Watchers - Season Four

Season One

The first episode, Something Ventured, Something Gained opens with the gang buying a two-building complex from a real estate agent named Bonnie. Willow also finds out she was destined to be a Watcher through a spell. In Lake Eerie boaters go missing on Lake Erie and the gang springs into action when they learn of a lake demon but not before Faith's felonious past returns to haunt her. Willow, however, uses her hacker skills and a little magic to clear Faith’s record. In our third episode, Foreign Presence, Rowena Allister arrives claiming to be a Watcher from the Old Guard with a book called the ‘Opus’. In Untimely Arrivals, James Tyrell and the rest of the Old Guard arrive in Cleveland to wreck havoc with the New Watchers Council. In Broken Allies, Tyrell and his son Jordon, a former lover of Rowena, make a final power play that threatens to split the New Council apart. Rowena is faced with a choice of who should receive the book and gives it to Giles. Giles asks her to stay on staff. On the Wiccan holiday, Samhain, Willow contacts Anya who says she has a urgent message about Xander growing more despondent as Giles and Co. battle a demon set on creating a zombie army. A young slayer, Marsha, stands out from the crowd and Willow is named as her new watcher.

In Love and War, Dawn visits the council sans Buffy just in time to run into Ethan Rayne who's working for an organization called...well...The Organization. During her stay, Dawn bonds with a young witch in Willow’s class named Jeff. In Another Year Old, Xander returns to the Watchers Council for Willow's birthday. She finds a ritual to restore his eye however it involves creating sexual energy much to Kennedy's dismay. In Love Hurts, as Kennedy and Willow grapple with the fallout from Xander's successful spell, Andrew concocts some company in the form of a demon that only has eyes for him. But an agent of the big bad, the Presidium, kills her and takes away Willow’s powers in the process. In Dark Force Rising, Tara appears to Kennedy in a dream to help aid in the return of Willow's magical powers. The advice leads Giles to a book and a shopkeeper, Becca Montague, whom he begins dating. Anya's demonic 'Santa' and his helpers return to Cleveland in Blue Christmas, and while Giles and Becca's relationship blooms, Willow and Kennedy's comes to an end.

In Modus Operandi, the Watchers realize there's a killer in town who actually might be very old instead of someone new – a demonic Jack the Ripper. In Rash Decisions, Kennedy takes a walk on the wild side with a vampire that leads to unexpected consequences while the Watcher's Council battles Sister Sin. As a blizzard strikes Cleveland, in Family Ties, the council is besieged with family and friends seeking shelter from the storm, including Willow’s parents and Brell's brother and family who've had a close encounter with the Presidium. In About Last Night, Willow comes 'out' to her parents as a Watcher and their supernatural dealings while grappling with the after effects of a one-night stand with Kennedy. In Restoration, the story jumps to the year 2130, with the descendant of Willow Rosenberg, a Colonel in the militaristic Watchers Council, reuniting with the reincarnation of Tara Maclay, a Slayer. Together they try to stop an army of demons created by the Council itself with the help of the only surviving Summers family member, a woman named Aurora. In Scarecrow, the suit of a long gone Watcher/Magic abuser comes back to haunt Giles and as he, Willow and Rowena go to an Ohio farm to investigate they find themselves battling not only mystical enemies but mother nature. During the outing Willow realizes she’s starting to have strong feels for Rowena but says nothing.

In Gangland, while coming home from adult education class Faith comes upon a group of 'lost girls' who have Slayer strength and banded together. She tries to convince them to join the council. In Lessons Learned, as Kennedy grapples with the decision to stay or leave the council, Faith and the Watchers try to instill the newfound rebels to their cause, including one young woman named Mia who takes a liking to Kennedy. In High Art, as Giles celebrates his 50th birthday he's faced with the death of a new Watcher recruit and a painting he acquires at an auction with Becca turns out to be more than just a pretty picture but showing a window inside himself. While Giles and Becca consummate their relationship Amy returns to put a hex on Willow, Faith and Xander making them reverse in age in Child’s Play. As the Watchers and Slayer prepare for Beltaine, in the episode May Day, Bonnie and the Presidium cast a spell on various religion groups to attack the council. In Another Day, Faith is kidnapped and placed as bait inside a cave. Buffy and Kennedy rescue her but not without Rona being killed. In the Season One finale, Another Apocalypse, the gang works together to take on the Presidium each using their skills to foil the plans of the Engineer. (CLICK HERE for the Season 1 Index)

