2.20 Catalyst

Deaver: "The left head! It says cut off the left head!" Stefan looks at the one-headed monster with Rachel clinging to its neck Stefan: "Wrong page! Wrong page!"

Deaver: "It only mates once every three hundred years." Rachel: "Thanks. That's reassuring." Stefan: "Don't worry Rachel - I don't think this is the year."

Deaver: "It says it will be blinded if you poke out both eyes! You can also kill it by stabbing it in the heart ?" Rachel: "You needed a book to tell you that?" Stefan: "Where is its heart, anyway?"

Rachel: "Take this, Barney!"

PeanutGalleryChase: "And we hereby nickname you ... assmunch."

Deaver: "Umm. Rabies." Stefan: "It had to be put down -" Rachel: "Abruptly." Deaver: "Advanced rabies." Rachel: "We'll have to get him shots." Stefan: "You wanna kiss it and make it better?" Thetis: "The zoo is taking demons, now?" Stefan: "... Oh thank God."

Chase: "Bring me back a lock of hair. We'll hang it with the others on the fridge."

Rachel: "I still think she's weird ? and maybe should be shot."

Stefan: "Can we ask her later? Right now I have some holes in my ass."

Gabe: "Now Doc, I don't care if the world is about to end, or is someone is about to die. A cute little redhead asked me out to a rave and I'm gonna go."

Gabe: "So you're going to save the world with your ? exuberance."

PeanutGalleryChase: "He can't be a good guy. You can't have two Boy Wonders on the same team."

Gabe: "She wasn't just reading the books, she was osmosifying them."

Gabe: "Take a breath, use small words." Chase: "He doesn't know any other kind."

Stefan: "La-Dee-Freakin'-Dah."

Stefan: "I owe her a pipe to the back of the head."

[Scene: Geoff and Simone in Augusta hotel]

* * *

[Scene: Seth and Draco in City Hall]

* * *

Deaver, Rachel and Stefan face off against a dino-like demon in a forest clearing. Deaver is frantically flipping pages in the large research tome he's brought with him, Rachel clings to the demon's tree trunk of a neck, and Stefan tries to figure out where the best place is to poke it. After a few false starts, one of which get Stefan bitten in an unfortunate place, Rachel manages to finish it off, bringing it crashing to the ground.

Suddenly, out of the trees comes a pretty girl with short, dark hair. The group starts frantically reaching for a cover story to explain the dead dinosaur, but the girl is completely unfazed by the demon. She introduces herself as Thetis, a Phillipi senior and history major. Thetis zeroes in on Stefan almost immediately. Rachel takes a harder look at Thetis, and quickly descends into blatant dislike. While Stefan chats and flirts, Rachel fumes and pulls out her phone to call Chase and let her know that they were successful.

* * *

At Lone Star, Shannon is wiping down the bar while Chase sits talking with her. She seems a little antsy, and it turns out that she is trying to decide what to do about an impromptu ski trip to Vermont that Geoff has booked for the whole gang that weekend. She passes Chase a note that Geoff left for her, which gives a few details of the trip and contains lift passes for Chase and Rachel. Kelly is thrilled at the idea, so Shannon thinks they'll end up going, even though it is hard for her to close down on a weekend with such little notice. Owen and his new lady-friend will be there as well. She haltingly asks Chase whether there is anything ... going on ... that weekend, and if Rich needs to stay in town for any reason. Chase allows that she's waiting to hear from Rachel before she knows if anything is "going on," but that no, Rich should take off with the rest of them. Once she talks to her roommate, she'll give Shannon the heads up on whether they'll be joining them. She's frankly surprised to be invited at all, and also surprised that he'd put this together without even asking anyone, and on such short notice.

About that time, Chase gets a call from Rachel, reporting in on their successful adventure. She also mutters some about Thetis. Chase gives her the scoop on the weekend in Vermont, and Rachel agrees that while it isn't totally impossible that he'd throw something like this together, it is a little weird. They decide to pay him a visit at the lab (although Chase is hesitant to go, for obvious reasons), after Chase greases a few wheels and gets Stefan hooked up with Owen at the hospital to get stitched up. They all meet up at the hospital, and Deaver stays in the waiting room while Chase and Rachel head out.

On their way to City Hall, Rachel tells Chase more about Thetis and the events of earlier that day, and her disgust is apparent. Chase grinningly points out that she could always just ask Stefan out rather than griping about it ?

