Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles on a horse. And, um, some other stuff.

No foreign girls were stabbed in the making of this week's episode. We open at the Sunnydale Airport, looking not at all like the last time we visited it. Sister shoves brother, who drops his bag. Important visual cue. Xander, Buffy, and Dawn are waiting for Willow's flight to arrive. Xander, with a big sign written in yellow crayon, eagerly accepts Dawn's invitation to remind them how he saved the world last season, not stopping for something so silly as "they've heard it all summer". They're all nervous about seeing Willow again, what with the flay-tastic killing and attempted genocide last spring, but they seem at least marginally able to believe that Giles wouldn't have let her come back if she was still dangerous and evil.

Dawn, understandably, is the most nervous of them all, having endured a very personal "shut up and die" moment at Willow's hands. And her nerves aren't remotely settled at the news that Willow did not in fact finish her "how to not be evil" summer course. But apparently Giles... Giles! Referred to twice and in complimentary ways! Gosh, what a difference a summer makes. What was I saying? Oh, yes, Giles apparently told Buffy (who has uncovered the lost, ancient art of calling friends in the UK) that even though it was early, it was important for Willow to come home. Being in Sunnydale is more important than finishing her "count to ten and don't flay that guy" studies? Wow, that sounds really important! But not this week.

Xander points out that Willow didn't get off the plane, and we start the episode over. Sister shoves brother, who drops his bag, and this time, Willow is right behind them. She looks around forlornly, unable to see the friends we know are there, and offers herself a pitiful "Welcome home". And curse Aly for being such a good actor because I was hell bent on not cutting Willow any slack. Anybody need a quick heart-breaking? Call Alyson Hannigan. She is so the gal for the job.

Later that night, some kid is tagging a wall. By himself. In a red shirt. He is so gonna die. Flitty shadow, clacking fingernails, and a voice that's either Gollum or Him from The Powerpuff Girls taunts him about being alone, and is he afraid? Ineffective bravado, pouncey evil, scene cut.

Willow arrives at the Summers' Estate and has the good sense to knock. Getting no answer, she goes to the back door and lets herself in. So either she has a key, or everybody's gone and caught Giles-itis and stopped locking their doors. Which actually makes a weird kinda sense. Vampires? Not an issue. And now that I think about it, I'm guessing that if there's any benefit at all to living in Sunnydale (besides the low housing costs), the nighttime burglars probably get all ate up before they reach your house. And the various and sundry demons who don't need invites? Probably not impressed by your locked door. Then again, apparently any "tried to kill you all last year, and why weren't you at the airport?" can wander in off the street. But I digress.

Willow wanders through the house, noting the complete absence of a welcome home committee. Going upstairs to the tune of some very creepy camera angles, she sees that Buffy has appropriated the big bedroom in her absence. Willow goes in and looks around, haunted by the sounds of what happened in there last spring. She picks up Buffy's organizer and sees that she's nowhere on the "family numbers" page. Then the front door slams. She drops the book and runs downstairs to see... nobody. She curls up on the couch to wait (in the exact same spot where Joyce died, I might add), and once again, we're goin' loopy.

Buffy, Dawn, and Xander come in the front door (without the assistance of keys) and exposit for the audience that they called Giles, who assured them that he put Willow on the plane himself in London. They wonder if she doubled back and skeedaddled to parts other, which could suggest evilness, but Xander submits that ducking Giles could just as easily indicate slackerhood. He swings the door shut, something drops upstairs, and they head up the steps to see if Willow's home.

Buffy comes back down a few minutes later, revealing a very wacky see-thru shirt-dress (at least it's not that brown polyester knit with pink and lime stripes nightmare from Season 5 - small favours, I know), and as they all pile onto the couch, Buffy says she called Giles again and he's worried that he sent Willow back too soon. He's blaming himself, they blame themselves, and Dawn wonders quite rightly who's in charge of blaming Willow. Atta girl, Dawn. Buffy makes with the sudden maturity and says that Willow's mistakes are her own, and they can only be there for Willow if Willow's actually there too. Wow, did Buffy learn something from last season? Colour me shocked and amazed. The camera swirls, the threesome dissolves, and Willow is still lying on the couch as the sun comes up.

Willow wakes up and phones Giles (whose number is actually on speed-dial - once again with the shocked and amazed). Unfortunately, he can't be reached because he's in an all-day Council meeting. Interesting. So Giles is still with the Council, despite doing the remote-Watcher thing. And just maybe, if I'm extra lucky and do all my chores like a good girl? Something big'll be brewing that he'll have to come "home" to help with. I'd like that. Sorry, what? Oh, right - back to Willow's pain. Which is easy to remember because the camera angle does a fabulous job of showing just how tiny and alone she is right now. I'm still mad at Willow, but I'm completely in love with Alyson.

