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This week on Buffy and the Art of Story: Nightmares. (Season 1, Episode 10 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
Along with story structure and plot turns, this episode covers the way the writers escalate conflict to maximize the characters’ pain and how Nightmares foreshadows many significant emotional arcs in the series.
As always, the discussion is spoiler-free, except at the end (with plenty of warning).
Story Elements in Nightmares
In this podcast episode we’ll look at:
- Plot Turns
- The interplay of Buffy’s character and plot conflicts
- How the writers escalate conflict for maximum emotional impact
- Foreshadowing of significant emotional arcs in the series
Also Season 1 DVD information about how Joss Whedon chose the Mutant Enemy company name and created the logo.
Next Up: Out of Mind Out of Sight S1 E11
Last Week: The Puppet Show S1 E9
Plotting Your Story
Working through plot issues for your own novel, screenplay, or story?
Try this Story Structure Template, available free to all on my Patreon page.
If you become a patron, you’ll also get access to bonus episodes and content.
Episodes will include Buffy-adjacent stories (such as key Angel episodes). Also films or TV episodes that are intriguing from a story, theme, or character perspective.
Episode Transcript Nightmares
Hello and welcome to Buffy and the Art of Story. If you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you love creating stories or just taking them apart to see how they work, you’re in the right place.
I am Lisa M. Lilly, author of The Awakening Supernatural Thriller Series and the QC Davis mysteries and the founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com.
This Week
Today we’ll be talking about Season One, Episode Ten: Nightmares.
Along with story structure and plot turns, I’ll talk about the way the writers escalate the conflict for maximum emotional impact. Also about the ways this episode foreshadows certain emotional arcs in the series.
As always, though, there will be no spoilers until the very end with plenty of warning. So if you want to hear about foreshadowing, stay tuned for that spoiler section.
Okay, let’s dive into the Hellmouth.
Writers and Directors
Nightmares was written by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt and directed by Bruce Seth Green.
Opening Conflict
We start with Buffy in a shadowy cave, her hair in braids, candles on all the walls. The Master confronts her. This powerful vampire that was the antagonist in the pilot and has been lurking through many of these episodes.
He confronts her. She drops her stake and backs away. He grabs her. She says, “No, No, No.”
And she is still saying that when Joyce shakes her awake. So this is part of our opening conflict. It sets the stage for the episode. Though we don’t quite know why yet. When Joyce shakes her awake, we get the initial emotional conflict here.
Emotional Hook
Remember our initial conflict may or may not relate to our main plot. But it is a conflict that draws the reader into our story. That’s what keeps the reader or audience member engaged while we set the stage.
Joyce says to Buffy, “I spoke with your father.” Buffy says, “He’s coming right?”
And there is our emotional hook. We know nothing about her past with her father, but immediately we know that she is worried about this, whether her dad will show up or not.
So along with Buffy’s fears about the Master, which is our outer conflict, we have her inner conflict. Her fears about her dad.
At school, Willow asks her about the divorce. Buffy says she’s sure she wasn’t a big help with her parents’ marriage because she was always in trouble.
New Characters
We then see Buffy, Xander, and Willow, along with Cordelia, in class. And the topic — it looks like it’s a psychology class — the topic is active listening.
The teacher says that one of the most fundamental needs is to be heard.
At that moment Buffy sees a boy who is too young to be in high school lurking in the doorway. He’s maybe 10 years old, and he looks very sad. At the beginning of the scene we were also introduced to a new character named Wendell who we haven’t seen before.
Right after Buffy sees the little boy, Wendell opens his textbook. There’s a large tarantula in it.
Story Spark
Seconds later, spiders are crawling all over Wendell. We get a close-up on this boy and he says, “Sorry about that.”
And there is a cut to credits.
This is our Inciting Incident or Story Spark, what sets off our main plot. Usually that comes about 10% into the episode, which is the case here.
Theme of Nightmares
When we come back from the credits, the Master — we’re in his lair — and he basically gives us the theme or the premise of this episode. He says, “Fear is a wonderful thing. And it’s the most powerful force in the world. We are defined by what we fear.”
