Episode no. Season 7
Episode 20 Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner Original air date May 6, 2003 | Directed by David Solomon Production code 7ABB20 | |
"Touched" is the 20th episode of the seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Contents
Plot
After being ejected from her home when the Scooby Gang loses faith in her leadership, a depressed Buffy is comforted by Spike. Faith accepts her role as the newly elected leader of the Potentials. The Scoobies capture a Bringer and magically interrogate him; eyeless and tongueless, he speaks through Andrew, who tells them that Bringers are busy forging weapons for the coming apocalypse and do not see Buffy's army as a threat. Faith is approached by The First (in the form of Richard Wilkins), as he leads her to believe that Buffy only sees her as a killer and will take the first chance she gets to kill her.
That evening, sexual tension is broken for four couples. Buffy and Spike take refuge in an abandoned house, and Buffy confesses her self-doubt and inability to let anyone become close to her. Spike tries to rally her spirits by describing that he's seen all of her, the good and the bad, but he still stands by her. He tells her, "you're a hell of a woman," which is the same thing Riley said to Buffy during "As You Were" in Season 6. Buffy asks Spike to spend the night. Initially misunderstanding her meaning, he moves toward a large chair; but Buffy has found a new kind of trust and intimacy with Spike, enough so that she requests he spend the night holding her. Faith and Wood engage in a one-night stand. In the first lesbian sex scene ever on network TV, Willow and Kennedy make love for the first time. Xander and Anya rekindle their sexual relationship for the first time since "Storyteller".
The next morning, Faith gives out her orders. She sends Dawn, Xander, Willow and Anya to go and find Buffy, while she and the Potentials launch a preemptive strike on the First's armory, which turns out to be a trap. Buffy regains her will to fight and brawls with Caleb, evading nearly all of his offensive moves; in the end, she dives into a floor panel in the winery and finds a powerful battle axe that appears to have been hidden there. The episode ends with Kennedy finding a box, which Faith opens and reveals that it's a bomb ready to detonate with only 8 seconds left. Faith yells for everyone to get down and the screen goes black.
Arc Significance
Buffy finds an ancient scythe, proving her prediction that Caleb was guarding something at the vineyard in "Empty Places". This scythe will be pivotal in playing an important role for the potential Slayers in "Chosen".
Continuity
Spike tells Buffy "you're a hell of a woman", which is what Riley says to her in "As You Were" (season 6, episode 15).
Anya's hair changes from straight and golden to curly and dirty blonde. This happens throughout the entirety of her time in the show.