Dawn's quiet night in... Right.

Written by: Drew Goddard & Jane Espenson. Holden Webster... Jonathan Woodward Cassie... Azura Skye. Joyce... Kristine Sutherland Jonathan... Danny Strong Andrew... Tom Lenk Warren... Adam Busch Summary: Buffy's nightly patrol has a new twist when the vampire she's fighting turns out to be someone she used to know in high school. Willow is studying at the UC library when Cassie comes to her with a message from Tara while Dawn is home alone and suspects that her mother is trying to contact her. Jonathan and Andrew return to Sunnydale.

Willow's first meeting with Cassie, it's never too late. Haunting radio and a visit from mom. Therapy session at the graveyard. Holden's vampifier.

Quotes: Jonathan: Wish I'd have stayed in Mexico. Andrew: Ah, I didn't like it there. Everybody spoke Mexicalan. Jonathan: You could've learned it. You learned the entire Klingon dictionary in two and a half weeks. Buffy: So what have you been up to? Holden: Well, apparently dying. (both laugh) Uh, no, but other stuff. Uhh, you know, majoring in Psych. Really liking that. Uhh, took a year of to do an internship at the Sunnydale Mental Hospital. Buffy: Wow. That's gotta be a... popular joint. Holden: I—I keep telling them we ought to get a velvet rope and a bouncer. Hey, you remember Jason Wheeler, you know, "Crazy J"? Buffy: Oh, yeah. Holden: He always had that shtick of "Yeah, I'm crazy, I'm crazy." Buffy: How is he? Holden: Crazy. He's been in the chronic ward since graduation. Not really that funny, I guess. Buffy: Sorry. Holden: No, no. Feels great. Strong. Like I'm connected to a powerful all-consuming evil that's gonna suck the world into a firey oblivion. How 'bout you? Buffy: Not so much connected. Holden: I heard a lot of rumors about you back then. You were all mysterious. Buffy: I was? Holden: Well, you were never around. A lot of kids thought you were dating some really old guy, or that you were just heavy religious. Scott Hope said you were gay. Buffy: Yeah, what I really need is emotional therapy from the evil dead. Andrew: (doing an impression) "That boy is our last hope." Warren: "No, there is another." Andrew: Wait, really? Who's our last hope? Warren: No, I was just going with it. It was a thing. He's our last hope. Buffy: It's different. I think you're confusing me because you're evil. Holden: I just think you're in some pain here—which I do kind of enjoy 'cause I'm evil now—but you should just ease up on yourself. It's not exactly like you have the patent on bad relationships. Buffy: Wouldn't it be cool if I did? Holden: We're gonna have to fight to the death, aren't we? Buffy: It's the time-honored custom. Holden: Wow, reality just shows up sometimes, doesn't it? But, you know, I've got the bloodlust pumping, and I kinda get it. I'm looking for a fight. And, oh, it's nothing personal. Buffy: Oh, no, I mean, you've been great. Holden: And fun catching up. I haven't really kept in contact with many of my friends from high school. Guess I'll be looking them up pretty soon. (laughs) Buffy: Yeah. Holden: Hey, I don't mean to be Count Buttinsky here, but you just don't seem as thrilled. Is it because we're gonna fight? Buffy: 'S 'cause I'm gonna win. Holden: Buffy, I'm here to kill you, not to judge you. Buffy: I think I'm gonna kill you just a little bit more than usual. Holden: Aw, come one. I mean, we had a moment. You opened up. It was really sweet. It make me want to bite you. I'm sorry if I overstepped my bounds. I'm just new to this mortal enemy stuff. Pretty fast learner, though, right? Buffy: (pointing a stake to his heart) See? You're dead. That enough of a moment for ya? Holden: OK. But are you killing me 'cause I'm evil or because you opened up? Buffy: Uhh! What is wrong with you? Holden: Nothing. I got no worries. I'm dead. The biggest thing on my mind is whether or not Tricia Waldman came to my funeral or not. Do you remember her? Ohh—biteable.

