i like this Ep. it's one of my faves of the entire show. i don't have this season on DVD, so i can't watch the extras, but in the third watcher's guide, they have the script, and they go through every little detail, and i have to say, like SOF, i got half of the hidden messages! it was only the really obscure ones i missed, and i'll post some of them.
ok, i'll start with Willow's dream and go from there!
i like how Willow's dream focuses on her 'secret' i think everyone thought that her secret was going to be her sexuality, how afraid she was of revealing it to the world. but at the end of her dream, in the classroom, Buffy rips off her 'costume' and reveals the exact out fit Willow was wearing the first day she met Buffy, and we can see that Willow's fear has nothing to do with the fact that she's now gay, but she's scared that she hasn't change from that geeky little high-school girl she used to be. her 'secret' could also be a hint at S6, and Willow desent into dark magick. she kept that a secret from her friends until she was too far gone to pull herself back. also, did anyone think that Buffy's 'death to all men' speech during the play was almost exactly the same as Caleb's mind set, only the opposite? (he was hates women, she was bashing on the men)
Xander's dream, i think, is pretty straight forward. he scared of getting stuck in the basement, and of turning into his parents. Buffy refers to Xander as he 'big brother' and we learn just how much their relationship has changed in four years. he's gone from wanting to date Buffy, to wanting to look out for her, protect her, and do anything he can for her. but in S7, Buffy thinks she doesn't need a big brother herself anymore, and decides it's Dawn who needs Xander more than she does, and kind of appoints Xander as Dawn's big brother when she tells him to take Dawn away and out of the fight at the very end of the season. and a little side note, did anyone catch the refernce to the 'loan shark' of S6?
Xander: Gotta have something. Gotta be always moing forward.
Buffy: Like a shark.
Xander: A shark with feet. And much less...fins.
Spike: AND on land.
i just thought that was funny!
Giles' dream is the least clear for me. he jumps back and forth from wanting to be there for Buffy, to wanting to have his own life again, with his 'gig' at the Bronze. and maybe that's the point? maybe, at that time, he was trying to decide between staying with Buffy and the others and moving back to England. in 'Buffy vs. Dracula' he's decided he is going to move back to England, and maybe that's what his dream helped him to figure out (of course, he doesn't actually go, but he still makes the choice) i think Gile' singing the conversation, using the song to explain what's going on, is a reference to 'OMWF' when everyone sings anything. and it's Giles' dream that points out that it's the spirit of a Slayer that's doing all of this when he says 'You never had a Watcher' right before she scalps him.
Buffy's dream seems to be the less confusing of everyones...or at least, she seems less confused than everyone. she's able to work through every weird aspect of her dream and find a way to have a logical conversation with the thing that's causing all of the problems to begin with. i liked how the referenced the dream sequence in 'This Year's Girl' when Buffy and Faith made the bed together. and there's another subtle reference to Dawn, when Tara asks who they were making the bed for, but Buffy doesn't answer, becasue she doesn't exactly know yet. and when she looks at the clock, reading 7:30, buffy's mentions that it's late. Tara says the clocks completly wrong, and it is. in 'Gradutaion Day' it was 730 days until Buffy's death 'The Gift' but now, a year later, the time is wrong. and i loved that Tara was the first one to mention Dawn by name (Be back before dawn) instead of one of the main cast people. Riley calls Buffy 'killer' and Dracula will do the same thing. When Buffy says she's not a demon, is she referecning S6 when she thinks she came back wrong? and at the very end of her dream, Buffy does exactly what's she's done since she first became a Slayer...follows her own rules. she tells the first Slayer that she's 'waking up now' when it isn't exactly her dream, the primitive in sort of inducing the dreams on the others, and gets enraged when Buffy decides she's not gonna play anymore.
as you can see, i've really thought about this episode, and i love every single aspect of it. including the cheese man, who i think is hilarious! and i loved it when he shows up in Andrew/Jonathan's dream over a year later!
