Dead Things

After a wild round of sex on the bottom floor of Spike's crypt, Buffy and Spike carry on a real conversation about decorating and Buffy's feelings for Spike. She admits to liking him occasionally, but when he questions her trust and displays a pair of handcuffs, Buffy assures him she will never trust him. The supervillains put the finishing touches on a new gadget, a cerebral dampener. The evil tool will allow the three to turn any woman of their choice into their willing sex slave.

Buffy takes a break at her job to talk in private with Tara. While secretly rubbing at her handcuff burned wrists, Buffy admits that Spike is able to hit her, but not other humans. Suspicious that she returned to life "wrong" because of the spell, Buffy asks that Tara research the spell and find out just what is "wrong" with her. Warren browses a bar for attractive women while Andrew and Jonathan are able to watch through a camera in Warren's tie and direct him to various women they would like to have as slaves. Irritated by the suggestions, Warren removes the earpiece and microphone and approaches someone familiar: his ex-girlfriend, Katrina.

Katrina wants nothing to do with Warren, but he persuades her with the use of the Cerebral Dampener and suddenly, Katrina refers to her ex as "Master." Buffy returns home after a long, hard, dirty day a work to find her friends preparing for the wedding by teaching Dawn to waltz. Buffy's upset to find out that Dawn is spending the night at Janice's and decides to go to the Bronze with her friends instead of staying home. The supervillains enjoy champagne server by Katrina in a maid's outfit and admire Warren's selection of women. Warren takes Katrina away for private time and while kissing, Warren asks Katrina to say things to him. Several minutes into their private time, and before Katrina does much more than kissing, the spell wears off.

Katrina lets loose on Warren and his buddies, attacking them and accusing them of rape. As she tries to escape, Warren hits Katrina with the champagne bottle and she falls to the stairs and the supervillains are all shocked to find that Katrina is dead. Warren leads a plan to get rid of the body, but Andrew and Jonathan are not eager to cover up the accidental murder. Buffy and Willow talk about Willow's recovery while watching Xander and Anya dance wildly together. While Willow joins them in dancing, Buffy goes upstairs to watch, feeling as if she doesn't belong. Spike finds her there and raises the issue of her friends' reactions to her involvement with him. Hidden mostly by shadows, Spike initiates sex and tells Buffy to watch her friends on the dance floor below as he reminds her she belongs in the shadows--in his world.

Willow and Xander make their way to the magic shop and encounter Tara who's on her way out of the shop with a book. The former lovers talk about the magic book Tara holds and Willow's success with staying away from magic. That night, Buffy patrols, but finds herself drawn to Spike's crypt. He senses her arrival, but as he opens the door, he finds that she's already bolted.

As she returns to patrolling, Buffy hears a woman screaming and follows the sound. She finds herself in a twisted scenario where her surroundings shift between the attack of several demons, the crying woman and Spike finding Buffy in the woods. In the end, Buffy strikes out something and instead of hitting a demon or Spike, she hits the woman whom we recognize as Katrina. The body falls down a hill and Buffy finds it there, dead and assumes she's to blame. Hidden in the shadows, a very alive Katrina watches on.

Spike escorts Buffy away from the scene and back to her house. Inside the van, Warren is pleased with the success of their efforts as the Katrina double returns to the van and shifts back into Jonathan's body. Buffy dreams that Spike joins her in her bed then of sex at the crypt with Spike bound by handcuffs. The figure of Spike shifts to Katrina and the scenery becomes the woods. Another shift shows Buffy lowering a stake to Spike's chest and then Katrina's eyes open as a stake is shoved into her chest.

Shaken by her dream, Buffy wakes and dresses before going to Dawn's room. She confesses her love to her sister and Buffy admits that an accident happened and she has to go to the police. Dawn's scared and is upset by the idea of losing her sister. Spike catches Buffy outside of the police station and tries to stand in the way of her turning herself into the police. He casually admits that he took care of the body, but two cops passing by reveal that the body was found washed up by the river.

Despite the fact that Spike was unable to cover up the accident, he's still determined to stop her from admitting guilt and tries to goad her into letting her emotions out on him. She starts to beat on him and for the most part, he just takes it. She explains that she is not and never will be his girl as she really tears into him. He makes a comment about hurting loved ones and wounded by that comment, she leaves him to enter the police station. Inside, while waiting to confess, Buffy overhears an officer identify the body as Katrina's and she remembers Warren's ex-girlfriend.

The Scooby Gang research and find that the demons Buffy encountered in the woods caused the time shifting and that Katrina was probably dead before Buffy even encountered her. Buffy knows Warren is connected to the incident and wants the supervillains found and dealt with. Warren and Andrew are pleased with the general success of their murderous actions, while Jonathan is less than thrilled about it. The only disappointment is that Buffy didn't actually take the fall for Warren's mistake.

After researching the spell, Tara is able to inform Buffy that the spell didn't bring Buffy back wrong at all. She was changed ever so slightly on a molecular level, which apparently was just enough to keep Spike's chip from going off. Buffy's shocked and confesses to Tara that more than just an exchange of punches has been going on between her and Spike, but Tara is supportive, regardless of Buffy's motivation. Needing an excuse for her involvement with Spike, Buffy desperately pleads for something to be wrong with her. She breaks down crying with Tara comforting her, unable to accept that she alone is responsible for what she does with Spike.