Overall Rating: 8.15 Matt: 8.0 Eric: 8.3 Writer: Doug Petrie Director: David Grossman Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Marc Blucas as Riley Finn, James Marsters as Spike, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles. Main guest stars : David Boreanaz as Angel, Leonard Roberts as Forrest Gates, Amber Benson as Tara, Emma Caulfield as Anya, Connor O’Farrell as Colonel McNamara, George Hertzberg as Adam. Original broadcast date : May 9, 2000 My one-line description: This week at the WWF: Angel "The Dark, Brooding One" vs. Riley "Captain Cardboard" Finn. Place your bets now. Via some high-tech video communications equipment, Colonel McNamara is reporting to an old man in a business suit, Mr. Ward, about the status of the Initiative. He says that their capture ratio is high, but morale is low due to the death of Professor Walsh and the escape of Adam. Ward brings up Riley’s defection, and although the Colonel doesn’t think much of him, Ward makes it clear he wants him back. Meanwhile, Spike is convincing Adam that once his plan goes down, Buffy will be there, in the thick of things. He asks Adam if he’s ready for that; Adam answers that he’s counting on it. Spike then tells Adam about the two Slayers he killed, and Adam asks why he fears Buffy. Spike protests that he doesn’t fear her – he’s just had some bad luck, and with the chip in his head, he can’t do anything. Adam says that he knows how he feels – trapped like an animal, unable to carry out the urges inside him. He promises to make Spike whole again; the vampire, moved, realizes why Adam has so much influence on demons. Adam promises to remove the chip, on one condition – he’ll do it when Spike gets the Slayer where Adam wants her. Spike counters that it won’t be easy – the Slayer has friends. Adam suggests that they take her friends away from her, and Spike, liking the idea, promises he’ll take care of it himself. Buffy, fresh back from going to see Angel in L.A., enters her dorm room on campus and finds Willow’s bed neatly done, seemingly unslept in for days. She plops down on her own bed, not looking very happy. Meanwhile, Riley is still hiding from the Initiative in the remains of Sunnydale High. Xander visits him, bringing him some rather, um, peculiar clothes to wear while he does his laundry. Riley asks Xander if Buffy is back from L.A. yet, and deduces from Xander’s expression that he doesn’t like Angel much. Xander asks Riley how much he knows about Angel, and Riley answers that he knows everything – he went evil, she cured him, he left. Xander involuntarily fills in with another tidbit – about the moment of happiness that made Angel lose his soul. Riley figures out the rest, and Xander tries to reassure him, saying it’s ancient history. But Riley isn’t so sure about that… Giles is at home singing and playing guitar when, looking up, he sees Spike standing before him. Startled, he stops playing and asks him what he’s doing there. Spike is there to cut a deal – files from the Initiative for a year’s supply of money, bushels of cash and a guarantee not to be staked. Giles agrees, but Spike says this deal is for the Slayer only. Giles reminds him he’s her Watcher, but Spike, scoffing at him, corrects that for former Watcher and tells him the Slayer treats him like a retired librarian. The vampire leaves, asking Giles to pass the word to Buffy if she’s interested; Giles, depressed, pours himself a drink. In Tara’s room, Willow and Tara play with their new cat, MissKittyFantastico, and make plans for the next semester. Willow says that she still hasn’t made plans for housing; Tara comments that she thought Willow would be rooming with Buffy again, but the redhead comments that it hardly feels like they’re roommates now, what with Buffy over at Riley’s place most of the time and herself with Tara. Later, Riley bravely ventures out to Buffy’s room – wearing Xander’s clownish pants. She’s worried he might not be safe at her place, but he informs her he’s tapped into the Initiative’s radio frequencies so he can know where they are. Noticing that Buffy doesn’t look too happy, he asks her what’s wrong, and she tells him that Angel upset her a little. However, she doesn’t want to talk about it; she just wants to patrol and find Adam. Riley agrees and leaves, not very happy. Xander and Anya drop off some military fatigues at Spike’s crypt; Spike finds a gun in the bundle and points it vaguely at Xander, causing the chip to fire. The vampire is outraged. Xander informs him it’s a fake, to which Spike invokes self-defence; Xander, of course, couldn’t care less. Spike comments that the attitude won’t help him in boot camp; Anya exclaims in indignation that Xander didn’t tell her he was joining the army. Xander says he’s not, and asks Spike where he heard that story. The vampire tells about hearing Buffy and Willow talking about how Xander "could be all he could be"; Xander is offended that his friends would consider him useless. On patrol in the woods, Buffy runs into Forrest, and they almost shoot at each other. Relenting, they enter a cave, both looking for Adam, and continue their bickering about her taking Riley away from the Initiative. They’re about to come to blows when Adam shows up. Buffy tries to shoot him, but Adam knocks the weapon out of her hand. She tries to tell Forrest to run, but the soldier shoots at Adam anyway. Adam absorbs the blast, then impales Forrest on the skewers of his Polgara arm and throws the corpse back at Buffy. Buffy manages to escape, but loses her footing while running down the hill; she tumbles down, hits her head against a rock and loses consciousness. That night, Spike goes calmly to Giles’ front door, wearing the military fatigues, and suddenly bursts inside, claiming he outran the buggers. He gives some computer disks to Willow, and she loads one into the laptop. He asks Giles when he’s getting paid, but the Watcher says it won’t be before Willow cracks the code – the disks are encrypted. The vampire asks the redhead how long it’ll take, and she answers it’ll be difficult. He