Episode 7 - Yes, Virginia..
ACT FOUR
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT
From where we left off.
ANGLE ON : A DEMONY HAND
as it slowly reaches inside, towards Sarah.
DAWN (O.S.)
Sarah!
Sarah turns around to see Dawn next to her.
ANGLE ON : A DEMONY HAND
as Dawn slams the window down on it while Sarah is not
looking. The hand flinches and withdraws. Dawn locks
the window.
DAWN
(to Sarah)
Why don't you join the others?
SARAH
But Santa's here.
Dawn looks out the window into the darkness,
concerned. She thinks for a moment, then turns back
towards Sarah and the others.
DAWN
That's right. Santa's here and you
know Santa won't deliver any
presents if he sees children up and
waiting for him. So let's all go
upstairs and hide while Santa comes
into the house.
Dawn begins herding the troop up the stairs. We
suddenly hear a gentle rapping on the window.
EXT. OUTSIDE BUFFY'S HOUSE - NIGHT
ANGLE ON : A DEMONY HAND
as it gently taps the window with a long, extended
finger.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/STAIRS - NIGHT
ANGLE : DAWN
as she looks towards the window. She then hears a
second rapping, from the kitchen. She strains to look
towards the kitchen.
EXT. OUTSIDE BUFFY'S HOUSE - NIGHT
from outside the kitchen door, we see another demony
finger gently rapping on the door.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/STAIRS - NIGHT
SARAH
(to Dawn)
But I wanna see the reindeers.
DAWN
Later okay.
NICHOLAS
Will Santa see the milk and cookies
I left out for him?
DAWN
I'm sure he will. Now let's all be
quiet and hide before Santa sees us.
INT. BUFFY'S ROOM - NIGHT
We see Dawn enter the room and switch on the light.
She herds the children in.
DAWN
Okay, Sarah and Jane, you can hide
under the bed. The rest of you can
hide in the closet.
The children happily comply, playing a game. Once the
children are in position..
DAWN
Okay, I want you all to stay really
quiet okay. If anyone comes into
this room before I come back, I want
you to pretend you're all like
mice. Not a sound. I'll come back
when Santa's gone.
The children nod, most still smiling. Dawn closes the
closet door. She looks around the room, goes to a
chest in a corner and picks up a stake from it. She
exits the room and closes the door behind her.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - NIGHT
Dawn creeps down the hallway, looking very nervous.
The house is quiet.
DAWN
(quietly to herself)
Okay, What would Buffy do? She'd
totally take them on with her super
slayer strength.
Dawn catches her reflection in a mirror in the
hallway, looking very nervous, carrying a stake and
very unslayer-like.
DAWN
Okay, new plan.
She slowly and very quietly descends the steps. She
looks around into the lounge room but sees and hears
nothing. She pauses.
DAWN
I can do this.
We follow Dawn as she gets to the bottom of the
stairs, walks past the lounge room and into..
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/KITCHEN - NIGHT
After having a quick look around, she puts down the
stake on the counter and picks up the phone, hurriedly
starting to dial.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT
ANGLE : WINDOW
as a red, furry demon crashes through it, landing onto
the floor.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/KITCHEN - NIGHT
as Dawn stops dialing, looking startled. She hears a
loud banging behind her. She turns to see.
ANGLE ON : THE KITCHEN DOOR
as something is slamming into it, over and over.
Eventually, the door slams open and a second demon
enters, snarling.
We take a first good look at the demon, covered in red
fur with splotches of white. An ape-like face, it has
a wispy white beard and prowls along on all fours.
The demon takes a look around the kitchen and sees the
phone hanging off its cord, swaying gently to and fro.
We PAN from the phone to the kitchen cupboard, where
the door is slightly ajar.
