atheneum

The Initiative Colonel reports via vid-screen to a superior about the current situation. He says the holding cells are overcrowded. The superior wants him to get Riley back, but the CO says he's made his choice, and won't be too far from the girl. In Adam's lair, Spike rants about the slayer, saying how she always gets right in the thick of whatever plot any would-be big bad has, and asks if Adam is ready for that. He says he's counting on it.

Adam says that Spike has killed two slayers already, but he fears this one. Spike is indignant over the word "fear", and says he hasn't killed Buffy yet because of "bloody rotten luck", and now this chip in his head. Adam says he knows how Spike feels, and promises to restore him to his savage nature by getting his chip out if he helps break Buffy's concentration so she'll be just where he wants her, when he wants her. Spike says he can hurt her through her friends, by taking them away from her. Adam points out that he can't hurt them, so what is he going to do? Spike says nothing; he'll let them do it for him. Cut to Buffy coming back to her apartment after her trip to L.A. to warn Angel about Faith.

At the high school, Xander delivers some fresh clothes to Riley, who's still hiding out there from the Initiative. Riley wonders if Buffy's back yet, and Xander says she'll probably come there first when she does get back. Riley and Xander agree that the sooner she comes back the better, because neither of them are real Angel fans. They kind bond over how much they hate him, but then Riley says it's not really fair, because Angel's not the bad one, it's the curse thing going on. Xander asks what Buffy told him, and Riley says everything. Riley comments that it's an interesting little curse, and Xander mentions the "one moment of happiness" clause ....... which had been left out of Buffy's version. Riley is stunned as he realizes that sex with Buffy was what triggered the loss of his soul, and Xander backtracks, realizing that Riley hadn't known. He says it's ancient history, but Riley's worried about that she went to L.A. to bone up on her ancient history.

At the apartment, Giles plays his acoustic guitar and sings "Free Bird", until he looks up to notice Spike standing in his doorway. Spike goes to the fridge and pulls out a bag of blood; pops it in the microwave as he tells Giles he's looking for Buffy because he's got some information. Giles wants to know what he's got, and Spike says he knows where there are some files in the Initiative, all of Maggie Walsh's dirty laundry. He drinks his blood as Giles expresses cynycism, but Spike convinces him, and says he'll be wanting money, blood, and a guarantee to not be slain. Giles agrees to his terms, but Spike says no go; the deal is with the slayer alone. Spike says basically that Giles has no real say, Buffy makes the rules, and never listens to Giles. This sets Giles thinking, and he's all bitter, but he says he'll give the message to Buffy as he picks up a bottle of whiskey.

In Tara's dorm room, Willow plays with their new kitten on the bed, as Tara looks through classes to take the next semester. They talk about the housing situation for next year, and Tara says she assumed that Willow and Buffy would just room together again the next year. Willow says that it hardly even feels like they're roomies now, they never see each other.

Cut to said roomie, who opens the door to Riley's knock. Riley is dressed in a blue t-shirt and a seizure-inducing pair of bright blue pants with an indiscernible pattern. They're Xander's, and he brought them for Riley to wear until his other clothes are cleaned. Buffy asks if it's okay for him to be there, what with the Initiative looking for him and all. Riley pulls out a radio that he's been using to listen in, saying they can't sneak up on him this way. Buffy's quiet, and Riley asks if she's okay. She says that Angel just kind of upset her, but she really doesn't want to talk about it right now. Riley feels shut out, and leaves.

At Spike's crypt, Xander and Anya deliver some army clothes, so he can go on his "mission" into the Initiative to recover the "files" he was telling Giles about. Included with the clothes is a gun, which Spike aims at Xander and immediately gets zapped by the chip. Turns out, the gun isn't real, but because Spike thought it was, and was intending harm, the chip interpreted it as violence and zapped him. Spike whines that the gun isn't even real, and he's taking this "risk", and can't even defend himself. Xander gives him some lip, and Spike says he'll never get into the army with that attitude. Xander's all, "what about the army?" Spike tells Xander that Buffy and Willow were talking about how he was going to join. Anya yells at Xander, but Xander denies that he was, and quickly gets steamed, mad that Buffy and Willow think that's all he's good for. He goes off onto a little rant, and Spike tells him he's overreacting. In amusing scene, Xander goes "Is anybody talking to you?", and Spike replies "Sir, No Sir!" Hee.

Cut to Buffy walking in the woods with her blast rifle. She starts to go into a cave, but runs into Forrest heading into the same cave. They snark at each other, but both go into the cave, unwilling to let the other go in alone. Inside, Forrest berates Buffy for getting Riley to commit treason, and Buffy basically tells him it wasn't treasonous, because what the Initiative is doing is wrong. They're about to come to blows when Adam shows up. They attack him, and Forrest quickly gets skewered. Adam picks up his blast rifle and zaps Buffy with it. She gets up, though, and runs out of the cave. Running through the woods, she trips and falls down an embankment, striking her head on a rock.

