Bargaining, Part One

"Bargaining, Part One" is the season premiere of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the one hundred first episode altogether. It was written by Jane Espenson and Douglas Petrie and directed by Douglas Petrie. It was originally broadcast on October 2, 2001 and was the first episode of the series broadcast on UPN.

The Scooby Gang try to keep up appearances of normality as they prepare a ritual to raise Buffy from the dead.

Synopsis


The Scoobies patrol in the absence of the Slayer, who has been dead for five months. Willow and her growing powers lead the efforts and the gang with telepathy and other magic from a perch on top of a crypt. She's even repaired the Buffybot, who helps the group slay several vampires -- and helps keep Buffy's death a secret. Willow and Tara are living at the Summers' home with Dawn and the Buffybot. Willow has tried to make the robot behave more normally, but her tuning never really goes quite as planned.

The Buffybot is sent out with Dawn for Parent Day at Dawn's school. She behaves oddly, but the other parents hear her comments in Ms. Lefcourt's class as expressing concerns similar to their own and the Buffybot doesn't draw any suspicion. At the Magic Box, Giles is packing up his items in preparation for his return to England. Anya is torn between the idea of losing Giles and taking over the shop on her own.

That night, Spike stays with Dawn while the rest of the gang have a meeting. Dawn suggests that Spike can leave, but he is determined not to leave her to be hurt ever again and starts a card game. The Buffybot hunts a vampire, but gets hit with a bottle and her motion skills are impaired. The vampire realizes the Slayer is a robot and quickly leaves. Anya has found — on eBay of all places — the last Urn of Osiris. Willow's pleased and announces their plans to bring back Buffy the next night. She stresses that Giles, Spike, and Dawn cannot know, and that because Buffy was killed by mystical energy, they have a chance of bringing her back.



Willow returns home to find Spike keeping a wounded Buffybot out of trouble, the Buffybot having been programmed to return to Willow if damaged. Spike angrily leaves when the Buffybot innocently compliments him on his physique – a programming remnant from her sexbot days – and Buffybot confides in Willow about Spike's constant shame in her presence. Without her real sister, Dawn tries to find comfort from the Buffybot, but doesn't get much. The next day, Giles tries to teach the Buffybot new skills, like breathing, then they talk about Giles' reason to be in Sunnydale now that Buffy is gone.

The vampire that hit the Buffybot with a bottle brags about it to several "Hellions" — a gang of biker demons — and the news is spilled that a robot has now taken over for the Slayer. After tearing the vampire's head off (when he suggests joining the gang), the demons ride out to wreak havoc in Sunnydale. Willow works a summoning spell in an open outdoor location and a baby deer approaches her. She suddenly stabs it in the throat, collecting blood, and finishes her spell. She returns to the Magic Box, claiming she got the "vino de madre" from the black market.



The gang finds a note from Giles, stating that he's already left. Not about to accept a silent escape, the Scooby Gang tracks him down at the airport and he gets a proper farewell with presents, signs, balloons, and tears. After Giles departs, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara return home for final preparations and then head to the cemetery. They prepare the ritual, sitting around Buffy's grave and Willow begins the spell. While performing the spell, Willow's skin is cut by invisible blades, large insects appear to crawl underneath her skin, and a large snake is produced from her mouth, but Tara insists that they can't stop.

Meanwhile, Spike watches over Dawn and the demon bikers are tearing Sunnydale apart. Buffybot tries to stop them, but the leader, Razor, wounds her and she runs away to find Willow. The bikers following her reach the cemetery and interrupt Willow's spell by breaking the Urn of Osiris and scattering the gang's circle. One of the bikers tries to take Anya away, but Tara uses magic to get her back. Xander tells Willow that the spell didn't work, but in the coffin, a dead, decaying body reverts back to life in the confused form of Buffy.

Starring

 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers/Buffybot
 * Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
 * Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
 * Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
 * James Marsters as Spike
 * Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

Special Guest Starring

 * Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

 * Franc Ross as Razor
 * Amber Benson as Tara

Co Starring

 * Geoff Meed as Mag
 * Mike Grief as Klyed
 * Paul Greenberg as Shempy Vampire
 * Joy DeMichelle Moore as Ms. Lefcourt
 * Robert D. Vito as Cute Boy
 * Harry Johnson as Parent #1
 * Kelly Lynn Warren as Parent #2
 * Hila Levy as Pretty Girl

Production

 * One of Razor's Gang was to be called Pike but this was changed to avoid confusion with Pike from the 1992 Film.


