GILES: This is certainly a surprise.
CLAUDE: But you know that is how I do my best work.
Claude stabs the niginata into the ground and hugs Giles. He gets a good look at Claude and notices his unusually weather-beaten face.
GILES: You didn't by any chance sail here?
CLAUDE: Only a small part of the way. It's good to see a familiar face again.
GILES: Er, Buffy, Faith, this is Claude Marcel.
CLAUDE: An honor, truly. You are my favorite kind of Slayer. The disobedient kind. The only kind to have a chance in this world.
BUFFY: I take it you're an ex-Watcher.
Claude's distracted. He stares at Spike who hangs back ten feet behind Buffy, feigning disinterest. Surely this can't be who Claude thinks it is.
GILES: Claude was never expelled. The Council merely made sure he never got within ten miles of a Slayer.
FAITH: So you're a rebel?
CLAUDE: Heretic was the official designation.
GILES: Claude has some unorthodox ideas about Slaying.
CLAUDE: Yes. I believe Slayers shouldn't die and vampires should. Speaking of which - [he points at Spike] William the Bloody. Two Slayers. And all three of them alive. Why is this so?
GILES: Because of Buffy's infinite patience.
BUFFY: Spike has a soul.
Claude looks at Spike and bursts out laughing.
CLAUDE: A soul? There appears to be a lot of that going around. Like some vampire social disease.
SPIKE: Rupert, this is your mate? I figured you can do better than Watcher LePue.
CLAUDE: He's still rude, even with the soul.
SPIKE: Getting called rude by a Frenchman. Well that just takes the bloody cake.
CLAUDE: You called my grandfather far worse things after he burned you with your own branding iron and set your sire's hair on fire.
GILES: Jacques did that? You never told me about this. He certainly didn't. [Giles has a hard time picturing the eighty year-old man he knew doing grievously bodily harm to Spike.]
SPIKE: Because he's making it up.
CLAUDE: Then why haven't you been to Paris in 67 years?
SPIKE: Cuz I don't care for the sodding place. Your overrated town hasn't been fun since the twenties.
CLAUDE: How long did it take her scalp and your face to heal?
SPIKE: Don't flatter your gramps. He barely touched us. And we were planning on leaving anyway.
GILES: His face? [smiles] Jacques put a red-hot iron to Spike's face?
CLAUDE: The left cheek was bubbling. William chose to protect other parts.
BUFFY: Parts? He was naked? [looks distressed when she imagines what Jacques could have done.]
SPIKE: He attacked us while we were sleeping in our bed.
CLAUDE: Which means you're lucky my grandfather didn't want to kill you. Even when you tried your best to kill him.
GILES: Was Spike the first?
CLAUDE: The fourth. But the second never to return. William is smarter than he appears.
FAITH: Why didn't he kill the vamps when he had the chance?
SPIKE: Because he never had a bloody chance. The old man told you some tall tales.
GILES: Why wasn't this in the Watchers' Diaries?
CLAUDE: Because it embarrassed you Englishmen. Which one of you would have fought these two by yourself?
SPIKE: Bollocks. He ran out into the sunlight the moment we woke up.
CLAUDE: But not before scorching your back, right shoulder and left palm. William fought very bravely until Jacques glued a cross to Drusilla's neck. I've done that move myself. If not removed in a few seconds, the cross burns through the skin, sinks into the flesh and eats its way through the entire neck withing a minute. Like hot coal through a stick of butter. Truly the most agonizing method of decapitation.
BUFFY: So sadism runs in your family?
CLAUDE: We only use cruelty strategically. William behaved gallantly. Or so my grandfather put it. Remember how you removed the cross?
SPIKE: Ripped the bugger right off.
CLAUDE: With your teeth. That is what Jacques said he saw with his one good eye. By then, you had blinded him in the other.
GILES: I thought he lost his left eye fighting for the Free French Resistance?
CLAUDE: William cost him the use of that eye. German shrapnel cost him the actual eyeball.
SPIKE: So he would've lost it anyway. Which should moot any family vendetta you might have against me.
CLAUDE: William, don't delude yourself into thinking you're worthy of vengeance.
GILES: I can't believe Grandpa Jacques never told me this delightful story.
BUFFY: Maybe he thought you were too young to hear it. I think I'm too young to hear it. [she's having problems with the image of someone taking red-hot metal to Spike's naked flesh.]
