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Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- We're your arch nemesises.
- Somebody! Help!
- We've got to get out of this town. Mexico.
- Look, I'm not saying it's a happy scenario,
but we're dealing with a big bad that can be any dead person it wants.
- You know the rules. I can't take corporeal form.
I just don't think I can kill anybody else.
- Look who I found.
Guess who was buying mass amounts of blood at the butcher's shop.
- Andrew is ouractually, he's our hostage.
I like to think of myself more as a "guestage."
- They're all slayers?
- Potential slayers. There were many more like them all over the world,
but, um, now there's just a handful.
- Uh, Buffy?
Principal Wood.
- I'd like to take you out to dinner, if that's all right with you.
I'd be happy to have dinner with you.
- Great.
- How do you know about slayers?
- My mother was one. She was killed when I was four.
- A demon?
Oh, hello, there, gentle viewers.
You caught me catching up on an old favorite.
It's wonderful to get lost in a story, isn't it?
Adventure and heroics and discoverydon't they just take you away?
Come with me now, if you will, gentle viewers.
Join me on a new voyage of the mind.
A little tale I like to call: Buffy, Slayer of the Vampyrs.
It was cold last night, and the wind was crew-ell,
but the Slayer had a job to do.
Unfortunately, vampires have a job to do, too.
Ouch! My goodness! Things look bad for the Slayer, don't they?
She didn't see that second vampire, concealed by cover of darkness, ready
ready to attack and make her his own vampirical spawn.
- Let's rejoin them now to see
For God's sakes, Andrew. You've been in here for 30 minutes.
What are you doing?
- Entertaining and educating.
~ STORYTELLER ~
season 7 ep.16
That was great. I completely got you dusting that guy on film.
Hey, why do vampires show up on video?
I told you I didn't want you doing that. It's distracting.
OK, I'll cut the footage together and do the intro tomorrow.
"She was a woman in danger, or was she?"
- Are you still filming me? Stop!
- But it's a valuable record.
An important document for the ages. "A Slayer in action."
"A nerd in pain." Would they like that? 'Cause we could do that.
- But the story needs to be told.
Birds need to fly, and girls need to use the toilet,
and why were you video taping yourself, anyway?
Sounds like *** business to me.
- The world's gonna want to know about Buffy.
It's a story of ultimate triumph tainted with the bitterness
for what's been lost in the struggle.
It's a legacy for future generations.
- If there are any. Buffy seems to think that
this apocalypse is going to actually be, you know, apocalyptic.
I think youryour story seems pretty pointless.
Oh, I was gonna interview you later today,
'cause, you know, your whole perspective on the whole thing.
Give it editorial balance and, uh, glamour
Oh, well balance is important.
People don't always take that into account.
I could bring that to you. Absolutely.
Let's explore the world of our story, shall we?
Thisuh, Buffy lives in Sunnydale, California.
Um, this is the local high school.
There's a hellmouthhellmouthunderneath the high school.
See, weird things happen on the hellmouth that attracts all sorts of,
uh, bad people and demons and vampires.
And now there's this thing in the basement of the high school
called the-the seal of DanzalDanzalthar,
and it's sort of a door to the hellmouth.
Uh, due to some circumstances it got opened up
a little bit recently
uh, and this, uh, nasty,
nasty vampire thing came out of it.
It was, uh, it was just awful, awful.
This whole thing whole thing
is being orchestrated by something called "The First".
It's made up of all the evil in the whole world.
Oh, there's also these guys. They work for the First.
We don't know much about them except that they're very ugly
and they're very mobile for blind people.
Is that all clear?
- It's morning in Sunnydale
Who the hell's got the low-fat milk?
It's morning in Sunnydale, and the women of command central
take the time to fortify themselves for the day ahead.
Hey!
Women and Xander. Hey, I'm gonna do your special intro later.
"The man who is the heart of the slayer machine."
Yeah? The heart?
Things are tense in command central this morning.
Buffy is clearly concerned with some unknown danger,
and the air is filled with foreboding.
Oh, um, we're out of Raisin Bran.