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Season Two

In Everything New again Willow begins work with her slayer Marsha, while Rowena is in England helping Robson get the council over there in order. The Presidium's new foe, the Lover, resides in their kingdom known as Vor but has the ability to watch everything the WaTchers are doing. For New Again, Faith's younger sister arrives with news that their father is dying and she returns to Boston only to be set-up by the pair to turn the slayer over to demons in exchange for giving her father eternal life. Rowena also returns and gets a cold reception for Willow. She confides something Becca that something else has been pushing her away from Willow. It's Checkmate when Willow and Rowena accidentally play a game of chess that the Coven magically enhanced. The pieces in a giant chessboard come to life revealing things about each woman's life - including the fact that Rowena was raped as a teenager at the old Watcher's Academy, something she never got over. In Swap Meet, the characters are switched thanks to a magic spell that Becca unknowingly performs while cleaning an old vase. The only way they can switch back is when they confront issues that are facing one or both of them. In True Colors, Willow and Rowena try their hand at physical closeness while Becca goes to the doctor, learning that she's pregnant and Giles will become a dad. Later, Becca is put at risk when she bumps into a man who's really a demon agent of the Presidium. The action causes her to go insane so the Lover can observe how the council reacts. Becca is saved when Willow and the crew use a tub of holy water to erase the demon element. At the same time a group of Triad (Hunters) lose catching Brell and his fellow demons who are helping other worlds but the Presidium earns a small victory by taking over another dimension elsewhere.

In Red Herring, the gang dresses as ‘Clue’ characters for a costume party that on the surface appears to go dreadfully wrong with the death of several characters. In Dream Warriors, Imbethit gets his revenge on the council by making every sleeping slayer enter an arena in a fight to the death - first with demons and then with other slayers. Willow and Kennedy comes to the rescue of the slayers but not in time to save her own slayer Marsha who dies. In Hellgoddess some nasty demons called Mizors swarm on Cleveland. The gang finds out it’s because of Willow and the solution is to either kill Willow or strip away her magic, which might kill her. Rowena discovers the theory first but doesn’t inform anyone and Mia is almost killed. When Giles discovers the truth he has a heart attack and is saved by Faith. The coven then does a spell to take away Willow’s power and Rowena has to own up to her failure of letting her personal life interfere with her duty. In Time Out, a beautiful former student of Robin’s returns, making Faith a little insecure about their relationship. Kennedy has a slayer dream about the former student and the death of her, Willow and Xander. When the student arrives, she tells Robin she has the ability to stop time and manipulate it. Events begin to match Kennedy’s dream and the council discovers that Tyrell is behind the operation to take out the council heads and is arrested by Robson in England. In Real World, human agent of the Presidium Jimmy Volano, kidnaps Rowena and Mia and the black ops rescue her but not without Rowena being shot.

In Blue Moon, Oz returns to Cleveland with his wife Camille and they end up doing a spell with Troy, a werewolf and Cassandra, a vampire, against their wishes. Unknown to the watchers the spell makes both Troy and Cassandra full-time wolves – they’re wish - and leaves Oz and Camille human again. In Bad Blood, after the spell is finished a bolt comes hurling at Camille and the slayers give chase after a mystery woman. It’s later revealed the woman is Kadin VanHelsing, heir to the VanHelsing legacy, and after Camille for murdering her father during Camille’s ‘wild days’ before finding Oz and changing her ways. Kennedy is the only one who is able to reason with Kadin about how Camille is trying to live a good life now (and is human again). Kadin agrees and leaves to hunt monsters freelance again. In In the Dark, we meet Vi’s identical twin Angie who goes with Robin to a location that houses not a monster as they first thought but a disfigured, abused young man. In Avatar, Kennedy has a run in with a monster and becomes a super-human and is given the power to destroy it, but not without doing serious damage to the city in the process. In Fireeater, Ethan Rayne returns to Cleveland and ends up saving Becca from a soul stealer who’s after her and Giles’s unborn child.

