Overall Rating: 9.35 Matt: 9.4 Eric: 9.3 Written by: Marti Noxon Directed by: David Greenwalt Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase, Seth Green as Oz, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles, David Boreanez as Angel. Main guest stars : Mark Metcalf as The Master, Emma Caulfield as Anyanka, Larry Bagby III as Larry, Mercedes McNab as Harmony, Danny Strong as Jonathan, Mariah O¹Brien as Nancy. Original broadcast date : December 8, 1998 It¹s a sunny Sunday afternoon, and Buffy is fighting a demon. It seems that they were having a picnic, since Willow grabs a weapon from a picnic basket and tosses it to Buffy. After the demon ­ which, to Willow¹s disappointment, doesn¹t go poof ­ is defeated, the three of them sit and talk about their tattered relationships. Xander and Willow both protest they¹re ready to do anything to get respectively Cordy and Oz back. Xander even reports he¹s left some fifty messages on Cordy¹s voice mail. But that night, as she listens to the aforementioned messages, Cordelia burns pictures of Xander and friendsŠ The next day at school, Willow tries to talk to Oz, but he asks her to leave him alone. Meanwhile, Cordy manages to avoid Xander, and tries to resume her relationship with her old friends, Harmony and Co. At first, it seems promising ­ Harmony introduces Cordy to Anya, a new girl in town. But soon after comes the slap in the face ­ Harmony jokingly matches Cordy with Jonathan, the school dork. She then tries getting a popular jock to go out on a date with her, but he tells her that being seen with her would hurt his reputation. It seems the only one who will give Cordelia a break is Anya, who actually seems eager to do some Xander-bashing with her. That night at the Bronze, Cordelia tries to show Xander that she¹s over him, by flirting, laughing and socializing. Meanwhile, Buffy, Willow and Xander sit with long faces. When Cordelia finally leaves, Buffy follows her to see if she¹s OK and needs to talk, but a vampire interrupts and Buffy, while fighting him, throws Cordelia into a pile of garbageŠ Just when Harmony and friends happen to walk by. After they make snotty remarks to Cordy, she concludes Buffy is the cause of all her troubles. The next day, Anya gives Cordelia what she calls her "lucky necklace", saying she needs it more right now. Then, Cordelia wishes out loud that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. Anya turns to Cordelia, her face now a monster¹s and says "Done!". There¹s a flash of light, and suddenly, the school yard is almost empty, a few people worriedly hurrying up the stairs to class. Realizing with joy what has happened, Cordelia goes inside and finds that she¹s regained her popularity with Harmony and the gang. As Harmony compliments Cordy on her bright blue dress (everyone is wearing dark colours). Cordelia doesn¹t even have a clue as to what¹s changed, even when she goes to class in a room where half the desks are empty and the teacher hurriedly packs his things, because curfew time is closeŠ Cordy finally gets a clue when she suggests to Harmony that they might go to the Bronze that evening, and Harmony reacts as if her friend had made some really sick joke. Even worse, when Cordy asks if at least Xander and Willow are miserable nobodies, Harmony answers "Well, yeahŠ they¹re dead." As everyone hurries to get indoors before the sun sets, an unsuspecting Cordelia walks home and suddenly runs into Xander. As Cordy wonders why she was told he was dead, Willow struts out of the shadows, wearing a skanky leather outfit and dark makeup, and spreads herself over Xander, asking him if they can "play now". Cordelia is outraged that they¹re still together, that she can¹t win. As he vamps out, Xander says "Maybe not, but I¹ll give you a head start." As the two vampires catch up to a finally-scared Cordelia and knock her out, a van screeches to a halt, and out come Giles, Oz, Larry and a girl called Nancy ­ the new Scooby Gang. At The Bronze ­ now the Master¹s headquarters - Willow and Xander report their meeting with Cordelia and tell him that she mentioned something about Buffy, the Slayer. The Master is angry that they let Cordy live, and orders them to go back and eliminate her. At the library, Cordelia wakes and tells Giles, albeit in a somewhat confused manner, that the wish she made for Buffy never to have come to Sunnydale created this reality. She reveals to Giles that she knows he¹s a Watcher, something he tells her no one is supposed to know. As he goes in the library cage to get weapons, the door slams closed, and Xander and Willow step out, having Giles watch as they drain Cordelia. Once Giles finally breaks free, Larry and Oz arrive take Cordelia¹s body to the incinerator; however, Giles notice¹s Anya¹s necklace around Cordy¹s neck, and removes it. At the Bronze, the Master is very happy with Xander and Willow¹s work, and he rewards Willow with the permission to "play with the puppy". As she walks in her strutting gait to a cell downstairs, with some torture instruments, we see that the "puppy" is Angel, whom Willow and Xander torture by throwing lit matches onto his exposed chest. Having phoned to Cleveland to get the Slayer to come to Sunnydale, and then discovered the meaning of Anya¹s necklace, Giles hurries home, but stops to free some people being loaded into the back of a truck by vampires. The vampires turn on him, but he¹s saved byŠ Buffy Summers. At his apartment, this very tough, embittered and scarred Slayer demands to know why he wanted her in Sunnydale. He tells her about the necklace, the symbol of Anyanka, a vengeance demon who grants wishes for scorned women. Buffy doesn¹t seem to care for all the mojo, setting off to kill the Master as soon as she learns where he hides. At the Bronze, Buffy meets Angel, who tells her that he waited for her to come to Sunnydale, which she never did, and then got captured by the Master, who kept him alive for his torturing pleasure. He also tells her that he can show her where the Master is ­ in his Factory, where he¹s set up a system to mass-drain the blood of human beings. There, most of the surviving humans of Sunnydale have been herded in a wooden keep, and forced to listen as the Master gives a speech about mass-production and a new golden era for vampires. He demonstrates by having the machines drain a test subject ­ one of Harmony¹s followers. The blood flows through a set of tubes, and into a wine glass, which is handed to the Master. As the Master prepares to toast the future, Buffy lowers her handheld crossbow to shoot him, but Xander spots her and protects the Master. A fight breaks out, and Larry and Oz set the people free. Meanwhile, Giles faces Anyanka, furious to have been summoned by a mere man. She tries to choke him to death, but he manages to rip her necklace off her neck. At the Factory, the scene becomes tragic as those who are closest of friends in another reality now set about to kill each other. Angel dies as he tries to protect Buffy from Xander; then Xander himself is staked by the Slayer. Oz kills Willow by dusting her on a broken piece of fence, while the Master makes his way to Buffy through the crowd. He grabs her head, and as she struggles, snaps her neck. He then lets go and she falls to the ground, dead. Despite Anyanka¹s warnings that the other reality might not be better than this one, Giles breaks the necklace. There¹s a flash of light, and Cordelia's back at school, making her wish. Anya turns to face her and once again says "Done", but nothing happens. As Cordy continues to make unlikely revenge wishes, an increasingly alarmed Anya follows her, keeping on saying "done," as nothing happensŠ To the side, Buffy, Willow and Xander are laughing and smiling to each other. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.