Transcriber's Notes:
TeaserGILES VOICEOVER: Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
Monks running in fear.
The dying monk talking to Buffy.
MONK: We had to hide the key ... made it human...
Monks chanting.
MONK: ...and sent it to you.
BUFFY VOICEOVER: Dawn.
Glory smashing through the warehouse.
BUFFY VOICEOVER: Tell me what kind of demon I'm fighting.
QUENTIN TRAVERS VOICEOVER: Glory isn't a demon, she's a god.
GLORY: Did you know your sister took my key, Dawnie, and she won't give it back. I bet you know where she put it, don't you?
Spike and Dawn in the magic shop.
SPIKE: (reading) They had to be certain the Slayer would protect it with her life, so they sent the key to her, in the form of a sister.
BEN: You're the key. Go. Before she finds you, she's here!
Ben morphing into Glory.
Spike talking to Buffy in his underground cavern.
SPIKE: I love you.
BUFFY: The only chance you had with me was when I was unconscious.
Buffy kneeling atop Orlando in "Checkpoint."
BUFFY: Let's see what you are.
Buffy removing Orlando's mask.
BUFFY: Or who you are.
ORLANDO: One soldier in a vast army.
The knights chanting in a circle.
KNIGHTS: The key is the link. The link must be severed.
Glory talking to a tied-up Orlando.
GLORY: Where ... is ... the key?
ORLANDO: I'd die a thousand deaths before I'd tell you.
Glory putting her fingers into Orlando's brain.
Willow running through crowds of people.
WILLOW: No!
Glory putting her fingers into Tara's brain.
WILLOW: Tara! No!
Tara sitting on the bench. Willow running over to her.
WILLOW: Tara, I'm so sorry.
BUFFY: What are you gonna need?
WILLOW: They gave me a lot of stuff to keep her calm.
Willow kissing Tara on the forehead.
Glory breaking down the wall. Dawn and Buffy jumping up.
GLORY: I told you this wasn't over.
TARA: (gasping, staring at Dawn) Oh, look at that, look at that. Such pure green energy!
Glory smiling.Episode opens where "Tough Love" left off. Buffy and Dawn stand staring at Glory. Willow kneels on the bed next to Tara who is still staring up at Dawn.
Buffy whirls, grabs Dawn by the hand and runs straight through the door into the dorm hallway. They crash to the floor amid broken pieces of door.
Glory laughs and starts after them. Willow holds up a hand. Glory suddenly can't move. She makes an angry face.
Buffy and Dawn get up, run down the hall.
Willow wraps her other arm around Tara, continues holding up her right hand while speaking some Latin.
Glory goes flying backward, off the side of the building into some bushes.
Willow and Tara get up and run out.
Buffy and Dawn run through the lobby of the building. It's full of students walking, sitting, standing, talking, reading, etc. Buffy still has Dawn by the hand. They run to the doors and outside.
Glory comes crashing through the wall into the building. People scream and run away. Glory walks forward, looks around, sees the door Buffy and Dawn just exited.
Glory turns into a blur as she moves forward at superhuman speed.
Buffy and Dawn run across grass. More students are all around, staring as they go by.
DAWN: Buffy!
BUFFY: We have to keep moving!
DAWN: I can't!Dawn falls to the ground. Buffy hauls her back up and scoops Dawn up in her arms, jumps over a bench and continues running. She crosses the lawn, goes across a paved pathway, heading toward the street.
Glory, still a super-fast blur, moves across the lawn toward them.
Buffy, still carrying Dawn, comes out onto the sidewalk and suddenly Glory is in front of them. Buffy puts Dawn down and they both stare fearfully at Glory.
GLORY: I really hate it when people touch my things.
Buffy and Dawn just stand there looking scared.
GLORY: Last words, slay-runt?
BUFFY: Just one. Truck.Glory looks to her right, too late, as a huge semi smashes into her.Buffy and Dawn run off in the other direction.
Glory lands on her back on top of a parked car, smashing its roof in. She starts to sit up, then stops with a jerk.
