Writer: Rebecca Rand Kirschner
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 : Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles, Eliza Dushku as Faith, Tom Lenk as Andrew, Iyari Limon as Kennedy, Indigo as Rona, Sarah Hagan as Amanda, DB Woodside as Robin Wood, Nathan Fillion as Caleb, Harry Groener as “Mayor Wilkins”.

Original broadcast date : May 6, 2003

My one-line description: Lots of people get Touched in this episode. The First is very unhappy about it.

With Buffy gone, all is not well at the (Dawn) Summers house. Everybody is bickering about what to do next, while Faith, quite unsure of herself, tries to moderate. Finally she does get through to them and suggests they chill and pick up the conversation in the morning. The girls agree it’s a good idea.

Then the power goes out in the house, and all over town – the power guys have left Sunnydale. Some of the girls start to panic.

Buffy walks alone and dejected in the night, looking for a place to stay. She enters a house, and comes face to face with the gun-toting owner. She grabs the gun from him and tells him he should leave town. The guy can’t believe she’d throw him out of his own house. “Why not? That’s what cool kids are doing nowadays”, she comments bitterly. As the now-frightened man makes his way to the door, Buffy adds that this isn’t his house anymore, or his town. “Got any Tab?” she asks as she looks inside the fridge.

At the mission, Spike and Andrew are waiting for the sun to go down so they can drive back to Sunnydale without Spike exploding. Andrew wants to play games, and when he asks Spike if he wants to play Rock Paper Scissors, the annoyed vampire asks what’s his problem, doesn’t he know that every second they’re stuck here is one more second Buffy is facing the danger alone?

At the Summers house, it’s another day of brainstorming as Faith, getting a better handle of things, lists who their enemies are. They list the First, the Preacher… the Bringers. Faith decides they should capture a Bringer and make him talk, an idea which once again causes a chaotic discussion – Kennedy being the most vocal. Faith tells the girls that she’s decided it’s what they’ll do, and a pissed Rona complains that things aren’t any different than before they threw Buffy out. Faith explains that things are different now – she’s not one of them anymore, she’s their leader. “So Kennedy, get off my back and let me do my job!”

At the vineyard, Caleb and Buffy/The First are watching some Bringers hammering and blow-torching at a big rock. Caleb comments that they’ll get it out sooner or later. Buffy/The First wonders if the Bringers sweat (they pant, Caleb thinks) and then comments that they have to get to whatever’s in that rock before Buffy does. With a small smile, Caleb promises she won’t.

Night time, and Kennedy is (recklessly?) taking a stroll in an alley in what looks like the bad part of town. Predictably, she’s attacked by a Bringer, but Giles and some of the girls rise from the shadows and ambush him. A few more Bringers attack, and the girls deftly dispatch them as they tie up the one they caught. Kennedy comments that she’s not used to being “bait”.

At the house, the gang is congregated in the kitchen, waiting for news from Giles. He finally emerges from the basement and announces that the Bringer is dumb. “What did you expect, an educated scholar?” Anya quips. Ever so patient, Giles explains that the Bringer’s tongue was ripped out. Dawn gets an idea about using a Turkish spell she read about, which can apparently provide a means of communication with people who can’t speak. Willow (who’s read a translation of the spell) thinks she can pull it off.

Just then, the front door opens, and Spike calls out, saying they’re back. He and Andrew enter the kitchen, and Andrew proceeds to make a very, um, peculiar summary of their mission, before deciding he has to urinate. “He’s a bit of fresh air, isn’t he? Lucky I don’t breathe” Spike comments. He goes on to say he’s got some fresh info, and wonders where Buffy is. This causes an uncomfortable moment before Willow finally explains that they had a “discussion” and Buffy decided it would be better for everyone if she took a few days off. Spike doesn’t believe Buffy would take a break in the middle of the apocalypse; guessing the truth, he gets angry and calls them “sad, sad ungrateful traitors”. He accuses Giles of being in this because he’s jealous that Buffy surpassed him. Faith orders Spike to stand down, but he turns on her and says she probably got what she wanted. He then hits her, and she hits him back. In front of the astonished group, Faith and Spike get down to blows, until a disgusted Spike gets up and walks out the front door. Outside, he tries to concentrate and pick up Buffy’s scent.

After Spike’s departure, the gang goes to the basement to work the spell on the Bringer. It works and it begins speaking through Andrew, saying it’s part of the We, and is much stronger than them. It reveals that the We is building a mass of weapons underground. After it threatens to kill all of them, Giles takes a knife and slits its throat – much to the displeasure of Andrew, who freaks out because Giles could’ve magically decapitated him.

Buffy is curled up in a bed in the house she took over, staring off into space. The door opens and Spike enters, saying that the door was unlocked and she could’ve been attacked anytime. She doesn’t answer. He tells her that he found out about what happened, and starts to curse Faith. “It wasn’t just Faith” Buffy cuts in. “It was all of them. Please leave”. Spike refuses to do so, and tells her she was right – Caleb and the First are protecting the vineyard. “I don’t feel very right”, Buffy comments. Spike protests that she’s not a quitter. “Just watch me”, she answers.

At the house, Faith and Giles make plans to take the girls out to the underground Bringer lair to find the weapons, at seven AM. Faith still seems a bit unsure of herself as a leader, and before leaving her for the night, Giles tells her she’s doing just fine.