So Willow heads over to The Magic Box, which has been condemned. Feel bad, Willow. Feel very bad. Of course, Giles kinda should have known and might even have gotten off easy, considering the place's track record. Anya comes outside, still cleaning out the charred wreckage in her lovely tailored clothing and heels (if these people ever dress in a practical manner, I'll just faint) and is not excited at all to see the gal who blowed up her livelihood. Finally, we see Willow get a fair helping of blame, and I'm pleased to report that she doesn't balk at it. She knows she deserves it and wants to do what she can to help. Seeing that Willow's on the culpability train, Anya decides that it's not fun to yell at somebody who doesn't mind it and sits down on the curb to chat. Willow is nicely surprised by the gesture and clearly appreciates it. Did I mention I'm in love with Alyson? Good.

Willow offers a not at all subtle 'where is everyone these days?' and Anya says she's in her own apartment now and enjoying the globetrotting lifestyle of the vengeance demon. She was in Brazil just yesterday, and... Willow's really more interesting in hearing about the others. So after getting the lowdown, she heads to the construction site to find Xander.

What she finds instead is a very skinless guy with his red shirt on the ground next to him. Then the camera peels itself away from the gruesome to show Xander and Buffy where Willow was just standing. Apparently Xander found the body first thing in the a.m. and called Buffy, rather than something ineffective and silly like notifying the police. Which actually looks like I'm being sarcastic, but honestly. What's the Sunnydale P.D. gonna do? Stand around and hurl a bit, maybe a little DNA testing, notify the family... okay, so they could be useful. A nearby ladder rattles, and we see Willow scurrying up and out of the construction pit, but despite turning and looking right at the noise, Xander doesn't see her. He tells Buffy he knows what she's gotta be thinking. That maybe Willow is back after all. 'Cause of the skinless. It's just such a coincidence!

Willow heads over to Sunnydale High for a chat with Spike. Who is still coherency-challenged, back in his blue shirt, and surprisingly uncharred after last week. She tells him about the body, and when he's not talking to the air, he manages to point out that skinless could well equal Willow. But in a dazzling display of proficient multi-tasking, Spike is actually talking to Willow, the air, his inner crazies, and Buffy and Xander, who are also now in the room. He gazes at Buffy, trying to find that word that means "glowing", and it's gotta rhyme. I believe the word he's looking for is "effulgent". Very nice continuity. And then the crazy guy puts it together - everyone's talking to him but not to each other. Which means somebody's probably not actually there, and his money's on Willow. Unfortunately, Spike's inner crazies force a retreat before they can put it all together because the episode's only halfway over.

Oh, and according to Xander, the blueprints are useless for finding their way around the basement because it's like the walls move around on their own. Think I'll hang onto that piece of info for future reference. It just might come in handy.

Willow shows up at Anya's (aka 'barges in') to ask for help. Which Anya's up for if it's not difficult or time-consuming. Turns out they're going to do the spell Willow & Tara tried back in S4 to spot demons in the area. Anya wonders if it's going to get at all sexy, but Willow assures her that it will not. And apparently, Willow no longer needs to invoke the goddess Thespia for this spell - it's strictly a pour-&-glow job now. Anya takes a moment to wave to her demony-light self on the map, and they note the high concentration of demons around the school. Because something big's brewing underneath it. Which I haven't gotten yet, so I'm very glad they reminded me. The lights kinda flame up and singe the carpet, and Anya tries to use her displeasure at this as her reason not to teleport over and investigate a suspicious light. Turns out, though, that her teleportation privileges have been revoked because she cancelled the spell the week before. Now she can only teleport for official business and has to file a flight plan and everything. Aw. And also, hee!

Anya's not finding vengeace as fulfilling as she used to. Because it used to be kind of enjoyable to inflict pain and stuff, but now she finds it very distressing. She and Willow bond a minute over their common "having the power to do evil can get scary and unpleasant" feelings, and Anya suggests they try another spell to find Buffy and Xander. Hey, how about that? Anya, offering to help! But Willow already tried that, and something must have gone wrong because according to the spell? They don't exist.

Actually, they're over at Buffy's house. Dawn's on Willow's laptop (which I guess she didn't take to summer camp), looking up flaying demons and doing a disturbingly good job of it. Buffy worries that they're just doing research to convince themselves that Willow didn't do it, but Dawn finds a good candidate named Gnarl (and is that the same "Demons, Demons, Demons" website we've seen Cordy consulting in L.A.?). So Spike the Bloodhound follows the trail of blood from the construction site to a cave and then leaves the Scoobies to their fun. Willow, meanwhile, is also right in front of the cave and shimmies her way in just ahead of the others. Not that they see each other, of course.

