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After the events of the last episode, Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles are haunted in their dreams by a dark entity.***
Amazing.
Simply amazing.
We've had the big fight. We've had the resolution. For seasons one and two's finale, we had two part episodes that tugged on our heartstrings and really amped things up emotionally. Where do you go from there if you don't want to repeat yourself?
You go here. Joss Whedon has written and directed an extremely important episode of television. Maybe one of the most important ones that this show has ever done. By showing us the dreamscape of our four main protagonists, he's done something that I don't think has ever been done on television before. This is the territory of someone like David Lynch, but Joss owns it and makes it accessible as well as fun.
He pulls back the curtain, both literally and figuratively, on what makes these characters tick. By going into their heads, we see their fears, what motivates them, and what they aren't even able to admit themselves. This is the ultimate character episode. It's one thing to have your characters have dialog that tells you about them, but now we've skipped that step and you are in their heads finding out their deepest secrets and fears.
Giles sees Buffy as a daughter, but at the same time feels that he is always prodding her too much. Xander feels directionless (and likes lesbians). Willow is afraid of underperforming and she's also worried about how her friends are going to perceive her new lifestyle decisions.
This single 45 minute episode shows us where they've been and where they are going.
Giles singing that awesome bit of exposition in the form of a 70s rock opera song was AWESOME. Can't wait to get to the musical episode.
And the foreshadowing for season 4 is just immense. Pay special attention to a line that Tara tells Buffy.
"Be back before Dawn."
I remember being confused immensely by this episode when it originally aired. It's the antithesis of the cliffhanger amped up season finale. But what he's given us is something even better. He's given us a view at these characters souls, and he leaves us with a mystery.
And the final line, that Joss left us with for months...spoken by Tara in narration as Buffy turns out the lights.
"You think you know. What's to come. What you are.
You haven't even begun."
Rating: 10/10
2 comments:
My favorite all time episode...Seen it ten times and still get stuff from it. what's with the cheese man. Nothing apparently. But everything else is significant. This and "the body" are both landmark television. There's so much foreshadowing and revisiting going on that it'll take too long to get into. You know though. Love the whole theater thing with Giles and Harmony. Hell, it's all good. And Adam (out of costume) with riley and the pillow fort etc. figuring things out...Great lead into season 5's Dracula episode.
Yeah, there's so much in here. It meant nothing at the time and was no help to the watchers at home, but looking back on it, he was telling us a ton of stuff.
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