“Bring on the Night"

 

Episode 10 of Season 7

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“I’m afraid it falls to you Buffy … You’re the only one who has the strength to protect these girls and the world against what’s coming.”

 

Original US airdate: December 17th, 2002

Rewatched: January 1st, 2024

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• Writer: Marti Noxon & Douglas Petrie

• Director: David Grossman

• Guests: Anthony Stewart Head, Kristine Sutherland, Tom Lenk, Iyari Limon, Clara Bryant, Courtnee Draper, Juliet Landau, D.B. Woodside

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This episode marks a change in the role of the Slayer. Buffy has notably always had the help of her friends, which has been pointed out to be something atypical, but also something that gives her power. The episode “The Wish”, which shows us what Buffy would have been like without her friends, is the best example. But her friends choose to help. Even training Dawn is something voluntary. True, living in Sunnydale makes is hard to turn your back on the evil around you, but it would be possible. Now, for the first time, Buffy will become a mentor, trainer and protector to young women who don’t have a choice – the Potential Slayers. These Potentials will look to her for so much more than her friends ever did and will change the Scooby dynamics as well. Buffy is not only facing the biggest big bad of all seven seasons, but also accepting more responsibility than just the fate of the world. She is now responsible for keeping the Slayer line alive. If she fails, there will be no Slayer ever again.

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First, Buffy finally gets enough information from Andrew to find the seal in the school basement. She, Xander, Andrew and Dawn go to find it. There, they discover lots of blood and assume the First has opened it. They cover it back up. As they are leaving, they run into Principal Wood, who also has a shovel. Again, it is clear the principal knows more than he’s admitting to (he also has a later conversation with Buffy at work that alludes to this as well), but what he’s not admitting is unclear.

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Then, the First seems to visit Buffy in the guise of her mother. Her words to Buffy are very much the truth but phrased to dissuade Buffy from continuing to work against the First. One point is very interesting – that evil is all around us and always there. This is something that is more of a theme on Angel, especially in the parallel season, where the concept of free will looms large in the finale. The truth, that Buffy will reiterate at the end of this episode, is that free will may give room for evil to develop, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fight against it.

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Then, Giles arrives with three potential Slayers, Kennedy, Annabelle, and Molly. Kennedy is outspoken and lets everyone know what she wants (including that she seems to want Willow). For example, she requests Buffy give the Potentials weapons so they can help defend themselves. Molly seems to go with the flow. Annabelle is a very by-the-book person, continually telling Kennedy not to question Giles and Buffy. Giles tells Buffy about the Council exploding, although he managed to rescue a handful of books with references to the First before it happened. He also explains that the First has been killing Potentials and their Watchers (Kennedy mentions seeing hers die), which finally confirms that many (most?) Slayers are found and trained before they become the Slayer. This was explained in the film, but as the film is not fully cannon, not all aspects can be assumed to be true, and this was the case for Kendra. Faith needing to die (and then Buffy) to end the Slayer line is also briefly mentioned.

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In the main events, this episode is a bit of an homage of “Amends”. It takes place in December and Christmas decorations are seen downtown. Buffy briefly mentions that she hadn’t really thought about Christmas but could decorate the rubble. “Amends” and this episode are the only two Christmas episodes of the series. Then, when Willow tries to do a spell to locate the First, she is briefly possessed by it and we see the bad CGI version of the First that was also seen in “Amends”. Willow being possessed might only be possible because she was briefly evil. It makes Willow reticent to use magic again. Finally, Buffy takes Giles back to the tree lot (now just vacant) to try to find the First, or Spike or the Bringers. She ends up facing the Ubervamp that was raised last episode. Buffy does not do well in the fight and is unable to find Spike (who is indeed under the lot, being tormented by the First in the form of Druscilla, but managing to hold out because he knows Buffy believes in him). In fact, Buffy is only saved by fleeing the cave into the rising sun. Later, the Scoobies are expecting the Turok Han to come attack them at the house in an attempt to kill Buffy and the Potentials. Annabelle ends up fleeing in fear and Buffy follows. Annabelle is killed by the Turok Han and Buffy faces him again. This time, he nearly kills Buffy. She is again unable to kill him. Badly beaten, Buffy is at home in her room, listening to the Scoobies discuss the dire situation.

