Once More with White Bread

Shadow

ep 508
 
 Aired November 21, 2000
 
 IMDB Summary 
 Glory transforms a snake into a terrifying monster in her quest to find the Key; Joyce is hospitalized after being diagnosed with an illness.

Directed by: Daniel Attias 
 Written By: David Fury, Rebecca Kirshner 
 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to the Mr. Gordo podcast with your hosts, Britt and Sarah. This is currently a Buffy to Vampire Square. Re-watching podcasts. We will rewatch each episode and give our thoughts and opinions on this nice call process. And remember to leave the moment for tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

And I'm Brett.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

And we're back for a fabulous episode. Shadow.

unknown 0:59

Woo!

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Um, so how you been? Pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Um, let's see, what have we done? We went to the beach. That's right. We went to the beach. We do. You stayed here and we went to uh Nag's head in North Carolina, which was super nice. Highly recommend it. It was like it was so warm. It was like 70s, and then we drove back home and like we stopped in Ocean City on the way back to grab Thrasher's fries, and it was 20 degrees less. And I was like, oh god, it's so cold here. I was like leaving in a t-shirt and had to like put a hoodie on.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Well, we had one day where we were like, it was in the 70s, and legit the next day it snowed. I was like so annoyed. I know I was so annoyed.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

I was so hot that day. I was like, it's so hot. And then the next day I'm like, it's so cold.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

I know. I can't wait till it's consistently warm. I hate the cold.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Yeah, it just can't make up its mind. So, but you know, that's Maryland for you. Delaware, East Coast. The East Coast, yeah. Up or Upper East Coast. Um, how are you?

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Good, good, good, good. Um, we just found we just heard the devastating news that Hulu sucks and is not rebooting Buffy because apparently they watched the reboot and they didn't like it. And rather than just ask them to redo it or change maybe something, they decided we're just never gonna do the show ever. Yeah. Which is I don't know. I think it's the stupidest decision they've made, but whatever.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

There are so many dumb shows out there.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

And I'm like, shows they greenlit, and I'm like, how are you greenlighting these stupid shows that have like no one cares about? But people that are actually excited and hyped for Buffy, you don't even attempt to try to get it going.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Like I mean like that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

One episode. I heard I I actually had heard someone on uh TikTok someone was made a reel. Um I kind of agree with if Buffy was made today, it would have been cancelled within the first season. Um because I mean season one of Buffy, while we all love it and is very nostalgic, didn't have great ratings. It was kind of like a it didn't really pop until season two, season three. Yeah. So, like, if they had started making that show today, it would have been cancelled before you even got to the good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Probably.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

And um, they're proving that by canceling them before the pilot even brings up. Again, you can redo the pilot, you can redo stuff. I mean, to cancel it like altogether and to not give it any kind of chance when there's already a a following for it. Yeah, it's kind of weird.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

I bet you it'll get leaked on like YouTube or something one day. And then if it's good, I'm gonna be pissed.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

I don't even care if it's good. I mean again, like there's there's like you can change things around.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Yeah, but if it's good, it's like why did they cancel it? Like, this is like actually good stuff here. And but like I am very Some petty bitches up in there. Yeah, maybe someone didn't like the director or something. They were like, I'm just gonna throw a tantrum.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

I like I actually have authority over something. Ha ha ha.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Yeah, Buffy fans are like flooding to like Hulu's all of their pages all over social media and Disney and like like like going crazy about it. And that has happened before with previous shows where people like show up with support and they do like eventually bring it the shows on because the fans are upset, and Buffy does have a pretty big following. So I know there are some Buffy fans that are like, I'm kind of happy because they would have ruined the show, but I'm like, it's not this technically the same show, it's just a continuation. It's not Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it's Buffy New Sunnydale or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

So well, I mean, honestly, I had not the hugest, highest hope for this show, anyways, because it's not gonna any it's not even gonna touch the original series. Um, it's not. It it that's just facts, and so if you go in the mindset that it's gonna be this amazing show, it's not. I don't care. I wanted to see it. I wanted to see some of my uh the actors again, I wanted to see some of the characters. That's all I cared about. I mean, I wasn't going in expecting, you know, this brilliant piece of work. I really wasn't, and especially since I know that more than likely the storyline is just gonna be something that I really don't care about. I'm I'm going in watching it for Samuel Shagella playing Buffy, for James Marshers coming back as Spike, for Allison Hannikan coming back as Willow. I mean, I'm going, I'm wanting to watch for that. I really don't care about the storyline at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Maybe they brought the old characters back, but like CGI'd their face to be like maybe they brought Spike back and CGI'd it, but it looked so bad.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

It was like it's quite possible. Because I was like, I was trying to figure out how they're gonna do the vampires because they can't age. Again, I think we've talked about this. I think David Boreanis is the the only one who can come back and actually it will look okay because since Angel, he really hasn't aged that much, the actor, but that's because he aged within the show. Yeah. And you saw it, and so now it's not jarring, but I'm sorry. Like James had like the opposite of effect where he didn't age in the show, but then he aged after, so now it's kind of jarring.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

I mean, he is like he is like 10 years older than them.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

He is, he's aware, so I think I think he looks fantastic now. I'm just saying that for a a creature that can't age, it's it's more jarring for I don't know how they would bring him back without well, they would have to do some. They'd have to do some CGI or something.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Which they can. They have like this day and age, it's he's a good looking man, to be honest.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

He can look exactly how he is, and I'll still I will you know what? I'm there for it. I'm 100% into it.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

And they got AI and all that stuff, so I don't know. Watch they cancel the Harry Potter show next.

