Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight - Plot

Plot

A year after the end of the television series, Buffy and Xander now lead command-central, which is situated at a citadel in Scotland. At their disposal are a wide array of psychics, seers, witches, and Slayers, along with a vast amount of technology, revealed to be the result of Buffy robbing a Swiss bank to acquire the funds. There are 1,800 Slayers worldwide according to Buffy, almost 500 of whom are working with the Scoobies, separated into 10 squads. Squads include Andrew's in Southern Italy, Giles' in England, Vi's in New York, Robin's in Cleveland, Ohio, and another led by Rona in Chicago, Illinois. For Buffy's protection and because her name is feared worldwide, two decoys are put in place: one partying in Rome and one on a mission in demonic underground caverns. Buffy now relies heavily on Willow, whose character arc sees her under the tutelage of a powerful demon called Saga Vasuki. Under Saga Vasuki, Willow's power has grown phenomenally; for example, she can now fly and cast extremely complicated and large-scale spells.

In the wake of Sunnydale's destruction, elements within the U.S. government view the expanded Slayers and the Scooby Gang as international terrorists and characterize Buffy as a "charismatic, uncompromising and completely destructive" leader. General Voll, a member of a mystically aware Initiative-like government project, describes fear of their resources, power, and ideology. The government has teamed with Sunnydale survivor/powerful witch Amy Madison and Season 6 villain Warren Mears in the hopes of bringing Buffy down. Simultaneously, an evil British socialite Slayer called Lady Genevieve Savidge plots to usurp Buffy's place in the Slayer hierarchy, and a shrewd cabal of Japanese vampires scheme to reverse the global activation of Potential Slayers in "Chosen". The appearances of these villains are connected to "Twilight", the enigmatic Big Bad of the season, a masked person who views the expanded ranks of Slayers as a threat to humanity and wants to destroy them, and bring about an end to all magic on Earth. It later transpires that like Amy and Warren, Buffy's ex-boyfriend Riley Finn is also loyal to Twilight, though Riley turns out to have been Buffy's double agent.

Halfway through the season, ditzy vampire Harmony Kendall rises to fame as a reality TV star and ushers in a new pro-vampire, anti-Slayer world order. Under attack from Twilight and other demons as well as militaries across the world, the various Slayer squads (including Faith) reconvene in retreat from their enemy. Because Twilight can now track the group through their use of magic, Buffy and her friends relocate to Tibet to learn from Oz how to suppress magical natures for witches and Slayers alike. Giles and Buffy are both concerned with the extent to which they rely on Willow, worried she may go overboard again as in Season Six; Buffy's fears are in part justified by her visit to the future (a crossover with the Whedon miniseries Fray) where she was forced to kill a future Dark Willow. Following the fray with Twilight, in which many Slayers were killed, Buffy developed abilities similar to those of Twilight.

A subplot involves the repercussions of Dawn's college relationship with a boy named Kenny (described as a "thricewise"), whom she cheated on, losing her virginity to his roommate. Consequently, Dawn has been cursed with mystical transformations: first into a giant, then a centaur, and finally a living doll until she apologizes to Kenny and breaks the spell. Among the core group, Buffy is for a time romantically drawn to another woman: a Slayer named Satsu, and Xander to Slayer Renée; Willow's relationship with the core group is more estranged, while she protectively withholds Kennedy from her friends. Kennedy is unaware of the sexual aspect of Willow's relationship with Saga Vasuki. Giles and Buffy, at odds, fall from speaking terms with one another. Giles goes to work with Faith, in trying to prevent more Slayers from going rogue. Although Buffy comes to feel that her only compatible mate is Xander, and is upset to learn that he truly loves Dawn, she and Angel succumb to their desires for one another upon their reunion, though the extent to which they were in control of their actions is uncertain.

In the series' penultimate arc, Twilight is revealed to be Buffy's former lover, Angel. Angel attempts to explain that his Twilight persona was used to unify the anti-Slayer movement, thus limiting the potential destruction they could have caused working independently. His secondary goal was to push Buffy's development so that the two of them could reunite romantically and ascend to a higher plane of existence, itself called Twilight. However, whatever magical effect Angel was under seemed to wane after Buffy realised she was needed back on Earth to assist her friends as demons poured in from other dimensions to destroy the old universe. At the last moment, Buffy's other love, Spike arrives in a futuristic ship to announce he has a solution to the problem at hand. In the final arc, "Last Gleaming", Spike's information leads them to source both of magic and of Twilight's power, a mystical "seed" buried beneath Sunnydale. Giles plans to destroy it, but Twilight possesses Angel and compels him to kill Giles by snapping his neck. Distraught, Buffy smashes the seed herself. Twilight is stopped but magic is also removed from the universe. Though Slayers and vampires retain their powers, witches for example are left entirely powerless. Subsequently, Willow breaks up with Kennedy and Faith inherits Giles' estate and attempts to begin Angel's rehabilitation. A pariah in the community of Slayers and former witches, Buffy moves to San Francisco where she lives as a houseguest at Dawn and Xander's apartment, and resumes her former duties as Slayer: patrolling at night for vampires.