CLAUDE: Do the Slayers have other helpers? Friends, perhaps? A good Slayer needs friends.
BUFFY: Okay, that settles it. You're no Watcher.
CLAUDE: Because I'm not English?
BUFFY: That's only a small part of it. There's all your opposite-speak.
CLAUDE: The Council's only been in London for 190 years, when you stole it from us. Slayers used to be people. You Limeys, in your Ivory Towers with your Bryon and your Tennyson and your foolish romantic notions, changed all that. "Slayers must fight alone and die alone." Why can't they get help and live? "Slayers must keep their identity secret." A secret identity? What are you, Spiderman? Then there's the shameful 160 year-old tradition of making Slayers helpless on their 18th birthday.
BUFFY: 160!!?? You said it had been around for 12 centuries!
CLAUDE: Twelve centuries ago, the Council was in Baghdad. I believe the Koran frowns on human sacrifice.
FAITH: What are you talking about?
BUFFY: They took away my powers for a few days and locked me in a house with a vampire.
FAITH: Good thing I blew off training that day.
BUFFY: I can't believe you lied to me!
GILES: Buffy, I have no idea what he's talking about.
CLAUDE: Rupere has always been gullible. Remember when I tricked you into smoking banana peels? To be serious, Rupert had no way of knowing. He's a third generation Watcher. I'm ninth. That's two centuries more knowledge. We know too much. That's why the Council can't expel us. It's also why they wouldn't allow me within ten kilometers of a Slayer.
GILES: That, and your failed coup d'tet. You attempted to forcible overthrow the Elders.
CLAUDE: It was 1968. It seemed the thing to do. You also wanted to see the Old Guard go. But you were too busy practicing Better Living Through Chemistry.
SPIKE: Well, well, well. Someone's got a lost youth he doesn't want us to find out about.
FAITH: Giles was a stoner?
CLAUDE: Rupert only used hash to bring himself down from his acid trips. He believed he could achieve enlightenment with the right mix of spells and drugs. Rupert was quite the guru in the psychedelic magic scene. People came from Amsterdam, Paris, Hamburg, Stockholm just to learn from his wisdom.
SPIKE: Even when you dropped out, you were still a know-it-all. How bloody lame is that?
FAITH: It is wicked Watcher-like. Wicked tie-died Watcher-like, I suppose.
CLAUDE: They called him the Astral King. [Faith and Spike laugh]
BUFFY: There's a kingdom I never wanna visit. [and she thought mom-seducing teenage Giles was disturbing.]
GILES: Did you come here to embarrass me?
CLAUDE: Merely to show that you were always destined for leadership. But, unlike Ethan, I'm not interested in being your groveling Court Jester. [ignites a match against Rupert's stubble and lights up a cigarette. Giles grabs his face in shock and horror, much like Wesley did. Spike rather likes this little stunt] Why are you Englishmen afraid of razors? As I was about to say, Ethan contacted me a few months back. He heard about the First and was worried you had died. I told him nothing. I know you hate how much he loves pestering you.
GILES: That's impossible. Ethan was taken away three years ago by the American military.
CLAUDE: And you trusted them to handle that sort of thing? What do they know about magic?
BUFFY: This was a special unit.
CLAUDE: Which I'm sure he could easily escape from.
GILES: You may have a point there. If Spike could break out, why not Ethan? [this shows where he places Spike in terms of trustworthiness and competence]
CLAUDE: He's spent the last few years in Eastern Europe. Performs mind-altering spells to aide the Russian Mafia in their crimes. Last year, everyone in Odessa forgot who they were for a day. Chaos can be profitable.
GILES: I suppose even scoundrels have to sell out.
CLAUDE: Enough about the old days. We should discuss why I'm here in private. It was an honor meeting the two greatest Slayers of my lifetime. Don't forget to keep William on his leash.
Spike stews in his own outrage. Compared to Claude, Rupert treats him with respect.
GILES: You can go home now. We'll be heading back shortly.
CLAUDE: No. I'll be heading away.
GILES: You don't want to meet the Potential Slayers?
CLAUDE: It would be disrespectful to linger in another Watcher's territory. And I have a plane to catch home tonight. We should get down to business.
Buffy, Faith and Spike head home.
FAITH: Did he call me great?
SPIKE: Two greatest Slayers of his lifetime? Try the only two he's ever met. It's called sucking up.
FAITH: You think I'm nothin' special?
