Villains

Season 6, Episode 20
Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by David Solomon
Original Airdate: 13 May 2002

“Bored now.”

Willow

REGULAR CAST

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
Emma Caulfield as Anyanka
Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
James Marsters as Spike
Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

GUEST CAST

Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson
Adam Busch as Warren Mears
Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells
Jeff Kober as Rack
Amelinda Embry as Katrina Silber
Amber Benson as Tara Maclay

CO-STARRING

James C. Leary as Clem
Steven W. Bailey as Cave Demon
Tim Hodgin as Coroner
Michael Matthys as Paramedic
Julie Hermelin as Clerk
Alan Henry Brown as Demon Bartender
Mueen J. Ahmad as Doctor
Jane Cho as Nurse #1
Meredith Cross as Nurse #2
David Adefeso as Paramedic #2
Jeffrey Nicholas Brown as Vampire
Nelson Frederick as Villager

SYNOPSIS

An ambulance arrives at the Summers house and Xander leads them to Buffy’s still body. Meanwhile, upstairs, a tearful Willow begs for Tara to return to her and calls upon a demon to bring Tara back to life. The demon denies Willow’s request, explaining that the death was natural and human and cannot be undone. Devastated and angry, Willow kills the demon with a violent scream. Xander accompanies the paramedics to their truck out front as a determined Willow exits the house. He tells her Warren shot Buffy and she leaves on a mission while Xander joins Buffy in the ambulance.

At the police station Andrew and Jonathan talk about the fact that they’re in jail and debate about whether Warren will be rescuing them. Warren orders a round of drinks for a bar as he talks to a vampire and brags about how he killed the Slayer. The vampire and demon bartender inform Warren that Buffy’s still alive, as the news just reported the story. Willow barges into the Magic Box and heads directly for the black arts books. Anyanka tries to stop her, but Willow literally stops her from moving. Willow pulls the books off the shelves, sticks her hands into the pages and sucks the words into her body. Her eyes and hair turn black as she completely consumes the darkness. Dawn returns home from school to an empty house and walks into Willow’s bedroom, finding Tara’s dead body lying on the floor.

Warren visits Rack’s place and showing cash, he demands protection from the Slayer. Rack warns the man that his big concern lies with Willow, who really wants him dead and she’s got the power to do it. In exchange for a lot of money, Rack gives Warren some powers to help him combat against Willow. At a hospital, doctors and nurses struggle to keep Buffy alive but soon their job is taken over as Willow enters the room and orders everyone else out. Xander watches as Willow approaches Buffy’s body and raises the bullet from Buffy’s chest and heals the wound. Buffy wakes up and feels fine, but Willow is in a hurry to get to Warren.

Xander follows Willow’s directions as he drives down a deserted desert road and Buffy tries to reason with Willow about her choice to go after Warren. Rushed, Willow takes control of the car and leads it to another road where a city bus is approaching. She uses magic to take control of the bus and once it is stopped, she orders Warren off the bus. He barely manages to beg for forgiveness before she wraps her hand around his throat and starts to strangle him. Willow is only angered more when she finds that she was tricked and it was actually a Warren robot. Buffy and Xander plead with her not to kill Warren, but she doesn’t want to listen and shoves them away as she departs. Buffy and Xander return to the house and find Dawn huddled in the corner of Willow’s bedroom, staring at Tara’s body. Buffy tries to comfort her sister, neither of them really able to grasp the situation.

The coroner takes Tara’s body away and Xander sees them out. When Xander and Buffy begin to talk about Willow, Dawn jumps in with her view that Warren should be killed. Buffy’s disturbed by that and doesn’t think it’s okay for Warren to be killed just because he killed Tara. Concerned for her friend, Buffy wants it to end without Willow destroying herself. Buffy refuses to allow Dawn to tag along, and instead, Dawn want to stay with Spike. Xander is upset by Buffy’s willingness to let that happen and reminds her of Spike’s actions the night before, but she’s confident Spike can’t hurt Dawn and he is their only option. In Tara’s dorm room, Willow uses her shirt, splattered with Tara’s blood, and magic to guide the way to Warren.

