Previously on Buffy... Buffy doesn't love Spike, Tara and Willow are in love again, Buffy smashed Warren's orbs, Spike tried to rape Buffy, Spike left town, Warren shot Buffy and Tara. Tara is dead.

And so we begin. Some awful "ER" ripoff music plays as an ambulance races down Revello Drive. Xander herds the paramedics into the backyard to help Buffy while upstairs, Willow cradles Tara's lifeless body. Buffy's still alive but barely. Poor Xander does his best not to fall apart while the paramedics work on Buffy, none of them knowing that Tara is dead upstairs. Black clouds swirl over Willow's head. I think Willow summoned them somehow to begin a spell, but that part's not really clear. They're there, and Willow invokes Osiris to command that Tara be returned to her. No urn, no spell, no snakes; she just orders him to do it.

Osiris takes the call but refuses to interfere with a natural human death, just to make it clear that Willow can't bring Tara back the way she did with Buffy. Even if the last urn hadn't been shattered, this wasn't a glowing portal that killed her; it was a bullet. Osiris can not and will not intercede. Willow screams in anguish and fury, and Osiris himself recoils from her wrath.

Opening credits. Thank you, Mutant Enemy, for taking Amber out of them this week. As bitter a pill as it is to swallow that she was only in them for one episode, it would have felt like a mockery to see her there again, for only the second time ever, now that Tara is dead.

The paramedics wheel Buffy towards the ambulance, Xander following, when Willow walks out the front door. He tells her it was Warren who attacked, and she resolutely turns and walks down the street. He looks like he's about to ask about the blood on her shirt, but the paramedics call him and say it's time to go. Xander jumps in the ambulance, and they pull away, leaving the front door open with poor Tara left alone inside. I know she's dead now, but I hate the thought of her just being left there like that. Not to mention that I can see where this is going, and my heart breaks for Dawn.

Jonathan and Andrew are in jail. Andrew's trying to be casual, in contrast to how freaked out he was when they were arrested, but he's still hanging onto the hope that Warren is going to come for them. Jonathan, who's a lot more upset about their predicament, says he knows that Andrew and Warren were going to hang him out to dry, and Andrew does a pretty lame job of trying to deny it. They just need to wait for Warren, who's no doubt devising a scheme for their rescue at that very moment.

Yeah, right, have you met Warren? Poor, loveblind Andrew. Warren's not remotely worried about them; he's off looking to party with the local big bads and get some kudos for killing the Slayer. He goes to a Willy's-Lite demon bar and tries to chat up the vampire next to him, but the vamp's into his nature show on the bar's TV. Warren keeps bragging about how he killed the Slayer. He used to be with The Trio. They've heard of them, right? Um, no. Heh. But anyway, back to him killing the Slayer. How'd he do it? Black magick or something? Nope, gun. Aah, they laugh, shot her in her backyard, huh? Wow, he's screwed. Warren doesn't get the joke. He missed the newsbreak on TV where they reported that a young woman was shot in her backyard but survived. Plus those Slayers heal so very quickly. The vampire on Warren's left says he was actually going to eat him during the commercial break, but he thinks it'll be a lot more fun to let the Slayer hunt Warren down instead. Oh, I like this vampire.

Except that Warren doesn't have to stress the Slayer; it's Willow he needs to be seriously afraid of. She storms into the Magic Box with Tara's blood still spattered across her chest, glass shattering as she passes, and demands to know where Anya keeps the Black Arts books. Um, Willow, you know that already. You've pilfered 'em tons of times. And naturally, Anya (who looks really pretty today ;p) doesn't have to answer that. Anya senses easily that something's seriously wrong and tries to talk Willow out of what she's about to do. Interesting - vengeance demon girl tries to talk Willow out of the vengeance. Willow's response? She freezes Anya. The books come flying off the loft shelves, piling themselves on the table. Willow sinks her hands into the pages, absorbing the spells themselves. I groan at the pentagrams swirling across her skin and feel only slightly less indignant when I notice they're upside-down. Wind whips through the shop, and Willow's eyes and hair turn deep black.

Oh, no. Poor Dawn comes home. The door's open, and no one's home. She walks upstairs, calling for Buffy, but there's no answer. Then she goes into Willow's room and finds Tara's body on the floor.

