Original Air Date: May 23rd, 2000

Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon

Summary

Okay, this is a very confusing summary because it's basically everyone's dreams. A lot of it doesn't make sense, but that's how it's supposed to be.

It's right after the huge Initiative battle, the whole gang is at Buffy's house but Riley is called away for debriefing. Joyce heads up to bed while Willow, Xander, Buffy and Giles plop down in the living room and pop in a video. But before the movie even starts they're all sound asleep. Willow's dreaming that she's painting Latin words on Tara's bare back while Tara worries why they haven't found their cat's True Name but Willow's not worried because she feels safe at Tara's. Tara tells her that she doesn't know everything about her. Tara also says to Willow that people will eventually find out about the real Willow but Willow doesn't want to think about that. We then cut to Willow walking throught the university's campus. She says hi to Xander and Oz and Oz mentions that she's taking drama. Willow asks him if he's taken it and he answers "Oh, I've been here forever". The bell rings and Willow realizes she's going to be late. She heads to the back stage of the auditorium where everyone is getting ready for the production of "Death of a Salesman". Buffy appears in a black wig and tells Willow that all her friends and family are out there and they look angry. Buffy tells her not to worry and that no one will find out about the real Willow. Willow doesn't have a clue what's going on and suddenly a guy with cheese appears and talks nonsense to her. Willow then walks around backstage through the red curtains. Tara appears and realizes that Willow doesn't understand yet. Willow senses something following her. Tara then tells her that everyone's wondering about her and if they find out they'll punish her. Suddenly Willow is attacked through the curtains. Buffy appears and pulls her out of the curtains into a classroom. Buffy asks her why she's still in costume but Wilow's only in her normal clothes. Buffy then rips off Willow's clothing and goes to sit down with the rest of the class. Willow is left at the front of the class in her outfit from season 1: a jumper with tights and long, long hair. Everyone laughs at her and Tara and Oz are flirting at the back of the class. Willow is suddenly attacked by something that's black and has some human features. Meanwhile Willow's real body is spasming as the being preys on her.

Xander, Buffy and Giles wake up but they leave Willow to sleep. Suddenly Xander is dreaming and he heads upstairs. Joyce greets him and tells him that the others left a while ago. Xander heads to the washorrom while Joyce tells him not to get lost. He then leaves the washroom when he sees that the entire Initiativce army is there watching him. He then opens another door which leads to his basement. There's banging on the door above that somewhat frightens him. He heads out to the park where Giles and Spike are on the swings. Giles plans to make Spike a Watcher. Buffy is playing in the sandbox. Suddenly Xander is in his ice cream truck with Anya. Willow and Tara are in the back and they're really dressed up. They invite Xander back there with them. He goes back but suddenly he finds himself back in his basement. Once again there's banging on the basement door. Suddenly the cheese guy appears and tells him that the cheese won't protect him. Xander then appears on Sunnydale U campus and finds Giles who tells him that it's because of what they did that this is happening. Giles and Anya start speaking in French and Xander can't figure out what they're syaing as they drag him away. Suddenly Xander is in a military camp talking with Principal Snyder. Snyder tells him that his time is running out. Xander stands up and he's being followd by something. He ends up back in his basement where someone is still banging on the door. Xander's father appears then suddenly becomes a black woman with white paint on her face. She plunges her hand through Xander's chest and rips out his heart.

Giles is now dreaming. It's nighttime and Olivia, Giles and Buffy (who's acting like a little kid) are at a fair. Buffy's throwing balls at a fake vampire while Olivia urges Giles to ease up on Buffy and her Slayer duties. Suddenly Buffy has goo all over he face while Giles stares at her in confusion. Spike calls him over to a crypt where Spike is posing for the press. Giles doesn't know what's going on and Spike tells him that he's got to figure it out soon. Suddenly the cheese guy appears. Giles then walks into the Bronze where Willow and Xander are doing research and Anya is telling jokes on stage. Willow's figured out that there's a primal force after them. Giles then goes on stage and sings. In the song he explains that they must have released a primal force when they did that spell to fight Adam. Giles then goes backstage and finds the beast that's after them. He tells the beast that he can fight it with his intellect and he knows who she is and that she wouldn't know about him because she's never had a Watcher. The first Slayer then cuts Giles' forehead open with a huge machete.

Now Buffy is dreaming; she's in her room at home with Tara. Tara tells her that she's lost her friends but Buffy says she just needs to find them. Tara tells her that Buffy has no idea what's ahead of her, though she may think she knows and that she doesn't even know who she is. Buffy leaves and Tara tells her to be back before dawn. Buffy's then at the university where she finds her mom living in the walls. She then finds Riley in a white room sitting down at a table across from human Adam. He tells her that he's become Surgeon General and he's going to take over the world. Buffy then opens a suitcase, inside it is goo that she puts all over her face. Riley then leaves her and she's confused. Buffy then ends up in the desert. The cheese guy appears then disppears. Tara appears and says that she's here to speak for the other girl. The other girl is a black woman who is the first Slayer. Through Tara the Slayer tells Buffy that she is destruction and that she is alone. Buffy demands for her friends back but instead of getting what she wants they get into a fight in the sand. The fight stops when Buffy wakes up on the floor of her house but the first Slayer sppears again. Buffy simply rolls her eyes and tells her that she's going to ignore her. Suddenly everyones wakes up at once. They're all somewhat shocked and realized that the first Slayer was conjured because of the spell. Buffy's a little wigged about encountering the first Slayer but even more so about the guy with the cheese. Buffy heads upstairs to her room and Tara's words from her dream echo in her head:

"You think you know, what's to come. What you are... You haven't even begun."