At Giles', Spike walks up to the door all nonchalant-like in his fatigues, and smoking a cigarette. At the door, he puts out the cigarette, and breathes deeply a few times to make it look like he's been running (Never mind that vampires don't really * need * to breathe heavily; or at all, for that matter), and bursts through the door. Willow and Tara and Giles are inside waiting for him, and Spike hands some disks over to Willow, who immediately starts looking into them on her laptop. Giles is over at the breakfast bar, slowly getting drunk, and Spike asks for his money. Giles says he'll get paid when Willow finds something useful on the disks. Spike notices Tara stroking Willow's hair, but doesn't say anything. Instead, he goes over to Giles and says he could have gone straight to the Slayer, but he cut Giles in and made him feel like part of it, and now Giles won't even pay him until Willow tells him it's okay to. Giles looks bitter. Willow finds that the files are encrypted, and Spike sighs that he'll never get paid, since she's not all that great with computers anymore. Willow wants to know what he means, and he says he heard her friends saying this thing with her and Tara was a phase. He says "this wicca thing", but Willow takes it to also mean their relationship. She tells Tara that she knew Buffy was freaked, but Spike tells her to get back to work on the encryption.

In the Initiative, a commando tells the CO that the cages are over-filled, and all of the staff looks overworked. The CO listens in on one radio transmission from a team under attack, calling out for help. At the school, Riley hears the same mayday on his radio, and gets up, throwing on his gear, and leaves to go help. He runs into an alley as the last member of the team is getting thrown out of it, and shines his flashlight in to see Angel standing there. Angel identifies him immediately, and then Riley realizes who Angel is. Angel assumes that the "welcoming committee" was his idea. Riley postulates that Angel went and lost his soul again, and assumes that Angel and Buffy slept together in L.A., and that's how Angel lost his soul. Angel tells him not to push him. He starts to leave, saying he's going to see an old girlfriend, and Riley gets in his face, all threatening, and says that's not gonna happen. They fight. It's vampire strength against advanced technology. They pound on each other for a bit. Angel gets the upper hand, until Riley pulls out a taser and shocks him. They fight some more, and then Angel starts beating on him again and throws him into a wall. An Initiative vehicle starts to come around the corner and Angel escapes up the wall and across the roof. Riley pulls himself to his feet and shuffles off in between the buildings.

Back at the dorm room, Buffy comes in and examines a big old gash in her forehead from where she hit the rock after falling down the embankment. There's a knock at the door; it's Angel. He comes in and Buffy notices he's hurt. He tells her it's nothing. She's still bitter about the way things went down in L.A., with him protecting Faith from her and telling her to leave his city and all. Angel tells her to chill; he didn't come for more recriminations. Suddenly Riley barges through the door and pulls his gun on Angel, saying he told him he wasn't going to go anywhere near her. Buffy realizes that Riley's the one who pounded on Angel, and now that she can see Riley, she sees that Angel was pounding right back. She wants to know what the hell's going on. Angel tells Riley to put the gun down; he refuses. The situation quickly escalates until Riley hits Angel. Angel hits back. Buffy separates them, threatening to put them both to the hospital if they don't stop it. She gets Riley to holster his gun, and says she needs to talk to Angel for a minute. Riley crosses his arms and says he refuses to leave the room. With a look, Buffy indicates that she and Angel should go into the hallway, and Angel follows her out, giving Riley this cute / funny smirk on the way out.

In the hallway, Buffy asks Angel what's going on, since he kicked her out of "his city", and now he's there beating up her boyfriend. Angel says he was trying to make things better, and they both start laughing as they realize the horrible mess that got made out of it. Angel says he "couldn't leave it like that", and came to apologize. She asks about the commandos, and Angel says he got jumped in the alley, and when he saw Riley he assumed they'd been his idea. And Riley assumed he'd been attacking * them*. Buffy apologizes herself, saying that they don't live in each other's worlds anymore, and she can't expect to come and tell him how to run things. He says he's still sorry, and she thanks him. He says next time he'll apologize by phone, and asks if she needs any help with the current situation. Buffy says it would be best if he left. He does so, after half-jokingly saying that he doesn't like Riley.

At Adam's lair, Spike comes in drinking a beer, exulting in his success at separating Buffy from her friends. Adam asks him how he can be sure they'll turn on each other, and Spike explains "the Yoko Factor"; how when the Beatles broke up everyone blamed Yoko, but really the band just broke up on its own. He implies that the scoobies are the same way: a group with inherent flaws, and that it didn't take much prodding to get them to believe the worst about each other. He asks Adam if they're ready to go ahead with his plan yet, then, but Adam says no; he needs one more thing.

