After having slayed a vampire outside a disused factory while on a routine patrol, Buffy is spotted by a security guard who thinks she’s here for a rave that happened the night before.

He picks up a strange glowing orb which he thinks Buffy has dropped, and gives it to her. The next day is the opening of Giles’ magic shop. Customers are thin on the ground at first, and Anya soon gets into the swing of the retail business. Giles can’t initially identify the globe so Buffy hangs onto it.

Joyce Summers is still suffering headaches after her collapse in the previous episode. Buffy is worried and goes to the hospital to pick up her prescription. There she sees the security guard from the night before being strapped to hospital gurney because he seems to have gone mad. He tells Buffy, “They get to you through your family!”

This makes Buffy suspects some demon may be the cause of her mother’s illness. She tells the rest of the Scooby gang, and Giles and Willow suggest she tries a spell which will reveal “traces” of whatever may be attacking Joyce. Buffy goes home, casts the spell, and sees photos of Dawn in which her sister is fading in and out…

Buffy, suddenly realising that her memories of Dawn growing up may not be real, is now convinced that her sister is the demon, and attacks her in her room. Giles phones here with some information about the Orb; his research has revealed it may be extremely dangerous.

Reluctantly leaving Dawn at home before she can discover more about her true identity, Buffy rushes back to the factory to see if she can find out more about the Orb. On the way she bumps into a shifty Spike, who has been hanging around outside her house for no apparent reason.

At the factory, Buffy discovers a monk being tortured by a mysterious, vampish female of immense strength and power. This demon wants to know the whereabouts of a “key” which the monk and his brethren have hidden. After almost getting her arse whipped by this evil female force, Buffy escapes with the monk who tells later tells her with hid dying breath that the key is a form of energy which has been manifested as Dawn. It was the monks who created all memories of Dawn, and Dawn knows nothing of her true nature. She thinks she is Buffy’s sister…

Review:
Though there are a lot of loose threads left dangling at the end of this episode (which presumably will be tied up as the season goes on), and some of the plotting doesn't bear too close inspection, "No Place Like Home" is another high-octane, wittily-scripted slice of Buffy with so many entertaining moments you don’t worry too much about convenient coincidences and the like.

The new evil female force is an interesting foe, and certainly more worrying for Buffy than Harmony, though the psycho-bimbo acting could grate after a few episodes (presumably she'll be returning to claim Dawn). But once again its the incidental scenes that stick in your memory: Giles standing in his shop in a wizard’s hat much to Buffy’s disgust; Spike becoming Buffy’s stalker; Anya discovering the joys of capitalism. Only the scenes with Giles fretting over the amount of customers he’s getting come across as overly-forced attempts at humour, though Xander’s retort of, “Stay British!” is priceless.

The spell scene is intriguingly directed as a kind of drug haze, and the fight between Buffy and her new nemesis crackles with energy. The main worry, however, is that now we know Dawn in an innocent, will she remain quite so irritating (it was kind of acceptable when we thought she was a demon) or will they try to soften her?

Best line: When Buffy asks Spike to explain what he’s doing outside her house in five words or less, he replies (counting down on his fingers): “Out… for… a… walk… [pause for a thought] BITCH!”

Bloopers: Well, we don't know. E-mail us with your suggestions.

Trivia: Giles offers Anya a job in his shop