SPIKE: I don't think it mattered. If he met Xander, he'd call him "the greatest carpenter I've ever met." It's called sucking up.
BUFFY: I think you're jealous that he didn't suck up to you. Or at least respect you.
FAITH: Hell, he wasn't even afraid when he thought you were evil. That's gotta sting.
GILES: This would be the part with the bad news?
CLAUDE: Robson is dead. So are all the Seers. Hacked to pieces. He went there to save them, but he was too late. I was also too late.
GILES: I knew something was very wrong. I mentioned my fears a few months back, but the ladies assured me their protective magics would suffice.
CLAUDE: Against Bringers, perhaps. But I think Reapers have some sort of radar for power, and can hone in on it.
GILES: Meaning their magic might have made them even bigger targets.
CLAUDE: Before coming here, the Reapers took out every Watcher they could get their hands on. They were relentless, efficient, unstoppable. The only place they wouldn't go was the open sea. That's how I escaped from the two I just killed. Oleg, Misha, Hamid, Theo and Carlo are off the Greek Isles. Kwame is in the Gulf of Guinea. Esteban and Bernard are around the Galapagos. And Howard is near Fiji. The two of us and the nine of them are all that is left.
GILES: Well, that's, sobering and distressing news, to say the least. But I suppose in times like these it could always be worse.
CLAUDE: The Reapers wanted to ensure that you are alone. In this, they succeeded. No more Potential Slayers can reach you. But when you win, we can help you rebuild. I was talking to Daniel last month about you. He said he always knew you could do great things once you gave up the drugs.
GILES: Daniel? You don't mean Cohn-Bendit?
CLAUDE: What other friend would I name drop?
GILES: Daniel remembers me?
CLAUDE: How could anyone forget your interpretation of Foucoult and Franz Fanon from the perspective of demon-fighting?
GILES: My what?
CLAUDE: Except for you. You swallowed the better part of a keg that night.
GILES: Franz Fanon and demons? I must have been pissed out of my mind.
CLAUDE: He joked about how all of the old rebels are now in charge. Daniel's in parliament in Brussels. Joschka's Foreign Minister. And you, the boy who never wanted to be a Watcher, run the Council.
GILES: I beg your pardon?
CLAUDE: Don't play humble. You have both Slayers. You have all the Potential Slayers. You are the Council.
This idea makes Giles a little queasy.
GILES: Les Council, c'est moi?
CLAUDE: Oui.
GILES: Merde.
CLAUDE: [shrugs] Oui. As leader, I hope you don't mind that the other Watchers recognize me as second-in-command. Someone had to do it.
GILES: Fine. I have no problem with that. How did I become Head Watcher? Was there a vote?
CLAUDE: Don't you understand? You made yourself Head Watcher through your actions. You have problems seeing yourself as a leader.
GILES: I'm not even a leader in this town. I never have been.
CLAUDE: And when a Watcher comes along who has the Power of a Slayer, your supremacy will be threatened once again. Until then, you have no choice but to command us.
GILES: I don't command. I don't even like giving orders.
CLAUDE: I would be happy to give them for you. More importantly, you need to name a successor in case of your death. We all have. If I'm gone, Hamid takes my place.
GILES: Given the danger of the situation, I suppose that is necessary. Very well. [takes a deep breath. He's never had to plan for his own demise] If I am gone, you will succeed me as Head Watcher. Hamid will be your second-in-command. But the Slayers and the Potentials will be under Wesley's guidance. I know he is no longer a Watcher –
CLAUDE: On the other hand, he has finally become a man. I flew into Los Angeles and saw him today. He and that larger, more mature ensouled vampire are in possession of the Paris Library, as well as what I could salvage from the London Office. Nigel stole them for the bad guys. I stole them back.
GILES: I never did like him. Nigel went evil?
CLAUDE: No. Just weak.
GILES: The books should be very safe with Angel.
CLAUDE: As long as he keeps his son away from them. He struck me as the kind who destroys first and asks questions later.
GILES: Yes. That would be anyone's first impression of Connor. But I can say with a reasonable amount of confidence that he is no longer a danger to himself or others.
CLAUDE: When was he a danger?
GILES: Up until eight days ago.
CLAUDE: And to think, I almost flew direct from Paris. My week at sea was well-spent.
GILES: Things were far more chaotic back then.
