The documentary comes back on.
(Close up of middle aged man whose face is digitally obscured)
{Caption: Bo - Father of Tara}
Int: Bo, what was Tara like growing up?
Bo: She was a good girl. Dressed modest, cooked, cleaned and sewed for me, didn't use no dirty words. And every Friday when it was correcting time, she'd go and get the belt and I'd give her a few quick licks of the belt to keep the devil out of her. Then on Sunday we'd go to church and handle the snakes and give thanks.
Int: Where is Tara now?
Bo: In a special hospital.
Int: She is in fact in a secure hospital for the seriously mentally ill.
Bo: Well, yes. She had the baby. And she spoke all this crazy filth about demons, other dimensions and dark gods. Then she started cutting up her arms with knives, throwing up her meals and nailing crosses on the doors and the social worker said I should sign some papers to have her made well. So I did and she's been there years now. She's still spouting filthy lies but the doctors say some day she'll be well and she can come home.
Int: How do you feel about your grandchild?
Bo: Can't help the trash that fathered him can he? That child is my blood and it will be a good child. I'm teaching him right from wrong.
Int: What do you think about the cult?
Bo: Wish I'd never sent her out there. Look at what I got back. A despoiled child with a baby and her head packed full of filthy lies and sin. I visit her every six months. Some day she'll be well and can come home and take care of the baby and me.
(Shot of Jonathan)
Int: In your book you allege Willow made advances toward you?
Jonathan: Improper advances. I'm mentally scarred.
Int: What do you remember about Graduation?
Jonathan: Terrible things. Bad things. I know what I saw. I know what some of my classmates really were. What a terrible, ghastly trick they played on everyone, including themselves. There was this poem we had to learn in English class, it was about things falling apart and the centre not holding. Anyway that could be applied to them too. They weren't as smart as they thought they were.
(Shot of a tired looking woman)
{Caption: Anne - runs Teen Shelter in LA}
Int: Do you remember Faith?
Anne: Yes she came running in one night. Her pupils were huge; she was high on something. She kept shrieking about monsters and a murder. She locked herself in a bathroom and cried for hours. We tried to talk her out but she wouldn't. She was severely traumatised so for a few weeks we just left food outside the door. She told us her name was Faith and she was from Sunnydale. Then one morning I switched on the news and the Sunnydale Graduation Massacre was all over the place. I called the cops. They came and talked Faith out. She gave me this look of absolute hatred as they took her away. I had to clean up the bathroom, the mirror was smashed and she'd mushed up her food and smeared words on the wall. I didn't know the language. I spent four hours using hot water and bleach to remove every last trace of her. That girl scared me. Badly. And I deal with gang members every day.
Int: Have you seen her since?
Anne: I saw a photo in the paper when she married her big shot lawyer. Other than that if I ever saw her on the street, I'd run.
(Shot of a thirty something man in a police uniform)
(Caption: Lt Riley Finn - Sunnydale PD)
Finn: I was there when they dug that poor Chase girl out of the Harris garden. She was in bits and parts of her were missing.
Int: There are long standing rumours about the condition of Miss Chase.
Finn: Yeah, they're true. Various organs were missing. When we had that Rosenberg psycho in interrogation she admitted to eating Chase's heart to gather strength. Sick.
Int: Was Miss Rosenberg sane?
Finn: Oh yeah. She tried to play crazy, we had to carry her into the interrogation room and what does she do? She goes nuts, screaming that the two-way mirror is going to steal her soul and she tried to rush it and break it. We got her shackled down, but she kept it up. I heard even on Death Row she kept it up, didn't want reflective surfaces near her. Ha, for all her playacting they saw through her. Four shrinks, one of them the defence shrink, all knew she was sane. She knew what she was doing.
Int: What about the search of Mr Giles apartment?
Finn: They found him sitting in a chair. There were so many flies, his mouth and eyes were sewn shut and there was this bassinet with the baby in it beside him and this was the sickest thing, I can't even say it.
Int: What?