- I'll put it on the list.
- That's probably not the unknown danger.
Look at this place. Damn girls'dorm is what it is.
- That's nice. Second-hand stinkiness.
- Full house. I think it's a good time to do some introductions,
don't you, gentle viewers?
I'm Amanda, and I grew up right here
Not you, sweetheart.
Let's start from the top.
You've already met Buffy.
She's beautiful, with a lion's heart and and the face of an Angel.
She's never afraid 'cause she knows her side will always win.
Buffy and Spike have some kind of history
you can feel the heat between them.
Although, technically, as a vampire, he's room temperature.
Anya, a feisty waif with a firey temper
This lovely girl
I don't remember her name
Oh, for God's sake. Is he doing that again? Can't we make him stop?
I don't know, if we save the world,
it will be kind of nice to have a record of it.
- If we don't save the world, then nothing matters.
That's catchy, Amanda. Let's make that our slogan.
- Yeah, it is kinda strange, how you keep saving the world,
and there's not any proof.
- Yeah, you know, for future generations.
- And it does help the girls with trainingyou know, viewing the tapes.
- Come on. No one else thinks this is idiotic?
- Or is it important? I mean, Buff,
I don't get why this is bothering you so much.
- Because it's a waste of time.
Come on, someone has to agree with me. Spike?
- Long as you're not pointing that thing at me,
seems like a fine way to keep the boy busy.
This isn't about keeping busy. This is about war.
I'm sorry to jump all over you guys, but
I have to tell you what's really going on. There's something new.
Amanda, Dawnyou're gonna stay home from school today.
We can survive what's coming, but not like this.
I had a vision of what's to come
a horrible vision. Hundreds upon hundreds of
- Honestly, gentle viewers,
these motivating speeches of hers tend to get a little long.
I'll take you back in there in
in a little while, but in the in-between time,
I thought you might want to know a little about me, your humble host.
You see, I am a man with a burden.
A man with a dark past. You see, I was once a super villain.
Thus the validity of the Bronsted-Debye-Huckel equation
at low ionic strength has been amply tested,
and the charges on the reactant ions are well-known,
if their reagents are properly characterized.
It smells funny.
I know, kinda sweaty.
What'll it do to Buffy?
Make her super magnetic!
Wow, she won't be able to get out of her car.
And knives and other sharp things will fly at her.
We could walk right by her, and she wouldn't be able to stop us.
Unless we were wearing metal belt buckles,
then we would stick to her.
In my plan, we are beltless.
Wow, you're the best, Andrew.
Yep, and good-looking and smart too.
Yeah, wow.
Warren was cool.
And wasn't Jonathan just the cutest thing?
Well, shall we see if Buffy's still talking?
- I mean mentally. And from what I've seen so far,
there's is no way your girls are ready. You have to
She's not done. Even Willow looks bored,
and she usually can take a lot of that stuff.
Look at her. Ooh, ooh, do you see that?
That-that's important.
Willow and Kennedy have been in kind of a bad place lately,
but things are looking up.
You see, Kennedy pursued the reluctant Willow and won her heart,
only to find herself frightened when she glimpsed the darkness
that still lies within the witch's mind. Side note
I once had my own personal encounter with Dark Willow.
Jonathan, Andrew, you boys like magic,
don't you? Abracadabra!
Yee! Haltem!
OK, didn't see that coming.
That's because we have power
you can't imagine.We do?
You, Dark Willow, wield a force of mighty evil, it's true.
But you are new to the game, little one.
You know what they say.
If at first, you don't succeed
Holy cats! Here it comes again.
I deflect thy power.
Damn, that is one effective counter spell.
Thank you, little one. Thank you.
- She was something. Indeed she was.
Hey, I think Buffy stopped talking.
That usually means she had to go to work.
Let's see what the little locusts left for breakfast, shall we?
Not late. Not late 'til the bell rings.
Hey! Hey! Break it up!
Get to class. Uh-oh.
Hey, shy girl, don't do this. Oh
You knew I was there.
- Yeah.
