Writer: Drew Goddard
Director : David Solomon

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 : Harris Yulin as Quentin Travers, Tom Lenk as Andrew, Adam Busch as “Warren”, Danny Strong as “Jonathan”.

Original broadcast date : November 26, 2002

My one-line description: Andrew visits the butcher. The Council is toast. Spike is shish-kebab.

It’s power cleaning day at the Summers residence. Dawn wonders why they’re keeping Spike here, and Anya adds that they should just stake him, since he’s evil. She asks Xander if he agrees, but he sidesteps the issue, saying he has a house to put back together (he’s busy replacing a window). Anya unhappily comments that they have to be ready for the fact that William the Bloody is back.

In the street, a dark figure in black boots and a long leather duster is walking. No wait, it’s not who you think… it’s Andrew. Warren appears behind him and asks him how he feels, to which Andrew nervously replies that he feels good. However, he complains that Jonathan’s death didn’t “work” and that he has to do all the “wet” work. Warren says it’s necessary, since he can’t take corporeal form – to prove his point, he has Andrew pass his hand through his chest. Andrew is worried and comments that he doesn’t think he can kill anyone again, but Warren morphs into Jonathan, who tells him to stop worrying. Andrew is concerned that Jonathan’s death must have hurt, but Jonathan reassures him – he feels a lot better this way, and anyway, it’s his fault, being short and not having that much blood. He adds that they can work around Andrew’s reluctance to kill.

Back at the Summers house, Buffy is tying Spike to a chair in her bedroom. She apologizes, saying that they can’t take any chances. Unfazed, he tells her she should make the bonds tighter – if he breaks free, someone’s going to die.

In his office, Principal Wood is dealing with two students who seem to have done something to a wall, which now needs to be repainted. He tells them he can either suspend them and put bad marks on their permanent records – or they can repaint the wall. The two unfazed students invite him to suspend them; Wood sighs and admits he was bluffing about the permanent records and the suspension, which involves tiresome paperwork for him… so he’ll just hand them over to the police. And by the way, he adds, he’s not bluffing. The boys decide they want to repaint the wall after all. Suddenly, somebody knocks on the door, and Wood goes to answer. It’s Dawn – she tells him that Buffy is sick and won’t be coming in today. She puts a little too much detail about the vomiting and things coming out at both ends, but Wood says they’ll manage fine without her.

Buffy is at home, on the phone with Quentin Travers. She tells him she needs to find Giles as soon as possible; the Council Leader calmly replies that they haven’t kept track of the man. However, he does promise that they’ll try to find him. He hangs up and looks at a group of Council members seated around a big conference table. “The girl knows nothing”, he announces. “And we need to find Rupert Giles, as soon as possible”.

In Buffy’s bedroom, Spike, still tied to a chair, is shaking with human-blood withdrawal. Buffy comes in and asks him if there’s anything she can do. He replies that she should probably go. She bends down and reaches for something, and meanwhile he turns into his vamp face and roars at her, straining against his bonds. Buffy slowly backs out of the room.

Outside the bedroom, she tells Willow that he’s not doing too well – he’s been feeding on human blood for weeks, after all. Willow wonders if they should kill Anya, and Buffy considers it for the moment – and decides that no, they have to take Spike off human blood. Willow offers to go get some animal blood, which will give her the opportunity to get away from Xander’s “tool talk”.

In the school basement, Andrew is standing over something with a knife in his hand while Warren encourages him to “cut her deep, and cut her quick”. Andrew is worried that “she” will squeal, and we discover that the “she” is a… piglet. After some encouragement, Andrew finally lunges after the pig, and misses. The animal runs away, squealing, with Andrew in chase.. As the pig runs away down the corridor, Warren comments that it’s the worst attempted pig slaughtering he’s seen. Andrew wonders if there’s another way to get blood.

At the butcher shop, Andrew gives his order: 12 pork chops, 2 pounds of sausage, 8 quarts of pig’s blood, 3 steaks, a halibut… and some toothpaste. The butcher reminds him that this is a butcher shop, and they don’t sell toothpaste. He goes off to get the order, and a few moments later, hands Andrew a big paper bag filled with the goodies. Andrew turns to leave… and bumps into Willow. He drops the bag, and the blood packets spill out. Willow looks at him, shocked.

Andrew runs out of the shop, with Willow in chase and yelling “come back here!” She corners him, and he pleads for her not to kill him or torture him. He adds that he didn’t kill Tara, it was Warren and he was aiming for Buffy anyway. Willow angrily tells him he’s not helping. Andrew comments that she got her revenge with Warren, so they’re even. “You think I get some sort of satisfaction from what I did?” asks an outraged Willow. Seeing this, Andrew again pleads for her to let him keep his skin, he’s good now. “Then why do you need lots and lots of blood?” she asks. Thinking a moment, Andrew defiantly says that he’s evil – “I'm protected by powerful forces, forces you can't even begin to imagine, little girl. If you harm me, you shall know the wrath of he that is darkness and terror. Your blood will boil and you shall know true suffering. Stand down, she-witch, your defeat is at hand..." Unimpressed, Willow shoves him against the wall and tells him that she is Willow, she is death – “If you dare defy me, i shall call down my fury, wreak fresh vengeance, and make your worst fears come through. OK?"

