atheneum

Campus path, night time. A random guy walks along, apparently spooked at sounds emanating from the bushes. It's nothing; he walks on. Suddenly though, Buffy jumps out and attacks him. Turns out random guy is a vampire. They fight, but Buffy's easily got the upperhand. She stakes him, then stops and looks around, a questioning look on her face; like she senses something else out there. She shrugs it off and turns to leave, and the camera pans around to the foliage, from which Angel hides and watches.

The next day, Anya, Buffy and Willow attend a groudbreaking ceremony at which Xander is now working as a construction / digger guy. The speaker talks about the new cultural center that will go there, and how that's what the "melting pot" is all about. Willow thinks it's a bunch of hooey, and considers Thanksgiving more of a celebration of one culture totally obliterating the other, rather than a blending of the two. Buffy concedes the truth in Willow's grumbling, and then comments that her Mom's at her aunt's this week anyway, so she (Buffy) won't really have a Thanksgiving. The guest speaker finishes her speech, and Xander and his team start digging. Almost immediately, Xander falls through into an underground room. He's okay, but he looks around the room and it appears to be really old.

Night time, Angel looks from a hiding spot on the ground up at Buffy's dorm room. Up in the dorm, Buffy gazes distractedly out the window, almost as if she senses him again. Willow comments that she overheard that the room Xander fell into was an old mission that the university thought was lost. Apparently it had gotten buried after an earthquake in 1812. As they talk, students pass by their room on their way home for the holiday weekend, and Buffy and Willow get back on the Thanksgiving topic. Buffy suggests that they should have their own Thanksgiving, and Willow starts to get indignant again, until Buffy talks her into it. Buffy says that the point of Thanksgiving is for everyone to have a place to go.

Cut to Spike, shuffling along with a blanket pulled around his shoulders, freezing. He's still on the run from the Initiative, who follow shortly behind (led by Riley). They can't find him. At Xander's house the next morning, Anya arrives to find Xander trembling and pasty. He's sick. Anya convinces him to not go to work that day, and then starts taking his clothes off after dumping him back into bed. Xander comments that she's a weird girlfriend, and Anya is pleased at the term "girlfriend".

Down in the room that Xander fell in to the day before, a green light manifests and rises up from the floor, escaping through the break in the ceiling. Cut to the guest speaker from the ceremony the day before, in her office. She's looking at some Native American artifacts, when the green light wafts in and turns into a Native American in the flesh. He grabs her and cuts her throat.

Some time later, after the body has been discovered, reported, and removed, Willow and Buffy come in to investigate. Buffy discovers that an artifact is missing from the case: a knife. Cut to Giles', where Buffy is unpacking groceries for Thanksgiving, and she tells Giles about the murder, and the Chumash knife that was stolen from the victim's office. Buffy continues to unpack the groceries, and Giles asks why it is again that Thanksgiving has to be at his place? Buffy changes the subject back to the murder, but then gets sidetracked when she seems to sense something again. Giles asks her if she's'okay, but she brushes it off and leaves. Moments later, Angel walks out from the back room, and he and Giles continue the conversation they'd obviously been having before Buffy arrived. Angel is there to stop whatever harm is supposed to befall the slayer, on a tip from Doyle's vision in L.A. (which occurred at the end of "The Bachelor Party", Ats). Giles suggests that it's not Angel's job to keep Buffy safe anymore, and Angel throws it back by saying it's not Giles' anymore, either. Giles then says it's not fair for Angel to follow her around and keep her safe, and not tell her, but Angel says if she knows he's there it'll distract her, and maybe that's what costs her her life. Also he says he's not getting the good half of the deal; "to be on the outside looking in at what I can't....I'd forgotten how bad it feels."

Out in front of the coffee shop, Buffy and Willow are stopped by Riley. Willow wanders into the shop to leave Buffy and Riley alone, and runs right into Angel inside. He grabs her and covers her mouth, and at first Willow thinks he's evil again. He denies it, and tells her he's there to protect Buffy. Willow starts to yammer a bit about Cordelia working for him in L.A. and all, but Angel cuts her off, saying he doesn't have time to discuss the personal stuff. But then he gives in to his growing jealousy and asks "who's that guy?" (that Buffy is talking to).

