Re: When Buffy went Crazy

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Two utterly beautiful things that stand out above the rest of "Normal
Again":

The "once you fall for Willow?" line, which has to be about her own
feelings, since Xander has clearly moved on (in fact, my W/X 'shipper
thought Will looked a little hurt when Xand said he wanted to get back
with Anya, as opposed to Buffy who was merely in shock), and Oz is at
least absent, if not over her for certain. Even if not consciously
meant romantically, well, once you call your friendship "falling" for
someone, you can't hide from the truth much longer.

And the total, unequivocal smackdown on B/S. Buffy was told to
eliminate the things that made her want to stay in Sunnydale. Buffy
herself (NOT the doctor) immediately said "my friends" and sought them
out to destroy them. But once she had Willow, Xander and Dawn, that was
it, she never even thought of going after Spike. He really does mean
nothing to her. (And the standard excuse about "denial" won't fly,
because Buffy hated that she loved W/X/D because she thought that was
making her crazy--if she loved Spike but hated herself for doing so,
that would be the exact same thing, she'd embrace those feelings and
gladly kill him. Didn't come close to happening.)

My two problems (the ambiguity of the ending and the retcon on Buffy's
"1st breakdown") aside, a lovely ep. Glad you finally got to see it,
Cas.

Dan