Original Air Date: May 9th, 2000

Written by Doug Petrie
Directed by David Grossman

Summary

Colonel McNamara is talking with a member of the government and tells him that there is overcrowding in the containment area. The government wants Riley back on board with the Initiative and they're none too pleased with Buffy for taking him away from them. In a cave somewhere, Spike tries to tell Adam that the Slayer is going to be a big problem but Adam's counting on it. Adam agrees to take out Spike's chip but only is Spike manages to isolate Buffy from her friends, it'll make her vulnerable and an easy target.

Buffy returns from visiting Angel in LA and curls up on her bed in her dorm. Over at Sunnydale High, Xander brings Riley some clothes and Riley asks if Buffy's back from LA but Xander doesn't know. They start talking about Angel and Xander accidentally tyells Riley more than Buffy had told him about Angel; that her sleeping with him had made him bad. Riley's also upset that Buffy rushed to LA to help Angel. Meanwhile, Giles is in his house singing and playing the guitar when he's startled by Spike. Spike tells Giles to give Buffy a message: that he's got info; some files on Adam. He makes Giles feel inferior by saying that Buffy hardly ever listens to him and that he doesn't really seem to be needed anymore.

Willow and Tara are choosing courses for next yar. Willow doesn't know where she'll be dorming next year and doesn't know if she'll be with Buffy because they've been so distant lately. Later Riley goes over to Buffy's and they're both uneasy. Angel upset her but she doesn't really want to talk about it. Riley's uneasy so he decides to get out of her face. Meanwhile Xander goes to Spike's and drops off some army clothes so that Spike can get into the Initiative to steal the files. Spike makes up some story that Buffy and Willow were talking about Xander behind his back about him joining the army because he can't do anything else to help them out. Xander's pissed off because he thinks they're acting snobby because they go to college and he doesn't. During the day Buffy goes hunting through the woods and she runs into Forrest. She heads into a cave and Forrest follows. They start fighting (verbally) and Forrest accuses her of breaking up the Initiative. Suddenly Adam appears and Adam shoots him with a blast from the taiser gun but it only increases Adam's strength. Adam then kills Forrest and Buffy runs out of the cave when she sees that she can't win this battle. She stumbles on some rocks and smashes her head on a rock, knocking her unconscious and leaving a sizeable gash on her forehead.

That night Spike goes to Giles' with the supposed disks he stole. Giles is drinking alcohol by the gallon while Willow tries to decrypt the disks. Spike insults Willow's ability to decrypt codes and says that her friends were talking about her being into the new thing with wicca and Tara and how it's probably just a phase or a trend. Over at the Initiative, cell after cell is filled with demons. Riley hears something over the radio so he heads out, he runs into Angel fighting some soldiers. Neither is too pleased to see the other and Riley assumes that Angel is bad because he was beating on some soliders, thus he thinks that Buffy slept with Angel. They start fighting viciously and eventually Angel escapes. Buffy makes it home and is surprised to find Angel knocking at her door. Riley enters the room shortly after and points a gun at Angel. Buffy can't believe it when she finds out that Riley and Angel had been fighting. She separates them and talks to Angel outside. She's extremely angry with him but he explains that he came back because he was trying to make things better between them. He apologizes for the nasty things he said to her back in LA. He then leaves and she goes to talk to Riley.

Back in Adam's cave, Spike tells Adam that their plan worked and the Slayer has been isolated from her friends but Adam refuses to take out Spike's chip until he completes the second part of the plan. Buffy is talking to Riley and he seems to think that they're breaking up but Buffy assures him that they're not. He thought she'd slept with Angel because of something Xander had said to him. Buffy asks him why he's acting so crazy and he tells her that he's in love with her that he can't think straight. Buffy then slowly tells him that Forrest died in a fight with Adam. Suddenly Riley gets up and leaves without an explanation. Much later, Willow is still trying to decrypt the disks at Giles' house. The whole gang is there but none of them is looking too pleased with one another. Giles is drunk and the others start to get on each other's nerves. Buffy, Xander and Willow start to argue heatedly about things they think the others said about them. They aren's helping her any and Buffy insists that she'll go fight Adam on her own if they won't help her out. Meanwhile, Riley locates Adam in his cave. Adam has been waiting for him and Riley tells him "And now I'm here".

Summary written by Nika

Quote of the Week

Riley (about Angel): Sometimes things happen between exes, and when I saw that he was bad...
Buffy: He's... not bad.
Riley: Seriously? That's a good day? Well, there you go. Even when he's good, he's all Mr. Billowy Coat, King of Pain, and girls really...."

My Rating

4/5

Nika Summers' Review

Whoa... weird ending... I really REALLY don't want Riley to be bad because that'll just be another relationship down the drain for Buffy and that'll be really depressing. There are two thoughts that I have on this new development: Number one being that when Riley found out that Forrest had died he went in search of Adam in order to fight him to the death (sort of an avenge-his-friend deal) and the other idea being that maybe Adam is made up of some of Riley's genes and in some twisted way they're brothers and Riley knows that and he's been trying to keep it a secret and he decided that enough is enough. If he's bad that'll just ruin everything. It was nice to see Angel on Buffy and the initial meeting between Riley and Angel was really well done. I could literally feel the tension between the two. It was also hilarious in Buffy's room when they were arguing. Spike did an excellent job of breaking up the Scooby Gang but I honestly don't think it'll last. They'll all eventually work it out and realize that Spike was the reason they all got so mad at each other. As for Forrest's death I have to admit that I wasn't too sad to see him go, he pissed me off way too much. True, I can understand his point of view but he took it a little too far. Anyway, next week is the big ending to the Adam thing, it may not be the actual finale but this is the big battle... I wonder how they'll destroy Adam?

Niki Bartl's Review

First off, my personal favourite quote of the season would have to be Anya telling spike that Xander is a "viking in the sack." Anya was starting to annoy me but that line had me laughing for hours. Giles is so cute when he sings...... My mom thought he was hot, so I laughed my butt off at that... Hmmmm.... Now for the old Angel thing. I agree with Riley that Angel isn't his old soul-I'm-so-tortured self. Which is nice because it lets him make the funnies, but I'm miss the broody Angel... What was up with the Riley being such a cold fish at the end? Oh, I loved the end of this episode, not the Riley Adam part, but the yelling part. It reminded me of Revelations which I really liked, 'cause incidentally it contains the best Xander line "What, you tripped and fell on his lips?" So the Scooby Gang is fighting.... what happens next?

Cast