Intervention

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"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 sorts out the confusion between herself and the Buffybot is soon sorted out, and they all head to rescue Spike.

Synopsis

File:518 Intervention1.jpg

Buffybot: I wanna hurt you, but I can't resist the sinister attraction of your cold and muscular body.

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.

Buffy: Death is not a gift.

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 successfully masquerades as Buffy. Later, Xander and Anya witness Spike and the Buffybot having sex in the cemetery, and shocked, Xander goes to confront them. However, Glory's minions assume Spike is The Key, and knock Xander unconscious and take Spike. Glory is upset when she sees Spike, as she knows a vampire cannot be The Key. Nevertheless, she decides to torture him in hopes that he knows where The Key is.

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Buffy: What you did, for me, and Dawn - that was real.... I won't forget it.

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 leaves Xander unconscious at the crypt and goes to the Summers' residence for help. Willow sternly talks to the Buffybot (whom she mistakes for Buffy) about her sexual relationship with Spike, until realizing Glory has a captive who knows that Dawn is The Key, and the gang prepares to kill Spike before he can reveal Dawn's secret. When the Buffybot goes upstairs to change, the real Buffy enters, which clears up all the confusion. Meanwhile, Glory is brutally torturing Spike, who refuses to tell her The Key's location. Spike manages to escape through the elevator, where he finds the Scooby Gang waiting, and they fight off Glory's minions and leave the mansion.

At the Magic Box, Willow examines the Buffybot. Spike rests in his crypt, beaten and bloody. Pretending to be the robot, Buffy enters the crypt and curiously asks Spike why he didn't give Glory the information she wanted. Spike says he could never hurt the real Buffy, and she kisses him. Spike pulls back as he realizes it is actually Buffy; she's disgusted by the robot but says she'll never forget what he did for her and Dawn.

Starring

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers/Buffybot
• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
• Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
• Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
• James Marsters as Spike
• Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

• Clare Kramer as Glory
• Adam Busch as Warren Mears
• Troy T. Blendell as Jinx
• Amber Benson as Tara Maclay

Co Starring

• Sharon Ferguson as Primitive
• Todd Duffey as Murk
• Kelly Donovan as Xander Double (actor credited, but role not stated)

Trivia

• 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 pronouce "Giles" in this way.

• 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".

• 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.

Quotes

Buffy - "So, how's it start?" 
Giles - "I, uh, jump out of the circle and then jump back in it, and then, um ... 
         (embarrassed) I shake my gourd." 
Buffy - "I know this ritual! The ancient shamans were next called upon to do the
         hokey-pokey and turn themselves around." 
Giles - "(straightens up, gives her a sour look) Go quest." 
(Giles performs the ritual)
Buffy - "And that's what it's all about."

Buffy - "A Guide, but no food or water. So it leads me to the sacred place, 
         and then a week later it leads you to my bleached bones?" 
Giles - "Buffy, please... It takes more than a week to bleach bones."

Buffy - "What you did for Dawn and me... that was real. I won't forget it."

Xander - "Hey, I know this. They're both Buffy." 
Buffy - "No. She's a robot. She acts just like that girlfriend-bot that Warren guy made. 
         You guys couldn't tell me apart from a robot?
a reference to "I Was Made to Love You".

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 also the first place she saw the First Slayer in "Restless".

• Buffy and Spike share their first kiss at the end of this episode not influenced by a spell ("Something Blue") or as the Buffybot.

• 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".

Slayer Stats

• Anya slays one vampire.

• Buffybot slays one vampire.

• Spike slays one vampire.