Issue #2 begins with Giles' voiceover as he watches and critiques a group of slayers sparring. There's a large group of women there. Not sure where it is. There's a big cathedral looking thing in the background. Do we hear where Giles is before he finds Faith? Will watch for that.
He's reflecting on how there used to be one slayer and hundreds of watchers, and now that's all changed. The world is different. He scolds the slayers for fighting well but alone, telling them they're not working together, not using their most valuable asset...
Cut to Buffy, talking to her Scotland-based slayers and finishing his thought: ...each other. She asks the three slayers who jumped out of the helicopter with her at the start of the season to attack her now. They are Satsu, who we will get to know better later, Rowena, a German-accented blonde, and Leah, a redhead whose name we didn't hear last time. Buffy cleans their clocks because they don't fight as a team. This theme introduced by Giles and Buffy is important to later developments as some of the slayers do start to fracture off and doing their own thing rather than work together outside of battle as well. And by the end, they're all over the place in small groups or alone.
One more "training" scene relates to that as well. Andrew is having a campfire outing with about 32 women and regaling them with his theories as to why Return of the Jedi sucked. And it's not about the Ewoks. He is interrupted by the punker slayer we later learn is named Simone. She's wanting to know why they don't use modern weapons instead of medieval stuff. Andrew's answer is unhelpful and possibly the final impetus to her and her allies to leave Buffy's camp and go out on their own, stealing weapons and villages and running things her way. He tells her, "No slayer carries a gun. Ever, end of story." And I'm sure she sees this a proof that Buffy is out of touch and not worthy of following.
Next we visit with Dawn, who's having a bath in the lake while Xander, looking the other way, talks with her. She's bitching about Buffy not wanting her there, Buffy's got her own slayer sisters and doesn't need Dawn, blah blah same-cakes. I like Dawn, but it's sad to see her still stuck on this riff, when it seemed she had come to terms with things in season 7. But she has had a rough time of it and was alone in college with no family there to help her through things. Xander suggests that maybe the giant thing is a cry for attention and gets splashed by half the lake.
Cut to Drextalcorp Recycling Technologies, a front for General Voll's operation. He and sweaty suit guy enter and go down an elevator into a huge armory, then make their way to the general's quarters. They're talking about how their op has been inserted, which we'll soon see means that Amy's gotten to Buffy. The general is a Twilight true believer who wants to just nuke Buffy's base, but suit guy doesn't want to be indicted and hung, so suggests they not do that. So I guess that means they aren't official military regulars, but another off-the-books black ops group. Or just military members recruited over to Twilight. I don't know if we ever find out.
They decide to use magic to fight magic for now, and the general goes into his quarters thinking about how the suit doesn't get the stakes. That's when we see his Twilight symbol. So is the suit Twilight or just doing his job? Probably doesn't matter, but I want to look at everything happening, even if the military stuff is Initiative-level boring so far. They also tease Amy's monstrosity of a boyfriend again, who we haven't seen yet but I think is revealed next issue.
We enter into a dream sequence that starts off as what seems to be a replay of a conversation Xander and Buffy actually had offpage. That's my take anyway. It looks real to us but will be seen to be a dream soon. He's telling her his giant Dawn theory and thinking that Kenny, the thricewise, cursed Dawn but her own issues could be shaping the curse. Buffy then asks Xander if he's coming to bed. I remember reading that the first time and going WHA?! Then wondering if it was Xander's dream. She says she won't be so rough this time but then kisses him and pops his head clean off. Definitely a dream then. What's awesome is she then swears like Spike, "Oh, balls."
Xander's head is tasting Scottish lint on the floor when the window blows out and Buffy says she can't go outside because she's afraid of the dark. Xander: "Buffy, you are the dark." Buffy: "That's what I meant." Makes me think of "how do you like my darkness now." But it foreshadows also, because darkness follows twilight.
She is pulled out the window and falls onto the hand of a giant gargoyle-like demon whose claws impale her hands and feet, crucifying her face up over its palm. Buffy says, "I know you" and it says, "Yes. Scream." And spits fire down upon her.
Then we cut to the real world and see Amy poised over Buffy, who is tied hand and foot in that same position on the bed, holding a dagger aimed at her heart, saying how she wants it to hurt. Xander and four slayers burst in to stop her, but she stabs at Buffy before they can shoot her with a crossbow and tackle her. But the dagger is broken and not in Buffy because she has mystical protections on her when she sleeps. Unfortunately, she's still stuck in nightmareland because of Amy's spell, and she can't be awoken without the kiss of true love. Makes the image of the talons through her hands even more evocative, resembling the piercing brambles surrounding Sleeping Beauty's castle.
Quick cutaway to Renee and another slayer on guard on the ramparts. Renee is getting teased about how closely her latest interests seem to mirror Xander's. But then they see an army of zombies climbing the wall.
Amy is bound by their security spells. Xander sends the slayers with him to the walls, telling Renee to get their witches working on unspelling Buffy. This is the first mention that they have witches as well as psychics on their team.
Another shot of the zombie fight transitions into Buffy's dream. She's crumpling under the pain Amy's injected into her dream when a stranger offers her a hand, saying not to give up, and calling her "my love." That was also enigmatic the first time. Seemed like it would be Spike, but that's too easy, right? We'll find out soon enough who it is.
Meantime the battle is not going well for the castle, and Amy is starting to gloat about how all she did while trapped in the Sunnydale crater was practice and get stronger, and how a hundred slayers can't best her, no one can, blah blah gloat-cakes. Then we get a call-back to Giles' terrific entrance at the end of season 6 as Willow finally joins the comic. "I'd like to test that theory."
So we got right into the action in this issue. We're still adding back in characters and seeing where they're at, but the season-long fight between Buffy and Twilight and their factions is revving up, and the differing opinions and positions of the good guys are starting to be hinted at. And soon the casualties will start rolling in.
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