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Older and Far Away (Ep. 6.14)"Face Value" It's Buffy's birthday. As of this week, Buffy turns 21 - a legal adult. And in this episode, she has to face with the way she's been handling her biggest adult responsibility - Dawn. "Older and Far Away" uses the classic "trapped in a small space" gimmick to force the characters to confront each other over their issues. As a device, this has been used in BtVS before, usually with steamy results - for example, Xander and Cordelia's first overheated clinch occured while locked in the Summers basement, hiding from demons. Likewise, the gang here ends up trapped in the Summers house with a rampaging demon on the loose, the only way out being to talk to each other, drawing on each other's resources and strengths. Only that's not what they do. They don't really talk to each other, or draw on each other's strengths. They are indeed "Older and Far Away"... from each other. That said, compared to the emotional hammerstrike of last week's "Dead Things," "Older and Far Away" doesn't offer up half the impact it could have, especially given the potential of the premise and the sheer weight of juicy secrets being held in reserve. The two episodes are almost jarring viewed back-to-back - "Dead Things" is all about intensity and emotion, and "Older and Far Away" is more about what happens when that intensity is absent, when people drift apart. But despite the lighter, filler-y feel, there are details in this episode that I think are likely to be important later... . . . The opening scene shows Buffy packing a bag of weapons before heading off to slay some strange demon. "I'm sorry," she tells Dawn. "We're gonna sit down and have a real dinner. Someday. I hate having to run out in the middle, it's just, you know, there's this thing out there." One has to wonder how she got the message that there's "this thing out there." Police Scanner? The Slayer equivalent of a Bat Signal? It's also odd that she feels the need to clarify that the menace is "definitely non-vampire." Why should it matter? Buffy tells Dawn that she might be awhile, and not to wait up. Her instructions - "finish dinner, homework, and don't stay up too late, all right?" - place Dawn clearly in the latchkey kid self-supervision zone. Dawn is clearly none too happy about this state of affairs, but she keeps up a cheerful front until Buffy leaves, and her smile fades. Last season, with Glory on the prowl, leaving Dawn alone would have been unthinkable. Now it seems to be an everyday occurence. In the cemetery, Buffy fights a spiny demon who charges at her wielding a gleaming sword. During the fight, the demon shows off its special ability - to morph into a fluid form, a la Terminator 2. Buffy manages to stab the demon with its own sword, but doesn't see it flow in its fluid form into the blade of the sword. "Run off, huh? Afraid to face a true warrior?" she exults, then picks up the sword and gives it an experimental twirl. "Ooh, shiny!" she says, and walks off with her new acquisition. Incidentally, Buffy is wearing a rather odd outfit in this scene - a funky, heavy red coat with a thrift-store-style cloche hat. Wonder where she's supposed to be getting her wardrobe these days, and with what money? At the Magic Box, Xander, Anya, and Willow are going over their plans for Buffy's birthday party the following night. After some discussion of what kind of candles to deploy for decoration, Xander broaches the delicate subject of Tara to Willow. "Buffy really wants her there," he says, with an apologetic smile. "It seems important to her, so I told her I'd ask you." Willow's response is, "Oh... yeah, of course, she should totally be there. It'll be great." She smiles happily, but given their uncomfortable meeting last episode, I wonder if Willow is really ready to deal with Tara yet. What do they really have to say to each other at this point? Dawn shows up to see what's going on with the gang, presumably as an alternative to sitting home alone. "Buffy patrolling already?" Willow asks, so we can guess that it's still pretty early in the evening. Which does indeed raise the question of Buffy's battle plan for the rest of the night - the demon fight seems to have only taken a few minutes. Did she think it would take longer to find? Or did she have another stop to make before calling it a night?