GLORY: No! Not now, you idiot! Let go-
She morphs into Ben.
BEN: -of my body!
Ben rolls off the car onto the ground, looks around. He's wearing Glory's dress.
BEN: Oh, god.
Wolf howl. Opening credits.
Guest starring Clare Kramer, Charlie Weber, Wade Andrew Williams, Karim Prince, and Amber Benson as Tara. Written by Steven S. DeKnight, directed by James A. Contner.
Act I
Open on Xander's apartment. Dawn stands in the middle of the room telling the story.
DAWN: A-and then whoosh! All of a sudden Glory's standing right there in front of us, (we see Giles standing listening, and Buffy peering out through the closed window blinds) all skanky and blonde and thinkin' she's all that (shot of Xander and Anya sitting, listening) just 'cause some bumpy heads kiss her stinky feet ... (pauses, very quietly) She does have nice feet. (louder) A-and she's comin' right at us, and- (shot of the whole room. Willow and Tara sitting on the sofa) Buffy's just standing there not even blinking, like "Bring it on," and then, wham! (smacks one fist into the other hand) Hell-bitch in orbit.
XANDER: Go, Buff!
GILES: I knew you'd best Glory eventually, I mean all-all our years of training-
BUFFY: (still staring out the window) A truck hit her.
GILES: Oh.
ANYA: You threw it at her?
DAWN: Well, no. She more kind of waited for it to hit Glory. Uh, but then Buffy ran really fast and we got away. (Shot of Willow and Tara on the sofa. Tara still stares blankly at Dawn.)
BUFFY: I don't know how we got away. That truck couldn't have slowed her down for more than a second.
GILES: Well, how isn't important, all that matters is that the two of you are safe.Buffy scoffs, turns to look at him.
BUFFY: Safe? (angrily) We've barely been able to manage not getting seriously dead every time we've crossed paths with Glory. Now that she knows that Dawn is the key?
Giles and Dawn look chastised.
GILES: There must be something in the Book of Tarnis that we've missed, something we can use against Glory.
Buffy turns to look out the window again.
ANYA: Piano!
XANDER: Because that's what we used to kill that big demon that one time!Buffy turns to look at them with a confused frown.
XANDER: No wait, that-that was a rocket launcher. (turns to Anya) Ahn, what are you talking about?
ANYA: We should drop a piano on her. Well, it always works for that creepy cartoon rabbit when he's running from that nice man with the speech impediment.
GILES: (rolls his eyes) Yes, or perhaps we could paint a convincing tunnel on the side of a mountain. Let's just keep thinking, everyone. (to Buffy) Perhaps we should reassemble at the magic shop, see if there's anything-
BUFFY: We can't fight her.
GILES: (surprised) W-well not yet, no, but-
BUFFY: No, not ever. She's too strong, Giles. We're not gonna win this with, with stakes, or spells, or pulling out some uranium power core. She's a god and she's coming for us. So let's just not be here when she starts knocking.
ANYA: Run away?Buffy looks at her.
ANYA: Finally, a sensible plan.
XANDER: That's not what she meant. (to Buffy) Is it?
BUFFY: Well, we can't stay here! She'll just kill us off one by one until there's no one left standing between her and Dawn.
GILES: Buffy, we all understand the severity of the situation, but there must be another way.
BUFFY: (harshly) No. We stay, we die. Show of hands for that option.Everyone is silent.
BUFFY: All right. Nobody goes home, nobody tells anybody we're leaving. Just pack up whatever supplies we need and that's it, we're gone.
DAWN: (quietly) Cool. Don't have to study for that geometry test.
XANDER: (quietly) What about wheels? I don't think everybody's gonna fit in the Xandermobile.
BUFFY: Just get your stuff together. I'll handle the rest.She turns to look out the window again.
Cut to: Glory's apartment. Ben comes down the stairs to the main room, wearing regular clothes, followed by a minion, Gronx. Gronx holds Glory's dress and speaks with a female voice (although she looks just like the others).
