atheneum

We open in Psych class, where for some reason Maggie Walsh calls on Buffy to go to the front of the class and take part in a demonstration that involves her laying down on the desk, and Riley coming over to kiss her. They both look kinda nervous, but Riley reassures her that when he kisses her it'll make the sun go down. He kisses her, and everything gets dark. He's like, see, I told ya so, but Buffy then hears a humming out in the Hallway. She goes to investigate and finds a young girl in the hallway holding a small wooden box, singing a nursery rhyme about the "gentlemen", and how they "need seven and they might take yours". Riley joins her and touches her arm, but when she turns around she sees a creepy looking demon, all gray and bald, wearing a suit and a wide smile.

With a start, Buffy awakens in Psych class as Walsh wraps things up. Willow teases her about napping through class, and so does Riley when he joins them. Buffy mentions the dream and Willow leaves them so they can be alone, as they flirt. Outside, Riley asks about her plans that night and she slips that she's got to patrol, then covers. Riley also seems caught flat-footed when she asks about his plans that night. They almost kiss, but their respective untruths are between them and they separate without kissing.

Giles, at his place, talks to Buffy on the phone and writes down the words that Buffy heard the little girl singing in her dream, and says he'll research it. After he gets off the phone he and Spike argue about how Spike is eating all of his snack foods. Spike's obvioiusly making himself at home at Giles' place. Outside, Anya and Xander are arguing as they walk to Giles' front door. Anya doesn't think that Xander cares about her; just wants sex from her. They go in, and the argument carries over to inside, much to Xander and Giles' consternation and embarrassment. Spike thinks it's funny, until Giles asks Xander to take the vampire for a few days, because he's got a "friend" coming to stay for a few days and they want to be alone. Spike, Xander and Anya all hate the idea.

At the student center, Willow sits in on Wicca group, which actually turns out to be more of a club, where the members are more concerned with bake sales than magicks. Willow suggests doing some spells or something, but everyone else thinks she's just perpetuating a stereotype, and brush her off. The only exception is a shy girl named Tara, who starts to support Willow, but quickly shuts up when the others don't listen to her. Back at the dorm, Willow laments that no one in the Wicca group was really serious about witchcraft, and then asks what's going on with Buffy and Riley. Buffy says nothing's happening, because every time they get close she gets nervous and starts babbling. She wishes that she could come clean about the slaying thing, too, because every time they talk she's got to tell a falsehood to keep the truth from him. Cut to Riley and Forrest down at Initiative HQ, and apparently Riley's just been saying the same thing, because Forrest tells him he can't tell Buffy the truth; they've gotta keep what they do a secret.

At Xander's that night, Spike complains about being tied up to a reclining chair that night, and Xander basically tells him to deal with it. Xander lies down to go to sleep, only for Spike to start mocking him by impersonating Anya. "Xaaaaander. Don't you care about me? We never talk."

At Giles', the englishwoman we saw in "The Freshman" (Olivia) enters, and without much small talk she and Giles start kissing. We then see a number of different people sleeping in Sunnydale, including Giles and Olivia, Buffy and Willow, etc. Each one of them sighs and what looks like a mist comes out of their mouths and goes out the window. The mist collects from all over town inside a clock belltower, where several of those funky creepy Gentlemen guys are, and goes into a small wooden box. One of the Gentlemen closes the box and smiles.

The next morning Buffy gets up and goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Upon re-entering the room, she mouths "good morning" to Willow, who does the same to her, but no sound comes out. Willow thinks that she's gone deaf, but Buffy realizes that they can't speak. She goes out into the hallway and sees that everyone else is affected, too. In the basement, Xander wakes up to find his voice gone, too. He points to Spike, accusing him of doing it, but Spike denies culpability, and we see that he can't speak, either. Panicking, Xander picks up the phone and dials Buffy and Willow's dorm room. Buffy picks up, but can't say anything. Xander also belatedly realizes that he can't talk on the phone, and hangs up. Spike gives him a "duh" look. At Riley's dorm, he and Forrest get in the elevator to go down to the Initiative, as Forrest writes on a note pad that this epidemic is all over town. A computer voice chimes in, telling them that their vocal recognition code was not accepted; Riley belatedly realizes that they can't talk into the monitor to pass the security clearance. He tries to punch in an override code, but can't remember the number. A lethal gas starts to hiss out from a panel inside the elevator, but luckily they get to the bottom and the doors open before they can breathe it. Maggie is waiting for them and points to a sign to the side of the elevator that reads "Use stairs in case of an emergency."

