themovieguru

My wife and I are unable to get WB so we have had to wait for the box sets to come out or catch reruns of Buffy on various networks. Even then the reruns never seem to run the entire episodes after we seen the episodes in the boxsets. Anyway I will get to the point, what a fantastic episode this was. Really does a mind job on the viewers. Truthfully it doesn't really matter if we really are viewing Buffy's life from inside her head or if its supposed to be a real life but this episode is just one of the many more examples of fantastic tv writing that this series has. To bad we don't have that anymore. I can't wait to see the final season as niether my wife or I have seen any of it. Joss Whedon and the cast will be sorely missed. I wish reality tv would go by the way side.

Matthew Chmiel

Worst. Episode. Ever.

If the show would've continued the way as Normal Again was played out, it would've been a huge "**** you" to the audience. I'd take a bad Riley episode over Normal Again.

costanza187

Strange episode, it could have been the last episode of the series, that would have pissed off a bunch of people! (me included)

Matthew Chmiel

If it was the last episode of the series, I would've went to Joss Whedon's household to whoop his ass.

BC_Lion

i thought it was a pretty good episode it was a little like an outer limits or twilight zone kind of thing they had going, it doesnt really fit in with the tone of the series though..

tasha99

I hated it because the is it real or is she crazy thing is such a cliche. I expected better from Whedon, but at least they didn't end with that.

tasha

ckolchak

i wasn't getting the series when it switched to UPN so buying the box set was the first time i'd seen this season, and i share your enthusiasm for this particular episode.

to me, it was one of the greatest of the entire series. i could understand the complaints if it had been the series capper, as that kind of device has been done numerous times before in some fashion from everything from Roseann to St. Elsewhere, but here the 'gimmick' was pretty seamlessly integrated into the plot/conflict of the epsiode, and as a mid-way point in the much larger conflict (the big bad of the season being life in general) the epsiode not only made sense, it helped further clarify and embellish Buffys psyche post-resurrection
that comment, respectfully, reminds me of the definition of a cynic- someone knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

see, i didn't really see the episode as just a surface "is it real or is she imagining it" cliche.
it seemed to me it was less concerned with proving the validity of either of the scenarios (the coda w/ the doctor saying they lost her gives enough ammo for either interpretation to work) as it was exploring the pysche of the character post trauma (resurrection).
about what the character had to overcome to be a hero again-
she had a choice between a version of reality that was painful or one that was comforting and she chose the painful- because the way her life has turned out- reality has = pain.
it was 'hero journey' material done internally and thats what elevated it for me.


i thought it was a very affecting epsiode, and just a part of what was a very stimulating season to me.

BizRodian

"Heeeeey... I did tell my mother about vampires and stuff... and I was actually commited! Never mind the show's past going against this totally!"

I also found it funny how Willow refused to use magic even though everyone was about to be killed.

Only thing I found good was the fact that the Doctor kind of bashed the show in saying things like how the villians had been getting worse, and how her sister appeared from no where.

Jericho

I thought it was a great episode, especially since they end on the insane asylum side of things, further putting into question what is real. I mean everyone expects the "real" one to be the vampire world, but it's ncioe they put enough on both sides to make neither clear.

That being said, I'm also glad it was done in the middle of the season and not a season or series finale. I think ending a major arc like that would be disappointing. It's just a make you think kind of thing, as well as fitting in well with Buffy's overall depression and unsettlement of Season 6. Not to mention it self-parodies the trio which is a nice touch (although I liked the trio as nice comic relief)

astrochimp

I enjoyed that episode.

Josh-da-man

Yeah, I had a huge problem with that concept as well.

If Buffy HAD been committed in a mental institution, I would've expected this to have come up in the earlier seasons, especially "Becoming" when Buffy finally told Joyce that she was the Slayer. Going by Joyce's reaction, this was all new to her; and if Buffy had been institutionalized, I would expect to Joyce or Buffy to make some reference to it.

Of course, there's a really great workaround, because it's possible that her being institutionalized is one of the false memories she was given by the Monks when they created Dawn. Like, maybe she had somehow put Dawn in danger, and that's what caused her to be put away.

gcribbs

I actually thought it was a very good episode

Derrich

I liked it. And it makes sense to me. I choose to believe that the Asylum reality is real and Buffy spends most (now it's all) of her time in her fantasy world.

