Recap by Lilly

 

"It’s a small world after all

It’s a small world after all

It’s a small world after all

It’s a small, small world."

 

Five months after Machinations, we find Giles still upset that Veronica is once again visiting Rayne in the hospital, and we see Lex still working on Anya, trying to bring her back to James. Intrepid and utterly annoying reporter Lisa Lance meets with Giles and convinces him to allow her to accompany a slayer team on a mission all in the name of good PR and a "fair" documentary. And the team that she is to accompany is none other than that of Livia, Mira, Jocasta, Katherine, Janet, Brianna, as well as James and two new slayers (Finola and Jenn); this team is about to board a transport piloted by Antonia to investigate a demon attack on a top dimensional physicist and her research team. The only survivor is the physicist herself, Dr. Burkle, the very same physicist whom Lisa Lance interviewed during the competition at the Anomalous Zone and who happens to be one of Jo’s role models. Dr. Burkle and her team had been studying the Florida hellmouth, which happens to be in Jo’s favorite place – the happiest place in the world – the original Magic Kingdom in Disney World. It is a small world after all.

 

Giles introduces Dr. Burkle, who has tried unsuccessfully to get the Council Chairman to allow her to accompany the team, to a star-struck Jocasta. Katherine is suspicious of the scientist who appears to recognize Jo, although the redheaded watcher feels sure that she would remember if they had ever met. But Jo is so thoroughly happy at meeting her scientific hero and at being on her way to her childhood favorite spot that she begins to hum "it’s a small world after all."

 

Besides having to contend with Lisa and her cameraman, demons in another state, and a team of Florida slayers with whom she has to work, Livia has two brand new slayers added to her team. Finola Dunn, an MT from Ireland and so very sure of herself, seems to have eyes for Mira and the uncanny ability to annoy the heck out of Livia. And then there is Jenn – young, enthusiastic, talkative, and on her first away mission. Accompanying Jocasta is Willowgram, who seems to be recovering nicely from her attack by Rayne and Pantelles.

 

Lisa finds her first possible story opportunity during the flight to Disney World as Finola expresses her displeasure at hearing about Jo and Katie’s relationship – a watcher and a slayer fraternizing! But Livia quickly puts a stop to the discussion, reminding everyone that Jo is not Katie’s watcher.

 

But things are not quiet back in Cleveland. A pleasant evening at John’s home with his family is interrupted by his sister hysterically insisting that he do something about the fact that his niece has just been called as a slayer. During his discussion with Chairman Giles about this, we learn that all newly activated slayers are required to go through an initial orientation and training period to help them understand their powers, their responsibilities, and the dangers they may face. Apparently refusals to join the Council are rare, and Giles strongly advises against refusal.

 

At the slayer gym Lian, who is conducting training in Livia’s absence, is not getting any cooperation from a rambunctious group of fellow slayers who are determined to relax while their often overzealous lead slayer is away on her mission. Although annoyed, Lian is distracted by not being able to reach her younger sister.

On their way to the Florida hellmouth, formerly "most magical place on earth", Toni seems to have gained a co-pilot in Janet and is busily acting as tour guide to both the old and new Magic Kingdom. And after a little more humming of a certain song by her cousin, she threatens Jo with the disclosure of what really happened at the Teacups when they were kids on a family outing to the park. And so thankfully, we get a respite from the song.

 

Arriving at their destination, Livia tries to deal with the over-enthusiastic Jenn, who has apparently latched on to her like a fangirl; Livia also has to cope with Finola’s attentions to Mira. Yet her comments to the new slayer about her best friend are certainly not helping the situation. The lead slayer is getting increasingly tense, being egged on by Finola, and is starting to take it out on Mira. And now here comes Mac and her Orlando slayers, who clearly resent the Cleveland team being sent to their home base. And so both teams enter "the happiest place on earth". While investigating the pods that had been used by the research team, Jocasta and Katherine enter the one belonging to Dr. Burkle only to find the walls covered in scribbled words, gibberish, and crude cave-like paintings. They are clearly concerned.