CLAUDE: Sometime Rupere, you'll have to tell me all your battle stories from Sunnydale.
GILES: That could take a few months.
CLAUDE: For starters, who revived Buffy after the Master killed her? It was one of her friends, no?
GILES: How did you know about that? I thought the Council told you nothing.
CLAUDE: I read about it ten years ago in the Pergamon Scrolls.
GILES: You mean the Codex.
CLAUDE: The Codex is incomplete. The Scrolls said "The Master will fight the Slayer. The Slayer will die. The Slayer will kill the Master." Either that meant the Slayer becomes a vampire, or is revived. Obviously it was the latter.
GILES: If this is a joke, it's in very poor taste.
CLAUDE: I don't understand.
GILES: Why didn't you tell me?
CLAUDE: Because I knew she would win. And it's bad luck for the subject of a prophecy to hear it in advance. To know your own future is to curse it.
GILES: Which is easy to say when it's not your life or the life of someone you love that is in the balance.
CLAUDE: Speaking of loved ones, I saw your parents yesterday. They came to greet me at Heathrow, wish me good luck.
GILES: My parents live in Derby. That's four hours from Heathrow.
CLAUDE: Cheshire. They bought a lovely cottage along the coast. When was the last time you talked to them?
GILES: When I returned to England two summers ago. When did they move?
CLAUDE: Last summer. I spent a weekend at their new place in August.
GILES: I was in Bath then. They never even bothered to tell me. [gets red in the face] They told me they were spending August in the Balearics.
CLAUDE: They came back early. Said the islands had changed. Too many ravers.
GILES: They buy a new place, and not a word to me about it. They always did like you better.
CLAUDE: Nonsense. They're just English. Your people are nicer to friends than family. It's your way.
GILES: "Claude learned Sanskrit." "Claude's translating from Elamite to Aramaic." "Claude received the highest score on the General Examinations."
CLAUDE: And my parents were always very nice to you. Like you were the son they wish they had. Remember all that time papa spent with you that summer in Anjou?
GILES: It wasn't the same. You and your father got on great.
CLAUDE: In front of company.
GILES: You're only saying that for my sake.
CLAUDE: Fathers never understand sons. I know.
GILES: That reminds me: How are Marie and the children?
CLAUDE: She's with her parents in Toulouse until the danger passes. Louis is in his third year at the university. Studying genes, chromosomes, nucleotides. I don't understand it. Like those idiot boxes he uses to sequence them. He keeps telling me I should use them for research. Wretched fad.
GILES: I used to feel the same way.
CLAUDE: Don't tell me you've gone binary.
GILES: I don't like to use them myself. But I am happy when others use them to help me.
CLAUDE: Annette is turning into quite the young Watcher. She's learned Sumerian, Akkadian and Assyrian cuneiform. And she's beginning to translate between Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic.
GILES: How old is she now?
CLAUDE: Eighteen. Louis is twenty-one.
GILES: Seems like only yesterday Annie was climbing trees and playing with dolls.
CLAUDE: They grow up fast. Annette's now taller than her mother. And she slays alone.
GILES: You allow that?
CLAUDE: I tried to stop her. She called me a hypocrite. Said I slay alone, and she's stronger. I didn't believe it. Then she proved it. After that, what could I say?
GILES: Sounds like your daughter's not content with the role of Watcher.
CLAUDE: Tell her that, she gets furious. Annette believes the experience makes her a better Watcher by helping her better understand what Slayers go thorough. She insists she's careful, only takes on one at a time, employs surprise, everything we would do. And as a father, I do sleep better knowing my daughter goes to discos looking for boys to kill, not to spend the night with.
GILES: It never occurred to you that she could kill a vampire to save the life of a handsome young man?
CLAUDE: I thought MDS only afflicted Slayers.
GILES: MDS?
CLAUDE: Male Damsel Syndrome.
GILES: It's a syndrome!?
CLAUDE: One endemic to our profession. Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Persians, Egyptians, Assyrians – they all allude to it. MDS was the chief argument for maintaining a secret identity. The last thing a Slayer needs is obsessed male fans following her everywhere. But the boys are drawn to the super powers. It can't work without them. Can it?
GILES: Some of the Potentials have boyfriends. Some of who were, acquired, after the girl saved the boy's life.
CLAUDE: That's very distressing. I'll need to have a talk with my daughter when I get home. Maybe we could slay together, like we used to. I still have a few more tricks I can teach her.
