Dead Things

Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) turns to Tara (Amber Benson) for information about why Spike's anti-violence chip no longer registers her as human. Meanwhile, her sexual relationship with Spike (James Marsters) grows deeper and more twisted as the ardent vampire tries to show Buffy her dark side. Elsewhere, Warren (Adam Busch) seeks perverse sexual thrills of his own. The villainous nerd plans to use his latest invention, a cerebral dampener, to turn some lucky lady into his bedroom slave. The first candidate is Warren's ex-girlfriend, Katrina (Amelinda Embry), who's still angry about his dalliance with a sex-bot (see "I Was Made to Love You"). Eliminating any such grudges with the flick of a switch, Warren prepares to sleep with Katrina and then give Andrew (Tom Lenk) and Jonathan (Danny Strong) a turn. The dampener wears off, however, and Katrina accuses Warren of attempted rape. He hits her with a beer bottle, accidentally killing her. Andrew and Jonathan want to go to the police, but Warren insists on framing Buffy for his crime. With the help of a time-shifting demon, the villains stage a hallucinatory battle in which Buffy becomes convinced that she accidentally killed an innocent girl. Distraught, she prepares to turn herself in -- much to the dismay of Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), who becomes hysterical, and Spike, who gets the tar beat out of him trying to convince the Slayer not to throw her life away. At the last moment, though, Buffy learns the name of her supposed victim and realizes that Warren must be behind the entire episode. Nevertheless, she later breaks down in tears upon learning from Tara that she's still human after all; if she's still human, Buffy asks her astonished friend, then why is she allowing herself to do such perverted things with Spike? Originally broadcast February 5, 2002, on UPN, "Dead Things" marked episode 113 of the cult-favorite series.