Season 6, Episode 15 | Aired: 26 February 2002 | Written by: Douglas Petrie | Directed by: Douglas Petrie
Riley returns, with his new wife Sam (Ivana Milicevic). They need Buffy’s help tracking a Suvolte demon nest. Buffy spends the episode processing Riley’s life — marriage, military success, obvious satisfaction — against her own. The episode also reveals that Spike is “The Doctor,” the demon eggs dealer they’re hunting. Buffy ends the relationship with Spike at the episode’s close. The conversation is honest and unflattering.
What Happens
Riley and Sam are professional, effective, clearly happy. The eggs are in Spike’s crypt. He’s been selling them — not because he’s evil, but because he can and he needs money and he’s a vampire, ultimately. Buffy is furious. The eggs are destroyed. Riley leaves. Buffy tells Spike that what they have degrades her, that she’s been using him, that this has to stop. She says it plainly. It is not comfortable.
Key Moments
Riley’s goodbye to Buffy — he tells her she was the one he loved most and he means it. And he leaves, because Sam is his life now. And Buffy in the crypt, ending something: “I’m using you. And it’s killing me.” Not Spike that it’s killing — her. The relationship is destroying her self-image.
Monster / Villain
The Suvolte demon. Spike, as “The Doctor” — complicit, pragmatic, not quite villainous but not quite not.
Notable Quote
“I don’t love you. I can’t.” — Buffy, to Spike. The episode doesn’t contradict her. But the season will make this complicated.
Where It Fits
As You Were ends the Buffy/Spike relationship and brings Riley back for a farewell. The writing is careful to acknowledge that Riley’s life is genuinely better than Buffy’s without punishing her for it. It’s one of Season 6’s more balanced episodes.