 In Normal Again, Buffy confesses to Willow that her parents put her into a clinic after she discovered she was the Slayer. She said they panicked and didn’t believe her, and felt there was something psychologically wrong with her. It seems strange, then, that Joyce didn’t mention anything about this after she discovered that Buffy was really the Slayer in season two’s Becoming (Part 2). |
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| Suggested by: | › Jess |
| Added: | › 17th May 2005 |
| Updated: | › 6th March, 2006 |
| Hits: | › 484 |
August 22nd, 2005 at 3:31 pm
Ted also mentioned that they put people like her in mental institutions.
November 18th, 2005 at 9:02 am
She really freaked out when those two said she was crazy. Maybe another reason she had for running away was because she was scared her mom would put her back in the institution.
That also could have been part of the reason why she freaked when Ted mentioned it. In that episode, Joyce didn’t believe her when Buffy told her Ted threatened to slap her. Coupled with the fact we now know that her mom didn’t believe her about vampires, Buffy was probably scared her mom would listen to Ted and put her back in the mental institution.
November 19th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
The episode in which she mentioned having been in an institution (Normal Again) is a piece of trash that is the worst episode ever. The worse part is that scene where she talks about being institutionalized. I must state that this whole notion of having been in one before cannot be accurate (simply a laspe in continuity by the writer, Diego Guiterriez). It seems that one must not respect this “revelation” because there is no way that this could have happened. Instances such as the fact that Joyce acts as if she’s never heard of this before are representives of the fact that Buffy could not have been in an institution.
November 19th, 2005 at 9:23 pm
By the way, I do love the show. The statement that Normal Again is a “piece of trash,” while accurate, reflects my feelings on only that one episode, and not all of the the others. BTVS is truly is best show ever made.
November 19th, 2005 at 10:04 pm
Personally, I’d rather see writers take SOME creative liberty than worry too much about continuity. Even though anything pre-dawn is up for grabs (though even if it’s possible, putting buffy in a mental institution follows no pre-dawn logic) the thing is, they could have done this a little better.
the conversation with willow could have gone like this:
WILLOW: You are not in an institution. You have never been in an institution.
BUFFY: (whispers) Yes, yes I was.
WILLOW: What?
BUFFY: (sighs) Back when I saw my first vampires… (shot of the photo) I got so scared. I started having screaming nightmares and then insomnia … My parents were already freaked out about seeing blood on my clothes and the fighting. They thought there was something seriously wrong with me. So they sent me to a clinic.
WILLOW: (shocked) You never said anything.
BUFFY: (tearful) I was only there a couple of weeks. Eventually … I just.
WILLOW: God. That’s horrible.
BUFFY: (crying) What if I’m still there? What if I never left that clinic?
I know that doesn’t help the problems that TTG/G has with the rest of the episode, my point is that they could have made it work better and they probably would have if it had been Joss in charge and not Marti Noxon.
And if those reasons don’t seem believable to send someone to a clinic, I pretty much lifted those symptoms from a friend’s experience. Except that she wasn’t fighting demons, she has some other kind of episodic psychosis.
Actually, she was fighting demons. just not the buffy kind.
November 20th, 2005 at 7:22 am
I must say, mairceridwen, that you’re way of adjusting the scene is very smart. I don’t know that I could buy this, regardless of what had been done, but I felt that I should mention the entire post is quite intelligent. That’s one thing that is great about this site: to read different takes on things about the show.
November 20th, 2005 at 10:08 am
I want to agree with TwoToGo-Grave (who is my brother) and say that mairceridwen did a good job of adusting that scene. While I also think that this institution story is ridiculous and just plain dumb, it might have been somewhat acceptable if Buffy’s reason for being put in an asylum (which so clearly never happened, no matter what is said in this episode) any bit believable. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
November 20th, 2005 at 5:32 pm
Thanks for the compliment. I like the episode, but it is hardly one of my favorites. And I can’t really defend it on the strength of anything, I just find it entertaining.
and for that reason, I will not attempt to rewrite the entire episode.
April 8th, 2006 at 12:35 am
Is it at all possible that the belief that she was actually in the mental hospital was part of the delusion?
April 8th, 2006 at 12:37 am
Also, what if Buffy really WAS hallucinating the past 6 seasons? Then you don’t have to worry about continuity at all.
April 10th, 2006 at 9:13 am
Quite right, kilrae!
