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| Amends | Helpless |
Buffy hears a rustling in the bushes while patrolling through the park. She pulls out a stake, and cautiously approaches them.
“Is it a vampire?”
Buffy spins around. “Mom, what are you doing here?”
Joyce holds up a brown paper bag, and a thermos of coffee. She has brought Buffy a snack. She felt it was about time that she came along and saw some of the Slaying. Buffy is pretty sure she doesn’t want to involve her mother in that part of her life. She tries to tell her that it is usually pretty boring. The vampire in the bushes picks that moment to attack.
Joyce cheers Buffy on from the sidelines while she fights the vampire. Then she recognises who it is Buffy’s fighting. It’s Mr. Sanderson from the bank. Joyce’s distraction allows Mr. Sanderson to toss Buffy away, and he makes a break for it. Buffy tells her mother to stay, and chases after him.
Buffy catches up with Mr. Sanderson, and without the distraction of having her mother there, she finishes him off quickly.
Joyce wanders over into the nearby playground. She notices a toy truck lying on the ground by the swings, and picks it up. Then she sees the bodies of two small children lying by the merry-go-round. A strange symbol—a triangle with a wavey line through it—is drawn on their hands.
Joyce drops the toy truck.
The police are all over the park, examining the scene of the children’s murder. Buffy finishes up talking with them and goes over to her mother who is standing off to the side. Buffy tells her that the police have said they can go home now.
Joyce is distraught over what she has seen. Buffy tries to reassure her. “I’m so sorry that you had to see this. But I promise, everything is going to be okay.”
“How?” asks Joyce.
“Because I’m going to find whatever did it,” says Buffy.
“I guess. It’s just you can’t— you can’t make it right.” Joyce starts to cry.
Buffy hugs her mother. “I know. I’m sorry. But I’ll take care of everything. I promise. Just try and calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Buffy tells Giles the next day in the library. “They were kids, Giles. Little kids! You don’t know what it was like to see them there. My mom can’t even talk.”
Giles tells Buffy that he is just trying to help. He asks if there was any sign of it being a vampire attack. Buffy tells him there wasn’t, the kids hadn’t been bitten. She tells him about the symbol drawn on their hands. The police are keeping it quiet, but she got a good look at it. She sits at the library table and reaches for a pen and a piece of paper.
Giles snatches the paper away from Buffy. “Oh, uh, 12th century, Papal Encyclical.” He slides a notebook over to her. “Write on this.”
Buffy draws the triangle with the wavey line through it for Giles in the notebook. It puzzles him. The use of a symbol indicates to Giles that this may not be a demonic killing. It usually implies some sort of cult activity, by a group.
“A group of human beings?” asks Buffy. “Someone with a soul did this?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so,” says Giles. He starts to look through his books.
“Okay,” says Buffy, “Then while you’re looking for the meaning of that symbol thingy, could you also find a loophole in that ‘Slayers don’t kill people’ rule?”
Giles looks back at her. “Buffy, this is a dreadful crime, I know, and you have every right to be upset, but… I wonder if you’re not letting yourself get a shade, uh… more personal because of your mother’s involvement.”
Buffy gets up from the table. “Oh, it’s completely personal. Giles, find me the people that did this. Please.”
Xander and Oz find themselves in the cafeteria line together. Xander is still feeling pretty uncomfortable around Oz.
Xander and Oz take their lunches, and head for a table. They are soon joined by Willow and Amy. This is the first time that Oz has seen Willow today, and he wonders where she has been. Xander quickly points out that she wasn’t with him.
An uncomfortable silence follows, while they look for something safe to discuss. Oz is the first to come up with a new topic: Buffy’s impending birthday. Xander quickly picks it up, but he has to stop when Buffy arrives. She tells them about the murders of the two children, and how her mother found the bodies during Buffy’s patrol.
“Why was your mom there?” asks Xander.
“More bad,” says Buffy. “She picked last night, of all nights, for a surprise bonding visit.”
