atheneum

We open with Buffy and Dawn and Giles picking out a coffin for Joyce's funeral. They're both still trying to cope, but Dawn has more trouble with it than Buffy does.

Everyone has dinner that night at the Summers house, while Buffy and Giles talk about funeral arrangements. The phone rings, and Giles answers it, taking care of the condolences and stuff. Buffy was hoping it was her dad, and she can't believe he hasn't called. Dawn's obviously having trouble coping, and asks if she can go to Willow's place after the funeral the next day, instead of coming back to the house. Buffy says she can.

Outside, Xander and Willow run into Spike who comes up with a bouquet of flowers. Xander thinks he's trying to score points with Buffy and tells him off, but Spike says the flowers are for Joyce. Xander doesn't believe him, and they get into a tiff before Spike throws the flowers down and stalks off. Willow picks the flowers off and quietly tells Xander there was no card. Spike wasn't trying to score with Buffy; she wouldn't even have ever known they were left by him.

The next day quiet reigns in the house as Buffy and Dawn both sit, waiting to go to the funeral. Cut to the cemetery, where the priest performs the ceremony. Shots of everyone's faces during the funeral. Afterward, everyone hugs and Dawn leaves with Willow and Tara. Buffy stands by Joyce's grave. And stands, and stands, and stands, until nightfall. Someone walks up to stand beside her; it's Angel. He says he's sorry he couldn't come sooner, and they take each other's hand.

At Willow's, Dawn is inconsolable. Willow and Tara try to comfort her, but she's having none of it. Instead, she says she wants to do a spell to bring Joyce back.

Cut to Xander and Anya finishing having sex. Anya says because of Joyce's death she thinks she understands sex better (see best line below). She basically says that death and life and all that make her feel like she's part of something bigger, and Xander at first freaks out, thinking she wants to have a kid or something, but Anya tells him to relax. She's not ready to create life, she just knows that she could, and that makes her feel more alive.

Back at the dorm room, Tara says of course she wants to bring her mother back, but they can't do it. She says they don't mess with life and death. Willow says she's not even sure they could do it anyway; she's read stuff on resurrection, and she thinks the spells backfire. Tara says that's not the point; they're honor bound not to mess with the forces of life and death. Dawn gets mad that they won't help her and goes and lies down, pretending to sleep. Cut to the cemetery, where Buffy and Angel are sitting against a tree across from Joyce's grave. Buffy says she's worried about tomorrow; she doesn't know what's next. Now that the funeral's done and everything, she doesn't know how to get back to a normal life in which Buffy's the one who has to be the mom and be the responsible one. She tells him that the doctors told her it probably wouldn't have made any difference if she'd gotten to her mom sooner, and she keeps thinking if only she'd gotten there ten minutes earlier she could have maybe saved her.

Angel tells her not to blame herself, and Buffy says it would be one thing if it was just her to worry about, but she's got Dawn, too. Angel tells her he knows it doesn't feel like it right now to her, but it will get easier, and she'll have people around to help. She won't be alone. Angel offers to stay in town for as long as she needs him. Buffy says "How about forever?" She warns him that he'd better go, because she's really needy right now. He says he can handle it, and they kiss. It gets heated, and when they break apart Buffy says she told him so. Angel, looking impassioned and vaguely surprised, says he's sorry. Buffy tells him not to be sorry; she's so grateful that he came. She didn't know how she was going to be able to get through this night. They hold each other and put off the dawn for a little while longer. (* sob * I miss them together!!!)

At the hospital, Ben comes across Jinx outside. Jinx tells him that Glory is aware that he and the slayer were going to go on a date, and she wants to encourage "this interest", so that he might be able to find out where the key is. Ben says he would never tell Glory; he would never do that to an innocent.....he starts to say "person", but stops himself. Jinx thinks that 'innocent' is an interesting choice of words used to describe the key, and starts to leave. Ben grabs him and tries to make him believe that the key is not a person, and Jinx pretends to believe him. Ben realizes Jinx is going to run back and tell Glory, so he stabs him with his own ceremonial blade.

