Dawn and Xander are still trying to make their way back home, and the gang back in San Francisco is falling apart. It seems like the threads tying together the Scooby gang are being stretched to their limits and are on the verge of breaking.
Note: This recap may contain spoilers!
The Hell Dimension is getting some pop culture knowledge thrown at them, thanks to Xander. He and Dawn are hanging out with the inhabitants, watching Game of Thrones. But for all the joy that Xander seems to have brought to the community, Dawn is miserable. She wants to get out of there, to use the portals and go home, but there’s immense risk in that. As Xander reminds her, it is best to stay in place and wait for their friends to return, else they might get hopelessly lost in their journey.
While Xander tries to dissuade her, Dawn’s determined to make the attempt. However, a hand offered in help was quickly discounted. Lilah Morgan, of Wolfram & Hart, would aid them in their journey, in exchange for her own gains. But bargaining with evil will never lead to good outcomes, and thankfully Dawn and Xander refuse her offer. Instead, they will do it on their own, which works for Morgan as well. Either way, she will be tracking them and using their location as a bargaining chip with Buffy and the others.
Back in San Francisco, the gang are arguing over the fact that D’Hoffryn stole the book. Spike tries to cool everyone down instead of going at each other’s throats, but rough emotions won’t soon be soothed. Willow tries to get Lake to agree to aid them in their fight, but Lake isn’t listening to any of Willow’s pleas. She launches a full-scale attack on D’Hoffryn, but that fails miserably. Instead, he explodes all their missiles on launch and gives them a warning to not try his patience again.
This show of force makes Willow question how he gained his increased powers. She figures out that it means he’s got a human working with him that wants vengeance on the world. They just have to figure out who. D’Hoffryn’s human ally turns out to be Jonathan, which he reveals to Andrew when they meet up. Once he gets his revenge, D’Hoffryn’s going to make him the first male vengeance demon. And in a show of how good he’d be at the job, Jonathan reveals what Andrew’s friends have been saying behind his back, how they don’t think he’s a strong part of the team and how his acquaintances don’t think much better of him. Poor Andrew.
The rest of the team isn’t doing much better. Giles went to the Faerie Realm, but they don’t want to fight D’Hoffryn after their queen was killed. Instead, they want to reach a treaty with him. And Buffy and Spike are at each others’ throats, Buffy slinging horrible words and trying to fracture their relationship. Turns out her self-sabotage techniques are finally working because Spike thinks maybe it’s time for them to take a break. I hate seeing them be torn apart like this. I had hoped Spike and Buffy would be forever but, alas, they’re going through a really rough patch and might not make it out unscathed at the end.
Rating: 3 / 5 Stars
