Buffy: Nightmares

Xander: "If there's something bad out there, we'll find, you'll slay, we'll party."

Nightmares begin to bleed into reality, and Buffy and her friends eventually end up facing their worst fears. This is a terrific story idea, and it is executed beautifully. The cast is gelling and the scripts are improving.

The nightmares are geared specifically to each cast member's personality. Xander's are played mostly for laughs, even though a twinge of discomfort and fear goes with them: walking into class naked; being chased by a knife-wielding clown from his sixth birthday; fear of Nazis translating into swastikas on the walls. We see only one nightmare for Willow, but it is by far the funniest sequence in the episode; she is dragged on stage and expected to sing opera. Her terrified face, as the tenor finishes his part and throws it to her, is classic.

Giles' nightmares are serious and touching, and both relate to his jobs. Early in the episode, he is lost in the stacks and unable to read; later, he sees Buffy's grave and realizes that he has failed her. This is the first time that Giles talks about how good a Slayer Buffy is.

Although Buffy experiences the nightmares many of us have had (the unexpected history test, not knowing where the classroom is), the more serious ones show us her deepest fears. Every child of divorce believes deep down that it was her fault, that if she had been a better kid, it wouldn't have happened; the scene between Buffy and her absentee father, when he actually tells her this, is very powerful. When Hank matter-of-factly tells Buffy, "You're sullen and rude, and not nearly as bright as I thought you were going to be," Buffy's reaction just hits me in the stomach; Sarah Michelle Gellar does some excellent work here. Even heavier than divorce, we learn that Buffy is terrified of being buried alive, and of being turned into a vampire.

Bits and pieces:

-- Buffy is only a dream vampire in this episode, since she does not turn on her friends.

-- Cordelia, screaming, with colossally bad hair and nerdy clothes, is dragged against her will into the chess club.

-- Again, there is that picture of Willow and Giles in her locker.

-- Buffy's tombstone gives 1981 as the year of her birth. They got it right this time.

-- The Master quotes Walt Disney: "A dream is a wish your heart makes."

-- In the eighties movie Dreamscape, there's a boy named Billy who is helpless against a monster who chases him in his dreams. The main character, played by Dennis Quaid, enters Billy's dream and helps him defeat his monster. Sound familiar?

-- Billy does Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz when he wakes up: "I had the strangest dream... and you were in it. And you, and you..."

Quotable quotes:

Wendell: "They're not insects. They're arachnids."
Xander: "They're from the Middle East?"

Xander: "You are a lousy clown. Your balloon animals are pathetic. Everyone can make a giraffe."

Buffy: "Could I be seeing Billy's asteroid body?"

Three out of four stakes,

Billie