Two to Go

"Two to Go" is the twenty-first episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 121st episode in the series. Written by Douglas Petrie and directed by Bill L. Norton, it was originally broadcast on May 21, 2002, on the UPN network.

Synopsis[]

In the first of a two-part sixth-season finale, Buffy, Anya and Xander race to the Sunnydale police station to try to save Jonathan and Andrew from a sorceress... Willow! Dawn persuades Clem to take her to Rack; Spike's stamina and courage are put to the test by a mysterious demon.^[1]

Summary[]

In the minutes after Willow's flaying of Warren, Buffy, Xander, and Anya run through the woods. As Xander fights the urge to be sick after what he saw, Buffy deduces that Willow's last words ("one down") mean she's going after Jonathan and Andrew, who are still in jail. Confused, Xander asks why Willow would now try to kill Jonathan and Andrew since they had nothing to do with killing Tara, but Buffy says Willow has an addictive personality and, once she starts something, she won't stop. Anya then mentions that Willow will take some time to get to the jail, even at her magic level. Using her demon powers, Anya teleports herself to get there first to save the boys.

Buffy and Xander then talk about Willow, with Buffy saying that, now that Willow has killed someone, things change. Xander, however, tries to justify Willow's actions by reminding Buffy that Warren was a cold-blooded serial killer of women just getting started, and he finally got what he deserved. Despite this, Buffy doesn't believe Warren deserved to die for killing Tara, but she and Xander agree that Jonathan and Andrew don't deserve the same fate. They find Xander's car destroyed, courtesy of Willow, and Buffy runs ahead by herself, leaving Xander behind to complain.

In jail, Andrew is still convinced Warren is coming to save them, but Jonathan has a more realistic view and the two argue. Anya appears in the cell and updates the guys on the recent events. Anya calls the guard and tries to convince him that he needs to let the guys out because something terrible is coming for them.

Willow arrives outside the police station, puts an officer down with a sleep spell, and uses magic to tear apart the brick wall that keeps her from Andrew and Jonathan's cell. Officers try to stop Willow, but she keeps them all at bay. Anya, who can only teleport herself, can't get the guys out of the cell as the wall breaks apart. Meanwhile, Buffy arrives on the scene and sneaks into the building. Willow floats up to the opening in the wall, but she finds the cell empty and the bars bent apart. Anya tries to talk to Willow, but Willow knocks her out with a bolt of energy and lets out a powerful scream.

Xander steals a police car and gives Buffy, Andrew, and Jonathan an escape. Buffy and Xander discuss their plans and question why Willow isn't after them. At that moment, a large semi-truck approaches from behind with Willow on top, controlling the vehicle. Willow eventually runs out of power, and the driver stops the truck while Xander and the others escape. Meanwhile, Clem tries to entertain Dawn, but she is focused more on the fact that she is cooped up in the crypt with him and wants to be helping her sister and friends.

In the cave in Africa, Spike reviews the trial rules with the demon, and a large man with flaming fists approaches and starts to attack Spike.

In Sunnydale, Dawn has Clem lead the way to Rack's moving place, despite his strong misgivings, where Dawn hopes to find Willow. Meanwhile, Anya helps the others into the magic shop and goes to one of the few books Willow didn't drain, an untranslated book of protection spells. Jonathan tries to help, but Buffy isn't interested and he only manages to let them know that Willow will need a recharge soon; Buffy agrees and makes sure that Jonathan knows that they are only protecting them for Willow's sake. Buffy and Xander talk about keeping Willow from killing Andrew or Jonathan and what is going to happen when they do find her.

Willow visits Rack and the two chat. "Tell me, Strawberry," he whispers, "what on this Earth do you want?" Willow quotes Rack back to himself: "Just to take a little tour." She sucks the power, as well as the life, out of the pusher. Minutes later, Clem finally gets Dawn to Rack's place, and Dawn goes in, but she finds Rack's body and a much more powerful Willow waiting for her.

Dawn is frightened by the new Willow, looking paler with black veins running across her face. Dawn asks Willow if she killed Rack, and Willow replies that the killing was an improvement over Warren. Dawn starts to run, but Willow won't let her leave. Dawn attempts to reason with Willow, but Willow, cornering Dawn, offers to turn her back into a ball of energy and end her human existence to end her "constant whining." Buffy shows up and demands Willow stay away from Dawn.

In the Magic Box, Jonathan continues to offer help to Xander and Anya as they struggle to translate the book, but Xander suggests he get back to sitting down unless he can do the translating for them. Andrew wonders why Jonathan is helping their supposed enemies and comes up with a plan to escape before Willow can get to them. Nearby, Anya and Xander bicker; she says she can't exact vengeance on him, and he says she already hurt him by having sex with Spike. Anya explains it wasn't vengeance but solace, and she has to settle on only hating him and the situation was all his fault. Xander expresses his guilt because he saw Warren's gun before Warren shot Buffy and Tara, but he froze and was unable to do anything. Xander says he already knows he is useless, but Anya says she was talking about their relationship instead.

