Time of Your Life Part 5.
We begin with a montage of Buffy battling various crechy faces, saying over and over, "Can't say I didn't warn you." She's musing on how hard it is to have to save the world over and over, and it's a bit of a thematic callback to "Going Through the Motions" I think. Even the patter is rote at this point, even if getting a good night's sleep is not. "Why is it always this hard?" I hear you, sister.
Headquarters. Don't think it's the castle anymore but not sure. Buffy's come in and collapsed on a bed to get some sleep, but it's Xander's bed and he doesn't want demon goo all over it. As he complains, Buffy falls asleep.
And she visits Buffy the Animated Series, the show that never was, but was planned for years to happen. (I believe; I'm not going to research it. No one's reading this anyway and whatever.)
Buffy's dream is herself in the old days of Sunnydale High. We get enough clues throughout to determine it's probably end of season 1, after Puppet Show but before Prophecy Girl. Joyce and a young Dawn are there. It's always fun to see Dawn in the flashbacks when she wasn't there in the original time line. Buffy quickly learns that Joyce doesn't know she's the Slayer and that there's a party tonight. Buffy's wearing a tee that says Relax. Subconscious much?
Buffy is herself and knows she's in a dream; she hasn't forgotten all that's happened. She gets to school and sees Willow and is happy, being still a bit traumatized at having to kill her future self. Thanks a lot, Future Willow.
Cordy! is there and being a bitch to Willow. Buffy says someday she'll be dead and Willow will be a sorceress supreme. Harsh, B. RIP Cordelia.
Xander's on the skateboard he never got to ride in the show. Principal Snyder confiscates it in his typical nasty fashion. Buffy tells Xander that maybe someday he'll get eaten by a giant snake and you'll be in charge of a bunch of women, only to be reminded that Willow is not yet gay (I know, terminology, just going with how Willow herself tends to put it) and has the hots for Xander. Yeah, this is when you definitely get the time period.
Buffy's starting to enjoy the dream, happy to be part of the little Scooby gang again. It's after school, and they meet up with Giles in a graveyard, talking obsessively about the party that night. Giles is looking particularly dire through this whole sequence, like he's taking the blame for ruining the fun. He kind of served that function before but this seems extra layer-y. Buffy's still not too happy with him I think.
Anyway, the fate of the world is up for grabs tonight. Again. This could "shift the balance of good and evil beyond all hope and reckoning." This is one part that makes me think some Slayer prophecy/Spidey sense stuff is leaking into this fairly fluffy dream. That's too relevant to what's going on in the now.
As her young, fit, unbeaten down, high school self, but still having all her memories of so many battles to draw on, Buffy's confident she can deal with whatever is happening here. She wipes out the three vampires in the nest Giles is worried about, the worshippers of Morgala, but he's still worried because he notices Morgala's image seems to be a dragon. Chekov's dragon.
But Buffy goes off about wanting to have fun. I think she appreciates now that she did get a chance to have some fun and normalcy in high school, even though at the time slaying always seemed to get in the way, and now she wants to enjoy this simpler time that's so irrevocably gone for good. OOH, Sunnydale High reunion! needs to be a story someday.
They split up to get ready for the party (well, Giles is probably going back to the batlibrary to mutter over his books and worry). Buffy looks at her cross and thinks of Angel of this time. She and Joyce have a season 1 style conversation, and Joyce says even with Buffy's whole life ahead of her, she can always come home again. Bittersweet, knowing Buffy can't return either to Sunnydale the town or Joyce's home. But also again, some Slayer instinct at work re returning to Sunnydale in the present?
Buffy meets Angel on the way to the party. He tells her he heard about the vampire thing and it's good she took out Morgala's five followers so they couldn't raise Morgala. Pretty much highlights that he just wants to see her because why does she need to here about what could have been? Classic early Angel.
She snipes at him a bit, then gets close and asks if he knew of the future of someone, would he tell that person what he knew. Thinking of Angelus and, well, all of Angel's unfun future stuff no doubt. And maybe of Willow too, come to think of it. That makes more sense really. That must be wearing on her mind, whether to tell Will what happened in the future. He actually answers that weird ass question, saying no, because if they know, it could change their future into something unpredictable.
Buffy leaves, then realizes that three and five are different, there's still two Morgala vamps out there. So instead of letting the party music pull her in that direction, she heads back to the vamp nest and finds the other two acolytes finishing their ritual. She dusts them, but they've brought forth the Dragon!
She grabs it as it flies up into the air and fights with it as they soar over the party and Buffy bitches at the dragon for ruining her fun dream. She really is getting a lot of air time in the comic books. (Crack myself up.) She gets rid of it easily, but then falls to the ground and...
...wakes up, just where we left of with Xander. She's been asleep all of four seconds. They're joined by Dawntaur and Willow, who has word from Andrew of trouble in Madrid. Buffy is excited to babble to them about her high school dream.
She says she kept thinking how nice it was when it wasn't so complicated. But it really wasn't that different. And it doesn't matter. Dream over. By the end of that chain of thought, she all depressed about life again. I can't even tell you how many times I've had that same segue happen, and it's always in that order of emotions too.
"We've got a world to save," says BuffyAtlas. And her last thoughts are on Angel's words. "You can't change a person's past. And just by telling them, you'll change their future into who knows what." I think that means she's decided not to tell Willow what she becomes. But I can't help but think it might be important in a more general way to the season's themes, since it was repeated twice, but I can't figure out how it applies quite yet.
But this volume of stories began with a trip to Will's far future and ended with a visit to Buffy's past, so that's something to ponder as we go forward.
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