The next morning, Willow and Tara try to get Dawn to go to breakfast with them. She doesn't want to, however, so they leave without her, but not before Willow levitates a book on the shelf out a few inches. Dawn goes right to the shelf after they leave, looking for spells she can use, and finds the book Willow picked out. Dawn turns to the "resurrection" section and starts reading. Cut to the Magic Box, where Dawn is pretending to help by dusting, when in fact she's really scanning the titles for books on witchcraft. She asks Giles what she should stay away from, and he tells her that the more potent texts are on the upper level; if anyone needs help with them she should call him. The second his back is turned Dawn climbs up to the upper level and tosses the book and ingredients she needs into her bookbag. She then goes back downstairs and pretends nothing happened. That night, she kneels next to Joyce's grave and spreads out her ingredients. Spike startles her, and says she's messing with some dangerous stuff; she's in zombie territory. Dawn freaks, thinking he's gonna tell on her, but he says he's not; he's gonna help.

At his place, Giles listens to the records he and Joyce listened to together in "Band Candy", s3, and drinks a silent toast to her; mourning her in his own way. Out on the street, Spike and Dawn head toward the house of some guy Spike says he's heard knows everything there is to know about resurrection spells. Dawn thinks he's helping her to get it in good with Buffy, but Spike says it's not true; he just doesn't like "to see Summers women taking it so hard on the chin is all" (awwww!).

At Glory's apartment, the god and her minions wait for Jinx to return. He finally does, having been stabbed in the gut by Ben. In an amusing scene, Glory helps him over to a couch, telling him to mind the rug because blood's a bitch to get out. Jinx, panting, tells her it was Ben. Glory freaks, and starts pulling her hair out. Literally. Jinx tells her that he does have information on the key, however; that it is in the form of a person. This scene's funny because Jinx keeps trying to keep up his usual steady stream of compliments, but he's like, dying, so he's a little less than stellar ("Most ......highest.....you." "I believe so......good one.") hee. Anyways, Glory's ecstatic at this news, saying it narrows her search considerably.

Spike and Dawn enter an apartment, and an older gentleman comes out to greet them. Spike tells them what they want, and the guy (whose name is Doc) tells them they don't want to mess with resurrection. Dawn and Spike don't go away, though, and he pulls a strand of Dawn's hair out, looks at it, and says that at least her mother is a good candidate; strong DNA. He pulls out a big book and tells Dawn that the ingredient she was missing from her spell was the egg of a Gohra demon. Naturally, they can't buy it or anything, they have to steal it from the nest of the Gohra. He tells her how to perform the spell once she gets the egg, and gives her an incantation to repeat three times once she's got all of her ingredients and a photo of her mother inside a sacred circle. If anything goes wrong with the spell, he warns, the only way to reverse / stop it is to destroy the image of Joyce. Dawn wonders what could go wrong, and he tells her that sometimes these things are a little "off", and that he can't guarantee Joyce will come back exactly her mother. Dawn is disturbed, but decides to go through with it anyway. Doc tells them which sewer entrance to go into to find the Gohra demon, and Dawn starts to pay him. He tells her to keep her money, and shakes her hand, but Dawn pulls back when she sees his eyes go black for a moment. Disturbed, she and Spike leave.

They find the sewer entrance, and Spike tells Dawn to stay up there while he goes and snatches the egg. Dawn says no go, she's gotta grab the egg while he distracts the demon. She goes into the sewer, and Spike snarls to himself that she's a bitty-Buffy. (ha! That's why you like her, Spike!) Down in the creature's lair, Spike fights the three headed demon while Dawn grabs an egg. They start to run out without a scratch, but Dawn trips and falls, breaking the egg. Spike tells her to leave it, but Dawn says she can't, and runs back into the lair. She goes to grab another egg and the creature snaps at her until Spike distracts it by throwing rocks at it. It whallops Spike good, and bites him. He and Dawn run out when she gets the 2nd egg, and Dawn apologizes. Spike asks her if she got the egg and she holds it up, and Spike says don't be sorry then. They run out.