SPEAKER_03 7:21

Well, you know, I wouldn't hate that. Oh my gosh. I'm excited, but at the same time, I'm I'm already kind of dreading some of the things they're gonna do because they said they're gonna stay faithful to the books and they've already started changing things. Like, you like dude, why why tell us you're gonna do a faithful adaptation to a series and then immediately start changing things and not expect people to be pissed off. Are you talking about Snape? Snape is a big thing, but I know there's a couple other things too, but that I don't know. I just the whole thing. Yeah. I'm just like, but that m right there you lose my trust. Just that one thing. Like, come on, man. Yeah, we'll see. I'm not saying that that guy's not a good actor. Because I mean, honestly, I haven't seen him in anything in myself. I think he's a British actor. He plays mostly in British.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Wasn't he in like Black Mirror? I think I read he was like in Black Mirror or something.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

I might have seen him in that butt um so I'm not knocking his acting credibilities. He's a good looking man, which is another factor I don't like because Snape is not a good looking man. Um there's a there's a lot that doesn't work with that. And I'm like, I at this point, the fact that they're tripling down on this actor makes me think they're just I don't know. When there's actually legitimate concerns that people have legitimately voiced. And it's not all race thing, it's a this is how the show is gonna be perceived. You shouldn't do this, and they're like, no, let's do it, let's head forward. Like, yeah, they should have taken the criticism and been like, you know what? I you know what, I agree. Like, cause there can't be like there's no other actor that could have played Snape. Pretty sure you could have found a couple.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Even if Adam Driver didn't want to be it, which I think is ridiculous. He should, but he was like perfect casting, though he probably didn't even sign up for it, so he even auditioned for it.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

So yeah, he he would have if they were going for like identical to Snape, but like I wonder if they were like, we can't get Adam Driver, let's do the complete opposite.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Yeah. So I don't want to start into a Harry Potter rant because that's just gonna go on forever. So um, but we did get our we finally got our tickets to see the Broadway play. Um, I feel like I've been waiting for Tom Felton for this to see this play. Um, because I had absolutely no desire to watch Harry Potter's kids. It's not the storyline that I care about.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

It's just Tom Felton.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

There's so many more storylines that I wish they would have expanded on in the Harry Potter universe. Uh his kids are not one of them, but I will watch it with Tom Felton every day of the week.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Yeah, I still don't I never finished like the book, so I don't really Which one? The Harry Potter Broadway show.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

Oh, okay, okay. I kind of read like bad fanfiction. I know it's written by J.K. Rowling, but it felt like bad fanfiction, but it's okay. It's cool, it's cool, man. We're watching. I've heard like the visuals and everything and the acting is really good, so that'll make up for it.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Yeah. We'll see. They changed that too.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Yeah, um I was like, hmm. I'm not a fan of that either, but whatever. At least that doesn't change the storyline with like with Snape does. So no. Is it knocking on how you visually like saw her in the book? Yeah, but it doesn't change the storyline. With Snape it does. So it was just a bad character to race swap. I'm just saying out of all the characters, they could do that. They could have done Hagrid. I'm just like, they could have made him black instantly, and it would have been fine. Yeah. Or, you know, I Dumbledore, they could have done that to Dumbledore. Though I love John Lithgow. Please do not care to Don Lithgow. I love him.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Oh yeah, he's good.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Um not that they had a racewap, they have a bunch of um other minority characters in the show they could just represent more in the movie.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

So I could see Neville being racewapped. They could.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

But you know if they wanted to, there's a I'm pretty sure they could do a several, so it's like they probably will.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Watch they all come out and they're all Oh no, they already cast them all, probably. They're probably already like filming. They are filming, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yeah, they're they're filming, yeah. Yeah. I think early 2027 it's supposed to release. I hope they're just filming back to back because these kids are gonna age fast.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

I know. It's gonna be busy.