The Master also says he can feel something happening above, conflict and change. Because his lair is underground, so he is sensing something on the surface.
Buffy’s Fears About Her Dad
Next scene we have Joyce dropping Buffy off at school. Wonderful dialogue here filled with conflict. And we can tell exactly how worried Buffy is. Although she never says that and she denies it when Joyce asks, “Are you worried about your dad not coming?” she keeps asking what time her dad is picking her up. Is he coming at 3:30?
Joyce responds to what Buffy isn’t saying and says, “Your dad loves you. He adores you.”
Investigating
Buffy stops to see Giles in the library. He comes out of the stacks looking dazed and disoriented as if he got lost back there. Buffy says, “Hey, Giles wake-y wake-y!” foreshadowing what is to come in our episode. Though at the moment it looks like she’s just having a little fun with Giles.
Xander, Willow, and Buffy together go to talk to Wendell about what happened. But Cordelia walks by and tells Buffy about a history exam that Buffy had no idea was happening. And Cordelia says, “No wonder,” because Buffy has barely attended class this semester.
Nightmares Start Taking Hold
Buffy doesn’t even know where the room is. Cordelia has to show her.
This is a nightmare that I used to have when I was practicing law full time, and I had a big hearing coming up, I couldn’t find the courtroom in my dreams.
However, when I first watched this episode I think I was still in law school at the time so I don’t think I was having that dream. I didn’t recognize at that point that what was happening were nightmares.
That starts becoming clear when we go back to Wendell and Xander and Willow.
Wendell tells a story about how he had a pet spider tarantula when he was a kid. And he went away on vacation and left his brother to take care of the spiders. His brother left the heat lamp on and the spider died. And since then he has felt that spiders hold this against him.
Nearing the One-Quarter Point
At 11 minutes, 42 seconds in, Wendell says, “That’s when the nightmares started.”
This is about one-fourth the way through the episode. Usually at the One-Quarter Point in a story we see something from outside that comes in and spins the story in a new direction. In this episode, I think that turn comes a little bit later so I’ll talk about it in a moment.
But I find it interesting that the first specific reference to nightmares, the title of the episode, and the ultimate explanation for what why the strange things are happening, comes right at the one-quarter mark.
Buffy’s First Full Nightmare Experience
And immediately after that, we see Buffy having her first full nightmare experience.
Up to that point, even not quite knowing where the classroom is, is almost in the believable range, given that we know Buffy often has to cut class because of being the Slayer.
But now she is in taking the test. Her pencil breaks. She goes to sharpen it and all this time has elapsed. She writes her name and looks up. Again, almost the end of the class.
So time is moving strangely. Buffy sees this little boy again and he once more looks sad.
The One-Quarter Twist
Now we cut to the hallway where a girl we haven’t met before sneaks down into the basement to have a cigarette. The boy looks after her and says she shouldn’t go there.
14 minutes, 53 seconds in this giant man or maybe a monster says, “Lucky 19,” and beats up this girl.
I see that as the first major plot turn in the story.
Before that we did have these nightmares — we find out later these nightmares are coming true. But while Wendell was scared and Buffy was anxious and frustrated, no one was physically hurt.
This is our villain of the piece becoming active for the first time, this giant man.
Hospital Visit
Our next scene is in the hospital. So this has definitely taken the plot in a new direction,
Buffy and Giles go to see Laura, the student who was attacked.
She doesn’t seem surprised that Buffy and Giles are asking questions. Which makes me wonder if people in school already are getting a sense that somehow Buffy and Giles both deal with these weird things that happen in Sunnydale.
We don’t know that for sure, but with a little prodding, Laura confides in them. She tells them about Lucky 19.
Information From A Doctor
They then go talk to her doctor. Apparently, there’s no real doctor-patient confidentiality in Sunnydale because all they have to say is they’re friends of Laura’s, and the doctor tells them she has shattered bones but she’ll recover. And she has it pretty easy compared to the other kid.