In Rack's room, Buffy tries to reason with Willow and get Dawn out safely, but Willow tells Buffy that she got tired of being the old Willow because the only good part of that involved Tara. When Buffy brings up trying to think about positive things, Willow criticizes Buffy's hypocrisy, citing all of Buffy's self-destructive habits and depression since her resurrection. As she talks, Willow transports the three of them into the Magic Box, where Buffy and Dawn collapse to the floor, weakened by the teleportation. Willow turns her magic on Andrew and Jonathan, hurling bolts of lethal magic at them. However, a protection barrier stops Willow from hurting Jonathan and Andrew because Anya, hiding around a corner, continuously chants an anti-magic protection spell.

In Africa, a burned and bloodied Spike finally defeats his challenger by breaking the man's neck. However, Spike quickly discovers that was only the first of many tests he must pass.

In the Magic Box, Buffy recovers and tries to talk with Willow to stop her from hurting Andrew or Jonathan. Willow is relentless and, since she can't cast a spell on Andrew and Jonathan, instead casts a spell on herself to make herself supernaturally strong intending to beat them both to death. Buffy steps up to physically stop Willow, but she's carelessly tossed aside. Buffy recovers quickly and returns the favor by punching Willow. Xander, uncertain if Buffy can stop Willow, takes the opportunity to get Dawn, Andrew, and Jonathan out of the shop; Anya remains behind to continue chanting the protection spell. Willow attempts to follow but Buffy stands in her way and refuses to let her leave. They then begin to fight, wrecking the Magic Box.

Xander leads the others through Sunnydale trying to find somewhere to hide until Willow can be stopped. Andrew decides he doesn't want to stay in Sunnydale but wants to escape to Mexico. When Xander objects, Andrew rebels and pulls a sword on Xander, but Jonathan pulls a sword on Andrew himself and forces him to back off, declaring that they are staying in Sunnydale and going back to jail to do their time when the dust settles.

Buffy and Willow's fight continues until Willow finds Anya hiding and, realizing what she was doing, promptly knocks her unconscious before tossing Buffy aside. Standing over her two bruised and unconscious former friends, Willow boasts in a confident tone that no one can stop her now. Suddenly, a bright green light sends Willow flying across the shop as Giles appears in the doorway, willing to test her unstoppable power.

Continuity[]

• Anya refers to Andrew as "what's-his-face, the other guy." This is part of the running joke of the Scooby Gang being unable to recall Andrew's name, also present in "Gone," "Never Leave Me," "Seeing Red," "Grave," Turbulence, and Own It, Part Five.
• Dawn searches for Rack's residence based on the time Willow took her there, in episode "Wrecked."
• Anya rebuffs Xander at the Magic Box, cutting him short when he's about to make plans if things get "really bad," wondering if he will "propose." This is a reference to "The Gift," where Xander proposes to Anya while the apocalypse is underway.
• Anya and Xander discuss her night with Spike, in episode "Entropy."
• Willow refers back to the events of "Normal Again" when she says that Buffy considered a psych ward to be a preferable alternative to being the Slayer.
• Buffy states that killing someone changes you, followed by "Believe me, I know." She has twice thought she had killed a person: the robotic Ted in episode "Ted" and, more recently, when she was framed for the death of Katrina in "Dead Things." This also reflects her experience with Faith when the Slayer went rogue after accidentally killing Allan Finch in "Bad Girls."
• Andrew retells his encounter with Dark Willow in episode "Storyteller," with the events altered in his favor. He describes it to his camera again in Retreat, Part Three.
• Buffy's warning to Willow about not wanting to hurt her, only to be attacked in response and then attacking back, claiming she didn't want to, but is still willing, is similar to the fight between Spike and Drusilla in "Becoming, Part Two."
• When Clem is performing a taste test on chips, Dawn replies that "as taste tests go, this is definitely one of the better ones I've been to," possibly referring to her culinary experiment in "Flooded" where she asks Giles, "You ever try mixing parts of every cereal you got in one bowl?" She also experimented with peanut butter and banana quesadillas one time, commenting "remind me never to invent that again," in the episode "Wrecked."
• Rack says that Willow still tastes like strawberries, which he first told her in "Wrecked."
• Just before Willow drains Rack, she repeats his phrase: "Just to take a little tour," from the episode "Wrecked."
• Rack will be revealed to have survived being drained by Willow, albeit powerless (Wonderland, Part Four).
• The sword Jonathan takes is the Knights of Byzantium sword Buffy took to the Magic Box in "Checkpoint."
• Giles' line "I'd like to test that theory" is repeated by Willow in The Long Way Home, Part Two.

