About:
In last week’s recap, the Scoobs learned that Spike is a sleeper agent that The First has been triggering to feed on humans and turn them, and then he was kidnapped by Bringers to be tortured by the First. Buffy recovered from her beatdown by the Turok-Han, and eventually was able to mount a mission to successfully rescue Spike, but not before the First used his blood to feed the mystical seal. (How much blood does that thing need, anyway?) More potential slayers joined the team, and Kennedy got flirty with our Willow.
The Buffy Season Seven Drinking Game Rules
Drink once every time:
A vamp is dusted
A scene takes place in a cemetery
Someone uses a cell phone
The First gets up to its tricks
You love Andrew in spite of himself
Someone goes down to the creepy Sunnydale High basement
It’s obvious Spike has a soul again
Principal Wood seems shady
Drink twice every time:
There’s an extremely outdated pop culture reference
A vampire is invited into a house
There’s a callback to previous season shenanigans
You really miss Giles
A new Slayer shows up in Sunnydale
A new romance emerges (Who dates during the Apocalypse?)
Willow performs magic responsibly
Take a shot every time:
Someone says, “From beneath you it devours.”
These episodes feature a ton of callbacks to previous seasons, so I uh, really hope your booze cabinet is well-stocked. Cheers!
7.13 “The Killer In Me”
Giles is feeling twitchy about leaving Buffy and the Scoobs alone for the weekend while he takes the Potentials for their right-of-passage desert retreat where they get to commune with the First Slayer like Buffy did in season five. (Drink!) Buffy and Spike agree that they’re going to revel in a break from the pitter-patter of girlie feet while they hang out chatting on the bed where he’s chained himself up in the Summers basement. Dirty. He then gets a monster headache that seems to be caused by his good ol’ Initiative chip. Buffy tells Willow that she suspects there’s a problem with the chip since Spike was able to hurt all those people while controlled by the First. Buffy badly plays nursemaid to Spike who seems to keep bursting blood vessels in his brain. Realizing that they’re not going to get far on the research front, she tries to leave a message for Riley Finn to get back to her, while Spike’s head pain gets progressively worse.
Buffy teases Willow for taking Kennedy tea since she stayed home “sick” from the desert retreat. Kennedy drops the sick act pretty fast and tells Willow that she’s on a mission of her own and she needs Willow’s help. Even when they’re sitting at the Bronze with umbrella drinks in front of them, Willow is still surprisingly slow to catch onto the fact that duh, there is no mission. Kennedy keeps trying to flirt with Willow and asks how long she’s known she was gay. For some reason, Willow is super offended that Kennedy assumed that about her, but then tells her about Tara, including the fact that Willow’s parents never even met her, despite the fact that they were together for three years. That seems like a super bizarre throwaway detail. Kennedy has known she was gay since she was 5, which may explain why she’s more confident in her approach. When they get home, Kennedy goes in for a kiss, and Willow transforms into Warren Means. (Drink!) Willow runs downstairs, but Xander, Dawn, Anya, and Andrew all assume that it’s the First appearing as Warren, even though he keeps claiming to be Willow. Buffy walks in the room and immediately punches Warren, which defeats the First theory since she was able to touch him. Once they’re convinced it’s Willow, Buffy and Willow try to figure out how this could have happened while the rest of the group keeps touching Willow and exclaiming over how real it looks. Willow thinks she caused the issue subconsciously. Meanwhile, Spike is writing on the floor in the background, no big. Willow announces she’ll fix her issue herself, and Kennedy invites herself along despite repeatedly being told to go away. It’s super not charming when someone won’t take “no” for an answer.
Spike and Buffy decide to dig up the entrance to the Initiative, to see if they can find any answers there. The place is full of demon corpses that the Initiative left behind when they sealed the place off. They don’t mention a stench, but it would have to be intense. They hear a noise down there and go towards it like idiots, instead of running away, and a demon jumps out and attacks them. Buffy has to fend it off herself, while Spike has another aneurysm. Once she dispatches the demon, the lights come flooding back on and dozen of Initiative guns are pointed at them. It looks like Riley got her message.
It’s too late, Riley! You can’t make me like you now. After an exam, the General confirms to Buffy that the chip has degraded and it will be fatal if left in there. Buffy doesn’t know what to do, but the officer tells her that per Agent Finn, all decisions regarding Hostile 17 are to be left in her hands.