“God!” says Willow. “Your mom would actually take the time to do that with you?” Buffy gives her a look. “That really wasn’t the point of the story, was it?”
“No,” says Buffy. “The point is, she’s completely wigging.”
“Who’s wigging?” asks Joyce from behind her.
Buffy jumps to her feet in surprise, and tells her mother that everyone is. Joyce is there to find out if Mr. Giles has learned anything about what might have happened. Buffy tells her about what Giles said about a cult.
“A cult. Like witches?” asks Joyce.
Willow chokes on her drink, and Amy gets very uncomfortable.
“Oh, I know you kids think that stuff’s cool. Buffy told me you dabble. But anybody who could do this isn’t cool. Anybody who could do this has to be a monster. It’s—”
Buffy decides that it’s time to move this conversation someplace more private. She pulls her mother away.
“What a burn,” says Xander after they’ve gone. “I mean, Buff’s mom was just starting to accept the whole Slayer thing, and now she’s going to be double-freaked.”
“Makes me grateful that my mom’s not interested in my extra-curricular activities,” says Willow. “Or my curricular activities.”
Buffy and her mother move out into the hallway. Joyce asks Buffy if her friends are going to be helping with the investigation.
Buffy really doesn’t think that this is a good place for them to be talking about it. She thinks her mother should go home. Joyce says she can’t just do nothing about what happened, so Buffy suggests that maybe she could help Giles in the library.
Joyce had something else in mind. She has already called everyone she knows in town, and they have organized a vigil to take place at City Hall tonight.
Buffy is not pleased to hear this. “That’s great, but you know what? A lot of times when we’re working on stuff like this, we like to keep the number of people that know about it kind of…small.”
“Oh. Right,” says Joyce. “Well, I’m sure there won’t be all that many people.”
It looks like half the town has shown up at City Hall that evening. Many of the people are carrying placards with pictures of the dead children, with “Never again” written beneath them. Even Willow’s mother is there, much to Willow’s amazement. Sheila Rosenberg doesn’t seem to be the most attentive of parents. She just now notices that Willow has cut her hair, something Willow did six months earlier. She also thinks that Buffy’s name is “Bunny.”
Giles shows up, and he and Joyce share an awkward moment. It seems that this is the first time they have talked since the incident with the Band Candy.
Sheila picks this moment to ask about the rumour going around. This momentarily frightens Giles. He thinks she’s talking about him and Joyce. She isn’t. She’s talking about the rumour that witches are responsible for the murders. Willow tries to dismiss the notion, but Sheila isn’t so sure. She has recently co-authored a paper about the rise in mysticism among teenagers. She finds the statistics disturbing.
Mayor Wilkins steps up to the podium to open the proceedings. “Hello, everybody.”
Joyce steps up behind Buffy. “He’ll do something about this.” she whispers. “You’ll see.”
“I want to thank you all for coming in the aftermath of such a tragic crime,” says the Mayor. “Seeing you all here proves what a caring community Sunnydale is. Now, sure, we’ve had our share of misfortunes, but we’re a good town with good people, and I know that none of us will rest easy until this horrible murder is solved. With that in mind, I make these words my pledge to you.” He picks up one of the signs and shows it to the people. “‘Never again!’ Now I ask you to give your attention to the woman who brought us all here tonight, Joyce Summers.”
Joyce takes his place at the podium, but she does not give the speech he’s expecting. “Mr. Mayor, you’re dead wrong. This is not a good town. How many of us have lost someone who just disappeared? Or got skinned? Or suffered neck rupture?” Buffy starts to look a little uncomfortable as her mother continues. “And how many of us have been too afraid to speak out? I was supposed to lead us in a moment of silence, but silence is this town’s disease. For too long we’ve been plagued by unnatural evils. This isn’t our town anymore. It belongs to the monsters and the witches and the Slayers.”
Buffy and Willow are both upset with that last bit.
“I say it’s time for the grownups to take Sunnydale back,” says Joyce. “I say we start by finding the people who did this and making them pay.”