GILES: What have you been doing at night without Annette?
CLAUDE: Killing vampires and organizing neighborhood patrols in the suburban ghettoes, where the Algerians live.
GILES: Vampires do tend to prey on outcasts. Those whose deaths will go unnoticed by the larger community.
CLAUDE: And if they did know, the sad thing is plenty of my countrymen would cheer the vampires on.
GILES: Considering the hostile climate, aren't the locals suspicious of an outsider like yourself? Especially one who claims to be fighting supposedly imaginary creatures with alien religious symbols?
CLAUDE: It helps I know their language. Though my conversational Arabic is quite rusty. As for crosses and holy water, remember what we learned at Academy? All major and most minor faiths have magical talismans which ward off vampires. The Christian symbols are unique because they can be used by non-believers.
GILES: Which is why I forgot. I've spent my entire career among non-believers. Including yourself.
CLAUDE: I believe all religions are silly. But I also believe some are a lot less silly than others.
GILES: I trust you don't tell them that. Do they know you lived until you were twelve with your father in Algeria, all through the war?
CLAUDE: My father did not fight on the side of the colonial French.
GILES: He was with the rebels?
CLAUDE: I'm still not sure which side he was on. I believe he fought against both of them.
GILES: That is something of a tradition in your family.
CORDY: You can't do this. Do you know what you're getting yourself into?
CONNOR: I can help more people.
CORDY: At first, yeah. In the long run, once they've started to hurt your brain, you'll help fewer because the pain will make it harder to fight.
CONNOR: I'm strong enough to take it.
CORDY: It's not just the pain. You feel what they go through. It's like you're being attacked, and you're helpless to stop it.
CONNOR: Do you know what I've seen in my life? Do you know what I've felt? The visions can't be worse.
CORDY: Listen to yourself, Connor. You're the last person who deserves more pain and suffering.
CONNOR: What if someone dies because I don't take this chance? Knowing I could help, but didn't, and someone's dead cause I didn't. That would hurt.
CORDY: Guilt for the unsaved damsel. You really are like your father. [Cordy means it. And she's making a last ditch attempt at reverse psychology. Connor hates being told he's like his father.]
CONNOR: I'm not like him. I'm not guilty. I CHOOSE to help. [Cordelia gives up and decides it's best not to knock Connor off his high horse. Like everyone else, she fears attacking him will upset the delicate balance that has made Connor a willing member of Team Angel.]
CORDY: Just promise you'll tell me if it hurts. I only want what's best for you, Connor.
CONNOR: Then stop trying to change my mind. [given the nature of their past relationship, Cordelia is slipping a little too easily back into the role of concerned mother.]
As Connor heads downstairs, Wes and Fred are in Angel's office, looking over the books Claude left behind.
FRED: I had a hunch the Codex wasn't originally in Latin. What demon tongue is it?
WES: Greek.
FRED: Oh. [looks disappointed] But the Greek coulda also come from a demon language. How's it different from what we already got?
WES: Oh my. Oh dear. Oh. Oh my goodness.
FRED: [cringes] Does this one have illustrations?
WES: Compare this paragraph in the scrolls with the codex.
FRED: I'm not that good at reading Greek.
WES: I'll write out the missing part in English. [scribbles off a few sentences]
FRED: Oh mah god! It's, it's so, wow. Do other lacunae clear up like that?
WES: I believe so. It's looks to be about a fourth longer than the codex.
FRED: We should make translations. You do the scrolls. I'll do the codex. Or we could scan 'em into the computer and make a program to do it for us. Digitizing would make searches so much easier.
WES: You're right.
Angel opens the door.
ANGEL: We're ready to do the spell.
WES: In here?
ANGEL: No. But I assumed you wanted to observe and make sure we did everything right.
WES: Lorne can handle that.
ANGEL: Fred?
FRED: Good luck.
Angel's a little surprised by their complete disinterest.
ANGEL: Okay. Suit yourself.
He closes the door.
LORNE: Bookworms still busy having their little orgy?
GUNN: Having their what!?
LORNE: An orgy of information, schnookums. I was the same way when I got hold of those Streisand bootlegs. [Connor comes down] There's the boy of the moment. Shall we get this visionary show on the road?
CONNOR: Why else would I be here? [he still doesn't understand the point of rhetorical questions]
NEXT: Connor gets his first vision. But it doesn't go quite as expected.