Previously... The First Evil wants to kill all the Potential Slayers, who are congregating at Buffy's house. Willow and Kennedy kissed. Buffy is confident that Spike can be a good man and seems to like having him around. Principal Wood is handy with a stake, probably because his mother was a Slayer - Nikki (New York, 1977) to be exact. And he knows that Spike killed his mother. Onward!

Buffy wanders through the house, accompanied by enough creepy music to clearly identify this as a dream. Only Chloe is awake (hey, remember Chloe?), weeping in the corner. Buffy goes to talk to her but is suddenly tackled by The First Slayer, who insists "It's not enough." Buffy wakes up, credits ensue.

Spike and Anya are out for a drink, Anya alternately bemoaning her decision to become human and coming onto Spike. Spike isn't particularly receptive to Anya's offers of sexual mingling, and he welcomes a sudden attack by one of D'Hoffryn's minions. Apparently, Big D'H still wants Anya dead - vengeance and all that, I suppose. Spike knocks the demon down, but rather than go in for the kill, he grabs Anya, and they scram.

The next day, Robin and Buffy talk about the growing unrest and violence they've seen around school. Robin knows things are about to get a lot bigger than him and gives Buffy something he's been holding onto: an "emergency kit" that belonged to his mother. He's not sure exactly what's in it, but when Buffy doesn't think she can accept it, he says it's rightfully hers and somehow related to his mother's - now Buffy's - power.

Now that Robin's counted as an ally, Buffy brings him over for a tour of Slayer Central. Andrew greets them at the door, frustrated by the funnel cake that's kicking his ass but very excited about the "Big Board" he's drawn up in an attempt to be helpful. Much eye-rolling ensues as Buffy tries to explain Andrew to Robin, and they make their way into the backyard. Outside, Kennedy is trying to be a stern drill sergeant, but it's coming off more "power-tripping, bitchy egomaniac". The hell? Sure, she's the best-trained of all of them, but she's strutting around like the Queen Freaking Bee. An extremely unpleasant Queen Bee, who is having way too much fun browbeating the other Potentials. She even calls Chloe a maggot. Then she bounces over to say hi to Buffy, giddy at all the fun she's having yelling at the other girls. Sheesh.

Willow comes out the back door loaded down with weapons. When she sees Robin standing there, she whips out the worst cover story ever (shades of the old Willow - good to see some things never change), but Buffy tells her Robin's in the club now. Robin says he's heard Willow has been experimenting, which is Willow's cue to pull a "gasp, my secret!" face. Because it's a joke about Willow being gay, see? Because that's still funny after more than two years now, right? Ahem. Moving on. No, he means magick (duh), and Willow assures him she's only been experimenting with safe, simple spells. Um, since... ? Anyway, Willow dubs Robin "so much cooler than Snyder" (amen!) and goes inside. Buffy makes a lame joke in which she calls Willow a Wicca, and I growl. Major pet peeve. Aside from the fact that Buffyverse witchcraft has all of nothing to do with the Wicca, calling Willow a Wicca is like calling the Pope a Christianity or Willow's parents Judaisms. I'd say more, but the grinding of my back teeth is my cue to bail before this turns into an all-out rant, so...

Robin wants to see Spike, who is downstairs arguing with Anya. She's mad that he didn't kill the demon the night before. Spike tries to argue that it was more important to see her to safety, but she storms out, unimpressed. That leaves Buffy to watch a very intense and enigmatic discussion between Spike and Robin about Spike's soul and where he was before coming to Sunnydale. Big-time tension, very nicely played.

Later, Dawn tells Buffy about what was in the bag Robin gave her. Excuse me? Buffy, your friend gave you something that belonged to his dead mother because he thought you should have it. This woman, whose death he's spent years fighting to avenge, was a Slayer. And Robin told you that whatever was in the bag had something to do with your power, your heritage. So you left it for somebody else look through? That's nice. Well, there's a big book written in Sumerian and some box Dawn couldn't open. Buffy files that info for later and asks if Dawn has any real homework to do. Dawn teases Buffy about having a new "flunk out" system, then an alternate "pay someone else to do her homework" system, but the teasing gets cut short when they open a bedroom door to find Chloe hanging from the ceiling.

