The Wish

Written by: Marti Noxon

A lovely day finds Buffy, Willow and Xander up to their usual activities — namely, Ridding Sunnydale of one slimy demon. After the deed is done, the three friends sit and talk. Willow and Xander are still on the outs with their respective significant others after being caught kissing the week before, and Xander asks Buffy how she coped with not being able to see Angel. "I have you guys," the Slayer responds. This is, however, clearly not a philosophy Cordelia Chase buys into. Cordy is taking it the hardest, impassively ignoring the vast amount of answering machine messages left by Xander while as she cuts up a photo of herself, Xander, Willow and Buffy, and burns the pieces.

The next morning, Willow tries once again to patch up her relationship with Oz. Unfortunately, he needs some space and time to make any decisions on the matter. Cordelia shows up at school dressed to kill, seems determined to put the whole Xander thing behind her. Her friends seem supportive, but she soon learns that all of her old friends still have no respect for her, even after Xander Harris has left the picture. Meanwhile, Willow finally catches up to Oz, but a subdued Oz tells her in no uncertain terms to leave him alone.  Cordelia grabs a guy named John Lee in the hallway in a ploy to make Xander jealous, which works, but John Lee tells her he doesn't want to be seen hanging with "Xander Harris's castoff."  Harmony introduces Cordy to Anya, a new girl in town, before harshly insulting her former best friend. Anya who goes against expectations and offers friendship and takes an immediate interest in Cordy's personal troubles. Cordy vows to be completely over Xander.

Later that night, Cordy and Anya go to the Bronze, Cordy is enjoying herself rather ostentatiously as a jealous Xander, along with a sympathetic Buffy and a guilty Willow. After getting up to fetch a few drinks, Buffy notices Cordy abruptly exiting, so she follows her into the alleyto see if she's okay. but just as Cordelia appears about to open up to Buffy,and vent her problems, a vampire intervenes. The ensuing fight sends Cordy is accidentally shoved into a pile of trash. After Buffy dispatches the vampire Cordy emerges, covered in trash, just in time for her friends to see.

The next day,a bitter Cordelia identifies Buffy as the source of all of her troubles. As she explains to Anya the next day, none of the bad things in Cordy's life would have ever happened if Buffy never came to Sunnydale. Anya removes her necklace and places it around Cordy's neck, as a gift to cheer her up. Cordy declares "I wish Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale!"  At this point, suddenly Anya reveals herself to be not quite human grinning she says, "Done."

A bright light flashes, and suddenly Anya is gone, along with half the students in the courtyard, Sunnydale High campus is much less crowded than it was a moment ago. Cordelia quickly realizes that Anya, a good fairymust have granted her wish, she happily goes off to class, where all her old friends love her again. Everything seems peachy (despite the fact that half the desks in the classroom are empty) until she suggests going out to the Bronze. This new version of Sunnydale is not as ideal as she imagined it would be. There's a city curfew that coincides with sunset.  Harmony acts as though Cordy has made a sick joke, and then when Cordy asks if Xander at Willow are at least miserable, Harmony replies, "Well, yeah... they're dead."

Shocked, Cordelia leaves, only to find Sunnydale turned into a ghost town.  Night falls through the downtown area as Cordelia wanders the deserted streets of Sunnydale. She is startled to run into Xander who seems... different.  Cordelia insists that they need to find Buffy, who can make everything right, but then Willow emerges from the shadows, dressed all in leather and dark makeup and hanging all over Xander. Cordy can't believe that, despite her wish, they're still together, wailing that she can't win. "Maybe not," Xander says, "but I'll give you a headstart." With that, his face shifts into vampire form. Realizing that Willow and Xander are now vampires. Cordelia runs, but Xander catches her, knocking her out. Before Xander can kill her, a familiar van pulls up to the scene of the inevitable crime. Giles jumps out wielding a large cross Xander and Willow off with a cross. Behind him, Oz sits in the driver's seat covering them with a crossbow aimed at the vamps. Larry and a girl named Nancy get out of the van and pull Cordy to and take her  to safety. Giles gets back inside, and the van takes off. Cordelia is brought to the library, which serves as the main base for the resistance against the vampires.

