Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S5/E19 Tough Love

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Glory discovers the identity of the Key.

Xander: Whatever you choose, you've got my support. Just think of me as ... (nervous laugh) as your ... (frowns; Buffy looks curiously at him) You know, I'm searching for supportive things, and I'm comin' up all bras...

Buffy: Me, the grown-up. The authority figure. The strong guiding hand and the stompy foot that is me.

Willow: (very upset) Over? How can it be over? I just found her!
Giles: The quarrel is over.
Willow: (quieter) Oh. Yeah.

Glory: Know what they used to do to witches? (brings up her other hand with a dagger) Crucify 'em.
Buffy: (grabbing Glory's wrist) They used to bow down to gods. (punches her) Things change.

Buffy: What about all those times I asked you how school was, and you said fine?
Dawn: Well, it was. You didn’t ask me if I was in it when it was fine.

Spike: Hey, chin up, Platelet. Don’t get scared. Maybe Glory doesn’t want to kill you. Maybe it’s something--

Dawn: Worse?

Glory: What's this, bag of tricks?
Willow: Bag of knives. (a dozen daggers lift out of the bag and fly at Glory)

Oh, this is nice. Just hanging out, just us girls. You like that sort of thing, don't you?

Tara: Oh, but you're way beyond me there! In just a few-- I mean ... it frightens me how powerful you're getting.
Willow: (frowns) That's a weird word.
Tara: (nervous smile) "Getting"?
Willow: It frightens you? I frighten you?
Willow: Well, I took Psych 101. I mean, I took it from an evil government scientist who was skewered by her Frankenstein-like creation before the final, but I know what a Freudian slip is.

Tara: I trust you. I just ... (looks down) I don't know where I'm gonna fit in ... in your life when...
Willow: When ... I change back? Yeah, this is a college thing, just a, a little experimentation before I get over the thrill and head back to boys' town. (pause) You think that?

Tara: Should I?

Willow: I'm really sorry that I didn't establish my lesbo street cred before I got into this relationship. You're the only woman I've ever fallen in love with, so ... how on Earth could you ever take me seriously?

Willow: I have to look after her [Tara]. She's my girl.
Buffy: (stroking Dawn's hair) I know what you mean.

  • Incredibly Lame Pun: The Scoobies explaining triangles to Dawn. Buffy is not in the mood to see the joke.

Willow: So we made a triangle with our bodies, and that's when I called Xander "obtuse", and he got really grumpy and then Dawn said we were "acute" triangle, and, well, hilarity ensued.

  • Intertwined Fingers: Brutally subverted -- Tara has had a fight with Willow and is sitting alone on her bench when a women entwines fingers with hers. Tara turns with a big smile...only to find herself facing Glory, who proceeds to torture her for information by crushing Tara's fingers until they bleed.
  • Is That the Best You Can Do?: Glory to Willow.
  • It's All My Fault: Dawn over how Tara and Spike have been injured protecting her.
  • Money Fetish: Anya complains about customers 'undressing the merchandise with their eyeballs' without paying for it.

Tara: Do ... I act like ... the Big Knowledge Woman?

Willow: (weakly) No.

Tara: Is that no spelled Y-E-S?

Willow: S-O-R-T of.

Ben: There's an explanation for this. Which I can't exactly give you. I... Can I just tell you it's not my fault?
Doctor: Sure. You can also tell me that the dog ate your homework, or maybe eating Twinkies made you do it, or ... maybe yeah, that there's really a wicked demonic creature living inside you that takes control of your body and forces you to do its bidding. Take responsibility for your actions, Ben!

Glory: I'm hungry.

  • Tempting Fate: Buffy says she'll go back to college next year when she's more herself again. In Season 6 she suffers a year-long Heroic BSOD and her brief attempt to go back to college is a complete failure.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Tara is being held at the psych ward overnight for observation.

Willow: It's a whole night. I don't think I can sleep without her.
Anya: You can sleep with me! (everyone looks at her) Well, now that came out a lot more lesbian than it sounded in my head.

Think about it. You think your hand hurts? Imagine what you'd feel with my fingers wiggling in your brain. (Tara looks very scared) It doesn't kill you. What it does ... is make you feel like you're in a noisy little dark room ... (Glory frowns and fidgets uncomfortably) naked and ashamed ... and there are things in the dark that need to hurt you because you're bad ... little pinching things that go in your ears ... (Tara begins to cry) and crawl on the inside of your skull. And you know ... that if the noise and the crawling would stop ... that you could remember how to get out. But you never, ever will.

Glory: You know what they used to do to witches, lover? Crucify'em.
Buffy: They used to bow down to gods. Things change.

  • We Will Meet Again: After Willow slows Glory down long enough for her and Buffy to escape.

Glory: This isn't over, you hear me? IT ISN'T OVER!