Summer Special 1995

Opening Credits

SP5.1 California Ghouls
Written and directed by Greg Pearson.
The events of this episode take place between Friday, July 14th and Tuesday, July 18th, 1995.
Summer is here, and the living is hot in Solomon, Massachusetts—99 degrees, and nearly 100% humidity.

Tori Clark is expanding her flying lessons and putting in hours toward her instrument certification. She's also looking around the market to buy a plane of her own. In between flying jaunts, she lives with her mom and goes patrolling with Sam.

Joshua is out of town for "special training" and the less known about that, the better for everyone's health.

Erik, Juanita, and Drake are still living in her father's basement, but Mr. Madera is dropping ever more blatant hints that perhaps they should be looking for a place of their own. After all, real estate in Solomon is a buyer's market. Juanita has a job at the Kit & Cauldron, learning as much as possible to someday open her own magic shop. Erik spends his days as a stay-at-home Dad (one reason Mr. Madera is so keen to get them out of his house), drawing comics on spec for Stan Lee's new line of comic books.

Michael is paying back his karma to the Martense dean of faculty by teaching a summer program in basic computer programming. His students are mostly interested in the entertainment aspects of computing, and sometimes Erik and Drew drop by the computer lab for a game of head-to-head Doom or Marathon.

Sam and Drew bought the brew pub and are renovating it into a real home. Tori helps with the decorating and Pandora keeps the wards up to date. They thoroughly cleaned and sold all the brewing equipment in the basement to "John Adams," a small brewery in Boston. That sale paid off their rock-bottom basement mortgage; since the brew pub was an empty, charred shell that had been sitting on the market for nearly four years, the bank was more than happy to unload it on whatever terms it could get. Sam works at her father's shop by day and renovates and patrols by night, although in the summer, there aren't nearly as many vamps around. Drew works as a wage-indentured servant in the Martense physics lab. While he does his best to help with the renovations at home, mostly Sam follows him around, quietly fixing what he just "fixed."

Slayer Club meets at the brew pub to discuss the trip. Michael will check a golf bag containing their swords and crossbows, so the others can take their full complement of luggage. Drew and Sam decide to leave his rapier and her axe safely at home, because they don't want them lost in luggage limbo. Erik asks Juanita with trepidation, but she seems almost pleased that he wants to go out of town for a few days. She'll take care of Drake... but he'll owe her big-time. Drew calls Joshua's mom and leaves a message for him. They're tracking down a dimensional portal. If he can get leave to join them, it would be great. Sam talks to Ada about Sunnydale, the west coast Hellmouth. Solomon is the east coast one, and there's a central one in Cleveland. Sunnydale has been quiet for a long time. About sixty years ago, there was a tremendously powerful vampire who called himself "The Master." He tried to open the Hellmouth, but it backfired and caused an earthquake, swallowing him and his minions deep in the earth. No one has ever heard from his "Order of Aurielius" again, and it's believed they were all killed.

When Joshua asks for the leave and explains why, his commanding officer sends him to Sunnydale with a mission. They want a report on that portal technology and a scouting report on a good location to establish a base nearby. They arrange to have a motorcycle and Joshua's "usual bag of tricks" waiting for him in California, including a couple of extra pistols that Tori and Michael requested. In particular, they'd like him to check out Dr. Maggie Walsh at UC Sunnydale. He arrives on Saturday, meets with Dr. Walsh, and absconds with her personnel file, along with the files of the college's entire faculty and graduate students. Joshua rents out the east wing of the "Motel 8" (it used to be a Motel 6, but the owners didn't want to pay the franchise fee, so they painted another loop on the "6") out on the highway so Slayer Club has a place to stay. He takes Room #13, just because. Saturday night, he scouts the Bronze and realizes that it is a high school hangout. He nurses a beer and avoids the packs of jailbait girls (including Cordelia and Harmony as 14-year-olds) like the plague.