Finn: Several cops had to run outside to puke. I couldn't believe it. There was this bottle in the bassinet and it was full of blood. And there were all these things in little sachets sewn to the bassinet. These little silk bags full of nail clippings, knotted string and graveyard dirt. And the baby was playing with them. The FBI cult expert at the trial said it was some kind of occult ritual. We had none of this devil stuff going on until that man brought his filth and perversion into our town and indoctrinated those kids.
Int: Can you tell me anything else?
Finn: When we searched Mr Giles' room we found copies of those kids permanent records, hundreds of polaroids, a trunk full of magazines and several books. We had to bag and tag all that stuff. Now I'm not saying those kids were innocent little angels but that man was the devil. That stuff we found, I mean he looked normal but that stuff was vile! There are lawsuits still pending about that deviant being allowed into this country, into our school.
Int: What were the photos of?
Finn: I don't know if I can say without violating some legal sanction but Mr Giles was real lucky he was already dead. Those photos are the sole reason Harris didn't end up like Rosenberg.
Int: The magazines?
Finn: Utter filth. I'm from a farm in Iowa, I didn't know there was stuff like that. I didn't know people could like stuff like that.
Int: And the books?
Finn: There were all in German or French, they were really old and were magic books according to the FBI cult expert. I can't believe no-one noticed what was going on with those kids - but I am a firm believer that it all starts with stuff like Harry Potter, MTV reality-shows and subliminal messages in rap music and next thing you know the youth of America are selling their souls to Satan.
(Shot of a red haired young man in an orange prison jumpsuit)
(Caption: Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne - serving life without the possibility of parole}
Oz: I'm clean now, ask anything.
Int: Why?
Oz: Why not? Who was going to stop us?
Int: Are you the father of Tara's baby?
Oz: Who else?
Int: Did you introduce her to the cult?
Oz: Tara? I can't recall, I was doing so much stuff back then. I think I pointed her out to Xander and he brought her along one day or maybe I brought her along. She was real shy and kinda quiet.
Int: Did you have intimate relations with Faith?
Oz: Is that what she told you?
Int: What can you tell me about the murder of Buffy?
Oz: We drove to the school, I was kinda out of it, Mr Giles starts strangling Buffy but then he stops because she keeps looking at him. So he hit her on the head with the steering wheel lock thing. Then Willow checked she was dead. We dragged her into the sub-basement and buried her. Nobody ever went down to the sub-basement so she wasn't found until the cadaver sniffing dogs were going over the wreckage of the school.
Int: What about Cordelia?
Oz: I don't wanna be telling this story. We drove to Xander's house. His parents were having a drunken fight. They never heard us. Cordy was dead, what happened next was Willow's idea. I couldn't do it, I couldn't even watch. I sobered up real quick; I puked on the lawn. Willow did it. Willow hated Cordy that much.
Int: Have you no regrets?
Oz: I'm safer in here than out there. Willow pulled it off. Reality was like a crystal Christmas tree ornament and Willow dropped it and it can never ever be put back together again. Things are turning to crap out there aren't they?
Int: Why did you plead guilty?
Oz: People calling themselves my mother and father came to visit me in the Sunnydale lock-up. But they weren't my mother and father and that was when I knew - I'm not in Kansas anymore.
Int: What can you tell me about the death of Mr Giles?
Oz: How to explain Willow? Her heart had hardened over, gone cold. Willow wanted to lead; she was tired of being second banana so she killed him. But Willow forgot one thing. Buffy's baby. And she let Amy take care of that baby. Amy was very loyal to Mr Giles. Amy was the most loyal. Amy wanted Mr Giles back because she couldn't function without him - and Amy did not like Willow. For all her smugness Willow wasn't he only one who studied Mr Giles' magick books. Amy and Tara did too. Where did those books go after the trials? Why has nobody ever asked that question? Those books held unfathomable power. Amy wanted Mr Giles back; those books were a virtual how to guide. Did you look at them?
Int: Mr Giles is dead.
Oz: Not dead enough, in my opinion.
