Buffy 6x17 - Early Access & Full
Added 2024-11-15 21:00:06 +0000 UTCI'm truly ASTOUNDED.
Trying to be vague in the blurb here!!
The theme covered in this episode is not something I've ever thought of, and now I can't stop thinking if it's actually real and it's been this way all along. I guess it just makes SENSE... But I don't want to think of it like that. It's amazing to think that this could even be possible?! Colour me shocked!
(p.s. now that I think about it... the final ending scene... we see it from the perspective of the others in the room. Does this mean that it's actually real??)
Youtube edit: https://youtu.be/3fEbuucecHQ
Comments
this one always makes me so sad. her mom was there and she could have stayed there with her and not fought demons. dawn being upset she wasn't there was annoying. none of the people in her life were there.
Ashley Thomas
2025-03-05 06:37:18 +0000 UTCI think because we saw the nerds talking and existing on their own and since they summoed the demon and talked about her "tripping" - for me the institution was a dream world.
Dusty
2024-11-22 05:34:59 +0000 UTCI think we should give writers some slack and let them do an ambiguous episode without thinking that they change the whole premise of the show. There's a quote from Whedon I find interesting: " "If the viewer wants, the entire series takes place in the mind of a lunatic locked up somewhere in Los Angeles... and that crazy person is me." Although, "Personally, I think it really happened."
Oliver
2024-11-17 00:48:09 +0000 UTCAgreed. She's not well yet.
Ross43
2024-11-16 14:58:11 +0000 UTCIn my mind both Buffy's are real. One reality where Buffy is the Slayer and another where Buffy is in an institution. And the demons toxic sting made her slip between the two. Spike did mention an alternate reality where he is Buffy's sex slave. Lmao And Anya said there could be realities where shrimp rule the world.
Bud Haven
2024-11-16 04:55:38 +0000 UTCThe only way that I can accept this episode as part of the Buffyverse canon is to believe that .... Although we don't see the final scene from Buffy's POV, it is the final hallucination she experiences before taking the antidote Willow is going to make.
David Schmidt
2024-11-16 04:11:16 +0000 UTCI love this episode. It's a fascinating study in the effects of things like depression and PTSD, because essentially it's saying that Buffy feels so utterly hopeless and desperate that for a moment she willingly chooses the false reality of an insane asylum for the sheer hope that she might be able to stop feeling the way she is. Again one of the reasons I adore season 6, Buffy is clinically depressed and traumatised, and the writers haven't just had her randomly get better with a couple of group hugs and a few rounds of Kumbaya with her friends. In terms of the ending, the director of the episode, Rick Rosenthal, has stated that he purposefully left it ambiguous and it's up to the viewer to decide what is real. Marti Noxon, who was the show runner at the time, has stated outright though that the ending was a fake out. The episode may have been inspired by a 1983 TV show called St Elsewhere, which basically ends with the possibility that it might all have been the figment of an autistic child's imagination. Apparently when Joss Whedon was doing The Avengers, he wanted to have the character of Cyclops (real name Scott Summers) make reference to a female cousin who's locked up in a mental institution because she thinks she's a demon hunter (obviously a direct reference to this episode), but he couldn't find a place in the script to include it. And once again Spike manages to be both selfish, manipulative, and insightful. The way he's acting though, looking at one point as if he's taking delight in pointing out what he thinks are 'home truths' to Buffy, even though she's obviously unwell and what he's saying might well be hurtful to her. Yeah it doesn't look like he's going to get the hint that Buffy doesn't want to be with him, for her own sake. Like I said in a previous comment, a Romanticist without a soul, or any sort of leash, can potentially be very dangerous.
Claire Eyles
2024-11-16 02:40:27 +0000 UTCI like this episode because it really makes you question reality and everything that's happened up to this point. I feel like it's kind of left up to the viewer to decide which reality they think is the correct one. I personally think the world of Sunnydale and Buffy being the slayer is real. How else could you explain Angel and everything going on over in Los Angeles. Unless Buffy is simultaneously imagining another scenario that she's not actively a part of, but I think that would be kind of far fetched.
Britney
2024-11-16 02:01:48 +0000 UTCI find what Spike says to Buffy before she dumps the antidote entirely confounding. Not only is his argument a false dichotomy (her friends could help her stay away from Spike for instance), but he's also assuming that Buffy would be happy if her friends abandoned her and she got back with him. It's hard for me to have sympathy for Spike when he's still trying to manipulate Buffy to be with him after she told him that it was killing her.
Lime Pie
2024-11-16 01:01:16 +0000 UTCThis episode, aside from being brilliant, is part of the 'unreliable narrator' trope. In film works it dates back to 1920 with the German Expressionist masterpiece, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". In that film the story is told via a protagonist's flashback as he tells his story in the present. The whole movie is him hunting down this serial killer, who murdered his best friend, and then figuring out it's actually this creepy old Carnival guy who has a sleepwalker that does his bidding (and kidnaps the woman the protagonist is in love with), and this Carnival guy is also the raving mad Director of a local insane asylum. It's all very thriller-esque and 'whodunnit', in an ultra expressionist way, right up until the ending where it's revealed the protagonist is actually a patient at the asylum, all of the people he spoke of in his story are fellow patients and the guy you think is the insane killer really is the Asylum's director, but is trying to help him. Classic twist ending (one of the earliest), but then you look back over the film and realise maybe things aren't so clear cut, and you might have more questions than answers. It's a really fun trope, especially paired with alternate universe type scenarios (like in this Buffy episode), because it opens up so many possibilities. Okay, I'll watch the reaction now, and then I'll probably have a few more observations if I remember them. :)
Claire Eyles
2024-11-16 00:44:09 +0000 UTCI too hope this, Neil! The only thing that has me REALLY questioning it is the final scene, when Buffy had already slipped away. Would we still see that moment if Buffy had gone back to Sunnydale? It all kind of makes sense though.... But if it's true, then I'm happy to live in denial! I hope you have a lovely weekend too and are doing well, Neil đ I am going to try my best to stay away from too much work and try and relax.
Juliette Gaming
2024-11-15 23:31:47 +0000 UTCI'm sure this concept had been done many times before this episode was created, but since they were unknown to me this was my first exposure to such an idea (that I remember) and it really blew my mind back then. Obviously I hope Buffy IS actually the Slayer. The alternative is just extremely sad for both her and her parents. Thanks for another great reaction Juliette. Hope you have a lovely weekend.
Neil Hanson
2024-11-15 22:43:00 +0000 UTC