 

Now that they are at their destination, Lisa Lance begins her quest for interviews. But since Mac and the Orlando slayers want no part of her, she has to concentrate on the Cleveland "gals". She overhears a little bit of an argument as Mira attempts to find out why Livia is acting so strangely towards her. The reporter attempts, quite unsuccessfully, to get each of the two slayers into an interview.

 

Livia gives out her assignments for the mission. She has Mac divide her slayers into two-person teams covering Tomorrowland, Toontown and the perimeter of the park. She then divides her own group: Jocasta and James keeping track of the shield console in Cinderella’s Castle that is keeping the demons from escaping the Park; Antonia with the transport as their communications liaison back to the Council since transmissions are spotty inside the Park due to the shields; Katherine and Brianna with Finola covering Fantasyland and occasionally checking up on the transport and those at the Castle. Livia then unexpectedly pairs Mira with Janet to cover Frontierland while she takes Jenn with her to Adventureland.

 

Jo, James, and Willowgram (who is feeling well enough to be using her "Willowy" sense of humor) find that the shields are fluctuating and must be fixed directly from the shield generator deep in the Castle tunnels right above the hellmouth.

 

Meanwhile, Lisa Lance’s job is not getting any easier. Her first interview is with the overly enthusiastic, overly talkative Jenn. In the next one, Janet is uncomfortable and taciturn during her interview. And Mira and Livia won’t talk to her at all.

 

At Fantasyland’s Teacups, Katie and Brianna are doing their best to understand their new "angry leprechaun" of a fellow slayer as she tells them that she came from Dublin to Cleveland for a new challenge and for a "go at the ol’ ‘ellmouth" when, from between the dreaded Teacups, appear some gray, furry, horned demons.

At the same time at Adventureland, Jenn is making Livia dizzy with her constant chatter about herself and her joy at now being a part of the "world-saving" unit, but she infuriates the senior slayer when she simply mentions "You and Mira," to which Livia responds angrily, "It’s not always me and Mira!" They’re suddenly interrupted by a bluish ball of fur flying at them that turns out to be a flying monkey with its friends. And to Livia’s annoyance, Jenn overreacts by using a grenade on them.

 

Meanwhile a series of murders in Cleveland is hitting close to home. Giles and Velika have determined that the tortured and murdered girls are all potentials, including Lian’s younger sister. 

 

At Splash Mountain, Mira rescues Janet from an attack by a small, dinosaur-like demon. They find a nest of eggs and suddenly hear a long, loud roar that announces that mommy is coming. Soon they are surround by twenty or so small dino-demons; they are rescued [or almost not] by Jenn heaving yet another grenade, much to Livia’s chagrin. Once again, however, there is an undercurrent between Mira and Livia as they are interrupted by mommy dino-demon. Livia can’t reach Katie’s team for back-up and finds herself arguing with Mira over how to deal with the large attacking demon. Livia orders Jenn and Janet to distract it while she attacks. She also orders Mira to continue trying to contact Katie, which she does until she sees the demon chasing Livia. She joins Jenn chasing the dinosaur after Janet is tossed aside like a rag doll. Livia screams at Mira not to follow, but the other slayer just charges on even faster. She manages to distract the demon from Livia and gets it to chase her and leads it into falling over a cliff, where Livia has to catch Mira before she follows it over. They find Janet and Jenn surrounded and being attacked by the small dino-demons, as Katie’s team arrives to help. Finola uses a piece of meat to distract the little critters and then blows them up with – yes the last grenade. Finola is annoyed at Livia’s reaction to her rescuing them with the blast. Mira tries to play peacemaker between the two slayers, only to wind up getting ordered by Livia to continue patrolling with Janet while the rest of them return to the Castle. Mira does so but in a crazed and angered manner.

