Previously: Angelus found a big stone blob, containing a demon called Acathla, and is planning to use Acathla to suck the world into hell. Also, we got a whooooooole lot of backstory on Angel, and Dru killed Kendra.
Becoming, Part 2
Kirsti: Picking up where we left off, we start with a voice yelling “Freeze!” It’s a cop, and he tells Buffy to back away from Kendra. “She’s dead,” says his partner, and the first cop replies “What about up there?” We see an unconscious Xander on the balcony. Buffy tries to run to him, but she’s dragged out of the Wiggins Library pleading her innocence. Snyder approaches in the hall, and says that Buffy’s trouble. The cop tries to handcuff Buffy, but she punches him and runs off. His partner shoots at Buffy (sadly, she doesn’t hit Snyder), and issues a BOLO on her radio, stating that Buffy’s a homicide suspect and very dangerous.
After the credits, Buffy’s sneaking into the hospital in a not-at-all-suspicious “I just robbed a bank” beanie and coat combo.
STEALTH GIRL
Sweeney: As she said, she’s really bad at undercover.
Lorraine: I’d only amend that she’s bad at clothes in general.
K: Thank God she has that ridding the world of evil thing to fall back on.
She checks a few charts, trying to find her friends, before Xander taps her on the back. He takes her to Willow’s room. She’s unconscious and not looking well. Xander says that it’s head trauma, and that the longer the unconscious thing lasts, the less chance there is of Willow waking up. Buffy blames the spell and herself for letting Willow do the spell.
Lor: She should feel guilty but not about the spell. What really endangered Will was the fact that B fell for the TRAP. I’m just saying.
K: Cordy comes in, and says that she ran through about three counties before realising no one was chasing her. Xander asks if Giles kept up with her, and she says that Giles wasn’t with her. They suddenly realise that they have no idea where Giles is.
Sweeney: That should have been Question #1, due to Giles being Answers Guy. Also, the most likely person to come up with a solution to Buffy’s whole Wanted For Murder problem.
K: Truth.
At that, we cut to the mansion, where Giles is waking up on the floor with Angelus threatening to torture him. “The last time I tortured somebody, they didn’t even HAVE chainsaws,“ he says. Giles stares at Stone!Acathla, and Angelus reveals that he’s done all the rituals but nothing’s worked, so he wants Giles to help out. Preferably reluctantly, so that he can get his torture on.
Over at Buffy’s house, the police are telling Joyce that her daughter is a murderer. I kind of want to give Joyce half a Sandy Cohen Eyebrow for not agreeing with them, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Buffy, meanwhile, is at Giles’ house. Whistler is there, and says “It wasn’t supposed to go down like this” Apparently Angel was meant to stop Acathla, but thanks to Buffy’s Magic Vagina, Sunnydale is now Opposite Land. He asks what she’s willing to give up to stop the Apocalypse, and she storms out.
Sweeney: Thanks, Whistler, for that extra helping of guilt for Buffy’s Magic Vagina! She really needed that!
Lor: I feel like I’ve been extra nitpicky over these past two episodes, but they are finally filling in back story guys, AND I CAN’T HELP IT. But Whistler says, “It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. Nobody saw you coming. I figured this for Angel’s big day.” We just saw in the last episode that Whistler basically sent Angel to Buffy, where he went insta-gooey-eyed. I mean, maybe YOU didn’t see it coming, Whistler, but we did.
K: Right?? Maybe it’s a guy thing…
As Buffy walks by the playground, a cop car pulls over and the cops tell her to put her hands up. But before she can do anything, the cop gets thrown across the car, and Spike comes into frame. “Hello, cutie,” he says, and I squee a little, because SPIKE!!
Lor: Sometimes he’s just very hard to resist. And sometimes those times come after he just knocked out a police officer, so that you in fact feel slightly confused and slightly swoony.
Sweeney: Truth.
K: At least he didn’t eat the police officer?
Buffy tries to fight him, but Spike stops her and says that he wants to help her stop Angelus. Buffy thinks it’s a trick (not surprisingly), and Spike points out that Angelus has Giles and is probably playing with his torture devices already. He goes on, saying that he wants to save the world. Buffy gives him a “huh?” look, and he explains:
“We like to talk big, vampires do. “I’m going to destroy the world.” It’s just tough guy talk. Struttin’ around with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is, I like this world. You’ve got…dog racing, Manchester United, and you’ve got people. Billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs. It’s all right here. But then someone comes along with a vision. With a real…passion for destruction. Angel could pull it off. Goodbye, Piccadilly. Farewell, Leicester bloody Square. You know what I’m saying?”
