Two to Go

Two to Go
Season 6
episode 21
Air date	May 21, 2002
Written by	Douglas Petrie
Directed by	Bill L. Norton
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
← Previous	"Villains"
Next →	"Grave"
Angel
← Previous	"Tomorrow"
Next →	"Deep Down"
Cast
Starring	Sarah Michelle Gellar — Buffy Nicholas Brendon — Xander Emma Caulfield — Anya Michelle Trachtenberg — Dawn James Marsters — Spike Alyson Hannigan — Willow
Special guest starring	Anthony Stewart Head — Giles
Guest starring	Danny Strong — Jonathan Tom Lenk — Andrew Jeff Kober — Rack
Co-starring	Steven W. Bailey — Cave Demon Jeff McCredie — Officer Damian Mooney — Patrol Cop Michael Younger — Truck Driver Brett Wagner — Trucker
Uncredited	James C. Leary — Clem Tanoai Reed — Flaming-Fists Warrior

"Two to Go" is the twenty-first episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the one hundred twenty-first episode in the series. Written by Douglas Petrie and directed by Bill L. Norton, it originally broadcast on May 21, 2002 on UPN.

Synopsis

In the first of a two-part sixth-season finale, Buffy, Anya and Xander race to the Sunnydale police station to try to save Jonathan and Andrew from a sorceress; Dawn persuades Clem to take her to Rack; Spike's stamina and courage are put to the test by a mysterious demon.

Summary

In the minutes after Willow's flaying of Warren, Buffy, Xander and Anya run through the woods. As Xander fights the urge to be sick after what he saw, Buffy deduces by Willow's last words ("one down") mean that she's going after Jonathan and Andrew, who are still in jail. Confused, Xander asks why Willow would now try to kill Jonathan and Andrew since they had nothing to do with killing Tara, but Buffy says that Willow has an addictive personality and once she starts something, she won't stop. Anya then brings up the fact that Willow will take some time to get to the jail, even at her magic level. Using her new demon powers, Anya teleports herself to get there first so she can save the boys.

Buffy and Xander then talk about Willow with Buffy saying that now that Willow has killed someone, things change. Xander, however, tries to justify Willow's actions by again reminding Buffy that Warren was a cold-blooded serial killer of women just getting started, and that he finally got what he deserved. Despite this, Buffy still doesn't believe that Warren deserved to die for killing Tara, but she and Xander agree that Jonathan and Andrew definitely don't deserve to die since they never killed anybody. Seconds later, Buffy and Xander find Xander's car destroyed, courtesy of Willow, and Buffy runs ahead by herself, leaving a self-loathing Xander behind to complain.

At the jail, Andrew is still convinced Warren is coming to save them, but Jonathan has a bit of a more realistic view and the two argue. Anya appears in the cell and updates the guys on the events that have happened since they were put in jail. Anya calls to the guard and tries to convince him that he needs to let the guys out because something terrible is coming for them.

Willow arrives outside the police station, puts an officer down with a sleep spell, and uses magic to tear apart the brick wall that keeps her from Andrew and Jonathan's cell. Officers try to stop Willow, but she keeps them all at bay. Anya, who can only teleport herself, is pretty much helpless and can't get the guys out of the cell as the wall breaks apart. Meanwhile, Buffy arrives on the scene and sneaks into the building. Willow floats up to the opening in the wall, but finds that the cell is empty and the bars have been bent apart, courtesy of Buffy. Anya tries to talk to Willow, but Willow knocks her out with a bolt of energy, and lets out a powerful and seemingly endless primeval scream.

Xander steals a police car and gives Buffy, Andrew and Jonathan an escape. Buffy and Xander talk about their plans and question why Willow isn't after them already. They don't have to wait long as a huge semi-truck approaches from behind with Willow on top, controlling the vehicle. Eventually though, Willow runs out of power and the driver stops the truck while Xander and the others escape. Meanwhile, Clem tries to entertain Dawn, but she is focused more on the fact that she is cooped up in the crypt with him and wants to be helping her sister and friends.

