Template:Buffyepisode
"Entropy" is the eighteenth episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the one hundred eighteenth episode altogether. It was written by Drew Z. Greenberg and directed by James A. Contner. It originally broadcast on April 30, 2002.
Anya seeks vengeance on Xander and finds comfort with Spike. Willow and Tara arrange a date.
Synopsis
Buffy: I tried to kill my friends, my sister, last week. And guess how much they hate me. Zero. Zero much. So I'm thinking... sleeping with you? They'll deal.
The Trio chase after some vampires on ATVs, but they crash into each other, giving the vamps a chance to escape. Buffy shows up and attacks the vampires, forcing one to drop a disk it was holding. Secretly, Warren snatches it and the Trio escapes, unseen by the Slayer. Buffy takes on two of the vampires, but receives some help when Spike shows up. He holds one of the vampires out of the way while he starts up a conversation. He raises the issue of Buffy telling her friends about them, but she's not interested in sharing. Xander mopes alone at his apartment, but eventually couldn't stand it anymore and leaves. As he walks away, Anya watches him from behind some bushes.
Willow waits for Tara outside of her classroom; the two talk and plan a coffee date. Buffy and Dawn shop together, but have a difficult time as Dawn has a shoplifting record at most of the stores. They chat about all of the things Dawn stole and how they can work to remedy the problem. Elsewhere, Jonathan works on a project involving the disk they stole as Warren watches over it, eager for the project to be completed. While Jonathan finishes his work alone, Warren and Andrew talk about their inability to trust Jonathan... and how it'll be soon before they wouldn't need him anymore.
Buffy: You stole a toothbrush. As far as rebellious teenagers go, you're kinda square.
That evening, Xander comes home from work and finds Anya at his apartment. Xander tries to apologize for walking away from their wedding. He doesn't do a very good job of explaining his feelings about wanting to stop the wedding before it happened. Taken aback, Anya asks Xander what he meant. Xander tries to change the subject until Anya cuts him off by asking if he still wants to marry her. Xander admits to loving her dearly and wanting to be back with her, but says that he's still too afraid of himself to marry her. With her back turned to Xander, she reveals her vengeance demon face and angrily begins to wish him physical harm... but nothing happens. Frustrated that her attempts to grant her own wish were unsuccessful, she leaves. The next day, Anya has coffee with Halfrek, and the two demons talk about Anya's attempts at vengeance. Halfrek informs Anya that she couldn't grant her own wishes, and that she has to get someone else to wish Xander harm.
At the Summers house, Buffy makes pancakes for Dawn. Dawn realizes that Buffy's trying too hard to make up for what happened when she was crazy. She proposes the idea of joining Buffy on patrol so the two could spend some time together, but Buffy isn't remotely interested in that.
On their coffee date, Willow fills Tara in on all of the supernatural activities that Tara has missed over the past months. Anya interrupts them and wants to talk about her pain and how Xander caused it. She also talks to Dawn and Buffy in attempt to get one of them to wish something horrible on Xander, but none of them go along with it. While talking with Buffy, Xander shows up at the house, and Anya leaves in a huff. Buffy talks him out of going after Anya; he takes his aggressions out on a lawn gnome on Buffy's front lawn. When Buffy doesn't recognize the decoration as something she put there, Xander checks it out and discovers it had a small camera inside.
Spike and Anya find comfort in one another.
Buffy presents the small camera to Spike, and asks whether he had anything to do with it being on her lawn. He's offended that she would even accuse him of such a thing. Buffy reminds him that it's not like he hadn't done anything like this in the past, but Spike tells her he loves her and doesn't want to hurt her, not since falling in love with her. He then tries to convince her that what existed between them was real. Buffy knew it was, but only for him. She tries to convince Spike to forget about everything that had happened between them, but Spike tells her to get out.
At the Magic Box, Anya and Halfrek continue to talk about getting vengeance on Xander. Anya realizes that she needs to find someone who hates Xander to make the wish... fortunately, Spike walks into the shop, looking for something to ease his pain. Instead of something magical, she offers him a bottle of alcohol. Halfrek leaves and wishes Anya the best of luck.
Willow works on her computer to try and trace the camera found in the gnome. At the same time, Jonathan finally completes his work with the disk and performs a ritual that highlights a spot on a Sunnydale map. The Trio's happy to locate the target, but the map abruptly catches on fire. Meanwhile, Anya and Spike are working their way through the bottle of whiskey and complaining to each other about their respective relationship problems. Spike sympathizes with her over the way Xander treated her, and Anya tries to use that to her advantage. Unfortunately, Spike doesn't actually make a wish.
Willow finally taps into the source of the camera and discovered that there are cameras all over town at all of the Scooby Gang's hangouts and workplaces. The gang realizes the Trio were responsible, which galvanizes Buffy.
At the Magic Box, Spike compliments Anya, and the two start to see a common tie between them. She feels guilty about what happened with Xander, and Spike consoles her. The two kiss and undress as Andrew realizes someone's tapped into their video feeds. Willow stumbles upon the Magic Box feed... just as Spike and Anya are having sex on a table.
Xander: I don't want to know any of this.
Warren directs Andrew to shut down the videos, but they're suddenly distracted by the action on the Magic Box camera. Back at the Summers' house, Buffy, Dawn, and Xander also see the computer screen and what's going on at the shop. Xander's infuriated, while Buffy's hurt and went outside. Dawn followed Buffy and found out the truth about Buffy and her relationship with Spike. Their bonding moment was cut short as Willow informed them both that Xander was gone and he left with an axe. Spike and Anya got dressed and both acted awkwardly and embarrassed about their impulsive behavior. Spike left the shop, but didn't get far as Xander attacked him outside. Goading him to fight back, Spike reminded him that it was not possible due to the chip. So Xander proceeded to further trash the vampire.
