Gone (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

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"Gone" is the 11th episode of season 6 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot[]

In the aftermath of Willow getting high on the magic that caused her to crash her car, leaving her eyes almost permanently dilated and darkened to black and Dawn with a broken arm, Buffy feels life spinning out of control and Willow is still distraught. Dawn is ignoring Buffy and resents her because Buffy was off secretly having sex with Spike during the crisis, so the younger Summers is only talking to Xander. Dawn is further irritated because Buffy is gathering up everything in the household even slightly magical and hiding it so Willow can avoid magical temptation, including a statue of the Hopi god Kokopelli, which Dawn treasures because it belonged to their late mother, Joyce. Social worker Doris Kroeger visits to check on how Buffy is doing at the worst possible time – while the living room is scattered with Willow's old spell ingredients and objects. Buffy digs herself into a deep hole by claiming it is "magic weed". Spike, in the daytime but using a blanket to cover him, comes over to her house wanting his lighter that Buffy took, then leaves after worsening the situation.

Depressed and determined to become a grown-up, Buffy cuts her hair up to her shoulders, and makes a trip to the hairdresser to have it styled into a pageboy hairdo. As she leaves, the Trio pulls up to a tanning salon nearby. Warren has modified his freeze ray into an invisibility gun, and they are about to make themselves invisible. However, Andrew and Jonathan fight over who gets to use the gun first and accidentally overload it, sending beams over the parking lot; a beam hits Buffy, making her vanish – along with a dumpster, traffic cone, and fire hydrant.

An invisible Buffy walks in on Anya and Xander talking about their upcoming wedding at the Magic Box, and picks up two magical circular items to make them look like eyes. Upon discovering this, Xander immediately believes that Willow may have suffered a relapse and confronts her, but Willow is offended and insists that she is not responsible. Determined to solve the mystery without using magic, Willow finds the spot where Buffy vanished and begins spray-painting the area to make it visible again, just before Xander finds her. Finding tyre tracks left behind by the Trio's van, she goes to track it down; giving the spray-painted cone to Xander to study. Buffy continues her invisible adventures in Sunnydale, visiting Doris' workplace in revenge for the botched inspection. Using her invisibility to its full advantage, she tricks Doris into behaving in a bizarre manner and sabotages the Summers' report, causing the supervisor to believe that Doris is going crazy and arrange for someone else to inspect the Summers' home the next day.

Buffy then heads to Spike's crypt and has sex with Spike while she is invisible, surprising him. In the meantime, Xander and Anya discover that the invisibility ray is causing the structure of the cone to break down, and realize that the same thing could happen to Buffy if the invisibility is not reversed. Xander runs to Spike's crypt in search of Buffy, where he finds Spike in bed, naked and appearing to be alone. In reality, however, Buffy and Spike are making love. After Spike claims he is "doing push-ups", Xander asks him where Buffy is, and Spike says that he has not "seen" her. Throughout the conversation, invisible Buffy embraces and affectionately teases Spike, making him laugh despite Xander's presence. Spike tries to act normal, somewhat unsuccessfully. Xander finally leaves, puzzled by Spike's odd behavior.

Frustrated with Buffy's carefree attitude and annoyed at how she seems to be using the invisibility as an excuse to escape her real life instead of pursuing a real relationship with him, Spike asks her to leave. At home, Buffy's invisibility scares Dawn, who has the same frustrations as Spike, combined with extreme worry for her sister, and Buffy gets a message from Xander and Anya on the answering machine, warning her that the invisibility ray is slowly killing her. Meanwhile, Willow finds the Trio's van and discovers the equipment in their basement, only to be kidnapped and held hostage by the now-invisible Trio. Jonathan calls Buffy – disguising his voice so Buffy does not identify him – and tells her that the Trio has kidnapped Willow and tells her to meet them at the arcade.

As Buffy arrives at the arcade, Warren falsely promises her that he will reverse the invisibility, but Willow points out that he has put it on a setting that is going to kill her. Warren knocks Willow to the ground and aims the gun at Buffy, telling her that she cannot see them. However, Buffy's Slayer training provides her with some ability to sense the invisible villains. A scuffle ensues, culminating with Warren ending up in the ball-pit, Andrew in the pinball machine and Buffy holding Jonathan. Willow alters the gun's frequency and aims at Buffy, Jonathan, Andrew and Warren, rendering all four visible again. Buffy finally sees that the Trio are human, rather than demons as she had been expecting. Andrew, who she has not met before, is introduced to her as Tucker's brother. After a brief stand-off, a smoke-bomb goes off and the Trio - despite an embarrassing scuffle to open the arcade door - escape.

Buffy and Willow sit on the curb outside and discuss the events of the day, and Willow admits she nearly used magic but did not; Buffy also admits that while she is still not happy about being alive, when faced with death she realized she did not want to die. The two then contemplate their small but notable steps towards dealing with their respective problems.

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Gone

• "Gone" at IMDb