Intervention

"Intervention" is the eighteenth episode of the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the ninety-sixth episode altogether. It was written by Jane Espenson and directed by Michael Gershman. It originally broadcast on April 24, 2001.

Giles sends Buffy on a spiritual quest in the desert. Warren delivers the Buffybot to Spike. Xander and Anya see Spike and the Buffybot (whom they mistake for Buffy) have sex. Spike is kidnapped by Glory's minions and Glory decides to torture Spike for The Key's location. Buffy's spiritual journey leads her to the First Slayer, who tells her that death is her gift. Buffy returns and the confusion between herself and the Buffybot is soon sorted out, and they all head to rescue Spike.

Synopsis
At the house, Buffy confesses to Giles that she's worried about her ability to love. Giles suggests he and Buffy go to a sacred location in the desert so that she can undergo a vision quest. When they arrive, Giles performs a ritual to create Buffy's guide. A mountain lion appears and directs Buffy into the desert, which she recalls from her dream ("Restless").



Glory orders her minions to watch the Slayer and see who is new and special in her life, as that person is likely to be the Key. That night, one of the minions watches the gang through a window; Dawn secretly takes Anya's earrings from a table.

Spike receives his Buffybot from Warren (commissioned in "I Was Made to Love You"). Spike and his Buffybot pretend to fight, which inevitably leads to sex. While Spike is sleeping it off, the Buffybot heads out to patrol for vampires. She runs into Xander and Anya in a graveyard and they believe her to be Buffy, but are puzzled because she is acting strangely--she didn't even ask about Dawn. Turning back to make sure Buffy is OK, Xander and Anya witness Spike and the Buffybot having sex in the cemetery. Xander and Anya are shocked and they go to Willow's place to tell her what they saw. Unbeknownst to them, Glory's minions also witness Spike and Buffy, and they conclude that Spike is The Key, and they rush back to tell Glory. At Willow's place, all are horrified and disturbed by Buffy's behavior, and Xander goes back to confront Spike. Spike has the Buffybot hide in the crypt from Xander. He tells Spike that he's taking advantage of Buffy during a difficult time. While they argue, Glory's minions show up, knock Xander unconscious, and take Spike (they don't see the Buffybot). Glory is upset when she sees Spike, as she knows a vampire cannot be The Key. The Key must be pure. Nevertheless, she decides to torture him in hopes that he knows where The Key is.



Buffy wakes to find the First Slayer on the opposite side of a large fire. The First Slayer advises Buffy that love is at the center of all Slayers and that love will bring Buffy to her gift. When Buffy asks "What gift?", the First Slayer tells her death is her gift.

Worried about Spike, the Buffybot ignores the unconscious Xander at the crypt and goes to Willow's apartment for help. Willow sternly talks to the Buffybot (whom she mistakes for Buffy) about her sexual relationship with Spike, Xander comes home and fills everyone in about Spike being taken by Glory's minions. Realizing that Glory now has a captive who knows that Dawn is The Key, the gang goes to Buffy's house to get some weapons so they can either rescue Spike before he can reveal Dawn's secret, or do what must be done to keep him from talking. When the Buffybot goes upstairs to change, the real Buffy enters, and the gang thinks it's the same Buffy they've just been talking to, creating more confusion. The Buffybot returns from upstairs, and, confronted with two Buffys the gang thinks that the other Buffy is a duplicate, but Buffy realizes right away that it's a robot. She's very indignant that the others actually were fooled at all, and all are disgusted when they realize the Buffybot's purpose. However, Buffy quickly puts it aside when she is informed of Spike's situation; she decides to head out and kill him to prevent him from revealing the truth about Dawn to Glory. Unfortunately, they don't know where Glory is operating from. The only lead Buffy has is the area where she killed Glory's snake so decides to start searching from there.

Meanwhile, Glory is brutally torturing Spike, who refuses to tell her The Key's location and subjects her to a symphony of verbal abuse. Spike manages to escape through the elevator, where he finds the Scooby Gang (plus the Buffybot) waiting, and they fight off Glory's minions and leave the mansion, but the Buffybot is damaged and rendered inactive.