Int: What can you tell me about Buffy Summers?
Oz: We didn't kidnap her, despite all that stuff her parents spouted on Oprah. Buffy ran away from home, her father was shall we say, overly fond of her. Now he's got her kid, how long had he wanted that?
Int: How did you meet Mr Giles?
Oz: Xander asked me to the library one day. I was a teenage boy and here I was being offered pretty girls, naked chanting and drinking LSD laced potions on a regular basis. It was fun.
Int: LSD laced potions?
Oz: Mr Giles had Willow make these herbal concoctions that were supposed to be magick potions but he'd lace them with copious amounts of LSD or PCP or whatever psychotropic drugs he had to hand. We spent a lot of time lying on the floor in Mr Giles apartment stoned out of our minds while he took polaroids of us. Come on, of course he was a perv, I suspected as much going in. The LSD was kinda worth it though.
Int: Are you aware they're making a movie about the cult?
Oz: It can't be anymore false than the bilge the media pumped out about us. Some of my family members went on Jerry Springer to talk trash about me and the audience threw chairs at them. Or what about that terrible memorial tribute song that boy bond did - though I heard it won several MTV Video Music Awards. I saw that they televised Cordelia's funeral. All these kids weeping over her silver plated coffin - half of them didn't even like her or miss her. Who did they cast as Mr Giles?
Int: John Malkovich.
Oz: Why am I not surprised? Stick a pair of horns on him and give him a pitchfork already. Mr Giles was there for us in a way nobody else was. He was our support system. Our parents, our school, our peers - nobody cared. He cared. He guided us, helped us. I stayed because I wanted to, because being there gave me friends, a sense of belonging. I didn't want to be an outsider, a loner, frozen out, being with them meant I had friends. I was part of a group. I didn't exist without them.
Int: Do you think Miss Rosenberg had any remorse for her actions?
Oz: Guilt. It's a terrible thing to have to live with, but guilt for what? Ask yourself that. I believe in Valta, we all did. Willow wanted to show us all how smart she was; she wanted us to compliment her. I think Willow opened a door. She just didn't think about who else she would contact in the process. That was her biggest flaw, she didn't plan enough. She wasn't Mr Giles - she couldn't lead. We could see what she really was inside. With Mr Giles gone, there was distance and silence and plotting. She didn't see any of that or pause to think that a door can swing both ways. Believe me, I have had plenty of time to think about this stuff. I can't stop thinking about it.
Int: Can you tell me about kidnapping Cordelia Chase?
Oz: That is not what happened.
Int: What did happen?
Oz: It was Homecoming, none of the group went because they were too busy sitting in Mr Giles' place smoking weed to bless Buffy's baby or something. Anyway I crashed the dance and I was swigging some of Willow's latest concoction out of a hipflask while eating leftover hotdogs. Anyway Cordelia dances up to me. She's wearing her Homecoming Queen tiara and a green dress and her eyes were bright and she looked hot. She asked me if I had any coke and I said no. She pouted so I offered her the hip flask. Anyway she chugs the lot. Then she's looking at me and her eyes are too bright and she's giggling. She wraps herself around me and asks if I want to park. This was Cordy Chase, Queen C - I wasn't turning that hot stuff down. So we go out to my van. She climbs in, falls down and we go at it. Anyway I wake up and my mobile is ringing and it's Xander and he's yelling at me to get my ass back to them because Buffy's waters broke. So I jump into the drivers' seat and drive back. I'm getting out of the van when I realise Cordy is still there in the back, passed out. I figured I'd leave her there but I'm walking up the steps to Mr Giles' place when I hear this screech. I turn around and Cordy is tumbling out of the van. She's barefoot, she's pulling her skirt down and her hair is all mussed. She saw me and started yelling that I was socially dead for wrecking her night. I told her to shut up but she was stoned and she lunges up the stairs and she's clawing at me and yelling and that was when Willow opened the door. She saw Cordy and her eyes just went cold.
Int: What happened?
