Conversations with Dead People

"Conversations with Dead People"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
Buffy stakes Holden after he reveals Spike is his sire.
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 7
Directed by	Nick Marck
Written by	Jane Espenson Drew Goddard (but see writing credits)
Featured music	"Blue" by Angie Hart
Production code	7ABB07
Original air date	November 12, 2002
Guest appearance(s)
Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells Adam Busch as The First/Warren Mears Jonathan M. Woodward as Holden Webster Azura Skye as The First/Cassie Newton Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers Stacey Scowley as Young Woman
Episode chronology
← Previous "Him" Next → "Sleeper"
List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

"Conversations with Dead People" is the seventh episode of the seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is the only episode other than "Once More, with Feeling" where the title appears on screen.

Several encounters take place around Sunnydale on one night, which are told in real time. Uniquely among Buffy episodes, the main characters do not interact with one another. According to the staff writers, this was intended to enforce the idea of "being alone."

On patrol, Buffy discovers that her latest vampire foe is an old high school classmate named Holden Webster. Upon recognizing her, "Webs" stops their fight and takes on a friendly demeanor – seeming pleasantly surprised to have run into her and asking how she has been. Because she doesn't immediately remember him, Webs begins to jog her memory about the half dozen times they interacted with each other. Buffy finally recalls him, and the two begin to reminisce. The vampire, a psychology major in life, proceeds to psychoanalyze Buffy, and she opens up to him about her innermost conflicts and problems while at the same time fighting. She slays him in the end, but not before he identifies Spike as the vampire who (recently) sired him.

Back at Revello Drive, Dawn prepares for a night alone at home. An unnaturally loud banging sets her nerves on edge. She talks with her friend Kit on the phone, asking, "See? Do you hear that?" when the banging begins again. Eventually, Dawn comes to believe that her mother is trying to contact her, and the malevolent force is working to prevent her. Dawn manages to exorcise the malevolent force and Joyce appears to warn her that when the time comes, Buffy won't choose her.

In a story entirely devoid of dialogue, Spike picks up a woman at a bar, walks her home, and feeds on her, leaving her dead on her own doorstep.

Jonathan and Andrew return from Mexico to dig up an artifact hidden near the Hellmouth. Andrew is secretly in contact with what appears to be the ghost of Warren, while Jonathan is having a personal revelation that he misses high school and still cares for his old friends. After they dig up the artifact, Andrew, on Warren's instructions, insults and kills Jonathan, causing his blood to spill all over a 'door' in the dirt.