ANGLE : THE DEMON
through a tiny gap from Dawn's POV, hiding in the
cupboard. The Demon walks by into the lounge room.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT
We see the two demons meet up in the lounge room. They
are looking around and sniffing the air, inspecting
the various Christmas decorations. Demon #1 spots the
milk and cookies on the table. It sniffs it and takes
a bite out of one of the cookies. It spits it out
immediately. Demon #2 lets out a repeated high-pitched
whistle, as if laughing. Demon#1 snorts and heads back
towards the kitchen (ie directly from the lounge room
and not the long way around via the dining room).
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/DINING ROOM - NIGHT
Dawn has exited from the cupboard in the kitchen and
is at the doorway of the dining room, peering from
behind a wall and looking across the foyer and the
stairs at Demon#2 in the lounge room.
She sees Demon #2 start heading towards her. Dawn
quickly hides behind the wall. She looks around for
something. She sees what she is looking for.
ANGLE : THE STAKE, THROUGH THE OPEN DOORWAY TO THE
KITCHEN
still on the kitchen counter.
She starts to make a move towards the kitchen, now her
only exit, when suddenly, through the kitchen doorway,
she sees Demon#1 in the kitchen, sniffing the air. The
demon moves from her view but stays in the kitchen.
Dawn suddenly hears a loud snort very close to her,
coming from Demon#2.
ANGLE : DAWN
facing the camera, back against the wall. She is
trapped. She freezes, not daring to make a sound.
We PULL BACK to reveal Dawn on the right hand side of
the screen, behind a wall, and Demon#2 on the left
side, now in the foyer at the foot of the stairs and
at the entrance to the dining room.
Demon#2 looks like it's about to enter the dining
room. Dawn looks to her left to see Demon#1 through
the kitchen doorway, just standing there looking at
something to its right. All it has to do is to look
left. Instead it walks on, away from the doorway.
Demon#2 sticks its head inside the dining room. Dawn
looks down at it, only a couple of feet away from her.
We suddenly hear a bump come from upstairs. Demon#2
immediately reacts, pulling away from the dining room
and looking up the stairs. It starts slowly heading
up. Dawn peeks her head around the corner to see
Demon#2 halfway up the stairs, then looks towards the
lounge room to see Demon#1 now back in the lounge
room. She quickly, but silently retreats back to..
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/KITCHEN - NIGHT
where she scopes out demon#1 (still in the lounge
room) from the kitchen. We see Dawn holding on to her
necklace and concentrating on something.
ANGLE ON : THE SANTA DOLL
on a table in the lounge room.
ANGLE : DAWN
concentrating hard
CLOSE ON : THE BACK OF THE SANTA DOLL
where we see the switch click from 'off' to 'on'. The
Santa Doll begins to sing and dance to 'Santa Claus is
Coming to Town'.
Demon #2 immediately turns around and goes towards
this new sound.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT
We see the demon come right up to the doll as it
continues to sing. In close-up, we see the Santa-like
demon come face to face with the doll, the demon on
the left of screen and the doll facing the demon on
the right of screen. The demon examines the doll for a
beat before it suddenly hears something behind and
turns.
REVERSE ANGLE:
to see Dawn swinging a vase at the camera. We BLACKOUT
as Dawn smashes the vase on the demon.
EXT. OUTSIDE BUFFY'S HOUSE - NIGHT
MATCH CUT : THE DARKNESS OF THE STREET OUTSIDE
We FADE IN to reveal two sets of headlights coming out
of the darkness. Two cars arrive outside Buffy's
house. We see Buffy, Christopher and Giles exit from
Giles' car and the rest of the Scoobies from Xander's
car.
BUFFY
Giles, Chris, go round the back.
Giles and Christopher runs towards the back of the
house. The rest head towards the front but Buffy stops
short when she sees the lone light on in her room
upstairs. She peels away from the rest of the group.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT
Dawn hears someone banging on the door and then sees
something red climbing through the window. Dawn
quickly picks up a heavy book and slams it on top of
Xander in his Santa suit. Xander rolls through the
window and onto the floor.