Oz: Cordy saw Willow and yelled that she was Homecoming Queen and she didn't want to get fleas from losers. Willow just goes white and she runs out, grabs Cordy by the hair and slammed her face first into the metal railing. Cordy's nose was bleeding and she was shrieking and Willow drags her into the apartment by her hair. She threw Cordy onto the floor and said called her names and kicked her in the ribs. Cordy was screeching that we'd all fry. Then Faith ran out of the kitchen and she had a knife. Then she said she hated girls like Cordy and she stabbed her in the stomach. Willow clapped her hands. Xander took the knife off Faith telling her to back off; Faith had been smoking heroin again. Faith said Xander had no balls, which was why he took it from Mr Giles. Xander punched her and Faith crawled back into the kitchen. Xander screamed he had balls. Cordy was bleeding and crying and she called him a loser and Xander went nuts on her. Hacking and slashing. Willow kept laughing. Then Mr Giles came in and dragged Xander off and he threw him down the hall, like nine feet and dragged him into his bedroom and started kicking the crap out of him. Amy and Tara came out of the kitchen then and they said the baby was coming. Cordy was bleeding all over the floor. Tara said she wasn't cleaning that mess up. Willow said she had to see the baby and they all went into the kitchen to see Buffy's baby.
Int: Why did Mr Giles beat Xander?
Oz: It was a regular thing with them. Look all he did was grope my ass but Mr Giles enjoyed knocking Xander around. Xander didn't complain. We didn't ask. Xander has this horrible need for someone, anyone to pay attention to him. Faith was like that too, she craved attention. Look how she repaid us though, runs off into the night. Nasty girl, I never liked her.
Int: What do you know about Jonathan?
Oz: Willow tried to recruit him once, she failed. If Mr Giles had tried to recruit him, Jonathan would have been part of us. Mr Giles had this way about him; you would do anything for him without question. With him I was something.
Int: Did you ever meet Anya?
Oz: She talked too much, possibly because she had no other way to distinguish herself.
Int: What do you know about Harris having thousands of dollars in his possession?
Oz: To call Xander's parents white trash is an insult to white trash. He didn't have a car. He never had money. But he wanted it. He wanted to have rich girls like Cordy date him. So he went to Mr Giles for help. This all came out at his trial, Mr Giles was just so eager to help Xander with his cash flow problems. He took Xander to certain clubs in LA - special clubs with special customers. There was dancing and fistfuls of dollar bills involved. Do you want me to draw you a picture? We all knew but we didn't say anything. Xander didn't say no to any of it. Nobody said no to Mr Giles. He was our god. Faith went with them a couple of times. Sometimes Mr Giles would have Xander go into special back room with old, rich men with certain tastes. Money up front. Big money. Faith would listen at the door to make sure, you know, that Xander did as Mr Giles ordered. She got a kick out of it. The only part she didn't like was carrying Xander out of the club and to the car. Mr Giles had the backseat covered with plastic sheeting for a reason. Then they'd drive back here and Faith would have to drag him to the bathroom. Mr Giles didn't want his clothes mussed. She'd dump him in the shower and turn it on, cold. Then she'd just leave him there. Buffy would be on the sofa, pretending to sleep. She never said anything either. None of us did, we were glad it wasn't us and besides deep down inside we thought Xander deserved it. Mr Giles let Xander keep all the money, but we never saw him spend a single cent.
Int: What can you tell me about Graduation?
Oz: I don't remember much, Willow was chanting and cutting herself. Amy was smiling - she didn't do that enough. There was screaming and the Mayor knocked Willow down and put her in a chokehold until she passed out. Isn't he a Senator now?
Int: What about the fire?
Oz: Willow caused that, she wanted that door open.
Int: What is your impression of Tara?
Oz: Too many secrets.
Int: And Amy?
Oz: She loved to play the victim, she had this innate ability to make people pity her. Have you looked in on Buffy's baby lately? Asked her how life was like with Mommy Amy?
Int: What are you insinuating?