April 10th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Also, as mair mentioned, when Dawn came into the show in season 5, everything pre-season 5 was fair game. There is a possibility that when the monks altered everyone’s mind about Dawn, Buffy’s mind was altered to think she was in mental insitution. So, Buffy and Joyce’s conversation in Becoming Part 2 about her being the slayer could have been completely different and could have even mentioned her being in the institution. Also, the conversation might not have even happened in season 2 in Buffy’s mind. For all she thinks, she told her mom when they still lived in LA.
June 1st, 2006 at 4:16 am
Well, Joyce does kind of mention the mental hospital or is it just me? heh
Joyce: “No. This is insane.” (takes Buffy by the shoulders) “Buffy, you need help.”
June 5th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Hi Guys,
Even though I agree Normal again was not in my top ten favorite Buffy episodes,I still am haunted by the very ending of the show when the doctor tells the parents “We’ve lost her”.
I haven’t seen any comments about this part….She was already decidedly back with the scooby gang at this point.Did her disillusion continue without her? My roomates have become huge fans as we’ve revisited Sunnydale together on DVD.We reviewed that scene a few times and still,regardless of the poison/her past/whatever doesn’t seem to explain her asylum reality….only adds to the mystery of those last few minutes…
Did Joss want us to always guess which reality she is living?
I guess only he knows the answer.
Also, what if Buffy really WAS hallucinating the past 6 seasons? Then you don’t have to worry about continuity at all.
June 6th, 2006 at 7:14 am
I’ve always liked this episode. The way the directors/editors/writers never slanted it one way or the other was well done. As for Buffy freaking out, wouldn’t you freak if your sleeping dreamworld suddenly seemed as equally real as youe waking life? I, for one, would sometimes rather prefer living in many of my sleeping dreams.
June 6th, 2006 at 10:48 am
This is one of the many things that I hate about this episode. It is obvious that the ‘real’ world is the true reality, and that the hallucination is fake, so why throw out that ‘question’? It just seems stupid and clunky (if that can serve as a description, anyway). It just seems that this episode is a total mess as far as continuity, staying true to characters, dialogue, and quality (that should cover it all). I also really hate that they had the Trio provide the demon to poison her, as that seems to be a very forced way of including them in the episode. It would have been better to just have the demon appear without being provided by the Trio. There’s my griping about this episode for the time being. I do think that squeechfl, btvs, and tadpole, have some very good points and observations about the episode though.
June 7th, 2006 at 12:20 am
I always thought the point of the episode was to introduce those feelings of question and doubt. I think these feelings only serve to strengthen one’s love for the characters and stories that this show is made of. I know this episode upsets me like no other. I guess, as much as I won’t admit it, even to myself, that in some way, Sunnydale is very real to me. And the suggestion that it isn’t disturbs me. Especially when that suggestion comes from the very place these people and places come from.
June 7th, 2006 at 7:38 am
I agree with beagle whole-heartedly. I love that the episode makes you think that Sunnydale isn’t real because when I was watching it, it made me feel like Sunnydale wasn’t “real” for me either. And as much as that unnerved me, it was a cool effect.
June 7th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
I really hate this episode (in case no one has figured it out yet) and I especially hate two things: The first is the idea of the Sunnydale reality not being real, as it’s just so lame and it’s so obvious that this isn’t truly the case. The second is the horrible and ridiculous plot device that Buffy was in a mental institution. Not only is the dialogue in the scene very poorly written, but it doesn’t fit at all with continuity (I know that some on this site have said that it fits because all of the stuff that happened before Dawn showed up could be remembered differently, but that just doesn’t seem to be plausable in this instance). All in all, there seems to be absolutely nothing redeeming about the quality of ‘Normal Again’ or about whatever implausable ideas the writers are trying to tell us in it.
Also, the writer of this episode, Diego Gutteriez, served as Joss Whedon’s asisstant for four years, and this was the only episode that he wrote. After the episode, he is no longer credited in this role. Does anyone know what happened to him, and why he never wrote another episode? I doubt that it had to do with the quality of the episode, because it seems that nobody else despises it the way I do (except for my brother anyway).
June 7th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
On the writer’s intent: I heard Joss Whedon in an interview somewhere talking about this episode. (I can’t remember where, sorry.) He said that he never intended the audience to leave that episode with the impression that Sunnydale was all a hallucination. The episode was supposed to call that into doubt, but then bring the audience back to the “Sunnydale is real” camp.
On the continuity issues: I never had a problem with the continuity issues myself. They seemed really minor and unimportant to the idea of the episode.
On the quality of the episode: I really liked this episode. I think good art elicits some sort of emotional reaction in the viewer, good, bad, or otherwise. By those standards, Normal Again is a great episode because whether you love it or hate it doesn’t matter. Any sort of strong feeling is a good thing.