XANDER
Dawn, it's me!
DAWN
Oops. Sorry.
Christopher and Giles enter from the kitchen. Dawn
hears something upstairs. Dawn, now with a stake in
her hand, rushes up the stairs. Giles and Xander start
to follow but demon #2, having recovered from Dawn's
blow, gets back up and grabs Xander.
INT. BUFFY'S ROOM - NIGHT
We see Demon#2 enter the room, looking around. It
takes a few steps forward.
ANGLE : UNDER THE BED
as Sarah and Jane look at the hands and feet of the
demon in the foreground of the screen, trying to hold
in giggles.
The demon smells the air and starts to head towards
the closet. It gets very close to the closet when
Buffy jumps into the room through the window and
tackles the demon.
ANGLE : DAWN
as she gets to the doorway and sees Buffy and the
demon fighting.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/FOYER - NIGHT
Back downstairs, where Santa Xander and the demon are
grappling with each other on the floor, the fight now
having moved to the foyer. Giles standing over them
holding up a chair over his head, ready to
strike.
Beneath him, we see Xander and the demon rolling over
and over, a blur of red and white. Hard to tell who's
who.
Xander, in the melee, notices Giles with his chair.
XANDER
(panicy)
Wait, wait!
The demon rolls on top of Xander and has him pinned to
the ground.
XANDER
Now!
Giles smashes the chair on top of the demon. The
demon, distracted, looks up at Giles and Xander takes
the opportunity to kick it away.
The demon is sent sprawling towards the front door
which Anya opens just in time.
EXT. OUTSIDE BUFFY'S HOUSE - NIGHT
We see the demon tumbling out of the front door, past
Anya, Willow and Tara, and out onto the porch. The
demon regains its bearings, takes a look around and
decides to call it quits, bounding away into the night.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT
Buffy and Demon#2 continue to fight. Dawn backs away
as the fight spills out of the room and into the
hallway.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - NIGHT
Buffy sees Dawn in the middle of the fight.
BUFFY
Get back!
Dawn backs away further down the hallway. After a
scuffle, Demon#2 knocks Buffy down on the ground.
DAWN
Buffy!
Demon#2 turns around and sees Dawn and snarls. It
begins to bound at full pace towards Dawn, down the
hallway. Buffy looks up, gets to her feet and begins
to rush towards the demon but she is too far back.
Dawn, continuing to face the demon, backs away
dangerously close to the stairs. She nervously holds
out her stake.
As the demon leaps towards Dawn, Christopher, from
behind, grabs Dawn and pulls her out of the way. At
the same time, he sticks a leg out and trips the
demon, sending it tumbling down the stairs. We hear a
crack as it breaks its neck as it hits the floor at
the bottom of the stairs.
Christopher releases Dawn. Buffy rushes over and hugs
her.
DAWN
I'm okay.
Buffy looks over Dawn's shoulder at Christopher.
BUFFY
(quietly but earnestly)
Thank you.
Christopher doesn't say anything and just walks back
down the stairs.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/STAIRS - NIGHT
We see Xander, Anya and Giles gather around the demon
body at the bottom of the stairs. Willow and Tara a
little further back. Christopher and Buffy walk down
the stairs towards the body.
BUFFY
(taking a closer look at
the demon)
What the..? You got to be kidding
me.
XANDER
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa
Claus.
BUFFY
Please don't tell me this is Santa.
GILES
(kneeling over the body)
Thankfully no. It's a Mancha demon.
(enthusiastic)
I never thought I'd actually get to
see one. They only feed once a year
but when they do, they feed
exclusively on the souls of
children. By the looks of it, this
particular species feeds at
Christmas time.
Willow and Buffy share a look; eyebrows raising at
Giles' exuberance.
GILES
Just look at it! Over the years, the
species has developed traits which
promotes a more succesful feeding,
mimicing the appearance of Santa
Claus. Quite obviously a process of
natural selection at work. It's
fascinating.