“He’s right”, comments a familiar voice behind Faith. “In fact, you’re doing better than fine”. It’s Mayor Wilkins. Faith isn’t fooled, and tells him to get out. He jokes around, telling her tidbits of info that show he’s really Richard Wilkins III. He then proceeds to tell her she was right to throw Buffy out – Buffy’s dangerous, and will try to kill her again if she gets the chance.

Spike tries to convince Buffy to go back to the house – she’s still the leader, it’s not something she gave up, it’s just something that they took away from her. Buffy thinks the gang wasn’t wrong to throw her out. Getting up, she admits that she tends to slip away every time someone tries to connect with her. She’s unattainable. Even with him… This pisses off Spike, who launches into a very emotional speech where he tells her that in a hundred plus years, there’s only one thing he’s ever been sure of - “I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you and I understand with perfect clarity what you are. You're a hell of a woman. You're the one, Buffy…”

The speech brings a big tear running down Buffy’s cheek. Spike gets up, tells her to get some rest and prepares to leave. But suddenly she asks him not to leave – she wants him to climb into bed with her and just hold her. He nods and does so, lying down beside her and softly cuddling her.

At the house, Faith again tells Wilkins/The First to get out, but before leaving, the Mayor tells her that her “friends” will never love her. “Never as much as I love you, firecracker!” With that he poofs.

“Faith?” asks another voice. The Slayer whirls around and almost decks Robin Wood. She demands to know what he saw, and he replies that he only saw her, looking thoroughly spooked. She grows confrontational, asking if he’s a shrink now. Wood says he’d come in to talk weapons, but offers to leave. “It’s was the First”, Faith finally admits. Closing the bedroom door, Wood tells her she’s really in the game now. She notices that her hands are shaking, and he says the First has that effect on people. She reveals that it took the form of an old boss of hers, who was like a dad to her. He tells her it came to him as his mother. She asks if the First told him the truth, and he replies that it did. She then reveals what the First told her about Buffy being dangerous; Faith herself wishes that Buffy was there, because she’s the only one who knows how to lead. Wood replies that Buffy is not the only one, and that Faith is a Slayer too. She argues that she’s an ex-con who didn’t finish school, but he counters that he’s the principal of a school where no one finished. He’s in over his head in this, as they all are. Touched by this, Faith offers a night of… comfort to Wood. They start kissing, and soon fall on the bed.

Willow arrives in her bedroom, expecting to find all the girls there – but only Kennedy is present. She obviously also wants a night of comfort… But Willow is afraid that her control will fall if she indulges, and that she’ll go evil again. Kennedy offers to be her kite-string to hold her down, and the two start kissing.

In the kitchen, Xander and Anya are sharing a pot of ice cream while listening to the couples going at it upstairs. Anya, particularly, is jealous that they’re the only ones not having sex.

Cut to a montage with all the couples. Faith and Wood in Buffy’s room (and – predictable – Faith has a fondness for black bras), Buffy and Spike just holding each other and staring at each other, Kennedy licking Willow all over (nice tongue piercing) and – again, predictable – Xander and Anya going at it on the kitchen floor.

The First/Buffy is also aware of all this going on. She tells Caleb that she envies them and their ability to touch – she wants to feel her hand on a girl’s neck and feel it break. Caleb downplays the First’s concerns – it has so much more power than them, it’s evil in itself, and it’s given him so much power… The First agrees that it’s the reason Caleb is the only one strong enough to be her vessel.

The next morning, Andrew briefs the gang on what he and Spike learned – and actually gets a thanks from Faith (huh?). She surmises that the weapon Spike and Andrew found out about is probably where the Bringer told them it would be, and gives her instructions – she wants Willow, Xander, Dawn and Giles to keep an eye on Buffy, presumably to make sure she’s alright. Wood asks what she wants him to do, and she tells him to wait by the phone until he’s needed. He doesn’t look happy. Then she sets out with the girls.

Spike wakes up in an empty bed, a note from Buffy on the pillow beside him.

Caleb and Buffy/the First are at the vineyard making plans, when suddenly a Bringer comes tumbling down the stairs, dead. “Heard you got something of mine”, Buffy says lightly from the top of the stairs. As she comes down, Caleb warns her that if he lays a hand on her, she’s just a dead little girl. Unimpressed, Buffy invites him to try to lay a hand on her. He lunges at her, but she ducks… again and again. Very artful – Caleb never even comes close to touching her. She even manages to make some headway into the room, and Caleb unwillingly helps her – he throws a barrel which shatters a pile of stuff and reveals an open trap door. A triumphant smile on her face, Buffy disappears through it.

Faith leads the girls into the sewer tunnels, where they indeed find the arsenal. Amanda wonders why the Bringers actually abandoned all this. “Maybe because they didn’t”, Faith replies, fighting back a Bringer coming up from behind. The girls all pitch in to decimate the Bringers, and Faith leads them into a large room where a kind of iron trunk sits.

Buffy approaches the huge rock the Bringers had been cutting at, and sees an axe embedded in it (hellooo, King Arthur!). She smiles as she looks at it.

Faith goes to the trunk and kicks the padlock open. She opens the trunk and reveals… a bomb, with 8 seconds to go on the chronometer.

“Get down!” she yells.

Special thanks to Loey.