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Season 6, Episode 17
Written by Diego Gutierrez
Directed by Rick Rosenthal
Original Airdate: 11 March 2002
"Buffy's delusion is multi-layered. She
believes she's some type of hero."
The Doctor
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
SYNOPSIS
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Buffy searches newly rented houses for the Trio's
hideout and the three discover her on their surveillance equipment, as
she gets a bit too close. While they hide in the basement, Andrew calls
on a demon that attacks Buffy and starts a fight. The demon grabs Buffy
and stabs her with a needle-like part of its body. In a mental hospital,
Buffy cries out as she's held by two orderlies and stabbed with a
needle. Buffy wakes up alone outside the Trio's house, hurt and confused
and walks home.
Willow prepares herself for talking to Tara, but spots Tara greeting
another woman with a quick kiss and Willow walks away, wounded. Tara
notices her retreating, but it's too late to chase after her. At the
Doublemeat Palace, Buffy works like a zombie, and flashes to the mental
hospital where a doctor announces it's time for her drugs. Willow and
Buffy talk about Xander's disappearing act and Willow's attempt to talk
to Tara. Xander surprises the girls by showing up at the house, and
wonders about Anya and how to repair his relationship with her. The
girls tell him that Anya left a few days ago and try to reassure him
that everything will work out in time.
Buffy runs into Spike at the cemetery and they talk about the events of
the wedding that didn't happen. A confrontation begins between Xander
and Spike and as Willow tries to break it up, Buffy gets weak and
collapses. Xander manages one punch to Spike before his attention is
drawn by Buffy. At the mental hospital, a doctor informs Buffy that
she's been in the hospital for six years and everything she knew to
exist in Sunnydale isn't real. She's shaken and confused, especially
when both of her parents appear, and then Buffy falls back into the
Sunnydale world.
Willow and Xander get Buffy home and she recounts what she saw and was
told at the mental hospital. While Willow organizes a plan to research,
Buffy falls back to the mental hospital reality. The doctor explains to
her parents that she's been suffering from schizophrenia and her life as
the Slayer has been an imagined story she made up in her mind. In
Sunnydale, Warren and Andrew return to their hideaway with boxes after
leaving Jonathan alone. Weary, Jonathan questions the contents of the
boxes and tries to leave the house himself. Warren doesn't agree with
that idea and convinces Jonathan to stay in the basement.
Willow shows Buffy a picture of the demon that stung her and tries to
comfort her friend. Buffy confesses to Willow that in the beginning of
her Slayer life, she told her parents about vampires and was put in a
clinic for her supposed insanity. Buffy wonders if she's still there and
Sunnydale really doesn't exist, but Willow assures her that isn't true.
Xander and Spike patrol for the demon that hurt Buffy and between the
two of them, they subdue the demon with force and tranquilizer darts.
Dawn brings Buffy some tea and dazedly, Buffy observes that Dawn has
been misbehaving and the problems need to be dealt with.
At the hospital, Joyce tells Buffy that Dawn doesn't exist and as soon
as she's better, they can go home. Dawn realizes through Buffy's
babbling that she doesn't exist in the other reality and upset, she
leaves. In Sunnydale, the demon is dragged downstairs and held down as
Willow hits it and then breaks off its stinger. She sends Xander on a
mission for supplies at the Magic Box for an antidote that she must make
without the help of magic.
Later, Willow presents the antidote to Buffy, and Spike drops by to
check on Buffy. She tells him to leave but Spike responds with a lecture
about her love of pain and misery and tells her to tell her friends
about their relationship before he does. Buffy starts to go for the
antidote, but stops and pours it out into the trash. At the mental
hospital, Buffy tells the doctor and her parents that she wants to be
healthy and be rid of thoughts of Sunnydale. The doctor tells her that
she has to do what is necessary to destroy the elements like her family
and friends to truly be healthy.
Xander arrives at the Summers house and finds Buffy alone in the
kitchen. He talks to her about Spike and his obsession then she knocks
him out cold and drags him into the basement. Willow is bound and gagged
there already with the demon chained to a beam, but there is still
someone left for Buffy to get rid of. Upstairs, Buffy finds Dawn packing
in her room, and tells her sister that she must go downstairs with
everyone else. Dawn runs and tries to convince Buffy not to hurt her,
but is ultimately bound and gagged in the basement with the others.
In the mental hospital, the doctors convince Buffy to pace herself while
in the Sunnydale reality, Buffy unchains the demon in the basement.
Xander pleads with Buffy to help him, but she retreats under the stairs,
leaving the demon to take her friends. Meanwhile, Tara shows up at the
house and finds everyone in the basement. She uses magic to free Willow
and Dawn and sends a shelf full of paint flying at the demon. At the
hospital, Joyce encourages Buffy to fight against the Sunnydale reality,
but Buffy knows where she needs to be and what she really needs to fight
against. She thanks her mother for the wise words and leaves that
reality to return full-force in Sunnydale and destroy the demon trying
to hurt her friends. At the hospital, the doctor checks Buffy and tells
her parents that she's gone.
TRIVIA
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Emma Caulfield is absent from this
episode despite her credit as a series regular.
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Marti Noxon, executive producer,
commented on the ending of this episode in an issue of SFX. "It
was always something we saw as a sort of standalone that could fit in
almost any season. The idea was really strong and I thought the episode
turned out kind of nice and moody and intriguing. The question that
seemed to bother people was whether we were actually saying the whole
series was in her mind. I think we were teasing that, but we weren't
coming out and saying, 'Don't believe it, it's all fake.'"
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This episode was originally supposed to
be shown as episode eight but was later changed.
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Dean Butler and Kristine Sutherland
return as Hank and Joyce Summers. This is Hank's final appearance on the
show, and Joyce returns for two more episodes in season seven. They both
last appeared in season five's The
Weight of the World.
CONTINUITY
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Buffy talks to Dawn and tells her that
she has to try harder not to steal. Dawn has been stealing since
Intervention.
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The doctor in Buffy’s hallucinations
explains a couple key events of the past few years. He tells Buffy that
she had a ‘momentary awakening’ during the summer and it was her friends
who pulled her back into the delusion. This is a reference to Buffy’s
death and resurrection in seasons five and six. The doctor explains how
Buffy created Dawn recently due to a need for a familial bond. Dawn was
added unexpectedly to the show in season five.
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Dawn stays in Janice's house again, which
she did last in Dead Things.
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Xander returns to Sunnydale and there's
no sign of Anya anywhere. This of course is due to the events of
Hell's Bells.
GOOFS
Bargaining
(Part 1) |
Bargaining (Part 2) |
Afterlife |
Flooded |
Life
Serial
All the
Way | Once More, With Feeling |
Tabula Rasa |
Smashed |
Wrecked |
Gone
Doublemeat
Palace |
Dead Things |
Older and Far Away |
As You Were |
Hell's Bells |
Normal Again
Entropy |
Seeing Red |
Villains |
Two to Go |
Grave
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