Scene cut to Warren flashing a huge wad of cash at Rack to get some sort of charm or power to protect him from the Slayer. Rack tells him the Slayer's not Warren's problem now; Willow is. He can practically taste Willow's fury across town. Warren thinks it's because he shot Buffy - he doesn't even know he hit Tara. Not that he really notices or cares when Rack tells him Willow's seeking vengeance for somebody he killed. He just wants to get away, especially when Rack says he knows Willow can sense Warren already. He thrusts a wad of bills into Rack's hands, and Rack says he can't promise anything.

Xander is watching Buffy in surgery. It actually looks more like a school than a hospital - it's definitely not the same ER Buffy was in at the end of S3 (hubby thinks it's the same set they used for Dawn's art class in "The Body"). Buffy's blood pressure is fading, and the surgeons aren't optimistic about her chances. Then the lights flicker, and the equipment goes all skitterish. Willow appears, dressed all in black now. She Jedi mind tricks at the doctors to leave, and they zombie their way out. She walks over to Buffy, looking at the chest wound, and the bullet rises slowly from it and into the air. Willow closes her hand around it, and it disappears. Then Buffy's awake again and okay. Completely healed, despite the tedious flatlining she was doing a second ago. She sits up, confused about where she is and how she got there. Xander throws his arms around her, and Willow offers her a weak smile. Then Willow says it's time to go.

Warren, meanwhile, is getting on a bus that should get him to the border. So Willow, Buffy, and Xander are in pursuit. Willow's urging them faster and faster, pressing the gas pedal telekinetically when Xander won't step on it. Buffy and Xander think they should slow down, unhappy that Willow's using magick so freely. She points out that Buffy would be dead if she weren't, but they still think Willow should defer to Buffy's wishes since she was the one who was shot. They remind her that she quit using magick for a good reason and that she promised them she was through with it, but before they can press much further, Willow sends the car careening through the desert (which is apparently across town from the beach, right? ;p).

The car stops beside a highway, and Willow gets out, stalking into the middle of the road to wait for the bus. Buffy and Xander tell her to wait, to stop what she's doing, but she hits them with the same purple sparks she threw at Anya and freezes them. Then the bus, unable to swerve or avoid, comes to a stop directly in front of her. She flings the door open and orders Warren out. He comes quietly, and she strangles him until his eye pops out. Then the wires in his eye socket start to spark. It's a robot. He tricked her - she was certain she could feel him. I guess something Rack did? Not really sure. So Willow will just have to find another way to kill him.

Buffy and Xander try to get Willow to calm down, and she finally tells them about Tara. They're crushed to hear the news, but they tell her that if she keeps going like this, it'll destroy her. Willow is huge with not caring. And she's through with talking. Her magick blasts them to the ground, and when they look up, Willow is gone.

After dark, Buffy and Xander return to Buffy's house. They call for Dawn but don't get an answer. Buffy goes upstairs and sees Tara's body lying on the floor. Then Dawn speaks up, huddled against the wall where she's been since that afternoon because she didn't want to leave Tara all alone. I thought my heart was done breaking. I was wrong.

Really wrong. Tara is being carried down the stairs in a body bag. My throat closes, and I start to cry. Xander has to sign something, and they wheel her away. He, Buffy, and Dawn are all in shock, but Buffy says they need to find Willow. Warren's dead if she finds him first. Then Dawn makes me stand up and cheer when she says "Good." I'm with her. So is Xander. Buffy says that being the Slayer doesn't mean she can kill humans. That humans have a legal system that may be imperfect, but it's how things work. She makes a few good points, she really does, but she killed almost a dozen of the Knights of Byzantium last year, not to mention doing her level best to kill Faith, so her "never kill a human" policy doesn't really stand up to much scrutiny in my eyes. Sure, those fall under self-defense and trying to save Angel, but that ain't exactly 'never', is it? Xander tells Buffy that he's had blood on his hands all day, blood of people he loves. And he looks at Buffy with more tenderness than I've seen between them in a long time. He wants Warren to pay. So does Buffy, but she's not going to let Willow destroy herself like this.

She suggests going to the Magic Box to maybe find a spell to locate Willow. Xander says he can handle that. Dawn wants to come with since Buffy doesn't want her to stay home alone. Buffy thinks it's too dangerous, that Dawn should be somewhere she feels safe. So Dawn wants to go to Spike's. Yeah, she doesn't know about the attempted rape. Buffy surprises the hell out of me and Xander by being okay with the idea. After all, he's physically incapable of hurting Dawn, which he would never do anyway, right? Which may be so, but she's awfully forthcoming with the trust for a guy who tried to rape her the night before.