Sweeney: This is majorly redundant, but I love this in gif form, and I know our audience won’t object to a bonus Spike gif. IT’S WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT!
K: I now have “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” stuck in my head, but I’m okay with that seeing as the source was Spike.
Lor: I guess this is what Sweeney mentioned back when Spike was all about destroying the world via that other world destroying demon. He seems to have changed his tune but I’m not too bothered by it. Things have changed for Spike. I believe he was genuinely intrigued by having Angelus back but that didn’t really work out for him. I can see him jumping on the plan the first time around but being less enthused now. Inconsistent? Yes. But totally fan-wankable and a lesser worry from these two episodes.
K: Buffy asks why he would EVER go to her on this, and Spike says that he wants Dru back. Back to the way it was before Angelus. There’s a brief few punches, before Buffy utters the spectacular line “The whole Earth may be sucked into hell, and you want my help ’cause your girlfriend’s a big ho?” Spike points out that individually, they can’t do a whole lot, but that TOGETHER they just might be able to make it work. A reluctant truce formed, they walk off.
Back at the hospital, Xander is sitting by Willow’s hospital bed as the Tinkly Pianos of Sadness play. He begs her to wake up because he needs her and he loves her. She starts to wake up at that, and immediately asks for Oz. (L: BAM. AMAZING.) He walks in the door at that, and holy CRAP they’re adorable. “My head feels big. Is it big?” Willow asks, and Oz kisses her forehead. “Is everybody else okay?” Willow asks, and we cut to the mansion where Giles is bleeding and tied to a chair. Angelus says he’s impressed with Giles’ stamina, and Giles keeps a stiff upper lip as the torture starts again.
Meanwhile, the Reluctant Truce is making its way up Buffy’s front path. Joyce arrives home at that moment, and gets all “Where were you? The police were here. I was so worried!!” on Buffy. Buffy says that she’s okay, and that they should all get inside. But Joyce isn’t having a bar of it. “What, your mum doesn’t know?” asks Spike. “Know what?” says Joyce, and Buffy comes up with the TERRIBLE cover story that she’s in a band with Spike, and suggests again that they go inside.
Sweeney: Terrible in the sense of its realism, but otherwise awesome:
K: Joyce isn’t really buying it, and as they’re walking up the front steps, a vampire jumps out. (L: Uh, convenient?) Spike punches him and throws him to Buffy, who stakes him. Joyce looks shocked, and WHOOPS, SECRET’S OUT. “Buffy. WHAT is going on?” says Joyce, and Buffy finally tells her the truth: “Mom, I’m a vampire slayer.” Fade to black aaaaaand I hand over to Sweeney!
Sweeney: Back at the hospital, Willow is on the phone with Buffy insisting that she’s fine, and playing with her bowl of hospital jello. Willow apologizes for not being able to fix Angel, but Buffy says that it just wasn’t meant to be and will make it easier for her to do what she has to do. She assures Willow that she knows where Giles is, but that Willow wouldn’t believe her on the how if she told her. She tells Xander that she’s going to rescue Giles come daybreak.
Meanwhile, the “how” is awkwardly sitting in the living room with Joyce, and hilarity ensues. Joyce recognizes Spike, and he reminds her of that one time where she earned Sandy Cohen eyebrows for threatening him with an ax. Good times. Joyce pauses awkwardly and then tries to make small talk.
K: There are no words to describe how much I love scenes featuring Spike and Joyce. They’re almost enough to redeem some of Joyce’s sucky parenting.
Lor: I love that Spike remembers what Joyce said so well, though I guess you don’t forget being threatened with an ax.
Sweeney: Buffy returns to get the full explanation from Spike. He agrees to help her in exchange for allowing him and Dru to leave and never come back. Buffy’s all, “NO DEAL,” due to Dru killing Kendra. Spike is proud of Dru for this and it’s awkward (and funny).
After some more haggling they agree, but on the condition that Dru dies if Giles does. Spike leaves and then Buffy and Joyce haggle. Joyce totes thought Buffy did it (so it’s good that you didn’t give her that half an eyebrow K: SRSLY.) but now she wants to go to the cops, which is stupid.
