Pangs (Buffy episode) Comprehensive synopsis
- See: Pangs (Buffy episode)
We see a guy walking at night on the U.C. Sunnydale campus, in a fairly secluded area. He pauses for a moment as if he hears something and turns to find Buffy asking, "Looking for me?" He asks her what she wants and she punches him in the face. As he recovers he's revealed to actually be a vampire and he's now pissed at the Slayer. He's mad that she's now hanging around the campus all the time and WISHES she would just leave. They fight and she easily stakes him. As the battle ends, she looks around as if she senses something out of the ordinary. Seeing nothing she shrugs it off and walks away. As she leaves the camera pans right, to reveal Angel has been watching her the whole time hidden by the darkness and foliage. End teaser...
Outside campus, Buffy, Willow and Anya are at a construction site. A new Cultural Partnership Center is being built for the Anthropology department and the ground-breaking is today. As a professor in the department is giving a speech to commemorate the occasion, Anya is staring lustfully at Xander waiting off to the sides holding a shovel and wearing a tank top. She tells Buffy and Willow AbOUT how she wants to see him digging and getting all sweaty... it gets her hot thinking about it. The speaker relates the timing of the ground-breaking to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and speaks about the symbolism of different cultures in partnership as being particularly appropriate at this time and place. Willow immediately takes offense saying that to her Thanksgiving represents one culture conquering and destroying another (e.g. English settlers and Native Americans. Buffy is a little less offended by the concept and instead thinks about the opportunity to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal with family and friends. She tells Willow that her mom is at her Aunt's this year and so she won't be having a big dinner. She's saddened by the thought. The speech ends and the speaker picks up a ceremonial shovel and breaks ground. Anya is disappointed that Xander still isn't digging. After the ceremony Xander finally gets his chance to the delight of Anya. He quickly falls though a hole in the ground, into an underground chamber. As others scramble to get equipment to help Xander, we see he's fallen into what looks like an old chapel.
Later that night we see Angel back on campus again spying on Buffy. This time he's down at ground level looking up at her dorm room window. In the room, Willow is telling Buffy that Xander fell into the old Sunnydale Mission which was thought to have been destroyed in an earthquake in 1812. Instead it was just buried and the town built over it. As Willow is talking Buffy is only half-listening. She's looking out the window intently as if she's looking for something, but not finding it. Not seeing anything, she snaps out of her daze and laments that she has no family to be with for the holiday. In the hallway the sounds of students packing up for the long weekend can be heard. She decides to do a Thanksgiving dinner herself this year. Willow objects because she feels that Thanksgiving is really a sham, but eventually agrees to join Buffy and friends. Buffy decides to do the cooking and hold the dinner at Giles' flat and wants to invite Xander and Anya. Willow wants to skip the inviting Anya part, but Buffy knows that her and Xander have been getting closer, so convinces Willow that they must ask her to join them.
We find Spike, looking paler that usual, stumbling around in a tattered blanket. He's shaking and looks ill. We find that he's being chased by the Initiative members Riley, Forrest, and Graham. They're armed and in their commando gear. They're looking for Hostile 17 (a.k.a. Spike), but also discuss Thanksgiving plans. The hunt for Spike is ruining their long weekend. Forrest thinks they should just give up. He notes now that Spike has had a chip surgically implanted in his head, he can't harm any living creature. Riley overrules him, and they continue the chase.
In Xander's basement apartment, Anya arrives in the morning to find he looks sick. He's pale and sweaty and can barely get ready for work. Anya insists that he call in sick and undresses him to put him back to bed. As she's doing this he says in a semi-delirious state that she's a strange girlfriend. Anya takes pause when she hears this and confirms in a surprised manner that he considers her to be his girlfriend. He tries to brush it off and attribute it to his half-conscious state, but it's too late, it's already been said.
In the underground remnants of the Sunnydale Mission a cloud of green gas arises and escapes out of the hole Xander made. At the anthropology department we see the professor who gave the speech earlier talking on the phone discussing the discovery of the Mission and saying that it will delay the construction of the cultural center while it is excavated. As she is speaking, the green gas cloud enters the room and goes into a display case that contains a knife that is marked as having belonged to the Chumash Indian tribe. The professor now notices the cloud and looks on as the gas solidifies into a hand. She stands up and is face to face with a Chumash Indian. He looks at her, grabs her, spins her around, and slits her neck with the knife.
Buffy and Willow arrive at the office after the police have been there; it's covered with yellow police tape. Willow says that she read that the woman's ear was cut off and wonders if a witch or an ear-harvesting demon, trying to make monster out of ears, is responsible for the [...]. Buffy notices the knife missing from the display case and notes that it belonged to the Chumash tribe.
Later at Giles' apartment, Buffy is unpacking her Thanksgiving groceries and telling him about the [...] and the missing knife. He tells her he'll do some research on the Chumash tribe and the significance of the blade. She leaves to get some more supplies she forgot to buy. After she leaves, Angel appears from the hallway. He was there the whole time and Buffy did not know it, Giles did though. Angel tells Giles that his friend had a vision that Buffy was in danger and he wants to protect her, but he does not want her to know that he's in Sunnydale. He thinks it will distract her and he doesn't want to complicate her life by just showing up again like this, so he makes Giles promise not to tell her. Giles thinks that it's not fair to Buffy, but Angel won't be dissuaded. Concerning the Chumash knife, Angel tells Giles that he should speak to Father Gabriel, who knows a lot about Sunnydale history.
