Overall Rating: 9.0 Matt: 9.0 Eric: 9.0 Writer: Tracey Forbes Director: Nick Marck Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, James Marsters as Spike, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles. Main guest stars : Marc Blucas as Riley Finn, Emma Caulfield as Anya, Elizabeth Anne Allen as Amy Madison, Andy Umberger as D’Hoffryn. Original broadcast date : November 30, 1999 My one-line description: Spike and Buffy… Is this what they call a shotgun wedding? Willow is inOz’s room, seeking comfort from one of his shirts. Elsewhere, Buffy runs into Riley, who is hanging a Lesbian Alliance poster. The two do some small talk, and Riley gets the nerve to tell her she’s beautiful; then he invites her to a picnic. That night, Buffy discusses Riley with Willow, telling her friend that she likes him, but wonders if a relationship without pain and fighting can also have passion and intensity. At Giles’ place the next day, Buffy questions Spike (who’s chained in the bathtub) about the Initiative, but isn’t getting much out of him – not even after they feed him some blood out of a coffee mug. He’s worried they’ll kill him after they get the information from him. She teases him, rubbing his face in the fact that he can’t hurt her. Willow offers to make a truth spell, and promises to be back the next day with the ingredients. After she leaves, Giles comments that the redhead seems to be coping better with her breakup, but Spike disagrees, saying that she’s hanging on by a thread. Willow goes to Oz’s room, and is distraught to find it empty – according to Devon, he sent for his stuff. That night, she deals with the possibility that Oz may not be coming back, and Buffy tries to comfort her. The next day, Giles calls Willow to find out why she didn’t bring supplies for the spell as she said she would, but he gets the answering machine. In the background, Spike shouts for him to turn on the TV so he can watch Passions. Meanwhile, Buffy and Riley are having their picnic, when Willow comes along, still looking quite depressed. The conversation, previously quite light and even a bit sexual, becomes very uneasy. That night at the Bronze, the Scoobies are discussing Willow’s mood, when they spot her dancing happily. She comes over to them, stating that she’s decided to "shake and shimmy" the depression away. A bottle of beer drops out of her jacket, revealing that she’s just a bit drunk (Willow? Drunk?). Buffy isn’t too happy with that, but Willow comments that she just wants the pain to go away, not progressively but "poof". A bit out of control, the redhead manages to insult Xander, and Buffy takes her back home. In the middle of the night, Willow sneaks out of her and Buffy’s bedroom in her pajamas, goes to the washroom and sets up magic supplies around her. She recites a spell that should enable her to have what she wants – the flames of the candles around her increase in intensity, and electricity goes through her circle. The next day, she tries out her new powers, willing her heart to be healed, then trying to get a book to speak to her and a Q-Tip to unbend itself – to no avail. Giles arrives,a bit angry that she didn’t show up the previous day. She admits her mind has been elsewhere, and reports that her spell to have her will done hasn’t worked. She adds that she feels the gang has been putting too much pressure on her that she can’t live up to, and Giles answers that he can see how she would feel that way. "You don’t see anything!" retorts an angry Willow. Suddenly, her eyes flash, and Giles walks away, claiming to have problems with his eyes. On his way, he bumps into a student. Back at his place, Giles tries out the truth spell alone, but he has a hard time reading the script. He then drops the key to Spike’s chains; the vampire grabs it, unties himself and escapes, knocking out the Watcher on the way. In the dorm room, Willow, cleaning Amy the rat’s cage, complains to Buffy that she’s not a good witch. According to her, Amy has more power than she has. "First, she’s a perfectly normal human being", says Willow – and Amy turns back into a very naked girl on the bed behind Buffy and Willow – "and then she’s a rat" – Amy turns back into a rodent. Having entirely missed the action, Willow says that she could never do anything like that. Then the phone rings; it’s Giles, informing Buffy that Spike has escaped and asking her to go look for him. Willow had planned a girls’ night out and is disappointed, but Buffy insists that duty calls. However, Willow assures that he’s probably just standing out there, and she’ll find him in two seconds. Again her eyes flash. Buffy materializes in an open space outside on campus, with Spike standing right there in front of her. Both startled, they comment that it should’ve taken her a while longer to find him. He claims to think he’s found the place where he emerged from the Initiative’s lab, but there’s nothing but grass. Buffy gets