GRONX: This is, this is terrible. I'll never be able to mend this.
BEN: Not really my color anyway. (sits on the arm of a sofa)
GRONX: Oh, yes. Inappropriate humor. (fake laugh) Most amusing. Don't suppose you know what led to this sartorial tragedy.
BEN: That's not how it works, you know that.
GRONX: Yes, of course. I just thought maybe after her magnificent incandescence was returned to this ... manly and ... (looking Ben up and down) painfully handsome assemblage ... you might have noticed something interesting? A key in human form, perhaps? Lounging about unattended?
BEN: If I did, do you really think I would tell you?
GRONX: Why do you insist on fighting the inevitable? No one can stand against her blindingly scrumptious luminescence.
BEN: Glory. Her name is Glory, and she's your god, you little scab, not mine.
GRONX: With all due respect and-and fear of sharp objects, you exist, sir, only because of her divine greatness.
BEN: You mean her divine failure, don't you?Gronx squints angrily at him. Ben gets up to pace.
BEN: I didn't ask for any of this. I just want to be normal.
GRONX: We play the hand we're dealt.
BEN: Nothing's mine, is it? This life, this body, it's all infected. The only thing I ever cared about she's taken away from me. You know why I wanted to be a doctor?
GRONX: Flattering drawstring pants?
BEN: To be close to people. To witness their lives and their deaths, to be there alongside them, a part of everyday humanity. (sighs) Maybe it's the drugs. (walks past)
GRONX: Drugs, sir? (follows him)
BEN: Find the right combination, keep her buried where she belongs.
GRONX: Impossible! Her magnificence can never be fully contained! She is a perfect, all-encompassing light, one you should feel honored to be bathed in.
BEN: Oh, yeah, I'm thrilled. Especially with the part where she gets her key back and I cease to exist.
GRONX: True, this oh-so-appealing form will of necessity be shrugged off.
BEN: Not if I get the key first. (turns to leave but Gronx stops him)
GRONX: And if you did ... what then? Could you do it? (Ben looks annoyed) Take a human life with your own hands? (comfortingly) Oblivion is such a small inconvenience in the service of a deity. Accept your fate. I mean, you said it yourself. This life was never really yours anyway, was it?
BEN: It doesn't matter how I came by it. It's mine. And I plan on keeping it.Cut to: city street, day. Willow and Tara sit on a bench while Giles, Anya, and Xander stand. They all have bags of stuff and are watching the cars go by.
ANYA: Anybody else feel that?
WILLOW: What?
ANYA: Cold draft of paralyzing fear.
GILES: We just need to stay calm.
WILLOW: (skeptical) Calm, right.
XANDER: Hey, we gotta be like Sergeant Rock. Cool and collected in the face of overwhelming odds.
ANYA: *Over*whelming? (turns to him) How much more than whelming would that be exactly?
GILES: Look, everything will be all right, we just need to stay here calmly. As soon as Buffy arrives-A large Winnebago (RV, motor home) drives up and screeches to a halt in front of them. The windows are all covered with aluminum foil. The door swings open.
GILES: -we'll feel oddly worse.
They all pick up their stuff and climb into the Winnebago.
Cut to inside. Looking from the driver's seat back, on the left there's a small kitchen area with sink; on the right, a booth with a table. Farther back there's a door leading into a back bedroom.
Willow and Anya look with interest at the driver's area as they and Tara move to sit around the table. We see Buffy sitting at the table already, studying maps.
Giles and Xander enter. Giles looks at the driver's area too, does a double-take.
We see Spike sitting in the driver's seat, wearing a large pair of black goggles.
GILES: (grimly) What's he doing here?
SPIKE: Just out for a jaunt. Thought I'd swing by and say howdy.
GILES: Out.
BUFFY: (looks up from the table) He's here because we need him.
XANDER: The hell we do.
BUFFY: If Glory finds us, he's the only one besides me that has any chance of protecting Dawn.
XANDER: Buffy, come