In Unfinished Business, Kadin faces off against a seemingly unstoppable foe and races to Cleveland for Kennedy’s help. Kennedy agrees, much to Mia and everyone elses' leeriness, and leaves for Bucharest, Romania. There, the two women work together but not without sharing a few stolen kisses and a growing attraction before Kennedy returns home. In Chapel of Love, Giles is determined to marry Becca before their baby arrives in the world but Murphy’s Law and meddling friends and family make the task more difficult then it sounds. Fed up, the pair elope the day of the wedding to be married by an Elvis impersonator in Las Vegas. In Get a Life, the minor characters of watchers take center stage at a Sci-Fi convention where a demonic Jeri Ryan is picking off fans. After his daring-do Andrew and Tracey start to get closer with each other. In Rack and Ruin, Willow is taken by Rack’s younger sister, Shadow, for killing her brother as Vi and Xander try their hand at dating each other. Mia and Kennedy hit more rocky waves as Kennedy can’t shake thoughts of Kadin from her mind. Jeff performs a dangerous spell that nearly kills him but the black ops squad finds Willow and her capture but not before Shadow loaded Willow back up with magic in the hopes she would destroy herself. In Resistance, Willow has nightmares of going ‘dark’ again and Bonnie shoots Faith when Faith tries to kill her. An autopsy shows that it’s not Faith but a body snatcher creature put in place by the Presidium. Faith, back in Vor, escapes and returns home a bit feral and shaken. Meanwhile, Brell tries to organize various demons of the world in a counter-strike against the Presidium.

In Infernal Affairs, Vi and Xander each find lovers but it turns out the ‘lovers’ are actually one creature who can shape shift and drains human life via sex. Meanwhile, Faith tries to recover from her presidium capture as Kennedy, Dawn and Rowena go in search of a monster – which turns out to be a dragon, which Kennedy adopts. In Wickerman, the Presidium goes to the forest to try out it’s latest equipment for the earth invasion but Faith and the black ops squad thwart the effort but not without losing much of the black ops squad. In Ragnarok, the season finale, the gang uses Brell’s contacts to enter Vor and battle the Presidium on their own turf. Willow is brought before the Lover and convinces her that she’s become the evil that the Presidium initially gained power to avoid. Willow promises her soul will look after earth. At the same time Ethan is lost inside Vor, Robin loses his leg which Faith had to cut off to free him after a melee and Becca gives birth to her and Giles’s child, Elizabeth, with Buffy back at home in command. Once back home and victorious Mia decides to leave Kennedy and the council. (CLICK HERE for the Season 2 Index)

