Nightmares - Interesting Facts

PrincessBuffy16

PrincessBuffy16

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Nightmares

Aired: May 12, 1997
Writers: Joss Whedon (story)
David Greenwalt (teleplay)
Director: Bruce Seth Green

Trivia:

- Willow has a "Nerf Herder" poster in her locker. The Buffy theme is by "Nerf Herder", and it was Alyson Hannigan, who plays Willow, that turned Joss Whedon onto using them for the theme.

- This episode and the season six musical episode "Once More With Feeling" contain specific references to each other. In "Nightmares," when the group is trying to figure out what magical issue they have to overcome this week, Xander says, "our dreams are coming true," and Giles responds, "Dreams? That would be the musical comedy version of this," which is basically a description of "Once More With Feeling." In "Once More With Feeling," when the group is again trying to figure out what magical issue they have to overcome this week, Willow sings "I've got a theory: some kid is dreaming, and we're all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare," which is close to the plot of "Nightmares."

Goofs:

- Willow and Buffy are talking about Buffy's parents divorce. In the scene Buffy closes her locker. There is a cut away shot and then she closes her locker again.

Best quotes:

- Willow: Personal question?
Xander: Yeah, shoot.
Willow: When Buffy was a vampire, you weren't still, like, attracted to her, were you?
Xander: Willow, how can you - I mean, that's really bent. She was... grotesque.
Willow: Still dug her, huh?
Xander: I'm sick. I need help.
Willow: Don't I know it.

- Xander: I'm not worried. If there's somethin' bad out there, we'll find, you'll slay, we'll party.

- Buffy: Well, we better hurry... 'cause I'm getting hungry.
Xander: That is a... joke, right?

Soundtrack:

- "Vieni La Sera" - Scott Harlan
(from Madame Butterfly)

References:

- "Why is she so Evita-like?" Evita was the nickname of Marà­a Eva Duarte de Perón, a relatively obscure Argentinean actress.

- In her nightmare sequence, Willow is dressed to sing the part of Cio-Cio-San, the title character of Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly.

- "A dream is a wish your heart makes." Who would've thought the Master would quote Walt Disney? That's a line from Disney's 1950 movie Cinderella, and also the title of a popular song from that movie written by Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston.

Notes:

- The divorce of Buffy's parents was finalized in 1996, although they were separated before that. They got the divorce because, as they told Buffy, they just stopped getting along.

- Buffy's father lives in Los Angeles, and comes to see Buffy on infrequent weekends.

- Buffy's headstone gives the year of her birth as 1981.

http://imdb.com
 
PrincessBuffy16 said:
This episode and the season six musical episode "Once More With Feeling" contain specific references to each other. In "Nightmares," when the group is trying to figure out what magical issue they have to overcome this week, Xander says, "our dreams are coming true," and Giles responds, "Dreams? That would be the musical comedy version of this," which is basically a description of "Once More With Feeling." In "Once More With Feeling," when the group is again trying to figure out what magical issue they have to overcome this week, Willow sings "I've got a theory: some kid is dreaming, and we're all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare," which is close to the plot of "Nightmares."
Click to expand...

That's a good point, actually. I never really thought about that before, but they do kind of clearly reference each other, when you think about it. 😀

PrincessBuffy16 said:
Willow and Buffy are talking about Buffy's parents divorce. In the scene Buffy closes her locker. There is a cut away shot and then she closes her locker again.
Click to expand...

I actually noticed that, but I thought it was my imagination. Good to know I'm not going crazy.
 
So this was the last episode I watched during my little Buffy marathon yesterday and I had forgotten how cool it is. I love seeing their fears come to life. Like Xander with all the candy and then all of a sudden, bam, enter scary freakin clown or how Willow hates performing in front of people. And I love how she has to sing and she cant sing which we all get to see in season 6. Oh brilliant. And then Buffy as a vampire. Awesome. Loves it.
 
Interesting points especially the link between this and 'Once More with Feeling', missed that one too. However, I did notice a touch of prophacy here, Buffy being buried alive and then fighting her way out of the grave in Bargaining (Pt 2?). If anything that part gave me thr creeps, fraid it's my #1 fear.
 