Not to obsess on the topic, but after last week's events, it's hard not to wonder about the status of Buffy's nighttime Spike-boinking crypt visits. Are they back to last episode's status quo? Or is Buffy just keeping herself busy and avoiding him altogether? "Older and Far Away" never really gives answers to these questions - just as the season opener disappointingly skipped over dealing with the grief processes of Buffy's survivors, "Dead Things"' emotional aftermath is also not shown. The sobbing, remorseful Buffy we saw in the previous week's blackout is nowhere in evidence. Here, Buffy's bizarre patrol schedule is simply being used to point up Dawn's loneliness, and her friends' cluelessness to the problem. As further evidence of the aforementioned problem, Dawn asks if anyone wants to go to the mall with her to get presents for Buffy, and everyone says they're busy. (Willow says she's got her "spellcasters anonymous" group, which I can only hope is meant to be a joke... who else would be in that group?) "Sorry, it just looks like one of those nights, you know?" Willow apologizes. "You okay going on your own?" Okay, we get it - Dawn has fallen even farther below the gang's radar than Buffy herself. She smiles bravely, and heads off alone. Later that night, Dawn retuns home. The house is still empty. She climbs the stairs to her room, and unloads her haul from the mall - a handful of jewelry with the tags still attached. Finally, she takes off her coat to show a new leather jacket underneath, the tag still dangling from one sleeve. Dawn's shoplifting has certainly gotten much more ambitious. She studies herself in the mirror, modeling the jacket. I suspect we now know what Buffy's getting for her birthday. The next day, Dawn is abruptly called out of class at school. At first, she's nervous, no doubt wondering if her five-fingered discounts have been discovered, but as it turns out, she's just been summoned to meet a new guidance counselor. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," the woman says in sympathetic tone. "Just a follow-up after your... loss." She flips through Dawn's file, and asks if there's anything bothering her. "I know it must seem weird, talking to a stranger about stuff," she says with a big, overly sincere smile. "But I want you to know that... my job - the most important part of my job - is looking out for you." This strikes a chord with Dawn. "I know there's been a lot of loss," the counselor says again. Dawn haltingly elaborates: "People keep... people have a tendency to go away. And I miss them. And sometimes... I wish I could just make them stop. Going away." The counselor nods, and offers an understanding smile. This scene is important, not just because it sets up the situation for the rest of the episode - long-time viewers of BtVS know to be immediately suspicious of the new counselor - but because it's one of our few glimpses of Dawn's daily life. Aside from "The Body" and "All the Way," we've had very few opportunties to see Dawn at school, or how she interacts with her friends. It's obvious that Dawn has been seriously isolated since the start of the season - as soon as Buffy returned from death, Dawn was essentially forgotten about, ignored. This has been expressed mostly by the musical episode's songlet ("Does anybody even notice/Does anybody even care?") and short segments showing her mumbling to herself about being left alone as other characters run off to their more interesting lives. It's also worth noting that from a strict time standpoint, Buffy's birthday has been previously established as being around the end of Janaury, therefore (again judging again by last episode's time measure of "no magic for 32 days") it's been something over a month since the events of "Smashed" and "Wrecked," meaning that Dawn has been more or less left to her own devices since before Christmas. (That is, unless Willow was counting from her pusher-hit in "DoubleMeat Palace," in which case it's been even longer.) So it's no wonder Dawn is depressed. However, since we've had little opportunity to see Dawn as a person in her own right rather than a sort of guilt stick to beat Buffy with, it's been difficult to sympathize with her fully. The next night, Buffy's party is about ready to start. In the kitchen, Xander and Anya are preparing large trays of canapes for the guests. Noticing the quantity of food, Xander wonders aloud who all's coming. Buffy tells them, "Just you guys... the gang," but adds that she's invited a