"Beneath You" is the second episode of the seventh and final season of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In Frankfurt, Germany, a young woman races frantically away from hooded figures similar to the robed men in Istanbul down deserted corridors above a bustling nightclub.
The young woman opens her deadened eyes and says in a deep, inhuman voice, "From beneath you, it devours.
Spike sneaks around in the school basement he calls home, seemingly headed for a rat while he speaks aloud.
The remaining Scooby Gang console Nancy and promise to deal with this unusual creature.
Much to everyone's surprise, a cleaned up version of Spike joins them in the living room and offers his assistance in the battle.
While examining the scene where the dog was eaten, Spike explains that the manifest spirits from the school were the cause of his temporary insanity.
Once the worm goes away and the two are safe, Nancy starts to talk about her abusive ex-boyfriend Ronnie, and Xander quickly concludes that she made a wish to a vengeance demon.
Buffy and the gang confront Anya at the Bronze and get her to admit to making Nancy's ex-boyfriend Ronnie into a Sluggoth demon.
After a few hits with a metal pole, he goes to stab the worm only to have it turn back into Ronnie's human form before Spike makes contact.
Spike continues to speak of all the voices that are in his head, those of the people he tortured and killed as a vampire, and also that of coming evil beneath.
In England, Willow struggles with the need to return to Sunnydale where she will be forced to face her friends and the trouble she caused.
A taxi awaits her as Giles listens to her verbalize her fears and he convinces her that even if her friends do not want her back, her presence on the Hellmouth will be important.
[3][4][5][6] Dan Owen observes that the episode "was very much concerned with the issues of abusive relationships and the Sluggoth symbolised how evil can sometimes be very close, unseen, ready to devour you.
Club gave the episode a grade of B, writing, "I didn't find "Beneath You" as easily likable as "Lessons", though it had some nice moments of levity, and a good bit of derring-do when Buffy swings in on a rope and saves Nancy from Sluggoth Ronny in a back alley.
The worm-scenes would've been better if the special effects weren't so cruddy — honestly, the creature almost looks like a cut-and-paste from an old monster movie — but I dug the idea of extending the theme of evil rising by making it literal.
)"[8] Mikelangelo Marinaro of Critically Touched also rated the episode a B: "Here lies an episode that ultimately works because of how generously it spreads around its solid character work and follows-through from last season," adding that the final scene "is creepy, slightly amusing, and utterly heart-breaking.
"[9] Mark Oshiro, focusing on the Anya, Willow and Spike plot-lines, thought that "this episode was probably necessary in terms of the season's arc, but it does feel like a single puzzle piece.