Oz: Buffy's baby is not a kid, I'd ever babysit. Do you believe a child can be born wrong? Totally wrong, knowing darkness and choosing it willingly?
Int: Are you saying there is something wrong with Baby S?
Oz: Wait and see, in the end it's only going to be a matter of time.
Int: What happens now?
Oz: It has begun.
(Shot of a thirty something woman wearing a prison guard uniform)
(Caption: Natalie French - Prison guard to Willow Rosenberg}
Int: What was Willow like?
French: Wailing, screeching, banging her head off the wall. Playing crazy to escape the bye bye needle.
Int: Did she ever speak to you?
French: She yelled at people. Said she'd got it all wrong and she was sorry. Clawed at her face and pulled at the hair. Said she'd done a bad thing and she'd never meant to. Bit her arms and painted stuff on the wall in her blood. Said she didn't want to die.
Int: Did she ever express remorse?
French: We had to drag her to the death chamber. She was clawing and screaming that she wasn't a bad person and that everyone had lied and she didn't want to die and be lost in oblivion. We strapped her down and these were her last words, she looked right at me and said: "Forgive me, I didn't mean to". Then she just closed her eyes and wept until it was all over.
Int: What did you think of this?
French: Waste of my tax money. They should have taken her out of the courtroom and driven her over a few times with an SUV. Quicker and cheaper. Hell, I'd have done it.
(Shot of an African-American man)
(Caption: Stephen Platt - former Guidance Counsellor at Sunnydale High}
Platt: These were troubled kids. Scared kids. Angry kids. But I couldn't give help unless they asked for it. I'll always regret that I couldn't help them.
(Shot of a dark haired girl in a fast food restaurant uniform)
(Caption: Shelia Martini - Class of 99 survivor}
Sheila: Well I wasn't at Graduation, I was barred due to accidentally stabbing the horticulture teacher with a gardening trowel.
Int: Did you know any of the cult?
Sheila: They hung out at the library all the time. Everyone knew they were weirdoes. Nobody ever went into the library but them. When I heard about what happened I wasn't surprised. Everyone knew they were in a gang or something. Did you see that so-called dramatic reconstruction of Graduation that they aired on HBO? I didn't get any money off that due to not being present at Graduation but my lawyer says I have a case due to emotional stress and other stuff.
(Shot of a lanky young man in a USC sweater)
(Caption: Jesse McNally - onetime friend of Alexander 'Xander' Harris}
Jesse: Yeah I knew him at Sunnydale but like we drifted apart and then my dad was transferred and I moved away. Xander never even said goodbye. He was too busy hanging out with Willow and this blonde chick in short skirts. I now know that was Buffy. It must have started then; yeah I remember that was the semester that Mr Giles took over the library. People mentioned it cos of all that tweed he wore. Shame really what happened to Xander.
(Shot of a rough looking man in biker gear)
(Caption: Jack O'Toole - Sunnydale High dropout}
Int: You met Harris once, what was your impression of him?
Jack: Dude wasn't cool. He tried to hang with me and my buddies once. What a loser.
Int: So how has this tragedy affected you?
Jack: I do dry wall for a construction company to support four kids, by four dumb ho's who told me they were on the pill. I've got a lawyer and we're gonna sue, it's post-traumatic stress syndrome - Harris rear-ended this car I was in once, so it's lingering side effects. Yeah, I'm suing.
