Primeval

Writer: David Fury Director: James A> Contner

Cast : Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Marc Blucas as Riley Finn, James Marsters as Spike, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles.

Main guest stars : Leonard Roberts as Forrest Gates, Bailey Chase as Graham Miller, Amber Benson as Tara, Emma Caulfield as Anya, Connor O’Farrell as Colonel McNamara, George Hertzberg as Adam, Lindsay Crouse as Zombie Maggie Walsh, Jack Stehlin as Zombie Dr. Angleman, Bob Fimiani as Ward, Jordi Vilasuso as Dixon. Original broadcast date : May 16, 2000

My one-line description: The Brady Bunch moves into Buffy’s body. Making good on her promise to seek help from people who will actually help her, Buffy goes to the ruins of Sunnydale High in search of Riley, but he’s gone. Riley is at Adam’s lair, trying to talk but unable to until Adam gives him permission. Adam reveals that “mother” – Professor Walsh – has implanted a behaviour modification chip in his chest. He considers it phase one of Riley’s “preparation”, and he’s confident that Riley will embrace his new destiny willingly once he discovers it. He explains the flaws in both humans and demons, and goes on to say that he and Riley are brothers, united in the future Professor Walsh say for them. Spike shows up and notices Riley is stiffer than usual; Adam informs him that he activated the soldier’s chip. Spike reminds Adam that he kept up his part of the bargain, and demands that his own chip be removed. But Adam tells him that he’ll remove the chip only when he has Buffy where he wants her – in the Initiative, making sure that as many demons as humans die, until she’s too weak to go on. Spike is confident that as soon as Willow has decrypted the disk, she’ll pass the information to Buffy. Adam points out that Willow is one of the friends he was supposed to separate from the Slayer, and Spike realizes the slight flaw in his plan. Adam gives him leave to go fix things up. It’s the morning after, and Giles has a hell of a hangover when he answers a knock on the door. It’s Willow and Tara – Willow forgot her laptop and the disks. Amidst much awkwardness, she collects her belongings, Giles wishes her luck on decoding the disks, and the girls leave. Sitting alone in her dorm room, undoubtedly feeling abandoned by all, Buffy picks up a picture of her, Xander and Willow in happier times. She picks up the phone to make a call, but puts it back down again. Apparently resigned to dealing with this on her own, she fills her weapons bag and leaves. Xander is in his bed, looking similarly depressed. Anya walks in, reminding him he was supposed to go to the unemployment office today. Xander tonelessly says that he’s not going; realizing he’s still down because of the fight with his friends, Anya lies down beside him and tries to comfort him, telling him that she’s in love with him and it doesn’t matter if they think he’s a loser. Armed with a mean battle axe, Buffy enters the cave where she found Adam – but he’s not there. As she wonders where he could’ve went, Adam is guiding Riley into a very secret Initiative lab – so secret only a few know of its existence. Riley is shocked to see two zombies working in the lab, tubes protruding from their bodies – Professor Walsh and Dr. Angleman. Riley asks if this is what Adam is planning for him, but Adam replies that his destiny is much greater. On the operating table the zombies are tending to, Forrest sits up – now a cyborg. “Oh, God”, utters a horrified Riley. “God has nothing to do with it”, Forrest answers. As she exits the cave, Buffy runs into Spike, who allegedly is looking for a “weekend getaway”. She tells him that Adam was in those caves, and should be putting his plans in motion soon. Spike asks her about the computer disks, innocently suggesting that she use that information even if she and Willow had a falling out. Buffy, putting two and two together, agrees and leaves. In Tara’s room, Willow is still trying to decrypt the disks, when suddenly they decrypt themselves without her doing anything. The phone rings, and Tara answers it – it’s Buffy. In the lab, Riley, tied to a metal chair and unable to move, tries to get Walsh’s attention. Forrest tells him that she’s just a walking corpse, to which Riley points out that Forrest is, too. But Forrest doesn’t agree – Adam made him almost as strong as himself, and they’ll transform Riley, once they get some choice parts. On campus, Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles meet, arriving from four different directions. Buffy asks Willow who told her she and Xander were talking behind her back, and Willow