* * *

At the lab, Geoff is hard at work on one of his projects, with papers strewn everywhere. A bulletin board on the wall is overflowing, with a couple of newspaper articles tacked up between the handwritten notes. A mostly-burned cigarette smoking in an ashtray beside him, and he takes a final drag before grinding it out as there's a knock at the door. It's Chase and Rachel, and he greets them cheerfully. They ask him about the trip to Vermont and he shrugs it off, telling them that he found a deal and jumped on it, having an unexpected amount of cash on hand from a rather large return he just made. Chase asks whether he's going with them, and he says no. When she encourages him to go and take a break from work, he gets a little rude and points out that the last thing he really wants to do is spend a weekend with her around. He ends the conversation quickly with a friendly goodbye for Rachel and turns back to his work. Once they're out of the lab, Rachel muses aloud that he must have returned the ring. Realizing what she just said, there's a slightly awkward moment as the two girls head for the stairs.

* * *

At the hospital, Stefan emerges from ER to find Thetis walking down the hall towards him. After assuring him that she isn't a stalker, she pulls him aside into an empty inpatient room and tells him why she's so interested in talking to him. She is half Bhi'li demon as well. In fact, there are more of them in town than he might suspect - not of their race, but other half demons trying to find their way in McKennit. In fact, they're having a big meeting at City Hall tonight, and she'd love it if he came. He enthusiastically agrees to go, they swap numbers, and she leaves. As he comes out into the waiting area, Deaver sweeps down on him immediately. He just got a phone call from Geoff; he got a tip off that there's some kind of trouble in Albany, New York, involving a magical tome and a man in danger. Deaver, Stefan and Gabe are the only people around who can handle it (Chase and Rachel will be out of town). Stefan is torn at first, but grudgingly calls Thetis to tell her he can't make the meeting after all. She's very disappointed, and asks when he'll be back in town. He confers with Deaver on driving time and tells her that the earliest will be the following morning. They agree to talk then.

Deaver calls Gabe to deliver Geoff's news. Gabe is at work in the gardens, and also has plans for the evening, but he eventually caves at Deaver's persistence. They agree to meet at the library. He hangs up the phone to find himself face to face with Eric. Eric asks him what's up, and Gabe tries to dodge. Eric reminds Gabe that he's a good guy now, and he wants to help. So Eric tags along after him to the meeting on the fifth floor.

At the library, the guys start discussing the situation in Albany. They stop short when Deaver and Gabe sense the presence of another person among the shelves. Gabe suddenly notices a table full of books - the same books that he used to determine the way the Belial ritual would most likely go down. And they're open to the same pages. Out of the shadowy shelves emerges a tall and stunning woman with an olive complexion. Saying nothing, she waves a hand at the open books and they float to another table, where she settles herself. Gabe can't help commenting, and the woman introduces herself as Isis. She then ignores them as she literally absorbs the content of the books in front of her, leaving the pages blank in her wake. Satisfied, she exits the library, leaving the heroes agape at her departure.

The Scoobies put a few things together and realize that another Belial ritual may be pending if someone with Isis' powers is researching it that ? thoroughly. But who? Devon? Eric pipes up and tells them that Devon actually isn't sick, as Eric saw him wandering around City Hall. He then mentions Geoff, but clams up immediately, as he promised his partner in chemical insanity that he wouldn't say anything. Under mild duress, Eric gives in, and tells the guys that Geoff had a deal with Simone - if she lied to him, he told her flat out he would blow up City Hall and everyone in it. Since she's told him and everyone else who needs to know that Devon is bedridden, when Eric let it slip that he in fact was just fine, Geoff, well, decided to make good on his threat. Applying a little more pressure, the guys get the whole story out of Eric: Geoff intends to make City Hall go up in a blaze at about 7:30 that night, along with himself and anyone else who happens to be in the area. That's why they were all supposed to leave town.

About then, Chase and Rachel show up at the library, and the guys quickly fill them in. Chase suddenly puts a lot of circumstantial things together and realizes that Geoff is back on meth in an ugly way. Eric loudly declares that he never said that, but no one is really listening. She also remembers a couple of new articles that she spotted on Geoff's bulletin board, referring to the district-wide trip to D.C. that all of McKennit's school-aged kids are on for the weekend. According to the articles, they'll be back Sunday, when a ceremony is to be held at City Hall to commemorate the trip. Devon is expected to be in attendance, and he hasn't appeared in public since the "flu" or whatever hit him a few weeks back. It seems likely that the ceremony will be the site of the newly impending ritual, and that Geoff has put that together as well. The decision is instantly made to find him ASAP and stop whatever incendiary craziness he's got planned. Once that's (hopefully) taken care of, they'll try to find out what the real story is with Devon and the rekindled interest in Belial.

