I really like the end of this one. Buffy asking what do you do when you know sometimes you can't help? And the message is, that you just keep trying. Buffy goes back to work to continue to help students and isn't giving up because of Cassie.
Cassandra is a character from Greek mythology who was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but the _curse_ that no one would ever believe her warnings (because she rejected Apollo's advances). She predicted the "Trojan horse" trick among other things (but of course no one believed her). Great episode IMO, poignant and funny. It's also kind of threading a narrative needle because it goes all in on the idea of a fate that can't be changed (which is in direct opposition to heroic fiction, which is usually about the hero _choosing_ to change the future and _defying_ fate).
it had been around for at least four years by the time this ep aired, but it had not penetrated into daily life and was not as in your face as it would eventually become
Cassie is one of my favorite one shot characters and this is one of my favorite stand-alones. It ranks with "Lie to Me" where the show took a deep and thoughtful turn. There is no win state, just doing your best and what's right. These are the times Buffy has to deal with the adult world in an adult way, and learn adult lessons.
@@Madbandit77 yeah i wish Cassie (amd Amanda too given what happens later) had been used in the first episode of the Season, instead of that random girl and boy who were set-up to be Dawn's Scooby Gang and are just never seen again. Then we'd have at least one additional episode with Cassie before this one.
An amazing and painful episode. Cassie is like a Little Tara. Besides her own struggles, she cares for others. She is one of those characteres you love after the 45 minutes as if you know her since birth and then you'll miss her for eternity😢. It was fitting, that she appears in the episode when we visit Tara for the first time. Also a great one for Dawn, especially in the end, when she comforts Buffy. Reminds on the 6x22 under the earth, when she told her that Buffy can't protect her from loosing people. She's growing strong. Your comment on Xander in his conversation with Willow was fitting as well.
Very creative to think of the idea of our characters experiencing someone else in a time loop rather than the story being told from the POV of the loop character like we always see. That would have been a fun subversion of expectations. You're thinking outside the box.
Back when this episode first aired I tried the name for Cassie's website and it was a real website. The producers really made it for the episode. It lasted for about 2-3 years before it disappeared.
Oh yeah I remember this one, Highlight for me 😂 Lmao Skynet goes online I mean Google lol, And James playing Souled Spike Method Acting like a Boss mad Respect and plus Flame Thrower 🔥 Stay awesome Dakara 🤘
I love that you mentioned the shifting dynamics of their friendships! This show has meant sosososo much to me since the early/mid-2000s & as much as some people hate on certain seasons, to me it really is a show about growing up & learning to deal with life. All the nasty, ugly, dark but also beautiful parts of it. Part of it is also friendships changing as we change ourselves. With fun supernatural stuff thrown in ofc. I love that through the later seasons each character has to confront their own idea of who they are themselves but also who their friends are to them. Learning to let go of perceptions & just let people be who they are & make mistakes.
Help was interesting episode we start off with comedy regarding Buffy's new Counsellor role, but then Cassie says she is going to die. We also have Willow reaching the acceptance stage of grief with Tara's death. Very funny again when Wood says to Buffy about where he came from and she says The Hood, and he says no Beverly Hills. Very interesting when they are all researching on the internet and jump to conclusions about her father, showing how this too can be dangerous where many innocent people get targeted in such activity. When Cassie meets Xander and Buffy outside it's very sad when she starts to list all the things she wants to do in her life but wont be able to because she knows she is going to die. We then switch to the cult with Cassie's photo in the middle of some ritual. Powerful scene again when Buffy seeks out Spike and he starts to self harm. Funny scene too when Buffy says to student asking my sister and she was your second choice. The coins come back again, and Buffy notices the strange markings on it. Buffy after threatening the student manages to infiltrate the ritual. When Cassie is freed by Spike she says to him 'she'll tell you' a prophetic line from Cassie. A great powerful ending when Buffy catches the arrow from the booby trap, but Cassie just collapses and dies of natural causes. Terrific episode building towards the finale of the show.
What to do when you cannot help. Buffy has left the coming of age storytelling and is firmly planted in the adulthood storytelling for the last season. That's not a spoiler, but a structure of storytelling when doing coming of age stories. We are now watching the equivelant of AtS S1.
The jerk was a child actor who was part of the cast of the Tim Allen series Home Improvement. Glen Morshower played Cassie's dad is a character actor who has appeared in Star Trek the Next Generation, Supergirl, Agents of Shield, among other shows.
something I've thought about in this episode a lot is if her heart still would have failed without the stress of that whole situation. I feel like now a days something like that is treatable. I knew someone who had to keep strenuous activity and caffeine to a minimum do to a heart issue, but otherwise was living their best life.
