Directed by David Solomon
Written by Marti Noxon, Rebecca Kirshner, & Steven S De Knight
Tara and Dawn wake on the couch and find that neither Buffy nor Willow returned home the night before. Somewhere else, Buffy wakes up naked with Spike, noticing the building around them fell down. Spike tempts Buffy to stay until he's able to leave without the daylight. It works until he tells her that he knew the only thing better than killing a Slayer was sleeping with one, which angers her. Buffy argues that this will never happen again, while Spike tells her she won't get over him. She threatens him to not tell anyone about it and he agrees, but smugly asks if Buffy wants her discarded panties back. She punches him and leaves.
Willow returns home with Amy, who rambles about Willow's magical use in front of Tara and Dawn. Upset, Tara leaves just as Buffy returns. Amy leaves as well after a chat, so Buffy and Willow go to bed after their long nights. In her room, Willow tries to shut the drapes with magic, but finds that she can't.
At the Magic Box, Xander searches fruitlessly for information on what could have frozen the security guard and stole the diamond from the museum, while Anya looks at bridal magazines. Buffy arrives, and the discussion turns to Willow. Xander is concerned that Willow has found herself someone new to hang around with who won't monitor her use of magic. Buffy defends her stating that everyone makes mistakes.
Amy meets Willow again and suggests they visit Rack, a warlock who can give them great spells that last without any recovery time. They enter his cloaked house and find it filled with the magically addicted waiting for their turn, but the two are attended immediately. Rack gives them what they came for, so Amy spins about the room as Willow hangs out on the ceiling, seeing spots and weird images. The next morning, Willow wakes in her own room and cries in the shower. She manipulates some of Tara's clothes to form an invisible body and curls up against it.
Dawn makes some interesting food and makes plans to see a movie with Willow. Buffy returns home to find Amy stealing some of Willow's magical supplies. Buffy scolds her and Amy mentions Willow's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Willow and Dawn talk about food and Tara, then take a detour to Rack's place so Willow can get a fix. Dawn waits impatiently in the waiting room with a strange man. Inside Rack's room, Willow floats and sees a demon holding a limp body, which makes her scream.
Buffy wakes a very naked Spike in his crypt and asks if he knows where Willow and Dawn are. When she mentions Rack, Spike grows concerned, having heard of him. He explains that the warlock deals in dark and dangerous magic, and only witches and vampires can find his cloaked place. Buffy decides to take him along in her search.
Willow finally emerges from Rack's room, hours after she entered. Dawn is mad Willow left her so long, but Willow doesn't care. Dawn realizes that something is wrong with Willow and becomes eager to return home, but Willow refuses and promises her fun to make up for the missing movie. Nearby, while they walk in search of the cloaked house, Spike tells Buffy again how much she really wants and needs him after they spent the night together.
A demon confronts Willow, claiming that she summoned him with her use of magic. Willow expects him to not be real, until the demon cuts Dawn, so the girls run. Willow uses magic to take over and drive a car, but it crashes and both are wounded. Dawn finds that she has a broken arm as Willow is knocked out against the steering wheel. The demon catches up with their wrecked car and Dawn tries to fight it off. Spike and Buffy, who heard Dawn scream, come to the rescue. Buffy fights the demon while Spike takes care of Dawn. The demon suddenly explodes into flames as a result of Willow's magic. While Willow apologizes in tears, Buffy tells her to stay back and Dawn slaps her away. Spike leaves with Dawn and Buffy stays with Willow, who continues to cry and begs for help.
At the Summers house, Buffy talks with Willow about her abuse of magic and the consequences. Buffy thinks that Willow became addicted to magic due to her break up with Tara, but Willow admits that the addiction was why Tara left. Buffy tells Willow that she doesn't need magic to be special, and Willow says that before the magic she was "some girl," who never knew. Buffy states that she was far more than this, and reminds her that Tara wants her to stop. Willow knows that, someone will get hurt if she continues the way she is, and declares that she's giving up magic for good. Buffy agrees with that and tells Willow that it's time for them to think about what they're doing before doing it.
