IT'S NOT REAL??? - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reaction - 6x17 - Normal Again
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- Опубликовано: 27 окт 2024
- Full and early reactions on patreon: / thelexicrowd
The newest video in my editor reacts to series. This week I'm watching and reacting to Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time.
After Buffy is stung by a demon, she begins to have vivid day-dreams about a mental asylum. She gradually begins to believe that she is a crazy girl back in L.A and that Sunnydale and all her friends are just a figment of her imagination.
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A young woman, destined to slay vampires, demons and other infernal creatures, deals with her life fighting evil, with the help of her friends.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an American supernatural drama television series based on the 1992 film of the same name. It was created by Joss Whedon under his production tag, Mutant Enemy Productions, with later co-executive producers being Jane Espenson, David Fury, David Greenwalt, Doug Petrie, Marti Noxon, and David Solomon.
The series narrative follows Buffy Summers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar), the latest in a line of young women known as "Vampire Slayers", or simply "Slayers". In the story, Slayers, or the "Chosen Ones", are chosen by fate to battle against vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Buffy wants to live a normal life, but as the series progresses, she learns to embrace her destiny. Like previous Slayers, Buffy is aided by a Watcher, who guides, teaches and trains her. Unlike her predecessors, Buffy surrounds herself with a circle of loyal friends who become known as the "Scooby Gang" - a reference to the animated franchise Scooby-Doo that features a group of friends solving mysteries together.
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There was an X-men comic written by Joss Whedon where Cyclops Scott Summers says he has a cousin in LA who’s in an institution for believing she fights vampires.
Wait wait wait, that changes everything! She chose the Slayerverse over the Marvel Universe??? Girl... wrong choice! :o
@@Bartlebycs
she chose being the *hero* of the slayerverse over being a mentally ill, otherwise normal human woman who never graduated high school because she's been in a mental institution for years.
He said in a comic con panel that he had thought of doing that, but never actually went through with it. Still, it's not a huge stretch to fit the Buffyverse into the Marvel multiverse. There's certainly plenty of fanfiction crossover potential!
Remember that she did say she was in an institution for two weeks when she faced her first vampire, that's where that probably comes from.
Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run was incredible. Cassaday's art, the character dynamics, it's just top notch. Highly recommended.
"You've got a world of strength in your heart. I know you do. You just have to find it again." That last moment felt like a chance for Buffy to have her goodbye with Joyce. The way she looks up at her mom and says so tenderly, bittersweetly "Thank you." I also appreciate the makeup department for Buffy in the alternate universe.
Amid all the meta (and this episode is one of the most meta things I've ever seen) I'm so glad you immediately zeroed in on the most important thing: the climactic scene between Buffy and Joyce. Everything Joyce says is what Buffy most needs to hear. It's as if Buffy's mind is bringing her back to remind her of all that's best in her. And since I've always seen Joyce's death as the main source of Buffy's depression, her saying goodbye is a sign of Buffy finally ending her mourning (Joyce's funeral was episode 5-17, this is 6-17, marking one year, a traditional mourning period for many).
I read the end as Buffy refusing to engage with the fake world, but it still existing in her head because she hasn't taken the antidote yet.
A lot of people really hate this episode. But it's quite meaningful for me, as when I'm in the depths of my depression I find myself feeling that those closest to me are standing between me and death, and I find myself fighting whether to give in to the urge to destroy those relationships, or ask for help.
May you always ask for help when you are in need of it. ❤
Xander was the target of a demonic psychological attack. He didn’t just wake up on his wedding day-panic-then decide not to get married.
He just experienced himself trying to kill Anya out of anger. He was in trauma. It seems like everyone thinks he should have just been able to brush it off and get married the same day like nothing happened.
I have little doubt that Xander would have gone through with the wedding had he not been attacked. He probably would have just thought of his anxieties as the usual cold feet some grooms feels during a wedding then he’d settle down in married life after the wedding.
Had he been beaten and physically injured before the wedding wouldn’t a postponement be reasonable? Instead he was injured psychologically to believe he wasn’t a good person to marry. His own fears amplified to the point that he hated himself as a person. His stopping the wedding was to protect Anya from himself. I think it’s pretty apparent he’s not himself at that point.
I think it’s a bit much to put all the blame on Xander. Does he lack self awareness to some degree? Sure. Could he have benefited from therapy before now? Considering how abusive his family life has been up until now, I think that’s a given.
But I don’t think he stopped the wedding of his own accord. I think not feeling up to getting married immediately after a demon attack is perfectly reasonable. He’s probably in need of therapy at this point to get back to normal. But considering that neither Willow nor Buffy has sought out therapy, this year, it’s probably unreasonable to expect Xander to automatically seek it out.
Thank you for saying this, having experienced spiritual warfare and sleep paralysis now I can understand what happened to Xander! When I was a kid I didn't get it but now I totally get it... Not to mention only people who experienced an abusive family dynamic understand his trauma, I get it was unnecessary drama but at the same time what happened to Xander needs to be addressed!
Yeah. But Xander is a man. Lexi doesn't extend that kind of sympathy to men.
