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 and Anya are going over paperwork however Anya is angry at Giles, since he has announced his intention to return to England and leave her in charge of the store, but has yet to go through with it leading to an argument. Xander arrives, and diffuses the situation before taking Anya aside, as she admits that she wants to announce their engagement to the gang, but Xander doesn't want to go through with it while everything is still 'up in the air' in regards to the issue that they're discussing with Willow and Tara that evening.

That night, Spike stays with Dawn while the rest of the gang have a meeting. Dawn suggests that Spike can leave, but he steadfastly refuses, still feeling guilt that his failure to protect Dawn lead to Buffy's death. The two then start 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 engages the Buffybot in training to make sure she's ok after being damaged. He also attempts to get her to practice her breathing and to release her 'chi', but Anya points out that teaching this to a robot is pointless. Giles realizes he's trying to teach the Buffybot as if she were human, and the Buffybot responds that 'every Slayer needs her Watcher'. Giles notes that, like any good Watcher, he got his slayer killed in the line of duty and that all slayer-watcher relationships end the same way, and now his job is done. The Buffybot innocently asks why Giles is still there, and Giles finds himself unable to come up with a reason.

At a demon biker bar, the vampire that hit the Buffybot with a bottle brags about it to several "Hellions" — a gang of biker demons. Although the Hellions are uninterested at first as the vampire embellishes the story, he gets them interested when he mentions that the slayer is a robot. The leader of the Hellions, Razor, decides that the gang is going to head to and trash Sunnydale. The vampire suggests that he be allowed to join as a thanks for passing on the information, only for Razor to behead him with his bare hands before the gang departs.

Willow invoked Adonai during 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.

Continuity

 * This 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.


 * 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.
 * With Giles' departure this leaves Xander as the only male member left in the Scoobygang
 * To judge by her appearance when she rises from the grave Buffy is not a natural blonde and dyes her hair.
 * The eraser puppet Tara buys for Giles is the Mutant Enemy logo monster and she makes the accompanying 'Grrr, Arggh' noises.

Body Count

 * One vampire, burned by Spike
 * One vampire, dusted by the Buffybot
 * One vampire, decapitated by Razor

Production

 * One of the Hellions was to be called Pike but this was changed to avoid confusion with Pike from the 1992 Film.


 * Anthony Stewart Head has been removed from the opening titles and is now credited as a "Special Guest Star". Alyson Hannigan has taken his place in the opening titles and 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".


 * When put into syndication, some parts of this episode have been edited out. Specifically, Willow's sacrifice of the doe 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.


 * We see Willow wearing a shirt with a number on it (11) and then Xander comes in wearing what looks like a football jersey with a number on it. Later when the 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.


 * Buffy herself doesn't appear in this episode until the very last few seconds, literally.
 * In the airport scene there is a blonde haired man sitting behind the Scoobies who strongly resembles Spike. However James Marsters has confirmed at conventions that this is not him and it is thought to be his stand-in/stunt double filling in as an extra.


 * On netflix there is a cutout scene where the Buffybot sees someone playing with 2 towers and a plane, this is most likely because of 9/11 even though the episode was filmed before hand.

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 "Innocence".


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

Pop Culture References

 * Tara gave Giles a small rubber monster and says, "Grrr. Argghh.", a reference the end-of-credits logo for Mutant Enemy.


 * The Sun Cinema was showing Dude, Where's My Car?.
 * The geeky vampire who attacked the Buffybot, wore a Hanson t-shirt.
 * Xander mentions having seen 1978 film The Fury after Willow keeps communicating with him telepathically.

Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors

 * If the ritual was interrupted and the urn smashed when the spell was incomplete, 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". A second possibility was that Willow's magic skills was strong enough to bring Buffy back, even without the urn for the end of the spell. A third possiblity was that Osiris had already brought Buffy back before the urn was destroyed.


 * During Giles' training session with the Buffybot, after Anya enters the room, a microphone pole can be briefly seen in the upper right corner of the screen. This can be easier seen in the widescreen version of the episode.


 * When Willow is first seen on top of a tomb in the graveyard, very visible film equipment is blocking light from the side.
 * Given the gang's worries about the Buffybot messing up in front of the wrong person (as it does in this episode), why did they then allow it to patrol alone?
 * The first time the Buffybot is damaged it returns to the house in order to wait for Willow, however when it is damaged by Razor it instead goes directly to Willow at the graveyard (with no explanation for how it knew she was there).

Music

 * Static-X - "Permanence"
 * Thomas Wanker - original score