Back in the dorm room, Buffy wants to tell Riley something. He assumes she's gonna tell him something about her and Angel, and wants to go first, instead. He tells her he's nuts about her, and if she's gonna break his heart, to do it fast. Buffy realizes he thought she slept with Angel in L.A., and asks how he could think that of her. Riley says he'd lept to the conclusion after seeing that Angel was bad again, and Buffy tells him that Angel * wasn't * bad again. Riley's incredulous. "You mean that's him on a good day?" Buffy asks him why he would jump to such a conclusion about her, as she's never given him any reason to distrust her. Riley says it's because he's so in love with her he can't see straight. Buffy says she knows the feeling, and they hug. When they pull apart she tells him she still has to tell him something. She tells him that Forrest is dead; that Adam killed him, and Riley buries his head in his hands. Buffy tries to comfort him, but Riley says he has to go. He does so, without a look back.

Back at Giles', Willow's still had no luck with the encryption. Giles is still drinking at the breakfast bar. Tara stands by Willow, and Xander and Anya are on the couch. Buffy's tense, and urges Willow to find something soon. Buffy says maybe she could go back to that cave and find out what he was doing there, and Willow says she can't go back alone or he'll kill her. Giles drunkenly agrees, and Xander stands up ready to back her up, and tells Giles to break out the weapons. Buffy says no, Xander can't go because he'll get hurt. Xander gets bitter, saying sure, she and Willow can just go around doing their super power things, and he'll just hang around there and be useless. Buffy says Willow won't be going either, and Willow verbally attacks Buffy, saying basically how useless she considers them to be. Xander jumps on the bus and they both get pretty righteous with Buffy.

Buffy, not knowing where all of this is coming from, tells them that they're not helping. Tara and Anya go hang out in the bathroom to avoid the escalating fight. Xander mentions the army thing, and Buffy's confused. Xander's all "yeah, you didn't think I knew about that, did you?" He says he knows all about Willow and Buffy talking about him behind his back. Buffy finally gets angry, saying what about him talking about her and Angel to Riley? Willow says that it's not even an issue because Buffy and she are never even around each other any more. Giles says something else drunkenly, and admits he's sloshed when Buffy asks him. She tells him to cut it out, and tries again to de-escalate, by saying that she does need them, but just not right now; Adam's too dangerous. Willow wants to know how Buffy needs her, and she mentions her being good with the computer, and the "witch stuff". Willow seems to take offense to that. Cut to Tara and Anya in the bathroom, still waiting out the argument.

Back in the living room, Xander, Willow, Buffy and Giles are still going at it. Giles stumbles upstairs to go to bed, he says, and Xander says that maybe he should join the army; at least there he'd be given some useful jobs to do. Willow wonders if the umbilical cord between him and Anya stretches that far, and Xander says he knew they hated her. Willow says it's not her, but Buffy and Xander who are the judgemental ones. Buffy scoffs the idea, saying she couldn't be more accepting of the choices they make. She wants to know what the hell happened to them today to make them act like this, but Willow says it's not just today; that Buffy's been acting wrong toward her since she found out Tara was Willow's girlfriend. Xander says no, it was before that, back to when Willow and Buffy went off to college together and forgot about him, and "Tara's your girlfriend?!" From upstairs, Giles exclaims "Bloody hell!"

Buffy finally snaps and says they're right. They should all just go find Adam together, and see how effective they are at killing him with both of them attacking her, and "the funny drunk" drooling on her shoe. Xander tells her to cut it out, but she's relentless as she asks them how they can help her. They have no answer, and Buffy says now she understands why there's no ancient prophecy about a chosen one and her friend, and leaves, saying if she needs help she'll go to someone she can count on.

Cut to Riley showing up in Adam's lair, all decked out in his commando gear, and carrying a blast rifle. Adam says he was waiting for him.

To be continued.

FLAWS: None found.

THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE: Not a bad one, actually. I enjoyed watching Spike be all observant and smart splitting-up guy. Also the Angel / Riley fight scene was nice, especially since Angel won ;) Speaking of Angel / Riley, though, what exactly was Riley thinking when he was holding that gun on Angel? I mean, hello? Vampire. You can't kill him with bullets, dumbass. And in that same scene, Buffy's twisted logic makes no sense to me. She breaks them up to keep them from fighting, and then threatens to put them both in the hospital if they continue. Sooooooo, to keep you from hurting each other, I'll hurt you, basically. Great plan there, Buff. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to point out to everyone the invitation that Angel had to secure before entering the dorm room. So a DORM, is also considered a residence. Following that logic, so should a Frat house be. So Angel jumping over the threshold in "Reptile Boy" is just inexcusable.

I never let anything go, do I? ;)

BEST LINE:

when Anya smacks Xander when she thinks he was going to join the army:

Xander: "Okay, one (turns to Anya) , OW! Two, (turns to Spike) "Where'd you get that idea? And three, (turns back to Anya) Ow!"

and:

Riley: (about Angel) "Well there ya go. Even when he's good, he's Mr. Billowy coat; King of Pain."

and:

Giles: (drunk) "You never train with me anymore. He's going to kick your ass."

"The Yoko Factor"