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Season Three

In War Zone, bringing up baby is on the mind of Rupert Giles and his wife Becca, leading the elder watcher to a decision to retire from the Watchers Council. Meanwhile, a giant sand demon threatens to wipe out U.S. troops in the hostile desert warzone of Iraq. While Giles pays a call to Alex Neel and is introduced to Lucifer – looking very much like someone from Giles’s past -- a crack team of wiccans and slayers, including Buffy Summers, visit the war-torn Middle East. In Maternal Instincts, Faith’s past catches up with her as memories of Richard Wilkins stand to help or hinder her in saving her son, Norman, from death’s door as Robin attempts to reconcile himself to a new way of life without his leg. Meantime, Shannon, a young slayer with a mean baseball swing bonds with the boy while the watchers and the slayers search for a demon horde looking for a surrogate mother. In Both Sides Now - Rowena learns the hard way that rank has its disadvantages as well as its privileges when she must call Xander, Vi, and Willow before a council tribunal on charges of negligence in the death of several slayers and the fall of the Vancouver Watchers Council. With Just the Facts, the council meets reporter Robert Devlin who is trying to piece together what happened to a group of young women who died mysteriously in Vancouver. In doing such he stumbles onto the story of the century in the form of the Watchers Council and its work. Rowena and the other heads of the Cleveland Council must decide whether to work the Tabula Rasa spell and remove Devlin’s memory, or take Devlin into their confidence and hope that he will understand why their story cannot be written. As Willow and Rowena square off, this time over the moral implications of using the Tabula Rasa, Bonnie, Brell, and the Council heads put Devlin to the test. In Trial By Fury - Fangs and claws come out for Willow and Rowena, still at odds over the spell Rowena and Kennedy did on Devlin and for Kadin Van Helsing who is put on trial by a special order of werewolves dedicated to living with mankind peaceably. Kadin must relive a painful chapter from her past while proving her innocence in the killing of a group of werewolves from The Brethren. As Kennedy lends support, Kadin’s life hinges on the decision of the jury of werewolves and the cunning abilities of her lawyer Elana Velmont. Meanwhile, Rowena and Willow’s fangs are showing too, as their resentments toward each build to a fever pitch while an unsuspecting Skye has a disturbing encounter with the psychologically unstable slayer, Dana. In Luna the Watchers wonder what do James Bond, a stuffed cat named Madame Fliffertop, a lovesick Andrew, and an army of bugs have in common? Throw in a death squad of laser squirrels, a jump-start to a reconciliation between Willow and Rowena, and a vampire twelve-step program that takes abstinence to a new level.

Lives and love are ‘In the Balance’ when a lost Monarch and Idol and a quest for closure come into head-on conflict. As Rowena and Willow rekindle their relationship, Kennedy forges a new bond with Kadin Van Helsing and an old man, Gregor Kalderas, a relation of her birth mother’s. Meanwhile, Dawn must come to grips with the fact the missing Skye may be gone forever. With the kidnappings of Reteesk and Tracey everyone especially Dawn and Rowena must work together, with a little help from Giles and Brell, to find the balance between the personal and the professional without sacrificing their loved ones nor losing to the new demons in town. In Loves Labours Lost, young Richard Caperlet and his demon lover, Erios Montager, face off against their warring families and an ages-old feud. Rowena, Willow Robin and Faith must find a way to safely bring the two bitter factions to a truce long enough to keep the star-crossed lovers from fleeing home to wed. In the meantime, a seemingly well-meaning doctor returns a slightly amnesiac Skye to the Watchers Council. Willow takes time to look into Giles’ ghost problem of his new house while an unwell Gregor Kalderash tries to hand down generations of their family’s tradition and legacy to Kennedy. In No Mercy, Gregor Kalderash begins to wine and dine the best and brightest at the Watchers Council as Rowena considers adding him to the group. But when he makes a dire prediction about Willow’s and Faith’s futures, the two are left with an agonizing decision. In the meanwhile, the recently returned Skye seems to be less available than she was when she was missing, setting Dawn on edge. A chance meeting in a bar for Skye and an unexpected face-off for Kennedy and Gregor leave no room for mercy. In Birthright, Kadin Van Helsing finds the mystical ‘other half’ of the medallion left to her by her father and she begins a quest for her Birth Right as the heir of a long line of vampire hunters. With Kennedy at her side, a trip to a mysterious cave in Amsterdam will test more than Kadin’s hunters’ instincts. In the meantime, Dawn grows more concerned over Skye’s unusual behavior while Vi comes to grips with having killed Kennedy’s Uncle Gregor to save Willow and Faith. In Rule of Three - A baseball card, a unique friendship, and a bitter lesson in what goes-around-comes-around is in store for Shannon as she struggles with adjusting to the death of her grandfather and becomes the target for more bullying than she can take from another slayer. Rejecting Dawn as her new Watcher and feeling confused and alone she seeks comfort in befriending a deranged creature and a newly returned Ethan Rayne only to find that neither is quite what they seem and that the Rule of Three doesn’t always hold true the way one expects. In Roses are Red a fight with a necromancer and a bloodstained knife wreck havoc on Xander and Vi via a little ghost-girl named Rose who begins to haunt Xander and the Council. Fearing for the lives of his friends and colleagues and with no super powers of his own, the all-too-human Xander must play along until he can elicit help from Willow. But there is no way to defeat the ghost unless Xander spills Vi’s blood in a dark ritual to kill the slayer. Meanwhile, Skye kills Bonnie and Slayer Dana, which ends up putting Faith and Kennedy in a knockdown, drag-out fight…as well as Faith leaving the council without so much as a goodbye.

