It's a dark and gloomy world without the Slayer. Buffy is dead, and the Scooby Gang must continue on without her--or so it would seem. Determined to bring back their beloved friend--Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara decide to perform a resurrection spell that would bring Buffy back from the dead.

As the demon bikers attack, the Scooby Gang is chased away from Buffy’s gravesite thinking that the resurrection was a failure. Meanwhile, Buffy is awake but disoriented and afraid as she claws her way out of her own grave. The Slayer is back, but if her friends cannot get to her and snap her out of the daze she is in, they may loose Buffy all over again.

An unseen force is taking over the Scoobies one at a time. Could this possessing spirit be somehow connected to Buffy’s return from beyond?

With her mother gone, Buffy finds that her months spent dead and jobless have left them without enough money to keep the house in good repair. To make matters worse, a trio of slacker sorcerers summon a demon to rob the bank for them just as Buffy is trying to get a loan.

Buffy decides that in order to take care of herself and Dawn she must get back to college and find herself a job. This all becomes much more difficult when the nerd Trio decide to present the Slayer with a series of challenges to determine the extent of her abilities.

Dawn sneaks out and spends Halloween night with a friend and two hot guys. When they are invited into the home of an eccentric old man, however, things take a turn for the weird. Meanwhile, Tara expresses concern that Willow is using too much magic and an argument ensues.

Sunnydale is alive with the sound of music as a mysterious force causes everyone in town to burst into full musical numbers, revealing their innermost secrets as they do. Add in the fact that some townsfolk dance so much that they simply burst into flame, and it becomes clear that the Gang must stop this musical menace.

Willow is devastated to learn that she pulled Buffy out of heaven, and resolves to make things better by casting a spell to make Buffy forget her afterlife experience. The spell, however, backfires and causes the whole gang to wake up with no memories. The amnesiac Scoobies must piece together their lives and find a way to reverse the spell while dealing with the usual incursion of demons and vampires.

 

After breaking up with Tara, Willow successfully de-rats Amy and the two witches begin hanging out and having fun with magic, drawing Willow further into her growing addiction. Meanwhile, Spike notices that his chip doesn't kick in when he hits Buffy but it only works with her, leading him to believe that she is not entirely human anymore.

When they finally return home from their nights out, Buffy is ashamed of having slept with Spike and Willow is exhausted from casting spells all night. Amy takes Willow to a warlock whose particular brand of magic quickly has Willow hooked. While looking after Dawn, Willow decides to get another quick fix and leaves the warlock's place looking very high and not at all in control of herself. To escape a demon Willow and Dawn steal a car but Willow seems it better to drive using magic, not her hands, resulting in them crashing.

Buffy and Dawn clear the house of magic items to help Willow and Buffy has a surprise visit from a social worker checking on Dawn's home life. The meeting doesn't go well and in a fit of rage afterwards, Buffy cuts off her hair. Meanwhile, the Geek Trio have built an invisibility ray and accidentally hit Buffy with it.

Starved for cash, Buffy gets a job in a fast food restaurant where the weird manager and high turnover of employees has her more than a little suspicious. When co-workers start ending up in pieces, the mystery behind the "secret ingredient" comes into question. Willow works on staying clear of magic, but Amy gives her an unwanted gift and Willow is forced to make a big decision. A vengeance demon friend of Anya's visits and questions her relationship with Xander, leaving Anya doubtful about their soon-to-be-married life together.

The Troika's latest escapade to make Warren's ex-girlfriend Katrina their willing slave goes horribly wrong when she is accidentally killed. The trio use magical and demonic forces to make Buffy think that she has killed Katrina - and it works. With finding out the truth about her resurrection and believing she killed an innocent girl, Buffy's world begins to fall apart.

Old and new friends gather at the Summers home for Buffy's 21st birthday party and it goes off without a hitch - mostly. Feeling neglected by Buffy and the Scoobies, Dawn's wish to keep people from leaving her is answered by Anya's demon friend Halfrek, who binds the attendees of the party to the house. When Tara tries a spell to free them, she only makes the situation worse by accidentally releasing a demon trapped inside a sword.

