Blood Ties (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

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"Blood Ties" is episode 13 of season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot[]

The gang discusses plans for Buffy's birthday and dealing with Glory. Giles reveals that Glory is the god of a demon dimension and in order to stay in human form, she needs to suck energy from humans, leaving them insane. The gang starts asking questions about the Key, and Buffy and Giles finally decide to tell them the truth about Dawn. Three Knights of Byzantium chant around a fire before they are interrupted by Jinx. Glory arrives and kills two of the knights and proceeds to torture the remaining knight for information.

At the magic shop, Dawn feels awkward because of the way everyone is treating her and notices when Giles hides a book in a hidden counter drawer. Buffy opens presents from her friends and everyone gets quiet when she receives a framed picture of herself and Dawn (from a vacation which is, like most of Dawn's life, a false memory) from her sister. Dawn finally gets upset and confronts everyone about their strange behavior around her, then storms to her room. After sneaking out of the house, Dawn runs into Spike, who is keeping his nightly watch outside Buffy's house. After a brief conversation, Dawn tells Spike that she is on her way to the Magic Box to steal a book. Spike notes the myriad dangers of roaming around alone at night, and then he accepts Dawn's offer to let him tag along. With Spike's assistance, Dawn breaks into the shop and finds the book that she had seen Giles hide earlier. By candlelight, Dawn and Spike read about the truth of Dawn and the Key. Oddly, Spike treats this revelation with total equanimity; Dawn's reaction, of course, is far more vivid.

Dawn returns to the house in a state of shock, bleeding from a self-inflicted knife wound, tearfully questioning what she is. Joyce and Buffy try to talk to her, but Dawn, scared and experiencing an existential crisis, demands that they leave her alone. Buffy confronts Spike for letting Dawn find out the truth the way she did. He turns the tables on her and says that she should have told Dawn the truth in the first place. He also notes that Dawn was going with or without him, and that he only went along to protect her from harm, making Buffy reflect on his words. Jinx threatens Ben at the hospital, but Ben reveals that Glory cannot hurt him, no matter what he does.

After overhearing Buffy and Joyce talking, Dawn trashes her room, burns her diaries and runs away. The smoke alarm alerts Buffy and her mom to Dawn's departure. As the whole gang splits up to search for Dawn, Spike tries to comfort Buffy, assuring her that they will find her sister before it is too late, and Buffy admits that Spike had been right; she should have been honest with Dawn in the first place.

Dawn passes through the park, reliving past memories only to be reminded of their falseness, then ends up at the hospital, where she tries to persuade the mental patients in the psych ward to tell them what they see when they look at her, then runs into Ben. She confesses to Ben that she is the Key and he freaks out trying to make her leave before Glory can find her, but it is too late. Ben suddenly changes into Glory, but Glory remembers nothing about Ben's conversation with Dawn and the young girl pretends to know nothing. Dawn asks questions about the Key and Glory reveals that the Key is very old then concludes Dawn knows nothing and is wasting her time. Dawn does not seem to remember exactly how Glory got into the room.

Buffy shows up to stop Glory from draining the energy from Dawn. With some help from the rest of the gang, Buffy gets in a few good hits and takes a few as well before Willow and Tara perform a spell to teleport Glory up high in the sky, where she falls straight to earth. Buffy shows Dawn that no matter what, they are sisters that are bound by blood.

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Blood Ties

• "Blood Ties" at IMDb
• "Blood Ties" at BuffyGuide.com