(Shot of a young man with a chiselled jaw)
(Caption: Devon MacLeish - onetime boyfriend of Cordelia Chase}
Devon: Yeah I knew Cordy. Hot chick. Me and her had this Pamela Des Barres thing going on. (grins) I knew Oz too. He was cool until the whole arrest thing. How uncool can you get? I was just sitting there at Graduation wearing that stupid hat and all hell broke loose. I saw Vice-Principle Flutie tackle Oz and smack his head off the ground. I was like go Mr Flutie! Who knew he had it in him? (frowns) But dude it was like major malfunction, I saw that newspaper dweeb Frederick Iverson get his skull caved in and there was like blood geyersing all over the place and Heidi Barrie was running around with her gown on fire. I saw Scott Hope lying on the ground and he wasn't moving and there were flames coming out of his eyes. (clears throat) Anyway Xander was running away and then Mr Gregory the biology teacher tackles him, total NFL moment and Mr Gregory got the swim team to sit on the nutjob. Who knew teachers could be so cool? Anyway Xander is struggling and howling like a desert wandering Anne Heche and then Lysette Torchio comes over and gives him a cheerleader kick right in the head and he was out cold. Major coolness. (closes eyes) I was interviewed by CNN and Time magazine. I didn't go to the funerals. What was the point? They're gone, so many - just gone. (Opens eyes) I used to be into music you know, but after that I lost it. I can't hold a note anymore, I can't think of cords or anything. It's all just gone.
(Shot of Tara)
Int: You are being detained at this mental hospital indefinitely?
Tara: I wouldn't help them understand the magick books so they dumped me here to shut me up, but I won't shut up. The books are useless now due to reality being splintered into a gazillion pieces. The Earth moved, they broke through and reality shattered into a million pieces. All we've got left are fragments we cling to, floating endlessly through the black starless void. Reality is destroyed. No more happy endings. No endings at all. Just an eternity of endless torment.
Int: Thank you for your time Tara.
Tara: Listen to me, you must listen. Faith was a high school dropout, so how come she's working for this pricey LA law firm? How? Answer me! Willow broke reality! The door opened wrong. We're lost, floating, drifting and it can't be fixed. Listen to me - the door opened wrong! There can be no end to this!
Int: That is what you believe.
Tara: Amy isn't as good as she thought. Tell me - who would you be if you couldn't remember who you were? Would you know?
(Voices off camera)
(Caption: Interview terminated. No further interviews with hospital inmates will be granted}
(Shot of Faith)
Faith: I'm at peace with myself. I sleep just fine at night. I lived through it. I escaped it. Sometimes I wake up in the night and I lie there in the dark and I think that he could he there. Sitting in the shadows watching me. Telling me in that smooth voice of his that it doesn't hurt. That's what he always said and we believed he knew best. He said he didn't like hurting us but it was for our own good. Sometimes I try to go into a dark, empty part of my mind and forget. Pretend it never happened. But I can't. (closes eyes) Did you hear what he did to Willow once? We went to his apartment one day. And he was sitting there at the dinner table. Smiling. It wasn't a nice smile. And there was something on the table covered by a Charles and Diana dishcloth. He told us to sit down and then he told Willow to remove the dishcloth. So she did. There was a blender on the table and it had Willow's pet fish swimming around in it. Willow just gasped and he told her that he didn't like her spreading her affection around. (pauses) He told her to go into the kitchen, plug it in and turn it on. She just looked at him and he asked if she wanted to be hit. So she picked it up and walked into the kitchen area and started crying. He told her to do it. She was sobbing and he just sat there with his back to the kitchen area. We were sitting there, not making a peep. She plugged it in and turned it on. It was so loud and Willow was howling. Then he told her to switch it off. Then he told her to drink it. I tried not to react, to not even look at the monster that deep down inside we all knew him to be. The chill in that apartment was almost tangible, like a cloud passing in front of the sun. She did it, drank it all in several gulps. He told if she puked, she'd just have to scrape it up and swallow it again. She was still crying than he brought her out of the kitchen and said she couldn't love anyone other than him. She wept in his arms. (opens eyes) Do you understand now? Mr Giles was this bastion to us; we looked up to him. We knew that sometimes we were supposed to stand by and watch and afterwards to clean up and smooth away the evidence to make sure that nobody found out. He was so clever, so cunning. Yet we loved him and protected that monster so assiduously, for reasons nobody can ever understand. The lawyers at the trials asked why we weren't strong enough to intervene, stop it happening. It wasn't a matter of courage. It was simply that we didn't see any way we could
Int: And your life now?
Faith: I have a husband who takes care of me, protects me. That's all I ever wanted.
