At Giles' shop the gang is discussing
Buffy's birthday and Glory. Giles informs them that Glory
is a god from a demon dimension that must suck energy
from humans, turning them insane, in order to remain
human. The Scoobies start asking questions about the Key
and Buffy decides that it's time to tell them about Dawn.
Meanwhile the Knights of Byzantine are attacked by Glory
and her minions. Many minions die but Glory makes quick
work of the Knights.
The next day Willow and Tara are setting
up a spell outside the Magic Box, it's an early warning
spell to alert them to Glory's presence, they've done the
same thing around Buffy's house. Dawn shows up at the
shop and everyone acts rather weird around her now that
they know she's the Key. Giles is putting away his
personal diaries and one in particular catches Dawn's
eye. Meanwhile Glory has taken one of the Knights to her
place and she's trying to get the location of the Key out
of him. But he, like all the others, will not tell her.
Since he's useless she decides to drain his sanity. That
night at the Summers' home, they're celebrating Buffy's
20th birthday. Buffy opens a present from Dawn and it's a
picture of the two of them a couple years ago. Buffy gets
very sentimental realizing that she remembers the memory,
even though it never really happened. Later on when Dawn
enters the room everyone shuts up, freaking Dawn out.
Loudly she says that she's sick of people talking about
her and eventually she'll figure out what they're talking
about. Angry, she goes to her room and sneaks out the
window. On her way to the Magic Box she runs into Spike
who decides to go with her so that she doesn't get hurt
along the way. They break into the shop and Dawn starts
looking for the book she'd had her eye on before. She
finds it in a hidden drawer and starts reading. She then
learns that she's the Key and she isn't even human. Later
on at the Summers', the gang is interrupted by Dawn who
stands in front of them bleeding from her wrist and
holding a large knife. Hysterically she demands to know
what she is and if this is even really blood. After
everyone has left Buffy and Joyce try to comfort her but
Dawn is beyond angry and hurt and doesn't want to talk to
them.
The next day Buffy wants to find out
everything about the Key so that Dawn can at least have
some peace of mind. Buffy goes to Spike's and berates him
for letting Dawn finds out like that but he says that
Dawn would have found out sooner or later. At the
hospital Ben is surprised to find a Knight in the mental
ward as well as Jinx waiting for him. Ben knows that
Glory can't hurt him so he doesn't bother wasting his
time on Jinx. Meanwhile Dawn is up in her room clutching
her diaries. She overhears Buffy saying that they aren't
her family and they don't even knows what she is. Hurt,
Dawn trashes her room and lights her diaries on fire.
Suddenly an alarm goes off while Buffy and Joyce are
talking; it's the alert spell. They find Dawn's room
empty. The gang convenes at Giles' shop and split up into
groups to find Dawn. Dawn makes her way to the hospital
and into the mental ward. She asks the patients if they
can see her and what she really is. The Knight surprises
her and scares her saying he must destroy her. She runs
out of the ward and bumps into Ben. He sists down with
her and she tells him that she's doesn't exist. He
figures out that she's the Key and vehemently tells her
to leave because Glory is coming. Suddenly Ben transforms
into Glory. Glory explains that her family is complicated
and wants to know what Dawn and Ben were talking about.
The gang reconvenes and none of them have
had any luck finding Dawn. Buffy decides to check the
hospital. At the hospital Dawn is trying to get info out
of Glory about the Key; what it looks like, what it does,
etc. They Key has been around almost as long as Glory and
it's not evil. Glory gets fed up with Dawn's questions
and figures that she has no idea where the key is hidden.
Glory decides to kill Dawn as a message to the Slayer
when in walks Buffy. Buffy and Glory start fighting
violently while Tara and Willow start a spell. Giles
fires a crossbow bolt at Glory but it just bounces off
her. Glory throws a crowbar at Dawn but Buffy lunges in
front of Dawn and the crowbar buries itself in Buffy's
chest, which she pulls out painfully. Willow and Tara
finish their spell which makes Glory disappear. It's a
re-location spell and they have no idea where they sent
Glory (which turns out to be in the air above the town).
Buffy tells Dawn that she loves her as her sister. Buffy
puts her hand to her chest smearing it with blood and
then grabs Dawn's hand which is covered in Dawn's blood,
creating a blood tie between them. Dawn mentions Ben, but
she can't remember what happened to him, almost as if her
memory had been erased.
Well well well! Tons of info learned
from this episode. So Glory must suck the sanity out fo
humans in order to stay human herself. Interesting, but
I'm not sure exactly WHY she needs to do it. How would
their sanity facilitate her human form? And Glory and Ben
are sister and brother? Because that's what it sounds
like when Glory mentioned that her family was
complicated. So let's say that Ben is Glory's brother, or
maybe step-brother or something to that effect. Does he
have special strength? Or maybe he was stripped of his
god-like qualities because he wanted to remain human.
They're like the normal feuding siblings. This is an
interesting turn of events though. The best acting in
this episode was by Michelle Trachtenberg. Awesome,
absolutely awesome. How old is she? 14? 15? Well that was
incredible depth for someone of her age. When she was
standing there bleeding with the knife in her hand and
screaming hysterically about this being not really blood
and asking what she was. The emotion there felt so real
that it was scary. And later on in her room, where, out
of fury and sadness, she tries to hurt the people around
her like she feels they hurt her (telling Joyce that she
wasn't really her mother. Joyce looked like she aged 20
years when she heard that. It was scary.) Making Dawn the
Key though was kind of strange though... I mean, how did
they think a teenager was going to react to being found
out she's human? And a teenager finding that out too is
even worse because at 14 it's a really hard time in your
life. Thank you Michelle, for giving such depth to Dawn's
character.