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Buffy realizes that it’s the end because she’s facing the First. She realizes, too, that she’s got to say something to the Potentials. The need to be a leader not just for her friends increases the number of dramatic speeches this season, and this episode marks the first of these:

You're right. We don't know how to fight it. We don't know when it'll come. We can't run, can't hide, can't pretend it's not the end, 'cause it is. Something's always been there to try and destroy the world. We've beaten them back, but we're not dealing with them anymore. We're dealing with the reason they exist. Evil. The strongest. The First.

[…] I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I'm standing on the mouth of hell, and it is gonna swallow me whole. And it'll choke on me. We're not ready? They're not ready. They think we're gonna wait for the end to come, like we always do. I'm done waiting. They want an apocalypse? Oh, we'll give 'em one. Anyone else who wants to run, do it now. 'Cause we just became an army. We just declared war. From now on, we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them, and cut out their hearts one by one, until The First shows itself for what it really is. And I'll kill it myself. There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than evil, and that's us. Any questions?

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The end of this season will prove Buffy right. They will go to war and the First will not succeed. But the journey will not be easy and Annabelle’s death this episode is a first indication of the costs the Scoobies will incur. It’s a brave new world for the Scoobies.

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As a final note, savvy fans noticed that Giles didn’t touch anyone or touch anything in this episode. I have to admit, I was not that savvy in my first watch. Because we last saw Giles being attacked and didn’t see the resolution, this lack of interaction does raise the question of whether Giles is the First as well.

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“Showtime"

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Episode 11 of Season 7

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“I’m the thing that monsters have nightmares about.”

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Original US airdate: January 7th, 2003

Rewatched: January 8th, 2024

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• Writer: David Fury

• Director: Michael Grossman

• Guests: Anthony Stewart Head, Tom Lenk, Iyari Limon, Clara Bryant, Indigo, Amanda Fuller

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More new Slayers are coming to Sunnydale (in addition to Kennedy and Molly, who knew Annabelle and had to deal with her death, Chloe and Vi have arrived). One, Rona, arrives in the opening scenes and nearly doesn’t live to move into Buffy’s house (and there’s mention that Buffy’s been too late before…). Rona is rightly upset that she was told she would be safe in Sunnydale, only to be greeted with evidence that this may not be the case. In addition, the First has taken on the persona of Eve, a Slayer who made it to Sunnydale only to be killed before Buffy knew she was there. As Eve, the First is great at causing dissent. In part, this is easy. The girls are scared. Rona (like Buffy) never had a Watcher and didn’t know anything until a few days ago, making her a scared, confused addition. Kennedy thinks she’s god’s gift to slaying and could be doing it better if only she had been called. And they are not fully wrong. Buffy is not ready to face the First or the Turok Han. She’s also not really prepared to lead a group of Potential Slayers. But here she is and she knows she has to prove to them that she is the Slayer.

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So she hatches a plan, using telepathy with Willow and Xander, a sign that the core Scooby gang has grown so close, they can do magic without magic (Willow has used telepathy before, most notably in the season 5 finale). They stage a showdown. A deathmatch. A thunder dome. With a full audience of Scoobies new and old, Potentials who have arrived so far, and Andrew, who is newly freed from captivity, Buffy faces the Turok Han and wins. It’s not an easy battle, but it shows what she has become. In the years she has been doing this, she has grown and now:

I always find a way. I’m the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now, you [the Turok Han] and me are gonna show them why. It’s time.

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This also marks Buffy’s second (short) great motivational speech of this season. And she is successful. She beats the Ubervamp and gains everyon’e respect, even Rona and Kennedy’s. And Buffy is finally able to free Spike from the First. It looks like Buffy may be figuring out how to lead.

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Three more things are noteworthy. First, Dawn is feeling left out. She’s not a Potential, so she’s left out there, although they are girls her age, and she’s not fully a Scooby (more like Anya or Spike, not a core member with cool telepathy). Again, this may indicate that the First as Joyce spoke the truth to Dawn – Buffy is choosing leading Potentials and keeping them safe to continuing her training with Dawn. But it doesn’t mean Buffy doesn’t love Dawn.

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Then, Spike continues to use his mantra of “she will come for me” to keep the First from getting to him too much. It’s proof of the faith he has in Buffy, even if he knows she doesn’t love him, he knows she was honest when she said she believed in him.

