Normal Again by Gorramreavers

BUFFYVERSE

Normal Again

POSTED BY: GORRAMREAVERS
UPDATED: Monday, May 9, 2005 11:40
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 8539
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Tuesday, February 15, 2005 11:05 AM

Did anyone else have a really hard time with this episode? I was going thru my S6 DVD's fairly quickly and got to this episode (after Hells Bells that I loved) and remembered that the last time I watched it (the only time) I got so removed from the Buffyverse that I didnt watch for a month. What do you guys think?

"..it is my very favorite gun."

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005 11:13 AM

BATMARLOWE

I'm not a big season 6 fan so we may not see eye-to-eye on this episode. I thought it was one of the better ones from season 6. It wrapped up a little too quickly (it's awfully convenient that Tara shows up when she does) but other than that I thought it went into interesting territory. I liked the last shot especially. So no, no problems here.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005 1:25 PM

GROUNDED

It was one of the least horrific S6 episodes, as I recall.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005 3:37 PM

STARPILOTGRAINGER

I thought it wasn't bad, liked the playing with the idea that maybe it really always was a delusion.

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005 4:19 PM

EMBERS

I found this episode REALLY difficult
partly because I had a sister who was in and out of mental hospitals,
so the imagry seemed very intense to me...

and I had a huge problem with the ending...
the way they left it that Buffy sank back into her psychosis
and her parents looked on in dispair

how heavy was that?
and does it negate everything in the show
(the way Dorothy waking from her coma negates The Wizard of Oz?)?
I definitely felt a bit like I was being jerked around....

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005 5:00 PM

STARPILOTGRAINGER

I thought it was more of a nudge-nudge, wink wink type ending, that it _could_ have been a delusion, but I think it's pretty clear it wasn't - for one things, we only saw things in the mental hospital from Buffy's perspective, but we see things in Buffy's world from an omniscient perspective, and we see things that Buffy herself doesn't know.

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6 (real)
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alternaljournal (fictional)
Unreachable Star: http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005 6:52 PM

DROCCULARI

There are probably SPOILERS HERE.

This episode annoyed the hell out of me when I first saw it and it is still unsettling. Where’s the insight in pointing out that, in the “real world,” a girl who fervently believes she is a mystical warrior singled out from all other girls would, in fact, be insane? No kidding. It seemed a slap in the face to suggest we fans didn’t know this was a fantasy. We’d spent the last six years knowingly suspending just that disbelief in order to enjoy the incredible stories the writers were spinning out. There just had to be something more interesting going on.

The key to the episode, at least for me, is that the spell to reveal the other reality is cast by playing a didgeridoo. So maybe this has to do with something like the Australian Aborigine Dreamtime. Not in a deep schollarly way, but at least in a not superficial story telling way. The Wikipedia article on Dreamtime says in part:

The Dreamtime is the era before the Earth was created, and a time when everything was spirit and not physical. The Dreamtime still exists and can be accessed for spiritual purposes. Through the Dreamtime, it is possible to commune with spirits and decipher the meanings of omens and the causes of illness and other misfortune.

It was Buffy’s Mom, her ancestor, who gave her the insight she needed to choose her reality, the one where she could save her friends.

So, maybe there is another world where a tragic catatonic girl is cut off from reality, but in the Buffievirse, that’s the Dreamtime. It works for me.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005 7:49 PM

FINN MAC CUMHAL

I have mixed feelings about season 6. As a whole I think it fits in poorly with the story of Buffy. It is an irritating interruption departing from the fantastic story of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and attempting instead to show Buffy the manic depressive. On the other hand there was some exceptional writing in season 6 and this episode is one such example. The strength of this story is in the juxtaposition of the two worlds Buffy is presented as being between, one in which she is a catatonic mental patient and another in which she is the slayer. Although the story seems to suggest, mostly from the ending, that Buffy is actually a mental patient, the real answer lies in the doctor’s depiction of her presumed imaginary Slayer World as being one that is desirable. That is that her catatonia is driven by a need to seek shelter and a delusional narcissism in an imaginary world, and this may have been a plausible argument had it appeared in another season, but not this one. If Buffy seeks shelter and self-acknowledgement, why not return to a world in which her mother still lives, her parents are happily married and love her, and she is not burdened with the responsibly of being the slayer. Instead she chooses a world in which her mother is dead, she and her friends are suffering from problems both personal and external, and she finds no self-acknowledgement in being the slayer, but rather is driven to a manic depression presumptively as a result.

