Tara is dead, and Willow has embraced dark powers to seek vengeance against Warren, her murderer after saving Buffy from her gunshot wound. Can Buffy and Xander reach their friend before she commits a major evil?

It's what we've been waiting for all season; after managing to pull herself back from the brink, Willow finally goes completely off the deep end here as her anger takes over. When even the magical people from Sunnydale think she's a force to be reckoned with, you realize just how far things have gone. Her reactions to Buffy and Xander demonstrate that she hasn't lost her humanity completely; she will, after all, not do anything injurious to either of them. However, Warren is in serious danger.

It's the way this all plays out that makes it so satisfying on every level. Each of the main cast are present despite the rifts that have opened up between them. Spike's absence is noted, and it's great to see him out in Africa being his tough old self when seeking a chance to be de-chipped. Xander discovers the choice that Anya has made due to their break-up, although this remains open-ended and in need of more resolution. More shocking than much of what Willow does, however, is what happens to Dawn when she returns home and finds Tara's body, the others not having had a chance to do anything about it. Seeing her curled in a corner saying she couldn't leave Tara alone is poignant and tragic and a horrific thing for any young girl to have to do.

There are some fun scenes with Jonathan and Andrew in jail which offset the horror to come, and now my question about how the Trio will be dealt with has been answered. I knew Buffy couldn't kill them, but Willow now has no problem doing so. It's good to see Warren at least being given a fighting chance by providing him with some magical gadgets, and his robot trick still works despite the times we've been fooled in past episodes. Of course, it's through these gadgets that we see just how strong Willow now is, stopping every attack with ease, a sinister air and a hint that Warren's end is inevitable. Once Willow gets hold of him, however, it's a tense sequence as we wonder if Buffy, Xander and Anya will reach him before Willow can kill him. This is the true highlight. Quite whether any viewers will feel total sympathy for Warren, I'm not sure, but you certainly don't feel that he deserves what Willow puts him through. The bullet she pushes through him is a horrific enough torture, but to then seal his mouth shut and finally strip his skin from his body and burn it is sick and twisted in the extreme. There is no reason in her any more, and Alyson Hannigan plays it out with perfect soft-spoken malevolence. By the end of the episode, you will have a chill running down your spine. If that's what she did to Warren, what will she do to the other two? And can she ever be the same again now?

*****

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