Overall Rating: 8.75 Matt: 8.5 Eric: 9.0 Writer/Director: Marti Noxon Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Emma Caulfield as Anya, Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers, James Marsters as Spike, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles. Main guest stars : Amber Benson as Tara, David Boreanaz as Angel, Clare Kramer as Glory, Charlie Weber as Ben, Troy T. Blendell as Jinx, Joel Grey as Doc, Todd Duffrey as Murk. Original broadcast date : April 17, 2001 My one-line description: Where Dawn acquires her nasty sticky-fingers habit. Buffy is alone in a stockroom, selecting a coffin for her mother. Giles, Dawn and the funeral director join her, and Buffy points to the casket she’s chosen. Dawn wonders if their mother would’ve liked it or preferred another one, but Buffy insists – they’re taking that one. At the house, the gang is planning Joyce’s funeral. Buffy wants to tactfully let the funeral people know that they’re not having a wake, because Joyce didn’t want one – she thought the potlucks were depressing enough. Dawn asks when her mother said that, and Buffy replies that they had a talk before the surgery. Muttering under her breath, the teen complains that nobody ever tells her anything. The phone rings, and Giles answers it; as he gives directions to the caller regarding the time and place of the funeral, Buffy reflects that her dad hasn’t called back yet, no matter how many messages they left for him. Suddenly, Dawn wonders what happens after the funeral – she doesn’t want to come back home, and she asks Willow if she can stay with her and Tara. Willow agrees, and so does – a bit reluctantly – a startled Buffy. As Xander and Willow step outside the house, they run into Spike, coming over with some flowers for Joyce. He explains that Joyce was a nice lady, but Xander accuses him of just wanting to gain some points with Buffy. The two argue, until Spike throws the flowers to the ground and stomps away. While Xander is still going on about Spike’s nerve, Willow picks up the bouquet – there’s no card… At the cemetery the next day, Buffy and Dawn stand side by side as Joyce is lowered into the ground. When the pastor says "dust to dust", Dawn cries. People hug each other and leave, and Tara and Willow take their leave of Buffy – they’re taking Dawn over to their place. Thus Buffy is left standing alone over the grave… She stays there until night falls, at which time a tall and familiar figure steps up slowly beside her. Angel. Not saying a word, Buffy takes his hand. In Willow and Tara’s room, the girls try to comfort Dawn as best they can. The teen doesn’t want to hear talk about it all getting better – she wants to do a spell to bring her mother back. In their room, Xander and Anya rest after some particularly intense lovemaking. Anya has realized – in the wake of Joyce’s death – that making love can create life. Xander panics, thinking she wants to have a baby – but she reassures him, telling him she just meant the possibility of making life from love was beautiful. In Willow and Tara’s room, the girls try to talk Dawn out of her plan. Tara points out that Wiccans take an oath not to alter the fabric of life for selfish reasons; Dawn argues that such a spell must be possible, if Wiccans had to create an oath against it. But the two witches insist that it shouldn’t be done. Disappointed, Dawn lies down in her sleeping bag and turns her back to Willow in a huff. It’s late at night, and Buffy is enjoying a soothing cozy moment with Angel in the cemetery. Lying in his arms, she admits that the funeral was brutal, and that she’s worried about tomorrow. "What’s tomorrow?" he asks. Day-to-day life, she answers; everyone expects her to take charge and know what to do. She also wonders whether she could’ve saved her mother had she arrived a few minutes earlier. Angel tells her that he doesn’t have to shoulder the burden all alone, and offers to stay in town as long as she needs it. "Does forever work for you?" she asks. Both realizing it’s impossible, they kiss passionately, enjoying the last few moments before sunrise. Back to business – Jinx meets with Ben and tells him that Glory encourages him to pursue his relationship with the Slayer, since it could provide some information about the Key. "I would never do that to an innocent – " Ben blurts out. As Jinx picks up on it, Ben tries to deny the Key is in human form, and then stabs Jinx with a knife in order to protect the secret. The next morning, Willow and Tara are preparing to go for breakfast and then get to class. Dawn coldly tells Willow that she intends to sleep in until Giles