Part of what makes this compelling is that Buffy's world is symptomatic of some actual cases of schizophrenia -- a grander-than-life fantasy where you interact with powerful beings. It can be hard to reject those visions and turn towards the struggles of real life.
Which is why some struggle with medication and prefer to go off it. Those with horrifying delusions are more likely to keep taking theirs.
Fun fact showing the global impact of Buffy: a French author wrote a book based on this episode, an interactive book in which you are the hero (Buffy) and where you must escape from a psychiatric hospital run by doctors carrying out diabolical experiments. The author is known for fairly experimental literature and the style reflects the "crazy" atmosphere well. The book: "La nuit, je suis Buffy Summers", "At night, I am buffy summers", by Chloé Delaume.
14:56 What’s so brilliant about this is that all of the feelings the doctor is talking about are TRUE to Buffy IRL/at this time.
"All those people in Sunnydale, they aren't as comforting as they once were" I mean, that is just so true... This one is one of my favourite episodes
yeah that's rough, but as you said true.
Something about the way Buffy comes out of it in this ep (the screams she doesn't seem to hear until her little mind play, plays out) made me believe that some part of the Slayer Power includes an impulse to save people. Not to take any agency from Buffy, but multiple times we've seen her unable or unwilling to help someone, only for someone to scream or step in front of a bus or something, and she (or even Faith, back when) would snap out of it and get to work.
I've always felt like the power chooses potentials that are like that naturally. It's like Kendra said: "You talk about slaying like it's a job. It's not. It's who you are."
@@jackmars931 the fact that I read that in kendras voice 😂
I agree, there is a natural instinct to protect. I'm reminded of Beer Bad, cave Buffy rescuing Willow and Parker from the fire. And other stuff from the future of the show too
This is a good episode but still heartbreaking. This is the season of feeling bad. It has dramatic moments but lame villains and it tears everyone down. Seeing Joyce again was hard. You didn't mention her deadbeat dad at all.
It took me years (within the past three years) to come up with a reason that made sense to the writers saying they didn't want fans knowing which reality was real and which one wasn't. This never made sense to me because Buffy not being in certain scenes (aka Spike & Xander or The Trio as the best examples) doesn't allow for her to know what would be happening. And while I later realized there can be explanations to that, it still didn't make sense that either reality could be real because with Buffy being depressed, the insane asylum isn't an insane asylum. It is a punishment for herself in her fantasy real world where even the key doesn't exist, thus no Dawn.
So since then, the head canon theory I came up with in the past year is that the insane asylum reality is in Buffy's mind, but she brought it into being. The drug in the demon's arm allows Buffy to hallucinate the universe. Combining ideas with the hellmouth can make much of non-reality possible. I believe when Buffy leaves the insane asylum universe and chooses the slayer universe, she brings the universe with her and creates it as an official reality and not just something in her head. How the episode ends is rather sad as while the Slayerverse reality continues to play out with Buffy continuing her life, the insane asylum Buffy is thought of as brain dead by her parents and doctors. I presume that without a depressed Buffy helming the wheel of her emotions and body, perhaps that Buffy could have a chance someday. Or if not, it's an even sadder story as complies with S6 anyway.
I also have a theory that Joyce got better on the parenting scale when Dawn showed up because of the monks adding Dawn into Joyce's memories. To me that fits in with with the plot of Joyce and Hank had her committed before the series began, which explains so much about Buffy's fear of her mom finding out and even not wanting to be actively part of slaying in the first episode, as well as why she's so confused about which reality is real and which one she'd rather be in.
There is even some moments in _Becoming Part 2_ supporting this:
Buffy: I told you. I'm a Vampire Slayer.
Joyce: (haughtily) Well, I just don't accept that!
&
Joyce: No. This is insane. (takes Buffy by the shoulders) Buffy, you need help.
Buffy: (throws off her mom's arms) I'm not crazy! What I need is for you to chill. I have to go!
Metaphorically they are referencing Buffy being gay, but since Buffy isn't actually gay, the direct conversation is about Joyce thinking she needs to send her daughter back to said asylum (or get her more help in some other way as the asylum would have been Hank's idea in my mind) because she's still believing it even after she herself saw it and is already trying to block it out, as Giles said people do at the end of The Harvest: "People tend to rationalize what they can and forget what they can't."
There was an X-Men comic Joss Whedon wrote called Astonishing X-Men of 18 issues where Scott Summers says he has a cousin in LA who’s in an institution for believing she fights vampires. Buffy's insane asylum universe taking place in another universe combined with the _Loki TV Show_ just shows how everything can be connected whether it's official MCU canon or not.
As a mental health professional, this is probably my favorite as it hits close to home. I've worked crisis for over 25 years and a lot of those are someone with psychosis (could be schizophrenia or any other type of psychosis) who believes whole-heartedly what they are "seeing" or "hearing" and even when approached softly (not outright saying it doesn't exist but that you are not experiencing the same thing), they will confabulate a reason to keep going with that delusion/hallucination. My belief for this episode is that it's an out for the viewer on why we have this fantasy world that doesn't exist in the real world. Of course, it's purposely left up to the viewer on whether they want to believe that Buffy is really in an institution or Buffy really is a vampire slayer and fighting the forces of evil. Other shows have used this format as well however, I like this one the best of the ones I have seen.