Great episode! I love how the combines blood chilling horror with humor. 😀

Like, Cordy with her huge frizzy hair being dragged into a room while wailing "But I don't wanna go!! I'm not even on the chess team, I swear!!" was honestly one of the funniest things I've ever seen. 😀

The crazy murderous clown was terrifying to me, I was screaming right along with the kids on t.v. : peek: As was the whole "buried alive" thing, which so totally reminded me of Buffy's revival in S6.

I thought Willow's fear was kinda funny. But still, if I was the one who had to sing it probably wouldn't have been. 🙂
 
I noticed some nice foreshadowing in Buffy's nightmares.

Failing history: Buffy once made a pun out of a George Santayana quote by saying “Those that fail history are doomed to repeat it…in summer school.” Buffy does repeat history. After the vampire Angel came the vampire Spike. After her death in Prophecy Girl was her death in The Gift. Spike gives his theory on the death history of the Slayer line, “Every Slayer has a death wish”, and it was only a matter of time before she went from choosing to combat a notion like that to being absorbed in the “death drive”.

Cordelia said that Buffy has “cut History just about every time we‘ve had it”. Buffy has time-traveled thousands of years into the past and hundreds of years into the future, been shown visions and dreams of events in recent and distant future, defied or twisted prophecy (which is someone foretelling future historical events), as well as made her mark in the annals of history. She is a Mover & Shaker in the course of both the history of the Slayer and the history of the world.

While Buffy is taking the history test time jumps forward. In Life Serial Buffy steps onto the USC campus for the first time since her death to audit classes until she is readmitted but ends up feeling lost and disoriented until the Trio make it seem for Buffy as if time is jumping forward. Xander calls it a “flash forward freak out”.

Hank blaming Buffy for the divorce and saying he doesn’t want to be a part of her life: Hank never found out that Buffy is the Slayer so his opinion of her is much like how Joyce’s used to be; she is a moody, violent, potentially psychotic troublemaking delinquent but it doesn‘t stop the parental love. In his eyes the history of Buffy is very different than it is for the viewers who know she is a selfless heroine with a high moral code. She comes home late without calling or sneaks back into the house at all hours of the night. Her clothes are bloodied from fighting. She seems to know local “gangs” and is possibly involved in a street gang. She committed arson. She was expelled from Hemery and rejected from every public school in the Los Angeles school district. She had what seemed like a psychotic break (schizophrenia, fugue state, delusions of grandeur) and thought demons were real and spent three weeks in a mental institution. She spent the entire summer with him but was uncommunicative and seemed light years away (PTSD from being murdered). She ran away from her mother’s house after being kicked out of another school for suspicion of murder. All of that happens by the time she is 17. When she turns 18 he misses their annual father/daughter birthday tradition for the first time since its conception. By 20 he is out of her life and doesn’t come to her mother’s funeral.

Buffy being buried alive: She has to claw her way out of her own grave when her friends resurrect her in Bargaining #2 and felt like she left a piece of herself in that coffin, her humanity and ability to feel. She climbs out of both a literal cemetery pit and a metaphorical pit of depression in Grave. She climbs out of a pit in BOTN with the Turak-Han trying to drag her back down and Buffy being saved by sunrise (ironic considering the FE said “dead by sunrise” to Buffy regarding Angel and she feared the sun rising).

Buffy becoming a vampire: The Slayer line originates with a demon spirit being forced into a human girl. By S5 Buffy feels that she is losing her humanity and becoming just the Slayer. When Buffy was resurrected she had to claw out of her grave, had an aversion to sunlight for quite some time, and preferred being with a soulless demon than her human friends and family.
In Turbulence, Willow tells Buffy that her sudden new powers were from the 206 dead girls that gave up their Slayer powers right before being massacred. Buffy tells Xander she feels like a vampire since she gave them their powers, it was her decision to go to Tibet and relinquish them, and now they are dead and she absorbed their power. It turns out Willow was wrong.
 
Great episode. Fun to watch. I love the dynamic between Buffy and Billy, one of my favourite bits from this episode is Billy telling his coach "There's 8 other players on the team you know that". Buffy tells him that beforehand and i love there little relationship.