(Shot of Amy)
Int: How is your life now?
Amy: As well as can be expected. I study from home. I eat a lot. If I got to the shops, I get looks. I miss Mr Giles. He gave my life a purpose, he told me what to do, how to dress, how to think. Getting out of that ritual is not easy. I dream about him all the time. Sometimes I have to drink two bottles of red wine before I can sleep.
Int: Did you understand what you were doing was wrong?
Amy: Mr Giles told us what to do. You know what Oz did to his little cousin Jordy because Mr Giles told him to. I bet Oz didn't chat about that with you. Jordy may get out of the burn unit some day soon. Wrongness didn't come into it.
Int: What happened at Graduation?
Amy: It was all Willow's fault. Willow didn't know her place. To sit by his hand not assume his chair. If she hadn't tried to usurp his leadership, it would never have happened. I was supposed to go to Northwestern! But no, not now. I study at home by correspondence course. I was told that if I followed Mr Giles, did his bidding - all would be made right. That was the true way - serve not lead, that is how you escape notice. Have you heard of tall poppy syndrome? If you are too successful, you must be cut down to size. Willow was an abomination. Willow was a tall poppy and the trouble with being a tall poppy is that people always know where and how to find you.
Int: Do you believe in Valta?
Amy: Yes.
Int: Where you part of what happened at Graduation?
Amy: No. Mr Giles was dead. Do you understand me? He'd been my life support for nearly three years. Without him I didn't know what to do. Willow was telling us what to do, but she was false. Mr Giles was dead. I had to care for Buffy's baby, keep it safe from Willow. She wanted to open the door to Valta, Mr Giles wanted it closed. Willow tore it open and it can never ever be sealed now. I know what the FBI cult experts said Folie a Deux, shared madness, brainwashing, blah blah blah but they didn't see what we saw. The only way I am able to get through each wretched day is knowing I preserved that baby.
(Shot of the rebuilt Sunnydale High)
(Shot of a 16 year old girl with dark hair)
(Caption: Kit - Student at Sunnydale High}
Kit: Yeah like we know what happened here for sure. Bunch of students went crazy, now we have all these bogus rules. Can't have a nail file, aspirin or an asthma inhaler on school grounds. Our bags have to be made of clear plastic, we can't wear black or any jewellery and we can't dye our hair. They can drag you out of class at any time for a random drug test. We have to go everywhere in pairs, there is no net access and we don't have lockers! You know they burnt all the copies of the 1999 yearbook? Bogus. Metal detectors, armed security guards, no damned Prom. There used to be this cool shop in town where you could buy scented candles and cool Halloween stuff but this parents group had it shut down because they said it was part of the liberal media occult brainwashing of those kids. They banned Halloween, the local cinema can't show films with an R rating and teens can't be out past 8pm. They shut down the Bronze. It's like a police state. Back when it happened my Mom took away my iMac, my black clothes and my Patti Smith CDs and threw them in the trash! She said it was to prevent me being corrupted! This town totally sucks now thanks to those weirdoes.
(Shot of a stern looking African-American man in a cheap suit)
(Caption: Agent Wood, FBI}
Wood: I don't know what this case was all about - something strange is the best I can come up with.
Int: What is your opinion of the Agent known as Jenny Calendar?
Wood: She lost her objectivity, she got personally involved. She's ruined as an undercover agent now.
Int: So much of this case doesn't make sense.
Wood: Some people have their memories clouded by drugs or emotion, others are lying or are flat out crazy. Something went very very wrong at this High School and despite all the denials, people knew. They did know and they choose to ignore it. These kids had parents, Mr Giles had neighbours, people knew what was going on and they did nothing. They bleat the if we had only known BS but they did know. People knew, the Chase family can file all the billion dollar lawsuits they want but it won't change anything. Their daughter is dead because people closed their eyes to the rot right under their noses.
Int: What do you think took place?
