Never Leave Me (Buffy episode)
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"Never Leave Me" is the ninth episode of the seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which the Scooby Gang begins to realize the magnitude of their peril.
Plot synopsis
Summary
The Summers' home gains two captives: Spike and Andrew.
Expanded overview
Xander works to repair the living room window while Dawn, Willow and Anya help clean up and discuss the potential danger that is Spike. Wearing a trench coat like Spike's, Andrew is coached by Warren to continue playing his part in the game. Warren explains that because he can't take corporeal form, Andrew is a crucial player and then he morphs into Jonathan to continue the encouragement. Andrew stresses that he can't kill anymore, but Jonathan doesn't consider that to be a problem. Buffy tries to offer comforting words to Spike while she ties him down to a chair. He just instructs her to tie the rope tighter so he can't get free.
Principal Wood lectures two students about damaging school property and ultimately threatens the students into repairing their mistake. Dawn drops by his office and informs him that Buffy is sick and unable to attend work. Buffy calls Quentin Travers and asks about Giles, but he's just as clueless as she is. He's with a group of Watchers and informs them that they need to find Giles quickly. Buffy checks on Spike, but he's struggling to control his blood lust after tasting so much human blood. He vamps and snaps at her, but remains tied to the chair. Buffy and Willow talk about Spike outside the room and Willow volunteers to get him some animal blood to help ease his cravings.
Warren coaches Andrew on killing a pig, but Andrew fails miserably and resorts to going to the butcher shop to get the blood they need. At the butcher shop, Andrew orders an array of meats and pig's blood, but as he's leaving, he literally runs into Willow and spills his purchases on the ground. Andrew runs from her, but she catches up with him and uses his assumption that she's evil to frighten him. She takes him back to the house with her, pointing out his suspicious behavior and purchase of animal blood to the rest of the group. Xander and Anya interrogate Andrew while he's tied to a chair, but he doesn't have any answers they want to hear. Anya snaps and slaps Andrew before Xander pulls her out of the room.
Upstairs, Buffy feeds Spike some of the animal blood as Anya and Xander meet in the bathroom to rave about their performance with Andrew. Buffy joins them and although none of them have information yet, they're sure they'll get some soon. Back in the bedroom, Spike is calmed and talks to Buffy about how little he remembers about his killing. She asks about how he got his soul and he tells her about his extensive efforts. He explains how he now understands that she used him in attempts to deal with her own self-hatred. Also, now after falling in love with her and acquiring a soul, he has come to hate himself.
Xander returns to Andrew and changes tactic to politeness. He unties Andrew and offers him water while using Anya's ability to hurt men as a threat. Anya comes charging in and attacks Andrew, intending to beat his knowledge out of him. Buffy leaves Spike momentarily to investigate Andrew's cries for help, but leaves as soon as Anya and Xander assure her they have things under control. When she leaves, the morphy version of Spike appears and starts to talk to the real Spike. Buffy hears Spike talking through the door to her room and when she goes back inside, she finds him acting different. He asks for blood, but as soon as she turns away, he breaks free from his chair and knocks her down. While Andrew leans against a wall and starts to talk to Anya about what he knows in the next room over, Spike reaches through the wall, grabs Andrew, and viciously bites him.
Buffy pulls Spike off of Andrew and knocks Spike out with a powerful kick. Buffy talks to the gang about Spike's strange behavior and based on Buffy's information, Xander concludes that some sort of evil is using a song to trigger Spike's killer instincts. Buffy instructs the gang to begin researching so they can figure out what they're dealing with. At the high school, Principal Wood leaves his office, but detours through the basement where he finds Jonathan's dead body on top of the symbol. Buffy goes down to the basement to clean up Spike's wounds while he lies chained up to a brick wall. He wakes up and doesn't understand why he has no memory of his actions. He orders her to kill him because she doesn't know what the real Spike is like and it's not something she's prepared to handle. He taunts her with some of the evil actions of his past. Again, he make judgments about her feelings and her need for pain from men, but she doesn't let his verbal assault rattle her. She claims to believe in him and thinks that he's changed and she shouldn't give up on him yet.
Suddenly, the windows and doors break all over the house as robed figures attack the Scooby Gang. In a deserted location, Principal Wood buries Jonathan's body. The gang fights a vicious battle with the robed figures attacking them. Dawn handles herself pretty well with a couple of them while Buffy chases one upstairs and protects Andrew from being killed. Most of the robed figures are disabled or killed, but they didn't come for Buffy and the gang; they came for Spike. Down in the basement, Buffy and Xander find that Spike's chains are empty and he's nowhere to be seen. Buffy recognizes the faces of the robed figures as harbingers representing The First ("Amends") and realizes that's who they're dealing with. The ghosts haunting them, the games being played on them and the impending danger that will come from beneath are all connected to the First Evil.