I don't know if 'possessive' is the right word to use, but that's what I think of when Buffy and Dawn are asked if they're the other's sister. Dawn says "she's my sister." Buffy says "That's right. Dawn is MY sister."
Cassie also was reading Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Its protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, jumped unpredictably along his immutable timeline. Cassie died Friday. Cassie will always die Friday. So it goes.
The very fact that Cassie is named like that is a clue for telling the audience she IS a seer, as it's a diminutive for Cassandra, which someone already explained in those comments that she is a Greek Mythology figure known to be a seer that no one ever believed. But it may have been too subtle as I can't remember of a single reactor who spotted it during the episode. And to be honest, though I knew about the myth, it also took me time to just makes the connection about Cassie being a diminutive. For my defense, in France, you don't use diminutive as a general/common way to refer to someone. It implies a certain proximity (friend or relative) with the person.
Very good reaction to a solid and underrated episode.BTVS has now gone full circle with Buffy learning the role of Joyce. Dawn is the age of when Buffy started at Sunnydale High and understanding being a “good” Mother is a big hurdle in her journey being a strong woman. Buffy learned that despite being a Slayer, being on top of a teen girls life, and being active she can not control it all. Think how Buffy has complete control in her Slayer activities when the episode begins. She has mastered her slaying down to killing demons before they go in the ground ( control) but with her first students ahead is totally out of direction and guidance for the teens that visit with her. You can’t control the total environment for your child but can give love , advice, and the freedom of choice. You are right that this was a heavy episode and has a sad aspect. But Buffy will learn the lessons of teens trying to mature
The girl is played by Azua Skye, she's in a bunch of stuff. You probably know her from Grimm, she's the girl with a gold thing growing in her throat who's being abused by her boyfriend.
Sorry you edited out the ending! It’s one of my faves, and it’s important to the philosophical of the show: the answer to futility and absurdity is to keep pushing the rock up the hill anyway.
@@Nicolas.Vincent Sunshine, I don't have to project my anxieties on someone who's an obvious fraud and screwed himself, and you obviously are foolhardy to defend him.
When there's nothing that you can do to change things, you still try. The only real victory, if you can call it that, comes from accepting the "inevitable"; whatever that might be.
@@DakaraJayne I re-read my comment and realized that I didn't say what I meant. It was said much better by the writer in Angel, "When nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do."> Just because something is Inevitable, doesn't mean that we should just lie down and accept it. By trying, we elevate ourselves. Like it says in "The impossible dream" the world will be better for this, that a man, scorned and covered with scars, still stove, with his last once of courage, to reach the unreachable star.
The question is if you knew the day of your death would that actually contribute to your death or absolutely nothing could stop it from happening. Did she die from the heart problem or did all those other things happen one after another to end her life and the heart problem was a last resort?
Somewhere, in some contemporary television show, there's gotta be a fat fellow by the last name of Newton just so the fans can geek out over a very niche reference. (Unless it's been done already, I haven't seen all the shows.) Supposedly, this episode was the first time "Google" was used as a verb, possibly even in real life. (Nobody uses Yahoo or Bing as a verb, do they?) And Xander has been steadily maturing over the past few seasons. Gaining confidence, in the beginning of S5. A real job, a marriage proposal and plan, even if he got cold feet at the end. Riley felt okay confiding in him. He's still childish, in a number of fun ways. But the best of the adults have a childish side, too.
I really like the end of this one. Buffy asking what do you do when you know sometimes you can't help? And the message is, that you just keep trying. Buffy goes back to work to continue to help students and isn't giving up because of Cassie.
Cassandra is a character from Greek mythology who was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but the _curse_ that no one would ever believe her warnings (because she rejected Apollo's advances). She predicted the "Trojan horse" trick among other things (but of course no one believed her).
Great episode IMO, poignant and funny. It's also kind of threading a narrative needle because it goes all in on the idea of a fate that can't be changed (which is in direct opposition to heroic fiction, which is usually about the hero _choosing_ to change the future and _defying_ fate).
7:25 This is considered the first time Google was used as a verb in pop culture!
it had been around for at least four years by the time this ep aired, but it had not penetrated into daily life and was not as in your face as it would eventually become
Cassie is one of my favorite one shot characters and this is one of my favorite stand-alones. It ranks with "Lie to Me" where the show took a deep and thoughtful turn. There is no win state, just doing your best and what's right. These are the times Buffy has to deal with the adult world in an adult way, and learn adult lessons.