I don't see it as a cop out at all. The show was getting worse every episode and the cliches were started to pop in along with recycled themes. I think the writers saw that happening and came up with a way to explain it. It's not like Dallas where the shower thing came out of nowhere and made no sense.

So for me, Buffy is a nutjob banging her head against a padded wall.

D

Patman

St. Sunnydale, anyone?

DRG

I loved this episode, it's one of my favorites. I imagine one of the major reasons this episode wasn't the series finale (besides pissing off a lot of fans) is that Angel remained on the air after Buffy went off, and since they are the same universe, if Sunnydale/all the supernatural stuff was invented in Buffy's head, then Angel would be a figment of her imagination as well, and by association so would the rest of the Angelverse.

AXP 103

I liked the episode also. Some of the reasoning people are using seems funny to me. The show is about a teenage girl fighting vampires. Apparently that isn't far fetched, but the idea that it is all a figment of her imagination? Well......

Jadzia

I enjoyed the episode a lot, mainly because it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite DS9 episodes "Far Beyond the Stars". I thought the DS9 episode was much more profound though, because it used the device to tackle a greater issue (racial inequality), where the Buffy episode was just a cool "what-if" scenario.

otmetrud

I enjoyed it tremendously. The only reason I don't believe the institutionalized Buffy is the real world is that she probably wouldn't be hallucinating the entire Angel universe, too, which would have to be the case.

Retread plot device or not, I liked it because it was left up to the viewer to decide which universe is real and which is fantasy ... unike St. Elsewhere, Newhart and Roseanne, where there was no question which was which.

SeanValen

Season Six is the season where Buffy fades away, ironically it's Angel last episode called To Not Fade Away, Buffy season five was a great way to end the show, something Joss once commented on, although he was proud of seasons 6 and 7, season six is a season I can't watch more then once, painful stuff, depressing season.

Better to burn out like Angel then to fade away.

Luckily season seven happened, redeemed some of the season six woos.

spainlinx0

Rewatching season six on DVD (other than disk 2, thanks Fox for the shitty packaging) it is a lot better when there isn't a 3 week wait between episodes. I liked it the first time around, unlike many here, but it's even better now.

Josh-da-man

I just watched season six for the first time, and I didn't see why everyone hated it so much.

It did drag a bit in the middle, but season five also had times when it dragged. Some of the Willow "drug" episodes went way over the top, but not enough to drag down the whole season. (And we've seen the magick as a drug metaphor as far back as "The Dark Age" in season two.)

I also don't understand the complaints that season six was too depressing. Since when has Buffy the Vampire Slayer been a cheerful show? The whole thing has been about these people's lives being ground into shit. It's about time they bottomed out.

Laertes

See, you're kind of getting to the reason I *hate* this episode. *Hate* is not a strong enough word. (BTW, I don't think anyone here said it was far-fetched.)

I had bought in to the concept of this show completely, in a total geek, fanboy way. Love the series, even willing to forgive certain inconsistencies. *Then* to have a character on the show say how stupid it was to believe in vampires and demons and some girl watching them, well, it felt like a big f**k you from Joss to the fans, frankly. "You can believe in my world, but you're kind of stupid if you do."

On top of that, I felt like it was someone, possibly Joss Whedon, addressing all the complaints about the season from fans by implicitly saying, "You love this world I've created, but if you don't shut your traps, I'll take it from you."

I felt there was huge contempt for his audience in this episode. It jolted me away from a world I hadn't realized I had bought into so completely, and it felt like he was calling me an idiot (or "insane") to believe in his characters and his creations.

AXP 103

I think you took it too personally. If Joss Wheadon comes out and says that was his intention (And if it was his intention, he should sac up and say so) then I'll stand corrected. Until then, I'll just view it as a fun "what if?" type episode.

And the show was very inconsistent. I never got over Willow's out of the blue change in sexuality (Hi, I woke up today and decided I'm bi/gay. No questions? Good.).

Jericho

Well there at least was the epidose in Season 3 where Willow meets the vampire Willow (Dopplegangland) and comments on her being "kinda gay".

spainlinx0

Well the main difference is that you're getting to watch all the episodes all at once. When it takes a few weeks between episodes, and then you have the magic addiction episode, it has the tendency to disappoint. The length of the depression is stressed and the show gets bogged down. When you watch the episodes at once, the arc goes more quickly, and feels more natural.