SPEAKER_03 12:13

But then they announce this like beginning or something last year or whatever, the the kids, the fact that it's gonna be like two years later before it actually airs. Yeah, I think I mean they're already aging, so it's like Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Well we'll see. But uh, we should probably jump into the Buffy stuff before we turn this into a Harry Potter podcast.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

We could definitely do that next after Buffy's done. It'll be something Harry Potter. Actually, honestly, we should hit up the new show after we get done this show. We should just dive into the Harry Potter show and critique the crap out of it. I don't know. I uh anywho. Let's just let's just go past. Let's go past. Go ahead. No, no, no. What you don't want to do Angel? I I do want to do Angel. Um, but I was just thinking that Harry Potter will come out. Like it will be airing, so should we do that then? I don't know, we'll we'll talk about it. Okay.

unknown 13:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

I'm just saying we can maybe do Angel in between the There's only like ten episodes of the season, so we can just knock out like between that. We'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Okay. Yeah. I thought you had something against Angel. I was like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

No, we hadn't decided about Angel. Okay. We were talking about maybe doing Angel, but we hadn't decided. Oh, okay. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Alrighty. Well, let's get into the shadow. Um so we're fading into the hospital CAT scan room. Joyce is laying on the machine in her hospital gown. There's a glass window with two techs behind it. Uh, the machine's making noises, and she's laying there, and we just see close-ups of her opening, closing her eyes, and then uh yeah. So then we cut to Dawn fiddling with a bracelet on her right wrist. The hand comes into view and gives her a can of soda, and it's Buffy. Dawn looks up, she's and then Buffy sits down next to her, and they talk about what a CAT scan is. Buffy puts her arm around Dawn and brings her head up to rest on her shoulder and kisses the top of her head. Um, there's like a shot of them sitting there in the hospital waiting room as various staff people walk by. We cut to a telephone book, um, and it opens to a page where we see a uh large advertisement for the magic box, and we hear Tara say, your one-stop spot to shop for all your occult needs. It's kind of wordy. We see Tara and Giles uh standing behind the counter looking at it, and she points out it's catchy but hard to read, but it's great. I can I can relate to that. Um Tara moves away. Honestly, I like his uh check out all the all the magic crap or something that Dawn said, and he was like, that's our new slogan.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

He was like, Oh the magic crap.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Uh Tara moves away as Joe studies the ad and soundlessly mouths the words to himself. The door opens and Anya comes in, followed by Xander and Willow. Anya immediately begins straightening the merchandise on the shelves. Um Xander's talking about how rude it is that someone didn't have the courtesy to wait for the uh co-destroyers and destroying the nest of vampires, Riley. Um Tara mentions Giles add to them, and Anya races around the counter shoving past her and asking if she's mentioned. She's quickly disappointed when she finds out she is not. Uh, Xander continues on about how they were supposed to meet up with Riley that morning to kill a tomb full of vamps, but Captain America, Riley, blew it up already. Giles mentions while that is careless, they should be pleased to avoid the confrontation. Anya agrees that she did not want to start her morning with slaughter and then points out how much she has grown from that statement. Uh Giles changes the topic and mentions researching Buffy's mysterious woman. Xander makes a sarcastic comment about trying to look up something you never saw and don't know the name of. Anya says to just do what I do, flip through the pages and look busy. They mention she is probably lurking around some sewer or condemned church or rat infested warehouse, you know, the usual haunts. Then it cuts to a beautiful, well-appointed apartment. Uh glory is reclining on a round bed with shoe boxes everywhere, and a demon dressed in monk's clothing is kneeling on the floor holding a scroll. He's like through all this, he's like completely fawning all over her, and just like it's just, you know, worshipping behavior. And she's either not listening or annoyed throughout the whole conversation. His name is Drake, and he has like a dark spell on this piece of paper for her and hands it over. Um he mentions it has been lost for eons, but she's too busy trying on shoes, and she eventually asks him if he is sure the spell will work or she will have to kill him. Um he tells her as long as she has the other items it will work. She says she will have them all as she walks past him to where a copy of the phone book is sitting, to where like Giles' ad is in it. She tears out the page and smiles at it and then goes to credits.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Doo doo doo doo. Um yeah, I I know this is just I know they just wanna have the the com the comedy of her being in a shop and no one knows about it, and Giles and them help her out, giving her what she needs. Um and like it's that it's funny. But at the same time, I feel like Glory would have had Drag or one of the other minions go and buy this shit for her. Like there's no reason why Glory would have done this.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Well, probably because it's like something that's very like she didn't want to send a demon into the shop.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

To be a customer. Because they look ugly. They do look kind of ugly. Honestly, I think she could have just stolen it, really. But you know, they they uh she did take a gamble because Buffy was not there and would have recognized her.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

Well, she didn't realize that that was she was just as unaware. If she was if she knew, she would have gone in there banging and just stolen the product.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

That is true. She does not know the others yet. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Um, so we're at the exterior of Buffy's house. It's daylight. Um, Riley approaches and finds the door slightly ajar. He knocks and walks in and takes off his jacket. Uh he then notices something on the floor, he picks it up. It's a blanket. He frowns, looks up the stairs, and drops the blanket and the jacket and starts up. This is when we see Spike holding a pink sweater up to his face and inhaling deeply. This is a very weird time in Spike's like obsession. Obsession. Um, he lowers the sweater, sighing heavily, and then he sniffs again as Riley appears. Um, Riley asks what he's doing, and Spike whirls around. We see that he's in Buffy's bedroom. He hides the sweater behind his back, and um Spike asks Riley what he's doing there. And Riley says, looking for a girl who's gonna rip your arms off when she finds you're in her bedroom. He glances down and makes a move towards Spike's hands. He flin uh Spike flinches backwards and tries to get out of his way. Um so he so Raleigh doesn't see what he's holding. And Raleigh asks if Spike was smelling Buffy's sweater, and at first Spike denies it and then says, Yeah, it's a predator thing. Um he needs to know his enemy scent. And then he sniffs the sweater again. It's like this compulsion. And then uh Spike presses the sweater against his face and makes some growling noises.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

