Glory has Dawn, and plans to use her blood to open the portal to her home dimension, even though the portal will cause all the hell dimensions to bleed into our own. Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Anya, Tara and Spike go to confront a true Hell God with the knowledge that they may not all survive.moreless
Despite their best efforts, Glory has succeeded in taking Dawn. This failure after so much effort proves too much for Buffy and she slips into a catatonic state. Willow must use magick to enter her mind and help her work through the trauma before it is too late to save Dawn. Or the rest of the world.moreless
Buffy, Willow, Tara, and Dawn narrowly escape from Glory, but only because she is hit by a truck. Buffy and the Scoobies leave Sunnydale in Spike's RV, because Buffy fears that they will never beat Glory.
While Buffy tries to control a motherless Dawn and bring their lives back to some sort of normalcy, Tara is captured by Glory who is desperately trying to find the Key.
Buffy and Giles leave for the desert on a vision quest in an attempt to find a way to fight Glory. While they are gone, Spike decides to have a little fun with his BuffyBot but the gang mistakes it for the real Buffy and think that she has gone crazy. Meanwhile, Glory's minions also mistake the BuffyBot for the Slayer and, noticing its devotion to Spike, begin to suspect that he is the Key.moreless
Refusing to accept that her mother’s death is the end, Dawn becomes obsessed with using magick to bring her back. Meanwhile, Buffy receives some much-needed comfort from an old friend who comes to town for the funeral.
Buffy is devastated when she arrives home and finds her mother dead. The rest of the gang try their best to pull themselves out of their own grief so that they can help Buffy and Dawn to deal with the worst day of their lives.
A strange girl arrives in Sunnydale searching everywhere for her boyfriend Warren. She is sweet, pretty, and strong enough to throw Spike through a window when he hits on her. Buffy and the gang decide that they must do something before someone less impervious to injury gets in her way and gets seriously hurt.moreless
Buffy notices that Dawn is spending a lot of time around Spike and assumes that Dawn has a crush on him. Dawn surprises her, however, by telling her that Spike is in love with Buffy. Meanwhile, a train pulls into the Sunnydale station with every passenger slaughtered by a ravening vampire, and Buffy is finding it hard to concentrate on the investigation while simultaneously fending off Spike's advances.moreless
Buffy finally tells her friends that Dawn is the Key and they start acting strangely when Dawn is around. Dawn figures out that something is wrong and wants the truth. She has seen that crazy people know that she is different, so she goes to the mental ward at the hospital for some answers.moreless
Quentin Travers and a team from the Watchers Council arrive in Sunnydale with information about Glory. However, since Buffy no longer works for the Council, they decide that they must put her and her friends through a grueling set of tests to determine that she is worthy of their trust.
While trying to create a new spell to help Buffy with her Slaying, Willow is distracted by an argument with Anya and accidentally releases a troll from a mystical prison. With Buffy in mourning over Riley leaving town, Willow and Anya may need to defeat the troll themselves before it flattens the entire town…moreless
At the hospital, the Scooby Gang awaits news from the doctor about Joyce's surgery and they are all relieved when the surgery is a success. Dawn spends the night with Xander and Anya. With the house to themselves, Buffy and Riley spend a romantic evening together. In the middle of the night, Riley sneaks out and Spike follows him into an old building.moreless
A Queller demon lands in Sunnydale in a fiery meteorite and begins killing all the mentally ill people it can find. Meanwhile, Joyce has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and while she waits to undergo her operation the tumor is making her act increasingly unusual. Buffy must find and defeat the demon before it senses her mother’s madness and makes her its next victim.moreless
Riley begins to suspect that Spike has feelings for Buffy, and Spike takes great pleasure in telling Riley about Joyce’s illness – and about the fact that Buffy told Spike first. Meanwhile, Glory is conjuring up a creature that will be able to locate The Key for her, no matter what form it may be in.moreless
When a run-of-the-mill vampire seriously wounds Buffy with her own stake, she begins to obsess over the deaths of previous Slayers. Desperate for answers, she turns to the only person with firsthand knowledge of how two Slayers fell in battle... Spike.
As the gang get ready to celebrate Tara's birthday, her family arrives in town to take her back home. She resists, but her father insists that she come back with them before the family curse turns her into a demon on her 20th birthday.
When doctors cannot determine why Joyce is sick, Buffy is convinced that the cause must be supernatural. When she tries a spell to let her see magical influences, Buffy sees far more than she had planned.
The increased strength and speed given to Riley by the Initiative are starting to tear his body apart. He must be operated upon immediately to repair the damage, but that will mean giving up his enhanced fighting ability and any chance of keeping up with Buffy.
The demon Toth fires a strange weapon at the Slayer, but Xander jumps in front of Buffy at the last moment. The blast sends him sprawling into a mound of debris, but after chasing off the demon the Scoobies collect Xander who seems to be dazed but alright, and walk him home.
A few hours later, a second, very confused Xander crawls out of the debris and makes his way towards home.moreless
Through her diary entries, Buffy's little sister Dawn gives her views on Buffy, Slaying, and the rest of the Scooby Gang. Though she only appeared at the end of the last episode, it now seems that she has been around since before the series started.
When Dracula himself arrives in Sunnydale, he leaves the entire gang star struck. Buffy must find a way to stop him before she falls completely into his thrall, but his powers may be greater than even she can overcome.