Overall Rating: 8.4 Matt: 8.0 Eric: 8.8 Writer: Doug Petrie Director: David Solomon 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, Clare Kramer as Glory, Charlie Weber as Ben, Todd Duffrey as Murk, Joel Grey as Doc, Lily Knight as Grodi,Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers, Dean Butler as Hank Summers, Alexandra Lee as six-year-old Buffy Summers, Matthew Lang as High Priest minion. Original broadcast date : May 15, 2001 My one-line description: By the way, did you know that Ben is Glory? At Glory’s place, two minions finish packing the hellgod’s clothes into a heavy chest. As they transport said chest, they complain; Glory, who is being fitted with a long ceremony dress, hears them and calls them before her. However, she confesses that she’s not in the mood to torture them, and wonders why that is. Pacing around, she reflects that the moment she’s been waiting for is finally at hand, and she’s not happy… Sending the minions away, she asks Dawn, gagged and bound to a chair, why she thinks Glory isn’t happy. At the abandoned gas station, Spike has managed to hot-wire Ben’s car, and the gang prepares to leave. Xander asks Giles if he’s good to go. However Giles is more worried about Buffy, who has been staring into dead space for half an hour. Willow trying to shake her out of it, but Buffy only sinks further away… Giles thinks that losing Dawn has pushed her over the edge into catatonia. Spike tries to physically shake the Slayer out of it, even slaps her; to no avail. As he goes to try again, Xander pushes him away, and the two start fighting. Willow magically separates them and orders them to keep their fighting for after the world ends. She starts assigning tasks – Xander will take Giles to the hospital, Anya will look after Tara, and Spike will check Glory’s apartment. As for herself, she reveals, she’ll help Buffy. The gang begins moving out, with a new respect for Willow. Spike asks a question – what do they do if they run into Ben? The gang stare blankly at him, and Willow answers that she doesn’t think a doctor is what Buffy needs right now. "Well, yeah," Spike replies, "Especially not one who also happens to be Glory". The gang ask what he means; it seems they don’t remember seeing Ben morph into Glory. He explains what he saw, and they seem to accept it… albeit sceptically. On a construction site, crazy people are working – carrying two-by-fours, sawing wood, welding steel – all the while muttering to themselves. Suddenly, all work stops as Glory walks through the site, holding Dawn and followed by some minions. One of them seems to be a High Priest, waving an incense canister on Glory’s path. The workers fall to their knees and bow their heads in reverence. Glory shoves Dawn towards the site office. Inside, Glory shoves Dawn into a chair, where the High Priest anoints her forehead with ash, while reciting an incantation. Glory grows impatient, and throws the minions out. Dawn tells her she wants to go home. The hellgod actually tries to make her feel better, telling her that she’s going back to her real home – the hell dimension. Suddenly, she realizes she’s feeling guilty; bewildered, she accuses Dawn of doing this to her. All compassion gone, she orders the High Priest to anoint the Key now. She reveals to Dawn that the plan is to bleed her dry, so the portal will open and Glory can go home. At Xander’s place, Willow prepares to enter Buffy’s psyche in an attempt to help her. She asks Anya to take care of Tara (who keeps muttering that "Time is coming") and goes to the bedroom, where Buffy is sitting in a chair, inert. Willow sits on the edge of the bed and becomes motionless, staring dead ahead. Suddenly, Willow finds herself standing in a living room, in a house she’s never seen before. She wanders into another room, where a TV is playing; there, she’s greeted by a six-year-old blonde girl holding a doll. "Hello, Buffy", Willow says. Spike kicks his way into Glory’s apartment, and finds it empty. He looks around, but finds nothing of interest… except a small door leading to a very soberly decorated bedroom – Ben’s. Inside, a small bed, a lamp, and some medical garb. Young Buffy asks Willow what she’s doing here. "Actually, looking for you", the redhead replies. She tries to convince Buffy that she has to come out, but Buffy declares that it’s a big day for her. The door opens, and Hank and Joyce