Most of the assembled people applaud Joyce’s speech. Buffy, Willow and Giles are stunned by it.
Three people wearing dark robes perform a candle lit ceremony. One of them, a teenage boy, drops something into a hole in the top of a skull. The skull is picked up by Amy. She sets it aside, picks up a cup and hands it to the third person, who dumps it into the boiling pot in front of her. The third person is Willow.
The symbol which was found on the children’s hands is drawn on the carpet between them.
Next day at school Michael—the boy who was casting the spell with Amy and Willow—gets assaulted by some of the school jocks. They know he’s into that witchcraft stuff. It was people like him who killed those kids. Amy tries to intervene, and they threaten her too.
Buffy steps up behind Amy and smiles sweetly at the guys. They know better than to mess with her. They back off.
Cordelia has been watching this whole episode. “You’ll be one busy little Slayer, baby-sitting them.”
“I doubt they’ll have any more trouble,” says Buffy.
“I doubt your doubt,” says Cordelia. “Everyone knows that witches killed those kids, and Amy is a witch. And Michael is whatever the boy of witch is, plus being the poster child for yuck. If you’re going to hang with them, expect badness. ’Cause that’s what you get when you hang with freaks and losers. Believe me, I know.” Cordelia starts to walk away, but turns back. “That was a pointed comment about me hanging with you guys.” She walks away.
“Yeah, I got that one,” says Buffy. “Besides, witches didn’t do it!” she shouts after Cordelia. She turns around and runs into Giles.
“Actually, I think they may have,” says Giles quietly. “My research keeps bringing me back to European Wiccan covens.” He thinks he has found the meaning of the symbol, but Willow has borrowed the book he needs to be sure. He asks Buffy to get it from her.
Buffy goes looking for Willow. She finds Xander in the student lounge. When she asks him where Willow is he gets all defensive. “How can I convince you people that it’s over? You assume because I’m here, she’s here, that I somehow mysteriously know where she is.”
Buffy spots a pile of books nearby. “Those her books?”
“Yeah, she’s in the bathroom,” says Xander. “But the fact that I know that doesn’t change that I have a genuine complaint here. Look. I’m getting sick of the judgment, the innuendoes. Is a man not innocent until proven guilty?”
“You are guilty,” says Buffy. “You got illicit smoochies, going to have to pay the price.”
Buffy picks up the book that Giles was looking for, and sees Willow’s notebook underneath it. Drawn on the open page is the symbol.
Willow returns from the bathroom, and asks what Buffy’s looking for. Buffy asks her about the symbol.
“A doodle,” says Willow. “I do doodle. You, too. You do doodle, too.”
“This is a witch symbol!” says Buffy.
“Okay,” says Willow, “yeah, it is.”
“Willow, that symbol was on the murdered children!”
They are interrupted by a commotion outside the lounge. They go out and find Principal Snyder and a bunch of cops. The police are opening lockers.
Snyder is in a good mood. “This is a glorious day for principals everywhere. No pathetic whining about students’ rights. Just a long row of lockers and a man with a key.”
“Aw, man, it’s Nazi Germany,” says Xander, “and I’ve got Playboys in my locker!”
Xander doesn’t have to worry. It isn’t Playboys that the police are looking for. They are searching the lockers for occult paraphernalia. They find Amy’s spell books, and Willow’s supply of herbs and things.
Willow quietly tells Buffy that the symbol is harmless. She used it for a protection spell which she had cast with the help of Michael and Amy. It was supposed to be a surprise present for Buffy’s upcoming birthday.
Willow gets taken away to Snyder’s office while Buffy goes to see Giles.
The police are in the library too. They are gathering up Giles’ collection of occult reference books. Buffy quickly hides the volume she’s carrying before they spot her with it.
“Giles, we need those books!” says Buffy.
“Believe me, I tried to tell that to the nice man with the big gun,” says Giles.
Buffy tells Giles about what Willow told her about the symbol. She asks why a harmless symbol would turn up at a ritual sacrifice.
