WWDD: S2E6 “HALLOWEEN”

While Buffy’s at Pop’s Pumpkin Patch, Dawn ransacks her closet for the finishing touches to her Halloween costume. To Buffy’s horror, she’s going as a vampire slayer. She grabs the smallest leather jacket she can find, a cross necklace from Buffy’s collection, and a fake crossbow from Sunnydale’s trendy new Halloween shop. Armed with her “slayer field research journal” (The Dawnmeister Chronicles), her costume is complete.

Another tech issue keeps Joyce working late, so Dawn trick-or-treats under the watch of a Sunnydale High student. She’s grouped with a Chewbacca, classmate Cynthia (a witch), Kirstie and friends, and Cordelia, who's mapped out the most lucrative route based on house size. Halfway through Cordelia’s unsolicited lesson on fake-laughing, chaos erupts. Costumes come alive, kids morph into demons and vampires, and Chewbacca grows larger by the second.

Then it hits Dawn: power. A fierce calling to fight evil—and quip while doing it. When Chewbacca chases Cordelia, Dawn bolts with crossbow in hand. But spotting Xander and Buffy, she veers off, trusting they’ll handle it, and instead follows the sound of a scream. An old woman’s door hangs open; inside, a child-sized demon torments her. Dropping the Chronicles on the porch, Dawn rushes in, barely noticing the unconscious ghost nearby. To her shock, she hurls the demon across the room with ease, then finishes it with a punch and a throw that knocks it out cold.

Outside, more cries for help pull her back into the fray. All night she fights through Sunnydale’s chaos—ensuring, against all odds, the lowest body count of any Halloween episode. When the spell breaks, Dawn hurries back for her journal—only to find it gone. Panic rising, she runs home, pacing as she debates telling Buffy. In the end, she stays silent, promising to check again in daylight. What worries her most isn’t just the missing journal, but that it holds far more than just her secrets.