This episode is such a mind fuck and scary, I love it so much, it's a very good episode 👏
I don't _love it_ but it won't get out of my mind. It forever puts you in a what-if-THAT-was-true-all-along position and it's TERRIFYING.😬😨
There have been other episodes like this on other shows...Charmed comes to mind. But for a real mind fuck, nothing beats the way that Bryan Fuller took the basic concept of this episode and wove his series "Dead Like Me" into "Hannibal"
@@jackmars931 i hadn't seen this concept before that's why it had an impact on me, I was only 9 or 10 years old when I first saw this episode 😅
Cool gotta check that show out, thank's for the tip 😉
@@TheRockQu33n The first season of DLM is amazing dark humor, unfortunately they fired Fuller over "creative differences" and the rest of the seasons are pretty bad.
Hannibal is probably one of the best shows ever created, but unfortunately didn't find an audience and got cancelled before it could wrap up. If it had another season to finish what it started, I'd probably say it was right up there with Breaking Bad. The one fortunate thing is that it's largely an prequel to/adaptation of Thomas Harris' "Red Dragon", the book that takes place prior to "Silence of the Lambs" and has been made into a movie twice, so really we already know the ending, even if we don't get to see the show's version of it.
Fuller made another couple of shows that are great but didn't last: Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies. He was also a writer on DS9 and Voyager, and co-created one of the new Star Trek shows but got fired before it started. IDK if he's difficult to work with or just has such a specific vision of what he wants that he can't tolerate any deviation from it, but IMO he's up there with the best TV writers/show runners and it's a shame he never quite found his audience.
Possibly the best episode of the series for some fans (not for me, personally, but certainly top-10) and the one that absolutely messes with your entire interpretation of the series. But this one was THE most controversial with fandom back when this aired. "What, this whole thing is just a delusion of a crazy person?" The outro is what leaves the lasting question. Good reaction, thanks.
I like the reference to the summer between S5 and S6 where she was "in heaven" for awhile.
This is my favourite episode, and SMG's acting is phenomenal
It's one of her best performances.....and that's saying something.👐
This episode is phenomenal. it's one of my favourites.
i interpreted the ending as it's not that the show world till now has been fake, but that both worlds are real, and the demon poison connected two parallel realities
That's the way I view it.
I viewed it the same way ! After all, Anya and Tara told us numerous times (and others) that there are a lot of other dimensions or parralel universes ! We saw one in Dopplegangland, for example, and that's not the only time we see or hear about that. So it would make sense that both were connected, and that the Buffy of the second world was gone and the one we know took her place because of the demon's poison.
Wich would mean she DID had a choice to make ! And both world were real. Only, HER world was not the one were her mom was alive.
@@Sytrylt i can't help but think that the asylum buffy wasn't fully gone, and that our buffy unknowingly and unintentionally took her chance to break her delusions and get better. if our buffy didn't intervene maybe the asylum buffy could have made the choice that is correct for her, would have killed her imaginary friends and come back to reality. i feel bad for her if that's the case
Congrats to Hank for his 3rd episode!
Well let’s count: Season 1-10 (Nightmares) 2 scenes-the nightmare itself and coming to pick up Buff after the epidode plot is resolved. Season 2-01 (When She Was Bad) 1 scene-the conversation with Joyce as he’s unpacking Buff’s suitcase, and extreme platform shoes which he may have bought to overcompensate for not really connecting all summer. Season 5-21 (Intervention) in which Willow, entering Buff’s catatonic state, witnesses the tableau of Hank and Joyce bringing baby Dawn home from hospital to meet Buff (age what? 4,5?) And now this Season 6 appearance with Joyce in the Institution where Buff has been in fruitless therapy for 6 years (or no- that’s not the real world- your choice) but that makes 4 episodes with on-screen appearances by Dean Butler unless I’m missing any others. Lots of other cases where Hank is referred to but doesn’t appear.
@@maxconrad3723 Totally forgot the season 2 ep. And that's actual Buffy's dad not an hallucination or dream version.
Never disliked an absent character more
11:43: The therapist is played by Michael Warren, who's best known as Officer Bobby Hill (not THAT one) on the Emmy winning cop drama, "Hill Street Blues". Before becoming an actor, he attended UCLA and played basketball on the Bruins with then-future NBA legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Michael's also Jessica Alba's father-in-law. What a life! 😎
So it was all a dream. Or at the end of the series Buffy wakes up and tells Hank and Joyce she's ready to go home now after 7 years. Either way I'm good.
Both realities are true.
What the demon did was allow Buffy to be in two parallel universes at the same time, which means that somewhere in the multiverse, there is a Buffy that is actually in a mental hospital.
If I'm not mistaken this is the original trope for "it's all in your head/dream"?
This is my favorite episode of Buffy 😍
Xander just experienced hating Anya and murdering her in those visions, that's gotta be very traumatic. It's not like he saw a video of him doing that stuff, he was in it, he felt the hate he had for Anya and the hate she had for him. He felt his anger and how it felt to take that pan and bash her over the head with it. Is he just supposed to ignore all that, go on like nothing happened and get married an hour later? I don't think that's a reasonable expectation.