I wished she stayed longer.
@@Madbandit77 yeah i wish Cassie (amd Amanda too given what happens later) had been used in the first episode of the Season, instead of that random girl and boy who were set-up to be Dawn's Scooby Gang and are just never seen again. Then we'd have at least one additional episode with Cassie before this one.
Cassie isn't a one-off, there is a future, additional Cassie appearance in this Sesson.
An amazing and painful episode. Cassie is like a Little Tara. Besides her own struggles, she cares for others. She is one of those characteres you love after the 45 minutes as if you know her since birth and then you'll miss her for eternity😢. It was fitting, that she appears in the episode when we visit Tara for the first time.
Also a great one for Dawn, especially in the end, when she comforts Buffy. Reminds on the 6x22 under the earth, when she told her that Buffy can't protect her from loosing people. She's growing strong.
Your comment on Xander in his conversation with Willow was fitting as well.
Cassie's death (along with the "she'll tell you") gets me every time.
I'd forgotten how good this episode was. Really good. Thanks.
Very creative to think of the idea of our characters experiencing someone else in a time loop rather than the story being told from the POV of the loop character like we always see. That would have been a fun subversion of expectations. You're thinking outside the box.
That was a first time, word google was used as a verb.
Back when this episode first aired I tried the name for Cassie's website and it was a real website. The producers really made it for the episode. It lasted for about 2-3 years before it disappeared.
Oh yeah I remember this one, Highlight for me 😂 Lmao Skynet goes online I mean Google lol, And James playing Souled Spike Method Acting like a Boss mad Respect and plus Flame Thrower 🔥 Stay awesome Dakara 🤘
I love that you mentioned the shifting dynamics of their friendships! This show has meant sosososo much to me since the early/mid-2000s & as much as some people hate on certain seasons, to me it really is a show about growing up & learning to deal with life. All the nasty, ugly, dark but also beautiful parts of it. Part of it is also friendships changing as we change ourselves. With fun supernatural stuff thrown in ofc. I love that through the later seasons each character has to confront their own idea of who they are themselves but also who their friends are to them. Learning to let go of perceptions & just let people be who they are & make mistakes.
Yes!!! This was such a sad episode.. 😢 I am a lot like Buffy when it comes to trying to help. I am in the behavioral health field. ❤❤
I love this episode, I honestly think there is so many good episodes in season 7 but this one is one of my faves
How would they explain the dusted corpse? "Well, it's Sunnydale."
Help was interesting episode we start off with comedy regarding Buffy's new Counsellor role, but then Cassie says she is going to die. We also have Willow reaching the acceptance stage of grief with Tara's death. Very funny again when Wood says to Buffy about where he came from and she says The Hood, and he says no Beverly Hills. Very interesting when they are all researching on the internet and jump to conclusions about her father, showing how this too can be dangerous where many innocent people get targeted in such activity. When Cassie meets Xander and Buffy outside it's very sad when she starts to list all the things she wants to do in her life but wont be able to because she knows she is going to die. We then switch to the cult with Cassie's photo in the middle of some ritual. Powerful scene again when Buffy seeks out Spike and he starts to self harm. Funny scene too when Buffy says to student asking my sister and she was your second choice. The coins come back again, and Buffy notices the strange markings on it. Buffy after threatening the student manages to infiltrate the ritual. When Cassie is freed by Spike she says to him 'she'll tell you' a prophetic line from Cassie. A great powerful ending when Buffy catches the arrow from the booby trap, but Cassie just collapses and dies of natural causes. Terrific episode building towards the finale of the show.
What to do when you cannot help. Buffy has left the coming of age storytelling and is firmly planted in the adulthood storytelling for the last season. That's not a spoiler, but a structure of storytelling when doing coming of age stories. We are now watching the equivelant of AtS S1.
It was such a cute top.
It was a cute top.
I wanna borrow it.
Lemme borrow the top.
This episode was the very first use of the term Googled as an adjective
Verb :)
@@mjtpliyep, that
The jerk was a child actor who was part of the cast of the Tim Allen series Home Improvement.
Glen Morshower played Cassie's dad is a character actor who has appeared in Star Trek the Next Generation, Supergirl, Agents of Shield, among other shows.
something I've thought about in this episode a lot is if her heart still would have failed without the stress of that whole situation. I feel like now a days something like that is treatable. I knew someone who had to keep strenuous activity and caffeine to a minimum do to a heart issue, but otherwise was living their best life.
