Original Air Date: May 16th, 2000

Written by David Fury
Directed by James A. Contner

Summary

Buffy goes over to the school but she can't find Riley. Meanwhile Riley is with Adam in the cave. Riley wants to know what has been done to him and Adam explains that Professor Walsh implanted a Behaviour Modification chip in him. Adam activated it and now he has control over Riley's actions. Apparently Professor Walsh set this up so that they would work together in the finale stage of phase 314. Spike shows up and Adam tells him that he wants the Slayer down in the Initiative when the whole plan goes down because she'll ensure the death of many demons.

That day Willow goes over to Giles' to retrieve her latop and the disks. Meanwhile Buffy is in her room, somber after her fight with her friends. She grabs a lethal looking axe and heads out. Xander is also in his room, laying in bed doing nothing. He doesn't want to go anywhere because he's depressed. Anya tries to reassure him of his good qualities. Buffy heads out to the cave where Forrest died and finds a pile of computer equipment. She also finds Spike lurking around in the cave, something dawns on her and she leaves the cave immediately. Willow is still trying to decrypt the disks. Suddenly they decrypt on their own and Willow receives a call from Buffy. Adam takes Riley into a secret lab where Adam plans to create his new race of half humans and half demons. Riley is horrified to find Professor Walsh walking around as a reanimated walking corpse and Forrest to be half demon very much like Adam. Riley is put in a chair while Forrest tells him about this new strength and Professor Walsh gives him a needle. Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles meet on campus and they figure out that it was Spike who got them so mad at each other. Willow tells them that the disks told her about the Initiative's final phase to make some human/demon hybrids and that there's a secret lab somewhere in the Initiative. Buffy realizes that the containment area is so full because Adam plans to attack the Initiative from the inside and that'll give him lots of body parts to create his legion. They head to Giles' where Xander inadvertantly gives them an idea on how to kill Adam. They all head to the Initiative and go down the levator shaft by way of cables. Buffy and Willow are heading down together and they apologize for not being there for each other. When the whole gang makes it in to the Initiative they're all held at gun point by a team of soliders waiting for them. Adam is pissed at Spike because he failed to get the Slayer alone down there. Adam tries to have Spike killed but he escapes.

The Scooby Gang is taken to Colonel McNamara. Buffy tries to explain about Adam and tells him about the secret lab. Suddenly the power goes out and the emergency lights come on, all due to Adam. Adam then opens the cells containing the demons and locks all the doors that lead to the outside. The Colonel leads a squad out to fight the demons while the gang heads off to find Adam. Meanwhile chaos is everywhere while soliders and demons fight savagely. The Scooby gang crosses the war zone and head to room 314. They find a secret passage in the wall that leads to the secret lab. Buffy goes in alone while Willow, Xander and Giles set up for the magick spell. Buffy finds Riley in the lab but he can't speak to her. Willow begins the invocation spell while Buffy gets into a fight with the demonic Forrest. Riley gains some self control and grabs a broken piece of glass. He cuts his chest open and reaches in to yank out the Behaviour Modification chip. He gets to his feet and goes to help Buffy fight Forrest. Buffy, realizing that Riley's okay, leaves him to fight Forrest while she searches for Adam. She finds him and tries fighting him but he quickly gains the upperhand. Suddenly his hand transforms into a machine gun and Buffy ducks for cover behind a computer console in the room. Meanwhile Willow finishes the spell which invokes the primeval forces as well as Xander, Willow and Giles into Buffy (the vessel). The spell works and Buffy shudders as the spirits invade her. Hey eyes flash as she stands up and begins chanting while a shocked Adam tries firing on her. The bullets simply stop before they reach her by an invisible force field. Riley is still fighting Forrest and manages to kill him by blowing him up with a container of flammable gas. Buffy fights Adam hand to hand relentlessly and quickly corners him against a wall. She shoves her hand through his chest and rips out his Uranium core. With a look of shock in his eyes, Adam collapses to the ground. Riley appears and catches Buffy as she falls when the spirits leave her body. The gang gets out of there as quickly as possible.

After seeing the destruction of the Initiative base, Mr. Ward tells men in suits that the Initiative's and Maggie Walsh's plan had been an excellent idea; to control the otherwordly beings and use them for good as well as research. Since this plan failed he decides to have the records expunged and the men debriefed with standard confidentiality clauses. The Initiative base will then be burnt to the ground and the cause left behind.

Summary written by Nika

Quote of the Week

Buffy: Xander!
Willow: Oh, wonderful Xander!
Buffy (while giving a group hug): You know we love you, right?
Willow: We totally do.
Xander: Oh God, we're gonna die, aren't we?

My Rating

4/5

Nika Summers' Review

Mixed feelings... very much mixed feelings. The very first time I saw the Buffy and the amazing "hey-doesn't-it-look-like-the-Matrix" force field I thought to myself "What cheese." But you know what? It damn well beats out part two of last season's finale and that's a most definite plus. But I have to admit that the second time I watched it I got a lot more into it. I started thinking of it less as a TV show and more as a movie and it kind of fell into place there. I really liked how the Scooby Gang invoked themselves into Buffy who acted as the vessel. I liked the idea but whta I really didn't like was how they didn't explain more of it. But this will help a little: This is the spell Buffy chanted: Sha me-en-den. Gesh-toog me-en-den. Zee me-en-den. Oo-khush-ta me-ool-lee-a ba-ab-tum-mu-de-en. And this is the translation: We are heart. We are mind. We are spirit. From the raging storm, we bring the power of the Primeval One. Now I've got but one question: Who or what is the Primeval One? Like was it Willow and Giles being cast into Buffy or were they higher powers or something? That really didn't make any sense to me. Now, let's talk about Riley and his suddenly incredible regenerating powers. Okay, so the guy cuts his chest open with a piece of glass, reaches in and pulls it out? And yet there's very little blood and he can then go into a spectacular fight with Forrest (which BTW, that flip he did off of Forrest's shoulders was really cool). I don't think so. Anyway, on to the ending. At first I wasn't too happy with way things were going to be ending this season but it looks like they did a good job of killing off Adam. It was as well done as they could get it considering that Adam is supposed to invincible. My only problem with the ending was the color change in Buffy's eyes. Red didn't look so bad but the yellow was absolutely hideous. Had they done silver I think it would have looked better. My biggest question for this entire season though is why did Adam kill Maggie in the first place? He clearly knew that she was his maker and that she would aid in the final stages. So why did he kill? Personally, I think it comes off as a pointless kill. Anyway, that was our big fight of the season... I wonder what's waiting for us next week?

Niki Bartl's Review

How hokey was this episode? the more I think about it, the less I like it. Suddenly they give us all this facts like "okay, this is how it is now. you must accept that Adam has a gun on his arm, that the PTB are suddenly lending a hand and Riley, oh yeah, he has a chip in his heart and he cuts it out and now gets into a gigantic fight which doesn't seem to hurt him at all." Ugh! and the Matrix style bullet dissolving scene? Just about the only part I liked was the elevator shaft scene, especially with Xander's dialogue. What the hell were they possessed by? The Powers That Be? I'm curious about next week's episode though, is it just a regular ep? Or is it the season premiere...

Cast