren got away.
• Andrew seems really hurt that Warren left him…
• Spike’s leaving town on his motorcycle.
• That’s gonna be rough once the sun rises.
• The next day Willow and Tara notice Xander talking to Buffy in the back yard.
• This time their talk goes better than the one in his apartment.
• But then Warren interrupts, barging into the yard…
• With a gun.
• He yells at Buffy then starts shooting wildly as he runs away.
• He hits Buffy in the chest…
• While another bullet goes through the upstairs window… and through Tara’s heart.
• We’re left with a grieving Willow and her dark, glowing eyes.
• Body count: Demons – 2; Vampires – 1; Humans – 1