Just before Xander could stake Spike, Anya came outside and tried to stop Xander and managed to distract him long enough for Buffy to knock him out of the way. Xander and Anya yelled at each other in anger about each other's rights for vengeance and moving on with their lives. Xander was disgusted she would even touch Spike, and Spike quietly made a comment that he was good enough for Buffy. Xander and Anya connected the dots and found out the truth about Buffy and Spike. It was too much for Xander to handle and he stormed off. Buffy also walked off, mad at Spike, and as she left he started to make a wish to Anya, but she stopped him and they parted ways. Tara went to Willow in her bedroom and gave a speech about all they had to do to rebuild their relationship. She was willing to move past that and the two of them kissed.Template:Clear
Continuity
- When Willow and Tara have a conversation, Tara is seen wearing the leather jacket Dawn attempted to give to Buffy ("Older and Far Away")
- This was the reconciliation of Willow and Tara.
- In their conversation at the coffee shop, Willow recalls the Wig Lady ("Doublemeat Palace"), the Invisibility Ray ("Gone"), and the Suvolte Demon eggs ("As You Were"). The Doublemeat Palace is shown for the last time on Willow's Macbook for a few seconds, as she is looking through the camera feeds.
- Buffy's relationship with Spike becomes more-or-less general knowledge.
- It is learned that vengeance demons are unable to enact wishes on their own behalf (Strangely, it's never explained why Anya simply didn't make a wish to Halfrek about Xander, possibly indicating that vengeance demons can't grant wishes of other vengeance demons.)
- Anya said to Xander that she wished tentacles where "his beady eyes" were. Anya previously stated that Xander had beady eyes ("Once More, With Feeling").
- Anya tries to get Willow and Tara make a wish against Xander by saying that he likes to watch "girl on girl action" which we see in "Restless" when Xander dreams about watching Willow and Tara.
- Anya attempts to trick Buffy into making a wish by recalling her former lovers. Buffy counters with the line, "Whoa. Guys? There have only been four - three! Three! Three guys. That's barely plural." This line refers to Buffy's long-term relationships: Angel, Riley Finn, and Spike, as well as her one-night-stand with Parker Abrams. This seems to rule out the possibility of Dracula, although the Summers women have something of a reputation for denial.
- When Buffy tells Spike she suspects him to be spying on her with the camera, Spike strongly denies it. Ironically, he had previously recruited a minion vampire to spy on her with a camera during Halloween 97'.
Body Count
- Two vampires, dusted by Buffy
Behind the Scenes
Deleted Scenes
- Buffy's line was cut due to length:
- Buffy: "And, you know, maybe in a couple of months they'll let us visit the leather birthday jacket."
- Buffy and Willow's exchange was cut due to length:
- Willow: "Can't help thinking maybe you were closer than you thought that day you went out with the addresses."
- Buffy: "And they sent Psycho Demon to interrupt me."
Pop Culture References
- Jonathan identifies the place on the map with light focused through a disk in a scene very reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Warren once again taunts Jonathan with references to his height, calling him "Short Round". This is a reference to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, when Indy was accompanied by a young sidekick with that name.
- Summing up the episode's title, Tara paraphrases William Butler Yeats' "The Second Coming", saying "Things fall apart, they fall apart so hard."
- While shopping, Buffy and Dawn walk along the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. They pass by an Old Navy store.
- Andrew refers to Jonathan saying, "He's got that same look on his face, though. The one he had that time I highlighted in his Babylon 5 novels..."
Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors
- In the breakfast scene, Buffy serves Dawn pancakes but then when Dawn goes to sit down to eat them they have disappeared from the plate.
- Also in the breakfast scene, the corner of a lighting "flag" is visible in the upper right corner.
International Titles
- German: Im Chaos der Gefühle (In the Chaos of Emotions)
Music
- Allison Krauss - "That Kind of Love"
- Tom McRae - "Sao Paulo Rain"
- Thomas Wanker- original score
Quotes
| Halfrek: "Anyanka. There's an easier way. Now, I know you have this whole female-power, Take Back the Night thing. I think that's cute. But I've been telling you for decades — men need a little vengeance now and then, too. |
| Anya: "Oh." |
| Anya: "Actually, there is an eensy something I could use a little help with. You're lesbians, so the hating of men will come in handy." |
| Anya: "God! What kind of lesbians are you? If you love men so much, go love men!" |
| Xander: "O-oh! Okay... then you had to do it. Because he was there. Like Mt. Everest. Like I used to be." |
| Anya: "And then you weren't. You left me, Xander ... at the altar. I don't owe you anything!" |
| Xander: "So you go out and bang the first body you can find? Dead or alive?" |
| Anya: "Where do you get off judging me?" |
| Xander: "When this is your solution to our problems. I hurt you, so you get me back? Very mature!" |
| Anya: "No, the mature solution is for you to spend your whole life telling stupid, pointless jokes so no one will notice you're just a scared, insecure little boy!" |
| Xander: "I'm not joking now. You let that evil, soulless thing touch you. You wanted me to feel something, congratulations. It worked. I look at you ... I feel sick ... 'cause you had sex with that." |
| Spike: "It was good enough for Buffy." |
| Xander: "Shut up and leave her out of ..." |
| Tara: "There's so much to work through. Trust has to build again, on both sides ... you have to learn if you're even the same people you were, if you can fit in each other's lives, it's a long and important process and... can we just skip it? Can you just be kissing me now?" |
| Spike: "Bloody Xander, mucking up everything. You know, I wish ..." |
| Anya: "Don't." |
References
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