In the cave in Africa, Spike reviews the rules of the trial with the demon, and a large man with flaming fists approaches and starts to attack Spike.

Back in Sunnydale, Dawn has Clem lead the way to Rack's moving place, despite his strong misgivings, where Dawn hopes to find Willow. Meanwhile, Anya helps the others into the magic shop and goes to one of the few books Willow didn't drain, an untranslated book of protection spells. Jonathan tries to help, but Buffy isn't interested and he only manages to let them know that Willow will need a recharge soon; Buffy agrees, and makes sure that Jonathan knows that they are only protecting them for Willow's sake. Buffy and Xander talk about keeping Willow from killing Andrew or Jonathan and what is going to happen when they do actually find her.

Willow pays Rack a visit, and the two chat. "Tell me, Strawberry," he whispers, "what on this earth do you want?" Willow quotes Rack back to himself: "Just to take a little tour." She sucks the power, as well as the life, out of the pusher. Minutes later, Clem finally gets Dawn to Rack's place and Dawn goes in to talk with him, but finds Rack dead and a much more powerful Willow waiting for her.

Dawn is frightened by the new Willow, looking paler with black veins running across her face. Dawn asks Willow if she killed Rack, and Willow replies that the killing was a nice clean improvement over Warren. Dawn starts to run, but Willow won't let her leave. Dawn desperately attempts to reason with Willow, but Willow, unmoved and slightly annoyed, simply threatens to turn her back into a ball of energy and end her human existence in order to put an end to her constant whining. Fortunately, Buffy shows up just in time.

At the Magic Box, Jonathan continues to offer help to Xander and Anya as they struggle to translate the book, but Xander suggests he get back to sitting down unless he can do the translating for them. Andrew wonders why Jonathan is helping their supposed enemies and suggests a plan to escape before Willow can get to them. Nearby, Anya and Xander bicker about both the handling of the situation with Willow and the sour turns their relationship took. Xander expresses his guilt about the current situation because he saw Warren's gun before Warren shot Buffy and Tara, but he froze and was unable to do anything. Xander believes that he really is a useless coward, and that he always will be. Anya, who has no intention of helping Xander feel better, says nothing.

At Rack's shop, Buffy tries to reason with Willow and get Dawn out safely, but Willow tells Buffy that she got tired of being the old Willow because the only good part of that involved Tara. When Buffy brings up trying to think about positive things, Willow simply criticizes Buffy's hypocrisy, citing all of Buffy's self-destructive habits and depression since she was revived. As she talks, Willow transports the three of them into the Magic Box where Buffy and Dawn collapse to the floor, weakened by the teleportation, and Willow turns her magic on Andrew and Jonathan, hurling bolts of lethal magic at them. However, a protection barrier stops Willow from hurting Jonathan and Andrew because Anya, hiding around a corner, continuously chants a Sumerian protection spell from the book, some of which she had managed to translate.

Meanwhile in Africa, a burned and bloodied Spike finally manages to defeat his challenger by breaking the man's neck. But Spike quickly finds out that that this was only the first of many tests he must pass.

At the Magic Box, Buffy recovers and tries to talk with Willow and stop her from hurting Andrew or Jonathan. But Willow is relentless and, since she is unable to cast a spell on Andrew and Jonathan, instead casts a spell on herself to make herself supernaturally strong intending to beat them both to death. Buffy steps up to physically stop Willow, but she's carelessly tossed aside. Buffy recovers quickly and returns the favor by punching Willow. Xander, uncertain if Buffy can stop Willow, immediately takes the opportunity to get Dawn, Andrew, and Jonathan out of the shop, although Anya needs to be remain behind to chant the protection spell. Willow attempts to follow but Buffy stands in her way and refuses to let her leave. The then begin a huge fight, wrecking the Magic Box in the process, but neither one manage to gain an advantage over the other.

