Synopsis of The Replacement
Written by TK
Riley, Buffy, Xander and Anya are hanging out in Xander's basement watching a badly dubbed Kung-Fu movie. Anya's arm is in a sling. Buffy is caught up reading a history book that Riley has to drag her away from. Xander's parents come home and everyone can hear them upstairs fighting. Xander says he really needs to find a new place to live. Riley rubs Buffy's shoulders and Buffy makes enjoying sounds, so Xander goes to do the same thing to Anya and ends up hurting her dislocated shoulder. Buffy starts criticizing the fighting methods in the Kung-Fu movie. Riley tells her to lay off. Buffy said he would do the same if it were an army movie and they were screwing everything up, and Willow would do the same if it were a witch movie. Xander backs her up, saying Willow would says something like, "A cauldron? No one uses cauldrons anymore."
A demon plunges his hand into a hot cauldron, saying that his pain is payment for his request: the death of the slayer.
Xander goes to look at a nice apartment. His friends, of course, come along with him. Anya wants him to get it, and he takes an application, but he warns her that his construction job is ending soon and he won't be able to afford the place. Anya is upset that they're spending the day visiting pretty apartments she can't have.
Giles is unpacking a box at the magic store when the cauldron demon comes in. The demon notes that Giles is not the slayer. Giles attacks him with the first thing he can grab: a fertility goddess statue. He doesn't do much damage to the demon, and the demon gives him one thwack, sending him flying. The demon says Giles is not the slayer, and so doesn't concern him, and walks out.
The Scooby gang is helping Giles set up the magic store while he tells them what happened with the demon. He finds the demon in a book: it's Toth. Toth tends to be very sophisticated, meaning it uses weapons and tools to fight, and also very focused. Obviously, he's focused on Buffy. Giles mentions that the demon also smelled really bad.
The Scooby gang is hunting for Toth at the city dump, 'cause that's where bad smells come from. They find Spike scavenging, and ask him if he's seen Toth. Spike points out that the demon is right behind them. The demon shoots fireball like things out of a pole at them and they scatter. Spike cheers on Toth until Toth accidentally shoots one of the items Spike scavenged. Toth keeps shooting, and finally hits Xander. Toth disappears. The gang runs to Xander and helps him out of the pile of trash he landed in. He's had the wind knocked out of him, but seems to be okay. They help him out of the dump. As they leave, the camera pans back to where Xander fell in the trash heap, and Xander is still lying there.
Xander wakes up the next morning at the dump. He heads home, but can't get into his basement 'cause it's locked. He looks in he window and sees himself drying his hair from the shower. He can't believe it. He realizes he needs to find Buffy and heads for a pay phone. While he's fighting with the phone and the fact that it ate his quarter, his look-alike walks by. He hangs up just as Buffy finally picks up the phone so he can follow himself.
Buffy, at home, puts down the phone since the person hung up. She and Riley are talking about killing the demon, and Riley is worried about her. They start to kiss, until Dawn makes choking noises at the door. Dawn and Buffy have a sisterly bicker and give their mother a headache.
Spike is in his cave. He uses an old mannequin (spelling?), a blue shirt and a blonde wig to make a model of Buffy and then kicks it to pieces. He murmurs about one day, Slayer....
At the construction site, the Xander look-alike (who is dressed much nicer than Xander himself) grabs Xander's hard-hat and starts working. Xander spies on him from behind a porta-potty. The construction boss comes over to the Xander look-alike and tells him to come into his office. Xander is psyched to watch his look-alike get fired, and spies in the window of the office when his look-alike goes in. Intead of firing him, the boss gives Xander's look-alike a promotion at another site when this job is over. Xander can't believe it. He also can't believe that the boss hasn't noticed that the look-alike is using a round shiny piece of metal to reflect the sun into his eyes.
At the apartment Xander looked at the day before, the real estate agent is not only giving the Xander look-alike the keys, since his credit checked out fine, but is also coming on to him. Xander is listening at the door and can't believe it. The look-alike is doing the same thing with the round piece of metal, reflecting the sun into the real estate agent's eyes. When the real estate agent leaves, the look-alike calls Anya and leaves her a message to meet him at the new apartment at 9pm. When he walks out of the apartment, Xander jumps him. They square off in the hallway, and the look-alike punches Xander once in the face and then runs for it. Xander lies in the hallway moaning that he needs Buffy.
Xander is out in the rain, looking through the window at Giles's apartment. He is mortified to see his look-alike already there, and Buffy promising the look-alike that she'll get whatever stole his face.
