Buffy Logo 'Him'
Story Code '7ABB06'

by Drew Z. Greenberg
Buffy

Buffy and Dawn discuss the complexities of love and relationships while watching the Sunnydale High School football team. Dawn becomes distracted by one of the players, R.J., and immediately becomes smitten with him. But her irrational attraction towards R.J. soon causes her to make a fool of herself in front of him and his friends on a number of occasions; Buffy tries to comfort her sister, but Dawn is inconsolable, and accuses Buffy of being dysfunctional. In school, Dawn becomes upset when she hears O’Donnell say that he will be replacing R.J. in the football game, and she pushes him down a flight of stairs. After being called in to Principal Wood to explain her actions, Dawn is later asked by R.J. to meet up with him after school. That evening, at ‘The Bronze’, Xander, Buffy and Willow are shocked to see a sexily-dressed Dawn dancing with R.J. When Buffy confronts her sister about her behaviour Dawn storms out of the club, only to be attacked by R.J.’s ex-girlfriend. Buffy manages to break them up, but it is obvious that the two girls are both totally crazy about R.J. At school the next day, R.J. gets a dressing-down from Principal Wood, and then another one from Buffy concerning his treatment of Dawn; oddly, as he puts his letterman’s jacket on Buffy’s eyes glaze over – for some reason, she too, now finds R.J. extremely attractive. The next day Buffy uses her councillor status to call R.J. out of class… and then drags him into an empty classroom where they quickly begin making out on top of a desk. But Dawn sees them at it, and she runs out of school crying; Xander finds her, and when he too walks in on Buffy and R.J. he manages to stop them in the middle of their act. It is now patently obvious that the women are all under a love spell, and so Xander enlists Willow’s skills in researching into R.J.’s family. While Dawn and Buffy begin fighting about which of them loves R.J. the most, Spike and Xander visit R.J.’s older brother, Lance. The guy is now a washed up pizza delivery guy, and insists that the jacket was just a hand-down from his dad, which he then passed on to R.J. Meanwhile, R.J. arrives at the Summers house, and, seeing his enchanted jacket, Willow and Anya instantly fall under the spell as well. The four women set about proving to R.J. who loves him the most: Anya decides to rob a bank for him; Buffy determines to kill Principal Wood so that he will leave R.J. alone; Willow prepares a spell to turn him into a girl, and Dawn, unable to compete with her sister, lies down on the railroad tracks. After Spike and Xander are able to interrupt all their efforts, Buffy saves Dawn from being killed beneath the wheels of a train, assuring her that no guy is worth dying for. Xander and Spike tackle R.J., managing to rip off his jacket and burn it. The spell is broken, and the girls are all back to normal, if a bit mortified about their fanatical behaviour…

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), James Marsters (Spike), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), Thad Luckinbill (R.J. Brooks), Brandon Keener (Lance Brooks), D.B. Woodside (Principal Wood), Yan England (O'Donnell), Angela Sarafyan (Lori), David Ghilardi (Teacher), Riki Lindhome (Cheryl)
Directed by Michael Gershman

TX (US): 29th October 2002

Notes:
*Featuring Buffy, Xander, Willow, Anya and Dawn