The Watcher Diaries: Episode 2.8 - “The Dark Age”
Posted by Ronny Sarnecky on 04.26.2008
A monster comes after Giles, Buffy and the gang in this week's episode titled "The Dark Age." Can Buffy save the day or will a mistake from Giles' past come back to haunt the "Scoobies?"
Synopsis: A mysterious man, who is looking for Giles, gets killed by a zombie outside of Sunnydale High School. After killing the man, the monster turns into a green puddle. Next, Giles is shown having a dream about a group of 60s type of “hippies” sitting in a circle around a weird symbol. When the police brought Giles to the morgue to identify the “mystery man,” Giles saw the weird symbol in the form of a tattoo on the man’s arm.
Giles goes home, and is calling people from a list. Each person on that list was dead, except for Giles, and Ethan Raynes. Giles rolled up his sleeves to uncover the same strange tattoo on his arm.
Buffy notices an intruder in the school library. She catches up to the intruder, who is identified as Ethan Raynes. Ethan has Buffy call Giles to ask him about the “mark of Igone.” During the call, the mysterious man, now a zombie, busted into the library. Buffy trapped him into a cage until Giles arrived.
When Giles arrived, the zombie broke out of his cage, knocking Miss Calendar unconscious after hitting her with the cage door. Buffy kicked the zombie, who proceeded to combust, and turn into a green puddle. Unseen by the gang, Miss Calendar dipped her hand into the puddle. She immediately was awaken from her unconscious state. Giles refused to answer Buffy’s questions, so when he left the Scooby Gang went to work.
Willow discovered that “Igone, as known as the ‘Sleepwalker,’ can only exist in this reality by possessing an unconscious host. Temporary possession leaves the host with a euphoric feeling of power. Unless the proper rituals are observed, the possession becomes permanent and Igone will be born from within the host. Once called, Igone can also take possession of the dead, but it’s demonic energy soon disintegrates the host and it must jump to the nearest dead or unconscious person to continue living.”
The “Scooby Gang” realize that Igone jumped into Miss Calendar, leading Buffy to Giles house. Before Buffy arrived, Igone revealed itself to Giles. Before Igone could do any damage to Giles, Buffy arrived to scare the demon away.
Giles told Buffy that when he was in college, he practiced magic with the worst type of crowd. Ethan and Giles discovered Igone. One of the group members would go into a deep sleep; the other members would summon Igone. It was an extraordinary high, Giles told Buffy. Igone took over one of the group members, and the group could not exorcise the demon out of him, so they had to kill him, thinking they killed the demon.
Buffy went to see Ethan, only to be attacked from behind by Giles’ former friend. Ethan tied Buffy up where he proceeded to tattoo the mark of Igone onto Buffy’s back. He then burned the mark off of his arm.
When Igone arrived, the demon bypassed Ethan and headed straight for Buffy. While Buffy and Giles tried to fight Igone, Angel showed up and strangled Igone. A weakened Igone jumped into Angel where Igone battled the demon inside of Angel, until it died.
Overall: This episode of Buffy helped fill in the blanks that the viewers were left with following the “Halloween” episode from a few weeks back. The beauty of this episode is that it shows that if you do things today, the consequences of those actions may come back to haunt years later. This happened with Giles, and it forever impacted his relationship with Miss Calendar.
This episode also showed Willow as leader who can come up with ideas, and take charge when Buffy is preoccupied. It was Willow, who realized that if the demon was in trouble, it would jump into Angel and be contained. This was one of the beauties of Season Two; the rest of the “Scooby Gang” starts to show that they are more then just background players. They can contribute more in the fight then just being bookworms.
The 411: It was a good episode, as it delved into Giles' past, and answered some questions the viewers had in regards to the connection between Ethan Raynes and Giles. It also threw a roadblock into the Giles/Miss Calendar relationship. However, it was an average episode that doesn't advance any other future storylines.