When Angel was pretending to be Angelus, Buffy broke up with him the same day, knowing the whole time from the beginning that it was just an act.
Xander thought it either was real or could be real when he was having the visions and they were "his nightmare vision" of their future, so it's not even just some generic stuff, the spell is basically tailored to the person to be as horrible as possible for them. Not getting married an hour later seems reasonable.
Though to be fair, they could've taken a few hours to talk and then decide together if they were gonna get married, instead of him just walking off. The huge fight that just happened between everyone was the perfect opportunity to change the schedule and tell everyone to go and start eating while they figure things out. Anya shouldn't have to deal with the rest of the day alone.
This is an excellent post, Markus.
Do you think that it's a coincidence that one of her friends gets thrown into these gripping, "it IS my real life" style visions, and immediately afterward, the very next episode, we have this story, where Buffy goes through that herself?
We, the audience, get to see exactly what Buffy does, and how excruciating that was to fight. And I think part of the message is a plea to forgive Xander, by showing how hard that is to deal with from the perspective of a character the audience has more sympathy for.
The very last scene in irobot You Jane, the show lays out their intentions for relationships. The shippers are doomed and no character in the show is going to get a happy relationship ending.🤷🏻♀️
The final elseworld scene ( 24:09 ) is a weird confirmation that, whatever that place is, is real. Since, as the doctor put it “she’s gone” meaning, it can’t be a delusion, as no one would be there to be deluded.
So, it has to be some sort of parallel universe with a comatose Buffy experiencing this world’s Buffy’s life… Yaaay…
I always felt like the big bad of this season is adulthood. The parental figures are gone. Everyone is left alone to fend for themselves.
I've always said the same, whether it applies to our heroes themselves or to the nerd trio too.
This is why I love/hate this season. 5 got real, 6 got too real. I find some of the story wonky, but its such a good representation of BS in life at their ages.
Such a heartbreaking episode. One of my standouts. 💙
Loved: the theory explains how the hell the sister appeared out of nowhere -- Buffy just added her to the story in her head.
Hated: they have to reach so hard for the episode that they retcon Joyce knowing about vamps.
there is nothing in this episode showing that Joyce knows about vamps, she sent Buffy to the institution specifically because she didn't believe in vamps being real.
@@Henrik_Holst If the asylum incident Buffy talks about here really happened, then surely the conversations with Joyce in 2x21 would be different (as Lexi says at 16:08).
Fortunately, there is an easy fix for this continuity error: the story Buffy tells here is part of her post-Dawn memories. She just doesn't realize that. Maybe Buffy did tell her parents about vampires once, and in the real history they just brushed it off. It's entirely reasonable that their reaction would be different if they had another daughter, and that's the life that Buffy remembers.
@@theadamabrams there is IMHO no need for the conversation in S2 to be different, remember that Buffy was both on a schedule, hunted by the police and came straight from having seen dead Kendra. I don't see her being in a state of mind to have a calm and logical discussion with her mother right there and then.
@@Henrik_Holst It's not that Buffy would say anything different. It's that Joyce-who supposedly was told about vampires by Buffy years earlier and took it so seriously that the sent Buffy to an institution-would have said some very different things in Season 2 and 3. And while I can't think of any specific examples, there are probably lines in Seasons 1 and 2 from Buffy to Giles or her friends about Joyce that don't line up with this episode's claim either.
@@theadamabrams well I beg to differ, in my view Joyce is the kind of parent that takes zero responsibility so she does not feel guilty over having sent Buffy to an institution by mistake two years earlier and why would any of them discuss this with Giles or the Scoobies, mental health was a huge taboo in the 90:ies.
The ending of this episode (outside of Buffy's point of view) suggests that there exists an alternate world where this is true. It would be interesting to see if that Buffy can ever recover while this Buffy is in the Buffyverse real world. And what if she comes out and discovers those things were real the whole time? Edit: Yes, it could have been a flash because she hadn't gotten the antidote yet. Good catch! Yeah, the existence of the spinoff pretty much settles things as far as Buffyverse Buffy being real. It would be an interesting alternate reality, though.
A lot of Buffy fans really hate this episode. I guess they feel betrayed. Their emotional investment has somehow been invalidated. That’s them. Not me. I love this episode. The Buffyverse is so good, so entertaining and so absurd and now all the absurdity is justified because now we know poor old Buffy is nuts! That last shot of schizoBuff in her dementia confirms that everything we love in Sunnydale is just the madness of a tragic situation at the Cloudydale Hospital for the Severely Unfocused.
“Two down, one to go.”
Hmm not quite 🫢
I loooove the concept of this episode! Kind of a Total Recall scenario.
I love this episode! The whole last 6 eps of this season are great
This is such a _Twilight Zone_ episode. I love it. This episode is brilliant. _Smallville_ did this basic plot a year or few later.
Approximately a month after this aired Charmed did a similar episode
Something I never realized before is that Dawn just suddenly appears in the bedroom after she was locked in the bathroom and Buffy stood before the door. So if Buffy isn't hallucinating, how did Dawn teleport herself?
29:10 - 29:29 I never thought about that,since for decades I haven't known the"Angel"spin-off existed!!