“I don’t know,” says Giles. “Ordinarily, I would say let’s widen our research.”
“Using what?” asks Buffy. “A dictionary and My Friend Flicka?”
“This is intolerable!” says Giles. “Snyder’s interfered before, but I, I won’t take this from that twisted little homunculus!”
Snyder picks that moment to come into the library. “I love the smell of desperate librarian in the morning.”
Giles orders Snyder to get out, and to take his marauders with him.
Snyder is not impressed. “I suppose I should hear you out. Just how is, um…” Snyder takes one of the books from one of the cops and reads the title. “Blood Rites and Sacrifices appropriate material for a public school library? Chess club branching out?”
“This is not over,” says Giles.
“Oh, I should say it’s just beginning. Fight it if you want. Just remember, lift a finger against me, and you’ll have to answer to MOO.” Snyder takes a sip from the coffee cup in his hand, and starts toward the door.
“Answer to MOO?” asks Buffy. “Did that sentence just make some sense that I’m not in on?”
Snyder stops, and looks at Buffy. “‘Mothers Opposed to the Occult.’ A powerful new group.”
“And who came up with that lame name?” asks Buffy.
“That would be the founder. I believe you call her ‘Mom.’” Snyder takes another sip of coffee, and leaves the library.
Willow arrives home and finds her mother has her magical stuff all spread out on the coffee table in the living room. Sheila Rosenberg tells Willow to sit down.
Willow takes off her backpack and sits on the sofa. “Mom, I know what this looks like, and I can totally—”
“Oh, you don’t have to explain, honey,” says Mrs. Rosenberg. “This isn’t exactly a surprise. Identification with mythical icons is perfectly typical of your age group. It’s a classic adolescent response to the pressures of incipient adulthood.” She picks up a packet of Willow’s herbs, and looks at it. “Of course, I wish you could’ve identified with something a little less icky, but developmentally speaking…”
“Mom, I’m not an age group,” says Willow. “I’m me. Willow group.”
“Oh, honey…” Sheila puts down the bag. “I understand.” She moves around and sits beside Willow on the sofa.
“No, you don’t,” says Willow. “Mom, this may be hard for you to accept, but I can do stuff. Nothing bad or dangerous, but I can do spells.”
“You think you can, and that’s what concerns me. The delusions.”
“Mom, how would you know what I can do? I mean, the last time we had a conversation over three minutes, it was about the patriarchal bias of the Mister Rogers show.”
“Well, with ‘King Friday’ lording it over all the lesser puppets…”
“Mom, you’re not paying attention.”
“And this is your way of trying to get it. Now, I have consulted with some of my colleagues, and they agree that this is a cry for discipline. You’re grounded.”
“Grounded?” asks Willow. “This is the first time ever I’ve done something you don’t like and I’m grounded? I’m supposed to mess up. I’m a teenager, remember?”
“You’re upset, I hear you…” says Sheila.
Willow gets up and faces her mother. “No, Ma, hear this! I’m a rebel! I’m having a rebellion!”
Sheila isn’t really listening. “Willow, honey, you don’t need to act out like this to prove your specialness.”
“Mom, I’m not acting out,” says Willow. “I’m a witch! I can make pencils float. And I can summon the four elements. Okay, two, but four soon, and I’m dating a musician!”
The last bit seems to get Sheila’s attention. “Oh, Willow!”
Willow tries to shock her mother into hearing what she is saying. “I worship Beelzebub! I do his biddings! Do you see any goats around? No, because I sacrificed them!”
Sheila is getting tired of the way Willow is behaving. “Willow, please!”
“All bow before Satan!”
“I’m not listening to this,” says her mother.
“Prince of Night,” Willow says sarcastically. “I summon you! Come fill me with your black, naughty evil!”
“That’s enough!” says Mrs. Rosenberg. “Is that clear? Now, you will go to your room and stay there until I say otherwise. And we’re going to make some changes. I don’t want you hanging out with those friends of yours. It’s clear where this little obsession came from. You will not speak to Bunny Summers again.”