 

Back on Main Street, Lisa Lance is attempting to continue her interviews – this time with Katherine, who is clearly uncomfortable as the reporter quizzes the blonde about personal things such as the death of her first watcher. But the interview is interrupted as the slayer politely excuses herself and races out to help Livia, Brianna, and Finola, who are fighting a gang of demons nearby. As Lance decides to cover the battle, Jenn arrives ready to continue her interview (and give the report a well-deserved headache). And after Jenn, Lance gets to interview Finola, whom she can barely understand.

 

In the meantime back in Cleveland, a terrified young woman is chained in a basement trying everything she can to escape her captor.

 

Giles, Veronica, Velika, John, Lex, and Travers meet to discuss the murders of four girls in the pre-Council program for newly called slayers and the latest victim, Lian’s sister, who doesn’t appear to fit that profile since, as Velika says, she’s not identified as a potential. Hesitantly, Giles informs his command staff, much to Travers’ displeasure, that the Council has a secret database called the Registry of girls likely to be called as slayers, which contains records on every female born in the county in the past 100 years. Velika, John, and Lex are incensed that the other three have kept this information from them. Giles admits that the Registry might have been compromised since all of the dead girls’ names were on it; he decides that all personnel with access should to be questioned. He also wants James brought back to help with a full security scan. After the others leave, Giles and Travers argue over whether Giles should have told the others about the Registry and their basic disagreement about the nature of slayers. Travers feels that slayers are born to serve and should not have any right to refuse joining the Council. In fact, he has a proposal to require all slayers to serve and feels that the power of the slayers must be controlled. Giles, on the other hand, feels that slayers are human beings and should not be intimidated with patriotism, financial penalties, possible jailing, implied threats against their families and forced drug treatments.

 

While playing virtual games alone on the transport, Antonia gets a call from Lex to see how she is and to talk to James, but the call is cut short when she spots a creature on her ship.

 

Back at the shield console below the Castle, Jocasta and James are attacked by small dog-sized demons. As Jocasta tries to slow the attack with a magical incantation, James tries to fend off the overwhelming number of creatures with a pair of kama belonging to a slayer. Unable to reach the slayers for help, Jo is overpowered by the demons. Jo becomes Lisa Lance’s latest photo op, that is, until the demons turn their attention to the reporter and her cameraman, Frank. Injured, the four hide behind Jo’s weakening force field as she continues trying to reach anyone for help. Suddenly Brianna, looking for her kama, bursts upon the scene and rips through the demons. Realizing that all communications have been compromised and that Toni is the only member of the team by herself, they rush to the transport, only to find it overrun by more of the same demons. However, Toni is blasting them off her ship. Furious at the damage the creatures have caused, Jo has to prevent her cousin from chasing the retreating demons. Jo and Toni, using the Frank’s equipment, decide to try to fix the communications dish while James and the cameraman, with Brianna for protection, head back to the Castle’s basement to continue trying to fix the generator.

 

At that same time, Katherine and Finola are patrolling the Small World exhibit, where the blonde stops the Irish slayer from pushing a button that will play the dreaded song. Just then, they spot some different slimy demons. Later, as the two seem to be losing the battle against the demons, Finola gets slammed into the kiosk, causing the sound system to play that all-too familiar song. As it continues to play "It a small world after all, it a small world after all" over and over, Katherine determines that she will not die with that song in her ears. Enraged, she and Finola tear through the demons as the song plays on and on. Once finished with their enemy, Katherine makes sure that her fellow slayer is okay, then with a slayer roar, she uses her sword on the kiosk to stop the singing.

 

Back in Cleveland, Lex and John have come up with a suspect: an ex-slayer who took the loss of her powers badly but still works at the Council’s physical plant and appears to have been spending time hacking into the Registry. Under questioning from Lex, John, and Velika, Amelia Adams breaks down and admits giving Sonia Petrovich (also an ex-slayer) the list because the woman promised that she could get the former slayer her powers back.

