Bargaining (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"Bargaining"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
Buffy climbs out of her grave after Willow's resurrection spell is successful
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 1 & 2
Directed by	David Grossman
Written by	Marti Noxon (Part 1) David Fury (Part 2)
Production code	6ABB01 & 6ABB02
Original air date	October 2, 2001
Guest actors
Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles Amber Benson as Tara Maclay Franc Ross as Razor Geoff Meed as Mag Mike Grief as Klyed Paul Greenberg as Shempy Vamp Joy DeMichelle Moore as Ms. Lefcourt Bru Muller as Mr. Davis Robert Vito as Cute Boy Harry Johnson as Parent #1 Kelly Lynn Warren as Parent #2 Hila Levy as Pretty Girl Richard Wharton as Homeowner
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Gift" Next → "After Life"
List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

"Bargaining" is the two-part season premiere of the sixth season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, consisting of the first and second episodes. They are also the 101st and 102nd episodes of the show overall. The two constituent episodes were both aired on October 2, 2001 on UPN. The episodes were written by Marti Noxon and David Fury and directed by David Grossman.

The Scooby Gang resurrect Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), after her death in the previous episode. Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) returns to England, and a group of biker demons wreak havoc on Sunnydale.

Plot

Part 1

With Buffy having been dead for five months, the Scooby Gang continue to patrol, led by Willow, whose power is progressing steadily. They use the often-imperfect Buffybot to conceal Buffy's death from any lurking enemies. Meanwhile, at the magic shop, Giles is packing up his items in preparation for his return to England.

Willow announces plans to resurrect Buffy by magic, having found the last mystical artifact she needs on eBay. She conceals her intentions, however, from Giles, Spike and Dawn. A vampire survives his encounter with the Buffybot and realizes the real Slayer is gone. He tells a demon biker gang, which sets out to attack Sunnydale. Willow slaughters a baby deer in preparation for her ritual of resurrection. Giles leaves for England.

Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara gather at Buffy's grave and Willow begins the ritual. As it progresses, the demon bikers wreak havoc in the town and damage the Buffybot when it intervenes. They trail the Buffybot as it tries to find Willow, interrupting the ritual at its conclusion. After the group scatters the bikers and leaves, convinced the ritual has failed, Buffy awakens, still buried in her coffin.

Part 2

Xander carries Willow to the magic shop where Tara and Anya are to meet them. The demon bikers batter the Buffybot. The resurrected Buffy breaks out of her coffin and claws her way to the surface. Spike steals a motorcycle from a demon and rides off with Dawn, intent on escaping the demons still rampaging through Sunnydale.

The disoriented Buffy roams through the town, coming upon demon bikers as they complete the destruction of the Buffybot. As she flees them, she stumbles across Willow and her allies, but runs from them as well. As they pursue her, they are attacked by the demons, but Buffy turns and defeats them. Spike and Dawn find the head of the destroyed Buffybot. As Spike tries to reassemble it, the head suggests to Dawn the real Buffy has returned; distraught, she runs away.

Still not returned to rationality, Buffy returns alone to the site of her death, Glory's tower. Dawn finds her there, and climbs the unstable structure in pursuit. Buffy prepares to restage her death, but Dawn interrupts. Undissuaded, Buffy asks if she's in hell. As the tower collapses, Buffy's instinct to protect Dawn takes control, and she carries her sister down a rope to the ground.

Production details

• This episode was the first time Anthony Head is credited as a "Special Guest Star". He had been a series regular for the previous five seasons, but now his character has left for England. He would return later in the season and for much of the next. Alyson Hannigan is now credited as "And Alyson Hannigan as Willow".
• Buffy Summers doesn't appear in Bargaining Part One depending on how the episode was split. Buffy doesn't appear until 46 minutes in, which would be considered as Part Two as each individual episode is around 42 minutes long. On Netflix, this was resolved by having Part One end with Buffy's first appearance and omitting the opening credits from Part Two.
• The front of Long Beach International Airport was used for the establishing shot for "Sunnydale Airport", from which Giles departed.
• The show had run on the WB for the previous five seasons. UPN showed a series of promos prior to airing the show. UPN aired Buffy until it ended two seasons later.

Trivia

• In this episode Giles is given a small monster by Tara. Tara, before giving it to Giles, says "Grr. Argh," a reference to the Mutant Enemy Productions logo.

• Anya hands Giles a parting gift, an apple pie, "We brought some lovely parting gifts. It's American. Get it? Apple pie." It's a reference to Alyson Hannigan's movie, American Pie 2 that came out on August 6, 2001, two months before the airing of this episode.

Reception

• The 2-hour season premiere of "Bargaining, Parts One and Two" on UPN attracted 7.7 million viewers,^[1] the 2nd highest viewership the show has ever received, only behind Season 2's "Innocence".

Continuity

Errors

• After Buffy is resurrected she is seen wearing 3 kinds of shoes: strappy heels when she is walking in town, chunky heels when she is on the tower and sneakers when she is jumping the fence.

• In the last three minutes of the episode (bargaining part 2) when Dawn and Buffy are on the tower; Buffy looks down after the tower shakes, Dawn stumbles and a man in a red sweat shirt, blue jeans, with his hood pulled up is casually walking across the concrete in the upper left hand corner of the scene.

Arc significance

• The episode sees the Scooby Gang performing a spell to raise Buffy from the dead, a decision which will have consequences for Buffy and her friends throughout Season Six, and which eventually allows the First Evil to exploit the vulnerability in the Slayer line in Season Seven.
• Willow's increasing power is also shown in this episode, as she is able to endure the tests required to bring Buffy back. Willow's secrecy and attitudes towards magic also play a major part of Season Six, particularly in the episodes "Smashed", "Wrecked", "Villains", "Two to Go", and "Grave".
• According to Willow in part 1, some of the Scoobies believe that Buffy's soul was trapped in a hell-dimension because she died within Glory's mystic portal. At the end of Season Two, Buffy killed Angel while he stood within Acathla's similar portal and Angel's soul did indeed go to a hell dimension, so their belief, although in error, is understandable.
• When Buffy was brought back to life, it is like she feared it would be in the first-season episode "Nightmares", when she is buried alive.
• The episode shows Buffy's uncertainty and confused feelings about being back from the dead. She asks Dawn, "Is this hell?", which is a view that the Slayer will express throughout the season as she tries to adjust to normal life.
• The Buffybot, which first appeared in Season Five, is destroyed in this episode, and does not make any further appearances on the show, until its comic book continuation Season Nine.
• There are also some hints about the different attitudes that Willow and Tara have towards magic, with Tara fearing that the Scoobies were wrong to meddle with the laws of nature, while Willow seems sure that they were doing the right thing.
• The second part of the episode is also the first in the series without Anthony Head as Giles.
• Tara makes her first kill in this episode when she axes Razor in the back as he tries to strangle Willow.
• The episode shows Spike stealing a motorcycle from one of the biker demons, which he will keep and use all the way up through Season Seven.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bargaining, Part One

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bargaining, Part Two