Site note: it was at this point that I checked the clock and noticed that we were barely over halfway through the episode. Not the most briskly paced outing. And it's also at this point where I notice I'm barely over halfway through the recap and break for a snack. Back in a few. Alrightey, that didn't take long. Found some microwavable fries in the freezer, but for some reason, they just didn't appeal. More about why in a minute.

So when we left our intrepid Scoobies, they were all in Gnarl's cave. Gnarl seems to think it's very funny that the others don't notice Willow, and he jumps out to slash Dawn's tummy. Paralyzing poison nails mean it's time to get Dawn out of there pronto, so they seal him into the cave while they get Dawn home. A fabulous plan if Willow weren't now stuck in there with him. Oops.

Willow invokes the goddess to protect her, but Gnarl's immune to magick. Oh, the inconvenient coincidence of it all! Gnarl taunts her about being alone and points out that the others just left her. Willow catches onto the idea that her friends were really there just in time for Gnarl to slash her across the tummy too. She slumps to the ground, Gnarl's gonna unwrap the gift they left him, and ew. He leans over to slurp some blood from where he slashed her, and the terrified look on her face... Aly's officially done it. I'm scared to death for Willow and want her to be okay.

Across town, Buffy and Xander dump the immobile Dawn on the couch. Then they turn her face-up. Hee! Turns out the paralysis only lasts until Gnarl gets dead, so it's time to head back to the cave. Except, what if Dawn vomits while she's stuck on her back? Um, roll her on her side before you go? Nah, call Anya - she'll love being on barf detail.

Meanwhile, Gnarl's still in full-on taunt mode, but now he's also snacking on julienned Willow-skin. Very ew. Oh, and mustn't forget to slurp up a little blood chaser. Very also ew.

Anya arrives and discovers the joys of poseable Dawn. Which helps distract from the Willow-fries (really, that's what it looks like) for a moment but only just barely. Anya swings Dawn into a sitting position and mentions that she's feeling very benevolent for all the helping she's been doing, what with helping them, helping Willow... ah, helpful information! Plus, Anya seems to know a bit about this Gnarl, so they decide that she's coming with. Dawn'll be just fine all posed upright now. Buffy jams the TV remote into her hand, and they're off. And could you do me a favour and pretend I just made this scene sound extremely funny? 'Cause it was. Gnarl has a little more Willow tartare, and we're off to commercial.

Anya's out of shape from all the easy teleporting she did all summer, but the three of them are hauling ass to reach Willow. They get to the cave, and Gnarl leaves his snack to get with the fighting. Buffy and Xander can't see Willow, but Anya tells them that she's right there, and she's hurt. Xander's trying to feel around for Willow, but his hand goes right through her. Buffy suddenly thinks Willow's invisibility is a completely separate issue from the skin-eating monster. Based on.... ? Eh, go with it. I mean, she's right, but the sudden revelation kinda comes out of nowhere. Anyway, Anya reminds Buffy to go for the eyes then kneels down to reassure Willow that the others are there. Despite being unable to move her lips or much of her face, Willow's joy at that news is clear and very touching.

Buffy jabs her dagger through Gnarl's foot, rooting him to the spot, and jams her thumbs into his eyes. Very squishy and ew. Also very effective. No more Gnarl, no more paralysis, and Dawn topples off the couch. Whee! Seeing the extent of Willow's injuries, Anya, the demon, is very concerned and goes to get help. Anya helps without being asked. Anya is starting to really suck at being a bad guy. Willow starts to shimmer back into visibility and is overjoyed to see her friends. They tell her she's going to be okay, and she knows she will because they're there. Cheesy? Oh, you betcha. But still very touching. And I seem to have something in my eye. I'll just be a second.

The next morning, Willow is meditating and using magick to heal her belly wounds. Using power from the earth to heal herself, despite being on the second floor, because everything's connected. Didja get that? Willow's wiped out from working on healing. Buffy offers to leave, but Willow doesn't want to be alone. Buffy says Dawn's working on why the no-see, and Willow admits that she did it. Buffy looks worried that Willow did a spell to make that happen, but Willow insists it was an accident, that it happened because she was so nervous about seeing them again. Gosh, that's disturbing. Really. Willow makes a joke about not having her powers under control yet, and Buffy says it's okay. But I can't possibly be the only one disturbed as hell that it's Willow's first episode back, and her magick is already seriously wonky again - now it's causing mayhem even when Willow *doesn't* do a spell. That bodes very not well, in my opinion.

