Touched (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

When Spike returns from his mission with Andrew, he is enraged to find that the Scooby Gang have lost faith in Buffy's leadership, during his absence, and have evicted her from her home. He denounces them all as traitors, then storms out in disgust to find Buffy after exchanging a few blows with Faith. Spike tracks down and comforts a depressed Buffy, while Faith accepts her role as the newly elected leader of the Potentials.

The Scoobies capture a Bringer and magically interrogate him. Eyeless and tongueless, he speaks through Andrew, who tells them that Bringers are busy forging weapons for the coming apocalypse and do not see Buffy's army as a threat. Later, after saying goodnight to Giles, Faith is approached by The First (in the form of Richard Wilkins), who leads her to believe that Buffy only sees her as a killer and will take the first chance she gets to kill her.

That evening, four couples engage in intimacy. Buffy and Spike take refuge in an abandoned house, and Buffy confesses her self-doubt and inability to let anyone become close to her. Spike tries to rally her spirits by describing that he's seen all of her, the good and the bad, but he still stands by her. Buffy asks Spike to spend the night. Initially misunderstanding her meaning, he moves toward a large chair, but Buffy requests he spend the night holding her. Faith and Wood engage in a one-night stand. In the first lesbian sex scene ever on American network TV, Willow and Kennedy have sex for the first time,[1] and Xander and Anya rekindle their sexual relationship.

The next morning, Faith gives out her orders. She sends Dawn, Xander, Willow and Anya to go and find Buffy, while she and the Potentials launch a preemptive strike on the First's armory, which turns out to be a trap. Buffy regains her will to fight and brawls with Caleb, evading nearly all of his offensive moves; in the end, she dives into a floor panel in the winery and finds a powerful battle axe that appears to have been hidden there. The episode ends with Kennedy finding a box, which Faith opens and reveals that it's a bomb ready to detonate with only 8 seconds left. Faith yells for everyone to get down and the screen goes black.

Buffy finds an ancient scythe, proving her prediction that Caleb was guarding something at the vineyard in "Empty Places". This scythe will play a pivotal role for the potential Slayers in "Chosen".

Spike tells Buffy "you're a hell of a woman", which is what Riley says to her in "As You Were" (season 6, episode 15).

Anya's hair changes from straight and golden to curly and dirty blonde. This happens throughout the entirety of her time in the show.

• When Andrew sees Xander's eye-patch, he says, "Oh, cool... very Col. Nick Fury," referencing a character in the Marvel Universe.
• Faith insults Spike by calling him "Bat-boy."

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• "Touched" on IMDb
• "Touched" at TV.com