Normal Again
- Thread starter Nighthawk
- Start date
VisionGuy
Oh Plerr
I liked the episode. It left me with that whole "is it all an illusion" thing. I didn't like the fact that Buffy beat up her friends but I guess they had it coming for pulling her out of heaven. Overall, it was a good episode.
Angels baby101
I hath Returned! MWhaha
Yeah i like the Episode like VG it also made me think "Is Sunnydale really real?" Cause the whole crazy house seems much more likely. I dont like that she beat her friends up either but she thought that was the way to get rid of the "Illusion" so its understandable.
Schillaci
Scooby
Normal Again is an awesome episode. One of the seasons best episodes. I also think it is Sarah's best acting from that whole season.
eponinethen
Majk
It's awesome. Love the idea, and it worked great in this very cool episode. Love the mental institution scenes with Joyce and Hank and all, plus Buffy look all cute there, lol. Makes you think eh.
L
Ladybug
Aw yes, cute little crazy Buffy :)
The Arcane
Scooby
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2005
- Messages
- 1,686
One of my favourite episodes of season six, in fact probably one of my top twenty of the series. I loved the way that they left the ending so ambiguous, leaving you with that little nagging doubt about what was real.
My opinion will always be that the final scene set in the institution was something Buffy was experiencing in her head. The final effects of the demon poison. She was attempting to put things back to normal psychologically and so the scene represented her finally accepting that Sunnydale was real and letting the asylum Buffy go.
But again, it's great how they wrote it so you could apply your own meaning.
My opinion will always be that the final scene set in the institution was something Buffy was experiencing in her head. The final effects of the demon poison. She was attempting to put things back to normal psychologically and so the scene represented her finally accepting that Sunnydale was real and letting the asylum Buffy go.
But again, it's great how they wrote it so you could apply your own meaning.
Summers Blood
Scooby
I loved this episode too, but even now I sit at home and wonder, Is sunnydale real?
If they had ended the episode differently then I probably wouldn't think this, but as it ended back inside the instituition with Buffy staring into space and the Doctor saying, 'I'm sorry we've lost her!' It just made me wonder.
I really thought that this was a brilliant episode though! Everything in both worlds seemed so self explanatory, for example you really can imagine Sunnydale been a part of Buffys imagination, because Come on Vampires! Really!
But then you can understand also that the Demon made this happen, you sort of get torn in two, between our reality and the reality of Buffy as we know it.
If they had ended the episode differently then I probably wouldn't think this, but as it ended back inside the instituition with Buffy staring into space and the Doctor saying, 'I'm sorry we've lost her!' It just made me wonder.
I really thought that this was a brilliant episode though! Everything in both worlds seemed so self explanatory, for example you really can imagine Sunnydale been a part of Buffys imagination, because Come on Vampires! Really!
But then you can understand also that the Demon made this happen, you sort of get torn in two, between our reality and the reality of Buffy as we know it.
I love this episode, and I hate it in the way that it makes me feel paranoid and thinking about that I might be imagining my whole life. But it's really well done, and Buffy confusion and the rest of the scoobies (and especially Willow) helplessness is so well portraited.
M
M-a-r-c
Guest
This was an amazing episode, and would definately be one of my favourites!
And of course love the cliff hanger at the end.
I always thought it would have been a good ending for the series.
BUT I always was a bit confused when buffy told willow she had been in an asylum before. To my knowledge she says her parents put her in one when she first became a slayer because she was talking about vampires and demons. Surely if this were true in season 2 becoming with joyce finding out about buffy being a slayer this would have been mentions! Or at least spoken of at some point.
I think it was said by buffy that joyce seemed to have just blocked it from memory or something like that but think that the writers could have done more with this fantastic episode!
And of course love the cliff hanger at the end.
I always thought it would have been a good ending for the series.
BUT I always was a bit confused when buffy told willow she had been in an asylum before. To my knowledge she says her parents put her in one when she first became a slayer because she was talking about vampires and demons. Surely if this were true in season 2 becoming with joyce finding out about buffy being a slayer this would have been mentions! Or at least spoken of at some point.
I think it was said by buffy that joyce seemed to have just blocked it from memory or something like that but think that the writers could have done more with this fantastic episode!
Edmund Blackadder
Scooby
I really never got the idea that the other reality was real, cause well that would have totally defunct the entire show, and Angel and any future Joss wanted for the show.
Alternate reality, maybe, but Sunnydale as a figment of her imagination....never.
I do love this episode though, however while i was watching it, it reminded me a lot of a Star Trek Deep Space 9 set of stories, where Ben Sisko was on 50's Earth and he wrote DS9 as a continuing comic....it was interesting and played on the possibility but never once do you think that its real...
Alternate reality, maybe, but Sunnydale as a figment of her imagination....never.
I do love this episode though, however while i was watching it, it reminded me a lot of a Star Trek Deep Space 9 set of stories, where Ben Sisko was on 50's Earth and he wrote DS9 as a continuing comic....it was interesting and played on the possibility but never once do you think that its real...
Gunnlover26
To know me is to love me
Loved this episode!!!! I like the idea's of the scoobies not being real and what if it was all a figment in her imaginaiton. The whole episode had me on the edge of my seat.
this is my all time fave Buffy episode. i just love everything about it. the idea that Sunnydale is all a figment of some sick girl's imagination is a really good way to look at it.
i loved the part at the end when sick Buffy turns to her mom and says 'you're right. thank you. goodbye.'
to me, this is the real Buffy finally realizing and accepting what her life really is.
for me, this was a mini-turning point for Buffy during this season.
i loved the part at the end when sick Buffy turns to her mom and says 'you're right. thank you. goodbye.'
to me, this is the real Buffy finally realizing and accepting what her life really is.
for me, this was a mini-turning point for Buffy during this season.