22:07 - 22:12 Oh,sweetie......
31:08 - 31:10 Title sequences are important in this show...occasionally...
The heavy episodes are coming. Goodbye fun, welcome uneasiness.
*"The Body":* "Am I a joke to you?"
Remember this conversation at the end of the S2 finale:
Buffy: I told you. I'm a Vampire Slayer.
Joyce: (haughtily) Well, I just don't accept that!
...
Joyce: No. This is insane. (takes Buffy by the shoulders) Buffy, you need help.
Buffy: (throws off her mom's arms) I'm *not* crazy! What I need is for you to chill. I *have* to go!
So while one could claim that Buffy having been sent to an institution some time before S1 is a form of a retcon, there where some breadcrumbs of it early on.
I consider it as Joyce thinking she needs to send her back (or get her more help in some other way as the asylum would have been Hank's idea in my mind) because she's still believing it even after she herself saw it and is already trying to block it out, as Giles said people do at the end of _The Harvest:_ "People tend to rationalize what they can and forget what they can't."
It still felt forced in, but season 6 overall feels forced unfortunately. The writers didn't understand the characters nor the show.
No actually this conversation is a coming out. Not of "i believe in something" but in "i am not the person you think i am"
Buffy: i told you i am gay.
Joyce: Well, i just dont accept that!
Many parents dont accept their kids being gay and think they need help.
@@CoasterTrax it is, but that is both earlier and later parts. In this particular part there is the specific mention of "you are mentally ill and need help" and "no I'm not crazy [as you once believed]".
Sometimes things can be more than one thing at the same time.
@@Henrik_Holst you interprete too much into it. Its clearly a typical conversation about coming out, as Josh himself comment that
I actually partly do believe she’s still there and this is all a delusion she created and it was a glimpse into reality
Nah. Why would she kill her mom in her fantasy world? And why would there be other POVs in the fantasy world?
@@lilywong9672 can’t control every aspect of a delusion it takes on life of it’s own
@@lilywong9672 Probably b/c her mom is in her "reality".
There's a running joke that no one is allowed to be happy in a Joss Whedon show
The council can't arrest anyone, they just wrangle rogue slayers
they claimed to be able to deport Giles within the hour so they can do way more
This show was Fiction, a Fantasy series and it was as real to us as it was to Institutionalized Buffy.
Also, this is one of my favorite episodes because it rewrites the whole series. One of the reasons why Buffy is so rewarchable is because it's never the same show again. Dawn rewrites history. Now this rewrites it again. Go back and watch any episode with Buffy interacting with her mother knowing that Buffy had already told her mom. Knowing the while time her mom knew and rejected Buffy's being the slayer. How so many of her interactions with Buffy were driven by denial of the revelation or of her putting Buffy in for treatment. How, she overlooks all the evidence like Buffy burning down the gym, or as Buffy mentions in the season 2 finale, all the blood she keeps cleaning out of Buffy's clothes.
Buffy's whole relationship with her mother after this episode is now going to be forever changed in your mind.
Honestly, I don't know if they thought about this idea when they wrote all those scenes originally, but that just shows how well they were able to pull off this idea. It fits seamlessly with every scene where Joyce is left confused with being out of loop with respects to Buffy being a slayer. More, is fits so well with the shock of learning the truth. Just imagine Joyce thinking about this very thing, how she had committed Buffy when she wasn't lying the whole time. It also really fits with Buffy's frustration with her mother's reaction.
So much happens in this episode, and most of it happens outside of it.
I've always enjoyed alternate realities. It can be a great way to gain insight into the character(s). My take, and I'm sure I'm not alone, is that Buffy's mind is slipping back & forth between realities.
Don't be so caught up in trying to figure out which world is real. Maybe they are both real. 🙂
Maybe _none_ of them is...maybe this is all just a huge supernatural TV show and Buffy and all the Scoobies and even her enemies are all just a bunch of actors,occasionally in costumes and occasionally some poor CGI monsters...can you imagine???🤯
@@Nicamon they should have written that too, lol
They did this idea in Charmed first. Then couple of months later in Buffy but took it to the other level. Made it according to the context of their show. Darker. Charmed had a lighter version.
This plot is quite common in genre shows. I think Star Trek did it first.
@@antoniolamounier not exactly. There are some similar ideas, but lof of them was filmed after that. Plus in Star Trek they just did this like all previous story is a fictional world.
Charmed and Buffy they just wrote the same way. Leading character is in mental hospital where people there are trying to convince them that they are crazy, the world with demons does not exist, it's their fantasy. And to recover they need to give up their powers, so it will be easy to kill them and rest characters (Charmed) Or making them literally help to kill rest characters (Buffy). This is all the same. That was written at about the same time. Lot of writers who worked there knew each other, they were collegues. At some point Whedon made a joke telling people that they should check some story in Buffy or if they miss it, then next week in Charmed.
When Spike says that Buffy likes it when you put a little ice on the back of her neck, where's that coming from? Why we didn't see it?
The other things that were happening at the time.
could not disagree with you more about anya and xander breaking up being “lazy writing” because his issues with getting married have been apparent for a long time. yes, he comes off as a complete asshole for leaving her at the alter but that’s the point. sometimes people do bad things (including the characters you like) but just because you wanted something else to happen doesn’t make it bad writing.
