Buffy is training with the Initiative, and giving them all an old-fashioned arse-kicking. There's a room 314 in the compound, which holds a part man, part demon, part machine creature.

Willow is spending more and more time with Tara, feeling like she's losing Buffy to Riley and his gang, who get beeped and briefed about a Polgara demon on the loose. Buffy asks question after question about it's extendable skewer weapons, and why they can't damage it's arms. On the hunt, Buffy and Riley defeat the demon, while another team see and 'tag' Spike, who goes to Giles for help. Buffy and Riley make love, watched and recorded by Walsh, who is starting to see Buffy as a loose cannon. Riley hunts Spike using the tracer, but Willow casts a spell blocking the signal. Walsh sends Buffy on a routine mission, but it's a set-up. She tells Riley Buffy's dead, only to have the Slayer appear on a monitor behind her, alive and well. Buffy warns Giles about Walsh, while the professor visits the patchwork creature, Adam, who suddenly kills her using his Polgara demon arm skewer thing.

Review:
There's some fantastic action sequences in this episode, and the lasting impression is that, well, never mess with Buffy. She seems almost invulnerable here, a far cry from the girl who got her arm broken by vamp Sunday at the beginning of the season. The scene where Willow casts the spell ionising the air to block the tracer signal is one of the funniest of the season.

Best line: S&M Willow: "Everyone's getting spanked but me..."

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Trivia: Spike calls them the Slayerettes, and Willow mentions the Scooby Corp.

This week Xander is selling Boost Bars - which actually exist, a little surprisingly.

The Polgara demon is named after a regular on the Buffy posting board, who in turn is named for the sorceress from David Eddings’ Belgariad and Malloreon book series. Doctor Angleman is also named after a regular poster.

 

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