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Christmas is almost here. Langborn has set his final plans into motion, and the world is in grave danger. But the great darkness beneath Exeter will not let this come to pass without a battle - and the Slayers East are caught in the middle... (Air Date: 8 May, 2007)

Regulars:

• Candy
• Cynth
• Zak
• Brian
• CC

Other Characters:

• Meryll - Brian's wife, Candy's mother
• Nick - the boy Candy never quite got together with
• Petra - Nick's recent ex, friends with Cass
• Josh - vamp researcher from Baltimore, now knows they are real
• Terrence - Gnarshact demon, not such a bad guy really
• Alison and Bonny - Candy's old watcher and her new protege
• Max - Cynth's ex, band member
• Lolly - Band member, once the queen bee
• Augustus Langborn - the old man himself
• Chrys and Aggie - Cynth's sisters
• Seth - "works" alongside Zak

Episode Synopsis:

After Lex's funeral, Candy is troubled by ominous dreams. She calls Alison, who arrives in Exeter soon after with a new slayer in tow, Bonny. Meanwhile, Brian cracks a code in the Ashmedai Texts, Josh leaves town, and Lolly sings a song.

It seems that Langborn is trying to suck the world into demon-land. He must be stopped! But at the preparation meeting, Meryll reveals that she has been infected by R'Thilliach's influence - she betrays the team and goes to free R'Thilliach!

Two sub-teams are formed. Brian, Candy, Zak and Alison go to free Meryll and stop R'Thilliach, while Cynth and Cass lead Nick, Terrence and Bonny down to face Augustus Langborn and stop him. Things are bad. Langborn has completed his ritual, and it seems that the only thing that will stop the demon sun from rising is cutting the flow of power by freeing R'Thilliach.

Cynth and Cass's team take on Langborn and his demons, and manage to slay the shadow demon Thea and destroy a beacon that was summoning the great devil Asmodeus to earth. As Langborn joins the other group in R'Thilliach's chamber, Cass leads a verbal assault on the old man, exposing his own hypocrisy and the emptiness of his philosophy; in a rage of grief, Langborn blasts Terrence into dust and then is himself defeated and claimed by a great devil from beyond.

Candy and Zak, however, come to realise that the prophecy is upon them. To stop the demons, R'Thilliach must be freed; if freed, R'Thilliach must be destroyed; the only way to make R'Thilliach vulnerable is for Candy to exploit the connection between them to capture the demon within herself. For just a moment, R'Thilliach will be vulnerable. Candy makes her choice. To save the world, she lets Meryll finish the ritual and then takes R'Thilliach into herself. But there is only one person who can follow through and ensure R'Thilliach dies - Zak, whose magic reaches through R'Thilliach's defences. So Zak takes Candy in his arms, and she gives her assent, as he kills her to save the world.

Trivia and Notes:

• This was the first part of a two-part episode, the first in the entire run of the series.
• This was also the most intense episode in the run of the series. This has been a doom-and-gloom season, all building up to this moment. The prophecy comes from season 3: in episode 5, Bloodways, Zak and Max faced Lilith, who told Zak an unpleasant prophecy from Solace - that when Candy dies, it will be his hand on the dagger's hilt and in episode 6, Cinders, a vision of what will come to pass if she takes the power back - Zak in a prison cell, on his way to execution...
• The death of Terence in this episode was entirely unexpected. Poor Terence.
• The lyrics to Lolly's song can be found in pdf form here.