My review for the episode: I would like to know what the text at the beginning meant. Was the name of the episode as a title with November 12th 2002 and 8:01 pm some kind of psychiatrist session thing or what? Just a slightly irrelevant question. The first time I saw this episode (about 5-6 years ago) I didn't like this because of Buffy blaming herself on everything, the shrink vamp saying she has a superiority complex (because to my knowledge she doesn't have one) and because it was said that she was attracted to men that hurt her, that she sought out the pain they brought (that statement including Angel), but now that I've seen it again after a long break, I think this is a great episode. Okay, I'll start with Dawn. I'm someone who very rarely likes Dawn, but during the season seven I actually like her more than find her annoying waste of space she was during the sixth season. Dawn being home alone without whining is refreshing and everything she does is kinda cute. It's established that Dawn has stayed friends with Kit, it's a good thing that she has her own friends outside the scoobies and the moron that introduced her to the vamp in All the way. The haunted house with thumping, strong wind, TV working even after pulling the plug, cheerleading chairs, black outs and bloody writing on the wall was creepy in a horror movie way and it gave a sense that it was terrifying for Dawn. Plus the growling was very creepy. It's actually sad that Dawn thinks it's her mother trying to reach her (but is stopped by the other thing in the house), because I highly doubt that Joyce would scare her like that and write to the walls with blood. It's good that Dawn does something to save her “mother”, but I don't think a spell to banish some evil demon/spirit is really that “easily” done by someone who has no real experience with magic, so I think it was all just smoke and mirrors by the First and the ethereal Joyce was really it trying to fill Dawn's head with doubt while mascaraing as someone she loves, trusts and misses. What else would explain Joyce saying “Buffy won't be there for you.” “When it's bad Buffy won't choose you. She is against you”, it clearly makes cracks into the bond between her and Buffy, making Dawn mistrustful of her sister there by driving Buffy away from her family and into isolation. Joyce has to be the first or her words just don't make sense and they aren't explained. But how could Dawn believe that since Buffy has already sacrificed her own life to save hers? Just doesn't make sense to me why it's Cassie that shows herself to Willow since they didn't have any emotional connection because they had never met while she was alive. But it's good to see Azure Skye again, she does great job with Cassie. And I love Amber Benson for her reasons for not doing this episode because it would have been just so disconcerting (for the fans) to see Tara as evil thing manipulating Willow and it really would have messed with Willow's head so much more than seeing Cassie. Also Alyson Hannigan scored some major points for Willow with her acting as she realizes it's Tara “Cassie” is talking about. Willow scenes are very moving, I feel ten times more sorry for her than I did at any time during Villains, Two to go or Grave, and it is good to see that she still misses and grieves Tara. The big bad is playing with Willow's grief over Tara and her fear that the power she has will take over and she will hurt or kill the people she cares about. And I love the moment when Willow realized that it's not Tara she's talking to and the bad guy taunting her is effective. Great acting from both Alyson and Azura Skye. And then we have Buffy. Don't really understand why she gets so beat by the vamp, but I love the moment when the vamp (Holden) recognizes her, it's so unexpected turn. And I just love the interaction between Buffy and Holden, she's so relaxed and smiling in his company and they have a great chemistry. We get a “dated a really old guy” aka Angel mention and Scott Hope is declared to be gay, I strongly suspect that's a reference to the actors role as the rat-face slimeball Ethan in Queer as Folk. Holden is charming and funny, Buffy clearly likes him and feels bad that she has to kill him, but she also knows that he is unrepentantly evil and looking forward to killing people. But even though her shrink is evil and dead, it is good for Buffy to talk to someone even if he's there to kill her, not to judge her. Buffy is blaming herself for everything, feeling bad for what she's done to her friends and what she did with and to Spike, is very in character since she's had that habbit from the beginning (like blaming herself for not being able to save Jesse in Welcome to the Hellmouth while she did save both Willow and Xander), but it would be strange and un-Buffy-like for her to blame anyone else (even if she had a reason to). But that doesn't mean that I have to like the blame-fest. Even though there are a lot of things that bug me about the therapy session, they do bring a lot insight into Buffy's feelings about season 6, how she didn't want love and felt she didn't deserve the power being a slayer gave her. And why is what Buffy had with Spike referred as a relationship? Even though few times during the nearly seven years of BtVS Buffy has used the “I'm the slayer” explanation doesn't mean she has a superiority complex, she doesn't act like she's better than everyone else and she really does have abilities and responsibilities that no one else has, she has to make hard decisions that no one else makes or wants to make (like Xander refused in Selfless). It's not a superiority complex, it's just a hard fact. Holden cried out superiority complex when Buffy stated that she wasn't enthusiastic about the fight because she knew she was going to win, she knew her abilities and trusted herself and in the end it did happen, she had to kill Holden and she won even if it was a bitter victory. This was a very acting orientated episode and everyone did great job with their roles. There was so much going on that I didn't even miss Xander and I don't think there really would have been any room for him or Anya. And my love for Jonathan is returning, sad that when he tried to make amends to the things he did last year he gets murdered by his best friend. This had plenty of great dialog and scenes, the tomb working as a shrink's couch was nice touch. Even though this was mostly just talk, there were plenty of things happening and it moved the season arc along by uncovering the seal and the big bad appearing to several characters. Holden being sired by Spike was a good twist, then the scene cutting into Spike biting the woman he had been talking to in the bar. Plus the ending looked good with cutting through all the characters ending with Buffy winning the fight against Holden. 9 ½