remembers it was Spike. She asks the same question to Xander, and gets the same answer; Giles doesn’t even need the question to realize how stupid he was. Buffy explains that Spike played them, made them fight to split them up. They agree to try to forget what happened and concentrate on the matter at hand. Buffy thinks Spike is working for Adam; she reports her encounter with him and all that he said regarding the information on the disks. Willow says that the disks contained information they already knew about 314, but also some tidbits about Adam’s final phase – creating a race of cyber-demonoids like himself in a secret lab. Buffy reminds them that the cells at the Initiative are jam-packed with demons, and the gang concludes that Adam wants to attack the Initiative from the inside – creating a monstrous battle between humans and demons which will leave him with plenty of body parts. Buffy also realizes that Adam wants her there to even the score. In the lab, Adam can feel the Slayer close by, and knows she’ll be coming. As an unmoving Riley watches on, Spike jumps up on an operating table, but Adam tells him to wait until Buffy is actually there. At Giles’ place, the Scoobies search for ideas to stop Adam. Buffy knows that his power center – a uranium core – is located in his chest near the spine. Willow suggests a uranium-extracting spell, but admits to grasping at straws. Giles knows of a paralysing spell that might be useful, but although he knows how to speak Sumerian, the spell must be cast by a powerful witch, and within striking distance of the victim. Xander tells them they need a combo-Buffy with Buffy’s strength, Willow’s witch power and Giles’ know-how. They all stare at him… and Giles, surprisingly, says that it’s a very helpful suggestion. The Scoobies go to Lowell House, loaded with supplies, uneasily preparing themselves for a joining spell. Giles comments that the spell is very powerful, but very dangerous. Buffy kicks a mirror wall and shatters it, revealing the empty elevator shaft leading to the Initiative. Buffy and Willow are rappelling down the shaft in harnesses, with Giles and Xander following further up. Buffy takes the opportunity to apologize to Willow for how strained things recently became between them. She feels that the gang drifted apart during the year, and she wants it together. She blames herself for having been too wrapped up in her stuff; Willow thinks she’s talking about slayage, but Buffy is talking about Riley. Willow confides that she kept stuff from them too, like Tara; she wanted to tell Buffy, but she was scared. “You can tell me anything. I love you. You’re my best friend.” Buffy tells her. They hug affectionately, and fall the rest of the way to the top of the elevator. Xander arrives, and they pull him into the group hug. After the hug, the gang pries open the elevator doors – and find themselves facing a dozen commandos with guns pointed at them. Elsewhere, Adam and Spike, via a video monitor, watch Buffy being led away by commandos. Spike once again asks Adam to remove the chip, but Adam points out that the Slayer is not alone – and the monitor show her friends also being led away. Adam concludes that Spike failed again, and the vampire tries to escape – but bumps into Forrest, who grabs him by the throat. Spike pleads that he did his best, and Adam agrees to remove the chip – by taking Spike’s head off. Hearing this, the vampire stabs Forrest in the eye with his cigarette butt and runs for it. Forrest wants to go after him, but Adam comments that there’s nowhere to run. In the command center, Colonel McNamara searches the Scoobies’ bags and comments that they can’t just waltz into a government facility when they feel like it. Buffy tries to warn him about Adam preparing to unlock the overflowing cells, but McNamara tells her that every inch of the place is constantly monitored. Willow asks if that includes the secret lab, but the Colonel has no idea what she’s talking about. He maintains that he has absolute control over everything that goes on in the Initiative. Then the power goes out… Courtesy of Adam, who can’t wait to see what will happen as he monitors the demons starting to leave their cells. A soldier reports to McNamara that all the demons are out of their cells; Buffy appeals to the Colonel to get his people out and let her handle this, but he ignores her and instead gets all the soldiers he can, leaving two to guard the Scoobies. Not enough, obviously… as soon as Buffy has disposed of them, Willow searches through a computer terminal to locate Adam. Meanwhile, Giles tells Buffy they need some place quiet for the enjoining