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 5:43 AM

BLACKSHAMROCK5

The only deep thoughts that I have is that I really liked this episode espescially compared to the rest of the season.

Shamrock

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 6:49 AM

GORRAMREAVERS

Thanks for the great responses. To me it did 'negate everything in the show' because when your into a fantasy type show like Buffy, it helps to lose yourself in the fantasy. I felt like I was ripped out of the Buffy mythos (right word?) and it took me a while to even try to get back into it.

I think the idea was brilliant and even the episode was good...I just had a hard time with it as a fan. Perhaps the fact (like others have stated) that it was during the hell of season 6 where every single character was having serious problems, made it harder to take. Might have gone smother if it was between say Pangs and Something Blue (funny ones).

"..it is my very favorite gun."

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 7:06 AM

DIETCOKE

I liked the episode. It was a interesting, twisted plot. (I like twisted...) Season six is my favorite season for a lot of reasons. It was interesting that the real demons were things that plague all of us. Making a living, finding our purpose, dealing with family, and in this episode, dealing with our own inner demons and trying to understand reality.

I know most people disagree with me, but what can I say? Art is something that you have a personal connection with.....and I liked season six!

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 9:34 AM

No problems for me, I always love stories that question reality. And after all, when you're going through a hard time in your life isn't that exactly what all of us do? I'd be suprised if there's anyone out there who hasn't thought to themselves "I wish such and such had never happened to me." It's a tempting thought--to imagine other possibilities. "Normal Again" is interesting because it poses Buffy with an actual choice between what she wishes the world was like, and what it actually is like.

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 9:51 AM

SHAMBLEAU

Another S6 fan here. It was hard to watch sometimes, but I think it deepened the hell out of the Scoobies, by putting the hell into them. We saw their respective dark nights of the soul and some really ugly character traits. I admire the writers for going there, for being writers and wanting to explore their creations fully, not just doing what would make the fan base happy.

As for Normal Again, I don't see it as negating what went before. It added another layer. Buffy's full of the most sophisticated ambiguities I've ever seen on tv. It's only fitting that the writers would eventually apply that ambiguity to the entire narrative itself. I love it that there's now another way to read the events of the show. It even explains all the plot and continuity goofs. Institutional Buffy can't always keep her dream world straight!

There are conservative and Marxist takes on Buffy. There are Christian and Buddhist, feminist and mythic takes too. Now there's a another way to look at the show. None of them get at everything that's great about it, but they all enrich my understanding and enjoyment. And, as Dawn said about the music and dancing in OMWF, what's wrong with that?

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 10:40 AM

ODDNESS2HER

I saw this episode as mainly a variation on the show's recurring theme of Buffy Rededicates Herself to Her Hero's Calling at Great Personal Sacrifice. In this case, she gives up "normality" to retain her Slayerness even if it is imaginary. The old choosing-one's-own-destiny chestnut.

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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 11:02 AM

EMBERS

BTW Gorramreavers: thank you for the thread...
reading everyone's comments has deepened my own understanding and appreciation of this episode!

I think Season 4 will always be my favorite, but I do like Season 6 more all the time...

now if I could just get a handle on the whole Glorificus thing.....

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Thursday, February 17, 2005 12:44 AM

IAMZOE

thought I'd respond just because this was one of the episodes I particularly enjoyed. I don't have much new to add on interpretation though: I agree with Ax's comment (further up the page). I liked the stories that took you out the arc a little and let you question the whole thing. It's like when you try and explain to someone who hasn't seen the show: "well, there's this sister, but she wasn't there all along, she's a key, and, well..." - it keeps the humour in!

Although partly this episode is memorable for me because I saw it with two non-Buffy fans, and I think they just didn't get it at all - apart from being really scared. I'd just moved into a new flat with two girls whose regular TV watching was 'Country Music Television', and we were trying to bond.

So maybe that shows it is an episode for fans after all... On that note, I'm always hoping I'll meet someone who saw the Buffy episode 'Superstar' about Jonathan first.

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Thursday, February 17, 2005 4:16 AM

GORRAMREAVERS

Quote:
Originally posted by embers:
BTW Gorramreavers: thank you for the thread...
reading everyone's comments has deepened my own understanding and appreciation of this episode!

I think Season 4 will always be my favorite, but I do like Season 6 more all the time...

now if I could just get a handle on the whole Glorificus thing.....