I like Spike - I really do. At least, I used to love him like crazy. But I detest what's been done to his character this year. I eagerly await his triumphant return to Sunnydale. And when he gets back, I desperately hope he's either embracing his inner evil again or ready to commit to the good guys' team. Sleazy, clingy, would-be rapist and whipped puppy just doesn't look good on him. Be evil, be good, be whatever you want. But pick a freaking lane already, would you please?!

In Tara's room (in Stevenson, where Willow and Buffy used to live), Willow spreads her bloodstained shirt out on the floor and recites an incantation. Tara's blood soaks through the other side to reveal a map to where Waren is.

The TV is on when Buffy and Dawn enter Spike's crypt. Buffy calls out to him, and Clem bolts awake, startled. He offers them some Country Time lemonade (he's such a polite host) and tells them that he's crypt-sitting since Spike left town. Buffy's a little thrown by that - and why she cares, I have *no* idea - but she has so very many more important things to worry about. She asks if he minds Dawn staying there for a while, and he cheerfully asks if Dawn would like to play Parchesi or some rent videos. He even offers her the comfy chair. Man, I love this guy.

Spike, meanwhile, is... well, I'm not sure where he is. The tree and cloth prints look African, and the sand looks like a beach (so probably a beach location dressed up to look like Africa). All's I know for sure is that it ain't Sunnydale. No, it's a forgeign country, one that's not Mexico or Canada, which he and his motorcycle managed to reach in a day. He walks past a guy who sounds like he's trying to warn Spike off, but Spike doesn't particularly care. He enters a cave filled with wall paintings of awful death and dismemberment, and a demon's raspy voice demands to know why Spike's there. Spike is full of livid fury, and he wants to be what he used to be. The demon doesn't seem to believe Spike capable of returning to his former self, but Spike's ready for the challenge. And if he can pass the trials this guy sets for him, he swears menacingly that Buffy's going to see a big change.

Back at the Magic Box, Xander helps Anya to sit at the table - seems Willow's freezing whammy is just wearing off. Anya already knows what happened to Tara and what Willow's doing, so Xander asks if she knows any kind of locating spell. Not necessary, she tells him, Willow's thirst for vengeance is so strong that Anya can feel where she is. I want to call that a contrivance for a second, but then I realise that's actually probably true. After all, it's what drew Halle to town on Dawn's behalf, not to mention probably what brought Anya to Cordelia to curse... who was it? Oh right, Xander.

Xander wonders if her ability to sense Willow is left over from her old demon days, but it isn't. It's from her new demon days. Xander actually asks her when that happened, but she doesn't justify that with an answer other than "When do you think?" Then Buffy enters, and Xander tells her Anya's "got her vengeance on again". He wonders why Anya isn't going to help Willow, but Anya knows that Willow doesn't want any help. (of course, unless something's happened that we haven't seen, Anya hasn't actually managed to grant any vengeful wishes yet). Buffy cuts to the chase, though, and asks if Anya will help them. She will, for Willow.

Willow walks through the woods, calmly stalking Warren. Then suddenly she falls to the ground. Warren is standing over Willow, who has an axe buried in her back. That can't be good. For Warren, I mean.

Sure enough, she pops right back up and wrenches the axe out of her back. Warren takes off, and she follows. He takes a box out of his backpack and activates it. It makes like the golden snitch and flies back towards Willow. It detonates next to her, but she freezes the explosion and walks right through it. Warren keeps running through the woods, but she's suddenly right in front of him. He backs away, telling her it was an accident. Willow's not impressed that he's telling her he meant to kill her best friend instead of her girlfriend. Her new purple lightning sends him sprawling on the ground, and he reaches in his pocket. He throws something at her, shouting "Capture!", and she's trapped inside a bubble. Not for long, naturally, because she easily melts it away. Neat idea, cool concept, but it screams CGI so loudly that it kinda ruins it for me.