“I don’t want you seeing that Willow anymore,” says Joyce Summers. “I’ve spoken with her mother. I had no idea her forays into the occult had gone so far.” Joyce is sitting at her dining room table. It’s covered with papers, and the dining room is full of pictures of the dead children.
Buffy isn’t happy with her mother. It was Joyce who ordered the raid on the school, opening the lockers, and taking Giles’ books. If they’re going to figure out what is going on they are going to need those books.
Joyce tells Buffy that most of the books will be returned to Mr. Giles, once the offensive material has been sorted out. “Sweetie, those books have no place in a public school library. Especially now. Any student can waltz in there and get all sorts of ideas. Do you understand how that terrifies me?”
“Mom, I hate that these people scared you so much, and I know that you’re just trying to help, but you have to let me handle this. It’s what I do.”
“But is it really?” asks Joyce. “I mean, you patrol, you slay. Evil pops up, you undo it. And that’s great! But is Sunnydale getting any better? Are they running out of vampires?”
“I don’t think that you run out of—”
“It’s not your fault.” Joyce interrupts. “You don’t have a plan. You just react to things. It’s bound to be kind of fruitless.”
“Okay, maybe I don’t have a plan,” says Buffy. “Lord knows I don’t have lapel buttons, and maybe next time that the world is getting sucked into Hell, I won’t be able to stop it because the Anti-Hell-Sucking Book isn’t on the approved reading list!”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put down—”
“Yeah, well, you did. It doesn’t matter. I have to go. I have to go on one of my pointless patrols and react to some vampires. If that’s alright with MOO.” Buffy starts to go. When she reaches the door she turns around for one last comment. “And nice acronym, Mom!”
Joyce returns to her work. “Just trying to make things better,” she says. The dead boy and girl appear sitting at her table.
“You are,” says the boy.
“There’s bad people out there,” says the girl.
Joyce nods at them, understanding.
“And we can’t sleep,” says the boy.
“Not until you hurt them,” says the girl.
“The way they hurt us,” says the boy.
Buffy returns to the park where the children were murdered. The people of Sunnydale have turned the merry-go-round where the children died into a shrine. It’s covered with flowers, candles, toys, and photos of the children.
Angel shows up. He tells Buffy that everyone is talking about this all over town. They are even talking to him about it.
“It’s strange,” says Buffy. “People die in Sunnydale all the time. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“They were children,” says Angel. “Innocent. It makes a difference.”
Buffy and Angel walk away from the merry-go-round and sit on one of the park benches.
“And Mr. Sanderson from the bank had it coming?” asks Buffy. “My mom…said some things to me about being the Slayer. That it’s fruitless.” She shakes her head. “No fruit for Buffy.”
“She’s wrong,” says Angel.
“Is she?” asks Buffy. “Is Sunnydale any better than when I first came here? Okay, so I battle evil. But I don’t really win. The bad keeps coming back and getting stronger. Like that kid in the story, the boy that stuck his finger in the duck.”
“Dike,” says Angel. Buffy gives him a puzzled look. “It’s another word for dam.”
“Oh. Okay, that story makes a lot more sense now.”
“Buffy, you know I’m still figuring things out,” says Angel. “There’s a lot I don’t understand. But I do know it’s important to keep fighting. I learned that from you.”
“But we never—”
“We never win,” says Angel
“Not completely,” says Buffy.
“We never will,” says Angel. “That’s not why we fight. We do it ’cause there’s things worth fighting for. Those kids. Their parents.”
“Their parents,” says Buffy. She realizes something.
“Look, I know it’s not much,” says Angel.
“No,” says Buffy. “No, it’s a lot.”
Giles is trying to get some information out of the computer in the library, since he has lost all his books. He isn’t having any luck. Oz and Xander find him swearing at it when they come in. The good news is that they’ve found his books. The bad news is that they are all locked up in City Hall where they can’t get them.
