Season 7, Episode 20 | Aired: 6 May 2003 | Written by: Rebecca Rand Kirshner | Directed by: David Solomon
Buffy is alone in an empty house. Spike finds her. He lies down beside her and holds her through the night and tells her what he sees. It’s the most intimate scene in their relationship and the show is careful to stage it without sexual content — it’s comfort, offered and accepted. The Scoobies and Faith go on a mission; a bomb is hidden in a vineyard. Also: Buffy finds the Scythe embedded in a stone at the vineyard. The episode is largely about Spike’s monologue.
What Happens
Faith’s mission is ambushed — a bomb in the vineyard, Caleb having anticipated the move. Casualties. Meanwhile Spike goes to find Buffy; she’s in an empty house, alone, on a mattress, staring at the ceiling. He lies next to her and says: what he sees when he looks at her. The strength. The loneliness inside it. The fact that he’s in awe of her and he thinks she doesn’t know. She sleeps. He stays awake, watching. In the morning she goes to the vineyard and finds the Scythe.
Key Moments
Spike’s monologue — “I’ve been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I’ve seen things you couldn’t imagine and done things I’d prefer you didn’t. I don’t exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn’t exactly rush in the direction of my brain. So I make a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong calls. But this… watching you… I don’t think that’s wrong.”
Monster / Villain
Caleb, setting a trap. Faith walking into it.
Notable Quote
“You’re the one, Buffy.” — Spike. He means something more than the Slayer mythology. She knows.
Where It Fits
Touched is the emotional climax of the Spike/Buffy arc — everything the show has been building since Fool for Love arrives here, in a dark room, without anything physical. It’s the show’s most careful staging of what these two characters are to each other.