- You noticed me.
It's OK, I promise. It may seem ba
Wh-wh-what's wrong?
The mirror said I was fat. It said it.
- I'm soI can't take this semester anymore.
It's just so much for me to handle.
So, not only does Mr. Hildebrand move up the trig exam to today,
but he also makes it cover three more chapters.
And I've got an English paper due tomorrow.
I feel like I'm gonna explode.
Hey, uh, I can help. You just need to relax, you know?
You know, um, maybe one of you guys could give him a foot rub?
- What?
- Something bad is going on.
- Oh, is that right?
Ooh, you're hurt. What happened?
- Someone threw a rock at me as I got out of my car.
I didn't really get a good chance to see who.
Yeah, well, it could have been any of them.
Students, teacherssomething is going on today.
- Yes, well, um, that occurred to me as I ducked the other two rocks.
Buffy, what the hell is this?
Everything.
- Slowly, I may be concussed here.
There this thing that happens here, in this school,
over the hell mouth. Where the way a thing feels
it kind of starts being that wayfor real.
I've seen all these things beforejust not all at once.
- So, what, it's like hell's a bustin'out all over?
- Exactly.
- So, what's the worst that can happen?
- War, pretty much.
- Oh, I see you're being amusing now with comical exaggeration.
- Being in high school can feel like being at war.
Now it's true. The students feel like the teachers are out to get them.
The Chess Club resents the French Club for taking the activities room,
and, well, everybody hates the cheerleaders.
If we don't do something about this,
we're gonna have a riot on our hands.
And a lot of other nasty stuff too.
- Like what?
Really should have had that foot rub.
- Dawn is a typical American teenager.
Bubbly and sweet with a hunger for fun and a smile that lights up the room.
Hello.
Dawn used to be a key. I don't really know what that means.
Hey, here's something I think you're going to be interested in, gentle viewers.
Look at the fine work Xander did on that replacing that window sash.
You can't even tell it's new, it blends in so well. He's extraordinary.
- You've dealt with this before?
I mean, you've seen stuff like this in a high school?
- Sure, you know, swim team monsters or killer prom dogs.
Again, not all at once.
- So, what makes now so special?
- My guessit's that seal thing in the basement.
It's like all the hellmouth's energy is trying to escape
in that one little spot, and it's getting all
- Focusy.
Careful. You're starting to speak like me now.
- This is Xander and Anya Interview Number 1 for "Buffy, a Slayer of the Vampyrs."
- That's what you're calling it?
- Either that or "Buffy, the Slayer Who Knew No Fear."
- I like that one.
Thank you, Xander. That's sweet of you.
I understand that exactly one year ago today you left Anya at the altar.
Any comment on that?
- Whoa. What the hell?
- I just think people will be interested.
I know I am. What do you have to say for yourself one year later?
- I've apologized enough, that's what I have to say.
- But you think it was something that called for an apology?
- Well, yes.
- So you don't think it was the right thing to do.
Of course he doesn't think it was the right thing to do.
It was the right thing to do.
- What?
- Interesting. I think we're getting something here.
- Look, Anya, if I had married you,
it would have been against everything I thought was best.
It wouldn't have worked.
- But wewe still spark.
I mean, I get jealous of you. You get jealous of me.
You still love me.
- Is that true, Xander? Do you still love her?
- I swear we just covered this thing up.
- It doesn't want to stay hidden anymore.
It wants to turn these kids into monsters and victims and who knows what.
- It's more than that. Look, Robin, I, um,
I had a vision the other day.
- You have visions?
Sometimes.
- Oh. Well, how do you know that they're not just dreams?
- You're running to catch the bus naked? That's a dream.
Army of vicious vampire creatures? That's a vision. Also, I was awake.
- A bus to where? I mean, an army of how many?
Hundreds. Maybe hundreds of hundreds.
All I know is the last UberVamp I faced crawled out of that very hole.
It makes me awfully nervous. What are you doing?
Now, have you ever really studied it? You know, gotten close?
- Well, I know it's a goat with its tongue out.