They are shocked by the “pretty easy” comments until he tells them this boy was brought in and he’s in a coma.
We don’t see his face, but now they know that perhaps there were two attacks by this scary guy.
Back At School
Back at the high school we see this student we don’t know. He’s got dark sunglasses and a black leather jacket and is talking very tough to his friends when his mother comes in. She hugs him and kisses him and calls him ‘Boo-boo.’ He is completely freaked out by this.
Willow separately starts making a connection to how all of this could be a nightmare. She and Xander are walking the halls seeing things going on around them.
Xander disagrees with her until they walk into a classroom and he’s standing there in front of everyone in his boxer shorts. So he is now convinced.
In The Library
We switch to Giles and Buffy in the library. Giles confesses to Buffy that he can no longer read. Buffy looks at the newspaper articles he’s pulled and sees one about a kiddie league player who was badly beaten after the game and now he’s in a coma.
From the photos, she recognizes him as the boy that she has seen lurking around the school when these strange things happen.
When Giles asks her how she can explain that, she says, in my favorite quote of the episode, “What am I, knowledge girl now? Explanations are your terrain.”
Buffy’s Dad Appears
Buffy also sees the ‘19’ on Billy’s jersey. That is the name of the little boy, Billy.
But she isn’t following up on this right now because her dad comes into the library. She is surprised because he’s supposed to be there after school. Now he’s there in the middle of the day.
She introduces him to Mr. Giles, the librarian. Her dad says, “Let’s go talk outside.” Her dad’s name is Hank. So it’s Hank Summers. He says he came early because he needs to talk to her. And he tells her it is because he wants to explain why he and Joyce split up.
The Midpoint of Nightmares
We’re now at the Midpoint of the episode. 21 minutes, 47 seconds in, in about a 42-minute episode. This is the point where, in a well structured story, the protagonist either makes of vow to pursue the quest, throws caution to the wind, or suffers a major reversal, or both.
Here we get a major reversal for Buffy. And while it relates to the emotional story here, it isn’t immediately obvious that it is part of the main plot.
Escalating Conflict
It is so devastating emotionally because not only does it hit on Buffy’s worst fear, but the writers keep escalating this conflict.
Every time Hank says something we think it’s the most awful thing that he could say to Buffy. Then he makes it worse and we’re right there with Buffy as she goes through this.
So it starts with Hank saying that it was having Buffy and raising her that caused the divorce. Then he doubles down on it and says, “Imagine what it would be like to have a child like you.”
And he goes on to catalog Buffy’s faults. “You never think of anyone but yourself. You’re sullen and rude…”
When she reacts with you know, saying, “Why are you saying this to me?” it gets worse. He says, “I’m saying it because it’s true. Could you stand to live in a house with a daughter like that?” She becomes tearful, and then he tells her she’s not being very mature to get all blubbery when he’s trying to be honest.
And at this point, even re-watching, because I didn’t remember all the dialogue, I thought, “Okay, that has to be it. That is the worst he could say.”Then he says, “I don’t get anything out of these weekends so let’s not do them anymore.”
Still Not The End
Now certainly that would be a place to end this, to end this scene. And you know, kind of put Buffy out of her misery. But there is one step more. Before he walks away, he says, “I sure thought you’d turn out differently.”
As an audience member watching it, or even as I’m telling it to you, it seems so over-the-top. It seems like too much. Hw could Buffy not realize that this isn’t real, that it is a nightmare that is coming true?
But she doesn’t see it because while the other things that she observed and even her exam, she might be able to say okay, that was not normal, this is not normal what happened.
Because Hank is saying to her exactly what she fears, she believes it. She’s been afraid her dad won’t show up. Afraid he’s not going to keep up the relationship and that she is the cause of the divorce.
She’s afraid all these things he says are true. And so she believes every single one of them.
The Reversal
This is a major reversal both emotionally and in our main plot because it makes Buffy unable to be at her best and fight.
