No Place Like Home

Months ago, several monks rushed to perform a ritual while a powerful force of some sort threatened their lives. In the present, Buffy stakes a vampire outside an abandoned building, and then gets caught by the night watchman who thinks she's a teen looking for a rave. Buffy makes breakfast for her mom, who is still suffering from headaches that the doctors can't explain. Giles's big opening is less than successful at first, but eventually, the magic shop gets to be so popular, that he can't handle it all on his own.

Buffy presents an orb to Giles that she found while patrolling the night before, but Giles can't explain it right away. While picking up a prescription for her mother, Buffy encounters the night watchman again as he's being strapped down to a gurney. He's less than stable, but he manages to warn Buffy that she will be attacked through her family. A monk works on a blue print in an empty building before The Beast smashes through a large steel door, revealing itself to be a supernatural blond female.

The Beast tries to torture information about the Key out of the monk, but he won't tell her anything. She starts to speak crazily until she puts her fingers to the head of a security guard and seems to suck the lifeforce from him. Buffy assumes that the danger she was warned about is what is causing her mother's headaches. Anya recommends to Buffy that she perform a spell to see any spells that may be affecting her family. Buffy doesn't want Riley to feel unwanted, so she offers to let him help her with the spell. He realizes what she's doing, then they talk and agree to take care of each other.

Buffy performs the ritual in her bedroom then walks around her house to look for anything unusual. Nothing appears weird about her mother, but Buffy sees Dawn's image flashing in and out of pictures around the house. Buffy confronts Dawn about it, and she concludes that Dawn isn't her sister. Buffy threatens Dawn, but Buffy's supposed little sister is truly confused and doesn't understand Buffy's sudden change in attitude.

Giles calls to tell Buffy about the orb, Dagon Sphere, and its purpose of protection from an unnamed evil. Buffy returns to the abandoned building in hopes of finding more information. Buffy encounters Spike lurking outside her home and he makes some lame excuses for his being there. Buffy comes up against the Beast and finds herself unable to fight against the Beast's incredible strength. After taking quite a beating, Buffy is able to escape with the monk. The Beast throws a fit and causes the room around her to collapse on her. Giles offers Anya a job at the magic shop when he realizes that the job is too much for just one.

In his last moments of life, the monk warns Buffy that she must protect the key. He tells her that a collection of energy put into a human form, Dawn's form. They sent her to Slayer to be protected from those looking for it. Before he dies, he tells her that her memories of Dawn were constructed, and that Dawn is innocent human who not only needs the Slayer's protection, she needs her sister's. Buffy apologizes to Dawn, and the two girls are able to relate on at least one subject-their concern for their mother.