I'am also with Xander in thinking that Buffy as a vampire is still hot. :biggrin3:
 
I'm not big on Billy and the baseball stuff - a bit after-school special, I think. But the nightmares are awesome, and I lovelovelove in this episode how the nightmares seamlessly transition from 'normal reality' - in pretty much every episode that features reality altered in some way, there are definite lines between 'real' and 'alternate', but here it all blends together. Pretty well-done stuff that puts the 'Season One is all cheesy thrown-together stuff' theory into serious disrepute.
 
One of the best episodes of season 1. It falls in the realms of classic television but it's different from anything we've seen. The plot with the baseball kid, Billy, it's a little vague and kinda weird but what an amazing episodes where all nightmares come true! Loved Willow's one (sharing it with Aly's) and Buffy's..which are very serious nightmares. Funny and creepy at the same time.
 
Willow: Personal question?
Xander: Yeah, shoot.
Willow: When Buffy was a vampire, you weren't still, like, attracted to her, were you?
Xander: Willow, how can you - I mean, that's really bent. She was... grotesque.
Willow: Still dug her, huh?
Xander: I'm sick. I need help.
Willow: Don't I know it.

I dug her as well. I'm also sick. And I too need help.
 
So I just did a re-watch of this episode and I absolutely love how much it scares me half to death! That clown..oh god that clown...I may have nightmares myself about this damned clown. Also, Vamp Buffy scared the hell out of me as well..she was so UGLY!!! I always asked myself why they made her look so ugly, but make Vamp Willow look so damn sexy.
 
LOVE this episode. This and Witch might have been my favourite episodes in Seaosn 1. Oh yeah, and Prophecy Girl. This episode made me cry at one point. Because I believe that Sarah Michelle Gellar is an amazing actress and everytime she has a emotional scene with someone it makes me cry. This time around it was the scene with her father. I'm sitting here like 'OMG, poor Buffy' the whole time. It was horrible. I can't imagine what I would do if a parent told me that. But I do like it that she didn't let it effect her so badly. She still went on with trying to save the day despite her worst nightmare having just come true.

Something that I vaugely noticed about this episode is the fact that Cordelia, wasn't exactly being nice, but she was being more civil towards Buffy than in recent episodes. Or maybe this is just a misjudgment by me. I figure that if it's not it's just because the 'nightmare' needed somebody to convey the news of the History test and such to Buffy.
 
Does anyone know why Laura got attacked when she went for a smoke in the basement? Was this her fear? If so, why did she get beaten up by the 'coach' (who Billy fears) and not by something or someone she herself feared? And he says 'lucky 19' right before he beats her up, so I thought she was connected to Billy somehow.

And did anyone else think Billy was molested? I still kinda do...
 
crazysoulless said:
Hank blaming Buffy for the divorce and saying he doesn't want to be a part of her life: Hank never found out that Buffy is the Slayer so his opinion of her is much like how Joyce's used to be; she is a moody, violent, potentially psychotic troublemaking delinquent but it doesn"˜t stop the parental love. In his eyes the history of Buffy is very different than it is for the viewers who know she is a selfless heroine with a high moral code. She comes home late without calling or sneaks back into the house at all hours of the night. Her clothes are bloodied from fighting. She seems to know local "gangs" and is possibly involved in a street gang. She committed arson. She was expelled from Hemery and rejected from every public school in the Los Angeles school district. She had what seemed like a psychotic break (schizophrenia, fugue state, delusions of grandeur) and thought demons were real and spent three weeks in a mental institution. She spent the entire summer with him but was uncommunicative and seemed light years away (PTSD from being murdered). She ran away from her mother's house after being kicked out of another school for suspicion of murder. All of that happens by the time she is 17. When she turns 18 he misses their annual father/daughter birthday tradition for the first time since its conception. By 20 he is out of her life and doesn't come to her mother's funeral.
Click to expand...

that's a great rundown of Hank's perspective.
 
The Unspoken said:
Does anyone know why Laura got attacked when she went for a smoke in the basement? Was this her fear? If so, why did she get beaten up by the 'coach' (who Billy fears) and not by something or someone she herself feared? And he says 'lucky 19' right before he beats her up, so I thought she was connected to Billy somehow.

And did anyone else think Billy was molested? I still kinda do...
Click to expand...

Maybe she was afraid she'll be cought by some kind of authority, and since the monster represents 'coach' she got cought by a faculty mamber. Maybe they thought it's a neat way to represent him to us.
 
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