Wow, some of you are hard on this episode. I liked it a lot. To me, what the writers are trying to achieve is so much more difficult than the goal of earlier seasons because this time around they're calling into question the whole perspective of the show. Slayers are chosen, slayers are destined, yeah yeah yeah. No one here can really relate on a personal level. Sure it's fun to watch Buffy's heroism week to week, but it's somewhat hard to identify with a girl who's fated to save the world. The writers tried to amplify the whole in-crowd aspect of the trainees. People were kind of turned off by it, but I think some people missed the point: you were supposed to be turned off by it. The episode created this cozy bunch of gifted kids who are better then all the rest--they're the ultimate clique. No one's going to relate, because the trainees' uniqueness was played up to the point of excluding the audience. Then the plot goes along, and in comes Xander, telling Dawn that the REAL trial in all of this is just being normal, being on the sides and helping, and caring for those who are gifted. No one will ever acknowledge their worth, much less acknowledge how painful it is to be ordingary. That's where the audience identification comes in, because no one in the real world has a pre-set plan in life. There are no supernatural callings, and we just figure things out as we go along. We'll certrainly never be recognized for being ordinary, and so Xander's speech at the end is kind of like this nod to the audience as much as it is to Dawn.
I thought it was great. It's obviously a tricky episode--but let's face it, they weren't doing things this ambitous or complex the first few years of the show. Obviously, the emotional payoff of a show like this is going to be subtle. Anyway, just thought I would defend the episode, because I really loved it. Dawn and Xander won me over.
Ha, I just thought of something--maybe this episode should have been called "Normal Again". It would be fitting in a lot of ways.