Warren's running again, in full-on panic mode, and for good reason. Willow speaks, and vines entrap his arms and legs, stringing him up like a prisoner in a dungeon. He tries to bluster and threaten his way out, and Willow realises Tara wasn't the first girl he killed. Katrina appears, taunting him, asking him why he had to do it until he snaps and yells that she deserved it, bitch! Katrina's disappears. Warren is bubbling over now with his hatred of women and their mind games. So not the way to talk yourself out of this, guy. Which is fine with me. Let him dig his own grave. I'll bring the shovel.

Nearby, Anya is leading Buffy and Xander to Willow. She can tell Willow's not done yet, that Warren is still alive. And we see Warren again, now screaming for help. Also not effective. Willow shows him the bullet she pulled out of Buffy. Warren's shirt is ripped open, and Willow places the bullet in front of his chest. It floats there, waiting.

Then at Willow's word, it begins to move, burrowing its way through him. Warren finds out just what a bullet feels like as it rips through skin and lungs towards his spine. But it's not quick, the way it was for Tara and Buffy. This bullet takes its time and tears through him inch by inch. He screams in agony, begging Willow to stop, but with a wave of her hand, his mouth is sewn shut. She wants him to listen to what he did to Tara as he feels this. The others are getting closer. Willow wants to hear his agony now and releases his mouth. He begs for her to make it stop, to send him to jail, trying to appeal to her good nature. The others are almost there now. Buffy calls out to Willow, and Warren tells Willow that if she gets caught for this, it'll bring her friends down with her. And he knows she's in pain, but... That's just too much. Willow's heard enough. With a wave of her hand... WHOA! Every inch of his skin is stripped away, and he collapses dead against the vines.

Buffy, Xander, and Anya reach the clearing and are horrified at what she's done. Warren's body is incinerated in a ball of flame, and Willow turns to her friends. Just before she disappears, she tells them, "One down."

Next episode: "Two to Go"

Thoughts

Another Giles-less week passes with less drama than I'd hoped. Which sounds really weird, considering the mountain of hugeness that went down, but the pace was like molasses in syrup, and Buffy's sanctimonious routine worked my very last nerve.

I knew the second they left the house that poor Dawn was going to find Tara's body, and I felt so horrible for her. I spent the vast majority of this season wishing Dawn would be crushed by a falling piano, but she's really come around lately. Then when she was all for Warren's timely demise, I was proud of her. Yeah, I was glad to hear her, and Xander, wanting him dead. Xander's always been about the vengeance, really, but Dawn surprised me. Not that she really should have, come to think of it. Tara wasn't just Dawn's friend. When Tara left, it was like seeing her parents divorce all over again. And when Dawn saw that Tara had come back, it was like family coming home. Now Tara's dead, Dawn wants blood, and I'm all for it.

Buffy, of course, chimes in with her sermon about how it's wrong to ever kill humans, but I guess that doesn't apply if they're chasing your camper. Or if they think killing Dawn is the only way to save the world. Yes, you can bury an axe in a knight's chest and tell Giles you'll kill him if he goes near Dawn. But you can't kill the bastard who framed you for a murder he committed, then shot you, and then killed one of your best friends. Somewhere along the way, I think she starts to make the point that she's not as worried about Warren's fate as she is about what killing him will do to Willow, but it got a bit lost in her pontificating about human justice.

Someone out for a little less vengeance than I am could point out that Buffy killed the knights in self-defense and that she only threatened to kill Giles in order to protect her sister, both of which are morally and legally acceptable reasons to kill. And it's a far cry from that to hunting down someone and killing him in retribution. I'd get that. Totally. But Buffy doesn't say anything remotely like that. She just keeps repeating that it's absolutely wrong to kill, ever, for any reason. Plus? I'm not advocating legal reform or arguing case law. I'm talking about a fictional TV show where my best girl was just murdered. So I'm all about wanting her killer dead.

On a different note, I love Clem. Tons. I want a Clem spinoff and a stuffed Clem doll to hug before I go to sleep at night. But what made Buffy think that Dawn would be safer in a cemetery with him than she would be in a locked house? Vampires don't need invites into other vamps' or demons' homes, and we've never had any inkling that Clem can handle himself against an angry terrier pup, much less something that might attack Dawn. Still, I know Buffy didn't want Dawn to be alone after what she'd been through. And I'm sure that Dawn felt better being with him, which was probably really more the point than finding Dawn a bodyguard.