VisionGuy
Oh Plerr
I never thought that they put her in an asylum after she became the slayer. I always thought that she saw a vampire before she became the slayer and then freaked out and told her mom about it. And in Becoming, they didn't mention Buffy being in an institution but Joyce did grab her and say "Buffy you need help," and Buffy said "I'm not crazy! What I need right now is for you to chill." That may have been like a little look back to Buffy's crazy house days.
i'm with VG on this...just becasue they didn't talk about it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
i'd imagine this would be something that Joyce wouldn't want to dicuss again...how she locked her daughter in a nut house 'cause she was telling everyone that vampires are real, only to find out three years later that vampires ARE in fact real and her daughter had been right all along.
i'd imagine this would be something that Joyce wouldn't want to dicuss again...how she locked her daughter in a nut house 'cause she was telling everyone that vampires are real, only to find out three years later that vampires ARE in fact real and her daughter had been right all along.
M
M-a-r-c
Guest
I just would've thought it would've been mentioned again is all.
Also I may be completely off but wasnt there a comic of buffy being in a mental asylum. I think it was called slayer interupted or something like that. I havent read it but have seen the cover. If anybodies read this it may have information on the circumstances of her being admitted to the asylum.
In the movie buffy sees her first vampire and finds out shes activated as the next slayer. So I would assume it was after this that buffy was put in a asylum.
I may be way off. It wouldnt be the first time my memory has failed me lol.
Also there is also the possibility that she was never actually in a mental assylum before. I have just been learning about false and recovered memories in Psychology and there is always the poossibilty that her haalucintions of being in an assylum triggered a false memory or deja vu effect that she thought she had been there before...or something like that.
Also I may be completely off but wasnt there a comic of buffy being in a mental asylum. I think it was called slayer interupted or something like that. I havent read it but have seen the cover. If anybodies read this it may have information on the circumstances of her being admitted to the asylum.
In the movie buffy sees her first vampire and finds out shes activated as the next slayer. So I would assume it was after this that buffy was put in a asylum.
I may be way off. It wouldnt be the first time my memory has failed me lol.
Also there is also the possibility that she was never actually in a mental assylum before. I have just been learning about false and recovered memories in Psychology and there is always the poossibilty that her haalucintions of being in an assylum triggered a false memory or deja vu effect that she thought she had been there before...or something like that.
Edmund Blackadder
Scooby
Whats the What here......she, in the eys of her parents, burned the school down and blamed Vampires......thats when she was sent to the mental hospital....i mean who would believe that....but during her time there, she surpressed all what she had been told, so as to live a normal life.
Her parents then divorced, she left LA, Joyce obviously wants to repress this...and voila...its answered...not a big conspiracy.....simple logic
Her parents then divorced, she left LA, Joyce obviously wants to repress this...and voila...its answered...not a big conspiracy.....simple logic
i have Slayer Inturrupted. it's actually a good read, and i'd recommend it to anyone.
anyway, the concept pof this graphic novel is that Dawn found Buffy's diary and SHE told her parents about the vampires and theings her sister was writing about. Buffy didn't deny these facts, and her parents thought she was ill and was sent to a hospital. Buffy sees this as her opportunity to forget all about slaying and convinces herself that she's a normal girl...until she has to rescue the other patients, forcing her to embrace her destiny and ssave the day.
she then convinces the doctors and her parents that she's well, and Buffy leaves the hospital as Buffy the Vampire Slayer...although only she knows that.
and i'm with Al...Joyce repressed the memory of sending her daughter to a nut house 'cause it caused her too much pain.
anyway, the concept pof this graphic novel is that Dawn found Buffy's diary and SHE told her parents about the vampires and theings her sister was writing about. Buffy didn't deny these facts, and her parents thought she was ill and was sent to a hospital. Buffy sees this as her opportunity to forget all about slaying and convinces herself that she's a normal girl...until she has to rescue the other patients, forcing her to embrace her destiny and ssave the day.
she then convinces the doctors and her parents that she's well, and Buffy leaves the hospital as Buffy the Vampire Slayer...although only she knows that.
and i'm with Al...Joyce repressed the memory of sending her daughter to a nut house 'cause it caused her too much pain.
M
M-a-r-c
Guest
I disagree. I think it never happened. I think (although I have never read slayer interupted) but based on Lyri's summary, Dawn made buffy go into the mental institution. This means that theres a reason why this was never brought up in the earlier seasons. It never happened!
The memories created by the monks obviously were what would've happened if dawn had exsisted. If dawn had exsisted then buffy would have gone in the mental institution.
Thats the way I see it anyway.
The memories created by the monks obviously were what would've happened if dawn had exsisted. If dawn had exsisted then buffy would have gone in the mental institution.
Thats the way I see it anyway.
Edmund Blackadder
Scooby
No offence but thats a complete load of crap.....there was no gain by the course you have said.
HAD it been something to do with Dawn, it would have been a bigger issue, but as it stands, it was only relevent to Buffy and makes complete sense in the regular world.......
HAD it been something to do with Dawn, it would have been a bigger issue, but as it stands, it was only relevent to Buffy and makes complete sense in the regular world.......