Cut to Buffy and Riley out on the street, where Buffy invites Riley to Thanksgiving if he's not already doing anything. He says thanks, but he's going home to Iowa for the break. Cut to Harmony's lair, where Spike has come to try and make nice, so he can get something to eat since he can no longer kill on his own because of the chip. He tries to seduce Harmony into taking him back, and it almost works, until Harmony takes control of herself and threatens to stake Spike. He leaves.

On a tip from Giles (who got the tip from Angel), Buffy goes to ask a Priest about the Chumash tribe that inhabited Sunnydale before they were rounded up and shuttled off. Apparently this guy's family has been around a long time and he might have some answers. Buffy wanders around looking for him, and finally finds him hung; dead, at the hands of the Chumash Native American spirit guy. They fight a bit, and he tells her that he is vengeance. They fight some more, and Buffy gains the upper hand but lets him go after feeling guilty when he says "this must be a great day" for her, after slaughtering his people. He dissipates into a bunch of crows, and flies away.

Back in Giles' kitchen, he and Buffy discuss the animal manifestation as Buffy continues to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. She says she feels conflicted when fighting the spirit, but Giles points out that he's killing innocent people. Willow arrives with books documenting the atrocities committed agains the Chumash tribe, and peas. She tells them that the Chumash were rounded up, forced into labor, they got all sorts of bad European diseases from the colonials, and a lot of them were slaughtered. Willow thinks that they shouldn't be trying to kill the spirit; that he's entitled to his vengeance, but Giles again points out the innocent people that are dying as a result of his revenge. Buffy can't take their arguing and goes back into the kitchen to cook some more. Giles reveals in a lowered voice that there's more to it than all this, that Angel's here to protect Buffy against something that might harm her. Willow says she knows; she saw him too. There's another knock at the door; it's Xander and Anya, and Xander looks even worse than before. He says he went to the doctor, who said that all of his symptoms didn't match each other; he couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Willow makes the connection to the diseases the Chumash caught while imprisoned, and they figure out that Xander's caught like, all of them. Including Syphilis. Xander's understandably upset, and Willow tries to defend the spirit by saying he's just doing what was done to him. Xander says that
he's not the one who gave the spirit Syphilis. He votes for them to kill the spirit, and it starts up another argument between Willow and Giles about the killing / not killing of the spirit, while Anya argues with Xander over his wanting to kill the vengeance spirit, on account of her having *been * a vengeance demon. Buffy stops the arguing by calling attention back to the Thanksgiving dinner.

There's another knock at the door, and Buffy opens it to reveal Spike, with his blanket over his head. He begs for help, but Buffy's not willing to let him in, even after he and Willow tell them that he's harmless because of the chip in his head, until he reminds her that he's got information on the Initiative.

Cut to the Chumash spirit, raising some more spirits to carry out his vengeance scheme. Back at Giles', Buffy ties Spike to a chair in the middle of the room, and questions him about the Initiative. He says he's "too hungry to remember everything", and Buffy decides she's got too much else to worry about right now, and walks off. Giles points out that all of the victims other than Xander have been authority figures, and Buffy thinks the Dean might be the next target. She asks Willow if she has any idea how she can kill the spirit, and Willow refuses to help, if that's going to be the outcome. They fight about it some more, and Spike interjects by saying that "they won", and they should stop whining and feeling bad about it. That conquering nations do it all the time; that this is kill or be killed, here, and all they've got to do is take their pick. Xander and Giles, surprised that they're agreeing with Spike, agree. Buffy says sure, whatever, fine, but someone has to warn the Dean, and Xander, Anya and Willow leave to go do so.

Later on, Spike complains about not having been fed yet, while Buffy makes last minute dinner preparations as Giles continues to research. Suddenly an arrow embeds itself into the little stuffed pilgrim centerpiece on the table, and Buffy and Giles look up to see that they're surrounded by the spirits, who are all armed with bows and arrows. Buffy tries to apologize and get the main spirit to talk, but he doesn't listen and the Chumash start shooting arrows into Giles' apartment. Buffy and Giles take cover behind the couch, but Spike is left in the middle of the room, tied to his chair. Before long, he's shot in the chest with an arrow. Indignant, he yells out for them to "hey! watch the heart!".

Willow, Xander and Anya leave the Dean's office, having not been believed. They run into Angel outside, and he reports that all of the Chumash weapons have been stolen from the cultural center, and that there are more spirits now. Willow says they thought they'd be coming after the Dean because he was the leader, but Angel says that to a warrior, the leader would be the strongest person. Buffy, they all realize. Angel separates from the others, and they all head back to Giles'.