Later, Willow fights the symptoms of withdrawal in her bed. Buffy, in her own bed, hugs a cross with garlic surrounding her bedroom.
Tropes featured
- Addictive Magic: The warlock Rack deals in it, charging his customers with the energy in exchange for money and getting them hooked up.
- A Handful for an Eye: Dawn throws dirt in the demon's face.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys:Buffy: Get a grip, Spike. Like you're God's gift.
Spike: Hardly. Wouldn't be nearly as interesting now, would it? - Beautiful Dreamer: Buffy chucks a candle at a sleeping Spike rather than touch him. She then rather unconvincingly claims to have been shouting at him to wake up.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Anya claims that Martha Stewart is a witch. "Nobody could do that much decoupage without calling on the powers of darkness." It is unknown, however, if Anya actually knows it for a fact or if she's just speculating.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Willow eyes turn black while she's high on magic.
- Breaking and Bloodsucking: The episode ends on Buffy in her bedroom, nervously clutching a cross, garlic hanging on all the windows. But Spike doesn't need his invitation any more — he knows from now on Buffy will come to him.
- Buffy SpeakXander: Not judgey, Buff. Just, observey.
- Call-Back:
- In "Revelations" Willow makes excuses for Buffy's actions because she's guilty about her Secret Relationship with Xander. Now Buffy makes excuses for Willow because she's guilty about her secret relationship with Spike. In that same episode, Buffy's attraction to Angel was also played as an addiction.
- To Faith's famous comment about Slaying making her "hungry and horny" in "Faith, Hope and Trick".
Dawn: I'll leave a note for Buffy on the refrigerator. That's the first place she goes after patrolling. She's such a pig after she kills things.- Buffy accuses Spike of dragging out the search for Dawn so he can spend time with her, a reference to "Crush" where Spike invited Buffy on a date in the guise of a vampire hunt.
- To "Wild At Heart" with two lovers waking up covered in scratches, one regretting last night more than the other.
- Another Not Staying for Breakfast call back to "Innocence". This time it's Buffy who leaves the morning after, and taunts Spike over the idea that their first time meant anything, just as Angelus did to her.
- Buffy turns her back on a naked Spike as he gets dressed, the inverse of what happened in "Into The Woods".
- Casual Kink:
- Buffy throws a candle onto Spike's chest. Spike quips, "Someone should teach you how to use candles in foreplay, luv."
- Spike and Buffy's bruises, scratches and comments hint that things got quite depraved last night, and Buffy is implied to have enjoyed it — at least while it was happening.
Buffy: That might be how you get off, but it's not my style.
Spike: [scoffs] No, it's your calling. Gave me a run for my money, Slayer. - Ceiling Cling: Willow high on Black Magic.
- Chekhov's Gag: Willow says to Dawn earlier in the episode, "Yeah, I'm going to crash too."
- Chekhov's Gunman: Rack will return in "Villains" and "Two to Go".
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Dawn makes peanut-butter-and-banana quesadillas, which she quickly dumps in the rubbish bin when Willow offers to buy dinner.Dawn: Thank god! Remind me never to invent that again. Yecch.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: The demon is about to kill Dawn when Buffy turns up. It turns out to be much stronger than Buffy's used to however, but then Willow appears behind it, whereupon the demon suddenly shudders and burns up from the inside.
- Cradle of Loneliness: Willow magically fills out one of Tara's dresses and cuddles up to it.
- Cross-Referenced Titles: Second episode out of three in a row named after an euphemism for being drunk or high.
- Curse Cut ShortSpike: I knew the only thing better than killing a Slayer would be f—
Buffy [pulling away from him] What? That's what this was about? "Doing" a Slayer? - Damsel in Distress:
- Did the Earth Move for You, Too?Buffy: When did the house fall down?