Willow 1, Andrew 0: she marches him into the Summers house, where Xander, Anya and Dawn look at him, somewhat shocked. Xander asks him what he’s doing back in town; “You’ll get nothing out of me, CARPENTER”, Andrew archly declares. “We’ll see…” Xander comments.

Upstairs (in Dawn’s bedroom, since Buffy’s is taken), Anya strips off Andrew’s leather duster, and he yells for her to be careful – it’s expensive. She just drops it to the floor and steps on it, grinding it. Xander roughly ties him to a chair and asks him what he was doing with all the blood. Andrew invents a story about meeting a beautiful vampire girl, but Anya steps in front of him, tells him this isn’t a game, and then viciously backhands him across the face. A seemingly shocked Anya drags her back and asks if they can step outside and talk.

Meanwhile, in her bedroom, Buffy is holding up a bag of pig’s blood, which Spike is hungrily drinking from.

Xander and Anya walk into Willow’s bedroom and rejoice at how well their act worked. Xander thinks Andrew will start singing anytime now, they just have to let him stew a bit… Buffy enters the room and Anya asks her how she’s doing with her guy. Buffy replies that he’s not talking yet, and asks Xander and Anya how they’re doing with theirs. They confirm that Andrew is about to crack.

Buffy returns to her room and asks Spike if he’s feeling better. He says he is, but he doesn’t remember anything. He tells her that he’s been out of it, losing time a lot and waking up in strange places. She asks when the chip stopped working, to which he replies that he wasn’t aware that it had, until now – things have been wonky for him since he got the soul back. This prompts her to ask how in fact he got it back, and he tells her about the demon about to see, and the trials he endured. He comments it was tough, but he’s found some things are just as worse. She asks what he means, and he admits that he’s come to redefine the terms “pain” and “suffering” since he fell in love with her. An outraged Buffy asks how he can say that, but he comments that since he just killed a bunch of people, being polite isn’t really important anymore. She thinks he’s feeling sorry for himself, but he corrects her – he’s feeling honest with himself. “You used me. You hated yourself, and you took it out on me.” She asks if he figured that out just now, and he replies that having the soul makes him understand the violence inside. “William the Bloody now has insight into violence?” Buffy gently mocks. Spike replies that as evil and wretched as he was back then, he never truly hated himself. Not like he does now.

Xander enters the room where Andrew is being held and gently asks him how his face is. He unties him, and offers him a glass of water. Andrew sniffs the water, wondering if it’s drugged or poisoned, then drinks. He comments that Anya is psycho, and Xander comments that he doesn’t know the half of it – Anya is a vengeance demon. Andrew recalls the time he saw her having sex with Spike, and Xander uncomfortably changes the subject, saying that Anya has killed more people than smallpox. He goes on to tell him about one of her victims, who had hurt her real bad – she stopped his heart, then replaced it with darkness, and forced him to live that way, going to work, seeing his friends, but empty. Xander’s eyes glaze over as the example gets way too personal. Looking at Andrew, he quickly adds that she then tore out the guy’s intestines, rubbed them in his face and took pictures. Andrew now looks very scared, so Xander adds a bit: the girls are looking for someone to blame for all that’s been happening. Andrew protests that he didn’t do anything, but Anya storms in, screaming that he’s a lying son of a bitch. She rushes him and wrestles him to the ground; Xander pulls her off him, but she turns around and punches him hard in the jaw. After silently apologizing to him, she whirls back on Andrew and hurts him some more.

Next door, Buffy hears the hubbub and asks Spike to excuse her for a moment. She enters the other room and casually asks if everything is OK. Anya, sitting on Andrew, replies that everything’s fine, and Buffy exits the room. As she goes to open the door to her own room, she hears Spike talking to someone… and then the same song we heard in “Sleeper”. She enters the room cautiously and asks Spike who he was talking to. The vampire, now acting very aloof, replies that he was just talking to himself. Concerned, she asks how he is. “Fine”, he easily replies. “How are you?”

Next door, Anya had Andrew backed up against the wall, and is threatening more pain. He finally cracks under the pressure and promises to tell them everything.

Spike asks Buffy for more blood, pointing with his head to the dresser. She goes to get it, never letting her eyes off him… until she picks up the blood packet. Spike vamps out, roars and breaks free from the chair. She rushes him, but he knocks her back and charges at the wall, breaking into it.

“We needed more blood to activate the seal of Danthazar”, Andrew is telling Anya and Xander… Suddenly, Spike punches through the wall behind him, grabs him and bites him. Andrew screams and writhes, and finally Buffy manages to throw Spike off him before he does permanent damage. He crashes into a far wall and stays there, looking quite confused and shocked. He sees the morphy version of himself, shaking his head in disappointment… Then Buffy comes over and, with her foot, knocks Spike into unconsciousness.
Some time later, the Scoobies sit in the living room, trying to figure out what made Spike change so rapidly. Xander and Anya come downstairs, reporting that what’s-his-name (Andrew) is OK. Buffy comments that Spike was normal until she heard him talking to someone and singing this song she’d heard him singing before in the cellar… Xander points out that it may be a trigger, a post-hypnotic spell used by the Army to activate sleeper agents. He thinks Spike’s ghost may have found a way not only to haunt him, but to control him as well. Buffy agrees – Spike has been seeing stuff since he got his soul back. She asks Dawn and Willow to start researching ghosts or spirits that could do this.