Uh, Willow did a search on the symbolic database,
but it turns out everybody loves a good goat's tongue.
Rock groups, covens and greek cookbooks.
She said she couldn't narrow it down.
And you trust her?
- Yes, why wouldn't I trust her?
- I don't know why any of you should trust each other.
You've all been evil at some point, right?
No, that's not true. Yeah, Willow had a bad patch,
but I've never been.
Evil is what evil does, and I know what you're doing.
You're with that vampire!
Robin, are you OK?
Whoa. What happened?
- II think it was controlling you.
- Buffy, we've got to get rid of this seal.
We've got to shut it down before it starts affecting everyone.
- I think I have a pretty good idea who we should talk to.
- Yeah, who's that?
- The guy that fed it it's first drop of blood.
- God, I hope that's not a student.
before I rip your throat out and eat
- OK, Spike. The light was kind of behind you.
Oh, right. Uh, what? Is this better then?
You keep dodging the question.
I don't mean to. It's justyou know how I feel, right?
And you were the one who didn't want to keep seeing each other.
- And here's where we hop on the merry-go-round of rotating knives.
I blame you, and you blame me, and we both end up all cut to shreds.
Please just tell Do you still love me?
Yes. I still love you. I always will.
I just don't know if that means anything for us anymore.
- Well, I love you too. I don't know if that means anything either.
Well, it's nice to hear.
I'm not gonna find anyone out there like you, am I?
- Doesn't seem likely.
- I guess I'm more replaceable, obviously.
No. There's no one like you, Xander.
You were willing to stand up to danger,
even when your hands had no weapons.
You were ready to protect me with your life.
- Yeah, I guess we fit together pretty good.
- We fit together great.
- You know, sometimes, I want to be back in your life.
- I hope you know you never left my heart.
- I'm not gonna find anyone out there like you, am I?
- Doesn't seem likely.
- Heads up, Andrew. We've got to talk.
- We just spent the day keeping a lid on a war.
Ooh, that would be very exciting on tape.
The school is out of control with energy from the hellmouth.
It's time for you to help, Andrew.
- Well, right now, I'm really more about the recording of the
- No! No more watching. The seal thing is your baby,
and you gotta get in there before it tears everything apart.
- Desde abajo te devora. Desde abajo te devora.
- Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Jesus.
Did you have it again? I had it again. That voice
- Desme abdo tay deborah. What does it mean? What does it mean?
- Let's try looking it up again in the morning in the dictionario.
Holy cats, that was terrifying.
- We're fugitives, haunted by our past, tormented by a message we don't understand.
- We're hunted men, driven mad by forces beyond our understanding.
- We're men of hidden power, tortured from within by-by a voice from out of nowhere.
- I don't deserve this. I wasn't even that evil.
- I thought you were evil.
Yeah?
Sure. I respected your ideas for evil projects,
and I thought you had good follow-through.
- Oh, well, thanks. It's nice that you noticed.
- OK, I think we're getting a little off track here.
- I don't want to do this anymore. Everyone's staring at me.
Just focus on the charm. You have to focus on the charm to pull the memories out.
- Tell us about the seal.
- But it tickles, and I'm all tense. Can't I have a cool, refreshing Zima?
- No Zima.
- Shut your face about the Zima. Just talk.
- You were the first one to uncover the seal and feed it blood.
How did you know it was there? How did you know what to do?
I-I don't know. Stuff happened. I forget.
- So remember. Look at the charm.
- But, II'm not a part of this.
I document, I don't participate.
I'm a detached journalist, recording with a neutral eye.
- Andrew! Stop it, or I'm going to smash this camera over your head.
Actually, I'm gonna do that anyway, so you might as well talk.
- Stop going off topic.
- I wasn't off topic. It's gonna get relevant in a second,
because Jonathan's gonna go to the bathroom.
I'm gonna go to the bathroom.
La cucaracha. La cucaracha. La la la la la.
- Did you get the knife?
Oh, Gosh. Gosh, I'm glad to see you.
- Me too. You're looking good.
Am I? Iprobably have pillow creases.