Buffy confesses that she thought the mad flayer might have been Willow, and she feels horrible about that. She wants to be the kind of friend who wouldn't have thought that about Willow, but I think that's pushing the definition of "good friend" a little far. Really, somebody you know has ripped somebody's skin off comes back to town, you can't find them, and suddenly there's somebody with no skin. And it's not supposed to occur to you it might be the one person you know who's done that? Piffle. She also says Xander never thought it, but again I gotta quibble. Xander was the one who first brought it up. And yes, he was saying he knew Buffy thought it was Willow, but that means the idea at least occurred to him. Even if he rejected the idea, it still crossed his mind, so once again, piffle. Willow agrees with my piffle and admits she even had to doubt herself, given the circumstances. She understands that Buffy's the Slayer and has to consider ugly stuff the rest of them might not want to, and she also understands if Buffy doesn't think she can recover from "this magick stuff". She's honestly not so sure herself (good thinking, since her powers are clearly still on the fritz) but decides to see if she doesn't have a little more healing meditation left in her. Buffy sits opposite, takes Willow's hands, and the camera pulls away with the shot of the two best friends sitting quietly, sharing their strength. I... I really must have something huge in my eye. I gotta go.

Thoughts

So Willow comes back to town and is almost treated to a slow, painful, skinless death. Not gonna say she deserved it because I was completely behind her on the killing Warren thing. Really, I was. I stood up and cheered the gruesome. But sometimes karma's a real bitch, ain't it?

The last shot was so simple and so beautiful. Just seeing Buffy and Willow sitting like the friends they used to be was very touching and very powerful. And with any luck, it bodes very well for the rest of the season. This group used to be such wonderful friends, but when you think about it, they haven't been that close since the end of Season 2. Then Buffy ran away, Angel came back, Faith happened, people cheated on their partners... Then came college and the inevitable drifting away, which they claimed to see and want to fix, but they never really did. Now Buffy and Xander are close again, Willow looks to be rejoining the fold, Dawn's become a helpful member of the group... even Anya might be finding her way back on the team soon. But the group won't be complete without Giles, and it's not just my raging Gilesluv talking. They pulled farther away from him than just about anybody else, and the group won't be whole again without him in it. Until then, it does my heart all proud and squeaky to hear them talking about Giles like they've finally realized he still exists, even when he's back in England.

Not much Spike this week, which was pretty disappointing after the way the last episode ended. Not that I specifically wanted more Spike, but there was a sad lack of follow-up on the disturbing. Last week, Buffy discovers he has his soul back, and Spike's flesh sears as he clings to a cross. This week? Eh, he's okay. Still crazy, but what are you gonna do? Hopefully we'll be getting back to that exciting revelation sometime soon.

The first half of the episode kinda dragged for me, but the second part flew by. Plus there was the hilarious, poseable Dawn. I will never, ever get enough of that scene. Willow's return was monumental after what happened last season and did deserve an episode devoted to it. Much as I don't wanna wallow in last season's pain, though, I'm hoping all's not tidy and forgiven now. Like, it's one thing for them to forgive what she did to Warren, but she wanted to kill Dawn just because she found the girl annoying. And while I also hope (desperately hope!) we're done with Dawn's hissy fits, I think Willow does deserve a bit of cold shoulder from her for a while.

All in all? It was a pretty good episode and an enjoyable hour, but it won't make my top faves anytime soon, especially with all the convenient coincidences. There were lots of little moments I thoroughly loved during the episode, and Alyson was fantastic. But I'm ready to move past the pain.

Quirks

How's this for picky? Giles says he put Willow on the plane in London, but last week, he walked Willow to the cab and left his front door open (leaving me to assume he was heading back inside after the cab left). Though not one for locking his door - at least in Sunnydale - I imagine that he at least closes his door in England.

Since when are there woods and cliffs near SHS? Willow did track Warren to the woods last season, but that was nowhere near the school. Perhaps the woods are adjacent to the desert? Or maybe the beach? Heh, for a 'one-Starbucks' town, Sunnydale sure has a lot of disparate habitats.

The day after Willow returns, she is attacked by a flaying demon who gets off on people feeling alone and is immune to magick? Man, what are the odds? I mean, duh, the parallels are *supposed* to be both obvious and suspicious, but it's a little too much so for me.

Anya's hair is a good 4-6 inches longer this week than it was last episode (which supposedly happened just days earlier).

Buffy, standing in front of Gnarl, jams her knife in his foot and then ducks under his arm to find herself... right back in front of him. Huh?

Body Count

Red Shirt Tagger Guy - skinned by Gnarl
Gnarl - eyeballs popped equals killed by Buffy

Haiku

Red is all alone
Gollum munching Willow-strips
Finger-licking ew

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