Back at the Summers house, they get a call from Robson, with the Watchers Council back in England. He tells them that Giles was with him when they were attacked by Bringers and that just before he blacked out, Giles was about to be murdered by a Bringer’s ax, and when he woke up, Giles was gone. Xander, Anya, and Dawn immediately jump to the conclusion that Giles must be dead and the First is appearing as him because they can’t remember seeing Giles touch anything since he’s been back. They decide to head out to the desert, in case the Potentials need rescuing, bringing Andrew only because he threatens to do something evil (like burning something, or gluing things together) if left behind. When they get to the campsite, they all attack a very corporeal Giles, who appreciates their concern, once he figures out what the hell they’re doing.
Willow and Kennedy head to a campus Wicca meeting, which seems like an absurd place to get help. Amy the Rat (who’s technically no longer a rat) is part of the group, and does a whole 12 step apology to Willow for her past misdeeds, before agreeing to try to help undo the Warren glamour. When the spell doesn’t work, Willow slaps Amy and realizes that she’s taking on Warren’s terrible anger and violent characteristics. Kennedy chases after her, but Willow quickly ditches her and heads to the gun shop. Kennedy goes back to the Wicca meeting room where Amy is packing up and quickly figures out that Amy knows more than she let on. She admits to hexing Willow with a spell that lets the victim’s subconscious pick their form of punishment, which is why Willow has turned into Warren. Amy claims to not be the bad guy but is resentful because Willow committed murder and tried to destroy the world, but everyone still loves her. She transports Kennedy to the Summers backyard, just in time for Willow to storm in waving a gun, reenacting Warren’s shooting spree. Willow finally breaks down in guilt over having let Tara be gone and moving on. Kennedy realizes that since magic is just like fairy tales, kissing Willow could bring her back, and it works.
How many times do I have to take a drink?
12
Vamps Dusted
0
Is Amy Still a Rat?
Mostly just a metaphorical one now.
Stylish Yet Affordable Boots
How old is Kennedy, and why does she dress like she’s been raiding Buffy’s work wardrobe? 2003, wyd?
The Truest Thing Anybody Said This Week
7.14 “First Date”
We open with a flashback to Giles’ extra sharp reflexes which helped save him from the Bringer’s ax at Robson’s place. He tells Buffy and some of the Potentials on a cemetery training trip (drink!) that it’s all due to the wary watchfulness he’s developed over the years, right before Spike tackles him. Spike was late to get the memo that Giles is not the First, and Giles is just now getting the news that Buffy opted to have the Initiative remove Spike’s degraded chip. Once they’re home, Giles confronts Buffy in her bedroom over the decision to remove Spike’s chip when they’re already facing so many dangers from the First and the Bringers, and the shady principal, Buffy adds. Buffy believes that Spike’s soul will be enough to prevent him from doing anyone harm, but Giles is convinced that her feelings for Spike are clouding her judgment.
At a hardware store demonstration, Xander spies a cute girl shopping in the rope section and offers to help her out, despite not working there. Xander provides some valuable rope advice for storing Lissa’s kayak, while also managing to ask her out for coffee later.
Principal Wood catches Buffy snooping in his office and chooses to believe her really bad lie about looking for the supply cabinet, and then he invites her out to dinner. Once she leaves his office, he takes a bloody ceremonial knife out of his pocket and stores it back in the hidden weapons cabinet in his office. Back at home, Buffy and Willow try to figure out why Principal Wood asked her out. Buffy isn’t sure if she’s attracted to him or not, and whether he possesses wicked energy or not, and if he does, is that why she’s attracted to him? Buffy also wonders why everyone in the house assumes she’s still in love with Spike, which is an interesting choice of words. Xander arrives to announce that he has a date, but Willow beats him to it with Buffy’s news. Willow inquires if Xander’s date is evil or not, and he concedes that since she’s interested him, there’s a good chance, but he’s hoping for the best.
Later, Anya unsuccessfully tries to get a bloodstain out of the top that Buffy wanted to wear on her date, while simultaneously flipping out that Xander also has a date. Sadly, it’s not because none of these people should be dating during an upcoming apocalypse. (Drink!) Buffy runs into Spike in the hallway. He is actually super chill about her date and promises that he no longers dreams of a crypt for two with a white picket fence. But I just can’t take him seriously in this army jacket. Since when does Spike shop at Abercrombie?