 

In the Adventureland jungle, Livia and Jenn are being chased by the daddy dinosaur-demon, while back in the tunnels under the Castle, James and Frank are working on the generator. In the Castle tunnels, Brianna finds what is probably the portal through which the demons came. Back in the Haunted Mansion, an exhausted Mira and Janet have finally found their way out of the exhibit, in which they have been lost, after an encounter with a very old vampire. Since they still have no communications with the others, they decide to return to base. But then they hear a roar in the distance and rush off toward it. They find Livia and Jen tiring while battling a horde of young dinosaur demons and join in the fight. Livia orders Mira to go back to the command center for help since none of the comms are working. Mira refuses to leave her even if she writes her up.

Back in Cleveland, Lex, John, and Velika activate Anyabot in the hopes that she can help them locate Sonia, who was so unstable that she was never allowed to become an active slayer. The Council suppressed her powers with drugs, but she circumvented the treatments. She was later arrested for assault but was eventually released. And now she seems to be torturing and murdering potential slayers. Sonia is using a gang of vampires to collect slayer potentials named on the list for experiments.

 

While Lex, John, and Anya try to figure out where Sonia is holding her victims, Velika briefs the slayers and asks for volunteers to form a team to rescue any still surviving potentials. Lian is first to volunteer and is quickly followed by most of the other slayers.

 

Meanwhile, Livia, Mira, Jenn, and Janet are on the move after dealing with the young dino-demons and eluding daddy dinosaur. But Janet has been badly wounded, and they decide to leave Jenn with her in the Tiki Room. As she comforts Janet, Jenn tries her comm link once more and finally connects to Jocasta just as Toni finally fixes the communications dish. Brianna escorts James and Frank to the transport and rushes off to help the four beleaguered slayers.

 

Back at the Tiki Room, Mira has come up with a plan to dispose of daddy dinosaur-demon. She compares him to Smaug, the most famous of J.R.R. Tolkien’s dragons, whose only weakness was his underbelly. She further challenges Livia to use her magic to hold the dragon up so that she could stab him in the supposed weak spot. Livia, once again, rejects her fellow slayer’s proposal as too dangerous. But the arrival of daddy dino-demon makes Livia’s decision irrelevant. Livia finds herself forced to implement Mira’s plan. But she can’t hold him up long enough and just as Mira sinks her sword into the demon, he falls on her, claws her back, and then buries a spike from his tail into her and tosses her several yards away. Livia screams and runs to a blood-soaked Mira, who seems to want to say something to Livia as she passes out.

 

Katherine and Finola arrive to find a totally panic-stricken and distraught Livia placing a desperate and lingering kiss on the badly injured Mira’s lips. Katherine orders a wisecracking Finola to find Janet and Jenn.

Livia, keeping her eyes closed after the kiss and leaning her forehead against the other girl’s, whispers "Please don’t leave me. I love you. So much." Opening her eyes, she finds Mira staring at her. Katherine calls out to them and tells Livia that she has called for medical assistance. The other two slayers cannot look at each other or Katie.

 

At that same time at the Watchers Council, Anya fights through her technical problems to help Lex discover the location of the maniac who has been killing potential slayers. Leading the slayer team into Sonia’s hideout, Lian manages to stop her from killing yet another young girl. She uses all of her self-control to keep from killing her sister’s murderer so that she can stand trial.

 

At Disney World, James and Frank complete the repairs on the shield generator as Jocasta, Katherine, and Finola magically destroy the portal. The Orlando team bids a fond farewell to its Cleveland sister-slayers. Exhausted, battered, and shell-shocked, the "world-saving" unit accompanies its badly injured members home.

 

Back at the Council HQ, with Mira and Janet recovering in the Council hospital, Dr. Burkle and Giles argue over how soon she can return to her research at the Magic Kingdom. Lex and Toni find out that Sonia has found a way to cheat her victims’ families and friends of a trial and punishment. In an escape attempt, she jumped out of the transport to her death. After completing her report to Velika, Livia finds out that due to her lack of cooperation with Lance, the success of the mission, and the falling slayer enrollment – she is now the slayer poster girl and must participate in the Council’s new PR campaign. And as she gives her first interview to Lance, all she can think about is Mira.

 

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