Giles suddenly notices the stares. He gets up and
casually dusts himself off.
GILES
I mean, thank goodness it's dead.
WILLOW
(re the demon)
Great, Galapagos Grinches. Chalk
another one up for Darwin.
SARAH (O.S.)
Dawn? Can we come out now?
Dawn and Buffy turn around to see Sarah and some of
the kids standing in the hallway.
DAWN
Just wait there a second okay?
SARAH
But we want to see Santa.
ANYA
(pulling Xander forward)
Oh! He's right here!
Xander replaces his beard and climbs up the stairs.
Squeals of delight off-screen as the kids see Santa.
Buffy and Dawn watches with smiles.
XANDER (O.S.)
Ho, Ho, Ho.. Whoa!
(more squeals)
Watch the beard! Watch the beard!
Buffy and Dawn watches with grimaces.
Buffy starts to head further down the stairs.
ANYA
(to Buffy)
Oh Wait! Close your eyes!
BUFFY
What? Why?
ANYA
It's a Christmas surprise. I love
surprises.
BUFFY
I'm kinda all surprised out.
ANYA
(insistent)
No, you have to do this.
WILLOW
(to Anya)
Maybe we shouldn't.
BUFFY
(to Anya)
Why are you hanging on to this?
ANYA
(more serious)
Because we need this..
(solemnly)
The whole gang's changing. Doesn't
anybody see it? There's this hard
edge settling in and it's making
everybody all sad and depressed.
Things don't always have to be so
dark. I just.. I just want
Christmas to be different. It's the
one time of the year that people
have an excuse to be nice. It's the
one day where you can leave all the
bad things behind.. We need this.
Buffy softens. She looks at everyone around her, and
at Dawn.
BUFFY
(to Anya)
Okay.
ANYA
(cheery Anya reappears,
exuberant)
Excellent! Someone get a blindfold!
BUFFY
No blindfolds. Let's just get this
over with.
Anya stands waiting for Buffy to do something. Buffy
gets it. She rolls her eyes, sighs, then closes them.
Anya leads her down the stairs by the hand.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT
CLOSE ON : BUFFY
as she is led into the lounge room, eyes closed.
BUFFY
I swear, if you guys have TP'ed the
lounge room..
Buffy opens her eyes. She's speechless.
REVERSE ANGLE:
The lounge room now completely transformed. Very
Christmasy, with the tree, tinsel, ornaments and
various festive decorations.
DAWN
Oh, wait.
Dawn rushes over to an electrical outlet and switches
it on. She then switches off the lights in the room.
We now see the darkened lounge room illuminated by
many colourful lights. Multi-coloured Christmas tree
lights. Strings of lights hanging on the walls.
Glowing novelty Christmas figurines on the floors and
tables. A very pretty and peaceful sight.
ANGLE : BUFFY
visibly moved by the sight, taking it all in. A smile
crosses her face.
BUFFY
(without turning back)
You guys..
(a beat, then earnestly)
Thank you.
Cue Montage : Light, Christmasy music track to be
overlayed over the images.
ANGLE:
Lights now back on. The Scoobies happily celebrating
Christmas with some of the kids. We see Sarah running
to the door happily to be picked up by her parents.
ANGLE:
PAN around the Xmasy lounge room from Xander and Anya
on a chair to Buffy, Willow, Tara and Dawn on a couch,
to Giles on a chair. All having a ball. Some of them
covered with tinsel.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/DINING ROOM - NIGHT
Anya happily serving egg-nog to Buffy. Buffy takes a
sip, then raises her eyebrows, straining to swallow
it. God, that's strong. Anya, smiling, holds up the
empty bottle of rum in her hands. Dawn comes over and
happily holds out her cup, ready to be served. Anya
cheerily begins to serve her as well. Buffy just puts
her hand over Dawn's cup. Dawn is dissapointed.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/KITCHEN - NIGHT
Christopher sitting by himself, by the kitchen
counter. He's reading a large book, doing some
research. We see someone placing a cup of nog on the
counter for him. Christopher looks at the cup, then up
to Buffy. A slight smile from Buffy. She then walks
back out to join the rest of the Scoobies. Christopher
looks back down at his book, then back to the cup of
nog for a beat.