Late at night, Principal Wood leaves his office and walks down the school hallway. Suddenly, he stops in his tracks and looks at the basement door. He opens it and goes downstairs… he walks straight to the room where the Seal is. He sees the hole and Jonathan’s body laid on the Seal. He simply looks at it, his face registering neither surprise nor… anything, actually.

Buffy walks down to her basement, where Spike is chained to the wall. She takes a towel and some water and starts cleaning up the bruise where she hit him. He comes to, and asks if he hurt anybody. “You took a good bite out of Andrew”, she replies. “Who?” he asks. “Tucker’s brother”. He says that he doesn’t remember anything, that he doesn’t know why… “It’s OK”, she says soothingly. “We’ve got it figured out”. She tells him about Xander’s theory; he looks up at her and says that she has to kill him. He adds that she doesn’t know what he’s capable of – the girls he killed, they got off easy. So did she, actually. He describes to her how much blood you can drink from a girl before she’ll die. Buffy says it’s not his fault, he didn’t do it. “There wasn’t anybody else”, he replies. Again, he tells her to kill him before he gets out. She doesn’t want to, and he asks her whether she knows why she doesn’t – it’s not love. “You fought by my side”, she says. He dismisses this, asking her not to rationalize this – the truth is, she needs to hate him, so she can do her job as the Slayer. Buffy angrily tells him that she’s not like that anymore; he doesn’t know her, doesn’t know himself. She saw his penance, saw him fight the monster inside, fight to be a better man. “I believe in you, Spike”.

Just as he looks at her in surprise, the lights go out and the hooded figures crash through the windows, all through the house, attacking the Scoobies everywhere.

In a vacant lot, Principal Wood is stoically digging a hole, with his car headlights providing light. He takes Jonathan’s body and pushes it into the hole.

At the house, Willow fights a robed figure but quickly gets knocked out. Dawn fares a lot better, showing neat battle skills. Buffy comes up from downstairs and fights a third one; a fourth robed figure attacks her from behind, then runs upstairs, with the Slayer in chase.

The robed figure enters the room where Andrew is being held. The figure’s hood is off, revealing a bald head and scars where the eyes used to be. He pulls out two knifes from his belt and advances on the terrified Andrew, who’s tied to the bed. Just as the minion goes to stab, Buffy enters and pushes him off, but soon has to deal with another hooded figure.

Downstairs, Dawn takes a wooden staff and slowly approaches the minion she just crashed into a wall. She gets too close, and he floors her with a foot sweep. He stands over her, preparing to stab her… but is clobbered from behind by Xander with a large steel pipe.

Upstairs, Buffy is still fighting the minion, or whatever he is. She uses Andrew, who has just freed himself, as a shield and a weapon – she rams him into the assailants. Finally, she dispatches them with their own knifes just as Xander arrives. After reassuring her about Dawn being OK, he wonders where is the rest of the attackers. They both think about Spike and run downstairs. When they get to the basement, they find, of course, that Spike is gone…

Willow breaks out the first aid kit as Dawn and Anya huddle on the sofa. Xander comments that these guys were fast and organized. Buffy comments they were after Spike all along. She then notices one of the dead figures and realizes she’s fought them before… To the gang, she announces that she now knows who they’re fighting – The First.

At the Council headquarters in London, Quentin Travers assesses the damage – the place is a mess. An agent informs him they’ve lost contact with operatives all over the world, they’ve been hit hard. Travers reassures them, saying they’re still strong. To the group, he says that the First Evil has declared war on them, but it’s time they struck back. He asks his troops to confirm all remaining operatives – they’re moving out, to the Hellmouth. He quotes the Scriptures – “For by wise counsel, you shall wage your war”.

The Council headquarters explodes in flames and debris.

Spike – or that is, morphy Spike – is looking at his counterpart, who is being tied up spread-eagled on a kind of pentacle. One of the robed figures (the Harbingers, we now know) takes a sharp knife and cuts symbols into Spike’s chest, who writhes and cries with pain. “It’s your fault”, morphy Spike tells him. “You’re the one who couldn’t do your job”. He morphs into Buffy, who adds that she’s glad it turned out this way – she was going to bleed Andrew, but Spike looks better with his shirt off.

The Harbingers crank some machinery and the pentacle – and Spike with it – rises until Spike is suspended face-down over the Seal of Danthazar. Blood begins to drip from his wounds, and morphy Buffy comments that it’s time they brought authority to their presence. “Wanna see what a REAL vampire looks like?” she asks. The Seal of Danthazar activates, opening in the middle, and a grey, ugly, otherworldly figure rises out of the earth. He growls horribly and raises his clawed hands in triumph.

Special thanks to www.leoffonline.com