If you saw Supernatural, the wraiths have that wrist thing
Told you this season was going to get darker from here on out
When this episode first aired I remember being offended by it but I also enjoyed the hell out of it but as the years went on my love for this episode has grown
This episode is in my top 10 for the series. I love it. Like the rest of this season though, opinions vary. Personally, I've always taken the ending as the writers screwing with the audience, but there are legitimate arguments both ways.
22:44 if buffy don’t grabs tara she will save all
The complaint you made right before reacting to this episode is one of my main issues with this season. The writing frequently went the easy route. Yes, this is supposed to be a “darker” and more depressing season, and that’s fine. But a bit too often the writers made the characters oblivious or took the plot to a very predictable territory in order to justify the unrelenting “darkness”. Still, I do think “Entropy” and this episode are two second half of the season installments that standout in the series’ run.
She turned into Buffy the Drain Cleaner at the start.
I never understand why willow don’t use her powers to stop buffy and the monster in the basement
I’m with you and I think it really is a Whedon thing to not let even one couple be happy or give a viewer what they want and it gets tiring and annoying.
Love ya Lexi! Great reaction. This one always creeped me out :D. - 20:31 Something like that, but that's later. - - 22:05 that would be so interesting. - On the Slayalive schedule, once you get past Double or Nothing and Normal Again both shows are on steroids until the end of the 2 seasons. I never considered Hells Bells lazy writing, but I think that's a good question and consideration. I guess I always thought of it as it's been Xander's MO for a long time and it was led up to pretty well since he asked her to marry him. And Xander does do scummy things from time to time ( LOVE how this gets brought up in Season 7, no spoilers tho ;) ), doesn't mean I don't like his character. I think this does make the rest of the season and season 7 really interesting but I'm looking at the whole series so I'm curious what you'll think going forward❣
Now you know why Buffy is fighting a bunch of nerds this season, because she's insane!!
lol.....such a great episode. SMG is so good as a villain + scary AF with someone that powerful out of touch with "reality", or was it reality? Maybe we're all living in a simulation ahhhh my brain
Oh and Smallville ripped this idea off, also a great episode
I love asylum episodes of shows, like this, charmed, smallville
They will see something coming, they don’t want to. Hello 👋🏻. One of those, it’s all in your head kind of story.
What does this tell about us, believing into the Vampire Slayer World? That we are also loonies? The sensible thing would be to believe the asylum reality!
A lot of people dislike this episode but I think it's fucking brilliant. What if...
Before you get too harsh on the writing Lexi, you need to wait to see how all the plot arcs play out this season. Willow's addicition had a reason. It's important. Same with Giles' and Tara's leaving. Same with Anya and Xander's split. And Buffy/Spike. It may seem messy and lazy at the time, but it's like looking at all the ingrediants of cake BEFORE you bake it. Wait until it's baked and iced. Until the season finale. Then think back to all these depressing "lazy" episodes and you'll see why they were there.
Both worlds are real. Just like Anyanka, the demon either created a new universe, or connected Buffy to her alternate self in a parallel universe that already existed. The Wishverse still existed and could be accessed by magic in Doppelgangland, even if time had stopped at the moment the necklace was destroyed. The asylum universe continues moving on after the end of this episode. I also think the demon was controlling or at least influencing the doctor and Joyce in that world, to get her to do what it wanted.
Saludó desde la República Dominicana excelente vídeo
What was the point of them breaking up You do realize you’re watching Josh Whedon right 😂😂
15:58 We never find out if that was true, The only person Buffy talked to about this was Willow and she wouldn't know if it was real or not. Dawn might know but she would have been about 10 (If she existed then) Her parents probably wouldn't tell the 10 year old her sister's going crazy. The only one that would know if Joyce and she's dead now, So no one would know if Buffy was in an asylum or if that was part of the spell. So it's possible that the asylum is the real would and the rest of the show is all fake.
Have idea for a crossover ,bring the two together.
Yes, they could have done more with Xander and Anya.
Most people/reactors don’t like this episode I’m so glad you did
wdym mojo about forgetting supernatural? her parents didn't think there was anything supernatural going on. they thought buffy was going crazy to the point that they even admitted her to an institution
Normal Again was a very intense episode in which we see Buffy's PTSD, which has obviously been there from the very start continue to manifest itself again. This time it seems even more severe with the scenes in the Institution very harrowing with Buffy seemingly locked in to a psychotic state. We see her turn on all her friends an place them down in the basement with the Demon. Eventually the Psychiatrist Doctor tells Buffy's parents she was 'gone' and a sinister ending where we see the camera pan away to the window in the door in the hospital similar to an X-Files episode. The Trio have becoming so annoying at this point, we can't wait for the revenge that they deserve. This episode is very much in sync with the tone of the whole Season exploring all kinds of dark avenues, and the Psychological effects on all the characters. The reason I think many fans didn't like this episode in particular was because it seemed to question was the world we have seen Buffy in real at all, or was it fantasy in her mind. It's as it was almost a 'Bobby Ewing Shower Moment' ( older people will get that reference ) but it was brilliantly done in that even though we are still not sure what actually is happening, we are left in a state of flux. This episode is very much similar in story and tone to the incredible movie Identity starring John Cusack, Ray Liotta and Rebecca De Mornay. Fantastic innovative writing again continuing the 'darkness' of S6.