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Finally, Any and Giles seek out the all-seeing Boljax’s Eye, who tells them that a disruption in the Slayer line has made it possible for the First to move against the whole Slayer line, implying it was the spell that brought Buffy back that did it. While this may indeed be the consequences of the dark magic used to raise Buffy, it does raise the question why the first disruption of the Slayer line, when Buffy died in season 1 and Kendra (and then Faith) was called as a Slayer did not have a similar impact. I do wonder sometimes whether the First, with eternity at its disposal, hasn’t been working for seven seasons to this end, and perhaps whether “Amends” was a first shot. If the First had managed to turn Angel, or make him kill himself, would the attack on the Slayer line have started earlier? But Buffy, with the help of miracle snow, bested the First. Has it spent the intervening time thinking of a new way to attack?

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This episode really works to cement the season 7 theme of Buffy not just a Slayer but as a leader, showing that she can step up to make a change.

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“Potential"

 

Episode 12 of Season 7

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“You're not special. You're extraordinary.”

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Original US airdate: January 21st, 2003

Rewatched: January 28th, 2024

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• Writer: Rebecca Rand Kirschner

• Director: James A. Contner

• Guests: Tom Lenk, Iyari Limon, Clara Bryant, Indigo

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What does it mean to be a Potential Slayer? What does it mean not to be chosen? This episode looks at both.

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In terms of what it means to be a Potential, Buffy is busy training the ones who are already there (although Chloe, seen last episode, is missing in this one) while Giles is in China picking up another potential. She gives them lessons and she gives them speeches. This episode’s speech is again rousing and inspiring:

The odds are against us. Time is against us. And some of us will die in this battle. Decide now that it’s not going to be you. … But you’re all special. Most people in this world have no idea why they’re here or what they want to do, but you do. You have a mission. A reason for being here. You’re not here by chance. You’re here because you are the chosen ones.

The lessons in this episode culminate in Buffy locking the four Potentials in a crypt with a vampire, who they are able to slay.

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While Buffy is training, Willow gets word that there is another Potential Slayer in Sunnydale, as in a native to the town. She, Xander, Dawn and Anya do a spell to locate her. It seems to indicate that Dawn is a Potential (somewhat understandable, as she shares Buffy’s blood). Dawn is feeling left out, so in some ways, this is good news. If she is a Potential, then she gets to be in training again. But Dawn also knows what being the Slayer means. And ultimately, if she becomes the Slayer, it will mean Buffy is dead. She flees her house and runs into Amanda from her school. Amanda is having a bad day and, on top of her bad day, was attacked by a vampire at school. She locked him in a classroom and fled to find Buffy, having heard rumors that Buffy knows about that kind of stuff. Dawn decides it’s her destiny to slay the vampire and goes with Amanda to the school.

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During the fight with the vampire, Bringers show up. Instead to going for Dawn, they go for Amanda. It turns out, when the spell of was cast, Amanda was at Buffy’s front door, and so it only looked like Dawn was the Potential. It is, in fact, Amanda. In a testament to Dawn’s growing strength as a person, she empowers Amanda to accept her fate and fight both the Bringers and the vampire. In part due to the arrival of the other Scoobies, they are successful.

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Later at home, Dawn watches the Potentials go down to the basement to train and she turns to her research to find out more about the First. Xander finds her and gives her his own big speech:

Seven years, Dawn. Working with the slayer. Seeing my friends get more and more powerful. A witch. A demon. Hell, I could fit Oz in my shaving kit, but come a full moon, he had a wolfy mojo not to be messed with. Powerful. All of them. And I'm the guy who fixes the windows. … They'll never know how tough it is, Dawnie, to be the one who isn't chosen. To live so near to the spotlight and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anybody realizes because nobody's watching me. I saw you last night. I see you working here today. You're not special. You're extraordinary.

It mirrors Buffy’s speech in many ways, but also hints at something more. Xander and Dawn are perhaps the most extraordinary because even without powers, they are willing to face the forces of darkness. Really, anyone willing to stand against evil is special, no matter why they do it.