Xander leads the others through Sunnydale trying to find somewhere to hide until Willow can be stopped. Andrew decides that he doesn't want to stay in Sunnydale but wants to escape to Mexico. When Xander obviously objects. Andrew rebels and pulls a sword on Xander, but Jonathan pulls a sword on Andrew himself and forces him to back off, declaring that they are staying in Sunnydale and going back to jail to do their time when the dust settles.

Buffy and Willow's fight continues until Willow finds Anya hiding and, realizing what she was doing, promptly knocks her unconscious before tossing Buffy aside. Standing over her two bruised and unconscious former friends, Willow boasts in a confident tone that no one can stop her now. Suddenly, a bright green light sends Willow flying across the shop as Giles appears in the doorway, willing to test her unstoppable power.

Continuity

• Anya refers to Andrew as "what's-his-face, the other guy." This is part of the running joke of the Scooby Gang being unable to recall Andrew's name, also present in "Gone", "Never Leave Me", "Grave", Turbulence, and Own It, Part Five.
• Dawn searches for Rack's residence based on the time Willow took her there, in episode "Wrecked".
• Anya rebuffs Xander at the Magic Box, cutting him short when he's about to make plans if things get "really bad", wondering if he will "propose". This is a reference to "The Gift", where Xander proposes Anya while the apocalypse is underway.
• Anya and Xander discuss her night with Spike, in episode "Entropy".
• Willow refers back to the events of "Normal Again" when she says that Buffy considered a psych ward to be a preferable alternative to being the Slayer.
• Buffy states that killing someone changes you, followed by "Believe me, I know." She has twice thought she had killed a person: the robotic Ted in episode "Ted" and, more recently, when she was framed for the death of Katrina in "Dead Things". This also reflects her experience with Faith when the Slayer went rogue after accidentally killing Allan Finch in "Bad Girls".
• Andrew retells his encounter with Dark Willow in episode "Storyteller", with the events altered in his favor. He describes it to his camera again in Retreat, Part Three.
• Buffy's warning to Willow about not wanting to hurt her, only to be attacked in response and then attacking back, claiming she didn't want to but is still willing is similar to the fight between Spike and Drusilla in "Becoming, Part Two".
• When Clem is performing a taste test on chips, Dawn replies that "As taste tests go, this is definitely one of the better ones I've been to," possibly referring to her culinary experiment in "Flooded" where she asks Giles, "You ever try mixing parts of every cereal you got in one bowl?" She also experimented with peanut butter tortilla chips one time, commenting "remind me never to invent that again," after Willow offers to take her out for real food in the episode "Wrecked".
• Just before Willow drains Rack, she repeats his exact phrase "just to take a little tour", from episode "Wrecked".
• Rack is revealed to have survived being drained by Willow, albeit powerless, in Wonderland, Part Four.
• Giles' line, "I'd like to test that theory," is repeated by Willow in The Long Way Home, Part Two against Amy Madison.

Appearances

Individuals

• Clement
• Rupert Giles
• Alexander Harris
• Anya Jenkins
• Jonathan Levinson
• Lloyd
• Tara Maclay (Only mentioned)
• Warren Mears (Only mentioned)
• Rack
• Willow Rosenberg
• Spike
• Buffy Summers
• Dawn Summers
• Joyce Summers (Only mentioned)
• Andrew Wells
• Local Boy

Organizations and titles

• Key
• Scooby Gang
• Slayer
• Sunnydale Police Department
• Witch
• Watcher
• Warlock

Species

• Demon
  • Asphyx demon
  • Loose-Skinned demon
• Human
• Vampire

Locations

• Africa
• Sunnydale, America
  • Hawley mausoleum
  • Magic Box
  • Rack's residence

Weapons and objects

• Xandermobile

Death count

• "Local Boy", killed by Spike.

