Willow and Tara are in their dorm room and
once again Tara mentions that she doesn't feel like a useful
part of the group but Willow tries telling her that she's
essential to them. Meanwhile Giles is at Buffy's house and
she's just told him about Dawn being the key. Buffy isn't
going to tell Dawn or anyone else about what Dawn is. Giles
thinks Glory (the woman in red) will try to take Dawn away
and Buffy wants to protect Dawn. Meanwhile, Glory gets up
from the debris of the crashed down building and she's quite
upset.
The next day the gang is packing up Buffy's
dorm because she has decided to move back home while her mom
is sick. Tara cracks a joke but everyone just stares at her
oddly, not getting the joke. While Tara's out of the room
Willow reminds the gang about Tara's birthday party tomorrow
night which all of them had forgotten about until Willow
mentioned it. Meanwhile at the hospital, the 5th crazy person
is brought into this hospital this very month. Ben, an
intern, is about to get attacked by a hideous demon with an
extremely large tongue when Glory appears and grabs the demon
telling him that she needs his help. At Giles' shop later on,
Anya's really excited about her new job. Buffy and Xander
walk in and start research on the woman but all they can talk
about is how little they know Tara and they have no idea wha
to get her for her birthday. Meanwhile Spike is making love
to Harmony while he's dreaming of fighting Buffy. Back at
Giles' shop a man walks in and start rifling through Giles'
personal magic books. Tara and Willow then walk in and the
man greets Tara as his sister. Tara doesn't look to happy to
see her brother Donny. Suddenly her father as well as her
cousin Beth walk in. They're here for her birthday and want
to take Tara out to supper to do some catching up. Tara's a
little put off by her family's arrival in town.
Buffy returns home where Riley has put all
her stuff back in her room. Buffy then refuses Dawn
permission to go to her friend's house for supper because she
says its too dangerous. Buffy says that they all have to be
very careful but Riley thinks there's more to it than that.
He leaves her house, mad that she won't tell him what's going
on. Tara returns to her dorm to find her father inside
snooping around. He's not happy that she's kept up with her
witchcraft. He tells her that she's turning twenty soon and
she'll have to come back home because the evil inside her
will appear shortly. They need to be gone by morning so that
no one gets hurt. Meanwhile Glory has taken the ugly demon to
her place and she finds out from him that she was fighting a
vampire slayer. She tells him to get his friends together and
kill the Slayer for her.
Later at Giles' shop they're having a Scooby
meeting with everyone except Tara who said she didn't want to
go. Unbeknowst to them, Tara is hiding behind a door in the
shop. She casts a spell on them and then leaves. The spell
affects the gang but they don't notice it. Harmony returns to
Spike's crypt after a shopping spree and tells him that she
heard a bit of gossip about a group of demons gathering to
kill the Slayer. Spike, excited, goes out to find them. Tara
goes out for a walk and runs in to her cousin Beth. Beth
figures out that Tara cast a spell on her friends so that
they wouldn't see the demon part of her.
Back at Giles' shop, a group of demons appear
at the door but Willow can't see them because of Tara's
spell. The demons enter the shop and head to the back room
where Buffy is training. Suddenly the gang is attacked by
things they can't see. Buffy's trying to fight not doing so
well so Spike jumps in to help her. Tara appears, realizes
her mistake and lifts her spell from the group. Tara's family
appears just as Buffy kills the last Layarch demon. Tara
apologizes to them but she didn't want her friends to see her
demon side. Willow can't believe that Tara didn't tell her
about her family or her demon side. Tara's father says she's
to come back with them so that they can control her. Willow
asks Tara if she wants to leave and Tara really doesn't want
to go back home. Buffy then tells Tara's father that they're
a family and that if they want to take Tara away against her
will then they're gonna have to go through Buffy first. Anya
then asks what kind of demon Tara is but her family doesn't
even know. Spike then decides to figure it out for all of
them: he punches Tara in the nose, causing him intense pain
and proving that Tara isn't a demon. Apparently its only a
family legend that the women become demons on their twentieth
birthday. Her family leaves and Tara is elated to find out
she isn't a demon.
That night everyone is having fun at the
Bronze for Tara's birthday party. A slow song comes on and
Willow asks Tara to dance. While dancing Willow tells Tara
that she's proud of her for turning out to be such a
wonderful person despite the problems she's had with her
family. They continue to dance peacefully, floating above the
floor of the Bronze.
Summary written by
Nika
Quote of the Week
Giles: (about
Tara's birthday present, directed to Buffy and
Xander) You're in a magic shop and you can't
figure out what Tara would like? I believe you're
both profoundly stupid.
My Rating
2/5
Nika's Review
I am not a fan of this episode. It was too
much of a let down for it. All I can think right now is that
we've been waiting one year to find out Tara's big secret,
and well, yay for her that she isn't a demon, but it kind of
*killed* the suspense that's been building for a nice long
while now. It reminds me of that whole thing with Mayor
Wilkins just being blown up with dynamite. The storyline was
just beaten in this episode and that was really sad because I
was expecting something a little more spectacular. On the
DEFINITE plus side though: Tara now has a one-tone hair
colour and it looks ever so much better than that weird stuff
she had going on before. What I don't even get is how all of
a sudden Buffy's all for saving Tara. I can kind of
understand it because I think I'd do it too but it just felt
weird and it seemed like she was trying TOO hard to make Tara
feel comfortable with them. Spike was funny in this episode
though, when he went over and punched Tara... That was
great...
Niki Bartl's Review
I didn't really like this episode. I think
it was sort of an attempt to bring Tara into the fold and
yay! for her, but it just didn't seem to flow nicely. First
of all, I realize that Tara is shy and no offence to all
stutterers out there, but it is driving me nuts! And her dad!
Errr! And Buffy and Xander don't know her or really are her
friends and then all of a sudden they're her
"family"? And HOW does no one not notice two girls
flying in the middle of the Bronze. And Buffy is still
20....so if the legal drinking age in America is 21... then
Buffy and Xander are underage... just a train of thought...
Anyways, the whole build-up to this episode seemed really
cool. I mean, it was all shrouded in mystery and we had to
wait almost and entire year to find out what was really up
with Tara, and I got all excited when I saw that Joss had
written and directed it, I figured it was in for a real
treat, but was extremely disappointed by the way the plot
just fizzled out. I mean, yes, you can use the whole theory
of the demon lie to get the wife to stay home as a metaphor,
but it was lame! What did happen to Tara's mum, we know she
had the "demon", did her husband kill her? The only
saving grace part of this episode was Spike's meager lines in
the "family" scene....
Cast