It was so weird. He was like, ah, that's the stuff slayer must get bitter and aggravating.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

I didn't know that was a quote, I thought it was just something that was.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Oh no, that's what he said.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Okay, there's a little quotey thing around it. Oh, yeah. So I'm just reading the notes that uh she wrote down, so I'm kind of going base off them. Um so he sniffs, he presses the sweater against his face and makes some growling noises, and Riley just snatches the sweater away from him and grabs Spike by the front of his shirt and tells him, Out. And like you realize how the height difference between Riley and Spike is. Yeah, he's so short. Um, I don't know. I just think that the actor who plays Riley is just a very tall dude. Oh, but James Marshall's is like short. I didn't think he was like my height. Is he? Yeah, you saw it at me as well. I was like, Oh, you're like short. He's tall. You know what? The underwhelming sense of when I met Jared Pedelecki, he is very tall, but he's like Chris's height. I'm so used to how tall Chris is. That when Chris is my brother, uh that when I met Jared Pedelecki, I was like, huh, you're not that tall. Yeah. The way that everyone talks about him is like he's like ten feet tall, you know, like he's just towering. And I'm like, okay, well he's taller, but though I do have pictures that really prove how the height difference Yeah, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

I'm my well, my dad's side of the family is all like over six, well over six foot. So I was like, men are like over six foot, and then like real life happens. I'm like, men, not all men are over six foot, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Yeah, yeah. I think a bunch of people in my family are like um the Men at least are very tall, so it's not that surprising when I meet another guy that same height. Yeah. Um, I guess I was as surprising sometimes when they're really, really short, but not really. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

If they're my height or taller, when men are short than I am when they're tall, honestly. I'm like, oh. I guess so. If they're my height, they're too short. I'm 5'9. So that's like Dude, you're tall.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

That's like Well, you're tall for a girl, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

You're in the taller range. Though my aunt's 5'11.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

That's what my mom is. I'm actually short compared to my family.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

I stopped growing. I'm like a 5'4, 5'5, depending on the day. Yeah. Um, Deborah, my niece, is taller than me. Everyone's taller than me.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Well.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

So Rachel like swoomed past me, my cousin. Oh, yes. I remember I was taller than her for a hot minute, and then all of a sudden she just kept on going and I stopped where I was.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

You must have stopped drinking your milk and eating your corpus. Whatever they say it is. That was yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

That was I don't even know. Yeah, that was the milk people telling you that.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Anyway, so Riley tells him to get out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:10

And then he hustles him out, and as he goes, Spike grabs a pair of lacy underwear from the drawer. Riley hurries down the stairs, pulling Spike after him. Spike tells him he knows Buffy wouldn't mind him being there and mentions how they were out drinking the previous night. He then continues on to say, um, twice in recent memory, she had the Lover Wiccas do the D and invite in his spell in the house. Dean the D invite. D invite. That looks like such a weird word. I think it's because usually you don't it's not a word. De invite. I think he just said it. Dimente. Demante. Yeah, I it doesn't make sense if you're not physically reading it. Yeah. Um, but it yeah, if I didn't know what it was taught what we were talking about, I probably would have said that too. Yeah. Um but she hasn't taken his uh his invitation to the house off the list. Riley says that Spike is harmless, and Spike agrees and says that it takes one to no one. All Riley has is a piercing glare and calls him white bread. Uh he continues on saying Buffy has a type dangerous, rough, and occasionally bumpy in the forehead region. Riley it just isn't dark enough. Riley scowls, grabs Spike, opens the door, and thrusts him out into the sunlight. Spike yells for to get him back inside. And Riley's too busy telling Spike that he doesn't know anything about Buffy and Riley and um what she needs. Spike asks uh why he isn't with her right now at the hospital. And Riley puts Spike back in the house and asks him what he's talking about. Spike tells him that Buffy and Dawn took their mom to get a bit of prod and probe, and that he's known since last night. Riley grabs Spike, shoves him outside, and there's all the sizzling noises from like the sun. And Spike is like, blanket, blanket! Riley kicks the blanket out and slams the door and Lynn leans against the banister looking conflicted. Um, we cut over to Buffy, who's in the hospital, pacing outside a door-marked exam room. Um she twiddles her fingers nervously and sighs. A hand appears and grabs uh her shoulder. She spins around to see Riley. Buffy hugs him and asks and he asks how Joyce is doing. Buffy tells him that she just had a CAT scan and um is about to find out um if he would sit with and asks if he would sit with Don. He agrees to do so and she heads off. Um with Buffy, um, she enters a darkened room. We see Joyce and the doctor standing in front of a set of CAT scan images stuck to a lighted wall. Buffy asks to come in, and Joyce tells her to come over and asks where Don was. She tells her that she's with Riley in the waiting room. The doctor excuses himself to go check um something, and he's uh puzzled, and Joyce says that they found a shadow and they need to do a biopsy on the shadow. Uh Buffy looks upset, they hug, and Joyce reassures her that it's too early to get concerned. Um they smile bravely, and Buffy turns to look at the images again.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Um, cut to the magic box. The table is spread with books, and Xander, Terra, Willow are just sitting around it. None of them know what to look for, and in the background we see Anya looking at bookshelves and a customer walking through the shop. The customer walks up to the counter and hands draws an item. They all continue talking about the mysterious woman, and maybe it's just something old that predates the written word. They discuss how they are blind in her moves, habits, and where she will turn up next. Giles turns around, putting his glasses back on, and is confronted by Glory. She has a few items in her hand and tells him she wants them, and he hurries behind the counter to ring her up. Shot of Xander Terran Willow sitting at the table, ignoring Giles and his customer. You just hear the cash register going, and they continue looking at the books. Giles is very friendly towards her and hands her the receipt, while she is super impatient in true glory fashion. He hands her the bag and she smiles and leaves. Giles turns back to the others and says she could be anywhere, but it won't be long until she makes herself known. In shot of the other sighing and turning back to the books. Cut to the hospital, Don is curled up asleep on an armchair. Riley drapes his jacket over and crouches beside her. Across the room, we see Buffy sitting and watching them. Riley comes over to sit next to her and she puts her head on his shoulder. He kisses the top of her head. Suddenly, Buffy sees a doctor approaching. She gets up and walks over to him, leaving Riley behind. The doctor tells her everything went fine and she is in recovery now. And he tells her Joyce has a low-grade glioma. It's a brain tumor. The clinical name is, and I don't know how to say this, Oligodendroglium.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