coworker from her fast food job. "What?" Buffy responds to their quizzical looks, "Like I'm one of those losers who can't make friends outside her tight little circle? I'm friendly. We bonded instantly. Peas in a pod." Apparently this speech comes off a little transparent because Anya calls her on it - what's her friend's last name? Buffy doesn't know. "Okay, shut up," she pouts. Point taken. "Don't worry, we're all over this 'new friend' thing," Xander sympathizes. Buffy immediately comes over suspicious, smelling a rat. Her instincts are good - Anya reveals that they've also invited someone new to her party. "Just an attractive single man, with whom we hope you find much in common," Anya elaborates. "And if you happen to form a romantic relationship leading to babies and many double dates with us so we have someone else to talk to, yay!" Xander, looking increasingly nervous, tries to derail Anya from completing this little manifesto (without success) and cringes as Buffy stares daggers at him. He quickly retreats with the excuse of carrying the food trays to the living room. At the front door, Tara arrives, and gives Buffy a hug. "Hey, you made it," Buffy says warmly, smiling with relief. The blonde sorceress asks how she's doing. "Oh, you know. Better. Mostly. Sometimes," Buffy says, a little evasively. Tara looks around to see if they're alone, then asks in a hushed voice if Spike will be coming. Buffy says no, citing that he "doesn't play too well with others. Besides, I'm definitely not ready to, to..." Buffy trails off. Tara finishes the thought for her. "Come out?" she says. Buffy offers a smile. "Yeah, I'm all stay-inny," she answers lamely. Tara nods with understanding. With this, finally, we have a working metaphor for the Buffy/Spike relationship. Tara, the 'out' lesbian character, has correctly identified Buffy's sex life as being in the closet, and by drawing an equals sign between Buffy's illicit affair and her own experiences as a gay person, we're reminded that Tara must surely have made an uncomfortable confession or two to the people she loves at some point in her life. It's a shame that this was skipped over in the fairly disappointing "Family" episode, where we get Tara's background. Well, maybe soon we'll get the metaphorical equivalent from Buffy. Buffy then asks Tara how she's doing, realizing that it couldn't have been easy for her to come to the party, knowing that she'll be in the same house with Willow. This is interesting - with her shared secret between them, Buffy is now closer to Tara than she is to Willow. They've had the girl-talk Buffy couldn't bring herself to have with her best friend. In effect, Buffy has chosen a side, as friends tend to do when a couple breaks up... and surprisingly, she has chosen Tara. As Willow nervously adjusts her clothes upstairs, trying to mentally ready herself to see her estranged lover, Buffy offers her emotional support not to the girl she's known the longest, who she's shared the most history with ("What? Like I'm one of those losers who can't make friends outside her tight little circle? We bonded..."), but to her newer friend, the outsider, the one who understands who she is now. Willow makes her entrance, coming down the stairs with a hopeful smile on her face. Buffy, caught in the process of proclaiming that "we're all here for you," awkwardly makes herself scarce, clearly not willing to play referee to their reunion scene. The two women regard each other with jitters aplenty on both sides. They stutter through compliments on each other's clothes, then slow to a stop, unsure of what to say. After an uncomfortable silence, Tara hurriedly excuses herself to go get a drink. Willow remains standing by the door, dejected. Shaken and tense, Tara bursts into the kitchen, breathing hard. Buffy starts to ask how things went, but instead of answering, Tara makes a beeline for the presumably alcoholic punch Buffy is decanting, and bolts a glass to calm her nerves. Buffy then gets her own uncomfortable confrontation to deal with - the back door abruptly swings open to reveal Spike, who's decided to show up after all. "Willow mentioned the shindig... figured we're all part of the team. Thought I'd, uh, swing by," he says, slouching faux casually in the doorway with a six-pack of beer under one arm. His face has not yet recovered from the beating he received in "Dead Things" - one eye is still badly blackened, swollen and half-closed. (I