Last Week:
Xander's date with a pop star goes wrong in the traditional Xander way. Buffy investigates Principal Wood and discovers he's the son of the Slayer Spike killed in New York decades ago.

Ten Second Recap:
Buffy goes postal on her team and then gets teleported to the stone age. The Scooby Gang wrestles with Michael Clark Duncan in demon form. Spike returns to "Classic Spike" with leather jacket accessory and Vampire grip! Andrew makes funnel cakes. Mmm…funnel cakes.

On my way into work Tuesday morning I heard a radio promo for Buffy that said something to the effect of "...a demon is loose in Sunnydale and only Buffy can stop it." I laughed out loud at how that is pretty much the generic description of every Buffy episode. Oddly though, having now watched Get It Done this week, it's not at all appropriate since Buffy was trapped in Shadow Puppet Land.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The show opens with one of Buffy's prophetic dreams in which The First Slayer returns to warn her that "...it's not enough." The First Slayer, The First Evil…the synergy is not lost on me.

Once Buffy wakes, she picks up where she left off last week by talking with Principal Wood about Slayer business. He wants to see the inner workings of Buffy's operation. While this seems logical, now that we know about his conflict with Spike, his tour of Buffy's house looks more like he's casing the joint.

I hope DB Woodside is enjoying his role as Principal Wood. He gets the chance to play a suave, sexy character and look cool in his fight scenes. I doubt he'll ever get to look this good in a role again. Or maybe it's just that I'll always picture him as Principal Wood in anything he does.

The First gets the point across that it is done sending subtle messages when it convinces Chloe to commit suicide. Several weeks ago, in the episode Bring on the Night Buffy ended the episode with a speech about no longer reacting to evil but rather seeking it out.

We've seen very little effect from that rally call, other than Buffy's formal training of the Slayerettes. When Chloe turns up dead, Buffy understands the message from her dream that her preparations are "not enough."

This causes Buffy to lash out at her posse that they are not doing enough and that she has been carrying the team. She's particularly hard on Spike for being more of a doe eyed, love-sick victim of The First rather than the ruthless vampire she first met.

Principal Wood also brings a Slayer survival kit that belonged to his mother. It was supposed to have been passed down from Slayer to Slayer but he hadn't been able to part with it until now. Fortunately for Buffy, the arrival of the bag turns out to be well timed since she is able to use the contents to travel to another dimension to speak with the men that created the Slayers.

I myself had a similar experience after drinking too much Malibu Rum and Diet Vanilla Coke.

In Buffy's absence, the Scooby gang must fight with the demon that has taken Buffy's place in the mortal world. It looks very much like Michael Clark Duncan with fangs. And he doesn't kill them with his love.

Moments after Buffy berates Spike for not giving it his all in the fight against The First, he tackles the demon in Buffy's place. An oddly calm exchange with Kennedy follows as Spike loses round one.

Meanwhile, Buffy gets an origin story/lesson from the shadow puppet mages who tell her the only way to defeat The First is to tap the true power of the Slayers. They reveal the heart of the demon that was used to give the Slayers their power and force her to merge with it.

Spike, on the other hand, returns to his roots as Buffy instructed. First he retrieves his talisman, the leather jacket he took from the body of the last Slayer he killed, Principal Wood's mother.

The timing of it all (the box which leads to Buffy's dimension trip, Spike wearing the jacket again when the son of the Slayer he took it from has been revealed) is a little too neat for me. I like it better when we, the audience, get to figure out these connections on our own rather than being led down the path.

Spike's subsequent second fight with the exchange demon happens so quickly that we don't really get to see the big change from the Spike we've seen over the last few seasons to the more ruthless Spike of old. Rather it's more of a costume change followed by some snappy one liners.

Kennedy was semi-annoying for the first time this week. Far too critical of the situation at hand, after only a few weeks she's upgraded herself to full-fledged member of the Scooby Gang. Too much, too fast. I have a feeling she may not make it out of this alive, but that would be a sad ending for Willow.

Before Buffy's rap session with the Slayer Originators is over, the head mage gives Buffy a glimpse into what I presume is The First's lair. If the final image of the episode plays out into a huge final battle, this could be bigger than Braveheart.

Line of the Week:
Xander: "Puppets. That's it! The First hates puppets! Now if we could just airlift Kermit, Fozzie Bear, and Miss Piggy into town..."

Michael Goodson