I'm not even getting it.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

I'm not it looks like something in like Dutch or something. Um it's in the left hemisphere of the cerebrum cerebrum. Cerebrum. Oh my god. The Dutch word threw me off. In her case, the tumor seems to have started there, but in other words, it hasn't spread from an another part of the body. He keeps talking, but his voice like fades out as the camera zooms slowly in on her dismayed face. And then I think it goes to a commercial and it comes back to fading back in on her, still listening to the doctor. He tells her that things may progress quickly, and she asks what that means, and he tells her symptoms. There's a fair variety that might present loss of vision or appetite, lack of muscle control, mood swings. Buffy asks what they can do, and he says not much until they determine if the tumor is operable. He asks Buffy a ton of questions, and she's like, I don't know, to most of them until Ben comes to the rescue and tells the doc he has needed an ICU. When the doc leaves, Ben apologizes for the doctor stating he's great, but essentially doesn't have the best idea when to back off. They have a brief convo where Ben suggests she takes a break and gets some air, and then he leaves. Buffy leans her head back and sighs deeply, and Riley comes up and Buffy gets up to hug him. She's quite upset and tells him she needs to see Giles and try to do a healing spell. He tries to tell her it won't do any good, but she doesn't want to hear it. She asks if he can drop Dawn off at school, and he agrees to do so. Cuts to the magic shop. Anya's looking through a pile of seats. Um, we see Xander in the background. Suddenly Anya stops and stares at a receipt and starts yelling out, Hey, hey. Xander turns to look at her. Anya holds up the receipt and waves it at Giles. Willow and Tara come rushing over. Um Giles wears a large false smile since she's like startling the customers and and she tells Giles he sold someone a oh gosh, I don't know how to say this either. Kules amulet and a Sobekin bloodstone. She asks if they know about the Sobakites. Maybe it's Sobakites. And Willow talked about, right? Willow says it was an ancient Egyptian cult heavy into dark magic. They eventually put it together that the young woman that bought that is the one that they have been looking for.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Oh, one of the like critiques that they make in the with the boys watching Buffy podcast is the fact that in the magic box, they do not um they don't check to see what they're giving to their customers and to see if anything they're giving their customers would lead to something dangerous. Like there's not a checking balance of like, oh, maybe we shouldn't sell these together because you know, they could make this or something like that. Like they don't have any kind of like system in place. You know, that would have helped. Like anyone can go in there and purchase anything for any kind of nefarious thing. Yeah. So it's like, come on, guys. Stop making edits. I think just realized making my laptop beep.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

I just realized I put like you on double speaking. I was like, oh no, I gotta switch our names. But okay.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