wonder how long it takes a vampire to recover from these things?) Buffy and Tara exchange worried glances, but it's pretty obvious that Spike is also nervous. He too, has brought a friend along for moral support - the loose-skinned demon from the poker game in "Life Serial," whose name turns out to be Clem. "Hi, we met once before," he waves. Buffy manages a grudging welcome... but then Xander's date-for-Buffy shows - a surfer-y looking dude with a bad haircut named Richard. "He was wondering where the best place was to park his car," Xander says, sort of shoving him forward with "Buffy will show you." Buffy hesitantly goes along with this, but Richard pauses in the doorway, whispering a question to Buffy about Clem. "Skin condition... he doesn't like to talk about it," she whispers back as they leave the room. "Stupid git," Spike snorts, amused. Tara looks at him. "I don't know. He seemed cute. Was he cute? I mean, I'm not a very good judge, but..." She stares at him, her expression sincere. "I think he seemed cute," she restates seriously. Even Clem pipes up in support of the notion. Spike frowns at her, a little concerned. In the living room, Dawn is lobbying for the present-opening to begin. "Buffy's busy right now... making a new friend. A grown-up friend," Anya baby-talks to her. Dawn snorts incredulously. "What you mean the guy you invited to set her up with?" Anya patronizingly pats Dawn on the head, refusing to get the message that Dawn is old enough to understand. Meanwhile, Buffy has returned from her car-parking expedition. Spike catches her in the hallway and leads her aside. "Want to slip away for a minute, luv?" he suggests. "I'll let you blow out my candles." Buffy nixes the idea. "What, you don't want to make your new boyfriend jealous?" he asks. "Shut up," Buffy says with an amused look. "He's... sweet." Spike echoes this in a singsong voice, "oh-shut-up-he's-sweet." They smile at each other briefly. "Maybe he's not the jealous one," Buffy teases, and brushes past him to head further down the hall. Spike raises his eyebrows slightly at this, caught a little off guard. "You think he'll take you out on his ten-speed, pet?" he calls after her, muttering to himself "Jealous my ass." Now we're getting an idea of where these two are at emotionally, and it's kind of surprising. The banter here is gentle, teasing, even flirtatious. If Buffy is still feeling particularly guilty or tortured over their strange relationship, it doesn't show. Presents. Buffy sits on the couch between Willow and Dawn, examining Willow's gift - a back-massage gadget. "It's portable, so you can take it with you on patrol," Willow explains. "Instant gratification for all your little acheys." Buffy can't help shooting a look at Spike, hovering near the front door; he quirks an eyebrow suggestively in response. Buffy hastily puts the massager aside, and turns her attention to the next present - Dawn's, which of course is the leather jacket. "It's gorgeous," Buffy gushes, then notices the still-attached security tag. "That's so weird... I can't believe they didn't take that off," Dawn covers quickly. She shouldn't have worried - Buffy forgets all about Dawn's present the moment Xander and Anya roll in with their gift, a custom-made Xander carpentery original weapons chest. While everyone gushes, Dawn sits on the couch by herself, looking sad. Buffy's coworker then shows up - nervous girl named Sophie ("my mom told me to say thank you right away, 'cause otherwise I usually forget," she says) who promptly rattles of a list of foods she can't eat. "Our friend is better," Anya whispers to Buffy. Sophie is the last guest to arrive. Dawn gets up to close the door, and sighs as Buffy begins making introductions all around. Outside, Dawn's new guidance counselor glides from the shadows, her eyes on the door. Her face changes to a demonic visage... yep, it's really Halfrek the Vengeance Demon, Anya's old pal. "Wish granted," she says ominously. The party continues. Buffy runs into Richard coming down the hallway. He attempts to make shy conversation ("great party...everyone's having fun"); Buffy listens politely with a kind of how-may-I-help-you? smile that her customers at work probably see a lot of, responding with short pleasantries ("I hope so... yeah?") but no real encouragement. Spike drifts into view in the hallway; Buffy maintains her polite smile and gently brushes Richard off. He gets the message, gives