Season 7 Episode 11 - Showtime

A new girl, Rona, arrives in town at the bus stop, and a welcoming committee surprises her. Okay, maybe not welcoming: it's the Bringers, ready to attack. Luckily, Buffy saves the day, putting the dudes out of commission fast.

Back home, Will and Kennedy get to know each other upstairs while the rest of the girls worry about the Ubervamp, a.k.a. Turok-Han, undoubtedly headed their way. After Buffy gets back with the new recruit, she's frustrated to discover the gang has no new information on how to defeat the First or to rescue Spike. Giles has one idea, but Anya balks; it involves an oracle called Beljoxa's Eye. The catch is that Anya will have to grovel and beg some of her old demon pals to open up the vortex to get to the oracle. Buffy pleads for her help, for Spike's sake.

Speaking of Spike, he's still strung up underground with the First, who enjoys parading around as Buffy, taunting the Vamp. Spike still believes "she will come for me."

Across town, Anya and Giles try to con the owner of a demon bar into opening the portal so they can have a visit with Beljoxa's Eye. When Anya's offer of sex doesn't tempt the demon (apparently humans aren't a turn-on), Giles dangles the prospect of Buffy killing all of his patrons. That does it. He summons the vortex, and Giles and Anya stumble through.

Willow hears from the Coven in England that another Potential is holed up in a nearby motel, so Buff and Xander set out to retrieve her. In the basement, the girls are training with various weapons and equipment. However, there's one problem: they suck. Big time. None of them are up for the job, so they spend most of the time worrying over their own mortality. One in particular, Eve, nearly has the rest of them convinced that nothing they do can save them. Her attitude is that they'll all get knocked off by the Big Bad, so why bother?

Eve's attitude makes sense when Buffy and Xander find her body in the motel room. She's been dead for days, meaning the First has been wearing her face, hanging around Buffy's house, gathering information. Buff rushes home to confront the First, who has learned all about the Potentials' weaknesses masquerading as Eve. It vanishes, leaving everyone shaken.

Anya and Giles have a chat with Beljoxa's Eye, and it informs them that something has disrupted the line of the Chosen, giving the First a chance to wreak havoc. The Slayer herself is the source of the disruption, and Anya believes that she and the rest of the Scoobies are at fault for bringing Buffy back from the dead last year. Whoops.

Back at the house, Buffy asks Willow to work her mojo to protect the house as the Bringers and the Turok-Han arrive after sundown. Though extremely nervous about practicing her dark craft, Willow does a spell to hold the UV off. The evil is too strong, though, and the gang plus junior Slayers fight through the Bringers and bolt away from the house. While she prepares for a showdown with the Ubervamp, Buffy sends everyone in another direction. But the Turok-Han, determined to pick off the Potentials, follows them instead of fighting Buffy.

The gang arrives at a huge construction site (soon to be the new public library), and they're terrified. Buffy arrives on the heels of the Ubervamp and announces, "Welcome to Thunderdome." Turns out Buffy, Will and Xander planned this turn of events to lure the Turok-Han away from Spike's prison and, with a little luck, kill it. The big fight ensues with a little crossbow action here, a little pickaxe-swinging there. Buffy gets in a few final blows before wrapping a piece of wire around the Vamp's neck and pulling, hard. Poof, it's dead. "Dust, just like the rest of them." There's another reason Buffy put on the performance: to prove to the Junior Slayers that she can fight against evil and win. It seems to do the trick.

The First is a little peeved.

Underground, Spike hangs from his chains, bruised and beaten. He sees Buffy approach with a big knife and tells her, "You can't hurt me," but when he looks into her eyes, he tearfully realizes she's the real thing. She cuts him down and he nearly falls, but she holds him up and leads him home.