INT. HARMONY'S CAVE - NIGHT
We PAN slowly from right to left. Christmas
decorations, a punch bowl filled with blood, a
christmas tree, but no guests. We continue to PAN to
Harmony, festively dressed but looking very glum,
sitting back on her chair and staring off into the
distance. We continue to PAN off Harmony as we FADE
OUT.
End Montage and Music overlay.
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/LOUNGE ROOM - NIGHT
FADE IN:
to slowly reveal a television screen, playing a grainy
black and white Christmas favourite, 'It's a Wonderful
Life'. The television sound is very low, almost mute.
Instead, from off-screen, we hear a very loud snore.
We PAN away from the television to reveal that the
lights are off in the lounge room. The room being
illuminated by the flickering glow of the television
screen and the Christmas lights on the tree.
We PAN over to the couch to see Willow and Tara both
asleep. Willow's head leaning on Tara's shoulder. A
loud snore off-screen.
We PAN from Willow and Tara to the other couch where
we see Anya and Xander sleeping. Anya laid out on the
couch, her head rested on Xander's lap. Xander, still
in Santa suit, sitting up but with his head tilted
back, mouth wide open. Anya snores.. loudly. An
involuntary movement of her hand (acting out a dream),
accidentally slapping Xander's face. Xander flinches
but doesn't wake up.
We PAN UP to see Giles in the background, across the
foyer, at the entrance to the Dining room. He smiles
slightly to himself as he watches the four sleep. He
then turns and walks back into..
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/DINING ROOM - NIGHT
Where the lights are on. We see Buffy sitting on a
chair, still awake, with Dawn asleep at her lap. Giles
quietly sits down across the table from Buffy. They
exchange a smile. It is very quiet. A loud snore off-
screen.
BUFFY
(smiling, re Anya's
snoring)
You think they're picking this up at
the seismology centre?
GILES
(mockingly, as if
listening to a symphony)
Sshh.. I think she's into the second
movement.
Buffy smiles. She looks down at Dawn.
ANGLE : DAWN
sleeping peacefully on Buffy's lap. We see her
clutching the Santa doll in her arms.
Buffy looks back up. A quiet beat.
BUFFY
Can you hear that?
Anya snores.
BUFFY
I mean, besides Anya.
Giles listens for a second, all very quiet.
GILES
No. I don't hear anything.
BUFFY
Exactly. No demons, no vamps.. Just
silence. I think this is what
Christmas should sound like.
The two share a moment; broken by yet another Anya
snore.
BUFFY
(a sad smile)
But I get the feeling that it's not
gonna be this quiet for very long.
Giles remains silent, not exactly disagreeing.
BUFFY
(looking very tired)
I don't know how much longer I can
do this. Friends in peril.
(looking at Dawn, stroking
her hair)
Seeing the people I love being put
in danger over and over again.
(back up to Giles)
All this.. death. I'm starting to
feel like this is the only thing I
will ever do in my life.
GILES
You've already done so much.
Another beat as they regard each other.
BUFFY
(quietly)
Giles, I want out. This can't go on
forever.
Another silent moment beween the two.
We PAN left, away from this scene to a clock on a
table which reads '12:04am' (It's Christmas).
We continue to PAN left, outside the dining room
to..
INT. BUFFY'S HOUSE/STAIRS - NIGHT
where we see Christopher, standing on the stairs,
reacting to the conversation he has just listened in
on.
BLACKOUT
END OF SHOW
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