her a wistful smile, and wanders away. Having witnessed this little exchange, Spike just can't resist. "Ooh, Buffy... can I get you a soda pop? I think I'm in loooove," he teases her, reaching for her hands, clearly less than threatened by "sweet" Richard. "Stop it. Someone's gonna see," Buffy protests. Someone does - Tara spots them as she comes around the corner, and Buffy's smile fades; she jerks her hands away from his and disappears. Tara lingers, staring at Spike until he comes up with an excuse: "I had a... muscle cramp. Buffy was... helping." "A muscle cramp? In your... pants?" Tara deadpans, her eyes wide and innocent. She shuffles off, leaving Spike puzzled. In the kitchen, Sophie sits with Willow, watching with growing nausea as Xander and Anya cuddle each other in the way of mushy couples, arguing cutesily over who will go to the market to get beer. Finally Willow says she'll go... but lays her head on the table instead. No one gets up. The party moves on to board and card games - Anya, Dawn, Buffy, and Richard play Monopoly at the coffee table in the living room, while Xander, Spike, Clem, and Tara play poker at a card table nearby. Buffy tries to fold her hand, but is talked out of it. "It's like two-something in the morning. You can't bail now," Richard tells her. Realizing how late everyone has stayed, Dawn perks up and suggests a slumber party, and Buffy sees no reason not to agree. "Must be some late-night activities to keep us busy till morning," Spike adds drily from across the room. Buffy glares at him. "How's that cramp, Spike? Still bothering you?" Tara asks, shuffling her cards with an admirable poker face. "Maybe you should put some ice on it." I'm deeply enjoying dry-sense-of-humor Tara. Morning rolls around. Sophie and Willow sprawl on the couch, asleep, while Xander, Dawn and Clem watch cartoons on TV. Buffy is sitting on the floor with Spike a little away from the others; they're playing cards. Richard enters the room, reminding Xander that they have to get to work. "Okay," Xander says, but doesn't take his eyes off the TV. No one moves. "You should definitely go," Spike tells him, and makes an extended joke about getting breakfast, clearly eyeing Richard as the potential menu item. "I used to love breakfast," he reminisces, looking Richard up and down. "In the old days, I probably would have eaten by now." (From Richard's perspective, this must sound like something else entirely, especially once Spike adds the question, "Do you work out?") "Excuse us," Buffy grates, and drags Spike aside to the front door for a hissing argument. "We do not joke about eating people in this house!" she seethes. "What are you gonna do, beat me up again?" he retorts. (Ouch, guess there're a still a couple of issues there. Like the part where Buffy comes off just this side of a wife beater. Yikes.) "I should have thrown you out the second you got here," Buffy proclaims, her eyes sparking. "I was insane to think you could just hang out with my friends!" No argument from him on the insane part. She orders him to leave. It's daylight. He can't. She says she'll leave. "Fine!" he says. "Fine!" she says. God, they're like a sitcom couple. Neither one moves. They begin to get the picture that something's wrong. Everyone's starting to realize that something's wrong. The group gathers in the living room, comparing notes on the situation. They all have places to go - jobs, school, etc. - but they can't seem to make themselves leave. They can't even approach the door - it's a strain to even try. The phones don't work either. As they all get more frustrated, Dawn seethes silently, then has a full-on blow up, moodily barking that yeah, of course they've all got more important things to do than hang out with her. Yeah, important, whatever that means, right? Every eye is on her as she stomps upstairs. Dawn flounces into her room and throws herself on her bed to sulk. Buffy follows her, trailed by a large group - Tara, Willow, Xander, and Spike...in essence the same group that looked after Dawn over the summer, Dawn's surrogate parents. They all hover in the doorway as Buffy interrogates Dawn. "We're not accusing you of anything. Just seems like you were taking it kinda personal down there," Willow offers. "So you've all just decided that somehow I'm responsible. Great, here's me basking in the love," Dawn fires back. (Interestingly, this is almost exactly the same reaction Willow had to Xander's