Alright. So we get over to a carousel that's whirling around. We pan down to Raleigh and Dawn sitting at a bench in front of it. Um, Dawn is holding an ice cream float and poking it with her spoon, just distracted. They make some small talk, but it's mainly Dawn talking about her 10th birthday, and she's just worried about her mom. She's glad Raleigh's there and tells him Buffy is too. And then she cries way less that uh Buffy cries way less uh than she did with Angel. And then she keeps on rambling about how Buffy was always all worked up all over Angel, hammering the in the head to Riley that like apparently he's not as not as much of a concern. And then Riley seems to be a bit upset about it, and she smiles encouragingly because she thinks she's saying something good. And Riley tries to return the smile, but he doesn't really feel it. Um his weird jealousy over Angel in this is so I don't know, I feel like it's weird. Yeah. Especially since, like, I mean Angel's completely out of Buffy's. Yeah, definitely. Like, I feel like if he was still around, I can understand it. But he's not. So he's having some issues. He's having some issues. Um of them I I I agree. I mean, I understand. He's feeling a little left out with Buffy. Buffy's kind of like pushing him to the side with her her her whole mom issue situation, which makes sense, but he's not taking that one. Yeah. So anyway, we uh are over at the magic shop. Buffy is uh talking to all of them about a magical cure uh during this speech. The camera pans, I see Anya, Xander, Terra, um, and Willow sitting as Giles standing, leaning with his hands on the table. Willow isn't so sure um about a cure but says it'll try to find something. Giles lets her know the mystical and medical aren't meant to mix, that the human mind is very delicate. Uh too much can go wrong. Uh Tara tells her that it can make things go a lot worse, and Anya makes a comment that they've made enough things worse for one day. When Buffy asks what they mean, they try to throw Buffy off, but she doesn't fall for it, and Giles confesses that the mysterious demon woman was there that day. She looks alarmed. They tell her that she got an amulet and a bloodstone that can create a monster. And Buffy asks how she got it, and Anya points that Giles sold it to her. And they talk um about the temple of So Bak and um how they worship a reptile demon, because all the demons are reptiles in some way.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

Um Giles tells uh her that they managed to decipher the markings, um, that they were on the bloodstone, and that she that was he sold. And uh she's gonna go transmogify a cobra. Buffy says that they continue to work on what she's doing with it, and she will kill it. Um so now it looks like we're at the Honey Dale Zoo. There's a sign explaining the characteristics of a cobra. And we see a cobra case with a snake inside, then we see Glory. She punches a fist through the glass, reaches in, and grabs a snake. She holds it up to her face, and the snake hisses, and she hisses back. Parcel tongue. I know she must have parcel tongue. Um, like, oh I'm trying to remember all of a sudden what he said, but it's okay. Anyway. Sorry. So she takes the snake by the tail, lowers her into lower lowers it into a large clay vase headfirst. Dreg watches anxiously, then hands her the amulet. She holds it in both hands over the mouth of the vase. Dreg opens the scroll and begins to chant in a foreign language. When Gloria starts her chant, Buffy tackles Glory from the side, slams her into a wall, enters a fight scene. At one point, Glory uh throws Buffy across a room. At the same time, a vase rocks wildly back and forth. It then explodes as a creature bursts out. It looks like a very large snake, but with arms. They always have arms. And it hisses and spays back and forth. Kind of like the the snake dude in that um frat episode in season two. Um so uh then we see I guess there's like a commercial break at this point. We're back in um same time. Uh Dragon Gloria are watching the creature arise. Buffy picks herself up and runs out unnoticed. Um, Glory calls out for the spawn of sober, and the creature turns towards her and approaches. She smiles, puts her puts her hands on its face, and orders it to find the key, and the creature then takes off. At the magic shop, uh Giles is talking to a customer. He sees Riley and excuses himself. He walks towards him, and we see Xander also getting up to join them. Riley asks where Buffy is, and they tell him that she left a while ago to find whatever demon, uh whatever the demon woman was conjuring. Riley seems upset that they let her go and she's gonna get herself killed. Xander points uh to Riley going to the tomb and blowing it up, and Riley looks guilty. They talk a bit more and Riley ends up leaving. Um so we're at the interior of a church, um, and we see the snake creature moving through the church, hissing. His eyes are yellow.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

I don't know why he was in a church. Do you know why? Um I don't know. Maybe he was just going, that was the path he decided to take was the whole way one. Maybe. So cuts the magic box. Jowl's hands something to a customer as the phone rings. He moves to answer and it's Buffy. Cut to Buffy in the hospital on a payphone. She tells him she couldn't stop Glory and she was able to conjure a big snake thing. Um, Jal says he will warn the others, and Buffy asks if he can keep Dawn safe, because Dawn's headed there. She says her mom is going to wake soon and she needs to be there when the doctors tell her what they found. Um, they hang up. Buffy walks off through the hospital halls, but then she's like limping a bit. And then there's like a like a montage type thing. So it's slow piano music, shot of Riley drinking in Willie's bar. Then we have a shot of Buffy sitting in the hospital waiting. Then there's a shot of Dawn sitting at the table in the magic shop doing homework but not able to concentrate. Cut back to the bar. Sandy walks over to sit next to Riley and he looks at her. Cut to the hospital, Buffy sits on the hospital bed next to Joyce as the doctor talks. Joyce reacts to the news, turning her head away, then composes herself and turns back as she puts on a brave smile for Buffy. Cut to the a dark room where Riley and Sandy are alone. Sandy smiles up at him and runs her hand over his chest and pushes his jacket aside. And then she likes kisses his neck and she pulls back and we see she's in vampire face. Riley looks a little apprehensive as he moves his head aside, exposing his neck. And then she leans forward to bite him, and he jerks in pain as she bites him, and then slowly he relaxes as she begins to drink. He closes his eyes and puts one hand on the back of her head, and suddenly he thrusts her away forcefully, and we see a shot of her staring at him, and then she crumbles to dust, and he's holding a stake. And then we pan up to his face and we see blood running down his neck from the bite marks, and he looks a little shaken. Okay, this is when Riley gets very weird.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Well, see, like I feel like he is okay to have feelings of being insecure in the relationship. Like, I think it's very valid. His reaction is we're just way too extreme. Like, like it's just it's just a ri Like how do you connect the dots to like we're having some issues? Obviously, communicating is an issue. Obviously, Buffy is having she's having her own thing this season where she's not all there in the relationship. Why is it okay? I need to get bitten by some vampire now. It's like cutting.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

