aired on: October 16, 2001

written by: Doug Petrie and Jane Espenson

directed by: Doug Petrie

Buffy creeps through the basement of their house only to be faced with a leaky pipe. Dawn comes and sits on the stairs, telling Buffy to call a plumber, but Buffy tries to fix it herself. She fixes that pipe, but breaks every other one in the basement, flooding it.

The next morning, Buffy and gang are eating breakfast while Xander and his plumber friend Tito go look at the pipe system and the damage involved. Tito hands them a bill, that is extremely large even with the discount he offers them because the whole system is shot and needs to be replaced. Buffy says to just pay the bill when Willow brings up her strained financial situation. Even though Joyce left life insurance, medical bills and Buffy's death has eaten up most of that money and the Summers girls are broke.

Anya suggests charging for saving people, like Spiderman does. Xander is forced to tell her that she is wrong, that he doesn't charge, and she leaves angrily. Xander catches up with her outside where Anya accuses him of not wanting to get married since he hasn't told anyone. He says he want to wait for the perfect moment but Anya is sick of waiting and storms off.

Desperate for money, Buffy goes to the bank to apply for a loan using the house as collateral. The loan officer is turning her down because of her extreme lack of income and job when a demon attacks. While Buffy is fighting, the bank gets robbed. The demon runs away and Buffy tries to argue with the loan officer since she saved his life, but she is still turned down.

That night at the Magic Shop, Buffy is training with a punching bag while Willow is talking to her. Willow tries to provoke her because she has been showing a lack of emotion since returning. Buffy gets angry for a while before returning to her semi dazed state.

While Dawn is trying to convince Tara to let her research, she and Xander argue over the demon's name. Dawn finds a picture of the demon which Buffy identifies as the one in the bank. Giles returns and they have a sweet reunion followed by an intense talk between him and Buffy in the back of the shop. They return to research where they discover that this demon is usually for hire, but who hired him?

Enter the secret lair of the Troika; who are Jonathan (the one who made himself a superstar), Warren (maker of April and the Buffybot), and Andrew (whose older brother sent the dogs during the prom). Hiding in someone's basement, they count the stolen money gleefully while dealing with the demon who is complaining about having to fight the Slayer during the robbery.

Giles is staying on the couch at the Summers house. He and Buffy discuss her money problems while making the bed. He tells her that they can work her problems out together and she tells him how glad she is that he's back. He goes to hug her but she moves out of his reach.

The three geek boys show a flashback to when they decided to take over Sunnydale. They let themselves off the hook by giving the demon Buffy's address. They don't want to kill her themselves because she's hot and saved their lives and stuff. They decide to hipotise her instead to make her into their little sex bunny.

Giles goes into the kitchen where Willow is eating a midnight snack. She starts telling him how great it is to have Buffy back and how great she is for doing the spell. Giles gets mad at her for trying something that could have gone so horribly wrong and messing with the forces of darkness. Willow tries to brush it off but yells back saying that she can handle the powerful forces and it's not a good idea to make her mad. Giles leaves when Willow calms down and promises to think about her magic.

Buffy is on the porch and overhears their conversation. Spike comes over and they talk about how life is and money issues.

Dawn comes downstairs, looking for a snack and runs into Giles. They start to head for the kitchen when the demon breaks through the door. Giles tries to fight but gets knocked out. Buffy comes rushing in to fight but tries to avoid breaking anything. She forces the demon into the basement where she kills it.

The scooby gang meets the next day to try and save some of the broken furniture. While they take the pieces out to the trash, Giles gives Buffy a pep talk about these money issues but they are interrupted by the phone. Buffy takes off to see Angel, leaving Giles and Dawn behind.