Joyce suddenly decides to go all concerned parent and while part of me agrees with her telling her seventeen year old daughter that she needs to make time to explain herself, what with her being wanted for murder, the rest of me can’t forget how little time Joyce has made to actually be a parent. This is what happens, negligent parents of the world. Ignore your kids 99% of the time, and you lose your fair claim to tell them what to do when they’re busy trying to save the world.
Lor: And/or when you suspect they are a murderer.
Sweeney: I assume it would make it really difficult for me to want to follow your orders if you suspect I’m a murderer.
Anyway, Buffy gives Joyce another speech about how much she wishes she didn’t have to be a vampire slayer, and could be a normal girl instead of having to go save the world again. Joyce tells Buffy that if she walks out the door, she better not come back. Buffy is stung by this (K: UNDERSTANDABLY. Fuck, Joyce. I know you’re pissed and all, but you can’t say that to your teenager, especially when she has a history of breaking the rules.), but knows that having to save the world is more important. This is the first of many things that Buffy has to give up to save the world, re: her conversation with Whistler.
Back at the hospital, Cordelia is telling the other three that she wishes they could help. Willow says they need to try the spell again. Xander points out how dangerous it is, but she won’t back down. Oz chimes in to say that he’s missed some stuff, “because this is all making the kind of sense that’s…not.”
We cut to Angelus telling a visibly suffering Giles that the pain can stop if he’ll just talk. Giles starts to tell, but it turns out to be just a tease.
K: I’m sad about this, because I would LOVE to see Angelus perform the ritual in a tutu.
Sweeney: NGL, so would I, because it would be hilarious.
As Angelus calls for the chainsaw, Spike wheels in and points out that they need to watch how much torturing they do if they want actual information out of Giles which, you know, accurate. He says that there are other ways and calls Dru in to “play a game.”
Buffy tears away caution tape at the library, where she goes for the magic sword. Snyder appears randomly and calls her a criminal and is generally a dick to her. He acknowledges that the police of Sunnydale are “deeply stupid.” He’s not wrong. He says that regardless of whether she gets off, she’s expelled. This is Big Sacrifice #2 in favor of saving the world.
As Buffy walks off, we get another bit of season three set-up when Snyder calls the mayor to tell him he has good news. It’s really exciting to see seeds being planted for actual consistency on this show! We’re almost there, guys!
K: YAY, SEASON 3!!
Sweeney: Drusilla is trying to make Giles feel better. We get a closeup on her nails, which are really awesome here, I have to say. I mean, only a mentally deranged demon can pull off blood-red nails that long, but the red with the white tips is a cool look for centuries-old demented vamps! Anyway, the “game” turns out to be Drusilla convincing Giles that she is Jenny and me wondering why the trio hasn’t tried to put this crazy power of Dru’s to use sooner. Because of reasons, I guess.
Giles confesses to Drusilla!Jenny that Angel needed to use his own blood as the key and then they make out. Angel is all excited that he got his answer, and he and Spike discuss what to do. Spike convinces Angel not to kill Giles, in case he’s lying. They bro out about how glad Angel is to have Spike watching his back like old times. Then they realize Dru is still making out with Giles and it’s lolzy and awkward.
K: Seriously. It’s hilarious. It takes BOTH of them getting all “Uhhhh, Dru?” before she stops.
Lor: And making out with Drusilla was probably the worse of all the torture Giles endured.
Sweeney: I feel that if we were having bro-talk, I’d make some comment about the freaky ones being, uh, good? In spite of having brothers and watching all those episodes of Entourage, I still don’t really get how bro-talk works, so never mind.
Meanwhile, Buffy goes back to Giles’ apartment, and Whistler is still there. They have another deep! meaningful! conversation! in which he tells her that she better go kill Angel quick, so it’ll be easier on her. She’s all, “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got nothing left to lose,” and as she leaves, Whistler says to the audience rather than her because she’s gone: “Wrong, kid. You’ve got one more thing.”
And on that delightful note, I hand it off to Lor to finish it up.
Lorraine: Day breaks. Buffy is stomping towards the baddie mansion when Xander comes out of the bushes like his momma never told him, “don’t startle a Slayer with a handful of weapons.” We have at least one reader who is pro-Xander, so for her I will point out that Xander is bravely offering his help to B. Let’s see how long it takes before he makes the nice feelings go away.