Summary written by Nika

Quote of the Week

Tara: You think you know, what's to come. What you are... You haven't even begun...

My Rating

5/5

Nika Summers' Review

Hoo Boy.... this is going to take a whole lot of analyzing to get everything out of this episode. I loved it a lot. It's so different from everything that we've ever seen on before and I love trying to figure all this stuff out. Of course, no guarantees that everything I'm going to say is going to be right, these are merely my speculations. Let's start with Willow's dream, which was pretty easy to decipher considering the others. At the beginning of it when Willow is drawing on Tara's back in ink, I think it symbolozies that there's a lot more about Tara that we don't know. Thus we can't read her (or the Latin) as an open book and that she's going to take a while before we learn everything about her. Willow is afraid that she hasn't changed from her high school days and that she'll always be the person that got laughed at and never made very many friends. Xander's dream was also self-explanatory; he's afraid of going no where, of always being stuck in his house and in part I think he blames his parents for this (thus his father appeared in his dream and started yelling at him). Xander was afraid of what was at the door and this shows us that he's afraid of his afraid, that he's afraid of becoming his father. Wasn't it mentioned before that Xander's father was unemployed or something? Giles's dream was way confusing... and I'm not really sure what to say of the most of it. I got the ending where he encountered the first Slayer and he was sure that his intelligence would help him overcome her power. He's afraid that his knowledge won't come in handy and that he's worthless (which he's not, but that's how he feels). As for Buffy's dream, I'm having some problems with this one. One thing I think is right is when Tara showed up and told Buffy to be back before dawn. Now as most of you know there is a new character appearing next season called Dawn. I think this is a reference and that Buffy should be prepared for Dawn when she appears. I'm getting the feeling that Dawn may be extremely sweet undernearth but she's got some plans for the Scooby Gang. Tara was way cryptic and it's hard to understand what she meant. But it'll be interesting to find out what she meant when she told Buffy that she didn't know what was ahead of her. When Buffy runs into Riley and Adam I think it shows that buffy's afraid that Riley will leave her for other thing. The encounter with the first Slayer was done well and was interesting to learn that the first Slayer had never had a Watcher, which would explain why she was so vengeful. I still want to know why Buffy was so hyped up about the unmade bed and making it with Faith. God, there were a lot of questions in this episode that need to be answered. Hopefully we'll get them all next season.

I just got an e-mail from Robin Gibbons who informed me that the 7:30 on the clock in Buffy's dream is ressemblant of Buffy's dream with Faith when Faith was in a coma and Faith told her that she was "Little Miss Muffet, counting down from 7 3 0". I can't believe I missed this! Thanks to Robin for pointing it out! This also does create some confusion considering that 730 is two years (365 times 2) but that was said one year ago. So it almost makes me think that maybe we'll have to wait another two years to find out the big hoopla. But is also weird that Tara mentioned that the clock was all wrong... Oooo... this is all so very complicated! I want answers! I want answers!

Niki Bartl's Review

Sweet baby Jesus, Joss has been taking some serious drugs, because this episode left me scratching my head in wonder. My friend Issac had to call me in the middle cause we were both "huh?" It's hard to review the episode because I only saw it once, and am totally not completely understanding it and it's hard to get the gist of the episode into episode summaries, because it's extremely hard to transcibe dreams. So we will start off with Willow's dream. I could understand the part about the kitten not giving them a name, because I think that Willow is sort of frightened that she's not a good Wicca, and that's why the cat isn't giving her it's name. I can also relate to her drama fear, because remember at the beginning Willow was extremely scared of acting and being in the spotlight. I think that Buffy ripping off Willow's "costume" was the fact that Willow fears that she is the same as she was in high school, and the "college" her is just a front. Xander's dreams made a hell of a lot less sense to me. I think most of his dreams were fears of failure...of not becoming anything...maybe the whole Willow/Tara part represented that he was freaked about it? Giles' French was wicked fast and I couldn't catch it all, except for Anya telling Xander he has to go with them... Giles' dream was totally nonsensical too, I don't really know what he's scared of...becoming a Dad? Even though he already sort of is a dad to Buffy? His singing part was awesome, though.... Buffy's dream made the least sense to me...why is she so worried about her unmade bed and 7:30! And Riley and a human Adam? Is she scared that Riley IS the human Adam? I just don't know why, and my head hurts the more I think about it.....Why, Joss, why? Hey, I just rememberd, why did Tara mess up that demon-finding spell in that past episode? What's going on? When will we find out?

Cast