picks her up later. As she follows Tara out of the room, Willow gives Dawn a sympathetic look and discreetly uses magic to pull a book out of the bookcase. After they’ve left, Dawn picks it up and flips through, looking for info on resurrection spells. A bit later at the Magic Box, Dawn discreetly feigns dusting the bookshelves. She asks Giles if there are any off-limits sections she should know about, and he points out that the more potent books are up in the loft. Taking advantage of a moment when both Anya and Giles are busy, Dawn climbs up, retrieves a few items which she hides in her backpack, and slides back down just in time to go unnoticed as Giles offers to show her how to work the cash register. That night, Dawn kneels over her mother’s grave and tries out a spell with the stuff she took from the shop. Spike shows up and realizes what she’s doing; she begs him not to tell Buffy, and he actually does more than that – he offers to help bring Joyce back. In his apartment, Giles is having a nostalgic moment – and a drink – listening to the record he and Joyce listened to in "Band Candy". Spike leads Dawn to a guy named Doc, who apparently knows a lot about resurrection. Dawn thinks he’s helping her because he wants to please Buffy, but Spike points out that Buffy would actually stake him for this if she found out; he’s doing it because he doesn’t like Summers women "taking it so hard in the chin". Two minions help Jinx into Glory’s apartment. He’s hurt, but not enough to be unable to reveal that the Key is human. An elated Glory asks the other minions to fix Jinx up (so she can hear the story again, but without all the moaning). Doc, a little and very strange old man, greets Spike and Dawn in his shop. Spike informs him of Joyce’s death, and asks what they can do about it. Doc points out that those kinds of spells are dangerous, and offers Dawn a tonic to make the grief go by faster instead. She refuses, so he plucks a hair out of her head and, examining it, concludes that the strong DNA indicates her mother is a strong candidate for resurrection. He tells Dawn she’ll need the egg of a Ghora demon, gives her a list of items to get and provides her with an incantation to recite. He says that her mother will come to her, but he can’t guarantee she’ll be like she was before; he tells her that if anything goes wrong, she just has to tear up the picture of her mother and the spell will be cancelled. Spike takes out his money, but Doc refuses it; he takes Dawn’s hand and asks her to keep in touch and tell him how the spell goes. Dawn and Spike find the Ghora demon’s lair, where the monster is sleeping. Dawn tells the vampire to distract the demon while she retrieves the egg. As he makes noise to wake up the demon, Spike realizes – much to his grief – that it has three heads. Nevertheless, he keeps it busy until Dawn has the egg. However, as they leave, Dawn drops said egg and she goes back to get another. Groaning, Spike goes to distract the demon before it attacks Dawn. In her room, Dawn begins her spell. Meanwhile, Tara finds a book missing in her and Willow’s room; realizing what book it is, she deduces Dawn must’ve taken it. Growing nervous, Willow tries to belittle the impact of the theft, but Tara insists that this is bad. Willow agrees that they need to call Buffy. Buffy comes back home just as the phone rings. Upstairs, Dawn in still performing her spell. In the cemetery, a body rises and walks, barefoot… Buffy bursts into Dawn’s room, demanding to know what she’s doing. "She’s coming", Dawn announces, before running downstairs. Grabbing Joyce’s picture, Buffy follows, asking her sister not to do this, not to their mother – it’s dangerous and she could come back wrong. Dawn lashes out at her sister, accusing her of not caring about Joyce’s death – all she’s been doing is running around as if she were trying to clean up Joyce’s mess. Buffy slaps her sister, shocking her into silence. Then she breaks down in tears, wailing that if she stops doing those things, she’ll have to realize Joyce is really gone. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, or who is going to take care of them. As a human shadow furtively passes in the window, Buffy tells Dawn that she didn’t mean to push her away – she just didn’t want her sister to see her like this. A knock comes on the door, and Buffy hurries to open it, expecting her mother. Dawn quickly takes Joyce’s picture and tears it up; opening the door, Buffy finds the doorway empty. The two sisters fall to the floor, holding each other and sobbing heartbreakingly. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.