accusation of magic misuse in "Gone.") "We just wanna try to figure out what's going on," Buffy says. "Figure it out yourself!" Dawn barks, then screeches at them to get out, Get Out, GET OUT! Man, Michelle Trachtenberg can really bat those screams out. Everyone cooperatively retreats and regroups downstairs, leaving Little Miss Sulky to her tantrum. "I just can't figure out why she didn't come to me," Buffy muses. "Well, you have been a little busy lately," Xander offers. That she has, with the vampire who now shows off his Mr. Sensitive/Joe Practical side with: "Hey, I don't wanna keep you all from the touchy-feelies, but maybe the encounter group can meet later. Say, when we're not trapped in a house?" Buffy chimes in that magic is probably their best bet to get out. Tara is willing to perform a spell, but she needs supplies, and obviously there are none in the house, recovering addict around and all... but, as it turns out, Willow kept a few things from the magic housecleaning "just in case." "That's great!" Xander exults, getting into the idea of not dying by starvation while trapped in a house. But then, feeling the pressure of several disapproving glares, he takes back his verbal Snoopy dance with a scolding "...in a very bad way." (Uh... I'm still having a hard time with the drug analogy here. Especially if it turns out magic is needed to save their lives. How often does this kind of double-standard come up for the average junkie - shoot up, or watch your friends die?) Tara stands, her expression one of tired disgust. "Just bring me what you have," she groans, and reinterates that she'll be doing the spell alone because Willow needs to "stay away from it." Willow looks guilty. Thank heaven that we are at least spared the sight of her fishing her magic stash from the back of the toilet tank. Tara takes the stuff to the kitchen to mash up in a bowl. It looks as if she's making no-bake cookies or something equally gritty and granular. At the door, Anya, Willow, and Spike are arrayed in front of the door, ready to try it when Tara gives the signal. Richard wanders into frame with Clem and Sophie. "Somebody want to tell me what's going on here?" he asks, the beginnings of panic starting to surface. "We're trapped in a house by some unseen force... who knows what she's doing in there, and..." he gestures at Clem, "... I don't think that's a skin condition." Uh, yeah. Duh. Guess Richard just moved to Sunnydale, eh? Everyone ignores him. "Try the door!" Tara calls from the kitchen, as tendrils of smoke curl around the room from her "release" spell. No luck - Spike strains hard against an invisible barrier, but can't move any closer. Unnoticed in the background, the spell works its "release" magic on the demon trapped in the sword. The demon reforms in the living room, and rushes at them swinging his sword, promptly skewering Richard, who collapses. There's a brief fight, chiefly handled by Spike and Buffy, who are both tossed around pretty thoroughly. Irregardless, apparently not liking the odds, the demon sinks into the floor and vanishes. "That's the demon I killed two nights ago," Buffy recognizes. "The demon you thought you'd killed," Spike corrects her. Attention quickly turns to Richard - he's got a deep slash across the stomach, but they've got no way to get him to a hospital. All eyes turn to Buffy, hopeful that she'll have an answer. "I promise we'll be out of here soon," she reassures them. Nightfall. The entire day has gone by with no change in their status. The demon has now retreated into the walls of the house, making creaky-creepy horror-movie noises. Anya, crouched on the dining room floor with Xander, has a full-blown panic attack. "We're just sitting here. Why are we just sitting here? Why aren't we doing something?" she pleads. Xander tries to calm her, saying "we've been through worse." "Not like this. Not trapped like animals," she corrects him, breathless, unbuttoning her blouse, trying to get some air. Xander gets up to get her a glass of water in hopes of calming her down and is attacked by the pop-up demon for his trouble, getting a good slash across the arm. As Xander nurses his injury, Anya wanders into the room, so numb with terror that she's literally expressionless, moving in slow motion. Xander tries to comfort her, resting his forehead against hers. Buffy's face is troubled as she watches this tender moment. (What is she thinking? That it's her fault? Her