Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bring on the Night

Bring on the Night
Season 7, Episode 10
Airdate	December 17, 2002
Production Number	7ABB10
Written by	Marti Noxon and Douglas Petrie
Directed by	David Grossman
← 7x09 Never Leave Me	7x11 → Showtime
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season Seven

Bring on the Night is the tenth episode of the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the one-hundred and thirty-second episode overall. Giles returns to Sunnydale and Buffy gets her ass kicked by a primordial vampire.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike)

and Alyson Hannigan (Willow)

Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles), Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers)

Guest Starring: Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells), Iyari Limon (Kennedy), Clara Bryant (Molly), Courtnee Draper (Annabelle), Juliet Landau (Drusilla)

and DB Woodside (Principal Wood)

Co-Starring: Camden Toy (Ubervamp), Chris Wiley (Roger)

Plot Overview

Giles arrives with three potential Slayers to inform the Scoobies of the First Evil’s plan to eliminate the Slayer line. Buffy soon discovers a more immediate threat when she finds that the First has raised a powerful and ancient vampire, the Turok-Han.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• Turok-Han: The turok-han is like a primordial vampire. It's an ancient creature that vampires fear. It's extremely strong and durable, even managing to take a stake in the chest without dusting out. It was thought a myth, as these primitive vampires have been extinct for a very long time. It does still seem to have a problem with sunlight, however.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Annabelle	Turok-Han	Snapped Neck	Refinery

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Potentials: Three potentials appear in this episode: Kennedy, Molly, and Annabelle.

Characters

• Willow: Evil Willow pops up briefly again when she attempts to cast a locator spell.

• Giles: Giles returns to Sunnydale with three potential slayers in tow.

Referbacks

• 6x05 - Life Serial: Warren and his friends trapped Buffy and the gang in a time loop with a mummy hand in order to study her for weaknesses.

Xander: It's a loop... Like the Mummy Hand. I'm doomed to replace these windows for all eternity.

Trivia

The Show

• Final Appearance: This is the last appearance of Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers in the series. She appeared in 58 episodes total and is the only person to appear in all seven seasons, but was never part of the billed cast.

Behind the Scenes

• Cut Scene: Originally in this episode there was a scene in which Willow and Kennedy talked about her cat (Miss Kitty Fantastico) and a painting made by Tara.

Allusions and References

• Wonder Woman #297: Andrew refers to a three-issue story arc in the first volume of Wonder Woman, taking place through 297, 298 and 299 called "Catacombs." In the arc, Wonder Woman attempts to find Steve Trevor, who's lost in the catacombs of Themyscara. The skeleton part refers Trevor finding a skeleton that looks an awful lot like a dead Wonder Woman in the catacombs.

Andrew: Man, this place gives me the creeps. It's like in Wonder Woman, issue 297/299.

• Supervillains: Andrew rattles off three super-villains from comics. Dr. Doom is a Fantastic Four villain and is the ruthless despot of a Eastern European nation called Latveria. Apocalypse is one of the oldest mutants in existence, he preaches a "survival of the fittest" philosophy and hopes to kill all of humanity. The Riddler is a Batman villain who's just a riddler leaving annoyance.

Andrew: You think I'm a super-villain like Dr. Doom or Apocalypse or-or The Riddler.

Memorable Moments

• Buffy delivers a speech in which she declares that she will preemptively attack these evils threatening them instead of waiting to avert this disaster.

Quotes

• Willow: Are you sure this thing called itself The First?

Buffy: Pretty sure. It claimed to be the original evil, the one that came before anything else.

Anya: Please. How many times have I heard that line in my demon days? "I'm so rotten, they don't even have a word for it. I'm bad. Baddy bad bad bad. Does it make you horny?" Or terrified. Whatever.

• Dawn: There's blood on this. Lots. Looks like The First made another sacrifice. Or a music video.

• Buffy: The seal could've been activated. I bet that's what the First needed Spike for.

Andrew: That wasn't there before. I had nothing to do with that.

Xander: Thanks for clearing that up because otherwise we might have thought you were up to no good here at the satanic manhole cover. You killed your best friend!

Andrew: He's in a place of joy and peace. He told me.

Xander: No, nobody told you. You got tricked by a fake ghost.

• Giles: Sorry to barge in. I'm afraid we have a slight apocalypse.

• Giles: When I learned what was happening I stole them.

Anya: And you blew up the Council! See, this is what happens when you're all stuffy and repressed - you overreact.

• Giles: The First is unlike anything we've faced before. There's evil and then there's the thing that created evil. The source.

Buffy: And that's what this thing claims to be?

Giles: That's what it is. It has eternities to act, endless resources. How to defeat it, I... Honestly, I don't know, but we have to find a way. If the Slayer line is eliminated, then the hellmouth has no guardian. The balance is destroyed. I'm afraid it falls to you, Buffy. Sorry. I mean, we'll do what we can, but you're the only one who has the strength to protect these girls and the world against what's coming.

Xander: But no pressure.

• Buffy: We need more muscle. That's why we need to find Spike.

Anya: Yeah, he'll help. You know, if he's not crazy or off killing people or dead. Or, you know, all of the above.

• Buffy: Giles, this is bad, isn't it? A new kind of bad.

Giles: Just in time for Christmas.

Buffy: You know, I didn't even realise it was December. Maybe when we get home, we should decorate the rubble.

• Andrew: So, how long have you followed Buffy?

Xander: I don't follow her. She's my best friend.

Andrew: Huh. She seems like a good leader. Her hair is shiny. Does she make you stab things?

• Spike: You're not Drusilla.

Drusilla: No, I'm really not.

Spike: She was crazier than you.

• Spike: Dru, love... get bent.

• Buffy: Oh, um, I'm sorry. What were we talking about?

Roger: Only my life. You're just like all the others.

Buffy: No. No, no, no. I'm different. I'm hip. I relate to the young people.

• Xander: Hey, Junior Slayers, don't look so worried. I mean, sure we don't know where Spike is, or how to fight the first, or if and when this super style vampire is gonna attack us all. However, house - boarded up. Now all we gotta do is trap this ubervamp in the pantry and it's game... over.

Willow: Xander. Newbies? Let's ease them into the whole "jokes in the face of death" thing.

Xander: Who's joking? That pantry thing could work. You saying M. Night Shyamalan lied to us?

• Drusilla: Do you know why you're alive?

Spike: Never figured you for existential thought, love. I mean, you hated Paris.

Drusilla: You're alive for one reason and one reason only. Because I wish it. Do you know why I wish it? Because I'm not done with you.

Spike: Give it up. Whatever you are, whatever you get away with, I'm out. You can't pull this puppet's strings any more.

Drusilla: And what makes you think you have a choice? What makes you think you will ever be any good at all in this world?

Spike: She does. Because she believes in me.

• Buffy: I'm beyond tired. I'm beyond scared. I'm standing on the mouth of hell and it is gonna swallow me whole. And it'll choke on me. We're not ready? They're not ready. They think we're gonna wait for the end to come, like we always do. I'm done waiting. They want an apocalypse? Oh, we'll give 'em one. Anyone else who wants to run, do it now. 'Cause we just became an army. We just declared war. From now on, we won't just face our worst fears, we will seek them out. We will find them and cut out their hearts one by one until The First shows itself for what it really is. And I'll kill it myself. There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than evil and that's us. Any questions?