At the Magic Box, Willow examines the Buffybot and determines that she'd easily be able to fix it, but sheepishly says she won't after getting a look from Buffy. Giles and Xander return, having dumped Spike back at his crypt. They report that they have been unable to get any hard information out of Spike as to whether or not he exposed Dawn, largely because he was severely beaten and barely conscious. Though disgusted by the Buffybot, Xander feels a bit of sympathy for him because he was so badly thrashed and lost his favorite toy.



Spike rests in his crypt, beaten and bloody. The Buffybot enters the crypt and asks him what happened. When he tells her he didn't tell Glory about Dawn, the Buffybot says she's going to tell Glory, but Spike harshly stops her. She asks Spike why they shouldn't give Glory the information she wants, and Spike explains that the real Buffy would be completely destroyed if anything ever happened to Dawn, and he would rather die than live with Buffy in so much pain. The Buffybot leans over and kisses Spike gently on the lips. Spike pulls back as he suddenly realizes it is actually Buffy pretending to be the Buffybot. Buffy makes it clear that she is disgusted by the robot, but softens up and informs him that she will never forget what he did for them. The Buffybot was fake, but what he did for them was real. She then departs, leaving a speechless Spike staring after her.

Continuity

 * According to Buffybot's system screen Xander: Friend. Carpenter. Dates Anya. / Anya: Dates Xander. Likes Money. Ex-Demon. / Willow: Best Friend. Gay (1999-Present). Witch. Good with computers.


 * Spike's dislike of Angel manifests when we see the Buffybot's programmed opinion of Angel is that he is "lame. His hair goes straight up and he's bloody stupid."


 * The desert in which the mountain lion leads Buffy on the vision quest in "Intervention" is the same desert which Buffy dreamed about in "Restless". She says she remembers it. It's the first place she saw the First Slayer.


 * When it's revealed to the group that there are two Buffy's, Xander says, "Hey, I know this! They're both Buffy!" This is a reference to "The Replacement", in which Xander's psyche was split into two separate bodies, but were still two parts of the same whole.


 * Buffy gently kisses Spike out of gratitude at the end of this episode, this time not influenced by a spell ("Something Blue").


 * The Buffybot, first introduced in this episode, plays a crucial role in "The Gift" and "Bargaining".


 * Dawn is shown to steal Anya's earrings; her increasing kleptomania is eventually discovered in the Season Six episode "Older and Far Away".


 * In this episode, Buffy finds out that "death is [her] gift", which leads to her decision to die to save the world in "The Gift".


 * Buffy recants her earlier words to Spike upon discovering that he is capable of great personal sacrifice on her behalf, and welcomes him back into the fold.

Body Count

 * One vampire, dusted by Anya
 * One vampire, dusted by the Buffybot
 * One vampire, dusted by Spike

Production

 * The Buffybot pronounces "Giles" with a hard g (as in "guy-els"). Joss Whedon and Marti Noxon have said on several occasions that they get annoyed with so-called fans of the show when they pronounce "Giles" in this way.


 * It is possible to briefly glimpse the mountain lion's animal trainer's jacket when Buffy first sees her guide and again, the trainer's feet when she reaches her destination.


 * Nicholas Brendon's twin brother Kelly Donovan is in the end credits. Nicholas was sick and his brother substituted for him for a couple of scenes.

Pop Culture References

 * Xander calls Glory's minions "hobbits with leprosy", a reference to The Lord of the Rings.


 * Spike tries to convince Glory that Bob Barker of The Price Is Right fame is The Key.


 * When Buffy sees the mountain lion that leads her on the quest, she says "Hello Kitty".

Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors

 * When Glory punches Spike, his arms fall out despite being tied up, and when he hits the wall, his arms are tied up again.
 * At 13:36, in the upper right corner of the screen, a foot and leg are clearly visible (probably a crew member), and he appears to walk toward Buffy although she is supposed to be in a sacred, isolated part of the desert.
 * On one of the focus shots of Dawn's growing kleptomania, she eyes a pair of earings with transluscent amber-style stones and wooden hearts; when she "casually" approaches the table, she picks up two earings that are smaller and a solid off-white.

Other

 * This episode is Spike-centric.