Buffy Season 8 Recap - Retreat - Part 1

A seagull flies across the ocean holding a fish. It is then revealed that Willow is the seagull and Buffy is the fish, Buffy complains about having to be a fish but Willow reminds her that they are on the run and they need to remain stealthy, they can no longer fly around like they did before because both humans and demons will report them and Twilight will find them. They fly over an island that looks mostly green with trees but Willow tells Buffy it is all an illusion and she flies lower to land on the island which is now the Slayers home base. While Buffy is better about the whole flying thing, she is still incredibly nervous and nearly falls out of Willow’s hands (claws) as they land. Willow uses a spell and they both turn back into their human appearance.



They walk into the Slayer head quarters and it is explained to the reader than since the events of Harmony working as a Vampire spokesperson and the general public hating Slayers they have been on the run from Twilight, General Voll and the U.S army. They have been found multiple times before forming this new base that has so much magical defense that they have been hidden from public view for quite some time. Buffy expresses concern that Willow is using too much magic to hide them and asks if she is okay with using that amount of power, Buffy is clearly still shaken by her visit to the future and the knowledge that Willow may go evil again. Buffy reiterates her speech from the previous arc and tells everyone that while they shouldn’t have to be in hiding, it is the best thing right now to avoid being attacked, they just need to lay low for a while to allow the public hate of the Slayers to blow over.

While this is going on we see Giles and Faith hiding deep underground in Berlin under Buffy’s orders. The bunker is decorated subtely and is implied to be the bunker in which Hitler died, as they eat their dinner Faith tells Giles that hiding in this bunker doesn’t fill her with confidence that they are going to survive. Suddenly a banging comes from outside the bunker, the demons they have been hiding from have found them. Giles expresses doubt that they can break through the steel doors and is interrupted by the demons breaking through the steel doors. Faith tells Giles that it was stupid to hide underground as demons live underground, they manage to fight their way out of the bunker and trap the demons inside. “What do we do now?” Faith asks, Giles having run out of options suggests that they pray.

We find the Italy Slayer squad led by Andrew going deeper underground, the Slayers tell Andrew that the latin on the walls makes them nervous but he tells them most of it is just graffiti, left from the early days of Rome. The Slayers hear noises come from the darkness and worry that the demons, Twilight and the army have found them, Andrew tells them that he will go investigate and steps forward alone into the darkness. He finds Warren who begs for Andrew’s forgiveness, Warren explains that Amy and Twilight are done with him, they have used him for all the information that they can and he can tell that they plan on killing him. He tells Andrew that they should escape the war together, Andrew has aligned himself to a side that is hated by the public and Warren is concerned for his safety. As Andrew contemplates the offer one of the Slayers drops down dead and a demon stands over her covered in her blood, Warren complains that Amy didn’t let him finish manipulating Andrew and has instead attacked the Slayers. The Slayers are now surrounded by many more wolf like demons, Andrew tells the Slayers to fight and they finally escape.

Faith and Giles are now travelling across the country on the back of a train. Faith complains that about their constant running away and tells Giles that they should be facing the problem but Giles reminds her that they are running towards Buffy and the rest of their army, they will get to face the problems soon but first they must bring their fractured army back together. We see Andrew and his surviving Slayers leave Rome on the back of a truck as they too travel towards Buffy and the new head quarters. Willow sits up, suddenly awake and mutters Buffy’s name, Kennedy asks if everything is okay and Willow explains that she needs to find Buffy before getting out of bed and going to Buffy’s bedroom. Buffy asks Willow what’s wrong and Willow tells her that “everyone” has found them, Buffy is unsure how to react “which everyone? Good or Bad?” Willow tells her that Faith, Giles, Andrew, the Italy squad, Satsu and every demon in scotland has found them. Buffy jumps out of bed excited and tells Buffy to bring the defences down so they can enter, then quickly adds that she doesn’t mean the demons, the demons can stay out. Willow and Giles hug as we see Andrew express joy that Dawn isn’t a centaur anymore, finally Giles walks up to Buffy who hugs him and sheds a tear, she is so happy that he is back. She eventually pulls away from the hug and wipes her tears, they can all catch up later, but right now they need to check that their defences are back to their full strength.










As Willow and Xander review their parts of the defense they realise that the demons have found them and are attacking, they take out the security cameras first and Willow tells them all to go to the roof so they can see them from there. As they look out they see that the demons have been supplied weapons by the U.S army including tanks and catapults, Willow makes the magical draw bridge disappear which drops many of the demons and the tanks into the water. Xander tells them that there is only the catapults left which he believes cant do that much damage. Xander looks through his binoculars and sees that they have loaded it with napalm, Willow tells everyone to duck as she summons a shield over the central characters on the roof. > The napalm falls and kills both Slayers and demons fighting below. Satsu arrives with a demon in chains, she tells Buffy that they have a prisoner, Willow immediately grabs it and they disappear. Giles asks what Willow is doing and Buffy tells him matter of factly that she doing what needs to be done, Faith realises that Willow will be inflicting serious pain to the demon to get the information they need and tells Buffy that she cannot handle this aspect of war and throws in the towel. Buffy tells her that they can discuss the ethics of war later, when they’re not in the middle of one.

Willow returns and tells Buffy that the demon told her how Twilight found them, he tracked the magic used to shield the island. There is so much magical energy coming from this place that he found them. A witch tells them that the final shield is down and Buffy tells everyone to get to the submarine, as Buffy leads the way to the submarine Andrew stands alone stunned, excited, “we have a submarine??”. The surviving Slayers, witches and scoobies have now go into the submarine, Buffy sits alone thinking to herself and Giles walks in and sits down with her. He expresses his concern that allowing Willow to continue with the way she uses magic will turn her dark again. Buffy’s eyes begin to water and she tells Giles about being transported to the future where Willow was dark and the fact that she is the one that kills her. Giles looks at her with confusion and tells her that they don’t really have time right now to discuss this and they need to think about escaping Twilight, Giles reminds her that Twilight is tracking them because of their use of magic so surely Willow has to stop using magic anyway. Buffy begins explaining how they can’t get rid of their magic, there is too many of them that are magically powered and Twilight will always be able to track them. Suddenly Buffy has an idea, Faith interrupts the conversation and asks if Buffy has any idea where they are going. Buffy stands up and tells Giles and Faith that they are going to go to the one person she knows who lives of the fact that he has suppressed the magic inside him, Willow just has to do one last major spell and Twilight will be unable to track them anymore. We shift to a peaceful landscape with large green mountains and Yaks, we move closer to a small red house on the mountain side. Outside there is a man meditating, his eyes are closed as he focuses on the gentle sound of the wind chime. He notices a change in his surroundings and opens his eyes, the landscape is now home to a giant submarine. It is revealed that the man is Oz and he nonchalantly says “huh.”