We will see her from here through the Three-Quarter Point running and hiding. Saying she’s not strong enough, and she can’t fight this a big scary guy.
And it stems directly from this reversal at the Midpoint. From this incident where Hank just hits at every awful thing she thinks about herself. It undermines her. And that is what we should see in a good plot.
Whatever happens at the Midpoint drives the story from there forward, up until that Three-Quarter mark.
Realizing What’s Happening
Right around now we also see Xander, Willow, and Giles concluding that definitely what’s happening is people’s nightmares are coming true.
Giles figures out that Billy must’ve crossed over while he was in a coma, from reality to dreaming, and triggered this phenomenon. And things like this are easy when you’re on a Hellmouth.
So we see operating what Joss Whedon said in one of the DVD commentaries or interviews. That the Hellmouth was created to be this explanation.
It wouldn’t be enough that this little boy is in a coma and is having these dreams — it would affect him. It wouldn’t affect anyone else. But because we have the Hellmouth that will extend and amplify what is happening to Sunnydale and all of reality.
Other People’s Nightmares
We then have a number of quick scenes where we see other people’s nightmares coming true. Including Cordelia who is appalled at her hair. This is what I mentioned last Monday that we got a little hint of that, or foreshadowing of that in The Puppet Show. Her obsession with her hair and more so how she looks.
Back to Buffy. She sees Billy and for the moment that does distract her from her emotional pain. And she follows him into the dugout at the ballpark.She’s asking if something happened to him after his game or at his game. And he doesn’t remember. He does tell her he plays second base, and she asks if he is Lucky 19.
He looks very frightened and says, “That’s what he calls me.” And Billy calls this large, frightening man, The Ugly Man.
We see him break in. He’s got a club, or maybe it’s a bat, and hes coming after Buffy and Billy. Buffy says he’s too strong, she can’t fight him.
Worried About Buffy
Back with Giles, Willow, and Xander, they’re worried because if nightmares are coming true, they know Buffy has very frightening nightmares. So this cannot be good.
They need to find her. One of them says, “Well it’ll be faster if we split up to find her,” and Willow says, “Faster, but not really safer.”
We cut back to Buffy and Billy. They have run away. Billy says he can’t help Buffy, they have to hide. That’s how it works. They have to hide. She wants to go find her friends.
We are back to her friends, momentarily. Someone is calling out to Willow. It sounds like it’s Buffy. So it seems to connect with the previous scene.
Willow and Xander
Willow goes down into the basement, saying she’s not afraid, she’s not afraid. A hand grabs her.
Then we are with Xander. He’s in the hall. There are swastikas all over it. Previously he had mentioned he was afraid of Nazis. He becomes distracted, though, when he sees a candy bar and starts following a trail of them.
Billy and Baseball
Back with Buffy and Billy, they have evaded the scary guy for now. They are watching kids play ball. And Billy comments that it’s bad when you lose. In their conversation it comes out that his last game, he made the last play, the team lost . I don’t know if he says the coach blamed him. He says, “It was all my fault.”
And Buffy says, about 30 minutes in, “What, you were the only one playing? There weren’t eight other people on your team?”
Then Billy says, “He said it was my fault.” And this guy comes out again. Buffy says, “Let’s go this way,” pulls Billy with her, and they are in the graveyard.
Approaching the Three-Quarter Turn
About 31 minutes in — so we are approaching that Three-Quarter Turn. Which takes the episode, the story, and spins it in yet another new direction.
But it flows out of the Midpoint. So our protagonist is more active in where the story goes or what pushes the story towards the three-quarter turn. It comes out of her Midpoint reversal and her actions.
We’re moving up to that. But first we see a series of scenes where what we think is gonna happen — what we think is the great fear of the character and the nightmare — turns out to be something else entirely.
Willow on Stage
So here we have that hand that grabbed Willow — and she’s in the basement where that girl was beaten up — so we think Willow is afraid of some sort of monster. That perhaps following Buffy is putting her in the path of these monsters.
Instead Willow is pulled onto a stage. She is with an opera singer. And she’s introduced as the ‘World Finest Soprano, Willow Rosenberg.’
