Anne
Sunnydale Cemetery. Evening. A body once known as Andrew Hoelich rises from
its grave, ready for a new life as a creature of the night. Standing in his
way is not the Slayer, but rather her closest friends: Willow, Xander, and
Oz. Unfortunately, without the powers that make Buffy special, the three
friends are unable to kill the vampire before it can escape into the night.
Afterwards, the group prepares themselves for the new school season, which
begins the very next day. They also wonder if and when Buffy will return to
Sunnydale after her unannounced absence since saving the world from the
Acathla threat. What they don't know is that Buffy is currently living alone
in an apartment in downtown Los Angeles. Buffy's dreams are haunted by
Angel, reminding of her of what she had to do in order to stop Acathla.
The next morning, Willow learns that Oz flunked his senior year and needs to
repeat it, Xander and Cordelia's anticipated reunion has no sparks
whatsoever, and Giles gets the latest in a long line of leads concerning
Buffy's possible location. Meanwhile, Buffy is working as a waitress in a
diner, under the alias of Anne. During work, she serves a romantic couple of
runaways. The girl's name is Lily, while the guy's is Rickie. They both have
each other's name tattooed to their forearms. When Lily recognizes the
waitress, Buffy denies any familiarity with the girl. At one point, Rickie
says to Lily the exact same words that Buffy heard from Angel in one of her
dreams. The next day, on the way to work, Buffy passes by an old homeless
woman who repeatedly says, "I'm no one." Back in Sunnydale, Giles pays Joyce
Summers a visit to inform her that his latest search turned up empty-handed.
Joyce expresses her resentment toward Giles, blaming him for Buffy's
distance from her own mother.
On her way home from work, Buffy runs into Lily again. Lily gets Buffy's
attention by calling her by her real name, then reminds Buffy that she once
went by the name of Chantarelle and was involved in a vampire-worshipping
cult. Buffy explains that Anne is really her middle name. During their
conversation, an old man rudely bumps the both of them aside as he walks
towards the street. When asked if he's okay, the old man turns to them and
says, "I'm no one." With that, he walks into the middle of the street, then
stops in the path of an oncoming car. Buffy dashes into the street and
pushes him aside just in time, but not before the car collides and sends her
slamming into the pavement. A few locals offer to help her and call an
ambulance, but Buffy quickly leaves the scene without even a limp. On the
way, Buffy meets a relatively clean-cut man. His name is Ken, and he's
handing out flyers for a shelter called the Family Home. Meanwhile, in the
Bronze, Xander chats with Willow and Oz about their failure at vampire
slaying. Seeing Cordelia enter the Bronze with a few of her friends, Xander
hatches a plan to use her as
bait.
The next day, Lily visits Buffy at work and tells her that Rickie's been
missing for a while. Buffy reluctantly agrees to help, and they first visit
the local blood bank where Lily and Rickie often donated in order to make
some money. According to the doctor, Rickie hasn't been there in the last
few days, so Buffy and Lily agree to split up and meet up later at Buffy's
apartment. During a search in an abandoned building, Buffy finds a dead old
man with a bottle of Drain Cleaner next to his head. Since the bottle is
empty, the old man must have killed himself with it. However, that's not the
most disturbing thing: Buffy notices a familiar tattoo on the man's forearm.
It says "Lily", which means that this dead old man was Rickie. Back at her
apartment, Lily cannot believe the news. She blames Buffy for bringing along
some evil from Sunnydale, causing her boyfriend's untimely death. Lily exits
the apartment and meets Ken, who tells her that Rickie is alive and staying
at the Family Home. Relieved, Lily follows Ken to the shelter. Determined to
get to the bottom of things, Buffy breaks into the blood bank after closing
hours and finds Rickie's personal file. Alarmed by the word "Candidate"
stamped in it, Buffy questions the doctor, who has just arrived on the
scene. Buffy gets the info that leads her to the Family Home, where she
finds Lily alone with Ken in a room. Before Buffy can find out what's going
on, Lily is pulled into the floor through a strange black pool. Buffy
struggles with Ken before they both fall into the pool. On the other side of
it, they crash down hard on the floor. While Buffy takes care of Lily, Ken
removes his mask to reveal the face of a demon underneath. He calls the
guards, and Buffy grabs Lily and tries to escape. As the guards give chase,
Buffy and Lily run into an enormous factory room. Hundreds of missing
runaways work slave labor, while the demonic guards watch them, whips in
hand. Ken and the guards catch up to them. With a swift swing of his club,
Ken knocks Buffy unconscious.
Back in Sunnydale, Xander, Willow, and Oz try to dust the vampire again,
this time with Cordelia as bait. While everyone assumes their hiding
positions, Xander and Cordelia argue over what they did or didn't do during
the summer. Their fight is interrupted by a scream, for the vamp has snuck
up behind Willow and attacked her first. Oz runs in to the rescue, but the
vamp quickly knocks him to the ground. Xander tries to drive his stake into
the vampire's chest, but they get their arms locked up, preventing Xander
from thrusting the stake any further. Cordelia charges the vampire from
behind, and all three of them fall to the ground. The vampire lands into the
stake, and immediately explodes into dust. This causes Cordelia to fall into
Xander's
arms. They finally give in to their desires and kiss right then and there.
Buffy regains consciousness inside a prison cell. Lily, who's sitting inside
the same cell, believes they're in Hell. Buffy denies this, but that becomes
irrelevant as Ken explains their situation. Apparently, they are in some
alternate dimension outside of Earth, and time passes differently here.
According to Ken, one day on Earth equals one hundred years in this
dimension. Buffy puts the pieces together and realizes that the disoriented
old people she saw on the street must have been former slaves in this
dimension, including Rickie. Buffy, Lily, and several other runaways are
then led into a room. A demon guard tells them that they no longer have any
individual identities. He then asks a boy to identify himself. When the boy
responds with his own name, the guard beats him with a club. Lily's next,
and her answer is "no one". A few more slaves respond in the same manner.
The guard then asks Buffy. Instead of giving the expected answer, Buffy
finally comes to terms with who she is and responds with her true identity,
that of the Slayer. With that, Buffy proceeds to fight and subdue the guards
in the room. After telling Lily to lead the others to the exit, Buffy runs
out into the middle of the factory and battles an endless number of demon
guards. One after the other, Buffy defeats them, until Ken grabs Lily and
threatens to slice her throat with a knife for Buffy's disobedience.
Surprisingly, Lily pushes Ken off the balcony while his back is turned,
enabling Buffy to fight off the guards holding her and climb to safety. At
the exit, they encounter a heavy gate which Buffy uses all of her strength
to lift. Just as she's about to escape herself, Ken tackles her. As he does
so, Buffy is knocked towards the outside of the gate, which comes crashing
down on Ken's legs. Buffy then takes Ken's club and smashes it onto his
skull. After Buffy, Lily, and the other runaways climb through the black
pool, it seals itself.
Deciding it's time to go back home, Buffy gives her apartment and her job to
Lily. Buffy is confident that Lily can take care of herself from now on.
Before Buffy leaves, Lily asks her if she can use Buffy's middle name, Anne,
as her own. Buffy agrees and leaves. Back in Sunnydale, Buffy knocks on the
door to her home. After Joyce opens it, they stand there, completely
speechless. Finally, they embrace. For Giles and the rest of the Sunnydale,
the Slayer has returned. For Joyce Summers, someone more important is
finally home: her only daughter