Buffy comes into the library. Xander starts to tell her the news about Giles’ books but she ignores him. “What do we know about these kids?”
“What?” asks Giles.
“Facts? Details?” asks Buffy.
“Well, they were found in the park,” says Xander.
“No,” says Buffy. “Where did they go to school? Who were their parents? What are their names?”
Giles and the others look around at each other. They have no answers.
“We know everything about their deaths, but we don’t even know their names,” says Buffy.
“Well, sure we do,” says Xander. “Um, it’s on the tip of my tongue.”
“That never came up,” says Oz. “Ever.”
“And if no one knows who they are, where did these pictures come from?” asks Buffy.
“I just assumed someone had the details,” says Giles. “I never really… Well, that is strange.”
They need to get more information, but Giles has given up on the computer. He gets up out of his seat in front of it.
Oz takes over the computer. “I can look around, but Willow would really know the sites we need.”
“That’s great,” says Buffy. “She can’t even come to the phone. The wrath of MOO.”
Oz types on the keyboard. “We don’t need a phone.”
Willow is lying on her bed, holding a teddy bear when her Powerbook chimes. She puts aside the teddy bear and gets up to get her computer. She sees Oz’s message, and begins her search.
Willow finds an account of two dead children fifty years previously. The newspaper story has a photo of the same kids. She finds similar incidents every fifty years all to the way back to 1649, where two children named Hans and Gretta were found dead in Germany, and relays the information to the library computer.
Mrs. Rosenberg comes into Willow’s room and interrupts her, forcing her offline. She has been talking some more with Joyce and her associates. She is taking Willow’s activities much more seriously now.
“So, you believe me?” asks Willow.
“I believe you, dear,” says her mother. “Now all I can do is let you go with love.”
“Let me go? What does that mean?” asks Willow, but Mrs. Rosenberg is finished. She leaves Willow’s room, and locks the door behind her.
Giles paces the library, thinking out loud about what they have learned. “There is a fringe theory held by a few folklorists that some regional stories have actual, very literal antecedents.”
“And in some language that’s English?” asks Buffy.
Oz provides the translation. “Fairy tales are real.”
“Hans and Gre…” Buffy figures out what Giles is getting at. “Hansel and Gretel?”
“Of course!” says Giles. “It makes sense now!”
“Yeah, it’s all falling into place,” says Buffy. “Of course that place is nowhere near this place.”
Giles explains that some demons don’t feed off people directly. They thrive by fostering hatred and persecution. By watching men destroy each other. “They feed us our darkest fear and turn peaceful communities into vigilantes.”
“Hansel and Gretel run home to tell everyone about the mean old witch,” says Buffy.
“And then she and probably dozens of others are persecuted by a righteous mob,” says Giles. “It’s happened all throughout history.”
Xander finds the situation somewhat amusing. He starts making plans to trade a cow for some beans. Everyone gives him a look. “No one else is seeing the funny here.”
Buffy thinks it’s time to go talk to her mother. If she knows the truth she can help defuse the whole situation. She starts to head for the door, but stops when Michael comes running into the library with a bloody nose, and a black eye. He was attacked.
“Officially not funny,” says Xander.
Michael tells them he was attacked by his own father, and a mob has taken Amy to City Hall.
Xander and Oz leave to warn Willow and get her to safety. Giles tells Michael to hide in his office, and he and Buffy head for Buffy’s house to talk with Joyce.
Willow hears a knock on her door. She goes and opens it, hoping that she will have an opportunity to talk with her mother, but Sheila isn’t alone. There are several other people with her.
“It’s time to go,” says Mrs. Rosenberg. “Oh, and get your coat. It’s chilly out.”
“Go? Go where?” asks Willow.
“I said get your coat, witch!”
Willow slams her door shut, and tries to hold it against the people pounding on it.
Giles and Buffy arrive at the Summers house, and interrupt a meeting of MOO taking place in the living room. Buffy tells her mother that they have to talk—privately—and pulls her into the front foyer.
