Buffy Logo 'Tabula Rasa'
Story Code '6ABB08'

by Rebecca Rand Kirshner
Buffy

While out on patrol, Buffy runs into Spike; but whereas the vampire wants to talk about the passionate kiss they recently shared Buffy does not, although she does protect him from a stake thrown by a loan-shark demon, who claims that Spike owes him forty kittens from poker games. After a short fight, Spike disappears. Meanwhile, Xander, Anya, Tara and Willow meet at Xander’s apartment, upset at Buffy’s revelation that they pulled her out of heaven. Willow offers to cast a spell to make Buffy forget that she was in heaven, but this only causes Tara to become very upset, revealing that she knows Willow performed a spell on her. Their conversation ends with Tara issuing Willow an ultimatum: she must go one week without using magic, or else Tara will leave her. Giles finally tells Buffy that he is going to return to England; he wants Buffy to take responsibility for herself and Dawn, but as long as he is there she will always lean on him for support. Buffy pleads with Giles to stay, but when he refuses to change his mind, she storms out. The next day, the gang are on their way to meet at the ‘Magic Box’; Tara and Dawn are fed-up waiting for Willow, and so decide to go on ahead. But after they have left Willow uses a crystal and a Lethe’s Bramble to perform a ‘forget spell’ on Tara and Buffy; she then catches up with everyone else at the shop, where Giles announces that he will be leaving. As Buffy once more gets upset Spike arrives, now dressed in a disguise of a tweed suit. However, he and the others then immediately fall unconscious; they wake up several hours later, only to discover that they have now lost their memories. As they try and figure out who they are Willow, Xander, Tara and Giles find their wallets and learn what their names are. Anya and Giles figure out that they both own the shop, but assume from Anya’s engagement ring that they are engaged to each other. Because of their similar accents, Spike thinks that he is Giles’ son, and, finding a name sewn onto the inside of his jacket, believes his name to be Randy. Dawn finds that she is wearing a necklace with her name on it, and Buffy thinks that she is called Joan; when she and Dawn start arguing, they both decide they must be sisters. Seeing as Willow is wearing Xander’s jacket, she and Xander surmise that they are a couple. Everyone decides to go to the hospital for help, but the loan-shark and two vampire henchmen arrive and attack them; Buffy’s Slayer instincts kick in, and she dusts one of the vampires while the other runs off. Spike frightens everyone when he inadvertently transforms into his vampire face, but when he and Buffy realise that they have no desire to kill each other Spike assumes that he is a good vampire, perhaps one with a soul; Buffy promptly laughs and remarks that such an idea is totally lame. Meanwhile, the loan-shark returns with three more vampires. Giles and Anya decide to look at all the books in the shop in an attempt to come up with a cure for what has afflicted them; Xander, Willow, Tara and Dawn head into the sewer tunnels to make for the hospital, unaware that one of the vampires is tracking them. Back at the shop, Anya manages to recite a spell which makes dozens of rabbits appear out of thin air, while Giles finds the airplane ticket in his pocket and thinks he is planning to leave his incredibly annoying fiancée. But when he then undoes the bunny spell they both end up kissing passionately. In the sewer, the vampire catches up with the rest of the Scooby gang; as Willow jumps in the way to save Tara the crystal falls from her pocket, and after Xander manages to dust the vampire he accidentally steps on the crystal, crushing it, and causing the gang to suddenly get their memories back. Realising what Willow has done Tara bursts into tears; she and the others then make their way back to the shop. Anya and Giles recover mid-kiss and try to act normally. Buffy regains her memories and, after she kills the vampires, the loan-shark decides to let Spike off. Later, Tara packs her bags while Willow sits in another room, utterly crushed; elsewhere, Dawn is in floods of tears. Giles is now aboard his plane, bound for home. Buffy sits alone at ‘The Bronze’; she turns away from Spike when he comes over to her, but then they begin to kiss once more…

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), James Marsters (Spike), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles), Amber Benson (Tara), Raymond O'Connor (Teeth), Geordie White (Vamp #1), Stephen Triplett (Vamp #2), David Franco (Vamp #3)
Directed by David Grossman

TX (US): 13th November 2001
TX (UK - Sky One): 21st February 2002

Notes:
*Featuring Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Anya, Tara and Dawn