That night, Dawn performs the ritual in her bedroom. We cut quickly to Willow and Tara in their room. Willow writes in her journal, and Tara notices that one of the books is missing from their shelf. Willow gets nervous, and says it's just a history of witchcraft book, which Tara concedes, but says it also makes reference to specific resurrection spells and potions. They call Buffy, who has just gotten home downstairs.

Upstairs, Dawn finishes the spell just as Buffy enters her room. Dawn runs downstairs, and Buffy grabs Joyce's picture and runs after her. They argue in the foyer about the rightness / wrongness of bringing Joyce back, and Buffy tells her that Tara said that people come back wrong from these kinds of spells. Dawn cries and says she doesn't care, she needs her. She's not like Buffy; she doesn't have anyone. Buffy says she has her, but Dawn says she doesn't; that Buffy doesn't even want Dawn around. She says their mom died, and it's like Buffy doesn't even care. Buffy says of course she does, but Dawn counters that she hasn't even cried. All she does is run around "cleaning up after Mom's mess". Buffy slaps Dawn, and then immediately apologizes, saying she's doing these things because when she stops, then it's real. Joyce is really dead and she can't hide from it anymore. She starts crying and says she doesn't know how to be like her, and Dawn, also having started crying, says no one expects her to be Joyce. They're both crying now, and the barriers come tumbling down as Buffy says she didn't mean to push Dawn away, but she felt like she had to be strong because who else would for them? Who else would take care of them now that Mom is gone? As they're talking, and Dawn is responding more and more to Buffy's angst, we see the shadow of Joyce walking in front of the living room window. A moment later, there's a knock at the front door.

Buffy whirls around, hope in her eyes. "Mommy?" she calls out, and then races for the door. Dawn's mind has quickly changed, and she shouts "No!", but Buffy goes to the door. Dawn snatches the picture up of Joyce and rips it in half just as Buffy throws the door open. There's nothing there. Buffy and Dawn hug and drop to the floor together crying.

FLAWS: Not sure if it's a flaw or not, but it annoys me. When Dawn steals the ingredients from the magic shop, her hair is up in a pony tail. When she goes to Doc's with Spike, her hair's down so that Doc can yank a strand of her hair out. When she and Spike go to steal the egg, her hair's up in a pony tail again.

THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE: Another good episode, that addresses a lot of different stuff. First of all, we're drawn a bit more into the Glory / Ben drama; we wonder exactly what's going on with them. I gotta admit it, I loved when Ben stabbed Jinx to keep him from telling Glory that the key was a person. For a minute there I was thinking he was pretty cool, and I so wrapped up in the idea that he was the good guy, and Glory was the bad guy, and they were both in the same body, but then I remembered all of the innocent crazy people Ben 3rd -party-murdered when he summoned the Quellor demon. Ah well. It was still pretty cool. Except he apparently did a half-assed job, because Jinx survived long enough to get back and tell Glory anyway.

Let's see.I also really enjoyed the Buffy / Angel bits. * sigh * I miss them. I also loved the Spike / Dawn interaction. I love the way it's the Summers women that he's always connected to. He obviously respected and admired Joyce, and she made him hot chocolate ;) He's in love with Buffy, and Dawn's the only other scooby who ever gets the best of him in a verbal battle. Obviously he needs that kind of spunk, and I like the little friendship developing between him and Dawn.

My only real beef with this episode is the way it totally rips off the spooky tale "The Monkey's Paw". Short version, in case you've never read it, is that an old married couple come into the possession of a Monkey's Paw, which is supposed to grant three wishes. The woman wishes for wealth, and that day they find out their son was killed at the mill, and they're getting a big fat check from the company to make up for it, or something. The husband says the monkey's paw is a curse, and they should burn it. But the woman says it can work for them, still; they have 2 wishes left. She wishes for their son to be brought back to life. The husband argues that she's just made a huge mistake, but when the zombie comes knocking at the door, the woman goes to open it. Just as she opens the door the man makes the third wish that the son is back in his grave. This episode was like, a total ripoff.

BEST LINE:

Anya: "I think I understand sex better now. It's not just about two bodies smooshing together. It's about life. It's about making life."

Xander (worried): "Right, when two people are much older, and way richer, and far less stupid."

"Forever"