Overall Rating: 6.5 Matt: 7.0 Eric: 6.0 Writer: Diego Gutierrez Director: Rick Rosenthal 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. Guest stars: Danny Strong as Jonathan, Tom Lenk as Andrew, Adam Busch as Warren, Dean Butler as Hank Summers, Amber Benson as Tara, Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers, Kristen Nelson as Lorraine (the DMP Manager), Michael Warren as the doctor. Original air date: March 12, 2002 My one-line description: Hey, maybe life is a showŠ a freak show. Armed with a list of recently-rented houses, Buffy searches for the Troika¹s new lair, and almost catches them unguarded ­ only Jonathan¹s not-so-vigilant video surveillance allows them to react when she gets a bit too close to the house. Andrew conjures up a demon which attacks Buffy at the front door, grabs her and stings her with a part of his hand shaped like a dart. Buffy cries out in painŠ and cries out again in a room in a mental hospital, as she¹s being held down by two orderlies and is given a tranquilizer shot. Buffy comes to outside the Troika¹s house; she walks home, hurt and disoriented. At UC Sunnydale, Willow waits for Tara in a corridor, hoping to talk to her. However, she spies her former lover greeting another woman with a quick kiss on the cheek; a bit hurt, Willow walks away. Tara notices her going away, but apparently judges it¹s too late to go after her. At the Doublemeat Palace, Buffy struggles to do her work amidst flashes sending her back to the mental hospital. A doctor announces it¹s time for Buffy¹s drugs; then she¹s back at the DMP, where Lorraine, the manager, is asking her if she¹s on drugs. After a long work day, the Slayer wearily goes home. She and Willow chat about the redhead¹s worries regarding Tara¹s "friend". Then, just as they wonder about Xander¹s whereabouts, the front door opens and he walks inŠ After some hugging, Xander asks whether they know if Anya is around; obviously, he thinks he¹s made a terrible mistake, and wants to repair the relationship. Buffy and Willow tell him that his fiancée has left a few days earlier. They try to convince him that things will work out eventually. In the cemetery, Buffy runs into Spike, heading to his crypt with grocery bags. They chat a bit ­ Buffy informs him of the wedding no-go ­ until Xander shows up and mouths off to the vampire. Not one to be outdone, Spike brings up Xander¹s disappearance at the altar, and Willow has to step in to prevent things from getting violent. Xander manages to punch Spike, but then the Scoobies¹ attention is drawn by Buffy, who collapses. At the mental hospital, the doctor asks Buffy if she knows where she is. "Sunnydale", she answers. But he tells her that not of that is real ­ she¹s been in a mental hospital for six years, and her life as a Slayer never existed except in her mind. Buffy is quite thrown off by this, especially when Hank and Joyce Summers ­ a very much alive Joyce ­ show up and greet her. But the vision goes away and Buffy is back in SunnydaleŠ Still in the cemetery, Willow and Xander take charge of Buffy ­ Xander gruffly rejects Spike¹s help ­ and take her home. Buffy tells them about the demon who "poked" her, and how she¹s been shifting back and forth to the mental hospitalŠ Willow starts to mount a research effort, but Buffy falls back to the other reality. Buffy, still in hospital blue PJ¹s, and her parents are in the doctor¹s office, where he explains to them how she¹s been suffering from schizophrenia and creating grand battles against demons galore. Then he remarks on how Buffy¹s enemies aren¹t what they used to be ­ "No gods or monsters, just three pathetic little menŠ who like playing with toys", the doctor tells her. Back in Sunnydale, Warren and Andrew return to the lair with some boxes. Jonathan, who wasn¹t invited to join the party, is wary and tells them they¹d better not be plotting against him. Then he tries to leave the house ­ alone ­ but Warren gets in his way and convinces him to stay. At the house, Willow presents Buffy with a picture of the waxy demon that "poked" her, and reassures the Slayer that they will have a cure. Buffy is still quite shaken up, and Willow tries to comfort her by reminding her friend that she¹s never been in a mental hospital. Wrong: Buffy admits that at the very beginning of her Slayer life, she was indeed checked into a mental clinic. "Will, what if I¹m still there?" Buffy asks, tears streaming down her face. Xander and Spike join forces to look for the demon ­ an event all in itself ­ and they find it. Spike identifies it as a Glarghle Guhl Kashma¹nik ­ a name Xander can¹t pronounce - and the two of them manage to subdue it with tranquilizer darts. patrol for the demon that hurt Buffy and between the two of them, they subdue the demon with force and tranquilizer darts. At the house, Dawn tries to make contact with her sister, but Buffy is very withdrawn ­ at some point, she comments on her sister¹s misbehaviour and the need for the problems to be dealt with. Then she slips back to the other reality, where Joyce tries to get her to understand that Dawn doesn¹t exist and that as soon as she can admit that and get better, they can go home. "I don¹t have a sister", Buffy mutters dreamily, as Dawn listens, horrified. Very upset, she leaves her sister¹s room. In the basement, Xander and Spike are struggling to hold down the demon while Willow hits it and breaks off its stinger. She then gives Xander a list of non-magical supplies she needs from the Magic Box. Later, she walks triumphantly into Buffy¹s room with a mug of icky looking goo ­ the antidote. Buffy comments on the fact that Willow never stops coming through for her. As Buffy prepares to drink the revolting brew, Spike drops by to check on her. She asks him to leave, but he starts to lecture her on the fact that she shouldn¹t hope the antidote will cure her of the martyrdom. Accusing her of being in love with misery, he announces that if she doesn¹t tell her friends about their relationship, he will. After he¹s left, Buffy starts to bring the mug to her mouth, pauses, and then empties the contents in the trashcan. Back at the mental hospital, she tells the doctor and her parents that she wants to get better and get rid of her obsessions with Sunnydale. The doctor warns her that her "friends" in the other reality have become traps for her mind, and that they are the ones who were responsible for pulling her back down after the five months of awakening she had the previous summer (her death). He tells her she has to be ready to destroy these friends to get better. Willow arrives home to find Buffy pretending to feel better. The Slayer draws her friend to the kitchen andŠ later, Xander arrives at the house and finds Buffy alone in the kitchen. He starts telling her about how bad Spike¹s delusions of having a relationship with her have become, but she clobbers him and drags him to the basement. Willow is there, lying bound and gagged, and the now-conscious and angry demon is still chained to the support beam. Buffy goes back upstairs and finds Dawn packing in her room; the teen mouths off at her sister, but quickly gets worried when Buffy tells her that she has to go downstairs with the others. Dawn, scared, escapes into the corridor, where Buffy rants about how crazy the idea of fighting demons and sleeping with a vampire really is. Finally, Buffy kicks open the door to her own room, where Dawn has taken refuge, and drags her sister to the basement. In the mental hospital, the doctor suggests Buffy take her time in dealing with her inner demons; but in Sunnydale, the Slayer unchains the demon in the basement, letting it loose on her friends, and hides behind the stairs to watch. Xander pleads with Buffy to untie him, but to no avail. Upstairs, Tara enters the house and eventually finds all the action downstairs. She uses magic to free Xander, Willow and Dawn¹s bonds, then magically hurls a shelf full of paint cans at the demon. It¹s not enough ­ the demon grabs hold of Willow and throws her around, eliciting an emotional reaction from mental hospital Buffy: "Willow!" she cries out, crouching in a corner of the room. Joyce kneels in front of her daughter and starts encouraging her, urging her to find her inner strength. That seems to calm Buffy down ­ "You¹re rightŠ thank you", she tells her mother in a quiet voice. Joyce smiles, but then Buffy continues: "GoodbyeŠ" Alarmed, Joyce tries to keep her daughter from slipping away again. In the Sunnydale reality, Buffy gets up from behind the stairs and takes on the demon, ultimately killing it as we knew she would. She then looks at her friends and tells them how sorry she is; Willow answers that it¹s OK, but Buffy retorts that it won¹t be OK until she drinks the antidote. In the mental hospital room, the doctor flashes a light in Buffy¹s glazed-over eyes and gets no response ­ she¹s catatonic. Joyce cries as her husband tries to comfort her. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.