Joyce suddenly puts a cloth over Buffy’s mouth and nose, while the other MOO members grab Giles. Buffy sees the two children standing on the stairway as she passes out. The boy is holding a bottle of chloroform in his hand.
Joyce looks up at the children on the stairs. “You were right. It was easy.”
“I told you,” says Gretel
“It gets even easier,” says Hansel.
“But I’m still scared of the bad girls,” says Gretel
“You have to stop them,” says Hansel. “You have to make them go away. Forever.”
Oz and Xander arrive at Willow’s house and find her room in a shambles. Willow is gone.
Sheila Rosenberg ties Willow to a stake in the City Hall rotunda. Buffy and Amy are already tied up. Buffy is still unconscious. Giles’ books are piled all around the bases of the stakes. Several of the people gathered around are carrying torches. Willow tries to talk some sense into her mother while Amy shouts at Buffy, trying to wake her up. Neither are having any luck.
Cordelia slaps Giles, trying to wake him up. It takes several attempts. Giles wakes up in time to block the next slap. It is none too soon for Cordelia. Her hand is starting to hurt. Giles asks what she’s doing there.
Cordy tells Giles that her mother has taken away all her black clothes and scented candles. “I came over here to tell Buffy to stop this craziness and found you all unconscious…again. How many times have you been knocked out, anyway? I swear, one of these times, you’re going to wake up in a coma.”
Giles gets to his feet. “Wake up in a— Oh, never mind. We need to save Buffy from Hansel and Gretel.” He staggers toward the door.
Cordelia follows Giles out of the house. “Now, let’s be clear. The brain damage happened before I hit you.”
Xander and Oz arrive at City Hall. Their entrance is blocked by a bunch of the school jocks.
“What’s with the grim?” asks Xander. “We’re here to join you guys.” He and Oz slowly advance toward the guys, who eye them suspiciously. “No, really. Why should you guys have all the fun? We want to be part of the hate.” The jocks clearly aren’t buying it.
“Just so we’re clear, you guys know you’re nuts, right?” asks Oz. The jocks lunge toward them. Xander and Oz turn and run, with the jocks in pursuit.
Buffy finally wakes up. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” says her mother.
Buffy looks around, and takes in her situation: tied to a stake with Willow and Amy beside her, and surrounded by people with torches. “Mom, you don’t want this!”
“Since when does it matter what I want?” asks Joyce. “I wanted a normal, happy daughter. Instead I got a Slayer.”
Sheila Rosenberg hands Joyce a torch. “Thanks,” says Joyce. “This has been so trying. You’ve been such a champ. We should stay close, have lunch.”
“Oh, I’d like that,” says Sheila. “How nice.”
Joyce uses the torch to set fire to the books piled around Buffy, Willow and Amy.
“Oh, you can’t be serious!” says Amy.
“Mom, don’t!” says Buffy. Joyce moves around them, touching her torch to more of the books.
“Alright,” says Amy. “You want to fry a witch? I’ll give you a witch!” She starts to cast a spell:
“Goddess Hecate work thy will…”
Buffy recognises this one. “Uh-oh!”
The magical forces swirl around Amy. Her eyes turn black.
“Before thee let the unclean thing crawl!”
The magic swirls brighter and Amy disappears.
“She couldn’t do us first?” asks Buffy. A rat scampers away, past the startled onlookers.
Willow is desperate. “You’ve seen what we can do!” she yells at the crowd. “Another step and you will all feel my power!”
“What are you going to do, float a pencil at ’em?” whispers Buffy.
“It’s a really big power!” says Willow. The people gathered start to back away.
“Yes!” says Buffy. “You will all be turned into vermin! And some of you will be fish! Yeah, you in the back will be fish!” More of the onlookers start to back away.
The children appear before them. “But you promised. You have to kill the bad girls.”
Giles and Cordelia are on their way to City Hall in Giles’ car. Giles directs Cordy in the preparation of a potion while he tries to remember the words to a spell. The spell is in German and should cause the demon to appear in its true form, and hopefully negate its influence over the people. He tells Cordelia to add the toadstone to the mixture.