Dawn's gasp brings the others running, and now that there's an audience, The First shows up as Chloe to play another round of "I'm gonna kill you all, and it's just so easy!" Apparently Firsty was more successful talking Chloe into killing herself than it was with Willow. There's the usual, gleeful rubbing it in everybody's faces, but we all know how the speech goes by now, so I'll skip it.

After burying Chloe in the backyard, Buffy addresses the troops and offers a stirring tirade about how it's time for everybody to get useful or go die. Kennedy gets uppity and needs to shut up, but then again, so does Buffy. She pretty much rips everybody a new one because they haven't suddenly become magnificent under her non-existent leadership. Not particularly interested in the crappy pep talk, Spike starts to leave, but Buffy's got some for him too. She says he's been holding back because of his soul, and that makes him useless to her. She wants the dangerous Spike back. Uh, so hating Buffy in this scene, but she does have a point - dangerous Spike could come in pretty handy right about now. Put me down for some of that too!

Buffy decides it's time for her to dig into Nikki's bag. She sends the Potentials upstairs (not Kennedy, though - Kennedy's special), and Robin comes over. Buffy casually smashes the lock on the unopened box while Dawn peruses the Big Sumerian Book of Mysteries. Inside the box are metal figures, shadow puppets that will tell a story Buffy needs not only to watch but also to see. Aah, those enigmatic ancient Sumerians. Dawn says it looks like an origin myth, probably that of The First Slayer, which reminds Buffy of her dream. Rather than do something silly like call Giles (wherever the hell he is this week), who we know speaks Sumerian, they decide Dawn's translation skills are enough to go on and set up the shadow-casters.

They light the lamp in the center, and while Dawn reads from the book, Xander adds the appropriate pieces to the lamp's base. No one is particularly reassured by the very realistic sound effects from nowhere that start to chime in. Suddenly the book is no longer in Sumerian, and as Dawn finishes a passage about making an exchange, the lamp becomes a bright, glowing portal. Buffy assumes she has to enter it, but Willow and the others urge caution - perhaps because they remember how well things didn't go the last time Buffy dove into a dimensional rift. But Buffy's really not about caution today and decides to go ahead and dive in, letting the others worry about the little details like, say, how to bring her back. And the giant demon that's suddenly standing in the middle of the living room. Oh, right - the exchange thing.

The big Predator-looking demon tosses Xander across the room, and Kennedy tells Willow to use her magick to send it back where it came from. But Willow's too busy getting bashed against the wall to manage that. Badass Robin has a couple of shuriken ("throwing stars") up his sleeve, which he flings at the demon, but he, Kennedy, and Dawn all get sent flying too. Spike decides it's his turn and gets smashed through the ceiling for his trouble. Through the ceiling. As in, he gets flung upwards and winds up on the second floor. Ouch. Not that the Potentials who are supposedly upstairs too seem to notice this. Predator is apparently bored with this scene and decides to take his rampage outside. Kennedy gets snippy, and everyone agrees they need to get Buffy back to deal with this thing. Because they don't have a house full of people who've been training to tackle exactly this sort of problem.

While Buffy gets reacquainted with the desert she visited in Restless (and her vision quest in S5), Kennedy seems to think that Willow just needs to throw some magick at the problem, try any spell she can think of. Kennedy, dear, I really liked you before this episode (well, except for the heavy come-on in Killer in Me), but between your new bossy attitude and your complete ignorance of what you're talking about, I do wish you'd simmer down. Well, time for that later, I suppose. After Buffy's "Everyone sucks but me" speech, as Anya calls it, the former demon is all for letting Buffy worry about getting Buffy back, but Dawn manages to get her and Willow to pool their knowledge and start working on how to re-open the portal. As for the necessary exchange, Spike puts himself in charge of bringing the demon back, preferably dead. Kennedy bluntly points out how kicked his ass got in Round One of the bout, but Spike's on it. There's just something he needs to get first.

Meanwhile in the desert, Buffy chats up a threesome of shaman-types, who it turns out were waiting for her. Since she's in rather a hurry, she wants the helpful info and quick, but they're not about information, just power. Then for some reason, she decides to drone on for a bit about how she doesn't think they're really real, just holograms or something, so they treat her to a complimentary bonk on the skull. Down goes Buffy.