He's just cutting.

SPEAKER_03 40:47

Yeah, I know. It's like the emo teen thing, but I was just like, I don't I don't get it. Like I don't understand. Like the city.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Do you think maybe he was like gonna try to turn into a vampire for her, but then just can't go through with it?

SPEAKER_03 40:59

She's I know that at one point he's like, I just wanted to know what you felt with Angel and all that stuff. I'm like, Angel bit her once and it wasn't a good time. Yeah. So it's like, but then he always he points out the Dracula thing too, and I'm like, alright, what I don't know what your obsession with her having been with vampires in the past is we is, but yeah, he doesn't have yeah, I don't know. Again, like I feel like a lot of his feelings in the matter are very valid because I think Buffy is checked out of the relationship, but he just does a horrible way of you know going about it.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 41:35

A very horrible way. Like it's just like at the end of the day, uh inexcusable. Like it's so weird.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

But anyway. He's not for long in this show. Well, yeah, you could tell they were pushing his character this way so that they can get rid of him.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

So we cut to the snake creature moving across grass at night. It slithers up to the carousel and sees the bench where Riley and Dawn sat earlier. It hisses and its tongue flickers and its eyes glow red for a moment and it moves off. Cut to the exterior shot of the magic box, a customer comes out holding a bag, and Buffy walks up to the door, pauses, and enters. Cut to inside, Giles is yawning, putting on his suit jacket. Willow's at the counter reading a book, looking tired. Buffy walks in, Dawn sees her and jumps up from the table. We see Xander and Anya in the background as Dawn walks quickly over to Buffy and they hug. Dawn asks if they can take Mom home yet, and Buffy tries to smile, brushes her hair off Dawn's face, and says they will see and for her to get her stuff. Suddenly the snake creature bursts in through the display window, and everyone turns as it slithers inside and rears up, looking at them. Dawn is in the forefront, and the snake smacks a display case with one arm and it topples over onto Buffy, knocking her to the floor. The snake moves towards Dawn, who screams continuously as it looms over her, and its eyes glow red again. Dawn continues screaming as Buffy struggles to get out from under the case, and the snake stares at Dawn. Then it turns and slithers quickly back out the way it came in. Fade back in the magic shop. Tara and Willow get up from behind the counter as Xander rushes over to Dawn. Xander checks on her and Willow asks why it was afraid of Dawn. Jarles rushes up to Buffy as she frees herself from under the case and stands up. She whispers to him that it knows, and she turns and runs out, and he runs after her. Buffy runs out into the street and stops to stare. Overhead shot at the city streets as the huge snake slithers down the middle of the street and people run out of its path. A car comes around the corner and screeches to a stop as the creature moves past it while people are screaming. Uh Buffy starts to run after the creature, but J comes out of the magic shop, sees her running and moves off in another direction. Um we see the snake just booking it. Through the alley with Buffy coming after it. Buffy turns as Giles convertible, comes around the corner and screeches to a stop beside her. She jumps in, he burns rubber after the creature, and they round a corner. The creature uses its tail to shove a dumpster out into the car's path. Um swerves to avoid it and crashes into a pile of garbage bags. Giles struggles to shift into reverse, and Buffy says she has to stop the monster before it gets back to Glory. Giles asks Glory, and Buffy tells her tells him that's her name. Um Giles backs the car out and they resume the chase. And then uh cut to an exterior shot of Glory's apartment building, and Dreg is inside yelling, please, please, mistress. Oh, I'll do this a little bit. Cut to inside the apartment, and that Dreg is like cowering as Glory throws shoe boxes at him, and she um sweeps like a pile of shoe boxes off the sofa in annoyance. She's annoyed the snake isn't back yet, and she continues throwing boxes and yelling at him. She has like no patience whatsoever.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

