Overall Rating: 5.55 Matt: 3.0 Eric: 8.1 Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg Director : Turi Meyer 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, Elizabeth Ann Allen as Amy Madison, Jack Jozefson as Rusty the Security guard. Original broadcast date : November 20, 2001 My one-line description: Move over, Xander. The real house-demolition team is here. Buffy is busy saving a woman being mugged, and Spike intervenes, trying to help ­ but he can¹t hurt humans. After Buffy is done, they talk about their making out, which is becoming something of a habit. Buffy is in denial mode, swearing it will never happen again. As she walks away, Spike tells her he knows she¹ll come back for more when she realizes he¹s the only one for her. In her room, Willow tries to get over Tara¹s departure by solving the mystery that is Amy¹s ratness. Suddenly hit by inspiration, she utters "Reveal!" and the solution appears. She uses it to bring back a very naked and frightened Amy. At the town Museum, the Troika is busy stealing a large diamond. They succeed, but trip the alarm, which brings Rusty the Security guard to the rescue. They use Warren¹s Freeze Ray on him, accidentally encasing Jonathan¹s arm in iceŠ Which doesn¹t hinder them in their escape. Jonathan, Andrew and Warren break into a museum and steal a large diamond. At the Summers house, Willow is filling Amy in on what¹s been happening while she was gone; Buffy arrives and momentarily mistakes Amy for Tara. Stunned that Willow has succeeded in de-ratting her, Buffy asks her how she¹s been. "Rat. You?", Amy answers. "Dead", Buffy says. Amy then asks Buffy if there are cookies somewhere in the kitchen, and goes to fetch them. The next scene finds Amy on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, eating cookies and watching TV. As Buffy arrives, a news report comes on about the frozen security guard and stolen diamond at the museum. Buffy decides to go take a closer look. When she gets to the crime scene, Spike is there for her. They start bantering again, then argue and fight. Spike actually hits Buffy, and is stunned to find that it doesn¹t hurt. He pretends to feel pain, though, and an unsuspecting Buffy mouths off at him, calling him a "thing" before storming away. Realizing he can hurt humans again, Spike tries it out on a woman in a dark alley, but when he goes to bite her, he howls in pain. "What the hell is going on???", he shouts, frustrated. In an amusement park, Tara is commenting on the huge milkshake Dawn is having. She tries to explain to the teen why she had to leave, and Dawn says that she understands. She also tells Tara that Willow hasn¹t been as obsessive with magic since then. At the Magic Box, the Scoobies meet to do research on the stolen diamond. Willow pulls out her laptop, and Buffy and Xander rejoice that she¹s going back to her roots. However, magic crackles from Willow¹s hands as she operates the computer without even touching the keyboard or looking at the screen. This disturbs her friends, but she comments that it¹s faster. Realizing they¹re uncomfortable with her and Tara breaking up, she tells them it¹s okay, and that Tara had issues with unimportant things. She leaves, going back to the house to find Amy. Spike goes to the Troika¹s lair and bullies them (threatening a Bobba Fett action figure with destruction) into examining his chip. Warren takes a look, and concludes that the chip is working perfectly. Spike realizes that if there¹s nothing wrong with him, there must be something wrong with herŠ At the Summers house, Amy tells Willow that she wants to go out for a night on the town. Willow hesitates, but when Amy brings up the redhead¹s nerdy days, Willow, eager to prove those days are behind her, accepts. Thus, Tara and Dawn come home to an empty house, and Dawn convinces Tara to stay with her until Willow and Buffy come back. At the Bronze, Willow and Amy play pool, discussing the past three years¹ events in Sunnydale. The camera pans out to show that they are playing without cues, using magic to hit the balls. Two guys come over, asking them for a dance; Amy tries to get Willow a date more to her liking, putting a spell on a nearby woman ­ however, Willow is uncomfortable with the concept, and Amy goes to dance with the guys as Willow looks on. At the bar, Willow is threatening the olive in her martini with the gullet, when Amy comes back from the dance floor. They start chatting again, but the two guys aren¹t done with them. They come on pretty strong to Amy, and make a very rude comment about Willow¹s lesbianism. Outraged, Amy works a spell that puts the two guys in cages, dancing in their underwear. At the Magic Box, Buffy, Anya and Xander are still trying to find the demon responsible for the frozen security guard, and realizing that research just isn¹t that effective since Giles left. The conversation shifts to Willow¹s excessive use of magic, and suddenly the phone rings ­ Spike, acting mysterious, tells Buffy to meet him in the cemetery. Stunned, she hangs up and discusses it with Xander and Anya. However, they decide they are too tired to keep researching, and close up shop. On her way back home, Buffy runs into Spike, which annoys the hell out of her. He taunts her into hitting him, which motivates him to hit her back and show her that there is no more pain. "HowŠ?", she asks, aghast. He tells her that she mustn¹t have come back quite right; angry, Buffy hits him again, and they start fighting. At the Magic Box, Willow and Amy have turned the Bronze into a fun house ­ they¹ve feminized the singer, materialized animals and demons, created energy ballsŠ but they¹re quickly getting bored. Amy comments that there has to be a bigger place than this, and they decide to leave, reverting the Bronze to its normal configuration. Buffy and Spike are now inside an abandoned house, still fighting and throwing verbal insults at each other. After throwing Spike in a brick chimney, shattering it, Buffy comments that he¹s in love with pain. He knocks her back, and just as he¹s about to argue about him loving her, she kisses him, violently, climbing on him. They knock into the opposite wall, compromising the already weakened building. Obviously deep in sexual intercourse, they topple down to the floor, making it collapse and falling to the lower level, still having sex, oblivious to the destruction around them. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.