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5.01 - Buffy vs. Dracula
Dracula comes to Sunnydale to seek out the legendary Slayer. He tries to seduce Buffy, saying that her power is rooted in darkness. Not knowing that Giles was planning to return to England, Buffy is shaken by the encounter and asks him to be her Watcher again. Oh yeah, and since when does Buffy have a little sister?!

5.02 - Real Me
Buffy and Giles have started training together again, but it's hard with Dawn always in the way. On a supply run to the Magic Box, they find the owner murdered by vampires. Vampires who are Harmony's new minions. She calls out the Slayer but ends up fighting Xander instead, and Buffy slays Harm's minions.

5.03 - The Replacement
A demon tries to kill Buffy by separating her from her Slayer half, but the spell backfires, instead creating two Xanders. One confident and assertive, the other a clumsy bungler. 'Clumsy' Xander assumes the other is some kind of evil robot duplicate, but they're two halves of a whole. Also, Giles buys the Magic Box, and even though he doesn't say it to Buffy, Riley knows she's not in love with him.

5.04 - Out of My Mind
Riley's strength and energy are off the charts as a result of the Initiative's experiments on him, but it's putting a terrible strain on his heart. Buffy convinces him to let a specialist remove the modifications, but she has to find the doctor first. He's been kidnapped by Spike and Harmony, who want him to remove Spike's chip. Buffy and Riley rescue the doctor, but Buffy can't stay - she has to go see to Joyce, who suddenly and inexplicably collapsed. Spike dreams of kissing Buffy and wakes up horrified that he's fallen in love with her.

5.05 - No Place Like Home
Searching for a mystical explanation for Joyce's collapse, Buffy does a spell and discovers that Dawn isn't really her sister. She's actually The Key, put in Buffy's care, and the Slayer must protect her from a powerful demon named Glory. Giles hires Anya to help him run the Magic Box, and Spike starts stalking Buffy.

5.06 - Family
Tara's father arrives for her birthday, demanding that she come home because only he can control her demon side that's about to manifest. But when Spike obligingly punches her in the nose and recoils in pain, the 'demon side' story is revealed as a lie to keep the Maclay women subservient. The Scoobies declare her part of the family and refuse to let her be taken away.

5.07 - Fool For Love
When Buffy nearly dies on routine patrol, she asks Spike how he killed his two Slayers in order to learn from their mistakes. While telling her about it, he comes onto Buffy, comparing their constant fighting to foreplay. She tells him he's beneath her, and he decides to blow her head off, chip or no chip. But when he sees Buffy crying over Joyce deteriorating health, he can't go through with it.

5.08 - Shadow
Joyce is diagnosed with a brain tumor. When Buffy accepts comfort from Spike - whose stalking has escalated to sniffing her clothes and stealing her underwear - but not from her boyfriend, Riley begins flirting with danger. Meanwhile, Glory creates a giant snake capable of sniffing out The Key. It crashes through the Magic Box window and spots Dawn, and Buffy has to kill it before it can return to its master.

5.09 - Listening to Fear
Glory has been draining people's minds to keep her own intact, and the mental ward is overflowing. Ben summons the Quellor in an effort to deal with the rampant insanity, but with Joyce delusional from her tumor, it follows her to the Summers' house. Riley calls in the Initiative to deal with it, but Buffy kills it before the soldiers arrive. Joyce somehow knows that Dawn isn't really hers, but she makes Buffy promise to care for her sister, no matter what happens.

5.10 - Into the Woods
Buffy feels betrayed when she finds out that Riley has been letting vampires bite him. The Initiative wants Riley back, and she's too angry to give him a reason to stay. Xander opens her eyes to what she's giving up by letting Riley go, but she's too late. Riley's helicopter is already in the air, and he flies away, unable to hear her calling after him.

5.11 - Triangle
Willow and Anya butt heads in the Magic Box while Giles is in England consulting the Council about Glory. A spell gone predictably wrong releases a troll named Olaf, whom Anyanka once dated. Angry at her and the witches who imprisoned him, Olaf demands that Xander decide whether Anya or Willow dies. When he insults Anya and Xander's relationship, a sore spot for Buffy, the Slayer angrily keeps the troll occupied until Willow can teleport him to a more troll-friendly dimension.