spell. Across the Pit, it’s war. Humans and demons fight as explosions go off and machine guns fire; scientists in white coats run around as demons chase them. Spike arrives in the middle of this, and decides to fight the demons. On the computer terminal, Willow has found an area of the Initiative composed of air ducts, that isn’t on any official diagram. Since it’s located right behind 314, Buffy realizes this is where Adam is. And since all the doors are unlocked, they shouldn’t have any trouble getting there… If they can get past the war zone. Buffy leads the way, fighting off demons and vampires on her way. In 314, the Scoobies find a secret door in a corner. Buffy asks how long she’ll have to wait for the ritual to kick in; Giles answers it should take five minutes. As she prepares to go through the door, Xander remarks that he still doesn’t like her going in there alone. “I won’t be”, answers a smiling Buffy. Buffy emerges into the secret lab and sees Riley tied to a chair. She goes to him, but he can’t talk. She notices Zombie Walsh and Zombie Angleman, and she asks him what’s going on. No answer. Adam explains that Riley can’t answer because he’s part of the final phase now – as she was supposed to be. Buffy apologizes, and Adam launches Forrest at her. He leaves the lab as Forrest excitedly prepares to kill her. Then Zombie Walsh picks up a surgical saw and comes at her; Buffy manages to kick her away. As she and Forrest fight, they bump into a table and shatter a glass beaker next to Riley, who stuggles to grab a shard… Meanwhile, Forrest is having a field day knocking Buffy around. In 314, Giles, Xander and Willow are sitting in a circle, doing the ritual… As Buffy gets thrown around by Forrest, Riley digs into his own flesh with the shard of glass. Bracing against the pain, he finally rips out the chip. Forrest throws Buffy on the operating table, and the zombies come forth to hold her there. Suddenly, Riley springs from his chair and rips the tubes out of the zombies, who collapse. Buffy jumps off the table and tells Riley she needs to get to Adam. He tells her to go, and prepares to face Forrest. Adam is watching the war raging in the Initiative from his video monitor when Buffy arrives. She lunges at him, and he starts beating her around. She escapes his Polgara arm, even breaking the skewer. “Broke your arm”, she boasts; “Got another”, he replies, producing a machine gun from his right arm and showering the room with bullets. Buffy ducks behind a counter. In 314, Giles, Willow and Xander arch back as the ritual works and their spirits leave their bodies, rushing to find Buffy. Just as the spell hits her, Adam throws a grenade and the counter shatters. Buffy slowly rises from behind it, her eyes orange. Adam tells her she can’t last much longer, but Buffy, speaking in a combination of her voice, Giles’, Willow’s and Xander’s, answers that they are forever. She speaks a spell in Sumerian, and Adam’s volley of bullets is stopped by an invisible barrier. Adam looks worried. In the lab, Forrest thrashes Riley, who in last resort picks up a large gas canister and starts hitting him with it. The valve opens, and Forrest tears the canister away from Riley. Riley ducks for cover, just as Forrest sees the mention “flammable” on the canister. An exposed electrical wire gives a spark, and Forrest goes up in flames… Adam tries firing at Buffy again, but she waves her hand and the charges slow down, turning into doves which fly away. With another flick of her wrist, she gets his weapons arm to retract. She corners him, and as he asks, confused, how she can do this, she tells him he can’t grasp the source of “their” power. Then she tears out his uranium core. “But yours is right here”, she says. Adam collapses. Riley enters the room to see Buffy floating the uranium core into the air and speaking a Sumerian phrase which destroys it. Then she slumps in his arms, as the other three slump in 314. Just as they regain consciousness, Spike saves them from a demon just entering the room by snapping its neck. He admits he was working for Adam, but figured he’s save them so they wouldn’t stake him – and they don’t. Instead, Riley goes to round up the soldiers left alive, while Buffy takes point. In what we suppose is Washington, D.C., Mr. Ward is reviewing a tape of the battle in the Initiative. He tells other men at the table that the Initiative was an attempt on the government’s behalf to control the “otherworldly menace”. However, he concludes that the experiment failed, and recommends that the Initiative be filled with concrete, and all its records expunged. Summary by OttsFiveByFive.