Still, I have to take a whole squadron of issues with Buffy's original plan to leave Dawn with Spike. Attempted rapists? Not my first choice for babysitter. Not even if they really like your sister. Not my first choice, not my eighth choice, not anywhere on my list of options. I've been a fan of the Spike/Dawn friendship for a long time, apparently more than this season's writers have been, but think about this, Buffy. Your sister just spent the entire day sitting with the dead body of one of the most important people in her whole world. So what's your idea? Send her off to spend the evening with the guy who tried to rape you last night. Oh, yeah. That's an excellent plan.

But more about Willow. The thing with the bullet was exquisite retribution. But then I was too busy giggling when she said "Bored now" to catch exactly what happened next. So a second later, I was like "Hey, didn't he used to have skin?" Even cheering for his death, I can easily grant she went too far. And is clearly planning to go farther. I had no sympathy whatsoever for Warren, nor do I think I was supposed to. The tragedy here isn't what happened to him. Rather, it's what Tara's death is doing to Willow. Finally, I think Buffy's concern for what this would do to her friend came through. You really don't come back from ripping a guy's skin off. Then again, she doesn't plan to.

Speaking of coming back... Giles? Please?!!

Quirks

Willow's on a death-and-vengeance mission, and before going to the hospital to save Buffy's life, she stopped to change her clothes?!

In the hospital, Buffy's heart monitor beeps furiously when Willow enters, and then it flatlines. Why? Its function is to measure Buffy's heart rate, right? So taking the bullet out of Buffy's chest isn't going to bring her back if her heart isn't beating anymore. I don't get this sequence or what the beeping is supposed to signify, but I do know that one continuous beep means the heart isn't beating. And Willow couldn't save Buffy if she were dead because it was a 'natural' death. So she had to get there before Buffy died. But then why is the monitor flatlined? Auugh, it hurts my head. I don't get it. Maybe Willow's dramatic entrance screwed it up somehow. But it's not the only timing I don't get in this episode. Aside from the flatlined heart monitor not meaning Buffy's dead, there's the black clouds that start swirling before Willow started any incantation. Which may have just been building because of her incredible fury and power, but it isn't clear. And I prefer my ominous portents and beeping equipment to be clear.

Why does Willow bring Buffy and Xander along on her vengeance quest? She knows they'll just try to reason with her and get her to stop, and Willow's not remotely about reason right now. I mean, she's on a "crush, kill, murder the bastard" mission after all - if she needed a car, wouldn't she have just stolen one? I know the writers wanted her to have B & X along to do some "calm down, Willow" speechifying - and that I'm babbling way too long about this - but the image of Willow hitching a ride with her friends to go kill Warren just struck me as a little off.

Buffy says that Willow is "messing with forces that want to hurt her, all of us." I totally get that Willow's magick is bad news here, but where did she get the idea that the magick itself *wants* to hurt people?

In one day, on a motorcycle that provides absolutely no protection against sunlight, Spike has managed to go from Southern California to a place where neither English nor Spanish seems to be the native language. Cool trick.

When Willow says she's "Bored now" and waves Warren's skin away, she turns to walk away from him, but in the very next shot, she's still looking straight at him. A nitpick, really, but it's such an eeksome moment that I'm disappointed they missed this.

Yeesh, speaking of disappointed. This isn't a quirk; it's a recurring rant. The preview for next week? "Hell hath no fury like a Wiccan scorned"?! Sweet merciful crap, people!! Once again, Mutant Enemy, Wicca is a religion. Do you think they'd ever consider flashing the tagline "Hell hath no fury like a Jew scorned"? Of course they wouldn't. Because it would be stupid and horribly offensive. But their slander and misrepresentation of the Wiccan religion continues unabated. Wiccans aren't spell junkies with purple lightning shooting from their fingers. They are members of the nature-worshipping Wiccan religion, and the very highest law in Wicca is to do no harm. Not to yourself, not to others. Many Wiccans believe you shouldn't even cast a healing spell for someone without their permission and participation. There isn't, nor has there ever been, anything remotely Wiccan about Willow.

Body Count

Tara Maclay is confirmed dead - Shot last episode by Warren
Warren Mears - Let's see, Willow bound him, gagged him, pushed a bullet through his internal organs, ripped his skin off, and burned him to a crisp. Yeah, he's dead.

Haiku

Blood cries out for blood
Past the point of no return
No mercy, bored now

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