At the student center, Tara glances around as if looking for someone. In the silence, a guy drops his drink and the shatter frightens everyone in the room with the sudden noise. Tara leaves. Out on the street, Buffy and Willow walk along, seeing the effects of the epidemic everywhere. Silent mass is being held on the streetside, and a guy is selling message boards for $10 each. Buffy and Willow each buy one, and head to Giles'. They greet the rest of the gang with waves, and Buffy asks Giles with a look if he's found anything out in his research. Giles indicates no. Xander snaps his fingers to get their attention, and they see on the news that the rest of the world is viewing Sunnydale as having a collective case of laryngitis. Buffy writes on a message board that she needs to patrol that night, and Giles mouths "why?"

Cut to Maggie Walsh using a computer program to say what she types, and she explains to Riley and his team that there will be chaos on the streets that night; she wants Riley and co. to help keep order, while she looks into what might be causing this.

That night, on the street in front of the Sun Cinema, Buffy sees Riley break up a silent fight. They hug, and ask each other if they're okay. They hear sounds of more violence in the distance, and separate after kissing. Cut to the clocktower, the Gentlemen float out, hovering about a foot off the ground. With them are some funky lurching demons wearing torn straight jackets. They shamble along madly, following the gentlemen. At Giles', Olivia wakes up and leaves bed, going to the window. Looking outside, she sees one of the Gentlemen leering in at her and tries to scream, but can't.

A couple of the Gentlemen and some of the raving lunatic demons enter the dorm, and strap a guy down in his bed. He tries to scream, but nothing comes out as they pull a scalpel out and cut into his chest. Back at the clock tower, we see a group of the Gentlemen applauding the three hearts that one of their number has collected.

That morning, Buffy finds out about the murder in the dorm, and Giles sees news of the murder (and at least one more) in the headlines of the newspaper. Olivia shows him a sketch of the Gentleman she saw, and an inkling of understanding shows on Giles' face. He goes over to his desk and pulls out a book entitled "Fairy Tales". Later, in one of the classrooms at the university, Giles turns on some music and an overhead projector at the front of the room as Buffy, Willow, Xander and Anya sit in the first couple rows of the stadium-style seats. Giles uses transparencies on the overhead to tell everyone what he's learned. Through a series of transparencies with hand-drawn illustrations and words, he tells them the tale of the Gentlemen, who come to a town and steal all of the voices so no one can scream. Then they harvest seven hearts. Xander wonders how they can kill them, and Buffy motions that she'll stake them (heh, this is actually a very amusing scene. I recommend it), but Giles puts another transparency up that says in the tale no swords can kill them, but that the princess screamed once and they all died. Willow holds up a cd, suggesting that they play music, but Giles indicates that it has to be a real human's voice. Buffy writes "how do I get my voice back?", but Giles doesn't know. He puts another transparency up saying that Buffy will patrol that night, and Buffy is annoyed at the way he drew her figure on the transparency.

Cut to the Initiative, where Riley and his team are suiting up for a full search and destroy operation, after having also made the connection to the slayings reported in the newspaper. That night on patrol, Buffy and Riley each hunt for the Gentlemen, unaware of each other. Riley comes across the clock tower, and sees shadows inside, and goes to investigate. Cut to a dorm room, where Tara, the shy girl from Wicca group earlier, has Willow's name and room number written down on a post-it. She grabs a couple books and heads out. Walking across campus, she's so busy looking behind her that she trips over a curb, dropping her books. When she turns around she sees a couple Gentlemen and some of the psycho demons coming right for her. She runs. Buffy's patroling when she comes across some * more * Gentlemen and the demons. They fight.