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Willow gets addicted to visiting an extremely powerful wizard by the name of Rack. He's referred to as "dealing" and Willow's experiences are more than a little trippy. The people in the lobby are all strung-out and when Willow leaves with Dawn, her eyes are dark and she's a little "off." To make matters worse, Willow treats the demon as a hallucination. Combining the "awakening lesbianism = magic" and "drugs = (dark/abuse of) magic" metaphors makes for some
Unfortunate Implications, and it also got a lot of criticism for there being no subtlety to the analogy; it literally just comes off like a story about drugs with "magic" search-and-replaced onto it. - Double Aesop: Willow talking about the Black Magic ("It took me away from myself. I was free. I did things that I can't even—") strikes a chord with Buffy re her wild tryst with Spike.Buffy: I think it's right. To give it up. (pensive) No matter how good it feels.
- Double Meaning: Buffy tells Spike to get the hell out of her life. He retorts, "Too late. You invited me in already." — referring to the invitation she gave him last year, but also to how he's a necessary part of the Scooby Gang, not to mention how last night's debauchery gave Spike an insight into just how much Buffy craves the release he gives her.
- The Dog Bites Back: Spike certainly takes this view, with all the abuse he's taken off Buffy.Spike: So, what now? You go back to treating me like dirt till the next time you get an itch you can't scratch? Well, forget it. Last night changed things. I'm done being your whipping boy.
- Extreme Libido: Spike mentions he and Buffy had sex many times throughout the night.
- Fantastic Aesop: Previously on… Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow's abuse of magic was about either using powers when they weren't necessary, using them recklessly, or using them to tamper with her friends without their consent. Now magic use is akin to drug addiction.
- Foreshadowing: For Dark!Willow — Black Eyes of Evil, Villain Teleportation, and killing in nasty ways.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Buffy uses Spike's coat to cover herself when she wakes up naked after having sex with Spike.
- I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: Magic = Drugs, with Willow becoming heavily addicted into dark spells.
- It Doesn't Mean Anything: Buffy tries to convince herself of this, both now and for the rest of the Spuffy Destructive Romance.Spike: I'm just saying, vampires get you hot.
Buffy: "A" vampire got me hot. One. But he's gone. You're just... You're just convenient. - I Just Want to Be Special: Willow admits that this was her motivation for going overboard with magic: lingering insecurity from her time as a "nobody" in high school (hinted at in "Restless"
with her nightmare) and a resultant desire to be extraordinary.Willow: If you could be plain old Willow — or Super Willow? Who would you want to be? - Insult BackfireBuffy: Last night was the most perverse, degrading experience of my life.
Spike: [smiling happily] Yeah. Me, too. - Interplay of Sex and Violence: Given that Buffy didn't know she was going to end up in Spike's arms, does she normally go out slaying in a thong?
- Kick the Dog: Buffy telling Spike she's just screwing him because he's convenient.
- Kick the Morality Pet: Willow's downward spiral into magic addiction reaches its head here, and leads to her crashing a car with Dawn in the passenger seat; Dawn suffers a broken arm as a result and is so pissed at Willow for her actions that she responds to Willow's tearful apology with a slap. The sheer guilt of this incident is what convinces Willow to quit magic completely.
- Laughing Mad: Willow high as a kite while 'driving' the car with magic.
- Meaningful Echo:
- Buffy describes what happened last night as a "freak show" (just as Angel described his relationship with Buffy when breaking up with her in "The Prom") and Spike as "convenient" (as Xander described Buffy's attitude to her relationship with Riley Finn in "Into the Woods").
- Spike pleads to Buffy not to "mock this", referring to their relationship and his feelings, just as he had when Buffy had mocked his failed Love Confession in "Crush".
- Mind Rape: Rack basically uses Willow (and others) as some sort of telepathic crack whore. Both Rack and Willow make orgasm faces when he transfers power into her, and then tells her that she "tastes like strawberries."
- My God, What Have I Done?: Both Buffy and Willow the morning after.
- Not Staying for Breakfast: This time it's Buffy who walks out.
- Not What It Looks Like:
- Buffy finds Amy ransacking Willow's room and wrestles a baggie of weed off her.
Amy: It's not what you think it is — it's sage!
