Episode 101: S5E21 The Weight of the World
May 20th, 2013 by bthomas
Willow decides she must try and reach Buffy so she psychically enters The Slayer’s mind through a loophole. Willow sees several replays of Buffy’s childhood including when she first sees her sister. She also sees Buffy as she is now smothering Dawn to death. Buffy’s guilt over Dawn being kidnapped finally proved to her that she is no match for Glory and she believes she killed Dawn herself.
Podcast Length: 32:33
Podcast Format: MP3
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Monday May 20th, 2013 in Podcast | No Comments »
We see Buffy walking in her home to find Joyce unresponsive. Buffy quickly calls 911 but when the paramedics they are unable to revive Joyce. It is later determined she died of an aneurysm. Buffy goes to the school to tell Dawn, who collapses on the floor sobbing as she hears the news. Xander and Anya arrive at Willow’s dorm to take her and Tara to the morgue to be with their friend.
While Buffy is relaxing with her friends at the Bronze, a train pulls into Sunnydale with all of its passengers dead and Buffy thinks it’s a vampire attack. Dawn hangs out with Spike one day after school and walking home she tells Buffy that Spike has a crush on the Slayer. Spike tries to tell Buffy that he loves her but she won’t let him say the words and walks away.
Buffy tries to celebrate her 20th birthday with a low-key, intimate gathering of friends but Dawn’s entire world crumbles as she confirms she is indeed the mysterious Key. Confused, angry, and depressed, she flees, and ends up running into Ben.
Buffy and the crew get a visit from the Watchers’ Council with information about Glory. Of course, they refuse to turn over the information unless Buffy passes an exhaustive test of her skill, strategy, and methods.
A released mental patient is killed by an alien visitor and the Scooby Gang investigates while Riley secretly calls the military for help in between trysts with vampire girls on the side. They discover that the alien is a Queller demon, which targets the insane and they decide it must have been summoned by Glory.
While Buffy and Dawn await the results of Joyce’s CAT scan, the gang researches more about The Beast/Glory who shows up at the magic shop to buy supplies for a spell she plans to incant with one of her scabby worshipers though the group is unaware of her presence until Anya sees the sales receipt some time later. We learn that Glory plans to raise a reptile demon that will seek out the location of The Key and report it back to her.
Months ago, several monks rushed to perform a ritual while a powerful force, The Beast, threatens to kill them. Flash to present day, we see Buffy stake a vamp outside an abandoned building and is then caught by the night watchman who thinks she is a girl looking for a rave.
Joyce is serving Dawn breakfast one morning when she suddenly faints to the floor asking Dawn “Who are you?” While playing with the doctor’s stethoscope at the hospital, Dawn discovers that Riley’s heartbeat is off the charts. Despite the doctor’s advice and Buffy’s concern, Riley insists he’s fine and leaves the hospital. Buffy enlists the Initiative’s help.
Buffy indeed has a younger, bratty sister named Dawn, who narrates this episode like an entry in her diary. Dawn knows Buffy is a Slayer, gets along great with Willow and Tara, has a crush on Xander, and hates it when Riley refers to her as “kid.” Of course Buffy finds her to be a complete nuisance and matters are complicated when she takes Dawn on a trip with Giles to the local Magic Shop only to find the proprietor dead seemingly killed by a new vampire gang.