In Willow's dorm, Tara runs from the Gentlemen, who hover calmly after her. Buffy fights two of the psycho demons, and kills one as the other runs away. She gives chase. At the clock tower, Riley enters only to get immediately attacked by one of the demons in the straight jackets. Back at the dorm, Tara bangs on doors for help, but only finds another Gentleman standing at the door she's knocking on with another heart. She turns to run, and runs right into Willow, who had come out into the hallway. Helping each other up, they run from the Gentlemen.

Back at the clock tower, Riley continues to fight with his demon. Another demon runs in, and Buffy jumps through the boarded up window, taking it out. They each knock down the demon they're fighting and train their weapons on each other; stopping in surprise and confusion when they realize who each other is.

One of the demon rises to attack Riley and Buffy back kicks it, knocking it down again. Another demon rises behind Buffy, and Riley shoots it with his ray-gun thingy. Buffy shoots another one, and then they each are contending with their own demons again. Riley looks up to see Buffy totally beating hers up, and then swinging across the room on a rope to kick it out the window.

At Giles', Anya naps on the couch as Spike grabs some blood out of the fridge. A blood mustache is left on his upper lip as he kneels down in front of the couch to pick up some books he knocked over. Xander enters and sees Anya unconscious on the couch, and then Spike's head raises up beyond her, with blood on his lip. He leaps to the conclusion that Spike was feeding from Anya and rushes over to start pummeling Spike. Anya wakes up and gets his attention, and Xander kisses her, relieved. It's all very touching, and Giles and Olivia smile until Anya suggests with some hand gesturing that they go have sex. They leave to go do so, as Giles and Olivia and Spike look sickened.

Back at the dorm, Willow and Tara are still on the run from the Gentlemen. They lock themselves inside a laundry room, and try to move a soda machine in front of the door but they can't budge it. Running over to the opposite wall, Willow sinks to the floor and tries to move it with her powers, as Tara watches. It moves a little bit, but not nearly enough. Tara takes her hand hesitantly, and they both look at the soda machine, and suddenly it jerks over in front of the door. They moved it together with their combined power.

At the Clock Tower, Buffy chases one of the lunatic demons up into the area behind the clock. Riley follows and they all fight some more. One of the Gentlemen stabs Buffy in the back with a scalpel, and the lunatics continue fighting with Riley as another one of their number gets Buffy in a stranglehold from behind. Buffy sees the small box on a table next to the harvested hearts in jars, and flashes back to the wooden box the little girl was holding in her dream. She motions to Riley to break the box, and he smashes his gun down on it, releasing all of the voices just as the demon throws Buffy into the corner. She screams, and all of the Gentlemens' heads explode.

The next day, Tara tells Willow that she saw her in Wicca group, and thought that she was different from everyone else in the group; that she thought maybe they could do some spell stuff together. Tara says her mother used to practice withcraft, and that she had a lot of power, like Willow does.

Giles and Olivia recline on his couch, and Olivia says that she always thought Giles was exaggerating when he talked about witchcraft and spells and demons. He tells her that it's all true, and she comments that it's scary. "Too scary?" Giles asks, but Olivia doesn't know yet.

At the dorm room, Riley enters and says that he guesses they should talk. Buffy agrees, but they both just look at each other, neither one sure what to say or how to start.

FLAWS: none found.

THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE: There's a reason this one was such a big hit. It's an original idea, and it was executed pretty well. Good acting on everyone's part: relaying their feelings and messages without using any words at all. The scene in the classroom was the best of all, and you should watch the episode if only just for that ;) Even though the real point of the episode was to get Buffy and Riley to find out about each other, I think it's worth far more in the comedic department.

BEST LINE:

Spike: "I don't see why I have to be tied up."

Xander: "It's just while I'm sleeping."

Spike: "Like I'd bite you, anyway."

Xander: "Oh you would."

Spike: "Not bloody likely."

Xander: "I happen to be very biteable, pal. I'm moist and delicious."

Spike: "Oh right. Yeah, fine. You're a nummy treat."

Xander: "And don't you forget it."

"Hush"