Buffy Logo 'Never Leave Me'
Story Code '7ABB09'

by Drew Goddard
Buffy

As Andrew swaggers through Sunnydale trying to look tough, the First - in the guise of Warren - tells him that he has to kill again because the Seal of Danzalthar needs more that Jonathan’s corpse. ‘Warren’ then transforms into Jonathan and tells Andrew that being dead is cool, and reiterates that he has to kill someone soon. Spike has been tied to a chair in Buffy’s bedroom, and while Willow goes out to get some animal blood for him, Buffy calls the Watchers Council; she asks them to look for Giles but they are uncooperative, although this is only because they too are unable to locate him. Dawn goes to school and tells Principal Wood that Buffy is sick and cannot make it into work that day. Meanwhile, unable to bring himself to kill a piglet Andrew goes to the butcher’s shop for blood, but as he leaves he bumps into Willow. As he flees in terror Willow pursues him down an alley and captures him; she drags the boy home with her, demanding to know why he needed so much blood. While Buffy feeds Spike some of the blood he tells her that he cannot recall killing anyone, but knows that he has been suffering from blackouts; he tells Buffy that he got his soul back for her, but now realises that Buffy was using him. Andrew is tied to a chair, and Anya and Xander begin interrogating him; but when Anya gets a bit carried away and hits him, Buffy hears the commotion and goes downstairs to investigate. Left alone, Spike is visited by the First, who starts to hum a tune; on re-entering her room Buffy senses something different, but is taken by surprise when Spike breaks free and smashes through the wall to get to Andrew. Spike manages to bite Andrew before Buffy knocks him unconscious. Buffy, Xander, Anya, Dawn and Willow confer downstairs, and Xander raises the possibility that Spike has been conditioned and is being triggered by something that is changing his personality. Meanwhile, at school, Principal Wood leaves his office and heads down to the basement, where he finds the Seal and Jonathan’s dead body. Back at the Summers house, Spike is chained up in the basement; Buffy tries to explain their theory to him, but Spike does not care, and instead tries to get Buffy to kill him. She refuses, believing that Spike can find redemption. The house suddenly comes under siege from black-robed figures, which break the windows and burst through the walls. At that moment, Principal Wood begins burying Jonathan’s body. The robed men knock Willow unconscious, but Dawn remembers everything that her sister taught her and is able to hold her own. Buffy stops Andrew being killed by one of the attackers, and, after killing the last of them, she and Xander go downstairs to check on Spike, only to find that he has been taken. As the gang regroups Buffy realises that they were after Spike all along. She inspects one of the bodies and realises that she has seen these robed figures before, one Christmas a few years ago; she tells the others that they are facing the First. In London, the Watchers Council are trying to recover their data, as all files have been ransacked, and their worldwide offices have been hit. They decide to head to Sunnydale in order to mobilise against the coming threat - but the building is immediately blown up, killing all its occupants. Elsewhere, Spike has been taken to the Seal of Danzalthar; the First informs him that it was originally going to use Andrew’s blood but has decided to use Spike’s instead. It tells Spike that the robed figures belong to it, and are its Harbingers; one of them carves magickal symbols into Spike’s chest, before suspending him over the Seal. As Spike’s blood drips onto it, the Seal illuminates - it then breaks open, and the ultimate vampire, totally devoid of any humanity, begins to crawl out…

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), James Marsters (Spike), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), Danny Strong (Jonathan), Tom Lenk (Andrew), Adam Busch (Warren), Cynthia LaMontagne (Lydia), Oliver Muirhead (Philip), Kris Iyer (Nigel), Harris Yulin (Quentin Travers), D.B. Woodside (Principal Wood), Donald Bishop (Butcher), Camden Toy (Ubervamp), Bobby Brewer (Hoffman), Roberto Santos (Grimes)
Directed by David Solomon

TX (US): 29th November 2002

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