Good thing Willow's about to try to open the portal. She warns them it could take days to work something this complex, but after a few words, Dawn and Kennedy fly backwards, and Willow screams. Her eyes have gone seriously black. Well, that's promising! Over in the desert, Buffy is now chained to a rock, just like the First Slayer was in the shadow play. Sure enough, the three Proto-Watchers are going to transform Buffy the same way they created the First Slayer. Buffy doesn't like the plan and insists she has plenty of power already, thank you very much. They tell her this will make her ready for the fight ahead, but she rejects the plan outright. Apparently she's been absent during all her recent speeches, but since the ritual seems to involve merging her against her will with some sort of wafting, creeping "spirit of the demon" I'll go ahead and back her play (with the caveat that after all her speechifying about what's at stake, she could have at least *considered* it, even if just for a second).

Back in Sunnydale, we see what Spike had to go get, and damn if it isn't a sight for sore eyes. It's his duster, which he had packed away in the school basement. A piece of the old Spike back again. As he walks out, he passes Robin in the hallway. Robin compliments the coat and asks where he got it. Spike's answer: New York. Robin is not pleased.

Willow is making progress with the portal, but something is still missing. Suddenly, she reaches for Kennedy and Anya, who both glow brightly before crumbling, drained, to the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a portal. Xander drags Willow out of the circle, and Kennedy looks utterly shocked by what Willow just did to her. Across town, Spike is practically howling. He's getting his butt handed to him, but he's enjoying the hell out of the fight, taunting Predator until he can get his feet under him. He gleefully launches himself into it again, giving as good as he's getting, not holding anything back. Then he snaps Predator's neck. Welcome back, Spike. We missed you so.

Refusing to be violated the way The First Slayer was, Buffy breaks lose and incapacitates two of the Proto-Watchers. She breaks their staffs (which, experience has taught her, is usually the quickest way to break a bad guy's spell), and the demon mist disappears. The third shaman tells Buffy that they offered her power. She fires off a saucy "Tell me something I don't know," and he obliges. He puts his hand on her cheek, and light flares around them. When he takes it away, Buffy looks shaken and haunted. Spike hurls the body of the demon through the portal to bring Buffy home again, but the mood upon her arrival is not triumphant.

Kennedy walks upstairs, still shaken by the spell. Willow asks if she's okay and apologizes for draining her like that. Even though Willow tried to prepare her, even though Kennedy was the one urging Willow to do whatever magick she needed to open the portal, now that she's on the bruised end of it, Kennedy isn't so sure anymore. About the magick or about Willow. She tells Willow she'll see her in the morning, then goes into the room and closes the door. After all her eagerness to see Willow crank up the juice, it was pretty clear she'd have a rude awakening ahead of her, and sure enough, she got it. I totally get that she needs to spend the night apart and process what just happened. But did she just kick Willow out of her own room? Maybe it was Dawn's. Hope so.

Willow checks in on Buffy, who's looking pretty glum. Glum because she thinks she might have made a mistake by turning down the shamans' offer of power, especially after how hard she knows she was on everybody earlier. Willow says it's okay, that they'll get by, but Buffy knows The First Slayer was right. "It isn't enough." Then we see what Buffy saw when the shaman touched her face - there's still thousands of Ubervamps under the Seal, and they're looking to party.

Thoughts

The theme of this episode was "It's not enough", which sounds about right. It had most of the pieces, but it wasn't quite enough. It's a viable episode that fits logically into the season as a whole, but like several others this year, it's not one I'll be singling out to watch by itself anytime soon.

Things I liked: The First Slayer. Always a welcome party guest, if a little on the rowdy side. And Spike and his duster, together again? Hell, yeah! Soon as Spike pulled it on, some of his old, confident self was back, and his entire attitude changed. And the tension between him and Robin was palpable and delicious. I liked Andrew, his Big Board, and the ass-kicking funnel cake. And the shadow-caster show was pretty cool. Huh, short paragraph. Moving on to...

...things that didn't work for me. Unfortunately a much longer topic. For starters, Buffy's "Little General" act is wearing seriously thin. I don't know if it's the writing or the portrayal, but Buffy is severely lacking in leadership skills. Unless "You guys suck. Stop sucking!" is somehow going to rally the troops to greatness. She has this whole glum resolve thing going on, which I'm sure is supposed to be a mix of all kinds of determined-yet-afraid emotions, but it's just coming across as a cranky monotone. Okay, I did like her bitchy challenge to Spike, but the rest of it was just... well, bitching. And bitching doesn't go very far in leading an army. Oh, and speaking of bitching: Kennedy. I was so into her earlier in the season, but the way she was strutting around like she's suddenly this seasoned hardass really turned me off.