Behind the scenes

Production

• The title of the episode is a reference to the previous one, which ends with Willow saying "One down" after killing Warren. It is also a double entendre as to there being two episodes left in the season (this one and "Grave").
• Nicholas Brendon does the opening narration "This is what happened this year" which precedes a longer-than-usual recap of all the major events of season six.
• Giles' reappearance was described in the script as "pure Ripper".
• Anthony Stewart Head is not credited in the opening guest cast list because the writers wanted viewers to be surprised to see Giles back.

Broadcast

• This episode, and its second part, "Grave", were shown, back-to-back, as a two-hour feature on its original airing in both the USA and UK — consequently, the presentation of this episode on DVD includes credits such as "'Grave' Written by".

Deleted scenes

• This line was cut due to length:

Clem: "We don't have a plan. Don't we at least need a plan?"

Dawn: "Buffy and her friends never have a plan. They just sort of... jump in and don't know what they're doing."

Clem: "And this works?"

Dawn: "They never really let me come along. Guess we'll find out... It's okay. I mean they usually come back in one piece."

Pop culture references

• Andrew comments that Willow is "like Dark Phoenix up there!", referencing the character and related storyline from the X-Men comics in 1980.
• Andrew tells Jonathan: "Laugh it up, Fuzzball", a quote from Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
• Before fighting, Spike references Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991) with the line "Here we are now, entertain us".
• Xander tells Jonathan "I think Willow's in a league of her own now," a reference to the film A League of Their Own (1992).

Music

• Thomas Wanker — original score

International titles

• Armenian: "Երկուսով մնածաները" (Two Remain)
• Czech: "Dva zbývají" (Two to Go)
• French: "Toute la peine du monde, partie 1" (All of the World's Sorrow, Part 1)
• Finnish: "Kivun kääntöpiiri, osa yksi"
• German: "Da waren's nur noch zwei" (Then There Were [Only] Two)
• Hungarian: "Kettőre megy" (Two to Go)
• Italian: "Due da Eliminare" (Two to Eliminate)
• Japanese: "次なる標的" (Next Target)
• Polish: "Na celowniku" (On the Viewfinder)
• Portuguese (Brazil): "Um Já Foi, Só Faltam Dois" (One Is Gone, Only Two Remain)
• Romanian: "Două la pachet" (Two Packets)
• Russian: "Оставшиеся двое" (The Remaining Two)
• Spanish (Latin America): "Dos para Llevar" (Two to Take Away)
• Spanish (Spain): "Dos para la Tumba (1ª Parte)" (Two for the Grave (1st Part))

Gallery

Two to Go Willow 07.jpg

Quotes

Andrew: "You think your li'l witch buddy's gonna stop with us? You saw her. She's a truck-driving magic mama! And we've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers, and not one of you bunch has the Midi-chlorians to stop her."

Xander: "You've never had any tiny bit of sex, have you?"

Jonathan: "I still can't believe that was Willow. I mean, I've known her almost as long as you guys. Willow was, you know — she packed her own lunches, and wore floods, and was always... just Willow. Geez it!"

Andrew: "What was that?"

Xander: "Just Willow."

Buffy: "Willow, I know what you want to do, but you have to listen to me. The forces inside you are incredibly powerful. They're strong... but you're stronger. You have to remember you're still Willow."

Willow: "Let me tell you something about Willow. She's a loser. And she always has been. People picked on Willow in junior high school, high school, up until college. With her stupid mousy ways. And now? Willow's a junkie."

Buffy: "I can help."

Willow: "The only thing Willow was ever good for... The only thing I had going for me... were the moments — just moments — when Tara would look at me and I was wonderful. And that will never happen again."

Buffy: "I don't wanna hurt you."

Willow: "Not a problem."

Buffy: "I said I didn't want to. Didn't say I wouldn't."

Willow: "Buffy, I gotta tell ya. I get it, now. The Slayer thing really isn't about the violence. It's about the power. And there's no one in the world who has the power to stop me now."

Giles: "I'd like to test that theory."