"I Robot You Jane"
In the Middle Ages, a young man approaches a horned
demon, who smiles at him and then breaks his neck. Later, a group of monks,
outraged by the deed, chant in Latin, open a book and the demon is sucked
into it -- its pages now filled.
Back in the library, Buffy opens a crate and finds the long forgotten book.
Along with Xander and Willow, the school's two computer experts are helping
scan books: Fritz, (nice name) a menacing looking bruiser, and Dave, a geekier
kid. Also present is Miss Calendar, the computer science teacher, who rides
Giles about his fear of technology. As Willow scans the ancient book, the
characters disappear from its pages. When she looks away, words appear on
the screen: "Where am I?"
A week later, Willow tells Buffy about Malcolm, a boy she's having an online
romance with. Buffy, worried about her naive friend enlists Dave's help
to try to find out more about Malcolm. Dave tells Buffy to leave Willow
alone. Meanwhile, Miss Calendar stumbles upon the ancient book and asks
Giles about its blank pages. When Giles notices the horned demon on the
cover, he suspects trouble. Dave gets Buffy to look for Willow in the girls'
locker room but when she gets there, Fritz has rigged up some wires in the
shower to try to electrocute her. A puddle reaches the exposed wires and
Buffy is sent flying into the locker room -- the soles of her shoes smoldering.
A shaken Dave tells the computer he can't kill Buffy. Angry at his disrespect,
it types up a suicide note for him.
Back in the library, Giles explains to Buffy and Xander that in the Dark
Ages, the souls of demons were sometimes trapped in certain volumes, where
they remained harmless until the pages were read aloud. When Willow scanned
them, the demon, Moloch, was unleashed into the computer, and now had access
to any computer in the world. Moloch preys on impressionable minds, which
makes both Fritz and Dave vulnerable to his power. Buffy tries to delete
Willow's files, hoping to "delete" Moloch along with them, but
Moloch appears on the screen warning Buffy to stay away from Willow.
Looking for Willow in the computer lab, she finds Dave's body hanging, with
the suicide note pinned to it. Fritz goes to Willow's house, chloroforms
her and brings her to a mysterious warehouse where Dave had been spotted
earlier.
A desparate Giles asks Miss Calendar for help and discovers she has extensive
knowledge of the mystical realm. She helps him repeat the spell the monks
had chanted while she links up a configuration of different computers around
the world.
Meanwhile, Buffy and Xander try to save Willow at the warehouse. By the
time they arrive, Moloch has left the computer and appears as a robotic
incarnation of the horned demon that was back in the Dark Ages. He breaks
Fritz' neck and is about to break Willow's when the spell takes hold, immobilizing
him. Injured, but fighting, he lunges at Buffy, but she ducks and he punches
a high-voltage junction box and is electrocuted to death.