Faith’s own faith in herself is put to the test in The Night In Question. The senior slayer finds herself magically plucked from the highway as she flees her life and career with the Cleveland Watchers Council only to be transported to a place where she never became anything more than a rogue slayer. Here new surroundings are all but a wonderful life as Faith battles with herself in an alternate reality had the Mayor ascended. Next, with the Watchers Council searching for the escaped vampire Skye, Andrew and Tracey aren’t certain whether they’ll ever be able to spend some private time in A Road Trip To Remember. They are thrilled when they are cleared for a Valentine’s getaway to Orlando, only to find themselves pressed into service. A harrowing trip on the Everglades, a cryptic message about good-guys and bad-guys, and proof of the existence of angels turns their romantic vacation into something more sinister, while in Cleveland, Kennedy must search for Skye and for some inner acceptance of the beating she herself took at Faith’s hands. With the capture of Skye, Buffy Summers must accept that her little sister Dawn has grown up as Dawn struggles to accept that Skye is lost to her. In 59:23, less than an hour is all it takes for the Council to be put to the severest test of its strength and its weaknesses. In a race against time, the entire Cleveland Council must stop the detonation of a mystical bomb -- with the destructive force of cataclysmic proportions -- hidden somewhere in Cleveland before the hour runs out. As they disperse throughout the city, the Watchers, Slayers and Wiccans, and the maverick vampire Skye, must work in small, unusual teams under a new kind of pressure – incompatibility. In the next episode, beauty’s only Skin Deep – but there are some wounds that go even deeper as Willow, Ro, Ken and Faith all discover. Reaching a crossroads in their relationships, Willow and Rowena must come to terms with the inherent differences in their perspectives on life and the Council, while Kennedy and Faith must choose to either strengthen their friendship or abandon it entirely. As Xander and Vi finally settle back into a comfortable rapport, Willow befriends a woman whose life has been spent trying to escape her own demon and Rowena gains two quiet new friends to help her get through some lonely nights, two cats she names Marco and Polo. In Strange Bedfellows, Kadin’s testing days are never over, it seems, as the Watchers Council tries to determine if she is cut out to be a member of their force. Quick to act first and obey orders later, Kadin’s hunter reflexes are proving to be a sticking point for the Watchers leadership and slayer patrols. While Dawn and Jeff search tome after tome for a spell or a curse that will help to restore Skye’s soul, Kennedy is pressed into service to test Kadin’s ability to adapt from loner to team player. The hunter and slayer’s trust of one another is also put to the test when they are sent to exterminate a nest of vampires, unaware of the two queens at the center of the nest are Harmony and Luna; the strangest of Strange Bedfellows any hellmouth ever saw. With Very Bad Ideas, more than one person has come up with Very Bad Ideas as Dawn discovers a way to re-ensoul Skye, a Fellowship of less than Tolkien-esque ideals begins to spread its reach into the city of Cleveland, and Andrew gets the gang involved in the home version of the Newlywed Game. Jeff’s urging leads Dawn to begrudgingly seek the Coven’s help in retrieving Skye’s soul, while the Fellowship of Shadows retrieves a she-wolf from confinement and Marsha the dragon sniffs out Ethan Rayne in his usual place – in the middle of all the trouble. But things stand to get worse when Rowena receives a missive from the other Councils. The Watcher chooses love over duty and looks for a replacement.

