Get It Done

"Get It Done" is the 15th episode of seventh and final season of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot synopsis

The First Slayer tells Buffy in a dream that "It is not enough."

Anya and Spike are walking when a demon appears, sent by D'Hoffryn to kill Anya.

Principal Wood tells Buffy to go home and concentrate on her "real" job, killing monsters and getting ready to battle the First. Buffy takes him to the house and introduces him to the rest of the crew, including Spike. The tension between Spike and Wood is tangible. Wood gives Buffy a bag that he got from his mother and should have been passed on to Buffy anyway.

Chloe commits suicide after the First talks to her all night. Buffy delivers a strong lecture, angering many of the others. She then calls an emergency and opens the slayer's bag. Inside is a set of shadow figures that trigger a portal. Against the advice of her friends, Buffy jumps in, sending back an enormous demon that beats everybody up and flees. After Spike recovers, he gets his leather coat out of a trunk, kills the demon, and drags it back to Buffy's house.

On the other side of the portal, Buffy is back in the desert where she once met the First Slayer. There, three African shamans speaking Swahili, tell her she is the last slayer to guard the Hellmouth and try to infuse her with additional essence of the demon that give all the slayers their strength. Buffy refuses the power, telling the men that they were wrong to have created the slayer line in the first place. As a parting gift, one of them touches Buffy's head and gives her a vision (though the viewer does not immediately see what it is).

After struggling with the incantation, Willow manages to reopen the portal by sucking energy from Anya and Kennedy. Spike throws the dead demon in, and Buffy returns. Later, she tells Willow about the vision and admits that the First Slayer was right that what they have is not enough. Willow asks Buffy what she saw, and the vision is shown to the viewer: Inside the Hellmouth, the First has an army made up of thousands of Turok-Han vampires.

Cultural references

• Andrew warns Buffy that Principal Wood will see "the big board", quoting General "Buck" Turgidson's warning to the President, as the Soviet ambassador is about to be admitted into the Pentagon situation room, in Dr. Strangelove (1964).

Continuity

• This episode features the last appearance of the First Slayer in the series.
• A similar exchange portal is used to carry Buffy to Fray's future in "Time of Your Life" in Season Eight.
• Buffy's response to Wood regarding the Hellmouth "blowing around May" is referencing the fact that the apocalypses usually occur as the season finales, which tend to air in May.
• Spike tells Robin Wood that his soul makes him "unique, more or less" – referring obliquely to Angel.
• In season 5, episode 1 "Buffy vs Dracula", Dracula tells Buffy that there is darkness in her power. It is finally revealed in this episode what that really means and what that darkness is.

Arc significance

• The Shadow Men tell Buffy that she is the last guardian of the Hellmouth, and show her what the First is preparing on the other side of the seal.
• Spike puts back on his leather coat, last seen in the Season Six episode "Seeing Red", and with it regains his love for a good fight. Unfortunately, the coat proves to Wood that Spike in fact is the vampire who killed his mother, setting the stage for their battle.
• Kennedy finally realizes that Willow is serious when she says that her magic is not trivial or fun. This will briefly strain their relationship, but by the end of the series, Kennedy will have gained a deep respect for her girlfriend. This issue was first brought to life in the episode "Showtime."
• Willow performs a major feat of magic successfully, although she did revert to Dark Willow before Xander pulled her from the spell.
• This episode marks the beginning of Buffy's estrangement from the rest of the Scooby Gang.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Get It Done

• "Get It Done" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Get It Done" at TV.com