That Bobby Ewing shower bit was at the end of the family guy episode Das Boom. Patrick Duffy is fafh.
Ah, the total recall episode. Some people don't like it, but there is a rich tradition in these style of episodes. Star Trek DS9 had a very similar thing.
Also, I kind of love it. I don't believe it's her delusion. Simply, Angel the show proves it isn't. A delusion could only be created by the person making it.
I’ve always found this episode problematic.
It’s a really cool idea, and I like how it essentially helps Buffy process and start to heal from her depression. As bad as things are in the Slayer world, she has a purpose there, she has friends, she has something to give. And it’s enough to make her choose it.
I don’t like how they try to rewrite history to imply Joyce and Hank had Buffy committed before season 1. It just doesn’t fit with established continuity. Never once does Joyce, who is otherwise a wonderful person, show guilt about this. She should be devastated she did that.
There’s also some story plot holes here. Like why the heck does Willow not use magic to free herself when she’s tied up by Buffy and clearly can’t get free on her own. I get it, she’s an addict, but if the alternative is a horrible death at the hands of a demon, get casting spells girl!!
Intriguing episode, but yeah. I’m not as big a fan as others.
Unnecessarily depressing is the tone of this whole season 😂
If we assume that the world introduced in this episode is the real world, that can explain why Xander had to leave Anya last episode. Buffy has no experience of marriage and was unable to imagine it. There are a lot of details that can be explained like this, not only everyones inability to sustain a relationship.
I absolutely hated this episode when I first saw it. How dare they threaten the existence of our beloved characters that we know are real. Nowadays I think that I appreciate its darkness, or maybe that is just a cope.
I lovedddd this episode
The two realities (Sunnydale and The Hospital) are both real!
The truth is that Buffy has visions on a paralel life without vampires and at the same time, in a paralel Universe, the Buffy of that reality has visions on a paralel life where she is The Slayer. When the demon poisioned Buffy the two worlds have come into contact and each one of the two realities has become imaginary with respect to the other. Buffy has in fact awakened her counterpart from her visions but when she took the antidote she unknowingly condemned her to never awaken again.
It's very difficult to understand, true? XD
In the end Buffy with this terrible prove she was able to take another important step in rebuilding herself, totally accepting her life again even in the face of a much better alternative for her.
29:10-56 Yes!!! That's exactly why I reject that alternative interpretation and roll my eyes at the suggestion it cost us faith in the shows reality. Aside just undermining the whole theme of the show (the seemingly ordinary, flighty girls whose extraordinary powers defeat the forces of evil and inspires the best in all of us...is really just some lost person in a mental hospital!?) it just creates a ton of plot holes. Especially regarding Angel.
To quotes Dragonball Z Abridged "How do you remember the parts where you weren't there?" or rather "Who do dream up all the parts with you weren't there?"
Batman the Animated series had a very similar episode where the hero gets a chance to have the life he might have always wanted only to reject it because the world he left behind still needs him. It was every bit as amazing
Very total recall
I kind of disagree with your take about the Anya/Xander break up. Yes it was crappy for Xander to have pushed it so long, but I think they hammered home how terrified Xander was of getting locked into a bad marriage looking at his parents. This confounded by the demon visions convinced him to do it. But even without the supernatural elements, I think it's still realistic, a lot of young people, especially in newer generations, don't easily warm up to the idea of marriage. Also, while the end is left open ended, I think it is meant to be an allegory, alluding to the fact that Buffy makes her choice and she dies in the alternate reality because those feelings of doubt also die. It's brilliant.
Aside from the meta-joke (the show's reality is made up by a crazy person and in _our_ reality the writers/Joss Whedon are that person :), to me this episode can be interpreted as being about solipsism (the idea that our mind is all that exists so everything else - including other people - is its creation). We can assume the end scene is just Buffy retreating from the _actual_ delusion (of the asylum) back to reality OR It's also entirely valid to assume that the show's reality is all in her mind.
The point (for me) is that the episode makes us aware of that choice - there's nothing logically wrong with solipsism (it's basically impossible to disprove) but when faced with the idea that reality is all in our mind, we almost all _choose_ not to believe it. The world feels less worthwhile if it's true so we just assume it isn't (even though we can't _really_ know either way). This episode (specifically the final scene) takes us through a similar process except for the fictional world of BtVS - in other words the show's doing what it always has - examine reality through metaphor - it's just here the metaphor _is_ "reality" :).
This episode has always messed with me.
Is it real or not?
They weren't implying that she's still in the asylum. They showed that clip at the end because she still has the poison in her system. So until she gets the antidote, she'll continue to have the visions. I've watched this series countless times, my absolute favorite, especially the first 4 seasons.
I think it's open to interpretation either way but I like your explanation. Most people do take it as she's just fully embraced her delusion.