Episode Ratings

Mac -

“Maybe the coolest special effects in the Buffy-verse.”

DJ Angelus -

“Great Special Effects. Happy ending. Adam Loses through really cool spell.”

Quotes

Key: B=Buffy, G=Giles, X=Xander, W=Willow, R=Riley, S=Spike, A=Anya, T=Tara, F=Forrest, Ad=Adam

Ad: I simply activated it, brother. R: Stop calling me that - I’m not your brother. You’re a botched science experiment. I’m a human being, who’s gonna do everything in his power to– Ad: Sit. R: //sits//

Ad: Once you forget your old life, and embrace your destiny as I have, you will know power you’ve never dreamed of. I think you’re going to like it.

Ad: Demons cling to old ways and ancient feuds. And they’re hopeless with technology; unworthy. R: Not really wanting a lecture right now.

Ad: You see, we are brothers, after all. S: Warms the cockles of my non-beating heart, seeing you lads together.

S: I’m much more the “I did my part, now get this chip out of my head” kind of guy.

S: Slightly stiffer than usual. Subtle, but I like it. What’s with him? Ad: I activated his chip. S: Oh, so it’s chips all around, is it? Someone must have bought the party-pack.

Ad: The witch. S: Willow. About so high, perky. Good with math. Natural choice. Ad: Her friend. S: Right. Ad: One of the friends from whom you’ve so efficiently separated her. S: Damn right I did. You should’ve seen ’em. They won’t be talking to each other for a long, long– Hang on. I think I might have detected a small flaw.

S: Okay, let’s not quibble about who failed who. The important thing is making sure the Slayer is where we want… Ad: Go. S: Gone.

S: So, um, we’ll do this chip thing when I get back.

G: Pardon the robe, it’s a bit of a late start. W: Right. T: Hope you’re feeling all right, Mr. Giles. G: Oh, yes, quite well, thank you. Yes, I’ll probably have a brisk jog later on.

G: Will you be working here, you know, typing, talking? Because that will be fine.

A: Xander. You said you wanted to check the board at the unemployment office this morning. //lifts blanket// You can’t go like that. They won’t even interview you if you’re naked.

X: Maybe I should join the Army. A: Don’t they make you get up really early in the morning? X: Oh, yeah. Never mind.

A: So they all think you’re a lost, directionless loser with no plans for the future. Pfft! X: Anya, you can’t “Pfft!” that stuff away. A: Why not? X: I don’t know.

A: You’re a good person and a good boyfriend, and… and I’m in love with you.

Ad: Mother kept her secrets well. Didn’t you?

Ad: This is all how she planned it. Except she thought she would be alive.

R: Forrest. Oh, god. F: God has nothing to do with it.

S: Easy, sheriff. Look where you point that thing.

S: Look at little Nancy Drew.

W: It must be programmed to self-decrypt at a certain point. That is so annoying! It’s like somebody blurting out the answer to a riddle just when you’ve– I mean, yippee! We have the information. T: I don’t know if “yippee” is the right response, either. Read that.

F: Mommy can hear you, but she’s still a walking corpse.

B: Where’s Anya? X: Oddly, Anya decided not to join us despite the fun we had at our last meeting.

G: Well, uh, Spike can be very convincing when-when-when… I’m very stupid. B: That’s where it came from, the stuff we said the other night. G: Of course. Well, piffle, let’s move on. X: I’m moving. W: Me, too. B: Good. Great.

X: He’s all dressed up with no one to bite. He’s got to get his yayas somehow.

X: Spike’s working for Adam?!? After all we’ve done– Nah, I can’t even act surprised.

W: Oh, I decrypted them! Well, they decrypted themselves, but I almost had it.

B: He wanted me to know about his evil guy assembly line.

X: Demons versus soldiers. Massacre, massacre. W: And Adam has a neat pile of body parts to start assembling his army. Diabolical yet.. gross. X: Does anybody else miss the Mayor “I just wanna be a big snake”?

X: He’s not worried you might kill, oh, say, him? B: No. He’s really not.

Ad: She’s coming. I can feel it. S: Good on you. Got a hunk of prognosticating demon in there, right?

S: Now, if you’ll just get the chip out of my cranium, I’ll be out of your way. And mind the hairline. I don’t fancy fussing with a comb-over once I’ve resumed my killing ways.

X: Great, so we just ask him to lie down quietly while we do some exploratory surgery.