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Two final interesting notes in this episode. Buffy discusses Andrew’s evilness with him, comparing him to Spike, saying she is more willing to forgive him since “Spike didn’t have free will. You did.” This helps us understand a lot of Buffy’s ability to forgive Spike. Finally, Buffy mentions explicitly in this episode that her death could make one of the Potentials the next Slayer, although this may not, in fact, be true. It may be that either Faith or both Buffy and Faith need to die, rather than Buffy alone.

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“The Killer in Me"

 

Episode 13 of Season 7

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“Who you gonna call?”

 

Original US airdate: February 4th, 2003

Rewatched: February 18th, 2024

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• Writer: Drew Z. Greenberg

• Director: David Solomon

• Guests: Anthony Stewart Head, Adam Busch, Tom Lenk, Iyari Limon, Elizabeth Anne Allen, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Rif Hutton

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This episode follows three story lines where characters are forced to face big questions or fears.

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The first story line involves Buffy and Spike. Spike’s chip is malfunctioning, causing him pain when he hasn’t hurt anyone, demon or human. It gets worse and worse as the episode goes on, and Buffy doesn’t really know what to do. She finally decides to reach out to Riley, calling a number he left behind. This seems to belong to a flower shop, so Buffy isn’t sure she’s managed to get help. Finally, she and Spike decide to visit the Initiative again. Despite what was mentioned at the end of season 4, it was not filling in with concrete. However, it has been locked up since then. And left as it was (full of dead humans and demons, and at least one non-dead demon). They hope to find something that can help Spike, and end up running into a government team sent by Riley. Riley has given orders that any decision relating to Spike is Buffy’s to make. She can choose between having his chip removed or repairing it. In recognition of Spike’s soul (and perhaps because the chip didn’t stop him from killing while under the influence of the First), Buffy has the chip removed. It’s a pivotal episode in Spike’s journey and Buffy’s acceptance of it.

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The second story line involves Willow and Kennedy. Kennedy skips out on a Potential Slayer field trip to stay behind and take Willow on a date. Willow opens up to Kennedy about Tara, and we hear Willow talk about coming out to her parents, something that was never dealt with previously. After returning home, they kiss and Willow turns into Warren. At first, she is Willow in Warren’s body, but as time goes on, she becomes more and more like the man she killed. The first thing Willow does is go to the campus Wiccan group, who we haven’t seen since season 4. It turns out, Amy is in the group, and despite Willow’s initial hostility to Amy, she lets her try to help. When this doesn’t work, they end up exchanging words and Willow as Warren hits Amy. Willow storms out, the Wiccans are freaked out and leave, leaving Kennedy and Amy alone. Amy lets slip that she knows Kennedy is a Slayer, which lets Kennedy know Amy knows more than she’s letting on. Amy admits that she cursed Willow. She was angry that Willow was forgiven for her sins and that her life seemed to be back on track. The curse let Willow’s subconscious choose the punishment. Armed with new knowledge, Kennedy goes in search of Willow. Willow, however, has bought a gun. The two end up in the backyard of Buffy’s house, recreating the scene where Warren shot Buffy and Tara. This time, Willow confronts Kennedy. Willow is angry that kissing Kennedy finally made her realize Tara was dead. Moving on means a new phase of coming to terms with her grief. How can she date someone new when she thought she was going to be with Tara forever? Kennedy kisses Willow again and breaks the spell, but ultimately, Willow is also able to confront some of her own feelings about her life without Tara.

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The final story line involves Giles, who has taken the Potential Slayers to the desert to meet the First Slayer. While Giles is away, Robson calls the house. He was the guy the Bringers tried to kill in London. The last thing he saw was Giles nearly getting killed before he passed out. He woke up and Giles was gone, but he’s worried the real Giles is dead and the person in Sunnydale is the First. No one can remember Giles touching anything since his arrival. With Willow turned into Warren and Buffy dealing with Spike, this leaves Xander, Anya, Dawn and Andrew with the responsibility to drive out to the desert and confront Giles, who may be the first. They are worried about what they may find, and that they do not have any real powers to confront evil with, but they go anyway. It turns out, Giles is not the First and there was no need to worry. The Potential Slayers are safe (more or less).

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This episode is a nice interlude in season 7. It continues to examine the journeys each character is making, but gives us a break from the drama of Potential Slayers and Buffy’s need to lead them.

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