The rest of Slayer Club flies cross country on Sunday. Unfortunately, Tori can't pilot them. It would be too expensive and time consuming to hop, so they fly commercial. Ada uses her slush fund to buy Sam and Drew's tickets, and Tori springs for Erik's. The Templars pay for Michael's trip, and expect a full report when it's done. At LAX, Sam rents a van with the loss/damage waiver, just in case, and drives them down the expressway to Sunnydale. Their meeting with Salix is for Monday night at 9 pm, so Slayer Club spends the day at the beach, playing volleyball and body surfing. Tori and Sam wipe up the sand with all challengers. After dinner, they go to the Bronze in shifts. Joshua and Erik go in about seven o'clock, to sit in the corner and blend into the shadows. Sam and Tori arrive a little after eight and hit the dance floor. Teenage boys fall all over themselves to dance with Tori. She doesn't encourage them too much. Some of the "teenagers" recognize Sam and head for the door. A pretty blonde girl in a short plaid skirt (Darla) and her hulking boyfriend (Luke), are among the first to leave when Sam arrives. Finally, Michael (glamoured to look like a 30-something version of himself) and Drew arrive at nine. There are a few college students here, but most of the crowd is under eighteen, and about half is under sixteen. Slayer Club feels old. When they've gotten sodas and sat down for a while, Michael sees a girl at a corner table wave to him. He and Drew take their drinks over and introduce themselves. The girl is among the youngest here, about 14, a little pudgy, but pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way, with wavy brown hair and a round face. She's wearing a cute blouse and skirt set, with flowers around the collar, and a Star of David necklace, with a large book-bag stuffed with books on the floor at her feet. Drew is reminded strongly of Pandora. She is Salix? Yes. Salix babylonica is the weeping willow tree. Her name is Willow Rosenberg.

Willow is taking a summer class in intro computer programming at the high school. She'll be a freshman there next year. She found the floppy disk with the blueprints on it left in her disk drive on Thursday, and couldn't figure out what they were. She didn't want to turn it in until she was sure it wasn't bomb parts or something, so she turned to the BBS for help, making sure to upload only a small part of the plans. She has the disk with her, yes. Michael asks to look at it. It's a standard Radio Shack disk, but when he hands it to Drew, Drew goes pale and gets a migraine. They give the disk back to Willow and arrange to meet at the computer center at the college the next morning at 10:30 am. When Willow leaves the Bronze, Joshua follows her, but she spots his motorcycle across from the bus stop. Creepy! At the motel later, Drew explains the vision he saw: a weird-looking vampire, bald and wrinkly, with a red-stained mouth and pointy ears like "Nosferatu" was looking at Drew, right in his eyes. Michael recognizes the signs of a very old vampire. When Drew describes him, and Erik draws him, Sam notes that it looks like the same vampire she saw in Ada's books. But if Drew saw "the Master," if he touched, or somehow magically influenced that computer disk, then he can't be dead. And if whoever lost the disk wants it back, it could be disastrous for Willow. Joshua goes to stake out her house, just in case anyone, or anything, attacks her. Sam gets the itch to go patrolling. There were entirely too many vampires at the Bronze for her liking. She finds a nice, big graveyard to stroll through, but all the vampires are in hiding. She doesn't find any. Likewise, nothing happens at the Rosenbergs' except that Joshua loses a night's sleep.

Early on Tuesday Morning, Michael goes to UC Sunnydale's Student Union disguised as a college student, and steals an ID off of a sleepy undergrad. He morphs his face to match the ID and goes to their computer lab. He hacks into the city's computer system and looks up Willow Rosenberg's student records and anything he can find out about her, to make sure her story is true. He finds her name, her mother's name, their address, phone number, Willow's registration for school next year, and the fact that her inoculations are up to date. Checking out the local temple, he finds very little online, except for birth, death and wedding announcements. There are a lot of funerals. Not too surprising, since this is a Hellmouth. Closer to 10 AM, Michael props open the computer lab door and changes his visage back to 30-something Michael. Erik and Drew start up another game of Marathon on nearby machines. Sam and Tori play Frisbee outside the building to watch who comes and goes. Willow arrives at 10:30. She's a little scared. Someone followed her home last night. She thinks they're after the disk. Michael introduces Erik and Joshua and explains that Joshua followed her to protect her. There might very well be someone looking for the disk, and they want to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. He gives Willow the Templar's help-line number and tells her to use it and give his name if she's ever in trouble. Since everyone is now inside, Sam and Tori join the party and introduce themselves. Drew examines the files on the disk, when they were last accessed, how many empty sectors there are (almost none, the disk is 99% full), etc.. The disk was created about a month ago, and last modified last week, both around 4 AM. Eventually, Drew puts together that the diagrams are for an emitter array that will form an energy field between them. The techno-magical portal could open to alternate dimensions, but it's insanely inefficient. To go anywhere interesting, it would take the power of a nuclear plant. But the power supply specified is 110 current, like household wiring. With that as a power source, the best you could manage is a universe where you're wearing different colored socks.