Xander runs to Willow and finds her. He tells her all kinds of stuff and does the Snoopy dance to prove that it's really him. Willow doesn't even know why she should doubt that it's him. He tells her that there's something out there that's stolen his face, and it's already gotten to Buffy and it does this weird flashy hypnosis thing.
At Giles's apartment, Buffy, Giles, Riley, and the look-alike are trying to figure out how this could have happened. They realize that Toth could be masquerading as Xander.
Back at Willow's room, Willow and Xander are just figuring out that it's probably Toth masquerading as Xander. Willow says she'll try to find a spell to make that hypnosis thing the look-alike is doing go away.
The look-alike asks Buffy if she needs his help to hunt Toth, because he told Anya to meet him at his new apartment. Buffy says it's probably best if he's tucked away at home, so she doesn't kill the wrong Xander by mistake.
Back at Willow's room, Xander is lamenting his life, and thinks maybe he should just let the demon have it 'cause he seems to be living it so much better than Xander ever did. Suddenly, he remember Anya, and realizes that he needs Anya and his look-alike can't have her. He runs out of the room.
Xander is in Anya's apartment and can't find her. He listens to her answering machine and hears the message that the look-alike left asking Anya to meet him at the new apartment. He grabs a gun and runs out.
At the new apartment, the look-alike is telling Anya that he got the apartment for her, because she wanted it so much. They kiss and sit down on the floor in the middle of the living room. Anya asks when they'll get a car and have kids. Xander2 asks what her rush is. Anya says she's only got maybe fifty years left. Xander2 realizes that since Anya was injured, she's starting to realize what it's really like to be mortal and human. He promises to stay with her no matter how old and wrinkly she gets. He also promises that she won't be worrying about getting old for much longer. Suddenly, Xander1 bursts in and tells Anya to get away. Anya starts towards Xander1 until Xander2 says that Xander1 is a demon or something. Anya goes back into Xander2's arms.
Willow shows up at Giles's and explains that they were talking to Xander2, she really had Xander1 and he proved it by doing the Snoopy dance. Buffy and Giles agree that the Xander they talked to did seem a little too confident to really be Xander. Giles is reading a book and realizes that it's probably not that Toth is impersonating Xander, but rather that Xander has been split into two. Giles has found info about the weapon that Toth was using. It splits whatever it hits into two, the best half and the worst half. Giles figures that Toth was trying to split the Slayer into 2, one side all Buffy Summers, and the other side all Slayer. Instead, he made two Xanders, one side all of Xander's best qualities, and the other side all of Xander's worst qualities. Riley says that that doesn't make much sense. Why would Toth want two Buffies, particularly if one is such pure distilled Slayer? Giles says if you kill one half, you kill the whole thing, so then Toth could have gone after the non-Slayer part of Buffy and gotten rid of the whole Slayer. Buffy realizes that they can't just get rid of one Xander, 'cause then they'll get rid of the whole Xander.
Xander1 and Xander2 are still at a face-off in the new apartment, and Anya doesn't know what to do. Xander2 says he's going to finish off Xander1, but then Xander1 pulls the gun. Anya reaches for the gun, yelling, "Don't shoot him!" All three end up wrestling for the weapon.
Riley and Buffy are driving Giles's BMW to Xander's apartment. Buffy wants to know if Riley sorta wishes she had been hit by the fireball thing, so then he could just date Buffy Buffy without the whole Slayer attachment. He reassures her that he's in love with the whole package.
At the apartment, Xander2 gets the gun and is holding it on Xander1 with Anya blocking him when Buffy and Riley burst in. Buffy asks Xander2 for the gun, and her expertly flicks open the chamber with his finger and empties the bullets. Buffy explains to both of them that they're both Xander, just different qualities of Xander. Neither Xander wants to believe it. Xander1 says he saw Xander2 doing magic hypnosisy stuff with a shiny disk. Xander2 pulls it out of his pocket and explains that it's just a nickel that was squashed on a railroad track and he found it at the construction site and thought it was cool. Just as everyone is starting to comprehend what's going on, Toth bursts in, saying he won't miss twice. Riley fights him, and then Buffy fights him, and then Riley tosses Buffy a sword and she kills Toth.
At the magic shop, Giles and Willow are trying to figure out how to get the two Xanders back together, while the two Xanders are comparing notes. Xander2 convinces Xander1 that he could get the promotion and the apartment without hypnosis. Anya kinda likes the idea of getting both Xanders into bed. It turns out that the spell is easy to break, and without further ado, Willow breaks it.
Xander is moving out of his basement with help from Buffy, Riley and Anya. He and Riley have a minute alone together, and Riley confides how head over heels he is for Buffy, and how lucky he knows he is. He also admits that he doesn't think Buffy loves him.
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