In the final season, Dawn becomes more grown-up and a full-fledged member of the "Scooby Gang" — as witnessed in the first few episodes when she aids Buffy and Xander during Willow's absence, and is trained by Buffy in combat. When Buffy expresses her doubts about her first day as a guidance counselor at the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High in the episode "Help", Dawn assures her that she'll be fine and that she'll be a great counselor. Falling victim to a love spell in the episode "Him", Dawn displays dangerous behavior such as attacking people and trying to commit suicide to prove her "love" for classmate RJ Brooks. While home alone one night, Dawn is forced to perform a solo exorcism to protect what she believes to be her mother from a demon, though it is revealed to be The First Evil attempting to cause Dawn to doubt her bond with Buffy, which she does for several episodes following this. Dawn's feelings of neglect begin to resurface as Buffy spends time training the potentials now living in their home. After wrongly believing herself to be a Potential Slayer, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) explains to Dawn that being normal is perhaps the hardest burden of all, as nobody understands the pain of being overlooked — as he has been in Dawn's shoes. Dawn then falls into a watcher-esque role offering the group answers from research, such as ways to communicate with The Bringers and translating texts given to Buffy in a 'slayer keepsake'. When Buffy tricks her into leaving town before the impending apocalypse, Dawn adamantly returns to fight against the First, during which she battles alongside Xander, and once again proves her value as a fighter by killing several Ubervamps and survives.