Thanks for the thanks. :)

I also have a better understanding of the episode after reading this thread. I shut my DVD player off when I noticed it was the next episode because of my first reaction to Normal Again. Now I actually want to see it again.

PS. I loved Glorificus's minions!

"..it is my very favorite gun."

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Thursday, February 24, 2005 3:48 AM

THIEFJEHAT

Normal Again is an episode that explores a theme that other Sci-Fi writers have touched upon before...the question of reality and what is the "real" reality. If you are a Star Trek TNG fan you might recall that an episode was made in that series were Wil Riker was in a play playing a character who is imprisoned in an insane asylum and tortured. He then reverts to a second "reality" where he is actually insane in an asylum being tortured while his captors tell him that part of his insanity is a fantasy that he is a starship commander.

Another example of this juxtaposition is Total Recall (BTW, the book is way way better than the crappy Arnold S. Film). In this story a normal guy goes and asks some folks to play with his brain to make him think he's a secret agent. Then just before the process completes events begin that lead this man to learn that he really IS a secret agent. Or is he really? Maybe it's the fantasy or maybe it's not. By the story's end we never actually find out.

Personally I believe that the star trek episode served as the inspiration for Normal Again, there's just to many similarities. In both episodes the main character bounces back and forth between realities. The only difference is that by the end of the TNG episode we learn that the "real" reality for Riker is on board the enterprise. By the end of Normal Again we never actually know (similar to Total Recall).

I like the mystery of not knowing 100%. With Normal Again I can make firm cases why each reality is the true reality. It's completely plausable that buffy is suffering a hallucination brought on by a demon influence. Conversely it's also completely plausable that sometime in the middle of her freshman year of high school she was diagonsed as schizophrenic and created a fantasy world where she named herself the "one girl in all the world" then proceeded to fill this world with Vampires, demons, Watchers along with a social support net of scobies and a vampire love intrest. The entire "Dawn as the key is an illogical storyline" issue suddenly seems logical now too doesn't it? Buffy wanted a sister and created her and made up a flimsy reason why.

Normal again is just another episode in season 6 that adds value to the extreme nature of the season. (I said extreme, not good or bad) With themes like hopelessness(buffy), addiction(willow), kleptomania(dawn), lust(spike) meglomania(geeks), and death(Tara&Katrina) it's clear that buffy fans are going to split 50/50 regarding the merits of this season. I like season 6 for it's boldness to take us to the flip side of human nature. I know many others loath it.

However one thing I can say about Normal Again that I believe everyone can agree on is this: It's in the right season. Love it or hate it.

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Thursday, February 24, 2005 7:27 AM

MAUGWAI

Good points, Thiefjehat. I love season 6 because one of the things I liked most about Buffy was not being able to count on the hero to be heroic all the time. The writers were nto afraid to put their people through the wringer, just like life. That's why I hate what Smallville has become - a safe world where the hero always gets there in time.

Buffy was never that world, and season six made sure we knew it, thanks to episodes like "Normal Again." I love most the episodes that leave me open-mouthed, crying, or disturbed. This was one of those episodes. I couldn't change the channel when it was over because I was still lost in thought about what it all means. How do we know we're not all in a world of our own creation? If we could choose, would we go into a fake world if we liked it better? Most shows on television these days don't give you that much to think about.

"Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy."

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Thursday, February 24, 2005 8:20 AM

EMBERS

Quote:
Originally posted by thiefjehat:
Personally I believe that the star trek episode served as the inspiration for Normal Again,
there's just to many similarities.
In both episodes the main character bounces back and forth between realities.

It would be great to know of Joss' influences,
and of course the additional influences of the writer of that particular episode,
Diego Gutierrez.
I know that back in Victorian time,
the Wizard of Oz novels got very dark,
and Dorothy actually ended up in an asylum

so I would argue that it is just as likely that the influence was from there...
but unless the writers/creator tells us it is all speculation.

eta:
Joss has said that he steals from EVERYWHERE
so probably both are true...and several other stories as well

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Wednesday, March 9, 2005 5:14 AM

THIEFJEHAT

It was proposed to me that there may be a link between Normal Again and Once More With Feeling. If you recall, in the "I've Got a Theory" song Willow sings "I've got a theory, some kid is dreaming. And we're all stuck inside his wacky broadway nightmare"

Certainly sounds like the situation expressed in Normal Again.