annoyed, and the two of them fight – to Spike’s disadvantage, because of the chip. She drags him back to Giles’, where they squabble while the Watcher himself is busy putting medicinal drops in his eyes. Meanwhile, Willow has gone to Xander’s place, seeking some comfort. However, he points out that Buffy needs to find Spike in order to get information on the commandos. An angry Willow sarcastically asks why Buffy doesn’t just marry Spike, if he’s so important. Again, eyes flash… Giles comes into his living room to find Spike kneeling in front on Buffy; he’s just proposed, and she’s accepted. They kiss, and as he squints disbelievingly at the scene, Buffy happily tells him he won’t believe what just happened. Still at Xander’s place, Willow takes out her anger on her best friend. She tells him his track record, romantically, isn’t that good either: "Insect lady, mummy girl, Anya – you’re a demon magnet! Xander looks pained, and we hear an ominous sound to go with Willow’s eye flash. Giles phones Willow for help, since he thinks all that’s gone wrong is due to a spell, but he gets her answering machine. Meanwhile, in the living room, Buffy and Spike make wedding plans and kiss. Buffy asks Giles to give her away, and he’s flattered – until he remembers where they are and what’s happening. He tries to convince Buffy that this is nonsense, but she argues that the gang wasn’t crazy about Angel at first, either. Spike becomes a bit jealous, but then they kiss and make up. Giles realizes he’s gone completely blind… Spike suggests a reversal spell, and Buffy goes to the magic shop to get supplies. One her way, Buffy does some window-shopping for a wedding dress, and runs into Riley. She tells him the good news and informs him she’s marrying a much older man – he’s stunned, of course, and a bit hurt. He tells her he needs to be away for a while, and leaves. Xander and Anya are making out when demons start breaking in. Realizing they can’t fight them all, they flee to Giles’ place. There, Buffy tells Giles that the magic shop was out of one ingredient they need, but that she’ll go back the next day; then she and Spike start arguing about wedding invitations. Xander and Anya burst through the door, demons still in chase. Buffy and Spike take the opportunity to share the good news; after wondering if he can also become blind, Xander vaguely remembers Willow wishing that Buffy and Spike would just get married… Giles and Xander add it up, concluding that Willow’s wishes are coming true. Buffy argues that she couldn’t be affected, that her slayerness gives her a "natural immunity" (ha!). Speaking of Willow… she’s just entering her bedroom when a demon accosts her and makes her disappear in a concert of noise and bright lights. The gang arrives a bit later and finds a burn circle on the floor. Anya recognizes it as a portal of D’Hoffryn, her former boss – a thousand years ago, he’d spotted her doing some minor vengeance spells (boils on the penis, all kinds of stuff) and brought her down to make her into a demon. Buffy realizes that the same could happen to Willow, but is then distracted by a couple of good spots for wedding pictures – and a few demons who come barging through the door. The gang runs to a crypt, where Anya performs a ritual to open a doorway to Arashmana, the place where D’Hoffryn lives. As she tries to remember the words of the spell, the gang fight the demons, who have managed to get inside. Meanwhile, in Arashmana, D’Hoffryn tells Willow that he’s seen her magic and heard her piercing scream of a pain; he offers to make her into a vengeance demon. But when he shows her an image of her friends fighting up in the crypt, she tells him that she doesn’t want to be a demon; she just wants to help them. He’s disappointed, but he lets her go, giving her a talisman to summon him if ever she changes her mind. Willow appears in the crypt, where Buffy and Spike have started kissing in the midst of all the fighting. The redhead ends the spell, the demons disappear, and Buffy and Spike look at each other, horrified and disgusted. The next day, at Giles’ place, all is normal again, with Spike tied to a chair and Giles with clear vision. Willow is baking cookies for the gang (to get herself forgiven) and Spike asks for one, to get the Buffy taste out of his mouth. Buffy exclaims in indignation and disgust that she kissed him in the first place, but he argues that he wasn’t the one who wanted "Wind Beneath My Wings" played at the wedding (yuck!). Willow shuts him up by shoving a cookie in his mouth. Later on campus, Buffy explains to Riley that she made up the whole wedding thing because she saw fear in his eyes when he caught her looking at weeding dresses. He thinks she’s insane, but she tells him that he’s got a lot to learn about women. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he asks her to teach him, and then walks away. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.