Riley pursues a demon to Sunnydale and seeks Buffy's help in killing it. He also comes with a surprise... he is married. His wife, fellow demon hunter Sam, befriends the entire Scooby Gang and gets along quite well with all of them, but Buffy's own "relationship" with Spike comes into question when her ex's perfect romance shows her just what she doesn't have.

The day of the wedding has finally come and Xander and Anya are preparing for the hoards of "guests" to arrive. While Xander's screwed up human family go head to head with Anya's mostly non-human friends, a special guest approaches Xander to warn him that his life with Anya may not turn out to be the married bliss he has hoped for.

After being poisoned by a demon, Buffy comes to believe that she is confined to a mental hospital, her mother is alive and her parents are still together and that her life as a Slayer was all an hallucination for the past six years. Deciding that she prefers this 'normal' life with her parents a whole lot more, Buffy attempts to kill the things that tether her to the 'fantasy' life of the Slayer: the Scoobies.

Having accepted the offer to become a vengeance demon again, Anya attempts to curse Xander for the pain he caused her... but she can't do it herself. Instead, she enlists the help of some old friends but it doesn't go how she expected. Buffy spends some quality time with Dawn to make up for her violent actions in "Normal Again", but Dawn's idea of time well spent is the dangerous world of patrolling; while Willow and Tara go on a coffee date and begin to mend their troubled relationship. The gang discover that the Troika have been watching their every move with hidden cameras. The cameras are traced to the trio's lair and what is seen on video proves to be devastating for all of them.

Willow and Tara are well on the road to recovery but love lives are not as good for Xander and Anya or Buffy and Spike. The Troika move full swing into their biggest plan ever: stealing a pair of mystical orbs which imbue the bearer with super strength and invulnerability. They attempt to rob an armored van but Buffy crashes the party resulting in a battle between her and Super Warren. Buffy is all but finished until Jonathan reveals the secret to Warren's power. Buffy manages to defeat him but he escapes by use of a rocket pack and Jonathan and Andrew are arrested. Buffy heads home to await the next encounter but it comes all too soon. A crazed Warren proves he is evil enough on his own and shoots at Buffy. She takes a bullet in the shoulder but a wild shot fatally hits a Scooby...

While the paramedics work on Buffy in the yard, in her bedroom Willow desperately calls on Osiris to bring Tara back to life the same way as she did for Buffy. She is told that the spell will not work for a natural human death and becomes consumed with rage and wants revenge in the worst way. She runs to the magic shop and draws the dark power from the books into her causing her hair and eyes to turn black. After saving Buffy by magically removing the bullet from her shoulder she heads out to find Warren.

After exacting revenge on Warren for Tara's death, an extremely powerful and vengeful Willow now vows to go after the other two members of the trio, Jonathan and Andrew, forcing Buffy into the unlikely role of nerd-villain protector. After freeing the Duo from jail and escaping from Willow, the expanded group runs to the Magic Box to find a protection spell. While all this is going on in Sunnydale, Spike undergoes a fierce challenge given by an African demon in order to become what he once was. Willow, drained of her power, finds Rack and draws his energy into her, killing him in the process. At the Magic Box, Willow catches up to them all and takes on Buffy and Anya, who is doing her best to keep a magical barrier up around Willow. Buffy is no match for Willow's power, but eventually she is drained again and they escape while she is down. Willow regains her strength and brings down Anya's barrier, tossing both her and Buffy aside. Willow heads out of the shop intent on completing her mission when an old friend magically appears in her way, willing to challenge her power....

Giles's new-found power brings Willow down momentarily and Giles magically binds her and leaves to catch up with Buffy. Willow telepathically controls Anya and gets her to break the binding spell. Willow draws Giles's energy into her and is hit by a sudden burst of emotion. Willow feels so much pain and hurt in the world and she decides to end it all.