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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cTabula Rasa\u201d has a similar plot to \u201cSomething Blue\u201d because the events of the episode are triggered by a spell cast by Willow gone awry. But whereas \u201cSomething Blue\u201d was mostly a hilarious episode, \u201cTabula Rasa\u201d is both the funniest episode and one of the saddest episodes in the entire series. How the heck does that happen? Read on further to find out.<\/span><\/p>\n SPOILER ALERT. If you haven\u2019t watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em> or haven\u2019t seen this show in a long time, stop reading right now. Major plot points are gonna be revealed here.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The episode follows straight after \u201cOnce More With Feeling.\u201d Spike finds Buffy on patrol to try and talk about how they kissed in the previous episode, but Buffy isn\u2019t up for talking. Spike gets attacked by a literal loan shark named Teeth and his cronies, leaving Buffy to save his sorry pale butt. (It\u2019s a show with monsters. Just go with it.)<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, at Xander\u2019s apartment, Xander, Anya, Willow, and Tara are feeling majorly guilty about ripping Buffy out of Heaven. (While I personally believe that Buffy wasn\u2019t actually in Heaven, the show never says otherwise, so for the sake of argument we\u2019ll just go with what the show says.) They think about how to help Buffy adjust to not being dead anymore. Willow, of course, wants to use magic to fix things, considering a spell that would make Buffy forget about Heaven. This angers Tara, who doesn\u2019t want Willow to abuse magic anymore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One major complaint from the fandom is that Season 6 portrayed magic as a drug, which isn\u2019t actually how magic is. In reality, Willow\u2019s addiction isn\u2019t to magic in and of itself, but the power and control it gives her. Willow always wanted to find a way to fix problems without actually having to deal with them, which is a\u00a0really<\/em> bad way of thinking. So yeah, I\u2019m siding with Tara in this episode.<\/span><\/p>\n Tara even says outright: \u201cYou did it the way you\u2019re doing\u00a0everything, Will. When things get\u00a0rough, you don\u2019t even consider your\u00a0options \u2013 you just do a spell. It\u2019s\u00a0not good for you \u2013 and it\u2019s not what\u00a0magic is for.\u201d Willow pleads for Tara to stay with her, but Tara knows that as long as Willow has the control freak complex, things aren\u2019t safe for her. Tara contemplates breaking up if Willow can\u2019t go without magic for a week. And she\u2019s not the only one who wants to leave.<\/span><\/p>\n Before I cut to the next scene, I\u2019ll tell y\u2019all right now. Just because I love an episode doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s perfectly written. Every episode of any show will have its flaws. So forgive me for not liking\u00a0this<\/em> upcoming scene.<\/p>\n Giles and Buffy are at the Magic Box\u2019s training room. Giles is telling Buffy how he\u2019s planning on leaving for England. Now in the context of the behind-the-scenes stuff, Anthony Stewart Head wanted to leave the show to go back to his homeland. But the writers made a\u00a0really<\/em> bad decision in having Giles leave because Buffy can\u2019t handle things without constantly turning to him for help. To some extent, yes, Buffy\u00a0needs<\/em> to learn how to make her own decisions. But Buffy already has abandonment issues bigger than the state of Texas\u00a0and<\/em> she has depression on top of that! The\u00a0last<\/em> thing she needs is her father figure, one of the few people she feels she can still trust, leaving her. As much as I hate saying this, killing Giles off would\u2019ve been more believable than having him abandon Buffy for what feels like a seriously contrived reason.<\/p>\n But maybe it\u2019s just because Giles leaving is the start of everything getting worse for Buffy and the Scoobies.<\/p>\n The next morning, Willow casts the Tabula Rasa spell, but leaves the whole bag of Lethe\u2019s Bramble in front of the fire. The fire consumes the whole bag, which foretells some major consequences ahead.<\/p>\n In the magic shop, the Scoobies are all gathered and Buffy urges Giles to just announce his eventual departure, only for Spike to interrupt things. He comes in looking like this:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Spike is still on the run from the loan shark but the conversation soon returns back to Giles who tells everyone of his plans of returning to England. Buffy can\u2019t take any more bad news, so she starts to leave. Willow\u2019s crystal starts glowing black, which means the spell is about to take effect. And take effect it does. Everyone in the room suddenly passes out.