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.

Bring On the Night

• Buffy and the gang do research while Xander cleans up and repairs more broken windows.
• Andrew is still unconscious in a chair.
• Buffy sees her mother and doesn’t believe it’s really her… it has to be the First trying to mess with her.
• But she had dozed off and it was just a dream.
• In a cave, the First Evil takes on the form of Spike and Drusilla to torment the real Spike while the Ubervamp physically tortures Spike.
• The next morning, Andrew comes to and Buffy threatens to serve him up to the First if he doesn’t tell them where the seal is.
• He leads them all to the seal under the school and they decide to cover it back up with dirt.
• As they leave the basement, Buffy and Dawn run into Principal Wood… all trying to cover for why they’re carrying shovels…
• Willow attempts a locator spell to find the First and it goes really wrong.
• She barely gets started and the First takes over Willow and screams, “It only makes me stronger!”
• Xander acts fast and smashes the bowl with the spell ingredients and Willow freaks out, feeling like it’s still inside her.
• She doesn’t want to go evil again… doesn’t want to hurt anyone else…
• Buffy is about to head out to find Spike and the First on foot, but when she opens the door…
• Giles is back!
• Now, I want to point out that they are very deliberate about not letting us see Giles touch anything.
• The last time we saw Giles, he was about to be beheaded by one of the First’s harbingers.
• Suddenly, he shows up at Buffy’s door.
• He didn’t knock, she just happened to open the door.
• She went in for a hug, but that was interrupted by three young girls barging into the house.
• No contact Giles… and this is a big deal because the First can take the form of anyone who has died but can’t actually touch anything because it cannot take corporeal form.
• In the living room, Giles explains that the girls are potential Slayers.
• There were many all over the world, but a bunch have been killed, along with their Watchers.
• The rest of the potentials are making their way to Sunnydale.
• Giles explains that the First’s plan is to wipe out anyone who is a threat to its evil.
• Giles then explains what I just explained about the First’s form.
• Still making a point about Giles not actually touching anything.
• He leans against a table, but that could still be an illusion…
• Giles and Buffy head toward the place where she encountered the First back in season 3… the hidden cavern under the Christmas tree lot.
• Buffy finds the cavern, but she’s not alone down there.
• The Ubervamp attacks.
• She puts up a good fight and even stakes him… but he just laughs and pulls the stake out of his chest.
• It nearly kills her, but she climbs out just as the sun rises, causing the Ubervamp to retreat back into the cavern.
• Giles was, conveniently, not standing at the cavern entrance to help her climb out.
• Giles explains that the Ubervamp is known as the Turok-Han… comparing them to Neanderthals in relation to humans.
• Buffy really needs some rest, as she hasn’t slept in days… but she decides to go to work instead.
• Principal Wood catches Buffy doing an internet search for “manifestations of evil… in movies” then has a very poignant conversation with Buffy about coming face to face with true evil.
• When she asks him what kind of movies he prefers, he says mysteries.
• All the subtext…
• The torture of Spike continues.
• The First (Drusilla) is trying to get Spike to choose their side, but he refuses.
• Buffy sees her mom again.
• She’s very maternal… but is she another dream or is she a manifestation of the First?
• The bell rings and Buffy wakes back up to find a student upset that she wasn’t paying attention to anything he’d been saying.
• Wood watches ominously from his office.
• Let’s talk about the potential Slayers for a second.
• I never liked Kennedy.
• She’s spoiled, she’s demanding, she moves in on Willow before she’s ready to be over Tara…
• The other two, Annabelle and… what’s her name… are forgettable.
• Anyway, they’re waiting around for sunset and Kennedy starts demanding that the potentials be given weapons.
• Just as sunset arrives, that third potential rushes in to tell Buffy and Giles that Annabelle split.
• Guess she got scared…
• Well, she runs right into the Ubervamp, who quickly kills her dead.
• Buffy catches up but is way too late and is caught off guard by the Ubervamp.
• They fight again and she crushes him under a ton of steel pipes.
• But it barely slows him down.
• He brings a building down on her and very nearly kills her.
• For some reason, the Ubervamp skedaddles and Xander, Willow, and Giles find Buffy unonscious.
• The First (Drusilla) screams at Spike, wanting to know why he continues to resist.
• It’s because Buffy believes in him… believes he can be a force for good in the world.
• Back at the house, Buffy is nearly catatonic, but is listening to her friends discussing how screwed they are.
• Giles says that they can make plans, but the truth is, Buffy was the plan.
• He doesn’t know if they can fight the First Evil.
• Buffy comes in and says he’s right.
• I kind of love her speech here. I need to see if I can find a clip online to share here… hang on…

• May I just ask… How was Sarah Michelle Gellar never nominated for an Emmy for her performance as Buffy?
• Body count: Humans – 1