What if the builders don't want to go somewhere far away, but somewhere very close? Just to another earth, where one thing is different: a certain earthquake didn't happen 60 years ago? No, that would be too dramatic a difference. Maybe it's even subtler—a nearly identical, but not perfect copy of our world. The Master is stuck in this world's Hellmouth, like a cork in a bottle; a nearly identical world would have its own version of the Master, stuck in his world's Hellmouth; each magically bound to their own Hellmouth from their failed spells 60 years ago. What if they just switched places? They both wouldn't be in the Hellmouth they were bound to any more, and they both could get free to wreak havoc on the respective versions of Earth—versions so similar, they could go an entire unlifetime and never notice a difference. Very bad indeed.

Slayer Club decides to stake out the high school computer lab that night, to see if anything happens at 4 AM. Everyone returns to the hotel to get naps that afternoon. Sam and Drew go to Radio Shack to see if anyone has bought components needed for the emitter array recently. They have. A girl named Darla bought components over the last two weeks as they came into stock. Sam picks up some electronics gear and makes a tiny microphone bug that transmits to an earpiece (Joshua is so proud!). Placing this in the computer lab will let them monitor the room without being right there. Drew wants to hit the town library too, to research newspaper archives about the earthquake that swallowed up the Master in the '30s. The newspapers have general info about the quake and how many people were killed or injured, and buildings damaged or destroyed, but Drew finds something else stashed away in the back of the stacks, a Watcher Diary. That is a gold mine of real information about the Order of Aurielius, the Master, and everything that happened 60 years ago. It mentions that the Hellmouth was located under the "Old Mission." But that was destroyed in the quake, and if anything was re-built on that location, it isn't mentioned in the diary.

That night after dark, Drew and Willow continue researching to find out where the Old Mission was and what is located there now, while the rest of Slayer Club heads for the high school. Joshua hides in a classroom across the hall from the computer lab, using a night vision fiber optic system to watch the hall from around the corner. Michael disguises himself as a janitor and mops the floors. Sam, Erik, and Tori patrol/wander around outside the high school, with a half-empty six pack of beer as their cover story. Sam has her earpiece to listen in on activities in the computer lab, but nothing happens. Tori spots one of the back doors swing closed, and they go check it out. The door is propped open, but there's no sign of who moved it. Inside the school, linoleum echoes. Erik bangs his hammer into the lockers, and Sam moves him to the center of the corridor. Stealth is a lost cause. They re-connect with Michael and Joshua. The computer center is empty and quiet, so they all split up to search the building. Michael and Sam go to the basement. Tori and Erik go down the left-hand wing towards the library, Joshua down the right, towards the gym. At the Sunnydale library, Drew and Willow get kicked out at midnight, but not before corroborating 1930s street names with present-day streets and finding out where the Hellmouth is. Drew hails a cab to take them to the high school.