Watchers report to Quentin about the numerous attacks on the Council around the world. Quentin confirms that the First Evil is responsible and orders the Watchers to prepare for their greatest challenge. Seconds later, the Watcher's Council headquarters explodes. In the Sunnydale basement, Spike is strapped to circular contraption and the robed figures cut designs into Spike's skin. The First talks to Spike and blames him for this happening to him. The First morphs into Buffy and she talks as she watches the contraption and Spike raise up to the ceiling and turning Spike face-first over the symbol on the ground. Spike's blood falls onto the symbol beneath him, opening it and as the First explains, allowing a real vampire to emerge.
Writing and acting
Willow's enormous powers, even if she is not fully in control of them, force the writers to figure out a way to keep her from being part of every fight. Here, she is immediately knocked unconscious when the Bringers attack. The same plot device is used in "Get It Done".
If old pig's blood is enough to open the Seal of Danthazar, it is not clear why the First has Andrew murder Jonathan and then try to kill a pig first instead of going to the butcher right away. While bleeding Spike can be seen as a form of torture, Jonathan's murder only makes sense if opening the seal requires fresh blood from a human sacrifice.
Both Anya and Xander seem to be enjoying their good-cop, bad-cop routine a bit too much. Though this is understandable behavior for an ex-vengeance demon, Xander's sudden sadistic streak seems somewhat out of character.
Cast and crew
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Emma Caulfield as Anya
- James Marsters as Spike
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
- Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
- Harris Yulin as Quentin Travers
- Written by: Drew Goddard
- Director: David Solomon
Production details
Translations
German title: "Boten des Bösen" ("Messengers of Evil")
Quotes and trivia
- Buffy: "He's been feeding on humans for weeks. having some pretty bad withdrawal. I think we need to get him some blood."
- Willow: "Want me to kill Anya?"
- Andrew and the First in the guise of Warren again provide us with no end of Star Trek references.
- "This is butcher shop, Neo. We don't sell toothpaste" -- The butcher proving he is hip to popular culture
- "I was going to bleed Andrew, but you look a lot better with your shirt off" -- The First appreciating Spike's physique
- "Usually the operative completes his task and either blows his head off or steals a submarine." -- Xander giving the Hollywood version of sleepers
- "We are still masters of our fate. We are still captain of our souls." -- Quentin Travers, in response to the Bringers' attacks on Watchers' Council operations around the world, shortly before he dies in the explosion of the Council Headquarters in London
- Travers' words are quoted from a September 9, 1941 speech by Winston Churchill, who in turn was paraphrasing the final two lines of the William Ernest Henley poem Invictus.
Continuity
Arc significance
- The headquarters of the Watcher's Council is destroyed, killing many of the Watchers including Lydia and Quentin Travers
- The Scoobies finally have a name for what they are up against, but still no sure information on their enemy. Spike, their most important lead and the strongest fighter after Buffy, is kidnapped, which will force Buffy to take risks to save him. The First loses Andrew as its tool, and Andrew is able to begin his journey to become one of the Scoobies and finally reach redemption.
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) | Buffyverse: Fall 2002 - December 2002 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.01 Lessons (Buffy episode)>Lessons |
| Mexico, 2002 | Buffy/Angel book: Seven Crows (Buffy/Angel novel)>Seven Crows |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.01 Deep Down (Angel episode)>Deep Down |
| L.A., 2002 | B7.02 Beneath You (Buffy episode)>Beneath You |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.02 Ground State (Angel episode)>Ground State |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.03 Same Time, Same Place (Buffy episode)>Same Time, Same Place |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Apocalypse Memories (Buffy novel)>Apocalypse Memories |
| L.A., Las Vegas, 2002 | A4.03 The House Always Wins (Angel episode)>The House Always Wins |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.04 Help (Buffy episode)>Help |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Dark Mirror (Angel novel)>Dark Mirror |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Mortal Fear (Buffy novel)>Mortal Fear |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Spark and Burn (Buffy novel)>Spark and Burn |
| Sunnydale, L.A., 2002 | Buffy/Angel book: Heat (Buffy/Angel novel)>Heat |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.04 Slouching Toward Bethlehem (Angel episode)>Slouching Toward Bethlehem |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.05 Selfless (Buffy episode)>Selfless |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.05 Supersymmetry (Angel episode)>Supersymmetry |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.06 Him (Buffy episode)>Him |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Solitary Man (Angel novel)>Solitary Man |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.06 Spin the Bottle (Angel episode)>Spin the Bottle |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Love and Death (Angel novel)>Love and Death |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Monolith (Angel novel)>Monolith |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.07 Conversations with Dead People (Buffy episode)>Conversations with Dead People |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.07 Apocalypse, Nowish (Angel episode)>Apocalypse, Nowish |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.08 Sleeper (Buffy episode)>Sleeper |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.08 Habeas Corpses (Angel episode)>Habeas Corpses |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.09 Never Leave Me (Buffy episode)>Never Leave Me |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.09 Long Day's Journey (Angel episode)>Long Day's Journey |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.10 Bring on the Night (Buffy episode)>Bring on the Night |
| Unknown, 2002 | |
| New York, 2002 | |
| Unknown 2002 | |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.10 Awakening (Angel episode)>Awakening |
External links
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