In Rules of Engagement, a nest of Strieaufix demons is in the slayers’ sights. At the same time, Buffy Summers is brought to the Watchers Council by Rowena to man her chair while Dawn strikes out on her own in a bid to get Skye’s soul back. An unexpected meeting with an old acquaintance and a dire warning may not be enough to keep Dawn from a path that could have future repercussions. In the meantime, Faith, now stripped of her Council duties, goes head-to-head with a barroom full of demons, unaware of the insidious presence of the mysterious Dr. Wagner. More -- and now highly visible -- attacks against the citizens of Cleveland and a demon’s odd comment about an impending battle stand out in warning to the Watchers. In Foucault’s Pendulum, an encounter with a harbinger of a doomed future for the Watchers and Slayers along with an alliance with Council members destined to be born three hundred years from now, are at the epicenter of Foucault’s Pendulum. Buffy has gone on a trip to help lay the groundwork for bringing all the world’s Watchers Councils together in one big dialogue. But a dialogue of another sort is going on between Rowena and a mysterious time traveler claiming to be the last of the Watchers and who brings with him a message of three devastating wars that pit slayer against slayer. There is only one slayer in all the world who can counter the pendulum of history’s never-changing course. But will it be enough to counter all the tragedies that lie ahead for her friends and for the Council? In the next episode, The Secret Life of DJ Trace, What do vampires juiced on juiced-up victims, freelance slayers playing by their own rules, a computer professor with a knack for robotics, Darth Vader, Reteesk, Romeo and Juliet, and a chorus line to end all chorus lines have in common? They’re all part of just another ordinary week at the Watchers Council as Tracey’s college radio show turns into more than just background noise for studious geeks in the Secret Life of DJ Trace. With less than a little prodding, Tracey fights for a strange little boy, her grades, and her listener’s attention as she takes her audience on a magical mystery tour, Watchers-style. In Ouroboros, a strange temple is unearthed on a construction site and the Watchers Council is called in to investigate the unlikely archeological find. The appearance of two sets of lawyers, whose interests in the Temple are both strong but unspecified, puts the Council on notice. Needing brains more than brawn on the case, Willow and Giles begin to unravel the mysteries of the Ouroboros only to find themselves trapped in the collapsed ruins. As each minute passes, Giles’s life fades while family and friends tearfully gather about the elder Watcher. But Giles’s mind and soul follow the lead of a surprise guide through a temple out of time and space. Will the Watchers Council be doomed to devour itself or will the Watcher of the last Chosen One be able to pass on the lesson of the Ouroboros? In Shomer an angel appears…“For behold, I bring you tidings of great. . .” Doom. That’s what’s in store for the world as the Council members are caught off-guard by a hidden herald and a smart-mouthed lawyer who just may be right about one thing – that the world is not better off for the presence of the Watchers Council, but just the opposite! As Faith is allowed a unique revelation about slayers, the Cleveland Coven, with the help of Skye, calls Gaia – Mother Nature – for help. Buffy and Faith try to save the Council itself as Cleveland and the world at large are suddenly rent by the worst combinations of demonic and natural disasters ever seen. The Watchers Council’s last act may prove to be that of the ultimate Shomer, paying for its negligence to the world and the greater good. In the season finale, Megiddo, the world won’t listen. And what begins in Megiddo, Israel, may end in the suburbs as well as the back-alleys across the world as Hellmouths crack open with a vengeance. In spite of their best efforts to prove there are such things as monsters to the world’s citizens, the Watchers Council faces the worst enemy they have ever met: human apathy. As a pregnant Becca fights for the life of her unborn child and baby Elizabeth, Vi and the other slayers suffer losses too horrible to imagine. A temple, in the lost city of ‘Atlantis,’ holds the key to winning the fight. A devilishly tempting bargain is offered to Rowena while winged demons ravage the earth. But not all winged creatures are demons, the Council finds out when angels appear to lend a hand. Faith begins to fill a role and accept a fate that may turn the tide for all mankind and good demons everywhere but not without paying a price. (CLICK HERE for the Season 3 Index)

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