"" is the seventeenth episode in season 7 of the television show ''
Buffy The Vampire Slayer ''. See also
List Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes .
The gang investigates Spike's trigger; Principal Wood and Giles team up without Buffy.
New York, 1977: Spike is fighting an African-American slayer in a park at night while her son watches the fight from his hiding place behind a bench. Spike has the opportunity to kill her but the kid distracts him and he lets her go with the promise that he'll chase her again. The scene switches to a present day Sunnydale alley. Buffy, Principal Robin Wood and Spike are fighting a bunch of vampires. Buffy and Spike manage to kill their quarry, but a vampire gets Wood on the floor and prepares to kill him. Spike saves Wood by killing the vampire from behind and helps him up. Wood thanks him, but the camera zooms in on the stake he's holding and we see blood dripping from his hand. He still seems determined to have his revenge, only not just now...
Previously, the First Evil had programmed Spike with a switch in his mind that allows it to turn Spike evil by making him listen to an old song, ''
Early One Morning '', that triggers his rage. This way the First was able to command him to kill again. Buffy wants to find out how to turn it off so that she can fully trust Spike against the First, but Giles opposes Buffy. In his opinion, Spike's dangerous and must be contained (aka disposed of).
With all that happening the Scoobies go to the basement of Buffy's house, where Willow makes a spell with the Procariota stone, a magical artifact that penetrates Spike's mind and makes him more conscious of how the switch works. In this way, we learn about his past, his sick mother and how he turned her into a vampire only to be cruelly rejected by her later. The song that his mother used to sing makes him relive the whole episode and switch into his evil, soulless self. He unwillingly hurts Dawn in the process and scares them all, except Buffy.
After the scene, Wood privately convinces Giles that Spike must die. Giles learns that Wood is the son of Nikki, a Slayer now dead, and that Spike murdered her. After a brief chat they make a plan. Giles is to distract Buffy while Wood takes care of Spike. Giles takes Buffy on patrol and begins asking her indirect questions and making obscure references to her role against the First.
In the meantime, Wood takes Spike to his hideout with the promise to protect him, but this feeling is clearly undermined as soon as they enter and it is revealed that the walls are covered with crosses. Wood goes to his computer and starts "Early One Morning" in iTunes. Meanwhile, Wood reveals to Spike that he knows he murdered his mother and that he's going to kill the monster inside him. Unabashed, Spike confronts him and they fight. Spike seems to be about to lose, as Principal Wood leaves him beaten on the floor. But then he gains a second wind and finally defeats Wood. For a moment it seems that Spike's about to bite him.
All the while, Buffy had been fighting a vampire at the cemetery and talking to Giles, when she suddenly realizes that Giles is trying to distract her while Wood kills Spike. She kills the vampire, leaves Giles and rushes to Wood's place. She finds Spike there, who tells her that if Wood tries to dust him again he'll kill Wood once and for all. Wood is beaten but alive, and Buffy tells him that she needs Spike alive and that she has no time for personal vendettas. In the closing scene Buffy tells Giles that she already knows everything he can teach her. Clearly bitter, Buffy closes the door of Dawn's room on him.
- An interesting side note is that when William's mother sings " Early One Morning " to him she sings it incorrectly. The first 2 lines are;
:::"Early one morning,
:::just as the sun was rising"
Whereas she sings
:::"Early one morning,
:::just as the sun was shining."
- '''''Angel''''': During this episode Willow receives a telephone call from Fred , causing her to go to Los Angeles in '' Orpheus ''.
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