Buffy: That is what I think it is.- Tara is shocked to see Willow come home from an all-nighter with a strange woman, until Willow hastily explains she's with Amy the Ex-Rat.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Dawn notes that Buffy is "all beat from monster-wrestling all night."
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Xander and Anya get confused when Buffy goes off on a monologue defending Willow's actions, not realising she's trying to justify her recent behaviour with Spike.
- Panty Thief: Buffy is trying to get dressed and get out as quickly as possible when a smirking Spike reveals he's still got her panties. Buffy gives him a sock on the jaw and storms off.
- Power at a Price: Willow accidentally summons a demon during her foray into the black arts.
- Rule of Symbolism: Willow floating in space while spaced out.
- Sarcasm Mode: When Buffy rousts a naked Spike out of bed to go search for Dawn, turning her back as he's getting dressed despite having spent the previous night shagging him senseless. Spike retorts, "Oh, that's right — hide your blushing eyes!"
- Saying Too Much: Amy raves about what she and Willow got up to during their magic binge. Having been told by Dawn that Willow was cutting back on her magic use, Tara storms out.
- Secret Relationship: Buffy threatens to kill Spike if he tells anyone they had sex.
- Sex Changes Everything: Spike points out that their Relationship Upgrade (and the fact that his chip doesn't work with Buffy) has altered the power dynamic between them. Buffy's refusal to accept this is a major cause of the Destructive Romance to follow.
- Scenery Censor: Used with to cover the naked Spike while he's laying in the rubble. Failed at one point when the flesh-colored shorts Spike is wearing shows on screen.
- Sex God: Both Spike and Buffy. Their night seems to have been a mutually satisfying experience, they were so into they didn't even notice they wrecked the house until the morning after. Spike describes sex with Buffy as a "bloody revelation" and he taunts about how much he made her scream.
- Shout-Out: Xander researches demons in Tobin's Spirit Guide.
- Shower of Angst: Willow cries in the shower the morning after she visits Rack.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Buffy and Spike's morning-after behaviour.
- Sleep Cute: The episode opens with Tara and Dawn asleep on the couch.
- Sleeps in the Nude: Spike is sleeping in the buff when Buffy wakes him up. He doesn't mind her seeing him naked but she still averts her eyes, which he mocks her for.
- So You Were Saying...?: Buffy is going to confess to her best friend that she slept with Spike, lets herself get interrupted by Amy's return, then claims it was nothing important.
- Tastes Like Strawberries: Rack uses this exact line re Willow. It's not clear whether he accepts sex in payment or something on a mental / magical level, but Willow is shown taking a Shower of Angst the following morning. This may have a deliberate double-meaning, since in parts of the US a "strawberry" is drug users' slang for a woman who trades sex for drugs.
- Tempting Fate:
- Willow gleefully shouts back at the demon pursuing them; "Take that, scuz— (car crashes into a concrete pillar)
- Spike tells Buffy he's finished taking her abuse. He hasn't even started.
- Terms of Endangerment: Buffy snaps at Spike when he calls her "luv". Of course, it's a bit difficult to insist on the old way of doing things when you've bonked your sworn enemy.Spike: You didn't seem to take issue with that last night. [smirking] Or with any of the other little nasties we whispered.
- That Came Out Wrong:Dawn: It's like a meat party in my mouth. [pause] Okay, I'm just a kid and even I know that sounded wrong.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Amy for Willow, as she only drives Willow to become even more addicted to magic.
- Two-Part Episode: The second part, with part one being "Smashed".
- Uptight Loves Wild: In-control freak Buffy lets loose all her inhibitions in a wild tryst with bad boy vampire Spike.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: A hungover Amy after Buffy keeps slamming her against the wall to find out what Willow's up to.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Buffy gives Willow a well-deserved one over her magic addiction, especially since she summoned a demon and crashed a car while high, hurting and nearly killing Dawn in the process.Willow: I screwed it up! Everything... Tara...
Buffy: [forcibly yanks Willow to her feet] Yeah, you know what, you did screw up, okay?! You could have killed her! You almost did!