responsibility to get them out? That she wishes she could succumb to panic and have someone comfort her like that? What?) "It's getting kinda scary," Buffy comments to her sister, asking, "You okay?" Dawn stares at her coldly. "Do you care?" she snarks. Buffy's face hardens. "Fine. Stay with Spike," she commands, and marches off, her demeanor that of an officer manning the guard towers in a seige. Realizing at last that the sullen teen act is doing her no good, Dawn follows her sister, bleating "It's not like I meant for this to happen... I didn't want this." Buffy turns to look at her. "What did you want?" she asks. Dawn hems and haws, then finally confronts Buffy with "You don't know! You have this thing you do. You have all these friends. You have no idea what it's like... being alone!" Buffy looks at her in utter confusion. "You're not alone," she says in amazement. Dawn then uses the exact same words Buffy just used herself in "Dead Things": "Then why do I feel like this?" In the dining room, another sort of confrontation is taking place. "I'd say we do another spell, but I think we've tried everything," Tara says. Anya, who has reached the spookily calm stage of fear, speaks up from her seat at the table. "That's not completely true, is it?" she says quietly. "We're sitting here with an incredibly powerful witch - much more powerful than you, Tara, I'm sorry. Only no one seems willing to say it." she stares at Willow, who looks increasingly nervous. "I can't," Willow says, getting what's being asked of her. "No, see, that's not exactly true either," Anya replies, her eyes starting to show real anger. "Not can't. Won't." Willow tries to say that she can't do any magic - it's dangerous, she doesn't know if she could stop. "And whose fault is that?" Anya snaps. The rest of the room promptly chooses sides, Xander backing up his wife-to-be with the quite logical argument that "we've brought you back from it once. We're all here...it's just one little spell. Whatever happens, we can bring you back again." In the background, you can see Spike shaking his head. So, perhaps he's in a position to know where the dividing line falls between just-one-little-spell/drink-of-blood/whatever-the-hell and the point of no return... or perhaps this whole drug analogy is still not working for me. Sigh. Anyway, Tara seems to agree, and she steps in to defend Willow's right to Just Say No. Anya stares down with Tara for a moment then grates, "Fine. If you all aren't willing to get us out of this, then I will do it myself." She brushes past Tara and stomps upstairs to Dawn's room. In Buffy's room, the two sisters are having a heart-to-heart, Dawn's teary confession presumably having finally melted Buffy's ice. Buffy again states that Dawn should have just come to her, Dawn once again drives home the point that it's not like she's been there to talk to. Get a clue, Buffy. You. Have. Not. Been. Home. Much. Still obliv to the severity of her missing-in-action status, Buffy then echoes the school guidance counselor with the pat saying, "Dawn, the most important job I have is looking out for you." Uh-huh. Dawn can't help but remark on the similarity. "She give you a handbook or something? 'Talkin' to the Troubled Teen'?" Buffy frowns, realizing this sounds familiar. "You didn't by any chance happen to express like a... wish... or something to her?" she asks. Uh-oh - busted. "Maybe just a little," Dawn mumbles. Dawn's about to be rumbled on another front as well. Both sisters run to Dawn's room at the sound of commotion - Anya is rummaging through the shelves, muttering how she must know something, coming across Dawn's secret stash of stolen jewelry in the process. "Half this stuff is from the Magic Box," Anya says in disbelief, staring in shock at the jewelry in her hands. "How could you do this?" Mortified, Dawn runs downstairs. Anya is hot on her heels. "I helped you... I took care of you. This is how you say 'thank you'?" a confused Anya asks, then adds the logical extension. "How are we supposed to trust you... how are we supposed to believe you?" Buffy begins to defend her sister before the assembled crowd, before realizing that her birthday present is yet another stolen item. But to her credit, she's able to overcome her disappointment enough to explain what Dawn told her about the guidance counselor, claiming that it's not Dawn's fault. Not at all slow on the uptake, Anya catches on immediately, Dawn's JD