Wood: Mr Giles was the de facto leader at first, but Willow wanted to be the leader and there was a power struggle. Mr Giles was removed and Willow took over, but they didn't follow her like they followed Mr Giles. Or that's what they want everyone to think. Now people are dead. You think the people who are walking free are just going to forget all this and live a happily ever after normal life? No, they won't. This wasn't a cult; this was a mob indulging in hysteria and madness. I've seen some bad stuff, but nothing like this. All these pregnant girls, we found notes made in the margins of his books. Ramblings about some messiah born of her blood, that will be the Destroyer and the Redeemer.
Int: That was why was it so important to have children?
Wood: That was what he wrote. They were all crazy. Those babies can't be normal not with what their mothers went through.
Int: What about Valta?
Wood: They remain steadfast in their belief.
Int: Can you explain the condition in which you found Baby S?
Wood: The cult experts said it was ritual necromancy magic, the cops took the baby out of there, which supposedly disrupted the ritual before it finished. Who knows what they were trying to do? The baby was unharmed, it had been well cared for and was perfectly clean. Amy Madison's trial testimony said Rosenberg was using the baby as part of some magic spell.
Int: Do you believe in magic?
Wood: No. But they did, sometimes belief is all you need.
Int: Who was the real evil? Willow Rosenberg or Mr Giles?
Wood: There was a lot to spread around. They nailed those kids on every charge they could think up. They wanted to shut them up, didn't want the ravings of mad and religious maniac teenagers getting out. The media coverage was so intense; you'd have to be living on Mars not to have heard of it. They think it'll go away you know. But the books, the film, the memorial song, the news groups and the web pages devoted to this case will never ever let it rest. Some of those involved are more concerned with getting a book deal and wondering who'll play them in the movie than in taking responsibility for what happened. Do you honestly think there can be a neatly wrapped up ending to this entire story?
Int: This documentary is part of the closure and healing process.
Wood: None of those girls who escaped will ever be normal. Their situation troubles me deeply; I raised the question of their immunity but got no answer. The FBI wanted their testimony; some of the testimony given worries me. What they were a part of and they walk free wearing white mink stoles, driving Spyders and acting as advisors on the movie about this case. Some justice. Harris will spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement because his fellow inmates want to make a name for themselves by lynching him. Is that justice? I honestly do not know. What about the children born out of that madness. What will those children become? That scares me.
Int: Do you think this could happen again?
Wood: The question is when it will happen again. There will always be some people who want to remake the world and there will always be those who are willing to help them do it. There were people that could have acted against them and nothing happened.
(Shot of a middle-aged woman with blonde hair)
(Caption: Maggie Walsh - Professor of Psychology at the University of Sunnydale}
Walsh: Buffy Summers and Cordelia Chase are dead, several other teenagers died at what was supposed to be their Graduation. Many others were injured. A community has been ripped apart. The people speaking in this documentary purport to tell the story of the cult that existed beneath the middle-class facade of Sunnydale High, in as much as the cult existed and these people experienced it - their accounts are accurate. Due to the traumas of this case, distinctions between objective reality, subjective fantasy and subjective illusion have become blurred. Though for the most part internal consistency is maintained. The descriptions of Rupert Giles bring us no closer to understanding who he was. The cult members make a point of linking Mr Giles with the fatal Graduation. However the lack of corroborative testimony from outside their group and the intentional misdirection involved in portraying Mr Giles as the mastermind of a series of disturbing activities only serves to underline the fact that the cult members treat Mr Giles in a deliberately evasive manner. There is a long way to go for any of these people to get their lives back. This wound on the psyche of a small town and a country will never fully heal and the answers will never all be known. We can only hope that such a horror will never and can never happen again. But the sad truth is there will always be a next time.
The end credits roll, they are very long.
In a darkened bedroom, a three-year-old girl watches the screen blankly. A commercial for a refined sugar drink comes on. She switches off the television.
Her grandparents are downstairs no doubt having watched this very same show. They'll be upstairs soon to check in on her. She climbs into bed and closes her eyes.
She'll be starting school soon.
She can't wait.