A short scene with Spike follows showing him still looking horrible in his tattered blanket. He looks inside a building and sees several vampires feasting on a live victim. Since his chip prevents him from feeding, he looks very jealous and very hungry.
Buffy and Willow are walking downtown and are stopped at the Espresso Pump, by Riley who chased Buffy across several blocks to talk to her. Willow goes inside for CoFFEE to allow them to talk privately, when Angel POPS out from a corner and startles her. He's been following too. She thinks at first he's turned in to evil Angelus, because of his wily ways in sneaking up on her. He tells her about the vision. Willow asks how she can help and a distracted Angel instead wants to know who is the guy that Buffy is talking to. Outside Buffy invites Riley to Thanksgiving dinner. He tells her he can't go because he's going home to Iowa.
Spike goes to Harmony's lair. She yells at him and tells him to leave. He pleads to stay and seduces her onto the bed. She's falling for it at first, but then remembers her anger and grabs a stake and threatens him With It. He backs away and says he'll go but asks if he could first have SomeOne to eat. She comes at him with the stake and he runs away hungry.
We find Buffy inside an empty church looking for Father Gabriel. She goes outside and sees the priest hung and having his ear cut of by the same Chumash Indian that killed the anthro professor. Buffy attacks him and they fight. The Chumash warrior tells Buffy that he is "vengeance" and his people are calling for retribution. He tells her that she slaughtered his people and now he is attacking their spirit. As he jumps away from the battle, he folds his arm into his chest and concentrates for moment, then turns into a [...] of crows that fly away in all directions. The Chumash spirit has escaped.
Giles and Buffy are preparing dinner on Thanksgiving evening. As Buffy tells him about her fight, Giles refers to the Chumash spirit as an "Indian", Buffy corrects him, that the accepted phrase is "native American". She tells Giles that she hesitated in battle because she sympathized with him and wants to find a way to stop him with out slaying him. Giles points out that regardless of past wrongs, he is now [...] innocent people. Willow arrives with many books about the Chumash tribe and has learned of the atrocities committed against them: imprisonment, forced labor, and infection from diseases not native to them. Some Chumash were hung when trying rebel against settlers and ones accused of cattle stealing had their ears chopped off. Willow wants to help the Chumash spirit redress wrongs against his people and to expose the atrocities. Giles thinks that they have been exposed if all of the books she has contain information about it already. Willow suggests giving back the land to the spirit, but Giles objects that it's not theirs to give back. All of the arguing stresses Buffy out even more, she goes back to cooking.
Anya and Xander arrive, with Xander looking like he's about to die. Anya carries him in and lays him down on the couch. He went to a doctor but was told he had symptoms of many diseases and the doctor couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong with him. In Willow's books they read that the Chumash suffered from malaria, smallpox, and syphilis. Apparently the Chumash curse has infected Xander with all of these diseases. Willow again defends the spirit, but Xander wants him killed so that he can be cured. There's another knock at the door. Buffy looks outside and Spike jumps out from the shadows still wrapped in his blanket pleading for help. Startled she pushes him away and into the sunlight. Spike then attempts to barge in but is kept outside since he hasn't been invited. He starts to fry and continues to plead for help. He tells them he can't bite anyone anymore and he can give them information about the soldiers they've been seeing around.
Giles invites him in and Buffy securely ties Spike to a chair. He offers information about the Initiative commandos in return for blood. The tell him he'll get food later. They go back to discussing the Chumash spirit. Giles figures out that except for Xander, who desecrated the spirit's resting place, the spirit has been attacking community leaders and authority figures. Buffy wants to find a way to kill the spirit, but Willow refuses to help. They realize that the dean of the school was also at the ground-breaking ceremony and he May Be the next victim of the spirit so Xander, Anya, and Willow go to warn him.
Buffy's meal is just about ready. She's setting the table and an arrow narrowly misses her and lands in the centerpiece. She turns to see a Chumash warrior in the window nocking another arrow into his bow. Soon all the windows are being broken and there are warriors everywhere firing arrows. Spike gets hit several times, but not in the heart.
Willow, Anya, and Xander warned the dean, but he was okay. As they are leaving Angel pops up again. Xander didn't know he was back and immediately thinks he's turned evil again. He tells them that all the Chumash weapons are missing from the anthro department. Willow tells him about the theory that they are attacking leaders. Angel points out that to the Chumash warrior a leader would mean the strongest fighter, in other words Buffy. They rush back to Giles' place. Angel calls Giles to warn him and the others steal some bikes to get back quicker.
By this time Spike looks like a pin cushion, he's filled with arrows. As Buffy tries to get weapons her hand is hit with an arrow. She eventually gets her and Giles crossbows and they start to fire at the spirit war party. Spirit warriors give up on the arrows now and break into the apartment to attack Buffy and Giles. Outside Willow, Anya, and Xander fight some of the spirits as well with shovels and flower pots. Buffy stabs the spirit named Hus and it doesn't affect him. Eventually she grabs his knife and stabs him with it and he reacts to it. She figures out that their own weapons can harm them. Hus transforms into a bear and goes after her. She kills him with the Chumash knife and the war party evaporates into gas clouds. Angel is still lurking about outside and stares longingly into Giles' apartment through a window at Buffy. He turns and quietly walks away.
As they are eating their great Thanksgiving dinner everyone's happy with the outcome except Spike. He's still tied to a chair with nothing to eat. Buffy's a little upset that things didn't go as smoothly as she would have liked, Xander is happy his syphilis is gone. He lets slip that it felt like old times with Angel there as well, at which point Buffy's jaw drops and the episode ends.