 * This episode was the first time Anthony Stewart Head is credited as a "Special Guest Star". He had been a series regular for the previous five seasons, but now his character has left for England. He would return later in the season and for much of the next. Alyson Hannigan is now credited as "And Alyson Hannigan as Willow".


 * Originally the scene with Willow killing the deer had a pan up her very bloody dress, but most of that pan was removed before the episode aired.


 * The front of Long Beach International Airport was used for the establishing shot for "Sunnydale Airport", from which Giles departed.


 * Alyson Hannigan, who is an animal lover, found the scene where Willow kills the deer difficult to film and was very upset about it. It probably didn't help that the music in the scene was dubbed "Willow Kills Bambi".


 * We see Willow wearing a shirt with a number on it and then Xander comes in wearing what looks like a football jersey with a number on it. Later when they gang is saying goodbye to Giles, Dawn is wearing a shirt with '07' on it. The crew got many letters asking what the numbers were supposed to mean, but there was no connection. Executive Producer Marti Noxon said that this was completely unintentional and was just a wardrobe coincidence.

Broadcast

 * The show had run on the WB for the previous five seasons. UPN showed a series of Buffy Season Six promos prior to airing the show. The UPN aired Buffy for the next two seasons.


 * The 2-hour season premiere of "Bargaining Parts 1 & 2" on UPN attracted 7.7 million viewers, the second highest viewership the show has ever received, behind only Season Two's "Innocence".


 * Buffy's move from WB to UPN was marked with a major advertising campaign and giant billboards proclaiming "Buffy's Back".

Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors

 * If the ritual was interrupted and the urn smashed when the spell was only half complete, then how was Buffy resurrected at all? Unless that was why she remained disoriented throughout this two part episode and the beginning of 'After Life'.

Quotes
Giles - "You might have let me in on your plan while he throttled me." Spike - "Oh, poor Watcher. Did your life pass before your eyes? Cuppa tea, cuppa tea, almost got shagged, cuppa tea."

Buffybot - "That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, Bingo." Willow's experiments with getting the Buffybot to pun have resulted in word salad. The line is an in-joke for Buffy writer Jane Espenson, who thinks that "marzipan" is a really funny word.

Xander - "Excuse me? Who made you the boss of the group?" Anya - "You did." Tara - "You said Willow should be boss." Anya - "And then you said "let's vote," and it was unanimous..." Tara - "And then you made her this little plaque, that said "Boss of Us", you put little sparkles on it"

Giles - "We just can't have her messing up in front of the wrong person. Or the wrong thing. We, we need the, the world and the underworld to believe that Buffy is alive and well." Willow - "And I will therefore fix it. I got her head back on, didn't I? And I got her off those knock-knock jokes." Buffybot - "Ooh, who's there?" Xander - "You know, if we want her to be exactly-" Spike - "She'll never be exactly." Xander - "I know." Tara - "The only really real Buffy is really Buffy." Giles - "And she's gone." Buffybot - "'If we want her to be exactly she'll never be exactly I know the only really real Buffy is really Buffy and she's gone' who?"

Continuity

 * The episode sees the Scooby Gang performing a spell to raise Buffy from the dead, a decision which will have consequences for Buffy and her friends throughout Season Six, and eventually allow the First Evil to exploit the vulnerability in the Slayer line in Season Seven.


 * When put into syndication, some parts of this episode have been edited out. Specifically, Willow's sacrifice of the doe (dubbed "Willow kills Bambi") to garner the blood necessary for her ritual, is cut out, however it is included in the episode aired on SPIKE TV and Sky One.


 * It is unknown why Willow and the Scoobies believed that Buffy was in hell when she sacrificed her life in order to save them, an act that would surely have allowed her into Heaven. However, judging by one of Willow's lines of dialogue ("She could be trapped in a hell dimension like Angel was."), they might have presumed that, as Buffy died in Glory's vortex much like Angel died in Acathla's vortex in "Becoming, Part Two", she was trapped in hell just as Angel had been. Another possibility is that, desperate to get her friend back, Williow came up with the idea that Buffy was in Hell as justification to do the spell without ever considering the possibility that it might not be the case.


 * This episode features Willow lying once again about magic, as she didn't tell her friends about sacrificing the deer.

Slayer Stats

 * Spike slays one vampire.


 * Buffybot slays one vampire.


 * A Hellion slays one vampire.

Music

 * Static-X - "Permanence"