AllMovie

Conducting some supernatural detective work, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Anya (Emma Caulfield) learn that Buffy's resurrection (see "Bargaining, Part 1") caused a vulnerability in the slayer line, which is presumably the impetus for The First's campaign to kill all the potential slayers in the world. As the surviving potentials continue to stream into town, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) does everything she can to get them to safety before The First's Bringers can take them out. Rona (Indigo), one such potential, gets a dramatic rescue at the Sunnydale bus depot and joins the assembled slayerettes at the house. Eve (Amanda Fuller), another potential, fills the other girls' heads with horror stories about what's in store for them at the hands of The First. Meanwhile, Buffy finds Eve's body in a motel outside town -- evidence that The First has infiltrated the ranks in the guise of yet another dead person. Once it's found out, the fiend taunts the assembled potentials, then winks out in a flash of light. Soon, the Turok-Han (Camden Toy) and a bunch of Bringers attack the house. Fresh out of ideas, Buffy asks Willow (Alyson Hannigan) to cast a protection spell, then assumes the role of decoy so Xander (Nicholas Brendon) can bring everyone to his construction site to hide. The übervamp cottons onto Buffy's con and turns up at the site ready to wreak havoc. But the Slayer achieves a stunning defeat and finally fells the creature that's been terrorizing her army. As it turns out, her earlier helplessness was a ruse cooked up telepathically by Buffy, Xander and Willow to set the stage for the Turok-Han's destruction. A triumphant Buffy gives the potentials a motivational speech and then rescues poor Spike (James Marsters) from the underground lair where The First has been torturing him. Originally broadcast January 7, 2003, on UPN, "Showtime" marked episode 133 of the cult-favorite series.