Sam and Michael find a boiler and furnace and the janitor's office and lots of cobwebs in the basement, but nothing else. Joshua, likewise, finds a big, empty gymnasium with a wild pig painted in the middle of the floor and "mighty, mighty Razorbacks" on a banner across one side. It's Erik and Tori who find the center of activity in the library. From the doors, they can see one vampire in game face, fiddling with a tall tripod of strange-looking lights, wires, and antennae. They tiptoe away to find the others, but forget that the doors swing back and forth. The movement gives them away. They go back to the computer lab to tell Sam (through her bug) where the vampires are. In the cab, Drew remembers that he has a walkie-talkie that Joshua gave him, so relays to Joshua where the Hellmouth is located. When Slayer Club convenes outside the library, the vampires are ready for an attack, but not ready for Sam and Michael to kick the doors off their hinges, and then Erik's hammer to fly, hit the edge of the balcony, and sonic boom out all the windows. Melee ensues. Luke takes on Erik, and they dance around each other. Sam and Michael mop up more minions on the ground floor. Joshua and Tori head up the stairs to where more vampires with emitter arrays stand at four corners of the balcony. Above the doorway, Darla sits cross-legged with a laptop, typing furiously. Willow and Drew arrive. Drew throws money at the cabbie, with a hefty tip for not biting them, and they run to the library. At just the same time Sam leaps up onto the balcony, Darla finishes typing and hits the final key with a flourish. An energy field forms at balcony level just as Joshua manages to knock over one of the emitters and leap down to the first floor with it. The missing emitter makes the energy field untethered. It floats slowly down towards the floor, wobbling, but still mostly on target. Darla grins and folds up her laptop. In the Hellmouth below, the Master, watching the events in the library through a clairvoyance spell, raises his arms toward the portal falling slowly towards him and laughs maniacally.

Erik, Michael, and Tori dodge out of the way of the falling energy field. Drew yells at Sam to throw a vampire into the portal, but there are none close at hand. Willow sees that Drew's plan won't work and shrugs—the universe on the other side of the portal is supposed to be so close to ours as to be indistinguishable, right? She runs for the middle of the library floor. Sam yells at her to get out of the way, but the energy field hits Willow and dissipates in a massive electric discharge and flash of light. Darla and Luke run for the broken windows. Joshua shoots Darla in the elbow, making her drop her laptop as she escapes. He collects the computer and one of the emitters, and takes them with him. Drew carefully takes the disk out of Willow's backpack. The Templars will want to see it. Michael and Sam check to make sure she's okay. She is, alive but confused; the portal seems to have fried her short-term memory. She doesn't remember who they are, so Sam and "Professor Saiyer" introduce themselves again. Sam smoothes down Willow's long, red hair and offers to take her to the hospital to check that concussion. She took a bad fall off the balcony, but everything's going to be okay. Even though Tori still despairs of the girl's fashion sense. Maroon corduroy OshKosh jumpers with red and gold striped shirts ought to be given up by the third grade, at the absolute latest. But that's just how Willow has always been.

In another, nearby world, brown-haired Willow picks herself up off the floor of the Sunnydale High Library. What just happened? Where'd everybody go? And all the lights, and activity; there was stuff going on. Big, important stuff! Just a second ago, she was right in the middle of it. But now, she was all alone in the echo-y building, with just a bunch of dusty old books. It's dark, and very, very late. She has to get home or her mom will kill her.

In our world, a scream echoes in the tight confines of an earthen coffin. The Master, ancient evil, scourge of humanity, leader and founder of the Order of Aurielius, screams in frustration as his minions are scattered, just the other side of a dimensional veil. That girl! Who is that girl? Not the Slayer, the other one—the naive redhead who stopped his triumphant homecoming. She will pay, and pay dearly! The Master's red eyes shift from her, back to the Slayer. She also would pay for this. There is still the prophecy and that time is almost upon them. His eyes narrow. "Not as pretty as I imagined her." A sigh. "Oh well."

Meanwhile: deep in the badlands of Texas lie two matched hills, gentle swells in the landscape that, thanks to Joshua's wedding present, Juanita and Erik own deed to. Each hill has an identical cave opening to due north, and inside, they have identical markings in the rock. Veins of blue-gray ore swirl in the shape of Nordic dragons eating their own tails. One is clockwise, the other, counter-clockwise. Slayer Club once discovered that the dragons rotate slowly, degrees in a matter of hours, a complete rotation over the course of months. Lying on the clockwise-rotating dragon with her head next to it's head, Juanita breathes deeply, peacefully meditating. On her breast lies her baby, apparently asleep with his yellow, slit-pupil eyes closed. As the camera pans up above them, the dragon's head passes one of the markers on the cave-wall. And as the camera pans back again, it becomes obvious that the rotation is accelerating.