The only issue with this is that Buffy is female and Willow sings her line expressing a masculine pronoun "his" and refers to the dreamer as a "kid". A better verse would have been "I've got a theory, sombodys dreaming. And we're all stuck inside a wacky broadway nightmare"

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Wednesday, March 9, 2005 5:26 AM

EMBERS

Quote:
Originally posted by thiefjehat:
"I've got a theory, some kid is dreaming. And we're all stuck inside his wacky broadway nightmare"

I thought it was a reference to the kid in BtVS S1 episode
where the kid in Little League had been put into a coma by his coach
and everyone was suffering nightmares because of the intensity of his dream state

this is the episode where Buffy became a Vampire

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Wednesday, March 9, 2005 1:13 PM

PERIDIDDLE

Not much to add here, except to say that I'm another one of the S6 fans. I thought it was a great season, especially since it followed season 5 (which is one of my least favorites)...and, well, I adore this episode completely. I don't think it took me out of the Buffyverse at all, all in all it just made me think. Then again, I'm a sucker for 'alternate reality' type plots and storylines. I got so invested in Buffy's world that this episode just made me wonder even more how deep it went. And it made me care about Buffy, which I don't normally do...'cause she annoys me. But, um, yeah. ^_^

"Bwaa...it's kind of a warrior...strikes fear into the hearts of..."

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Thursday, March 10, 2005 4:45 AM

THIEFJEHAT

I thought it was a reference to the kid in BtVS S1 episode
where the kid in Little League had been put into a coma by his coach

Yes, that could be a valid interpretation too. I didn't consider season 1.

I also thought that Willow's theory could have been inspired by the philosophy courses she was taking at UCSD, and doesn't have a connection to anything in particular.

Do not fear me. Ours is a peaceful race, and we must live in harmony.

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Friday, April 8, 2005 8:41 AM

ARAMINA

Well, I liked it. One of my favourite S6 eps. And there aren't that many.

The thing I liked the most was that it kept me guessing and really convinced me that Buffy could infact be an insane person... especially the ending. I found it really sad, just the look in her eyes. Superb acting from SMG and Kristine Sutherland, and it was nice to see the same actor back playing Hank Summers.

When I think of an interesting signature you'll be the first to know.

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 4:14 AM

EMMA

Quote:
I know most people disagree with me, but what can I say? Art is something that you have a personal connection with.....and I liked season six!

Diet Coke, Season 6 is fantastic... the relationships are awesome and the whole damn series is utterly soul destroying to watch and then saved by the squishy ending!

fantastic stuff

gives me lots of hope

I really should get me a signature

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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 4:36 AM

MANWITHPEZ

Important people don't do field work.

Wasn't this partially addressed in a Season 5 Angel episode where someone asks:
"Who would come back from(or leave, I can't remember) heaven?"

"Well, there was this one Slayer..."

I can't remember the episode, and I can't remember who said this, but my understanding of Normal Again, and this statement was that Buffy was having some kind of strange hallucination regarding where she had been, and what was going on with her now...But, since we know that other Slayers exist in the Buffyverse independent of "Buffy" then I think that the episode represents a hallucination, and not the truth.

Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005 1:18 AM

FREDIKAYLLOW

I'm not a fan of Ssn 6, although OMWF and Tabula Rasa were great. But I thought this episode was one of the best of season. Someone earlier said that they didn't understand why she chose 'our' reality. My theory is that the speech Joyce gave made Buffy realize that becoming normal again would mean taking the easy way out, and she didn't want to do that. She decides instead that she has to make things up with Dawn, and that she needs to fix everything in the world that felt more real to her.

Quote:
Perhaps the fact (like others have stated) that it was during the hell of season 6 where every single character was having serious problems, made it harder to take. Might have gone smother if it was between say Pangs and Something Blue (funny ones).

I think that it came at exactly the right time. Buffy and most of the gang are at their absolute worst positions, and Buffy going into her state, and eventually getting better is (IMO) sort of a metaphor that things are going to get better from now on (or are they.....)

*********************************************************************************
No Power In The 'Verse Can Stop Me
XOXOX-FREDIKAYLLOW-XOXOX

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005 1:41 AM

KISSTHELIBRARIAN

This is one of my favorite all time episodes, definitely in my top ten. And I love that it is in Joyce's speech that she regains her strength to come back to "our reality." That is just so tragic. Here is most of what she says:

JOYCE: I know you're afraid. I know the world feels like a hard place sometimes, but you've got people who love you. (tearful) Your dad and I, we have all the faith in the world in you. We'll always be with you.

CrazyBuffy calms down as these words start to sink in.