Xander’s date with Lissa is off to a great start since she’s not put off by him ordering hot cocoa on their coffee date. She even wants to keep hanging out with him after he tells her all about leaving Anya at the altar. This leads to them going back to her place and him being tied up and suspended over the mystical seal that requires blood. Well, who didn’t see that coming?
Andrew is in the kitchen reading the new microwave manual when Jonathan/the First arrives to ridicule him for needing to read the manual and for seeking redemption in hopes of being allowed onto Buffy’s team. Jonathan/the First tells him the Potentials must die, and then he’ll have a place at the First’s side. Andrew claims he can’t handle the blood and stabbing again, but Jonathan reminds him that Willow brought a gun into the house. Once Andrew locates the gun in Buffy’s underwear drawer and Jonathan/the First tells him he’ll need to gather the girls in the basement in order to kill them. Andrew clumsily asks a few too many questions, which alerts the First to the fact that Andrew is wearing a wire and Willow, Dawn, and Kennedy are listening in. The First appears to them in the basement as Jonathan’s gross corpse before threatening them and disappearing. Giles and Spike are a little judgy upon learning about the big plan to try to record the ultimate evil.
Willow, Dawn, Kennedy, and Amanda try to dig up some dirt on Principal Wood on the internet, but people could still have zero online presence back in 2003, so that’s a bust. On their date, Principal Wood, who I guess we should start calling Robin already, takes Buffy into this creepy alley, which she’s rightfully suspicious about when they get attacked by a gang of vampires. Buffy dusts hers and is about to accuse him of setting her up when she realizes he’s adeptly dusting a couple of his own. Over a romantic candlelit dinner, Robin admits that he maneuvered himself into the Sunnydale High job in order to be close to the Hellmouth, knowing something bad is coming, and that he knows who Buffy is because his mother was a Slayer who was killed by a vampire when he was a child. Spike interrupts the dessert course once Willow receives a coded text from Xander that he’s in danger, and they realize Buffy left her phone at home. They share a super awkward ride to the school, where Willow has tracked Xander, and Robin is obviously hella suspicious of a sullen Spike in the back seat. Buffy and Spike go into the basement swinging, and when Lissa attacks Spike, Robin recognizes the vampire game face. He gets Xander down while Buffy and Spike fight Lissa until Buffy manages to decapitate her. Robin catches the intense look that Buffy and Spike exchange.
Back at the house, Xander announces that he’s going gay to avoid attracting any more demon women. Giles loses patience with them all making jokes when they’re in a serious fight for their lives. Later, Spike finds Buffy alone on the sofa and tells her that the First told “the little boy” (He means Andrew. Not to be confused with “the boy”, which is Xander.) that it wasn’t time for Spike yet.
Maybe not super fair of you, Buffy. But y’all know I ain’t mad about it.
At Robin’s place, he receives a visit from his dead mother. Luckily, Robin knows this is actually the First and tells her that he has no use for her. This is when she dangles some information that she knows Robin has been seeking for years, the identity of the vampire who killed her. It just so happens to be the vampire he met that night.
How many times do I have to take a drink?
14
Vamps Dusted
5
Giles For Life
Giles has been trying to help Chao-Ahn acclimate, taking her to the mall to buy clothes, and out for ice cream (despite her lactose intolerance) but the total language barrier is a bit of a problem. Then he helpfully draws some hilariously gruesome flashcards to get the Slayer training underway, which causes her to lock herself in the bathroom in terror. And when Giles finally learns that everyone has a date, he asks how anyone could be dating at a time like this. Thank you, Giles! That’s what I’ve been saying.
Cameo
Lissa is played by platinum-selling R&B singer and songwriter, Ashanti. Ashanti had multiple acting gigs in the mid-aughts, but I’m afraid this is not among her best work. Luckily, she still has her successful recording career and good looks to fall back on.
“The Killer In Me” never wowed me, other than Hannigan working her ass off in that last scene. I think it relies too much on buying her chemistry with Kennedy and I am decidedly not in the market. But speaking of chemistry, what about Buffy and Robin? He’s a hot badass, and the mommy issues thing could easily be her type. Either way, I loved the reveal of a Slayer having had a child, and I think this ends up being a great twist. Did you see it coming the first time? I’d love to know what you think in the comments!
And be sure to meet us back here next week when Meredith will be recapping “Get It Done” and the Andrew-centric classic, “Storyteller”.
