Overall Rating: 7.95 Matt: 7.9 Eric: 8.0 Writers: Doug Petrie and Jane Espenson Director : Doug Petrie Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Emma Caulfield as Anya, Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers, James Marsters as Spike, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg. Main guest stars : Amber Benson as Tara, Adam Busch as Warren, Danny Strong as Jonathan, Tom Lenk as Andrew, John Jabaley as Tito the Plumber, Todd Stashwick as M’Fashnik, and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles. Original broadcast date : October 16, 2001 Buffy wanders stealthily in a basement, bearing a dangerous-looking weapon. Suddenly, she looks up to a dripping pipe and says "So… we meet at last, Mr. Drippy!" The weapon turns out to be… a wrench. As she steps up on a bench to fix the leak, Dawn sits on the stairs, phone in hand, asking Buffy if she wants to call a plumber instead. Buffy impatiently tells her sister that she’s got it, and indeed she tightens the pipe, sealing off the leak. But a strange creaking sound is heard, and in three or four places, the pipes burst open, dousing Dawn who flees upstairs screaming. Discouraged, Buffy mutters, "There! All better…" Willow, Tara and Dawn are fixing breakfast while Buffy just stares absently at a stream of water running from the kitchen faucet. Alarmed at Buffy’s fascination with the water, Willow turns the faucet off, and Buffy snaps back into focus. Xander arrives up from the basement with Tito, Plumber Extraordinaire, who tells Buffy she needs a full copper re-pipe job. After Tito leaves, the Scoobies examine the staggering bill, and Buffy dismissively says that they’ll pay him, no big deal. Uneasy, the Scoobies tell Buffy that there’s something they need to talk to her about. Sitting on the couch with a flood of bills, Buffy realizes she’s near broke. Tara explains that the hospital bills and funeral costs ate up all of Joyce’s insurance. As they look for a solution, Anya suggests Buffy start charging for her slaying services. When the others dismiss the idea as ridiculous, Anya looks to Xander for support, in vain. She storms off, angry; Xander runs after her, and they get into an argument about the fact that he doesn’t want their friends to know about their engagement. Taking off, Anya asks Xander when he’s going to grow up. Inside the house, despite the gravity of the situation, Buffy tells Willow, Tara and Dawn that she’ll fix the problem… somehow. Cut to a bank office, where Buffy, dressed for success, is practicing applying for a loan. The actual meeting with the loan director doesn’t go well, though – Buffy can’t get a loan since she has no collateral and, most importantly, no job. Just then, a demon crashes through the window and scares the clients away. "No job?", Buffy protests. "I wish!" She walks up to the demon and tries to kick him, but her long, conservative dress hampers her kick and she gets thrown across the room. Borrowing the loan director’s letter opener, she slits her skirt and then charges back at the demon. As they fight, masked robbers take the money from the cash registers. After they take off, the demon also leaves. Not the least frazzled, Buffy sits back down with the loan director to discuss rates… Later, at the Magic Box, Buffy is training while Willow expresses outrage at the fact that her friend still couldn’t get a loan. Then, noticing that Buffy is angry, she tries to turn up the heat by confessing to affairs with both Riley and Angel… When Buffy asks her what the Hell she’s doing Willow tries to explain that since she’s been back, Buffy hasn’t been big on emotions, but she finally backs down. Out in the shop, Anya once again tries to convince Xander to announce their engagement, but he wants to wait until Willow and Buffy are there. Meanwhile, Dawn pleads with Tara to let her help in research, and the witch grudgingly agrees. By a pure stroke of luck, Dawn finds the demon – a M’Fashnik (as in Mmmm, cookies). When Buffy steps out of the training room, Dawn proudly shows her the demon, prompting a rather unpleased retort from Buffy ("You do research now? Wanna mochacchino and a pack of cigarettes to go with that?") Buffy does look at what Dawn has found and recognizes her demon – but then she stares at the door, dumbfounded. Giles is there… She runs to him and hugs him hard – almost crushing his rib cage – and after he marvels at her strength and tells her how she was always a miracle, he goes to the training room with her, to find out how she really is. But she evades the subject, just referring vaguely to her nightmares. Later, Giles examines the data they found on the M’Fashnik, and wonders who might be powerful enough to hire and control such a mercenary demon… In a basement somewhere, the M’Fashnik is throwing a fit in front of his controllers… three nerds – our old friend Jonathan, Warren the bot builder, and Andrew, the brother of Tucker from "The Prom". He demands the Slayer as payment for his services, but obviously, the nerds – at least Jonathan and Andrew – don’t want her dead. After the three discuss among themselves, Warren goes to the M’Fashnik and gives him Buffy’s address, thoroughly washing his hands of the problem. At the Summers house, Buffy prepares a bed for Giles on the couch, and the two of them talk about her financial problems. He promises to help her find a solution, then affectionately extends his hand to touch her, but she coldly draws away, leaving. Later that night, Willow comes into the kitchen to find Giles busying himself with dishes. They have a talk about the spell that brought Buffy back, and Giles has some harsh words, calling her a "rank amateur" and a "very foolish girl" for dabbling irresponsibly with those kinds of forces. Willow reacts rather badly, even going so far as to threaten Giles with her power. Finally, the two agree to sleep over it. But Buffy is outside on the back porch, feeling crappy after hearing Giles and Willow fight. Spike comes up to her and sits beside her, a sympathetic ear as she rants about life and money… Even later that night, Giles is still up when Dawn comes downstairs, also having trouble sleeping. Dawn proposes they mix up different kinds of cereals to pass the time, but the party is crashed – as well as the front door – when the M’Fashnik barges in. It knocks Giles unconscious and goes for Dawn, but an ever-vigilant Buffy catches him in the act and starts knocking it around, wincing as the demon breaks a designer lamp and the coffee table. Spike runs in and tackles the demon; Buffy shouts for him to direct the M’Fashnik to the flooded basement, where she and it fight in three feet of water… The demon latches on to one of the expensive pipes, prompting an outraged exclamation from Buffy, and she launches herself at it, armed with a length of pipe, clobbering him to death while shouting, "No… copper… repipe! No… full… copper… repipe!!!" In another basement, Jonathan lights a cigar with a dollar bill, as the nerds celebrate their getting away with robbery. They make plans, which include making Buffy their willing sex bunny… Meanwhile, at the Summers house, the Scoobies attempt to clean up the damage, while a dispirited Buffy confessed to Giles that she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to make things work. As he reassures her, the phone rings, and Buffy goes to answer. She comes back, agitated, telling Giles and Dawn that she’s going to meet Angel, out of town. Barely letting Giles bid her goodbye, she rushes out the door. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.