Cordelia picks up a stone off the dashboard and sniffs at it. “This? It doesn’t look like a toad.”
“No reason it should,” says Giles. “It’s from inside the toad.”
Cordelia looks disgusted, and drops the stone into her mixture. “I hate you.”
Oz and Xander have lost the guys who were chasing them but can’t get past the locked doors. They look for another way in, and hear Willow’s voice coming from a ventilation duct high on the wall.
Oz climbs up on a bench and breaks open the grill over the duct. He climbs in, and Xander follows him.
The flames are getting higher. “They hurt us. Burn them!” say the children.
“Mom!” says Buffy. “Dead people are talking to you. Do the math!”
“I’m sorry, Buffy,” says Joyce.
“Mom, look at me! You love me,” says Buffy. “You’re not going to be able to live with yourself if you do this!”
“You earned this,” says Joyce. “You toyed with unnatural forces. What kind of a mother would I be if I didn’t punish you?”
Giles and Cordy arrive at City Hall, and are stopped by the locked door. Giles pulls a bobbie pin out of Cordy’s hair—taking some of her hair with it—and goes to work on the lock.
“God, you really were the little youthful offender, weren’t you?” asks Cordy. “You must just look back on that and cringe.”
The flames rise around Buffy and Willow.
“Buffy, I can’t take it!” says Willow. “It’s too hot!”
“I’m sorry, Will. If it wasn’t for me, none of this would have happened. It wouldn’t be…” Buffy stops when she sees Giles and Cordelia coming in through the door at the back of the rotunda.
Giles looks around, and points Cordelia toward the fire hose. The noise of her breaking the glass to get at it attracts the attention of the mob, and they start to move toward her. Cordy turns on the hose, and sprays the mob with water, forcing them back.
“Cordelia! Put out the fire!” yells Buffy.
“Oh! Right!” Cordelia turns the water onto the flames.
The two children advance toward Giles. He casts his spell, and throws the bottle with the potion Cordelia prepared at their feet. The children turn to face one another and embrace. They transform into one large ugly demon.
“Okay, I think I liked the two little ones more than the one big one,” says Cordelia.
People start to run for it. Joyce looks at her daughter tied to the stake, and comes to the awful realization of what she has done.
The demon turns toward the mob. “Protect us! Kill the bad girls!” But most of the people gathered in the rotunda just keep running.
“You know what?” says Buffy. “Not as convincing in that outfit.”
The demon roars, and charges at Buffy. She struggles and manages to break loose the base of the stake she’s tied to. Buffy leans forward and the demon impales itself on the tip of her stake.
Buffy is stuck in her leaned over position. She tries to look up to see what happened to the demon. “Did I get it?” she asks. “Did I get it?”
Xander and Oz fall through the ceiling. They land in a heap amid the steaming books. Oz looks up at Willow. “We’re here to save you.”
Willow and Buffy prepare a spell in Willow’s room. “Your mom doesn’t mind us doing this in the house?” asks Buffy.
“She doesn’t know,” says Willow.
“Business as usual?”
“Hm, sort of,” says Willow. “She’s doing that selective memory thing your mom used to be so good at.”
“She forgot everything?” asks Buffy.
“No,” says Willow. “She remembered the part where I said I was dating a musician. Oz has to come for dinner next week. So, that’s sort of like taking an interest.”
They complete their preparations. Willow thinks that she has the mixture right this time. Buffy lights the herbs on fire, while Willow recites the spell.
“Diana, Hecate, I hereby license thee to depart.
Goddess of creatures great and small,
I conjure thee to withdraw.”
Purple smoke rises from the herbs, but nothing else happens. The rat on the carpet between them remains unchanged.
“Maybe we should get her one of those wheel thingies,” says Buffy.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| The vampire Mr. Sanderson | The park | Staked by Buffy |
| Hansel and Gretel demon | City Hall | Impaled by Buffy |