Meanwhile, Xander and Willow return to the Bronze, which is now the headquarters for The Master and his vampire minions. They tell about Cordelia and her mention of Buffy. The Master is angry that someone spoke of bringing a Slayer to Sunnydale now, because something called "the plant" is set to open the next night. The Master orders Xander and Willow to kill Cordelia before she can contact the Slayer and interfere with his latest scheme. Back at the library, Cordy finally comes to and trying to explain what happened to Giles about her wish and that they need Buffy. Unfortunately, neither of them realize that Xander and Willow have infiltrated the library. Suddenly Giles is locked in the book cage. Willow leers at him and Giles can only hopelessly watch as Xander and Willow sink their fangs into Cordelia, drink her blood, draining her, killing her.  After the vampires leave, Giles uses an axe from his weapons cabinet to bust open the cage. Larry and Oz arrive, informing Giles of the death of Nancy in a vamp ambush. As they pick up Cordy's lifeless body to bring to the incinerator, Giles notices Anya's necklace and removes it.

The next day, Willow and Xander report Cordelia's death to the Master, who is so pleased he agrees to let Willow "play with the puppy." That turns out to be a caged and chained Angel, who the Master has locked up in the basement of the Bronze as punishment. He trembles as Willow tells him about the plant. "All those people you tried to save?" she says. "It's gonna be quick for them. It's gonna be slow for you." She then proceeds to torture him while Xander watches in admiration.

At the library, Giles discovers through his books that the necklace  is the symbol representing Anyanka, the "Patron Saint of Scorned Women," who grants wishes.. He realizes that Anyanka must have granted a wish that Cordy made which resulted in the world they're living in right now. Giles calls Buffy's Watcher in Cleveland and leaves a message. He needs to go home for more research, but en route he sees some vampires hording people into the back of a van. He gets out and wards them off with the cross, enabling the humans to escape.  However, he is knocked down from behind and at the vampires' mercy. Before the vampires can finish him, another challenger enters the fray. Giles watches the vampires face defeat at the hands of this newcomer, then realizes that this new girl is the one and only Buffy Summers.  He looks up to see a scarred, unhappy-looking Buffy Summers, who demands to know why she's been called.  After taking her back to his apartment, Giles informs her of what he's learned concerning Anyanka. Giles finds out that in order to reverse the wish and render her powerless, Anyanka can be defeated by destroying her "power center," whatever that is, but a supremely unconcerned Buffy instead sets out to find and slay the Master.   

Buffy goes to the Bronze, which is now deserted. In the basement, she finds Angel locked up and chained in the basement behind bars. While she doesn't recognize him, Angel knows exactly who she is from all the time he spent secretly observing her in Los Angeles. She frees him, and together they head to the plant, Angel leads Buffy to a factory where the Master has unveiled a machine that will revolutionize the lifestyle of vampires everywhere. The Master makes a grand speech about the wonders of "mass production" and the bold new age ahead of them. Just as their evil assembly line claims its first victim.  This device can drain a person's body of all of its blood and dispense it into glasses and cups in mere seconds. Buffy and Angel step in to put a stop to the festivities, chaos ensues.   While Buffy fights the vampires head-on, Angel frees the human prisoners.

As the fight continues, Giles summons Anyanka, who threatens him. Then he notices her glowing necklace as her powercenter and grabs it.  In the course of the battle, Xander kills Angel, Buffy kills Xander, and and Oz dusts Willow.   As he rips it from her neck and prepares to smash it, Buffy and the Master square off, Anyanka yells at Giles, "Trusting fool! How do you know the other world is any better than this one?" Giles replies, "Because it has to be," smashing the necklace just as the Master overpowers Buffy's and breaks her neck, killing her,  fulfilling the prophecy in the Pergamum Codex in this reality as well. Giles smashes the necklace.

There is a flash, and suddenly all is back to normal and suddenly Cordelia is standing in front of Anya again. Anya, is mortal and powerless realizes that she is no longer able to grant Cordy's wish. As Cordy spouts off her list of ever-more outlandish revenge wishes, she walks off, she passes by Buffy, Xander, and Willow, who are still alive and well.

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