No Place Like Home (Buffy episode)
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| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
|---|---|
| “No Place Like Home” | |
 |
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| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 5 |
| Guest star(s) | Clare Kramer ("The Beast"/Glory) Charlie Weber (Ben) Ravil Isyanov (Monk) Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers) |
| Writer(s) | Douglas Petrie |
| Director | David Solomon |
| Production no. | 5ABB05 |
| Original airdate | October 24th 2000 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Out of My Mind" | "Family" |
"No Place Like Home" is the fifth episode of season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Joyce becomes seriously ill; Buffy discovers more about her sister.
[edit] Expanded overview
Months ago, several monks rushed to perform a ritual while a powerful force of some sort threatened their lives. In the present, Buffy stakes a vampire outside an abandoned building, and then gets caught by the night watchman who thinks she's a teen looking for a rave. Buffy makes breakfast for her mom, who is still suffering from headaches that the doctors can't explain. Giles's big opening is less than successful at first, but eventually, the magic shop gets to be so popular, that he can't handle it all on his own.
Buffy presents an orb to Giles that she found while patrolling the night before, but Giles can't explain it right away. While picking up a prescription for her mother, Buffy encounters the night watchman again as he's being strapped down to a gurney. He's less than stable, but he manages to warn Buffy that she will be attacked through her family. A monk works on a blue print in an empty building before The Beast smashes through a large steel door, revealing itself to be a supernatural blond female.
The Beast tries to torture information about the Key out of the monk, but he won't tell her anything. She starts to speak crazily until she puts her fingers to the head of a security guard and seems to suck the lifeforce from him. Buffy assumes that the danger she was warned about is what is causing her mother's headaches. Anya recommends to Buffy that she perform a spell to see any spells that may be affecting her family. Buffy doesn't want Riley to feel unwanted, so she offers to let him help her with the spell. He realizes what she's doing, then they talk and agree to take care of each other.
Buffy performs the ritual in her bedroom then walks around her house to look for anything unusual. Nothing appears weird about her mother, but Buffy sees Dawn's image flashing in and out of pictures around the house. When she enters Dawn's room, Buffy sees Dawn's possessions, bed, desk, and decorations also fading in and out. Buffy confronts Dawn about it, and she concludes that Dawn isn't her sister. Buffy threatens Dawn, telling her to stay away from their mother, but Buffy's supposed little sister appears truly confused and doesn't understand Buffy's sudden change in attitude.
Giles calls to tell Buffy about the orb, Dagon Sphere, and its purpose of protection from an unnamed evil. Buffy returns to the abandoned building in hopes of finding more information. Buffy encounters Spike lurking outside her home and demands to know what he was doing there. He begins to answer and she demands that he give his response in five words or less. He pauses and, counting four fingers, says "Out, for, a, walk", and then sticks up his thumb and says "bitch". She is unsatisfied with his explanation, and he responds: "Contrary to one self-involved world view, your house is directly between... parts and other... parts of this town." She agrees to let him off with a warning, and he becomes frustrated, saying that she needs some satisfaction in her life besides what she gets from "Captain Cardboard", and that he (Spike) has never liked her anyway, and that she "has stupid hair." Shaking her head, she proceeds to return to the warehouse as Dawn watches the whole exchange from the window.
Buffy comes up against the Beast and finds herself unable to effectively counter the Beast's incredible strength. After taking quite a beating, Buffy is able to escape with the monk. The Beast throws a tantrum, causing the room to collapse on her, which delays her pursuit. Back at the Magic Shop, Giles offers Anya a job when he realizes that the job is too much for just one, and that she enjoys handling the money.
In his last moments of life, the monk warns Buffy that she must protect the key. He tells her that the key is a collection of energy put into a human form, Dawn's form. They sent her to Slayer to be protected from those looking for it. Before he dies, he tells her that her memories of Dawn were constructed, and that Dawn is now an innocent human who not only needs the protection of the Slayer and the love of a sister. When Buffy returns home, she apologizes to Dawn, and the two girls are able to relate on at least one subject-their concern for their mother.
[edit] Writing and acting
[edit] Production details
[edit] Quotes and trivia
- The Original run of 'No Place Like Home" attracted 6.4 million viewers, the highest rated episode of the season.
In a scene where Giles, Xander, and Willow are sitting at a table exhuasted after closing first "busy" day of the Magic Box, Anya is talking about the merchandise, She mentions "The hand of Glory packs some power, you might want to consider raising the price" in reference to a sale item. Around the same time she says this, Buffy and Glory are fighting.
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Arc significance
This episode begins the main story arc of the season, revealing the truth about Dawn and introducing Glory.
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: Fall 2000 - December 2000 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.01 Buffy vs. Dracula |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.01 Judgment |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: Haunted (by Jane Espenson) |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.02 Real Me |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.02 Are You Now or Have You Ever Been |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel book: Image |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel book: Stranger to the Sun |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.03 The Replacement |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: False Memories |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy Graphic novel story: Willow & Tara: Wannablessedbe |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.03 First Impressions |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel graphic novel: Long Night's Journey |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.04 Out of My Mind |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.04 Untouched |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.05 No Place Like Home |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.05 Dear Boy |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.06 Family |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | Buffy graphic novel: Autumnal |
| L.A., 2000 | Angel graphic novel: Autumnal |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.06 Guise Will Be Guise |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.07 Fool for Love |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.07 Darla |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.08 Shadow |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.08 The Shroud of Rahmon |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.09 Listening to Fear |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.09 The Trial |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.10 Into the Woods |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.10 Reunion |
| Sunnydale, 2000 | B5.11 Triangle |
| L.A., 2000 | A2.11 Redefinition |