Still under siege, Giles answers the phone and tells Angel that the spirits are already there, and hangs up quickly. Cut to Spike in the middle of the room, looking like a big, vampiric pin-cushion, with multiple arrows sticking out of his chest. He decides he was all wrong about that conquering nation stuff, and tries to apologize. ("Hey, sorry! Sorry about that, Chief!") Buffy gets an arrow through the arm when she tries to go for the weapon's chest, and Spike gets shot again in the thigh. Buffy and Giles finally get the weapons chest open, and begin returning fire as Xander, Willow and Anya arrive outside. They start attacking the spirits at their positions at the windows, and a few of the spirits (including the leader) jump into the apartment and engage Buffy and Giles in hand-to-hand. Buffy stabs the lead spirit, but it doesn't seem to affect him. Outside, Willow and Anya are beating one of the spirits with shovels when Angel runs over, snaps his neck, and throws him down. Meanwhile, Xander has been knocked into the apartment by the spirit he's fighting with, and Buffy continues to fight the leader. Another one of the warriors makes to stab Buffy in the back, but Angel sees from outside and throws a knife into the warrior's back, stopping him from killing Buffy.

Buffy manages to get the lead warrior's knife away from him, and slashes him with it. This one cuts him, and he turns into a bear, as Buffy realizes that * his * knife can kill him. She fights with it a bit, as Angel fights with another warrior outside in the courtyard. Xander gets away from the one he was fighting with, and throws things at it to distract it. When it turns away from her, Buffy jumps up and knifes it. It turns back into the warrior for a moment, and then dissolves into the green mist which dissipates. All of the other spirits also vanish, and Angel is left looking in the window at Buffy. After a long moment, he turns and walks away. Only a second or two after he leaves the window, Buffy looks up at it as if sensing that he'd been there.

Later, finishing dinner, Willow feels that she's a hypocrite because she was fighting the spirits, when before the confrontations she'd wanted to defend them. Spike grouses that while they all got a fine meal, he got nothing, because nobody bled or died or anything. Giles congratulates Buffy on the successful conclusion to the conflict, and also on the dinner. Willow says it * was * kind of nice, all of them working together again, like the good old times. Xander agrees, and says "especially with Angel being here and everything." Buffy looks up, and everyone glances at her surreptitiously, as Xander goes "Oops."

FLAWS: In one scene, Spike shuffles along with a torn and ratty blanked pulled around his shoulders, and he's obviously shivering. Um, isn't this still southern California? It's snowed exactly once on this show, and that was by divine intervention. It shouldn't be that cold.

Also, during the Thanksgiving dinner, Spike grumbles that none of them bled even a little during the whole siege. Um, what? Buffy was shot through the arm with an arrow, dude. She bled.

THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE: Not a bad episode. It sets up Spike hanging out with the Scooby Gang for awhile, since he can't really fend for himself yet, due to not being able to kill, or really even fight effectively. It's also the last time we see Angel for a long while, since he's all busy over on his own show, brilliantly named "Angel." This episode was the first part of the second crossover event this season between Btvs and Ats, the second episode being the angst-fest: "I Will Remember You". * sob * I remember at the time being all "awww", when Angel asked Willow who Riley was, because I'd always loved watching Angel get jealous over Buffy, because it always meant them making up later on. Now when I watch it it's just sad, because I know everything that happens after, and that they're never together again, really. Again, * sob *

Also, I'd like to point out the scene in which Buffy ties Spike to the chair at Giles' place. Spike says "Bloody hell, woman, you're cutting off my circulation!" Buffy replies, "You don't have any circulation", and Spike says "Well, it pinches". This is just kind of further proof that vampires don't have a heartbeat, their blood doesn't circulate, therefore all of the things I point out that shouldn't be able to happen, really shouldn't. (i.e. drugs and / or sedatives effecting the systems, oxygen to the brain being cut off shouldn't hurt them, they shouldn't be able to get drunk, or get erections. They shouldn't be able to heal. Anyways, one day I'll leave that subject alone. Maybe ;)

BEST LINE:

Spike: "Do you know what happens to vampires who don't get to feed?"

Giles: "I've always wondered that, actually."

Spike: "Living skeletons, mate. Like famine pictures from those dusty countries. Only not half as funny."

and:

Spike: "A bear! You made a bear!"

Buffy: "I didn't mean to!"

Spike: "Undo it! Undo it!"

"Pangs"