So we cut to the snake's other rain down darkened streets with Giles' car in pursuit. Um they careen around the corner, uh, nearly slamming into another car. The snake tears down a section of the fence and um that's covered with a tarp and moves off past it as Giles' car passes the fence with a screech of his tires. Um Giles reverses back into view, and Buffy leaps out of the car, runs through the broken fence and past picnic tables and across a wide expanse of grass. And we see Buffy running um after the snake. She seems to be tiring. The creature knocks over a sign and says, bike path, closed after dusk. Um Buffy pauses to grab a piece of chain from another section of the fence as the snake flees into a more wooded area. And Buffy leaps up uh onto a large rock as a snake passes around it. She um she leaps off the rock and lands on the snake's back, looping a chain around its neck. The snake rears up and thrashes, trying to throw her off, but she holds on, tightening the chain around its neck and riding it like a horse. It bucks and fights, but finally goes still as a gray film um covers its eyes. Buffy frowns and lets go of the chain which drops to the ground. Suddenly the gray film slides aside and the snake rears up again, throwing Buffy off. She flies backward and lands on her back in the grass. Um he turns to growl at her as she gets up. She punches it in the face, making it reel backward. Um she climbs on the top of it and begins punching it over and over. We see the tip of its tail thrashing w um thrashing and finally laying still as a creature dies. Buffy continues to punch it, grunting with each blow. And um then we pan up over across the lawn and trees. We see the apartment building looming over. Um we see a closer shot of the building with Glory in one of the windows looking out. Um she's frowning, she looks from side to side, and then um obviously for the snake thing, and then lets the curtains drop and moves away. Uh back to Joyce's hospital room. Buffy stands beside the bed and asks if um she wants her to stay, and Joyce tells her she wants to uh wants to talk to Buffy alone. Is it you said Joyce twice? I'm not sure. Uh Joyce tells her she wants to talk to Joyce alone. Oh I'm assuming Buffy. Dawn. She wants to talk to Don all over. Okay, okay. Buffy turns to go.

SPEAKER_02 47:50

Mind you, at this point I'm doing notes with a child eating crackers and like all over me.

SPEAKER_03 47:56

Dawn smiles nervously nah, nervous nervously, and walks over to hug Joyce. Buffy pauses in the doorway to watch them embrace. She leaves the door slightly open, turns to walk towards Riley, who just showed up. He's wearing a turtleneck sweater. Doesn't want to show off his new fangy, you know. Yeah, I he like she's never gonna know about it. For real. Um she's so preoccupied that he and that she's gonna be like, Well, yeah, again, this is a very bad time for him to be acting out. I'm just saying. I get it before the mom situation, she was kind of checked out, so I get why he's insecure, but this is a very bad time in her life to be check to be acting out like this. It's so weird. Um and selfish, honestly. Um he asks if she's okay, and she responds, middle damage of the fighting kind, not so much of the other kind. He hugs her and tries to comfort her, but she pulls back. She bites her lip, and we see tears in her eyes. Riley starts to lift his hand to her face, and then we see Joyce call for Buffy, and Buffy just turns and walks back in the hospital room. Um, Riley watches her enter, and um the door closes behind her, and we see a long shot of Riley sitting in the hallway, putting his hands in his pocket all alone. I would feel worse for Riley if he wasn't acting the way he was. I'm sorry. I feel like I like they they could have had him go out, or at least for me, making me actually like him.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:32

And I they went the opposite way where they wanted me to actually hate him. Well, before I was kind of like season four, you're like, you don't he's not as good as Angel, but whatever, he's okay. And then this season, instead of making it like, you know, he's making him seem even better or whatever like that, they're like, let's just go the opposite route.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

And now white bread has to go.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

I know.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

Um but that was it.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

That's the end of the episode.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

It's still a right episode. Things are getting a little more serious now.

SPEAKER_03 50:04

It is. Um, it is getting more serious.

SPEAKER_02 50:09

With Joyce. But oh yeah. Like, I really do enjoy glory.

SPEAKER_03 50:14

The snake thing with the arms was kind of silly, but again, it reminded me of the snake thing from season two uh with the frat party snake.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

And I don't think it's a big one.

SPEAKER_03 50:23

Except it didn't move, it just stayed in that one spot and didn't actually run away.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

Yep. But yeah, I'd give it like a six or seven, honestly, with the snake. Maybe a six point five for me.

SPEAKER_03 50:37

You know what? I'll I'll go in with them. 6.5 for me as well.

SPEAKER_02 50:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:42

Cheese rating.

SPEAKER_02 50:43

Uh the next one. That one's a different story though. No, you know what? Never mind. I'll wait it. I'll wait.

SPEAKER_03 50:50

We'll wait to give our uh thoughts on the next episode.

SPEAKER_02 50:53

Yeah, this one definitely isn't like a rewatch for me.

SPEAKER_03 50:57

Like Yeah, I want to say this is not one of the ones that comes to mind. Honestly, when I saw that we were doing the notes and I like saw shadow, I was like, what is shadow again? Like I like I honestly will forget what the storyline is about until I'm actually in it.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

And I'm like, oh, okay. Same, honestly. But that could be me for the rest of the series.

SPEAKER_03 51:17

Well, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Most of them, yeah. So but alright. Well, let's uh wrap this up.

SPEAKER_03 51:25

Alright, will you guys have a good one?

SPEAKER_02 51:27

Bye.