....you know, I like this take! I feel that they end the ep outside the room, and NOT at home, in her reality, because that's where she really is. HOWEVER, the idea of the poison still being in her system is good!
I think its open to interpretation and every so often like to think she's still there
@@deirdrestatham5730 I do
If the ending was open to interpretation, they wouldn't have given Buffy the line saying that she still needs the antidote. But it is something to think she could be in a delusion throughout the series.
I didn't like dawn here, like buffys going through this and she's playing victim
So what's new?😒
my issue with dawn in this episode isn't that she's selfish; that's understandable. it's that i don't believe that she's a real person. it doesn't feel true to a real sister. i 100% believe buffy is still in that mental institution.
I wish to run with this idea for a few more episodes
Xander isn't afraid of becoming his dad. His dad is an alcoholic, not wife beater
I mean...who knows,right?
Xander's dad's character leans pretty heavily on the abusive drunk asshole stereotype, which is the type of person Xander's scared of becoming in Hell's Bells. Also maybe rewatch Restless, there were definitely a few hints that Xander's dad is a violent person.
I hate this episode with the fiery passion of a thousand dying suns. The idea that it ends on the Buffy in the asylum in a crappy bid to insinuate that that’s the “real” reality makes me so angry. First, the “it’s all a dream/hallucination” trope is absolute crap. It’s the card trick of narrative writing, trading cheap cleverness for actual storytelling. Second, having Buffy Summers, an icon of heroic and strong female characters, turn out to be a mumbling broken girl in a padded room is just disgusting. In my mind, this episode is just writers circle jerking themselves to their own trickiness, but the fact that I have to hear ppl make arguments as to why they believe this episode was secretly telling us that Buffy’s life was all a hallucination makes this my absolute most hated episode in the entire run.
About the last episode: i think the whole point of season 6 is the life they struggle with and thats the real enemy. Making bad desicion to learn from it and grow.
Sure we all would love to see them overcoming their fear and marry. But at the end of the day, this is the whole point of this season. Doing bad desicions which everyone does once in their life.
Buffy sleeping with Spike and using him to forget her depression for a moment and wants so badly feeling something.
Willow dealing with Magic (drug) issues.
Dawn stealing for attention.
Xander struggling with his own uncertainty.
This should show us, that dealing with life and desicions isnt always Black and white. Its more complex and everyone has not only the good site in themselves.
Very disturbing episode.
dawn is such a narcissist. buffy`s finding herself in an awful mental institution with catatonic shizophrenia and dawn calls it `an ideal life`. maybe feel bad that your sister is having those horrific visions instead of making it all about you, dawn. same with being trapped in the house. they all could have died of starvation and dawn makes it all about herself. meanwhile buffy died so dawn wouldnt have to and when her friends selfishly pulled her out of paradise dawn makes buffy`s depression over that, all about herself.
This is sad
It would be "lazy writing" to just give the audience what they want, and that's against the season 6 theme of personal failings. People overestimate how marriage changes a relationship, too. Whatever drama a couple has before marriage has the same potential to happen after it, they just now have the involvement of a piece of paper and lawyers (and Jesus, I guess). It didn't come out of nowhere, they both had unease and issues all season long. This is what they were building up to, the characters were each positioned to be here at this point in time, and as a result, this episode is better because the illusion of the better world promising an easy way out is that much more enticing than the one where everyone is miserable. The writers didn't even know that they could have make a show that could build towards a bigger and better finale until after season 2, not even Whedon himself. And now there are a ton of serialized shows that try to emulate that writing process that strikes a balance between a self-contained story and long term developments that all add up in the end, and most shows can't pull it off. I think the key is the willingness to be flexible and not hard commit to ideas. They were going to kill off Spike in season 2, but somewhere along the way, they came up with a better idea and pivoted to that without forcing it. It takes a lot of skill to pull off what this show does.
If they just get married and have occasional arguments that are over by the end of the episode and that's their dynamic from now on, that's just more status quo. And that's boring. They have to explore Xander's demons and put his worst fears on display, even if it means you don't like him. Because if there's something worth exploring, you have to go there so you're not like every other show that keeps couples together forever, does nothing with them, and then breaks them up when one of the actors feels like leaving. You gotta do it for the drama.
You will understand later so much was set up from this for future story lines. Let it go. Move on.
There's no way to answer this without spoilers, but ... what are you talking about? I don't remember anything from this episode coming back later (except for minor things, e.g., Buffy says in the next ep that she tried to kill her friends and they forgave her for it).
There're some kinds of stories i dislike. One kind is arround sects and brainwashing cults and another this asylum/insanity stuff. Breaking the in universe imersion is awful.
Yes, it's a show, the characters can't think by themselves, which makes them fictional, but to quote Whoopie Goldbergs Star Trek charactere Guinan in the 7th movie 'Generations':"It's as real as you want it to be." This is why this characteres mean sth to us, why we route for them and think about stuff like 'What would Buffy do?" So breaking this imersion is kind of an act of mental violation to the audience.
Sometimes they make a joke, like an alien ship flying away in the end of a murder mystery, when they have proven that everything in the episode was pure human, but here it was not funny at all.
But finally, since some stuff happens out of Buffys sight but within ours, we can say that in universe the non-asylum world is real.