I don't know if 'possessive' is the right word to use, but that's what I think of when Buffy and Dawn are asked if they're the other's sister.
Dawn says "she's my sister."
Buffy says "That's right. Dawn is MY sister."
I don't think it's possessive, I think it is more Main Character Syndrome.
Cassie also was reading Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Its protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, jumped unpredictably along his immutable timeline. Cassie died Friday. Cassie will always die Friday. So it goes.
The very fact that Cassie is named like that is a clue for telling the audience she IS a seer, as it's a diminutive for Cassandra, which someone already explained in those comments that she is a Greek Mythology figure known to be a seer that no one ever believed. But it may have been too subtle as I can't remember of a single reactor who spotted it during the episode.
And to be honest, though I knew about the myth, it also took me time to just makes the connection about Cassie being a diminutive. For my defense, in France, you don't use diminutive as a general/common way to refer to someone. It implies a certain proximity (friend or relative) with the person.
Very good reaction to a solid and underrated episode.BTVS has now gone full circle with Buffy learning the role of Joyce. Dawn is the age of when Buffy started at Sunnydale High and understanding being a “good” Mother is a big hurdle in her journey being a strong woman. Buffy learned that despite being a Slayer, being on top of a teen girls life, and being active she can not control it all. Think how Buffy has complete control in her Slayer activities when the episode begins. She has mastered her slaying down to killing demons before they go in the ground ( control) but with her first students ahead is totally out of direction and guidance for the teens that visit with her. You can’t control the total environment for your child but can give love , advice, and the freedom of choice. You are right that this was a heavy episode and has a sad aspect. But Buffy will learn the lessons of teens trying to mature
The girl is played by Azua Skye, she's in a bunch of stuff. You probably know her from Grimm, she's the girl with a gold thing growing in her throat who's being abused by her boyfriend.
14:17 Remember this.
Yes try to remember this.
Yeah, I thought it was Skip for a sec too.
The girl at 1:40 was in a tv show called Freaks&geeks
Sarah Hagan.
If Cassie knew there were specifics like coins, and the day, why not just stay in bed? 🛌😆
Sorry you edited out the ending! It’s one of my faves, and it’s important to the philosophical of the show: the answer to futility and absurdity is to keep pushing the rock up the hill anyway.
Does anyone else get the feeling, that the kid who pretended to be gay in order to maybe get a date with buffy, is based on Joss Whedon?
No. Seems like projection.
@@Nicolas.Vincent I don't know. After reading the NY Magazine about him two years ago, every male character is this show is up for analysis.
@@Madbandit77 project much?
@@Nicolas.Vincent Sunshine, I don't have to project my anxieties on someone who's an obvious fraud and screwed himself, and you obviously are foolhardy to defend him.
@@Madbandit77 and yet, projection. That's you! 😂🤡
15:15 Could have gotten her to a hospital.
When there's nothing that you can do to change things, you still try. The only real victory, if you can call it that, comes from accepting the "inevitable"; whatever that might be.
@@user-knightoftherealms trying is everything 💜
@@DakaraJayne I re-read my comment and realized that I didn't say what I meant. It was said much better by the writer in Angel, "When nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do."> Just because something is Inevitable, doesn't mean that we should just lie down and accept it. By trying, we elevate ourselves. Like it says in "The impossible dream" the world will be better for this, that a man, scorned and covered with scars, still stove, with his last once of courage, to reach the unreachable star.
"Hey. It's me." The saddest lines in the whole series.
The question is if you knew the day of your death would that actually contribute to your death or absolutely nothing could stop it from happening.
Did she die from the heart problem or did all those other things happen one after another to end her life and the heart problem was a last resort?
Casey is like Drusilla in her abilities
Somewhere, in some contemporary television show, there's gotta be a fat fellow by the last name of Newton just so the fans can geek out over a very niche reference. (Unless it's been done already, I haven't seen all the shows.)
Supposedly, this episode was the first time "Google" was used as a verb, possibly even in real life. (Nobody uses Yahoo or Bing as a verb, do they?)
And Xander has been steadily maturing over the past few seasons. Gaining confidence, in the beginning of S5. A real job, a marriage proposal and plan, even if he got cold feet at the end. Riley felt okay confiding in him. He's still childish, in a number of fun ways. But the best of the adults have a childish side, too.
One thing I like about this season ,is we get Pirate Zander(eye patch and all) maybe that was mean, nah.
Why spoiler
@Atika55555 I don't consider it a spoiler, I think Pirate Eye Patches are cool, and Zander rocking one is cool.