Seeing Red

"Seeing Red" is episode 19 of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Tara and Willow are cuddling in bed after their reconciliation. Tara tells Willow that Spike and Buffy have been sleeping together, even though Buffy asked her to keep it a secret. Buffy enters the lair of the Nerds and is almost killed, The Nerds have left for a cave and killed a demon for its skin. This allows them to steal the Orbs of Nezzla'khan, which make their owner both strong and invulnerable. While Jonathan gets the gems, Warren and Andrew are shown to be plotting against him.

While Xander is in The Bronze drinking away his sorrow over Anya and Spike, the Nerds enter. Orb-enhanced Warren hits on a former schoolmate's girlfriend. He proceeds to beat up a number of other men before Xander steps in. Xander is spared when the Nerds leave for an appointment.

Buffy, sore from a fight with a vampire, is preparing for shower when a drunk Spike enters the bathroom. After she rejects his advances, he attempts rape. Buffy fights him off and he flees in horror. He turns his crypt over to Clem and leaves Sunnydale on his motorcycle, apparently on a mission to remove the chip. Xander finds a bruised Buffy in tears on the bathroom floor.

By now, Willow and Tara have figured out the Nerd's plans for large-scale theft and Buffy stops them from robbing a money transport in an amusement park. Warren is about to beat her when Jonathan surreptitiously reveals to her the source of his power. After she smashes his orbs, Warren takes off with a jetpack. Andrew tries to follow him, but literally hits a roof. A jetpack-less Jonathan realizes that the two were about to betray him. Buffy takes Andrew and Jonathan to the police.

The next day, Buffy and Xander are discussing the events of the past few weeks in the backyard. They apologize to each other for not sharing their thoughts when Warren storms towards them. He shoots Buffy in the chest. A stray bullet takes a route through the upstairs window and kills Tara almost instantly, her blood splattered all over Willow.

Xander frantically tries to stop Buffy's bleeding while Tara lies dead in Willow's arms. Willow's face is contorted by pain and shock, her eyes glowing deep red.

Quotes and trivia

 * "It's Klingon. They're love poems." - Xander's Star Trek references prove again something he shares with the Nerds''


 * This is the only episode where Amber Benson (Tara) appears in the main title credits, a special tribute to the character and actress.


 * By the end of the filming of Tara's death scene, Gellar and Benson were crying.


 * The Nerds' hideout has a bank of Apple flatscreens, the favorite computer company of the series. We later see Willow working with her iBook again.


 * The figurine Buffy looks at with disgust in the Nerds' lair is a model of Vampirella, a sexy comic book figure who kills vampires.


 * The Nerds' skinning of the demon foreshadows Warren's flaying by Dark Willow. Also, Andrew calls Jonathan a "skin job," a reference to the film Blade Runner. The show's obsession with skin will continue into the next season, where a Gnarl flays victims including a paralyzed Willow alive ("Same Time, Same Place").


 * In North America the episode was trasmitted to UPN affiliates a week early by accident. Although none of them broadcast the episode by mistake, the episode was leaked onto the internet more than a week before it was meant to air.


 * On the Jump The Shark site, Tara's death has the highest rating for the moment the show was considered to have jumped. However, a slightly larger number of people voted that the show never jumped.


 * Both of Willow's great loves, Oz and Tara, leave at the end of seasons four and six, respectively, about two years apart.