Remember last Monday we talked about The Puppet Show and how Willow was so afraid of singing on stage. And how she ran off stage during that post credit sequence.
So here we have this — her worst nightmare — in front of everybody. She’s unprepared, she doesn’t know the words. She refuses to sing when her partner keeps turning to her. When she finally does try to sing this awful squeak comes out.
Xander and the Clown
Then we are with Xander. He has seen these swastikas, he’s afraid of Nazis. But he finds a chocolate Hurricane candy bar.
I don’t know if that’s a real candy bar. If anyone knows, let me know. I hadn’t heard of it.
He is so excited about it, but it leads him to a clown. He screams and he runs. And we find out later, this was the clown at one of his birthday parties that scared him so much as a little kid.
The Three-Quarter Turn
We are now at 33 minutes, 56 seconds in. At the Three-Quarter Point in terms of the timing of the story. And we see an open grave, and Buffy is standing there. She wonders who died, and the Master appears.
Now this is starting to turn the story in a new direction. He says — in response to her, wondering who died — he says, “What’s the fun of burying someone who is dead?”
He also tells her, “I am free because you fear it. Because you fear it, the world is crumbling.”
And he asks what she’s afraid of. “How about being buried alive?” And we see her then, inside the coffin, pounding on the inside of the coffin lid.
We don’t know it yet, but this is the Three-Quarter Turn because we’re going to find out that it’s not just that Buffy is buried alive, but she becomes a vampire.
So this is her greatest fear: to become the thing that she has been fighting.
And this will turn the story, along with Giles figuring out that they need to wake up Billy.
Escalating Conflict in Nightmares
Even with Buffy’s fears we see this wonderful escalation by the writers.
First, we had her fears about her father and how that undermines her. Then we have her outside fears. First that the Master is out, and he is. Then that he’ll kill her. He doesn’t do that, but we escalate it to he’ll bury her alive. And then even that isn’t the worst thing, it’s becoming a vampire.
Willow, Xander, and Giles
Next we see Willow, Xander, and Giles. They have reunited. Xander becomes disgusted by running from the clown and being afraid. He turns around and punches it. Tells it that it was a lousy clown and he feels good.
And this gives us our first hint that you have to defeat your fears by facing them. Not perhaps a super-original premise. But I like the way it plays out here, because everyone from then on has to face their fears, including Billy at the end.
There’s complete chaos in the school. And Giles says, “Soon there will be no reality left.” They need to try to wake up Billy.
They see the cemetery. And they know that there didn’t used to be a cemetery there, so they go there and see Buffy’s grave.
In the Graveyard
Xander says, “Whose nightmare is this?” and Giles says, “Mine.”
So we have Giles’ greatest fear. He says, to the grave, “I should’ve taken more time to train you, but you had so much to face.” And Buffy’s hand comes out of the grave.
When she gets out, she says, “Don’t look at my face.” She is a vampire, and she is in vamp face.
And Giles says, “You never told me you dreamed of being a vampire.”
He explains that they need to wake up Billy and everything will shift back. Buffy says they better hurry. She’s getting hungry.
So now we have another escalation, which is not just that she’ll be a vampire, but that she will start attacking and drinking the blood of her friends.
And it makes sense that Buffy would have this fear. Even though we haven’t heard her say it before, or seen it in her dreams. But she knows Angel. She knows how he became a vampire and the first thing he did was kill his family.
There’s also chaos at the hospital. They find Billy, the real Billy, in a coma. Buffy is talking to dream Billy. But he says he can’t wake up because he has to hide.
The Climax
We are now at the Climax. The scary guy is coming after them. He’s talking about Lucky 19.
Buffy is a bit in the shadows. Until now she has been running and hiding, basically following Billy’s approach.
Now she says, “Yeah, there are a lot of scary things, a lot scarier than you.” And she steps into the light and says, “and I’m one of them.”
So she uses what she fears — being a vampire. And it makes her even stronger, and she is able to defeat this guy and knock him out. He slumps against the wall.