No, no, it's good. You're a man on the run.
You got kind of a wild, desperate thing going.
Did you, uh, did you get the knife?
- Yeah. It wasn't easy. I had to meet this demon guy
who sells all kinds of weird weapons and stuff.
- Yeah, show me.
- Well, I didn't buy them, but there were poison arrows
and this sort of collapsible sword
- Show me the knife!
Oh, right.
- Quick, before the shortcake comes back.
Oh, it'll be a while. He's got a shy bladder.
Jonathan, you OK in there?
- Don't talk to me. I'm fine.
- Pretty knife, except the, uh, the stabbing
I don'tI don't think I can do it.
Jonathan has been a good friend to me here in Mehico.
He said he'll buy me a burro.
- Oh, you can stab him. It's all part of the plan.
That boy's blood is a powerful tribute. It's a
it's a gift to something very big, very important, and ultimately,
won't even hurt him. We get a reward. You and me and him too.
- We live as gods.
That's right, man. The trio. Living as gods.
- There's power in that knife. Drive the words deep into him.
It's the only way for us to get our reward.
- Got it. If I kill him with this knife, we live as gods.
- Wait a second. Go back. What was that part again?
- You mean this part?
- Not that part. We need to see that knife. There's something there.
- Kennedy, search his stuff. Find the knife.
- It's not in my stuff. It's in the kitchen,
in the cutlery drawer. You didn't have any steak knives.
- You put your old *** weapon in with our utensils?
- I washed it.
- What are you looking for?
- He said the First said something about words.
"Drive the words deep into him."
- There was some carving on the blade. I just thought it was a pattern.
- Found it.
- OK, you're Mr. Demon-Summoner. How are you with demon languages?
- Whoa, you were right. It's in Tawarick.
It's, uh, like proto-Tawarick. It's really, really old.
- But, what's the big?
- We never knew anything about this seal.
Now, we know this knife and this language are connected to it somehow.
- Andrew, do you speak Tawarick?
- Yeah, I'm OK with it. It says,
"The blood which I spill, I consecrate to the oldest evil."
- Creepy.
- Will, what're you thinking? You think you can do something with that?
I let me work on it.
- I think it's got a shot.
- Guess what, Andy. You just won yourself a free vacation
to the beautiful downtown hellmouth.
- So he can do what? Yell at it in its own language?
- Maybe.
- What? II'm not following.
- Look, we have to deal with the seal right away.
We already might have to just shut the school down,
and I'm not losing any more territory to the First.
Besides, it's the only thing we've got.
- The seal responds to this language somehow, or
or the First wouldn't have needed this knife.
Andrew knows the language, can really talk to it, maybe give it commands.
- Robin, Spike, let's go.
- Riot that almost happened.
- Looks to me like it happened after all.
- Looks to me like it's still happening.
Nice way to run a school. There's got to be kids injured in here.
- Yeah, easy picking for the likes of you, huh?
Hey, here to help, you know.
- Right.
Check out Spike and the Principal. There's something going on there.
*** tension you could cut with a knife.
These kids went nuts, didn't they?
No kidding.
- Shh, they'll hear you.
- Buffy, they're all the way down
- Spike!
- The kids are getting stronger.
Oh, God. Struck down before I achieve redemption.
Spike! Don't kill them. They're just students.
They'll live.
- OK, Spike, Wood. I need you guys to stay here, hold our line of retreat.
So, I'll be staying here with these men,
helping out that holding the line thing. I'll be with Buffy.
We make our way down the stairs carefully, alert for any danger.
- Oh, stop it.
- I was just
No more.
- But I justI just want the world to see what you do.
- What I do is too important to show the world.
- Ooh, I like that.
- Be quiet! I don't want a biographer, especially a murderer.
- Yeah, well, see, about that
we just keep tossing that word around, but that's not really what happened.
- What? You stabbed Jonathan to death.
What were you trying to do? Scratch his back from the front?
- It was confusing.
Jonathan and I were digging
, but Warren was there, and only I could see him
Not one of them cares about you.
