Synopsis of Goodbye Iowa
In the wake of Maggie's attack on Buffy and then death, Buffy and gang realize that that Initiative isn't all it's cracked up to be, and that Maggie must have had a secret agenda. They momentarily question Riley's involvement, but Buffy is sure that he had no idea what Maggie was up to. Riley comes by, and although he realizes that Maggie did something shady, he has trouble believing that Maggie would really do something that horrible. The fact that he finds Spike with the gang doesn't make anything clearer to him, and he storms out to go for a walk and think.
Meanwhile, Adam has escaped and meets a little boy. He tries to figure out what he is, and what the boy is, and ends up killing the boy with demon arm spike.
Riley goes back to his dorm and tells his friend that Maggie tried to kill Buffy. His friend is immediately suspicious of Buffy, and although Riley defends her, he's getting more and more confused. Then they hear that news that Maggie is dead, and that she probably died from the durn arm spike. Although they are told to stay put and wait for instructions from Washington, Riley and his subordinates set off to get the spiky-armed demon.
The gang hides from the Initiative in Xander's basement. They all talk about how Buffy has lousy taste in men. Anya mentions that Buffy should get herself a nice boring guy like Xander... except not Xander.
Buffy goes to investigate the dead little boy after hearing about the murder on the news. She meets Riley at the crime scene, and he tells her about Maggie's death and asks her if she's happy. She is shocked that he would think such a thing. They each set off separately in search of the spikey-armed demon.
Buffy goes to Willy's bar to see what he's heard about the demon. Willy says that as far as he knew, the demon had been off the streets since his last capture. Riley follows Buffy into the bar, and has a nervous breakdown where he holds a gun on an innocent woman. Buffy realizes something is really wrong with Riley and brings him back to Xander's basement and puts him to bed. He's all sweaty and freaky and scratching his own hand to bits.
The rest of the gang is trying to figure out where this demon has been hiding, and realize that it's not acting like its normal self, having a very low IQ and needing to eat every two hours, it's usually much more high-profile. Willow goes to find Tara to cast a spell where they invoke the dark goddess Thespia and get to see where there is demon activity in the area. Tara questions the wisdeom of casting this spell, but Willow says they can totally pull it off. At the last moment of the spell, Tara sabotages it without Willow noticing, and Willow is miffed when the spell totally doesn't work.
Buffy and Xander break into the Initiative to see if they can figure out what's messing with Riley. She dresses up as a scientist and he goes as a military guy. They are almost spotted by two soldiers, and Xander grabs Buffy to bring her into a standard spy embrace of guy kissing girl, but she scolds him that scientists and soldiers don't make out at the Initiative. They overhear a conversation between two scientists which explains that Maggie had been secretly feeding her soldiers medication in their food, and the soldiers that went off hunting the demon are suffering from withdrawal. Buffy confronts the lead scientist about what Maggie was doing before she died. Riley, meanwhile, has busted out of Xander's basement, and show up at the Initiative. He's even more confused than ever, and when he comes across Buffy interrogating the scientist, he isn't sure what to do. Just as Buffy might be getting some useful information, Adam busts in. He tells everyone assembled what he is (part man, part demon, part machine) and says that Maggie was his mother, and also Riley's mother, because she created Riley: teaching him what to think, how to act, and feeding him chemicals to make stronger and smarter. Riley is horrified, and goes to attack Adam, who easily fends him and everyone else in the room off and flee. The lead scientist gets killed and Riley gets stabbed by an arm-spike in the melee. Buffy wants to tend to Riley, but the other soldiers take him to a military hospital where Buffy isn't allowed to see him.
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