This is our climax, the beginning of it, for Buffy. But she also has to help Billy do what he needs to do.
She tells him, “Come here, you need to do the rest.” And she holds his hand. Billy says, “No more hiding,” and reaches out — or actually I think Buffy says, “No more hiding.” He reaches out toward the scary guy, and then this light floods everything.
We don’t see the face of this monster.
Emotional Growth
This is another great example of throughout we’ve seen where Buffy prevails, not just based on physical strength, but on her emotional capabilities. Her emotional growth.
The real Billy wakes up. Buffy is not a vampire anymore. Everything has gone back to normal.
And Billy has a Wizard of Oz movie moment where he says he had the strangest dream. “You were there, you were there.” And then he says, “Who are you people?”
All of them are standing around the bed, blocking the view of anyone who walks into the hospital room. And who walks in but Billy’s coach. He says, “Oh, Billy’s got company,” and he explains that he comes by every few days, hoping against hope that Billy will wake up.
No More Hiding
“He’s my Lucky 19. So how is he?”
This is really nice because it explains why dream Billy kept saying, “We have to hide, that’s how it works.” Because as long as the real Billy was in a coma, he was safe from the coach.
But he must have known or sensed that the coach was coming by to see if he woke up and, perhaps, finish the job on him.
I’m not sure I picked that up in my previous watches of the episode. So it was neat watching and taking notes and putting it together to see how that fit in.
The Finish
The coach is shocked that Billy is awake. Billy confronts him, not just about what he did, but about saying that it was Billy’s fault.
And he uses the words that Buffy said to him. That he was only one kid on the whole team and it wasn’t his fault.
Xander stops the coach from running away. So we know the coach is going to face justice for what he has done.
That is the end of our climax.
Falling Action
We are at the falling action. The group talks about Kiddie League, and I forget which one is saying, “Wow, how could it be like that?” And I think it’s Xander saying, “Have you seen those parents?”
And we see Buffy with her dad, who is really there this time to pick her up. She looks so happy and he hugs her.
Our last moment is Willow asking Xander if he was still attracted to Buffy when she was a vampire. He stutters and stumbles but he says “Yes.”
DVD Commentary
A couple things I always like to include, interesting things from the DVDs, Joss Whedon said that he got the name Mutant Enemy, which is his company name, from his very first typewriter. Which he had at age 15.
I just enjoyed that because I remember having my first typewriter. It was a manual typewriter. I was typing on it in the yard. And I thought it was so cool like, I was a real writer, I had a typewriter now.
Mutant Enemy
Joss also talked about the logo for Mutant Enemy. And he didn’t have one. He didn’t know he needed one. I forget who came to him, but as everything was almost finished for the show they came to him and said, “You need a logo.”
So he had 20 minutes to come up with one. He drew the little monster man. He had a postproduction guy make the little monster guy go across the screen and recorded himself saying, “Grrr…argh.” That’s why we get that at the end of the shows.
Creating Buffy
Also, he talked about sort of the emotional basis for creating Buffy. We’ve heard already about the horror stories. He wanted to turn the blonde girl trope on its head — the girl who’s always a victim.
But here he talked about when he was growing up he always felt like he was in the world — but not of it — he felt isolated. And he wanted to write a story about someone who feels that way. That became Buffy.
Story Structure Resources
Before we get to our spoiler section — where I’ll talk about how this episode foreshadows extremely significant developments — a reminder that if you want to apply the story structure points to your own story, you can find a free story structure template on my Patreon page.
There’s a link to the page in the show notes. You can also find it on my website LisaLilly.com. Look for Buffy and the Art of Story and you’ll find the show notes.
The template is free to anyone. So you can just go there and download it.
If you would like to join to become a patron at any level, you can get a free copy of my entire Super Simple Story Structure book in PDF form. So if you want, you can print it out and fill in the exercises.
Connect
You can also find articles on writing, publishing, time management, business at WritingAsASecondCareer.com
If you’d like to connect with me, you can find me on Twitter @LisaMLilly or email me [email protected].
