Villains (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Plot

An ambulance pulls up to the Summers house to treat Buffy, who has been shot by Warren Mears. Upstairs, a devastated Willow calls on Osiris to resurrect Tara, but the spell fails because Tara’s death was not magical in nature. Willow heads downstairs, where Xander tells her Warren shot Buffy, but she keeps quiet about Warren also killing Tara. Warren celebrates at Willie’s bar, boasting he killed the Slayer, until a TV news report reveals Buffy is still alive; a vampire patron comments she will likely hunt him down.

Warren goes to the black magician Rack, asking for protection from Buffy, but Rack says Willow is the real threat. Terrified, Warren pays for Rack’s help, though Rack warns that Willow’s rage will likely overpower his defenses. Willow enters the magic shop. Anya tries to stop her, but Willow absorbs immense power and becomes a dark magician.

She appears at the hospital, using magic to heal Buffy so she can help capture Warren. Dawn comes home and discovers Tara’s body. Xander and Buffy join Willow in the chase; Buffy tries to talk Willow out of using magic, but Willow insists Buffy is only alive because of her sorcery. They catch up to a bus Warren seems to be fleeing on, but when Willow tries to kill him, she finds it is only a robotic duplicate.

She finally tells Buffy and Xander that Warren killed Tara. When they refuse to help her execute Warren, warning the magic could corrupt her beyond redemption, she attacks them and disappears. Buffy and Xander return home to find Dawn with Tara’s body. After the body is taken away, they argue over what to do about Warren; only Buffy is unsure he should be killed, but everyone agrees Willow’s vengeance will destroy her too.

Over Xander’s objections, Buffy goes to ask Spike for help, but learns he has left Sunnydale without explanation and Clem is looking after his crypt until he returns. Buffy then asks Clem to watch a reluctant Dawn while she searches for Willow. In Africa, Spike approaches a cave-dwelling demon, wanting to undergo an ordeal to regain his greatest desire: to be restored to what he once was. He believes things have been wrong since he got his chip. The demon agrees, though he questions how Spike’s feelings about the Slayer have brought him to this point.