Nightmares

_***½

Buffy and her friends are forced to fight against their worst nightmares come to life when reality begins altering itself.

The review for "the Puppet Show" can be read here.

In a world made of nightmares, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends are thrown for a loop when their nightmares are made flesh. With everything that they know, and everything they know to fear, the things they imagine can only be that much more intense than the average high school student, and any weakness that can be preyed upon becomes a great liability.

The Master (Mark Metcalf) monologues to the Anointed One (Andrew J. Ferchland) about fear, stating that it's the most powerful force in all the world, and it's in part his belief in this that makes him such an incredibly effective villain. It is because he's willing to master his fear, to become that which others are afraid of, that he is such a threat to the world; he will do whatever it takes to see the distress in his enemy's eye, to hear their final whimper, that he doesn't even bother to protect himself in any way, charging headfirst at his opposition and letting nothing stand in his way. He has a powerful moment as he takes hold of a giant crucifix, forcing his hand to wrap around the wood, stating that "if [he] can face [his] fear, it cannot master [him]," and it is as much an admittance of how to defeat him as it is an explanation why no one has been able to kill him.

Despite leading a life where their fears are real, neither Buffy and Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) have taken the time to understand what truly makes the other afraid. This story elaborates that the largest fear, for both Slayer and Watcher, is failure in their mission, for Buffy it is to allow the Master to walk free, to be killed in the heat of battle and made vampire, whereas for Giles it is to let his charge fall in battle, to allow her to be so unprepared as to be made into a creature of the night. Buffy finds herself confronted by the Master, thrown into an empty grave and told that her "nightmares are made flesh," with the Master stating that "[he is] free because [she] fear[s] it." Giles later comes across Buffy's grave, knowing in that moment that through his inadequacies he has let her down and doomed the entire world to the Master's rule. He stands over her grave, giving a speech about how he has failed her, how he needed to have trained her more, trained her harder, going on to say that she was far more gifted than he ever let on, and it feels very practiced, as though he had been mulling over what to say in the event of her death ever since being assigned to her. His mission in life is to be the Watcher, much like Buffy's is to be the Slayer, and in this manner they are intrinsically linked, and when one fails, so, too, does the other. Buffy then digs her way out of her grave as a vampire, much to Giles' surprise, and he states that "[she] never told [him she] dreamed of becoming a vampire," though he is unsure if it truly is her nightmare or one of his own. Buffy then slowly breaks down, unable to process her situation and worried that she will soon turn on her friends, providing proof of why a Watcher's guidance and strength of character is so valuable at times such as this.

While there is a nice balance between the deep fears that truly prey upon these characters' psyches and the less intrusive moments that serve to make them uncomfortable, some of the nightmares presented here are so trivial that they shake the tone of the narrative. So many of Giles' fears revolve around his work in the library, such as him getting lost among the stacks, that it's a wonder he took the position in the first place, and Buffy being unprepared for a test, watching as time skips forward beyond her control, is incredibly relateable, but nowhere near the level of fear a girl in her position should have. At one point the characters witness a mother coming into the school to deliver her son's lunch, hugging and kissing him, and the son is beyond embarrassed as his friends laugh, and this is a moment that anyone with a mother likely can relate to, but for this to be his worst fear is weak writing, despite how funny the moment is, and the same goes for Cordelia's (Charisma Carpenter) hair frizzing out beyond control, leading to her being dressed in nerdy clothes and wearing glasses, dragged away by the chess club. The moment itself is great, but why that would even be a fear for her is beyond understanding and reason.

At several points during the episode Willow (Alyson Hannigan) openly laughs at Xander's (Nicholas Brendon) fears, first when he walks into class in his underwear and again when he reveals he had just come under attack from a killer clown. This narrative makes her seem very much like Cordelia in how uncaring she is towards Xander's feelings and it makes her seem like an incredibly bad friend. Her reaction to his situation is even worse considering she had only just lived through her own nightmare of singing in public and is still wearing her costume and stage makeup as proof of that. Were the audience meant to sympathize with Willow's character during this episode then this was not the direction to take her and the writers clearly failed in their characterization here and, were this the first interaction we had seen between them, it would be questionable why Xander would have remained friends with her for so long.

The main cast all deliver great performances as they live through their characters worst fears, but Metcalf's work as the Master is fantastic, creating a truly frightening presence despite his limited interaction with the rest of the cast. Another notable performance is that of Gellar, who plays very well against Dean Butler (as Buffy's father) as he states that she's a disappointment to him, that she's the reason his marriage failed, and that he gets nothing from his weekends with her. The scene works so well because Gellar conveys exactly how Buffy feels, making it clear that this has been at the back of Buffy's mind for years, worried that his words may be true, and feeling, for the first time, absolutely unloved by those that claimed always to be there for her.

Bruce Seth Green manages to blend reality into nightmare very well in this episode, directing Buffy's dream sequence of being stalked in the Master's lair with a great level of intensity that likely foreshadows their upcoming battle. There are many small moments that play well due to the subject matter, like Buffy's repeated sightings of Billy (Jeremy Foley) around the school, the spiders crawling out of Wendell's (Justin Urich) textbook, and Xander walking into class in his underpants. Billy and Buffy turning a corner in the school only to find themselves in a graveyard is very well done, but the best scene of the episode has Buffy standing in shadow, slowly walking into the light to reveal her vampiric visage, stating that "there are a lot of scarier things than [the ugly man], and [she's] one of them." There are, however, a few missteps, including the continued use of the echoing effect on the Anointed One's voice and the shot of the night-lit graveyard superimposed onto the sunny streets of Sunnydale, both of which seem incredibly messy.

Written by David Greenwalt and Joss Whedon, this story contains a lot of hints about what the characters are going through by revealing not only their greatest fears, but also the smaller things that worry them. It's a common fear among children of divorce that they may have had a hand in their parents separating, and here, when Buffy's father comes to visit her, he reveals that he would rather stop, and this is, perhaps, the most devastating of Buffy's losses. Willow is forced into a production of Madama Butterfly, freezing up on stage, a fear that was hinted at in the previous episode when she ran off stage during their performance of Oedipus Rex, and so, too, was Xander's fear of clowns hinted at previously when he audibly shuddered at the sight of a mime. Granted, the tool with which they lead Xander to the clown, by following a trail of chocolate and eating it off the floor, seems stupid beyond belief, and Giles' fear of losing the ability to read is somewhat confusing as well. In the end the message of the episode is to face your fears, to not be afraid of that which most frightens you, and it's a lesson well-learned by Buffy and her friends as they fight back the darkness night after night.

This story goes a long way toward solidifying the bond between the slayer and her watcher, giving both a greater understanding of what they do and should mean to one another and how actively they need to work together in their relationship. Xander's feelings for Buffy also continue to grow, and even he notes how disturbingly strong they are as he still managed to find her attractive while she sported her vampire face.

The review for "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" can be read here.