Buffy invisible episode; 'Gone'

[SavvyScoobie]

When I watched the episode 'Gone' for the first time (where Buffy is invisible and messing around), I decided to look at some reviews about the episodes. I think I saw someone say that Buffy was being really annoying and irresponsible, which sure but it kinda broke my heart... 🙁

Season 6 was such a hard watch seeing Buffy be so depressed, so that episode was like a breath of fresh air. Sure she's not the most responsible, being Dawn's guardian and all, but I don't know after so many gloomy episodes that episode was the best. People who don't get to grow up probably wouldn't be the best at raising someone at like 20 years old

I feel like her depression is very overlooked just because that was the most 'Spuffy' season and 'oh but that was their first kiss'

She still seemed pretty miserable, give my girl a break.

Worst part about her depression is that it never went away. I think that's why s6 is so hated, it's too realistic. I didn't realize that Buffy wouldn't be fighting just vampires anymore

Amazing season, don't recommend though

 

[thrasherpix]

I remember thinking that a ray that made one invisible, especially if it slowly disintegrated someone, would affect the brain (and thus behavior) really fast.

In other words, Buffy's behavior didn't bother me here. That's not to say I think Buffy was a saint in this ep, but she was human with extenuating (and possibly medical) circumstances.

Post automatically merged: May 3, 2026

That aside (but still related to the ep, at least peripherally) I personally don't see Buffy as depressed (though season 5 Buffy has a depressed Buffy arc), but traumatized instead, and for very good reasons. (Also, humor and silliness can manifest as a result of traumatic times, often seen as inappropriate and counter intuitive, but is a listed psychological defense mechanism. I'd say that is shown in Gone.)

I thought it did end, when Buffy climbed out of the pit with Dawn while angelic music plays (metaphor). She just needed to get over herself and think of others. Season 7 confirms that yes, Buffy is over it.

I don't see season 6 as realistic. It's too silly, from the cartoonish Trio to Dark Willow dismantling a police station with no ramifications for having done so. It doesn't feel real to me. (I forget where but season 6 actually broke my suspension of disbelief, which is very rare, at least until the last half of season 7.)

Even when it does flirt with realism, it seems to disproportionally affect Buffy, such as Buffy had to get a job (and strangely a fast food job paid the bills) while Willow and Tara still got free room and board without anyone in the show saying anything about it. (Granted the Gloom Hammer would pound all of them, feeling ridiculous and hamfisted to me at times.)

I think season 5 comes closer to realism than season 6. Though it's comparing apples to oranges, I'd say season 5 had a darker ending than season 6 (though season 2 was arguably darker, at least toward the end, than 5 and 6)

 

[NotASlayer]

I remember thinking that a ray that made one invisible, especially if it slowly disintegrated someone, would affect the brain (and thus behavior) really fast.

In other words, Buffy's behavior didn't bother me here. That's not to say I think Buffy was a saint in this ep, but she was human with extenuating (and possibly medical) circumstances.

I agree; her behaviour can easily be the result of AbsurdTech affecting her.

That aside (but still related to the ep, at least peripherally) I personally don't see Buffy as depressed (though season 5 Buffy has a depressed Buffy arc), but traumatized instead, and for very good reasons. (Also, humor and silliness can manifest as a result of traumatic times, often seen as inappropriate and counter intuitive, but is a listed psychological defense mechanism. I'd say that is shown in Gone.)

I thought it did end, when Buffy climbed out of the pit with Dawn while angelic music plays (metaphor). She just needed to get over herself and think of others. Season 7 confirms that yes, Buffy is over it.

I agree that she didn't seem depressed. Having had personal experience with someone who was. Buffy was down, but then she sees Riley and is all "I just need to jolly well cheer myself up now" and she gets better.

I don't see season 6 as realistic. It's too silly, from the cartoonish Trio to Dark Willow dismantling a police station with no ramifications for having done so. It doesn't feel real to me. (I forget where but season 6 actually broke my suspension of disbelief, which is very rare, at least until the last half of season 7.)

Even when it does flirt with realism, it seems to disproportionally affect Buffy, such as Buffy had to get a job (and strangely a fast food job paid the bills) while Willow and Tara still got free room and board without anyone in the show saying anything about it. (Granted the Gloom Hammer would pound all of them, feeling ridiculous and hamfisted to me at times.)

I think season 5 comes closer to realism than season 6. Though it's comparing apples to oranges, I'd say season 5 had a darker ending than season 6 (though season 2 was arguably darker, at least toward the end, than 5 and 6)

I also find S6 unrealistic and S5 the most realistic. Joyce's tumour arc was probably the most realistic thing in the entire series. But in S6 you had the ImprobableTech of the unlikeable Trio to Buffy being able to support four people and a house on a fast food job to Willow going from an erratic witch to a world-ending threat greater than anyone but Glory in under a year. S6 is an unrealistic misery fest. If it had truly been realistic, the season would be popular with no-one; Buffy homeless thanks to money issues (caused by the series deliberately ignoring every other way of fixing them) and on the verge of killing herself because of genuine depression except Spike rapes and kills herself first. That's how those storylines would have been realistically portrayed.

 

[November]

My read on s6 leans more towards grief than "depression". Buffy was grieving her mother, her own life, what Dawns life will be. That accounts for why time heals, and the eb and flow of grief leaves room for humorous episodes like Gone. Buffy gets to flirt with the idea of not being there, but without true drive behind it.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

I recall quite a few viewers back in the day admitting the social worker may have been on to something. But I think it's better to say that most complaints about season 6 are cumulative. Like, if this episode was s4, no problem, fun romp. But in S6, the show was using up the good will the series had already acquired.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Compared to the rest of Season 6, Gone was comedy. There are a few things that we never see again:

1. Willow avoiding a spell and using her computer skills instead even though time is critical.

2. Buffy finally forgives Willow for bringing her back into the world.

3. Buffy turns the tables on Spike and takes an initiative that involves him in sexplay, even when Xander is present.

4. She deflects an immediate problem, the social worker who puts her under a probation order. (I have an issue here - my late wife had worked as secretary to an abuse intake team at the Children's Aid Society of Metropolitan Toronto, the equivalent of Child Protective Services in the US. One of the workers on her team was her best friend, an obnoxious woman, appropriately named Karen. I did not automatically side with Ms. Kroger even though Buffy treated her in a manner that would threaten her job. But in an objective sense, no one was looking after Dawn all that well.)

This was one of the more enjoyable episodes of Buffy in Season 6.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Well, in hindsight, the decline of Star Trek was more like a marriage collapsing than anything else. But yes, it wasn't one thing, it was week after week of what we in Wrestling fandom call "X-Pac Heat."

Buffy is not fit to be Dawn's caretaker. The Social Worker was right to be concerned, as she doesn't know that Buffy is the main character, and and that teenagers have been written as largely self-sufficient over the last five years. Otherwise, this isn't Party of Five. I don't really want see Dawn sent to military school.