5.12 - Checkpoint
The Council has information about Glory and The Key, but they won't give to it Buffy unless she passes their tests - and they'll deport Giles if Buffy doesn't jump through their hoops. Harrassed by Glory, mocked by her teacher, attacked group of knights on a quest to destroy The Key, Buffy decides to tell The Council to stuff it. They need her a lot more than she needs them. Their bluff called, they reinstate Giles as Buffy's official Watcher and tell them that Glory isn't a demon. She's a god.

5.13 - Blood Ties
Another happy birthday for Buffy. Dawn learns that she's The Key and runs away from home, distraught that she isn't real. She winds up at the hospital, talking to Ben. When she says she's The Key, he transforms into Glory. She doesn't know what Ben and Dawn were talking about, and Dawn stalls her, trying to find out what The Key really is. The gang arrives; Willow and Tara transport Glory away but not before Buffy is injured. She compares her blood to Dawn's and says they're the same.

5.14 - Crush
Spike's stalking reaches epic proportions when Dru comes to town. She wants her William back, but Spike ties up both her and Buffy, offering to stake Dru to prove his love to the Slayer. When she shoots him down, he changes the offer: she says she loves him, or he'll let Drusilla kill her. Miffed at missing the love-in, Harmony attacks Spike, and Dru breaks free. Spike saves Buffy from his sire and earns himself an official break-up from Harmony, pity from Dru, and unequivocal rejection from Buffy.

5.15 - I Was Made to Love You
A geek named Warren builds himself a robot, designed to be the perfect girlfriend, and when he leaves her and finds someone new, April goes looking for him. Buffy damages the robot during a fight but sits and talks with it while the robot's batteries wear down. Giles threatens Spike with bodily harm if he doesn't leave Buffy alone, and the vampire tells Warren to start building a Buffybot. Buffy returns home and finds Joyce dead on the couch.

5.16 - The Body
Joyce is dead. Horribly, painfully, irrevocably dead.

5.17 - Forever
Joyce's funeral. Angel visits afterwards and sits with Buffy until sunrise. Dawn decides to do a resurrection spell despite the risks involved, and Spike helps her gather the necessary ingredients. Dawn raises Joyce but cancels the spell, returning her to the grave. Ben accidentally lets Glory know that The Key is human.

5.18 - Intervention
Giles takes an emotionally numb Buffy to consult with her spirit guide, who says that death is her gift. Buffy is not thrilled. While she's gone, the gang meets the Buffybot. She eagerly admits to frequent sex with Spike, and they think that Buffy's just reacting badly to Joyce's death. Glory's minions kidnap Spike, thinking he's The Key, and he stands up to Glory's torture, refusing to tell her who The Key really is. Buffy gives him a soft kiss of gratitude.

5.19 - Tough Love
Glory's minions next identify Tara as The Key. When Tara stubbornly refuses to talk, Glory sucks her brain dry, leaving her insane. Willow vows to care for her, just as Buffy says she'll take care of Dawn. Glory tracks them down again, finding them in time to hear Tara identify Dawn as the bright, green ball of energy the hell-god has been seeking.

5.20 - Spiral
Now that Glory knows Dawn is The Key, Buffy orders a retreat. The entire gang (plus Spike) flee in a stolen camper, but they're attacked by the Knights of Byzantium. Seeking cover in an abandoned gas station, Buffy calls Ben to come tend to a wounded Giles, but the young man transforms into Glory, snatches Dawn, and runs away. Shattered, Buffy collapses, catatonic.

5.21 - The Weight of the World
The gang returns to Sunnydale, but if they're going to rescue Dawn, they have to get Buffy back first. Willow enters her mind and finds Buffy stuck in a loop, blaming herself for Dawn's capture. Frustrated, Willow pretty much tells Buffy to get over it, which Buffy obediently does. Giles, meanwhile, has made a discovery, but it's not a happy one. The only way to stop the ritual once it starts is to kill Dawn.

5.22 - The Gift
Furious that Giles would even consider killing her sister, Buffy insists that after this fight, she's finished being the Slayer. Willow does a spell to return Tara's mind to her, which weakens Glory, and Buffy pummels the god until she's all but dead. She goes to help Dawn, leaving Ben alive with his promise to keep Glory away from her sister, but Giles knows it's not that simple and smothers Ben to keep Glory from ever resurfacing. Buffy reaches Dawn but not before the portal opens. Dawn wants to jump, since it needs her blood to close it, but Buffy insists on being the one to go. She jumps from the tower and is killed by the portal's energies before she reaches the ground. Her friends bury her with the epitaph: She saved the world. A lot.

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