K: All of two seconds. Just saying…
Lor: Buffy tells Xander to grab Giles and run away while handing off a stake. She is carrying the Sword ‘o Knightly Blessings (K: I just got HORRIBLY confused and was all “Keira Knightley blessed the sword???” FAIL, KIRSTI. FAIL.) and explains that it is meant for Angel. At the mention of Angel, Xander remembers Willow’s intentions of re-souling Anglus. “Willow… she told me to tell you…” Xander starts. “Tell me what?” Buffy asks. Xander hesitates for one second and finishes, “kick his ass.”
OH. HELL. NO.
One paragraph, Alexander Harris. ONE PARAGRAPH OF ME TRYING TO BE NICE AND THEN YOU MAKE ME HATE YOU.
K: Like I said, all of two seconds.
Lor: As Buffy stomps away, Xander either seems uncertain or he can feel my wrath through time and space.
Inside the mansion, Angelus is getting his ritual on and in a parallel shot, the remaining Scoobies in Willow’s hospital room (where doctors and nurses are thankfully scarce) are setting up their own ritual. Oz is now in charge of reading the Latin while Cordy mans the stinky herbs.
Cut back to the mansion. Angelus is slicing his hand open when Buffy enters the scene and slices the head off a vampire. She greets Angelus with a “hello lover,” which is awesomely like something he would say to her. (S: Something he did say to her during THE TRAP.) “Do you really think you can take us all on,” Angel asks. “No, I don’t.” Cue Wheelie!Spike to be less wheelie and more, “beating Angelus with a tire iron.”
K: BEST. THING. EVER.
Lor: This fight scene quickly cuts between the characters: Spike goes to town with his beating and Buffy takes on a red-shirt-vamp. Drusilla attacks Spike to get him off of Angelus. Xander runs into the scene and punches a vampire. Sadly, the vampire doesn’t turn around and eat him. Spike turns to Dru. “I don’t want to hurt you, baby.” Dru grabs him by the neck and pins him to the wall. Spike punches her. IN THE FACE. “Doesn’t mean I wont.”
Sweeney: The bit with the cop and the happy meals with legs speech was great, but this is my favorite Spike moment this episode because it’s fucking awesome.
K: I think hitting Angelus with the tyre iron trumps it for me, but punching Dru is still made of win.
Sweeney: Fair. The tire iron was pretty badass too.
Lor: Sorry. Still partial to the Dru!Punch
Cut to Willow calling spirits and stuff.
Cut back to Xander finding Giles, who thinks Xander is another mind trick.
Giles: They get inside my head, make me see things I want.
Xander: Then why would they make you see me?
That convinces Giles, because WORD. (S: A big +1 to that “WORD.” K: +1 to Sweeney’s +1) Xander ushers Giles out and takes us back through the main action. Dru and Spike are still fighting. Angelus comes to. Buffy finally manages to stake the red-shirt-vamp but not before Angelus takes his bleeding hand to the sword staked through Acaltha. Cue sparkly lights and squiggly electricity lines as Angelus removes the sword.
Dru takes a moment to check out Acaltha and that’s Spikes cue to grab her and choke her. I know he’s doing it out of love, BUT I DON’T CARE. I’m just happy someone is choking her.
Buffy picks up her sword as Angelus says it’s too late. Acaltha is about to swallow the Earth, and stuff.
Angel does slice Buffy’s shirt and I yell out a, “that’s me only shirt!” in honor of Kendra.
Sweeney: SO DID I! And she totally looks down at the tear and up at him and the moment is way more dramatic than the tearing of a shirt ought to have been, so I’m pretty sure Buffy did too.
Lor: Back at the hospital, Willow’s ritual becomes legit when she starts speaking Latin all by herself, obviously channeling some LOST MAGICKS.
Spike is still choking Drusilla and she finally passes out which is a little troublesome for me because I thought these vampires didn’t breathe? Did she just get tired of being choked and decide to take a nap? (K: *snort*) Spikes lifts a napping Dru and carries her out. He stops to look at Buffy and Angel. Buffy’s lost her sword and Angel is cornering her. Spike thinks aloud that Angelus is going to kill her. He gives a little, “OHWELL,” shrug and walks away. I forgive him because he’s being so super bad ass this episode.