JOYCE: You've got ... a world of strength in your heart. I know you do. You just have to find it again. (whispering) Believe in yourself.

I think what first gets to Buffy is the stuff about the world being a hard place, but she has people who love her. The world was never harder for Buffy than in season six. But those people who are keeping her in that "delusion" love her, and she knows she loves them. There there's the all important "we'll always be with you." I think just as much as Buffy was running away from the harshness of "our reality", she was running to the reality with her mom in it. So reminding Buffy that she was always with her allows her to go back. Then that last bit inspired her. There's more to it I know but it's 6am and that's the jist of it.

I agree that this episode came at the perfect place too. Because following Hell's Bells we were devastated. The one thing that seemed to be going okay this season was destroyed. So we were officially at our lowest point as all the characters were. This enabled the viewer to identify with Buffy and her desire to move into the other reality. Also, it made it more dramatically interesting because the other characters were more hurt by this now than they would have been at any other point. They feel that their lives are so rotten right now, that the idea that they don't even exist, that Buffy would think they aren't worth sticking around for, is made more personal and painful. That's what makes this episode more than just a monster messing with their lives and Buffy's actions more than just another monster-interaction side effect.

If anyone doubts the quality of this episode, I really recommend watching it again. I don't know that this concept is entirely original because there is something fairly familiar about it, but I will tell you that it is a brilliant concept and it's ambiguity is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

"Vampires of the world, BEware." - Buffybot

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005 6:08 AM

METAPHORE

Quote:
Yes, that could be a valid interpretation too. I didn't consider season 1.

I also thought that Willow's theory could have been inspired by the philosophy courses she was taking at UCSD, and doesn't have a connection to anything in particular.

In the extras commentary for OMWF they say specificly that the "wacky broadway nightmare" line from willow was in reference to the season one kid in a coma.

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005 8:17 AM

GRRARRG

Quote:
Originally posted by manwithpez:
Wasn't this partially addressed in a Season 5 Angel episode where someone asks:
"Who would come back from(or leave, I can't remember) heaven?"

"Well, there was this one Slayer..."

I can't remember the episode, and I can't remember who said this, but my understanding of Normal Again, and this statement was that Buffy was having some kind of strange hallucination regarding where she had been, and what was going on with her now...But, since we know that other Slayers exist in the Buffyverse independent of "Buffy" then I think that the episode represents a hallucination, and not the truth.

It was established earlier in Buffy S6 that Buffy had gone to heaven after she died in S5, and then she was pulled back. I'm sure that's what they were refering to in Angel.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Joss (or one of the writers) officially said that Sunnydale was Buffy's actual reality, and the hospital was the fake one created by the effects of the demon. But who knows.

I think Buffy wasn't quite sure which was which, but she had to make a decision. Think about what would happen in the reality that she left behind. If she chose to accept the hospital reality and was wrong, then real people whom she really loved in the real Sunnydale would die. If she chose to accept the Sunnydale reality and was wrong, then her real parents would still have a crazy daughter, but at least no one would die.

I mock you with my monkey pants.
Oh, yeah - check out my rock band: http://www.readyempire.com/index.php?option=com_artistdirectory&task=s
howCD&id=1
Click on "Play Entire CD"

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Saturday, May 7, 2005 12:02 PM

KRYSTLE

I liked it but as a fanof Charmed as well, i found that they had the same kind of story before Buffy (i think it was i season before). That was kind of funny. But the overall storyline was very good!

NO POWER IN THE 'VERS CAN STOP ME!

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Monday, May 9, 2005 11:40 AM

SHMIGGET

Spoiler warning for those who haven't watched S6

Great question, Gorramreavers, because this episode was not only disturbing but raised serious questions about the nature of "reality" for the show. It stuck with me like gristle in the throat for a while, but I think I've finally figured it out.

As a whole, S6 showed the Scoobies trying to make it as young adults sans parents, and in large part failing, and "Normal Again" was a metaphor for that. Consider that in her slayer-interrupted reality, Buffy's parents are alive, well, and still married. It's an idealized image of her childhood, one free from memories of her dad leaving, of her mother dying, of paying bills, working a crappy job, trying to connect with someone romantically, and all of those other nasties of grown-up living. But Buffy finally eats the adult enchilada, gristle and all, by realizing that she has to be strong and by trusting her friends.

I also loved this season, with the exception of Xander leaving Anya at the alter as I thought there wasn't enough set up for that major an event (I expected them to get divorced some time later instead).

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