Summers enter with a newborn baby. Buffy runs to them, and they ask her if she’s ready to meet her sister. Young Buffy isn’t sure she wants said sister – she thinks her parents will forget all about her. Hank and Joyce give her the baby so she can hold it. "We’re calling her Dawn", her mother reveals. Young Buffy, now softened, offers to take care of Dawn when her parents are away… The scene shifts to the Magic Box, where Buffy, now grownup, puts a book back on a shelf. As she does, she looks down for a moment, her expression becoming serious. Then she looks up, turns around and walks by Willow… The scene shifts again, to a raging bonfire in the desert. "O-kay…" mutters a confused Willow. At the hospital, Giles, now patched up, exits an examining room. Xander informs him of Willow’s attempts to reach Buffy psychically; Giles thinks they should take advantage of the fact they’re here to check out the mental ward, but Xander replies that he’s already done that – the ward is closed, and the patients gone. Spike walks in and reports that Glory’s flat is also empty. He tells them he wants to get Doc (the warlock from "Forever") to "suss out Glory’s game plan". They agree, and as he turns to leave, he mentions that he found Ben’s bedroom at Glory’s place. Xander asks if Ben was subletting from her; a nonplussed Spike goes over to him and punches him. They both reel in pain. At the construction site, Glory is worried – she’s starting to remember more and more details of Ben’s life. She realizes that the Scooby Gang was responsible for calling Ben to the desert, and Dawn admits that they were. Glory takes it as a sign that the cloak between her and Ben is fading – Dawn shouldn’t be able to remember that incident. She pleads with the High Priest to take Ben out of her, and suddenly… she morphs into the young intern, who declares she can’t kill Dawn. He morphs back into Glory, who decides to kill Dawn now. As Willow looks on, the First Slayer tells Buffy that death is her gift. Willow is confused by the statement… Cut to the Magic Box, where Buffy once again puts a book back on a shelf and looks down in serious thought. She walks past Willow… cut to the Summers home in Sunnydale, where Buffy walks upstairs. Willow catches up with her and asks where she’s going. As Glory chokes Dawn, the minions try to get her to stop, warning that she’ll be stuck on the mortal plane forever if she does this. Glory releases Dawn, who holds her throat and gasps for air. The hellgod throws the minions out and starts ranting about mortal life and human misery. Willow follows Buffy through the Summers house. Buffy enters Joyce’s room – which is now a grassy plot with a mound and a headstone in the middle. "I’m sorry", says Willow, standing beside her. "Don’t be", Buffy replies. "Death is my gift". As Buffy turns and walks away, Willow follows, saying that she’s not sure she understands. As they enter Dawn’s room – Dawn is sitting on her bed, crying – Buffy explains that it’s not that complicated. She picks up a pillow and smothers Dawn. The teenager struggles, and Willow asks Buffy to stop. Gradually, Dawn’s limbs stop moving. Buffy comments that she’s figured it out – this is her gift. In the site office, Glory tries to resist morphing back into Ben… but loses. Ben looks at his hands, remembering the hundreds of men Glory slaughtered – the wall between the two is definitely crumbling. After a while, he decides to help Dawn; he knocks the High Priest out cold, and makes his way out with the teenager, promising to get her as far as he can. In the Summers’ former home, Willow is once again facing six-year-old Buffy. Once again, she asks the little girl what they’re doing here, and once again, Buffy runs to her parents as they enter with a newborn baby… Dawn. The scene shifts to the Magic Box, where Buffy puts a book back on a shelf and looks down in thought. Cut back to the former Summers home, where young Buffy, holding Dawn, asks if she can help take care of her. Xander and Spike arrive at Doc’s place. As the warlock offers them some cocoa, Xander suddenly blurts out "Ben is Glory!" He reports that it’s as though a fog is lifting. Spike tells Doc what they’re here for – Hellgod known as Glory has gone missing with the Slayer’s kid sister, and they want to know where she went. Doc recognizes they’re talking about Glorificus, and advises them to get out of her way, or she’ll