Tabula Rasa

Season 6, Episode 8
Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner
Directed by David Grossman
Original Airdate: 12 November 2001

“Monsters are real. Did we know this?”

Buffy, aka Joan

REGULAR CAST

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

SPECIAL GUEST STAR

Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

GUEST CAST

Raymond O’Connor as Teeth
Amber Benson as Tara Maclay

CO-STARRING

Geordie White as Vampire #1
Stephen Triplett as Vampire #2
David Franco as Vampire #3

SYNOPSIS

Buffy patrols and runs into Spike who wants to talk about their kiss. A demon loan shark confronts Spike about his kitten debt, but Buffy steps in and takes care of the thugs looking to beat the debt out of Spike. Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara talk about removing Buffy from Heaven and their feelings in the aftermath of the truth. Willow suggests fixing the mess with a spell and Tara goes off on her about her excessive and damaging use of magic. At the threat of losing Tara, Willow agrees to go a week without magic to prove her love.

Giles informs Buffy that he is leaving and Buffy takes the news very badly. He knows she is too dependent on him and he must leave if she’s ever going to survive on her own. Without her magic, Willow is late getting ready to leave the house so Tara and Dawn leave without her. She then uses magic to get dressed quickly and starts another spell by the fireplace that will make Tara and Buffy forget the damages of the spells Willow used on them.

The whole gang, including Spike, who is on the run from the loan shark, gather at the Magic Box during the day. Giles confesses that he is leaving and Buffy tearfully reveals how she’s feeling deserted by everyone. Willow has a crystal in her pocket that was used with her forgetting spell and it glows brightly in her hand before the whole gang falls unconscious. They wake up later that evening with absolutely no knowledge of who they are or where they are. Spike suspects he’s Giles’s son and Anya assumes she’s married to Giles. Everyone figures out their names from their ID’s and necklaces except Buffy, who names herself Joan and Spike, who gets his name Randy from the inside of his stolen coat.

A couple of vampires outside the shop scare the entire gang and they hide in fear. Looking for Spike to repay his debt, the vampires attack the shop. Joan discovers she’s a superhero when she stakes one of the vampires and saves Randy. Anya and Giles stay at the shop while Joan and Randy run outside to fight off the vampires. Randy unknowingly assumes his vampire visage to fight off the vampire thugs, which sends Joan running away in fear.

The rest of the Scoobies retreat to the sewers but they encounter vampires down there too. Anya turns to a random page in a book and reads the incantation there, which causes a bunny to appear and frighten her. Joan attacks Randy when he catches up with her and informs him that he’s a vampire. He’s confused by it, but assumes that he’s a good vampire, a vampire with a soul, because he doesn’t want to bite her. The loan shark and his minions attack the two and a fight ensues.

Anya continues to try random spells, which makes many more bunnies, a dark green cloud to form inside the shop, and a big beast to appear. Giles and Anya fight while hiding behind the counter and Giles reveals that he found a one-way plane ticket in his pocket for London. When all the magic is reversed, Anya begs him not to leave her and they kiss. Xander fights with the vampire chasing them in the sewers and finally stakes it. Xander accidentally steps on the crystal that fell from Willow’s pocket and breaks the spell on them all.

Tara and the others realize that Willow used magic, despite her promise. The spell worn off, Buffy is stunned enough to take a few painful hits while Spike finishes off the rest of the vampires and promises to make up his debt to the intimidated loan shark. Tara packs all of her things into boxes while Willow cries in the bathroom, then, with a cold reaction from Dawn, she leaves. Regretfully, Giles takes his plane back to England. Spike finds Buffy at the Bronze, but she turns away from him and he leaves. She doesn’t let him get far though as they kiss passionately beneath the stairs of the Bronze.

TRIVIA

Anthony Stewart Head spoke on his kissing Emma Caulfield: “My children went, “Eeuuww. You kissed Anya.” “I know, but it was gone very quickly and we didn’t enjoy it.” Thank God nobody ever asked me to kiss Alyson, because that would have been weird. It was weird enough with Emma. I was glad it was over with very quickly. Weird; not right.”

Marti Noxon said about this episode in the SFX Year End Collector’s Edition “One criticism we received about the episode was the fact that Giles left even after knowing what Buffy had been through. We tried to make it clear that he began to believe that she couldn’t take responsibility with him there; we really tried to play up the idea. Plus we really needed him to leave, because Tony had to leave. We were a little bit between a rock and a hard place – he was going and we had to make it work the best we could, given what we had. It was a little bit of a stretch.”

Tabula Rasa is Latin for ‘blank slate’.

CONTINUITY

The tweed suit Spike wears for most of the episode is similar to the one he wore in Xander’s dream in Restless. It was in this dream that Giles said he looked upon Spike as a son. As they both have English accents, they assume they are related when they lose their memories. The shark in this episode was also mentioned in that episode. In Xander’s dream, he said, “Like a shark with feet and … much less fins”; Spike then added, “And on land!”

When Spike decides that he is a “noble vampire”, he says “I help the helpless”. Of course, “We help the helpless” is the motto of Angel Investigations in Angel.

There’s a statue of Janus in the Magic Box. Janus was used to cast a spell in Halloween by Ethan Rayne.

Willow repeats her quote from Doppelgangland when she says “I think I’m kinda gay.”

The demon and his vampires are after kittens that Spike won in poker, first seen in Life Serial.

GOOFS

Why does Willow leave the house with a fire burning in the range? It doesn’t seem very safe.

When Buffy and Spike are fighting the vampires, Buffy uses a post from a letter-box to stake one of the vampires. From the vampire’s point of view we can see that Buffy held out the blunt part of the pole, however when the shot changes we can see that Buffy used the pointed part to stake the vampire.

When Spike is talking to Giles about him and Anya he says, “I saw you two, sleeping together”. Giles and Anya awoke before Spike did – how can he have seen them sleeping together?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

EPISODE
Once More, With Feeling / Smashed

STORY ORDER
Once More, With Feeling / Offspring