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Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Normal Again
UPN Episode Air Date 03/12/02Last week Xander told Anya he couldn't marry her. Spike showed up to the wedding with a skanky date and made Buffy jealous, and Willow and Tara batted eyes at each other. In the end it was implied that Anya would be returning to her previous occupation (vengeance demon).
As we rejoin Buffy and her pals this week the Sunnydale gals (sans Anya) are worrying about Xander. When he returns we find out that Anya left town a few days earlier, closing up the magic shop. Appropriately down on himself, Xander desperately misses his true love. Buffy is hunting the geek squad when a creature summoned by Andrew's magical Didgeridoo attacks her. (Good thing they didn't have that during Survivor: Outback.)
Willow and Xander patrol the cemetery when Buffy blacks out. We see her in a mental hospital with her mother and father soothing her. The psychiatrist patiently explains to Buffy (and the many confused viewers) that Buffy has been institutionalized for six years and Sunnydale, the vampires, her friends and foes are all part of her schizophrenia. Buffy pops out of this and back to the reality we've all come to know, and later relays the hallucination to Willow, Xander and Dawn. Xander use the events in Buffy's life as examples of their reality. This only makes the common viewer pause to wonder how a show so unbelievable can hold our interest so successfully.
As Buffy bounces back and forth between the Sunnydale reality and the hospital reality we learn that the psychotic Buffy thinks she is a superhero with a group of powerful friends who fight monsters and mythical villains. Buffy's doctor tells us that Dawn is a product of Buffy's mind created to give her a familial connection, but that caused inconsistencies in her memories. This, according to the doctor, is why her happy life no longer makes her happy, why she no longer fight powerful, evil demons, but instead she faces off against pathetic teenagers with cool toys.
Which leads us to Troika: Andrew and Warren are getting along well underground, but Jonathon is a little paranoid and could use some fresh air. Hmmm, wonder which one is going to blow the next big heist by doing the right thing?
Willow finds the demon and figures out how to cure Buffy. As Willow starts dishing the pep talk, Buffy admits that her parents had her admitted to a hospital back when she first started seeing vampires. Apparently she was only there for a few weeks, but she now questions whether she ever truly got out or if she is still there, and her "real life" is just in her head. Confused? Good, you're right on track.
Dawn tried to take care of Buffy only to have Buffy start nagging her about making life right. As Buffy tries to convince her parents in the hospital reality that she has a sister, Dawn realizes that she doesn't exist in this other reality. With an attitude only a spoiled teenager can pull off, Dawn makes this about herself. She accuses Buffy of being in her ideal reality without Dawn there to bother her. How can Dawn think that Buffy being committed to a psychiatric hospital is her ideal reality?
Willow creates the antidote using real-life science, not magic. Spike administers a dose of reality, calling Buffy a martyr with a superhero trip. He then gives Buffy the ultimatum, tell her pals about their affair or he will, causing Buffy to decide she doesn't want to live in the Sunnydale reality and toss the antidote.
Back at the hospital Buffy's parents and doctor convince her that the only way to be healthy is to get rid of the characters in her head. How does one rid herself of beliefs that are actually true? By going crazy. For those viewers that were growing bored of the Buffy fight scenes tonight's episode should be a refreshing change. Instead of fighting the creature, Buffy goes after her friends.
Regardless of how this all ends - you'll have to watch it to find out - the episode attempted to address many of the chasms in the plot lines over the past seasons. Only Buffy could adequately mock the concept of a slayer. Along the way she admits to sleeping with Spike, leading us to wonder what will happen when everyone finds out about them. Tonight's episode brought back Kristen Sutherland as Buffy's mom, in a refreshing form other than memory or flashback. All in all a wonderfully different episode, as we've come to expect. Is Buffy insane? Does Sunnydale actually exist? In the end, a reality is only real to the person who believes it.
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