Also on the 'meh' list was another sudden lack of Giles. I know I'm not exactly unbiased here, but after last week's "It's time to get serious, damnit!" lecture, suddenly he's gone? I assume he's off collecting another Potential, but if that's the case, you'd think they could have managed a mention of it somewhere during the several minutes they spent talking, once again, about all the new arrivals. Actually, I think that's a big part of my "it's not enough" feelings - most of the episode was spent covering ground that's already been covered repeatedly. The flood of incoming Potentials, whether Willow could/should do a spell, how overmatched they are, how The First is going to pick them off one at a time... and this week, Buffy told everybody to put up or shut up. Again. Been there, heard that, got it the first four times, ready for something new.

Unfortunately, aside from Spike's new/old attitude, there wasn't much new about this week. Except for Buffy meeting the shamans who created the First Slayer, which you'd think would have been huge, right? These were the men who forged her destiny, setting her and so many other girls on a path of darkness, violence, and death. But through their callous actions, they also created a weapon, a force of light that would save countless lives and be the world's best hope against the coming evil. This should have been one of the most significant moments in Buffy's life. Instead, it was pretty much a plot device to show Buffy that there's still a ton of vamps left in the basement vending machine. Which I kind of assumed after last week.

Sorry, but it wasn't enough.

Quirks

The First stayed up all night talking Chloe into killing herself, right? I wonder whom was The First "wearing" at the time. It had to be somebody who's already dead, but it also had to be someone Chloe would be willing to sit and talk with. I mean, I doubt she'd sit and have this conversation with somebody she'd never met, even in a house of new girls, because somebody new enough for her to be able to justify not having met yet would also be somebody too new to understand the situation well enough to upset her that deeply (am I making sense?). Unless Chloe really was an idiot, and she sat there listening to a dead person bum her out, even after seeing The First pull the same routine with Eve. Ooh, unless it was "wearing" Buffy at the time! Actually, that would make sense and be crushing enough to work - I like it! But the part that trips me up even more is how Chloe and Firsty were able to find a place in this bustling zoo of a house where they could sit and talk "all night" without anybody else coming in.

So we've already seen how packed the house is, but somehow they had a bedroom to themselves for the whole night? Doubtful. Unless they buggered off to the mystery zone where Chloe's been hiding for the last few episodes. Which I'm guessing is the same zone the house full of Potentials buggered off to again later when the mystical exchange program went down. I mean, sure, Buffy told them to go upstairs, but did they all just sit up there playing Yahtzee while a demon was downstairs kicking collective ass? Aren't rampaging demons exactly the sort of reason you keep a small army around to begin with? And while I've got my rant on, where the hell did they all go after the big magick throwdown, part deux? The house was awfully quiet for a place that's supposed to be crawling with guests. Of course, the quiet mood worked better dramatically, but after they spent so much time building up how crowded the place is getting, the sudden lack of crowd really stood out.

So Dawn is only marginally proficient at translating ancient Sumerian. The hell?! She should be an utter and complete suck at translating ancient Sumerian! Since Buffy could understand the shamans, I'm willing to buy that the related book could whip out the same trick, even before it decided to go ahead and be English. But why did none of them seem remotely surprised that Dawn could translate something as subtle as the difference between "watching" and "seeing"? I can believe she picked up a little around the schoolyard - demon, Slayer, words like that - but subtle nuances of a dead language should be *way* beyond a girl who, to our knowledge, has never even studied it, and nobody raised an eyebrow until they were neck-deep in the exercise. I know I'm being picky, but sometimes it's the little stuff that stresses me out the most.

Right before commercial, the oozing demon mist looks like it's forcing its way in through Buffy's mouth and ears, but then when we come back, she screams, and it's coming at her all over again. Did her scream expel it? Was it not actually getting in the first time? Did they jump back a bit for those who just tuned in during the commercial? Not that big a deal, I guess; I'd just like to know.

Also wondering how Spike got his jacket back. Last we saw it, he left it at Buffy's house before he went to Africa, but it somehow wound up in a pile of his stuff in the school basement.

Body Count

Chloe - talked into hanging herself by The First Evil
Predator-type "exchange" demon - neck snapped by Spike

Haiku

Want to see magick?
Careful what you wish for, dear
Not so fun up close

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