mutters that she isn’t the whiz she used to be, and goes on to say that he heard Buffy and Xander say she was too busy with her "new thing" (magic) to have time to work computers much anymore. Apparently they said it was just a phase, and she’d get over it. A hurt Willow reflects that she knew Buffy was freaked. Over at the Initiative, Colonel McNamara walks through the Pit, overflowing with demons; a lieutenant reports that they’re at full capacity, and that the demons will be at each other’s throats soon. McNamara doesn’t seem to have a problem with that. Then he gets a mayday from a team in the field, apparently under attack. In the ruins of Sunnydale High, Riley hears the mayday and grabs his gear. He goes to the mayday’s location, an alley where a commando seems to be having a lot of trouble. Riley sees a figure standing over some unconscious commandos – it’s Angel. The vampire turns around to face him, and recognizes him as Riley Finn. Riley doesn’t know him, but Angel says they have a friend in common. "Angel", Riley says in not very much awe. He asks what could possibly have happened with Buffy to make him lose his soul, but Angel answers that’s none of his business. He turns to leave, and Riley asks him where he’s going; "To see an old girlfriend", the vampire answers. Riley says he won’t let that happen, and the two start fighting. Riley manages to hold his own for a little while, but it’s not long before Angel beats him up good. Then they here a car arriving, and both flee in different directions before the Initiative vehicle arrives. Buffy has just returned to her dorm room and is examining the cut in her forehead. Angel arrives, and she invites him in. She angrily asks him if he came because he thought of something else hurtful to say to her, but he tells her that he doesn’t have a lot of time. She starts to listen to him, but then Riley bursts in, pointing a gun at Angel. Noticing his bruised face, she demands to know what happened, and Riley and Angel start blaming each other, before coming to blows once again. Buffy stops it, threatening to send them both to the hospital. Buffy tells Riley she needs to speak to Angel alone; Riley says he’s not leaving the room, so Buffy and Angel step out into the corridor. There, she asks him what he thought he was doing, pounding on her boyfriend. He says he was trying to make things better – then specifies that he came to apologize for his lashing out at her in L.A. Buffy says he was right to say they don’t have the right to barge into each other’s lives anymore. Angel adds that he noticed things were intense in Sunnydale, and he wants to help; however, Buffy tells him the best thing would be for him to leave. He does, but not before telling her that he doesn’t like Riley. A very happy Spike walks into Adam’s cave and reports that the Scoobies were easier to tear apart then he thought at first. Adam asks him if he’s sure, and Spike compares the Scoobies to the Beatles – the band split up and everybody blamed Yoko, who just happened to be there when the break-up happened. The same happens with college kids, leaving home and growing apart. He asks Adam if he has everything, but Adam answers there’s one more thing… Buffy goes back into her room, and Riley tells her that if she’s about to break his heart, she ought to do it fast. She assures him that nothing happened, with Angel, wondering how he can even think that. Riley tells her that when he found out what makes Angel lose his soul, he went a little berserk – making Buffy quite angry that Xander told him. Riley thinks Angel had gone bad again, but Buffy assures him that he didn’t. She asks him if she’s ever given him any reason not to trust her, and he tells her that he’s so in love with her he can’t think straight. She answers that she knows how he feels. Then she breaks the bad news to him… Forrest is dead. She explains how Adam killed him, and a broken Riley gets up and tells her he has to leave. Later, at Giles’ place, Buffy paces while Willow is still trying to crack the code. In the background, Giles is pouring himself drink after drink. Finally, Buffy runs out of patience and wants to go back to the cave to track Adam. Willow sarcastically comments that she might get lucky and Adam will rip her arms off. "You’re not training with me anymore, he’s going to kick your ass", chimes in a drunk Giles, shocking Buffy very much. Xander then volunteers to go with her, but she tells him that she’s doing it alone. Willow and Xander are both quite angry and mouth off at her. Willow talks sarcastically about them being in the way, and Xander brings up the talk about shipping him off to the Army. Buffy tries to calm them down, but Willow demands to know if they’re useful and if so, how much. Buffy answers that Willow is going at the computer stuff… and the witch stuff. The latter expression further infuriates the redhead; Buffy tells them to stop, that this is crazy, but Giles counters that it’s actually finally making perfect sense. While Anya and Tara wait out the storm in the bathroom and Giles finally stumbles up to bed, the argument reaches its full force; Willow mockingly says that Xander would be great in the Army, but wonders if the umbilical cord between him and Anya would stretch that far. Xander responds by saying he always knew Willow didn’t like Anya, but the redhead comments that she’ll leave the judgemental part to him and Buffy. The Slayer again asks her friend what got into them, and Willow retorts that things went wrong since Tara. Xander turns to her in shock, learning that new fact. But Buffy cuts it short, asking them if they want to help. She says they can all go together into the cave, with Willow and Xander attacking her and the funny drunk drooling on her shoes. She asks them how they can really help, and the Scoobies are silent. Very disappointed, Buffy leaves, saying that if she needs help, she’ll go to someone she can count on. "I’ve been waiting for you", says Adam as someone walks in. "And now I’m here", answers Riley. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.