Next Week on Buffy and the Art of Story
Thank you so much for listening. If you have to go, I hope you’ll come back next Monday for Out of Mind, Out of Sight.
Spoilers from Inca Mummy Girl
And we’re back for spoilers.
Some of the more minor ones:
Spoilers: Secret Identity
We have Laura in the hospital confiding in Buffy and Giles. The hint that people were starting to perhaps feel that Giles and Buffy — or at least Buffy maybe, they don’t pay attention to Giles — that she was someone who might be able to help them.
And we will see that next week. In Out of Mind, Out of Sight, when Cordelia comes to Buffy for help when she thinks she is being targeted.
This is also the start of kind of chipping away at the whole secret identity idea. People who haven’t been specifically told don’t seem to know Buffy’s the Slayer. But they do start to get the feeling that Buffy can protect them.
And we will see that made explicit in Season Three, when Buffy gets the Class Protector Award.
Spoilers: Hank Summers
The other foreshadowing, or one of many others, is Buffy and her dad. Her fears about her dad.
Despite her worries about ‘will he show up’ without the nightmare sequence, I might have been even more surprised when Hank Summers fades out of Buffy’s life as the series goes on. Because in the beginning, when we get the real Hank here, he seems so happy to see Buffy.
She’s happy to see him. Joyce has told us, “Your dad adores you.”
In the pilot episode of Season Two we’ll find out that Buffy spent all summer with her dad. So they seem to be staying in touch. He seems to be close with her.
After that, though, I think it’s in Season Three, we will see Hank starting to flake out on Buffy. And of course later he will completely abdicate his parenting role.
Knowing all of that is coming, and knowing how Giles becomes more and more of a father figure for Buffy, the meeting between Giles and Hank Summers, I found almost heartbreaking. When Buffy is saying, “This is my dad,” and she says, “This is Giles, the librarian.”
It made me choke up just knowing how Giles will step in and really become her father. And how her father will disappear on her.
Fun Spoiler: Musical Comedy
There are also a couple other fun spoilers where Xander and Willow realize the nightmares are coming true. And one of them says, “Nightmares, not dreams. That would be a musical comedy,”
And of course in Season Six we’ll get Once More With Feeling. So we will get the Buffy musical. Maybe not quite a comedy, but there are many comic moments in it.
And it makes me wonder if they were thinking ahead to that? Or, you know, if that just came later and it just happens they mentioned it here.
But I thought that was fun.
Fun Spoiler: Faster Not Safer
The other thing, probably not in Joss Whedon’s mind at the time, but maybe, when Xander and Willow and Giles split up. They’re saying it’d be faster to find Buffy that way. Willow says, “Faster, but maybe not safer.”
And so many years later we have Joss Whedon creating the movie “Cabin in the Woods” with the explanation for ‘Why do people in horror movies do such stupid things like split up?’
So that seemed like a tiny bit of a hint that perhaps there would be more to come on that theme.
Major Spoiler: Buffy’s Fate
Finally, the most major spoiler is Buffy’s grave. Giles sadness, his feelings that he failed her — which we will see in the beginning of Season Six. That he was not a good enough Watcher, he cannot prepare her. Even though we know the lore that every Slayer dies young.
He of course is still going to feel this guilt and the sadness and this feeling of failure. And of course for Buffy, the foreshadowing that she dies, that her friends will see her tombstone. Also that she will be stuck inside the coffin and have to fight her way out — something we’ll also see at the beginning of Season Six.
And I wonder, was that already planned?
Because obviously Buffy, fearing that she would die, or even be buried alive, or become a vampire, given what her life is like, I completely believe that she would have those nightmares and fears.
Until Next Time
That is it for the spoilers and for this week. So thank you so much for listening. I hope you’ll join me next Monday for Episode 11: Out of Mind, Out of Sight.
P.S. For more on plotting, you can check out Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide To Plotting And Writing Your Novel (Book 1 in the Writing As A Second Career series).
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