Appearances[]

Individuals[]

• Clement
• Rupert Giles
• Alexander Harris
• Anya Jenkins
• Kagan
• Jonathan Levinson
• Lloyd
• "Local Boy"
• Tara Maclay (Only mentioned)
• Warren Mears (Only mentioned)
• Rack
• Willow Rosenberg
• Santa Claus (Only mentioned)
• Spike
• Buffy Summers
• Dawn Summers
• Joyce Summers (Only mentioned)
• Andrew Wells

Organizations and titles[]

• Key
• Scooby Gang
• Slayer
• Sunnydale Police Department
• Trio (Only mentioned)
• Witch
• Watcher
• Warlock

Species[]

• Demon
  • Loose-skinned demon
  • Vengeance demon
• Human
• Vampire

Events[]

• Demon Trials

Locations[]

• Africa
• Mexico (Only mentioned)
• Sunnydale
  • Maple Court
    • 5121 Maple Court
    • Decker Hardware
    • Hank's Jr. Liquor Mart
    • Magic Box
  • Rack's residence
  • Restfield Cemetery
    • Hawley mausoleum
  • Short's Drugs

Objects[]

• Jet pack (Only mentioned)
• Knights of Byzantium sword
• Symbol of Anyanka
• Vengeance demon pendant
• Xandermobile

Rituals and spells[]

• Anti-magic protection spell
• "Da mihi vim"
• Death spell

Death count[]

• "Local Boy," killed by Spike.

Behind the scenes[]

Production[]

• The title of the episode is a reference to the previous one, which ends with Willow saying "one down" after killing Warren. It is also a double entendre as to there being two episodes left in the season (this one and "Grave").
• Nicholas Brendon does the opening narration "This is what happened this year," which precedes a longer-than-usual recap of all the major events of season six.
• Giles' reappearance was described in the script as "leather jacket, no glasses, pure RIPPER."^[2]
• Anthony Stewart Head is not credited in the opening guest cast list to surprise viewers with his return.

Broadcast[]

• This episode, and its second part, "Grave," were shown back-to-back as a two-hour feature on its original airing in both the USA and UK — consequently, the presentation of this episode on DVD includes credits such as "'Grave' Written by."
• "Two to Go"/"Grave" had an audience of 3.3 million households upon its original airing.^[3]

Deleted scenes[]

• This line was cut due to length:^[2]

  Clem: "We don't have a plan. Don't we at least need a plan?"

  Dawn: "Buffy and her friends never have a plan. They just sort of... jump in and don't know what they're doing."

  Clem: "And this works?"

  Dawn: (shrugs) "They never really let me come along. Guess we'll find out..." (off his look) "It's okay. I mean they usually come back in one piece."

Pop culture references[]

• Andrew comments that Willow is "like Dark Phoenix up there!" referencing the character and related storyline from the X-Men comics in 1980.
• Andrew tells Jonathan: "Laugh it up, Fuzzball," a quote from Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
• Before fighting, Spike says that the the conflict is gladiatorial and then says "Here we are now, entertain us." The line is taken from Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991), and is also a reference to the film Gladiator, in which the main character shouts to the crowd: "Are you not entertained?"
• Xander tells Jonathan "I think Willow's in a league of her own now," a reference to the film A League of Their Own (1992).
• Andrew calls Willow "Darth Rosenberg," a reference to Darth Vader from the Star Wars franchise.
• Andrew asks "We're just supposed to sit around waiting for Sabrina to show up and disembowel us?" a reference to the fictional witch Sabrina Spellman.

Music[]

• Thomas Wanker — original score

International titles[]

• Armenian: "Երկուսով մնածաները" (Two Remain)
• Czech: "Dva zbývají" (Two to Go)
• French: "Toute la peine du monde, partie 1" (All of the World's Sorrow, Part 1)
• Finnish: "Kivun kääntöpiiri, osa yksi"
• German: "Da waren's nur noch zwei" (Then There Were [Only] Two)
• Hungarian: "Kettőre megy" (Two to Go)
• Italian: "Due da Eliminare" (Two to Eliminate)
• Japanese: "次なる標的" (Next Target)
• Polish: "Na celowniku" (On the Viewfinder)
• Portuguese (Brazil): "Um já Foi, só Faltam Dois" (One Is Already Gone, Only Two Remain)
• Romanian: "Două la pachet" (Two Packets)
• Russian: "Оставшиеся двое" (The Remaining Two)
• Spanish (Latin America): "Dos para Llevar" (Two to Take Away)
• Spanish (Spain): "Dos para la Tumba (1ª Parte)" (Two for the Grave (1st Part))

Gallery[]

Quotes[]

References[]