But I care about them. That's why I'm here.
Do it. Stab him.
No, I can't do it.
What?
Do it now.
This isn't right.
Stab him. Spill the blood.
Who are you talking to? What isn't right?
What's wrong with you? Are you a little coward?
No, but did you actually think I could use this?
That good. A knife?
Just do it. It'll feel good.
What's going on?
He's making me do it.
You tricked me. Damn you!
I'll kill you first. I'll kill you!
Stab him! You have to! If you fail,
you'll die a lost soul, and I'll hate you forever!
No!
See, I'm a man trapped by circumstances
into paying for a crime I didn't even What?
- No, I just thought you would say that.
I saw the seal possess Wood like that earlier today.
- Yes. Yes. See
That's why I'm here.
What have I done? Get out of my brain!!! Aaaah!
- You just completely changed your entire story.
- Did not.
- Uh, ya did too.
- Diduh, hey, here we are.
- There's someone in there.
No. We're going in.
Just be prepared, OK?
The seal could have done anything to them. Go.
- Nope, they're OK.
- Wow.
- Wow, wow.
- That was nice.
- Certainly was, you carpenter you.
- It's too bad Buffy took Spike's chains down, huh?
- You said it.
- Mmm, I feel good.
- Well, yeah. I'm a spitfire in the bedroom.
- Yeah, I knew we'd always do that again.
- Yeah, one more time anyway.
Is that what that was? One more time?
- Do you think there should be more?
- I don't know. It was nice. It felt, umit felt like a one more time.
- I think maybe we're really over. Which is
it's good, right? I mean, now we can move on.
- Sure.
She's like a woman fighting for more than life.
She fights like fighting is her life.
It's like the air she breathes,
and she knows she will win because there is no alternative.
It's your turn, Andrew.
So, you figure, what? I, uh I stand on the seal,
and hold the knife, and command it to stop glowing in Tawarick?
- Or we could do this?
- What?
- Doesn't really make sense, does it?
Bringing you here to talk to it.
This thing doesn't understand words, it understands blood.
Blood opens it. You don't want to open it. Opening it would be bad.
Yeah, Willow did a little research.
Turns out, the blood of the person that awoke it
youdifferent kind of deal. It reverses the whole thing.
- So, how much bloodare you gonna
- I don't know. Maybe not enough to kill you.
So, this is my redemption at last?
I buy back my bruised soul with the blood of my heart.
But-but not enough to kill
Stop! Stop telling stories. Life isn't a story.
Sorry. Sorry.
- Shut up. You always do this.
You make everything into a story so no one's responsible
for anything because they're just following a script.
- Please don't kill me. Warren said Jonathan would be OK.
I trusted him, and I lost my friend.
You didn't lose him. You murdered him.
I know, but you don't need to kill me.
You said we could all get through this.
- I made it up. I'm making it all up.
What kind of hero does that make me?
No, you're doing great. Really. Kudos.
- Yeah? Well, I don't like having to give a bunch of speeches about
how we're all gonna live, because we won't.
This isn't some story where good triumphs because good triumphs.
Good people are going to die! Girls. Maybe me.
Probably you. Probably right now.
Don't! Please! Don't, please!
- When your blood pours out, it might save the world.
What do you think about that? Does it buy it all back?
Are you redeemed?
No.
- Why not?
Because I killed him. Because I listened to Warren,
and I pretended I thought it was him, but I knew
I knew it wasn't. And I killed Jonathan.
And now you're gonna kill me. And I'm scared,
and I'm going to die. And this
this is what Jonathan felt.
- It stopped.
- Didn't want blood. It wanted tears.
Thanks.
- Sorry, I had to
- Youyou weren't really going to stab me, were you?
- I wasn't going to stab you.
- What if the tears didn't work?
- She got it done.
- Always has.
- So far.
Here's the thing. I killed my best friend.
There's a big fight coming, and I don't know what's going to happen.
I don't even think I'm going to live through it.
That's, uh, probably the way it should be. I guess I'm
bigmarius@bigmarius.com