Buffy Season 8 Recap - Time of your Life - Part 1

“Bad day” Buffy tells us “started bad, stayed that way”. She is mid fight, she is fighting Fray who wields her own Scythe, Fray runs at her and Buffy hits her in the face as they both tumble from the top of a building. As Buffy falls we see the flying cars below and we see that they both have a Scythe, Buffy questions her situation “who is this person? Where am I? Where is everyone else? And what is up with Dawn?” As Buffy and Fray fall towards the ground we flashback to the start of Buffy’s day.



Dawn (still a giant) holds her stomach and yells out in pain. Buffy Willow and Xander are discussing the trip they are about to take, Willow tells them that Saga Vasuki sent her a message through the witch from the previous story. Saga told Willow that the source power of Buffy’s scythe is linked to Manhattan and they must go there. While they are a bit sceptical about travelling so soon after the previous battle Willow points out that the message was sent for a reason, an important event is about to happen there and they should find out what it is before they “lose another…” Willow quickly adds “fight” trying to avoid that she was referring to Renee’s death. Xander tells them that its painful but he is dealing with it and he would appreciate it if they stopped walking on eggshells. One of the Slayers runs in to the three leaders and tells them that they have to come quick, Dawn is in trouble.

They run through the woods shouting Dawn’s name, she begs them not to come closer, Buffy asks if she can stand up and Dawn tells them that she is standing up, Buffy asks if she has shrunk back to normal size. They look at Dawn in surprise, Buffy says “yay” then asks if Dawn herself in appreciative of her new look “Dawnie, yay?”. “Neigh” she says as we see that she has become a centaur.
















Twilight is talking to Warren and Amy about an upcoming plan. Twilight questions the power of the weapon in front of him, Warren becomes annoyed because he and Amy have worked so hard on it. We see a huge missile with mystical writing and candles on it, the weapon seems both magical and explosive. Warren tells Twilight that it will do its job and Twilight seems satisfied. Buffy Willow and Xander are preparing a helicopter to take them to the local airport so they can go to New York, Buffy is mysteriously talking to someone on her mobile phone which she clearly does not want Xander and Willow to hear “You’ll let me know where?” she asks the person before closing the phone. Buffy apologises for leaving Xander to look after things while Buffy and Willow go to New York but Xander tells her that he fine looking after the place and if anything happens he’ll call.

Buffy and Willow are now on the plane, Willow seems to believe that Saga has sent them to New York due to a mystical event that is about to happen, Buffy asks if she has any idea where or when it will happen. Willow believes Midnight, witches love midnight. Willow tells Buffy that she has arranged a Slayer team to work with when they get there, they arrive at the airport and Kennedy is there to greet Willow, they kiss and Kennedy asks if Buffy needs any help carrying bags, she has packed half a dozen bags due to an outfit crisis. The three characters arrive at the New York Slayer building, there one of the Slayers is discussing the various mystical events happening around town, all of which are unusually high. Willow walks forward and asks if she can explain something to them, some of the Slayers get excited that the famous Willow is working with them and quickly allow her control of the board. Willow draws a line on the board, she puts a cross on the left of it and a cross on the far right, the left cross represents the present and the far right represents the future. In between these two crosses is an event so big that it is sending ripples through time “like a pebble thrown in a pond” she says as she puts a rippling circle inbetween the 'past' and 'future'. Their present is currently feeling the ripple effect of this big event.

Xander and Dawn are watching a sunset and discussing Dawn’s new body. Xander is disappointed that she isn’t more excited to be a centaur as he thinks it is “so cool” and he is actually jealous. Xander tells her Willow has studied the spell used and Dawn will have three stages before returning to normal, its only temporary and she should enjoy it as much as she can before the spell wears off. Dawn begins to complain about her situation again and Xander asks her if there is a way for Dawn to deal with it without whining. Dawn looks shocked as Xander realises he could have worded it a bit better, Dawn gallops off into the woods. Xander begins returning to the castle when he looks up into the sky in shock, he runs towards the castle yelling at people to get out. The missile from earlier is falling towards the castle, Xander doesn’t get to the castle in time and we see it explode in a green explosion as Xander is blown away. We see Xander look up in disbelief as we see him on the floor surrounded by rubble and burning grass.











Willow and Kennedy are on top of a building as Willow reads from a magic book, Kennedy speaks out on her scepticism on the source of Willow’s information. Willow tells her that she is sure they are about to experience one of the ripples which will cause a time anomaly, possibly sending some vital information through time to them. Kennedy mentions that its supposed to be information on Buffy’s Scythe but the Scythe is with Buffy, and Buffy isn’t there with them. Buffy quickly comes through a the rooftop door in an evening dress, she explains that she was at a meeting which Willow and Kennedy both question as she is dressed so nicely. Buffy tells them that she will change and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a demon appears instead “I preferred your first look” Kennedy tells it. Buffy is seen hurtling through a wormhole and she screams out in agony, she finally lands on the other side where Fray is there. Fray tells Buffy who she thinks is the demon that it cant “spin her with a half-coi glam of a Slayer been dust more than two cen”. “You’re lower than a lurk” she tells Buffy. Buffy is still sat on the floor in absolute confusion “Uh… English?”.



Quick recap of Fray:
Fray is a future Slayer, hundreds of years after Buffy’s lifetime. She was told that she was the first Slayer to be called after a huge battle that wiped out the need for Slayers, quite possibly this coming purge entitled Twilight. Her sister Erin is part of the police force. Her twin brother Harth received the Slayer dreams and visions while Fray received the power. Harth was turned into a vampire and has become Fray’s greatest enemy, in this time they call vampires “lurks” presumably because they lurk in the shadows of night. In the final fight of the Fray series Fray manages to stop the impending apocalypse but Harth escapes and promises to kill her later. Later on Joss Whedon revisited Fray’s world and she was lead by a mysterious four armed demon looking monkey to a library full of books, presumably the Watcher’s council library where Fray could sit and learn about her Slayer lineage and history. This is the new world of Slayers, the future of the Slayer lineage and Buffy has just mysteriously been transported there.

Questions left open by this issue:
Who or what has transported Buffy to the future?
What is happening with Dawn?
Who was Buffy talking to on the phone?