[Scene: Geoff with CRAZY DEATH INFERNO]

At City Hall, the gang charges up to Geoff's desk, but there's no sign of him. There are still notes and diagrams scattered everywhere, though. Chase takes a look at a diagrammed reaction that would do approximately what Geoff is looking for - blow something up - but the balance of chemical elements he's proposing looks to her to be inherently unstable, and would likely cause a MUCH larger explosion than is needed to take out City Hall. Geoff is brilliant and wouldn't make a mistake like that, so it must be on purpose. A quick discussion on where would be the best place to generate an explosion that would topple a building has the Scoobies racing down to the basement to hunt for Geoff there. On the way down, Eric points out a closed door that is the way in to Devon's suite, where he is supposedly recuperating. Leery of tackling that before they've found Geoff, they continue downstairs. The crew finds several meeting rooms in the basement. As they start trying doors, Thetis walks around the corner. She spies Stefan and gives him a friendly greeting, surprised that he isn't in Albany. Stefan tells her that they're looking for Geoff for some more information before they depart, and she asks again if he's sure he doesn't want to come meet the others and be a part of the discussion they're having. Thetis goes on to tell Stefan that the group of half-demons thinks of themselves as a kind of "activist" organization, and they're discussing ways to cope with the difficulties of living in two worlds. Rachel is glaring daggers at Thetis and Chase is resolutely checking doors, focused on finding her idiot ex-boyfriend. One door reveals a roomful of witches, one of whom is Trisha Boyd-Townsend. Before Chase can scope it out any further, Trish magically slams the door in her face. Another room has a closed door, but there's clearly a meeting in there, and it appears to be where Thetis is headed. Chase jimmies the lock on a storage closet, but finds nothing their either. As it is fast approaching 7:00, Stefan extricates himself, promising to contact Thetis in the morning, and the group heads back up to the first floor to take another door down to the tunnels, still going with their underground theory. There's nothing there, and no traffic that would indicate Geoff had been here - Gabe spies some Italian-loafer style footprints in the dirt tunnel, and those definitely aren't Geoff's style. Frustrated, the group turns to Eric - if he was going to blow up City Hall, where would he go? Eric thinks for a moment, grins, and tells them he'd go to Devon's basement. It's off of the hallway he showed them earlier. They follow Eric back upstairs and enter an office like area with a guard sitting at the desk. After some polite (and impolite) requests fail, Stefan knocks the man out as quickly and quietly as possible. They move through the door that Eric indicates, and find a library-like room with Devon settled comfortably in a bed. He doesn't seem to respond to anything, and it seems unlikely that Eric saw him up and about. Still focused on finding their friend, the Scoobies open the door to the basement and head down.

At the bottom of the stairs, they come face to face with Geoff's contraption. Deaver and Chase step up to take a closer look and see if they can disable it, but the reaction has already catalyzed, and there's no obvious way to stop it without destabilizing the whole thing, causing it to blow immediately. As they all step into the room, Geoff sits up in the corner, sees them, and swears viciously. When Chase coldly asks about the size of the explosion, Geoff clarifies his plan - he intends to take out the entire town of McKennit, not just City Hall. The ritual to have Belial reborn into a vessel will happen on Sunday, and it will mean the end of everything. The least he can do is see it delayed. They were all supposed to be out of town and safe. They can still leave and be out in time.

One by one, they all declare that they aren't leaving, except Eric, who bolts out of the room and up the stairs before anyone can stop him. Geoff shrugs and goes back to watching his invention. The Scoobies start trying anything they can think of to get Geoff to stop the reaction. Guilt has no effect; neither does logic that disagrees with his own.

Gabe eventually shrugs, has a seat, and pulls out a deck of cards. Since they won't need their pennies in about half an hour, they should try a few "high stakes" games of poker. He deals everyone in except Chase, who is still pacing agitatedly. Her behavior earns a few vicious prods from Geoff, who is spoiling for a fight, but she doesn't respond. The Scoobies play cards and chat about anything except what's about to happen. Cash being at a low point for everyone involved, the game quickly descends into strip poker, and there is a lot of ribbing and laughter and talk. Geoff gets up and grabs donuts and something alcoholic and the refreshments make the rounds.

Time passes ... too much of it. A half hour comes and goes.

As the group is playing out their hands, Chase looks up at the machine again and realizes that at some point, Geoff stopped the reaction. Gabe finally insults her into joining the game, and the camera fades on happy camaraderie and stuff.