Buffy and Dawn show up at Spike’s crypt, but find Clem staying there instead. Since Spike is gone, Buffy asks Clem if Dawn can stay with him for a little bit and he’s more than happy to have the company. As she leaves, Buffy asks about Spike and his whereabouts, but Clem has few answers. Across the world, in Africa, Spike enters a cave, despite warnings from one of the tribesmen. Inside the cave, Spike greets a demon in the shadows, wanting a change. The demon assumes that Spikes wants to return to his former self and he doesn’t think Spike has what it takes to earn that. Spike is confident though that he will and he demands what he came for if he does. Xander talks to ‘Anya’ as she recovers from Willow’s magic. She reveals that she feels Willow’s cry for vengeance and Xander discovers that she’s returned to being a vengeance demon. They question Anyanka’s loyalties but she’s willing to help them find Willow for Willow’s sake, only.

Trees part as Willow walks through the woods, hot on Warren’s trail. As she reaches a small clearing, Warren sneaks up on her and plunges an axe deep into her back. She recovers quickly though, her powers much too strong to be hampered by an axe. He runs off again and tries to stop her by sending a flying box at her that explodes into a ball of goo. She freezes the flames, escapes the goo and then uses magic to tie Warren up spread-eagle between two trees. Willow realizes Tara wasn’t Warren’s first kill and brings out Warren’s dead, ex-girlfriend, Katrina. Katrina taunts him with comments about how she should have killed him a long time ago and when Warren gets angry, Willow makes Katrina go away again. All the while, Anyanka leads the way for Buffy and Xander to reach Willow.

Willow decides Warren needs to feel what Tara felt when he shot her. He begs for mercy as she describes the damage of the bullet and when he continues to interrupt her, she sews his lips shut so she can continue. She questions why someone like him gets to live when someone wonderful like Tara has to die. When he’s free to speak again, Warren apologies profusely and tries to convince Willow that she’s better than this. As the others arrive, Willow rips Warren’s skin from his body and then his body is engulfed in flames and then disintegrates. Buffy, Xander and Anyanka look on in horrified shock as Willow proclaims, “One down,” before disappearing into thin air.

TRIVIA

During the original broadcast of this episode, Amber Benson’s silent portrayal of Tara’s corpse lacked any credit. When the episode was repeated and released on video, Amber received a credit on the opening guest credits. She’s also been removed from the opening credits. This is Tara’s last appearance on the show, despite original plans from Joss Whedon to resurrect the character in season seven.

Adam Busch, who played Warren, spoke at a Buffy Convention about how pleased he was with the ‘flaying’ scene. He joked that the actor who played ‘skinned’ Warren had much better muscle tone than he did. Warren returns for five episodes in season seven, despite his death in this episode.

The scene where Warren is skinned alive by Willow was edited out when shown in most places. Marti Noxon said, “The skinning of Warren was something Joss wanted. We pitched it to the network, and the network said, ‘As long as you only see it for 2.5 seconds, go for it.’”

CONTINUITY

Willow attempts to summon Osiris in order to resurrect Tara, but the demon says no due to his resurrection of Buffy, which of course happened in the season premiere, Bargaining (Part 1).

Andrew suggests that he was going to carry Jonathan away during their escape attempt in Seeing Red.

Warren visits the same demon bar as the one seen in Life Serial.

Willow’s ‘Bored Now’ comment was the same as her vampire double’s in Doppelgangland.

GOOFS

In the woods, we see Warren run with nothing in his hands but he’s later holding an axe. Where did he get it from?

You can see ‘dead’ Tara breathing while Dawn is in the room with her.

The doctors are trying to fix Buffy’s heart while she still has her shirt on.

The amount of blood on Willow’s shirt changes from scene to scene.

Why wasn’t there any blood on the axe Warren hit Willow with?

Buffy’s gun shot wound looks lower than in did last episode.

When Willow is walking through the forest, you can see ropes pulling the trees back as she walks by.

When Warren’s skin flies off, there’s no bullet hole in his chest.