kill them. As he continues talking, he discreetly moves to an ornate wooden box sitting on his desk; he tells Spike that he can’t do anything, and wishes them luck. Spike realizes that Doc is lying, and tells him he’s standing right in front of the very thing they need. Doc takes a sword and attacks Spike; Xander makes a move toward the warlock, whose tongue suddenly shoots out ten feet and knocks Xander off his feet, hard. Doc reveals that he worships the Beast; going to his desk, he takes the box and throws it in the fireplace. However, Xander quickly rallies and brings Doc down with a fire poker. The two grapple while Spike takes the box out of the fire. Xander impales Doc with the sword, and he and Spike leave with the box. After a moment, Doc’s eyes snap open again… Inside the Slayer’s mind, Willow, once again following Buffy through the Summers home, pleads with her to stop killing Dawn, because it never happened. Buffy claims she doesn’t know what Willow is talking about. Ben and Dawn walk fast down Main Street. Suddenly, Ben yanks Dawn into an alley and tells her to be still, while some minions walk by. After they’re gone, Ben turns back to Dawn… who clobbers him with some heavy chains. He goes down, and Dawn starts to make a run for it. But Ben rises as Glory… who is quite pissed off. It seems she remembers the pain felt by Ben. She advances on Dawn, promising pain that won’t spill a precious drop of blood… and morphs back into Ben. He orders Glory to leave Dawn alone… then morphs back into the hellgod. Suddenly, the human intern and the hellgod start a strange dialogue, morphing back and forth, blaming each other for their pet peeves and trading barbs. Finally, Ben grabs a bottle lying on the ground, smashes it and threatens to kill Dawn with it to prevent Glory from having her blood. The hellgod comes back and tosses the bottle away, and then tries to bribe Ben by promising him immortality. Ben comes back, spent and panting, and takes Dawn by the hand. He leads her out of the alley, and his grip tightens as he apologizes, saying that it’s him or her. Glory’s bribe has succeeded… Willow follows Buffy to Dawn’s room, trying to get her to stop. The scene shifts to the Magic Box, where once again Buffy places a book on a shelf, looks down, and sighs. Then she does it again. And again. This is what Willow has noticed, a moment that seems meaningful for Buffy. Buffy doesn’t want Willow to go there, but the redhead insists. Finally, the Magic Box Buffy explains : "This was when I quit, Will…" Relaying each other, Magic Box Buffy and House Buffy add that this was when it hit her – she couldn’t beat Glory, and Glory was going to win. Magic Box Buffy adds that in that instant, she wanted it to happen – she wanted it over. She explains that if Glory wins, then Dawn dies; House Buffy adds that she would grieve, and people would feel sorry for her, but it would all be over – what a relief. Buffy apparently believes that her thinking she killed Dawn made it happen. In the moment Glory took Dawn, Buffy confesses, she knew she could have done something better, but didn’t. So she killed her sister. Magic Box Buffy puts the book back on the shelf. Willow comments that Spike was right – she yells to Buffy to snap out of it. Both Buffys look at her in shock, and she explains that what Buffy is feeling is guilt. Her sister isn’t dead yet, but she very well may be if she stays in here. If she can’t find the strength to leave, she really has killed her sister. Willow turns to walk out of the Magic Box. Buffy urgently asks where she’s going. "Where you’re needed", Willow replies, offering her hand; "Are you coming?" Buffy looks at herself putting the book on the shelf, and takes Willow’s hand. In Xander’s bedroom, Buffy jerks awake. Bewildered, she looks around… and starts crying. Willow, who has just awoken, goes to her and hugs her. At the Magic Box, the gang is studying the texts from the box Xander and Spike retrieved. Buffy and Willow enter, and the Slayer asks for an update. Giles hesitantly tells her there is a way to stop Glory. Buffy prods him, and he awkwardly explains about the ritual bloodletting Glory has to perform to open the portal. The portal, he says, will only be closed if the blood is stopped. And the only way for that to happen… "Buffy, the only way is to kill Dawn", he confesses. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.