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Day turns to night in the next scene. The way that everyone is arranged is important. Giles is leaning on Anya\u2019s shoulder. Tara is asleep in her chair. Willow and Xander are asleep next to each other, with Willow wearing Xander\u2019s jacket. Dawn is curled up on the floor. Spike is asleep on the store counter. Buffy is slumped on the stairs and is the first to wake up. As she turns on the lights, everyone else starts waking up with complete amnesia. This is where all the laughs\u00a0really<\/em> start coming.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n First of all, Giles finds magic to be \u201cbalderdash and chicanery,\u201d which is\u00a0pretty<\/em> hilarious if you remember that Giles\u2019s young, rebellious youth consisted of using dark magic as a drug high. Buffy instinctively comforts Dawn while Giles realizes that he\u2019s British. Spike snarks at Giles about being all \u201cMary Poppins\u201d only to realize that he\u2019s British as well. His little bit gets me laughing so hard, my stomach literally hurts because James Marsters is actually American and he does the British thing\u00a0so\u00a0<\/em>well, it\u2019s hard to believe that he isn\u2019t. (The fact that he does the British thing in Torchwood<\/em> doesn\u2019t help much, either.) Giles and Spike wonder if they\u2019re related and Spike thinks that Giles is his father. This is a shoutout to a scene from a previous episode in which Giles refers to Spike as \u201clike a son to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Spike also thinks that Giles and Anya are together due to seeing them waking up\u00a0together. Anya looks at her ring and remembers that she\u2019s engaged. Problem is she\u2019s engaged to the wrong man! The ensuing argument about Giles apparently marrying someone half his age leads to everyone checking for their driver\u2019s licenses and IDs. Unfortunately, Buffy, Dawn, and Spike don\u2019t have any. Buffy points out Dawn\u2019s necklace, which has her name on it. \u201cOr Umad,\u201d Dawn joked. Spike checks his jacket and thinks that his name is Randy, leading to yet another gut-busting hilarious line.<\/p>\n Willow thinks that she and Tara are study buddies while Xander is her boyfriend. But since Buffy doesn\u2019t have a license or a student ID, she decides to name herself \u201cJoan.\u201d Dawn\u2019s snarking at Buffy\u2019s lame name leads them to realize that the two of them are sisters. Buffy decides on everyone going to the hospital but when they open the door, they are greeted by vampires. Leading to this hilarious shot:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The amnesia everyone has made everyone forget that they live in a world where vampires exist. Giles proposes using magic to fight back, even as the vampires bang on the door, demanding for Spike and the Slayer to come out. Xander finds a trapdoor that leads to the sewer. The vampires break into the shop through a window, since they can\u2019t actually enter a door without being invited. In the ensuing fight, Buffy stakes a vampire and seriously loves the power she has.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As the other vampires run back to their loan shark boss, Buffy\u00a0formulates a plan. She and \u201cRandy\u201d will go out to fight the vampires while everyone else goes to the hospital through the sewers. Anya and Giles decide to stay in the shop and use magic to ward off anyone else who might come after them.<\/p>\n Buffy and Spike run out to fight the vampires. As the fight ensures, Spike instinctively goes into vamp-face and thinks that he\u2019s a superhero, only for Buffy to go running, scared at the sight of his vamp face.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Down in the sewers, Xander, Dawn, Willow, and Tara try to navigate around a place they\u2019ve never been to and come across a vampire. Up in the Magic Box, Anya does a spell that summons a rabbit, which she is completely terrified of. Meanwhile, Spike catches up to Buffy to try and talk things out with her. Buffy tries to keep him away and then this happens:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Spike realizes that he doesn\u2019t want to kill Buffy, nor does Buffy want to kill Spike in spite of the two of them seemingly being natural enemies. Spike thinks that he\u2019s a vampire with a soul, but Buffy thinks the idea is totally lame. (Take\u00a0that<\/em>, Angel!) Sparks kind of fly between the two of them. And they\u2019re not the only ones.<\/p>\n Giles and Anya are still fighting as her attempts at magic keep going awry and Giles thinks that the plane ticket in his pocket was an indicator that he was getting out of the relationship. Giles eventually finds a way to reverse all the magic and the two of them kiss and make up.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n