stealing activities promptly forgotten. Did the counselor have a pendant, a blue one? Yes. "Oh, for crying out loud. Halfrek. A vengeance demon. Only a vengeance demon can break her own vengeance spell," Anya huffs. She yells at the ceiling, trying to summon her friend. "Hallie, get your ass down here!" Anya hollers. Halfrek promptly pops in in full demon face with a jaunty "You rang?" but is abruptly stabbed by the suddenly reappearing demon and collapses. Everyone stares in horror. Uh-oh, they're screwed. Buffy begins punching the demon. Anya enters the fray, getting in a couple of good punches from behind, shrieking, "I hope you die, you stupid jerkface!" Way to work off that aggression, Ahn. Teaming up, Spike and Buffy finally manage to polish off the demon. Good riddance. "Get her pendant!" Anya hollers, making a grab for Halfrek's fallen body, but is tossed back by a gesture from Halfrek, who turns out to be fine after all. "Did you think I'd be stopped by a sword in the chest? Flesh wound." Halfrek says incredulously, brushing herself off. "Really, Anyanka, you used to know better." She then goes on to lecture them all about Dawn's pain and how it called to her "everywhere I went in this town. And none of you knew. You all deserve to be cursed." Even when getting on her high horse, Halfrek comes off as quite funny here, with her snarky-bossy girlfriend tone, and offhand diss of Anyanka's single-mindedness in her former career by only focusing on scorned women. "Most of us try to be a little more well-rounded. And actually, we prefer 'Justice Demon,' okay? FYI." An oddity in this scene is that Halfrek seems to recognize Spike. "William?" she says, her eyes wide. He studies her with a "hey, wait a minute," like he can't quite work out where he's seen her before, but at Buffy's "you know each other?" both demur. "No," Halfrek states crisply, looking away. "Not really," Spike mumbles. There's no further elaboration. Is it cheating if I point out that Halfrek is played by the same actress as "you're beneath me" Cecily, the Victorian bitca who pre-vampire Spike was so soppily in love with, as shown in Season 5's "Fool For Love"? Could it be the same person? What if it is? Trapped in the house by her own spell, Halfrek is forced to lift the curse or be locked in with them herself. She disappears with a disappointed snap of her fingers. The remaining party guests gather themselves to leave at last, the party winding down in a strangely typical fashion, despite the weird occurances. In the kitchen, Tara gathers up the last of Willow's secret stash, packing the herbs into plastic baggies to take it home with her. Willow makes breathy excuses to her lover why she had the stuff in the first place, but Tara reassures her, saying that "it did actually get bad in there... and you still said no." Willow smiles happily. If only the rest of us could feel as happy about this plotline. Sigh. In the front of the house, Richard is being helped down the stairs, on his way the emergency room. "You have some weird friends," he gasps to Xander. Anya promises Dawn will learn the words "punitive damages." Spike throws open the door, and everyone files outside, breathing in the night air and looking at the stars, babbling happily about their new freedom; the vampire is the last to leave, giving Buffy a wry smile on the way out. "Great party!" Clem proclaims with a thumbs-up gesture. Buffy watches them go, then shuts the door, shutting herself and Dawn back in the house. So what did we learn today? That Buffy's birthday parties are an invitation to something weird, surely, but more than that. I got three major items: 1) Buffy and her friends and family are now uncomfortable around each other and 2) thanks to the currently high selfish quotient 3) no one wants to discuss it. Dawn's sulky teen act is just a magnified version of this. Despite the looming issues between them, interaction between individual members of the group largely consists of small talk that goes nowhere, confused signals, and overlooked signs. There's no honesty, no real communication. But as Halfrek's curse pointed out, problems don't cease to exist because no one admits to them - they just come back later, with a vengeance. This is an ominous cloud to be hanging over the gang so close to the wedding, and not at all a good sign for group harmony. I do so love the soapy stuff. Ah, drama....
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