W: What about magic? Some kind of, I don’t know, uranium- extracting spell? I know, I’m reaching.

G: Perhaps a paralyzing spell. Only I can’t perform the incantation for this. W: Right. Don’t you have to speak it in Sumerian or something? G: I do speak Sumerian.

X: See what you get for taking French instead of Sumerian? B: What was I thinking?

X: So, no problem, all we need is combo-Buffy. Her with Slayer-strength, Giles’ multilingual know-how, and Willow’s witchy-power. Yeah, don’t tell me, I’m just full of helpful suggestions. G: As a matter of fact, you are.

W: Nervous? X: No way. I’m full of that good old kamikazee spirit. G: Xander, just because this is never going to work, there’s no need to be negative.

B: Game faces, guys. We’re going in.

B: How you doing? W: Super. What was I thinking, using stairs all this time?

W: It’s not your fault. Spike stirred up trouble. B: Yeah, but I think trouble was stir-upable.

B: I mean Riley. And… Riley, mostly.

W: Oh, I love you too! Oh, falling now…

B: Xander! W: Oh, wonderful Xander! B: You know we love you, right? W: We totally do. X: Oh, god, we’re gonna die, aren’t we? W: No, we just missed you. X: Giles, hurry up! You definitely want to get down here for this!

S: It’s must-see TV. Bait’s been taken, trap’s all set. Slayer has landed. So, one chiporectomy, please. Hello? Paging Mr. Owe-Me-One. Ad: She’s not alone. You failed me again. S: Well, that’s one way of looking at it. Ad: What’s the other way? S: //runs like a weasel//

Ad: Yes, I will honor our agreement and remove your chip. //to Forrest// Take his head off.

Colonel: You think you and your friends can just keep waltzing into a government installation, brandishing weapons like… like… W: It’s a gourd. G: Magic gourd. Colonel: What kind of freaks are you people?

Colonel: Every inch of this installation is under constant, 24-hour surveillance. W: Including the secret lab? Colonel: Everything! //pause// What secret lab?

Colonel: Incapacitate him with as much voltage as we can muster. X: Great plan. That’s right up there with “duck and cover.” B: I’ve seen Adam hit with taser blasts. He feeds on it. And now, you’re going to provide him with an all-you-can-eat buffet?

Colonel: Down here, I’m the one who’s in charge. //lights go off//

Ad: This will be interesting.

W: According to this, there’s air ducts and electrical conduits all running into there. B: So? W: So there’s no “there” there.

X: Demon open house. B: Great. So we know we’re going to 314. Now all we have to do is get there.

B: Is this place okay to be magic central? G: It should do. W: As long as we don’t get all blowed up or nothin’. X: What are the odds of that?

X: Buffy, I still don’t like you going alone. B: I won’t be.

B: I’ve never really been one to toe the line. Ad: Oh. Kill her. F: I thought you’d never ask.

F: Shut up and watch me kill your girlfriend, Finn. That’s an order.

F: Is that it? Is that all you got? R: No. She’s got me.

B: Fun, isn’t it? Ad: I do appreciate violence. B: Good.

B: Broke your arm. Ad: Got another. I’ve been upgrading.

Ad: Interesting. Very… interesting.

F: What are you making me do this for? Not that I’m not enjoying myself.

Ad: How can you…? B: You can never hope to grasp the source of our power. But yours is right here.

S: Nasty sort of fellow. Lucky for you blighters I was here, eh? G: Yes. Thank you. Although your heroism is slightly muted by the fact that you were helping Adam to start a war that would kill us all. X: You probably just saved us so we wouldn’t stake you right here. S: Well, yeah. Did it work?

S: Well, then everything’s all right. And we all get to be not staked through the heart. Good work, team!

R: We still got men out there. S: Well, let’s go save ’em, by gum.

Senator: The considered opinion of this Council is that the experiment… has failed.

Senator: And it seems it was only through the actions of a deserter, and a group of civilian insurrectionists, that our losses were not total. I trust the irony of that is not lost on any of us.

Senator: The Initiative itself will be filled in with concrete. Burn it down, gentlemen. Burn it down, and salt the earth.

Credit: The Sunnydale Slayers