Bargaining (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Plot

Five months after Buffy's death, the Scooby Gang continues patrolling Sunnydale under Willow's leadership, with her magical abilities growing stronger. To hide Buffy's absence from enemies and social workers who think she is Dawn's guardian, they rely on the flawed Buffybot. At the magic shop, Giles packs his belongings to return to England. Willow secretly plans to resurrect Buffy using magic, with Anya finding the final mystical component on eBay, but she hides this from Giles, Spike, and Dawn. A vampire survives an encounter with the Buffybot and deduces the real Slayer is dead, informing a demon biker gang that then targets Sunnydale. Willow kills a baby deer as part of her resurrection ritual. Giles departs for England.

Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara gather at Buffy's grave, and Willow begins the ritual. Meanwhile, the demon bikers rampage through town, damaging the Buffybot when she intervenes. They follow the Buffybot as she seeks Willow, interrupting the ritual near its end. When the bikers smash a crucial artifact for the spell, the Scooby Gang scatters, believing the ritual failed. Unknown to them, Buffy has been resurrected and awakens trapped in her coffin. Xander carries Willow to the magic shop to meet Tara and Anya. The bikers continue attacking the Buffybot. Buffy claws her way out of her coffin and emerges to the surface, confused and traumatized. Spike steals a demon's motorcycle and rides away with Dawn to escape the rampaging demons.

Disoriented, Buffy wanders through town and encounters the Hellions, the demon bikers, as they finish destroying the Buffybot. She flees from them, then stumbles upon Willow and her friends, but runs from them too. As they chase her, the demons attack, but Buffy turns and defeats them before fleeing again. The biker leader recovers and attacks Xander and the others. Willow uses magic against him, and when he turns on her, Tara kills him with an axe. Spike and Dawn find the Buffybot's severed head. When Spike examines it, the head suggests to Dawn that the real Buffy has returned, and Dawn runs away in distress.