Overall Rating: 7.6 Matt: 7.8 Eric: 7.4 Writer: Steven S. DeKnight Director: Michael Gershman Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Emma Caulfield as Anya, Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers, James Marsters as Spike, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles. Main guest stars : Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers, Amber Benson as Tara, Clare Kramer as Glory, Charlie Weber as Ben, Troy T. Blendell as Jinx, Justin Gorence as Orlando. Original broadcast date : February 6, 2001 My one-line description: Dawn discovers the monks made her out of whine. Buffy’s birthday is coming up again, and Buffy herself, given her track record with birthday baddies, isn’t too eager. Especially now that she knows she’s fighting a god. As the gang discusses both the birthday and Glory, Giles shares some of the Council’s information – apparently Glory ruled over a hell dimension with two fellow hell gods, until she ended up in the human realm. She’s immortal, invulne- rable and survives by draining the life energy from a victim’s brain, leaving behind insane, funny-farm candidates. Xander brings up the Key Glory has been looking for, and Buffy decides it’s time to let the gang in on her and Giles’ secret… Around a fire, the Knights of Byzantium are chanting that the Key is the link which must be severed – such is the will of God. Some of Glory’s minions appear and fight the Knights, until Glory herself appears, killing most of the knights and capturing one of them. Tara and Willow are performing a ritual outside the Magic Box. Dawn comes up and asks them what they’re doing, and they inform her that they’re setting up an "early-warning incantation" in case Glory decides to show up. Dawn wants to help, but they all know Buffy would be against it. So Dawn goes inside, and teases Xander, who is obviously now quite uncomfortable around her. Giles and Buffy join them, and as they talk, Giles swiftly makes his journal disappear into a drawer… Dawn notices it’s vanished, but hasn’t seen where it went. In her apartment, Glory is torturing Orlando, the Knight she captured. He refuses to give her any information, so she drains his brain. At the Summers house, Buffy enjoys the party her mom has thrown for her birthday – as well as the presents. She gets a cute dress from Willow and Tara, and from Dawn, a seashell-framed picture of the two sisters on the beach. The gang is uncomfortably reminded of Dawn’s origins, but Buffy is pleased. Eventually, Dawn notices everyone falling silent whenever she enters the room, and she gets angry and runs upstairs to her room. She climbs down from her window to the ground outside, and runs into… Spike, bearing a box of chocolates for Buffy. Far from being scared, she teases him on being more bad than he is, as she’s planning to break into the Magic Box to steal some stuff. Spike points out the dangers between the house and the shop, and the two go together. At the Magic Box, Dawn finds Giles’ journal and starts reading from it. Spike helps her understand some parts, including the part that reads only "those outside reality are able to see the Key’s true nature." As Dawn starts putting the pieces together, Spike reads on, about the monks sending the Key to the Slayer in the form of a sister, so she would protect it with her life… Back at the Summers home, the gang is still chatting in the living room. Suddenly, Dawn enters, a knife in her hand, blood dripping from her wrist. She wonders if the blood is real, if she’s more than a key… After the gang has left, Buffy and Joyce join Dawn in her bedroom. Dawn wants to know why they didn’t tell her, and when she was created. Buffy and Joyce explain that she was created six months ago, and that they thought it better to wait till she was older before telling her. Dawn throws them out of her room. The next day, Buffy asks Giles to get her more information on the Key – not because of Glory, but because Dawn needs to know. Giles wonders how Dawn managed to break into the shop and read his journal, and Anya provides an answer – she finds one of Spike’s cigarette butts in an urn… Buffy bursts into Spike’s crypt and slams a concrete slab into him, wanting to know why he helped Dawn find out about the Key. Spike explains that Dawn would’ve gone to the shop no matter what, and that he thought it safer if he were with her. He tells Buffy she couldn’t keep the secret from Dawn forever. Back at the Summers house, Joyce tells Dawn it’s time to go to school. Dawn doesn’t want to go and argues the Key doesn’t need an education anyway. Then she changes her mind, seeing school as a way to get away from Joyce… At the hospital, Ben is working in the mental ward when he notices a new patient – the Knight of Byzantium. Jinx shows up and tells Ben about the Order’s arrival in town; he threatens Ben on Glory’s behalf, but the intern just leaves… In her bedroom, Dawn reads through her diaries, while downstairs Buffy and Joyce discuss ways to help her. Dawn overhears only a part of their conversation and misinterprets it in the worst possible way. In anger, she thrashes her room. Downstairs, Joyce and Buffy hear an alarm, and run upstairs. They find Dawn’s room empty, the remnants of her journals burning in a trash can… Buffy gets the whole Scooby Gang – including Spike – to help her look for Dawn. Xander, searching with Giles, marvels at all the memories he has about Dawn – especially the one about her having a crush on him. Teamed up with Spike, Buffy shouts Dawn’s name, but the vampire stops her, saying that her sister will head the other way if she hears her. Chastised, Buffy admits Spike was right – it’s her fault if Dawn ran away. Spike very seriously promises she’ll find her; "And then what?" Buffy asks. Dawn sneaks into the mental ward at the hospital, and the patients get agitated, whispering "It’s here" over and over again. She asks them to tell her what she is; "The Key", Orlando the Knight exclaims. "I found the Key." He moves as if to grab her, but he’s tied to the bed. Freaked out, Dawn runs away and into Ben. He takes her to the locker room, sits her down and asks if Joyce is alright, if he can call her sister… Dawn says she doesn’t have a sister. Ben understands sisters can be pains in the ass sometimes, but Dawn corrects him – she’s the problem; she’s not real. "You’re the Key," Ben realizes, suddenly panicked. He tries to get her to leave, before she gets here… And suddenly he morphs into Glory. Glory has changed into a cute red dress she’s found in Ben’s locker. Dawn looks for an escape, but Glory warns her she’d never make it. Dawn realizes that Glory doesn’t remember her conversation with Ben, and doesn’t know she is the Key. A guard walks in to warn the girls away, but Glory breaks his neck and drags Dawn to a more private place so they can chat uninterrupted. The Scoobies meet up in a park and compare notes; no one has had any luck in finding Dawn. Buffy suggests they check out the hospital. In a lab at the hospital, Glory is trying to bribe Dawn into telling her where the Key is. Dawn (smart girl) takes the opportunity to A) stall for time and B) get some more information on where she came from, by asking Glory to tell her more about this Key. Then, she states, she’d know if she’s seen it. At the hospital, Buffy learns Dawn hasn’t been here, but then she overhears someone talking about the dead guard they found – and figures out Glory is here. Glory fills in a few blanks for Dawn, saying that the Key has been around forever, and is not evil. Then she realizes that Dawn… has no idea where her Key is! A bit ticked off, she plans on draining the teen’s brain, but Buffy arrives just in time. The gang start fighting the hellgod, stalling for time until Willow and Tara are ready. The two witches – up until now reciting a chant – throw magical sand at Glory. "Descadae!" Willow says as she claps her hands, and Glory disappears… As Willow collapses with fatigue, Glory reappears high over Sunnydale, and plummets to the ground like a shooting star. At the hospital, Buffy hurries to Dawn, who is still quite hostile. Taking the teen’s bloody hand, she shows her the blood in her own chest wound and tells Dawn it’s Summers blood, and that she is her sister. The two girls hug, and Dawn, vaguely remembering something, tells Buffy that Ben was here, trying to help her… but she can’t remember where he went. Buffy replies that they’ll thank him the next time they see him, but that now they have to get Dawn home, where Joyce must be freaking out. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.