Sweeney: Also, he is a demon who, with or without a truce, has no real reason to want to save the girl whose duty is to kill him. That said, she’s also kind of essential to preventing the end of the world, so, uh maybe he should have cared a little more?
Whatever.
Lor: Also, Dru appears to be gripping onto Spike’s back as they leave the frame. She must be a light napper.
Angelus takes a moment to revel in his apparent defeat of Buffy.
K: +1. THIS is what I think of when I see that quote from Joss Whedon where a reporter asked him why he keeps writing strong female characters and his response was “Because you keep asking me that question”.
Lor: Absolutely agreed. And in all that’s how I felt about this finale. Mythology? Meh. Characters. AMAZE.
More sword fighting and a brief shot of Spike of driving away in another rape-moble, aka a car with mostly blacked out windows. Spike is driving really funny and I can only assume it’s because he’s trying to avoid the bits of sunlight that are making their way into the car?
More more sword fighting. Buffy finally gets the upper hand as Willow completes her LOST MAGICKS. Angelus is down on his knees, Buffy prepares to swing and BAM. His soul comes zipping back. His head drops and when he lifts it again, he’s crying and 1000x more broody. Aw, Angel. Welcome back hun. He teary eyed calls Buffy and I’m not gonna lie: all my Angel feels come rushing back. D:
Sweeney: FEELS. SO MANY FEELS.
K: NGL, I had no feels. Team Heartless Cow is back, y’all.
Lor: Buffy considers Angel disbelievingly as he stands and claims to not remember what was going on. Angel pulls her into a hug, saying that he feels he hasn’t seen her in months. It’s sort of a clunky line here, and it made me wonder why in re-soulling 2.0, Angel doesn’t seem to be having the rush of memories and guilt he had during version 1.0.
Buffy finally relaxes into the hug as Angel kisses her shoulder and calls her name and clearly, at this point, I just FUCKING KNOW what is coming next. I just know that this is the last thing she has to sacrifice and my heart is breaking already and I swear, Kirsti, you better not make a Heartless Cow comment.
K: Uhhhhhh. Whoops?
Sweeney: FFS. Hate my imaginary vampire boyfriend Angel, but LOOK AT B’S DEPRESSED PANDA FACE. HAVE SOME FEELS FOR BUFFY.
Lor: Buffy’s eyes widen as she see Acathla start to open his mouth. It looks all vortex-y in there, too. Realization and terror dawn her Buffy’s face as she pulls away to face Angel. She feels his face, kisses him, tells him she loves him. He loves her too. She tells him to close his eyes and gives him another kiss before she runs the sword through his chest. He’s shocked and he reaches out to her and says her name before he’s swallowed in the vortex.
Because having her vagina sort-of-kind-of destroy him wasn’t enough, here we have her running him through with a sword and sending him to hell. I wish I could spend all of tomorrow in bed with chocolate being depressed thanks to Buffy.
Sweeney: I started my first watch of this show in a post-finals sleep-deprived haze and it prolonged me getting proper sleep up until this season finale (and then again until the next one, actually) where I had to pause for sleep because THEFEELS were too strong to continue. Watching it for the first time while trying to be a real person must suck.
Lor: IT DOES, even though I only consider myself like 7/8ths of a real person.
Cue the ending musical wrap-up. Joyce thinks she hears Buffy inside the house and calls out to her. In B’s room, the closet is emptied, things have been tossed around and she’s left a note for Joyce, who looks sad. And I mean, you can be upset I guess, but since you told her not to come back, you can’t be surprised Joyce.
At Sunnydale High, the Scoobies gather around. No one has heard from Buffy, but as Oz points out, the world didn’t end so they can assume success. Willow is hopeful about Angelus, saying she felt something go through her during the ritual. They make all sorts of foreshadow-y and cryptic comments about Buffy having to show up eventually.
Buffy is watching this from across the street, dressed in her Overalls of Overall Sadness. Totally deserved seeing as how she just knifed down her vampire boyfriend and all. (K: It’s a good thing all her friends apparently have really sucky vision that means they can’t see across the street.) We watch her as she leaves town on a bus. The last thing we see is a “now leaving Sunnydale come back soon!” sign.
Catch ya on the flip side, B.
Tune in tomorrow for a special season wrap up post and then see you all in season 3!
Next time on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy’s run away from home. Will she ever go back? Find out in BtVS – S03 E01.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
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