Mini-Spoilers - S6E17 - "Normal Again"

[AutumnT]

From the UPN:

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A DEMON’S POISON LEAVES BUFFY QUESTIONING REALITY, ON "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER," MARCH 12

Kristine Sutherland Returns as Buffy’s Mother, Joyce Summers

"Normal Again" – A demon’s attack inflicts Buffy with a poisonous venom that leaves her tortured with visions of herself in a mental hospital, on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, Tuesday, March 12 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on UPN. Rick Rosenthal directed the episode from a script by Diego Gutierrez.

As the poison renders Buffy unable to distinguish between reality and the hallucinations, she starts to believe her parents are still alive and Dawn and her life as a Vampire Slayer never existed.

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Autumn

I have the sudden urge to dedicate my productive cooperation.

[Wiccagrrl]

This ep sounds like it's gonna be VERY intense. And a great chance for Buffy to work through some of her issues. Should be really interesting. And with any luck some good W/T stuff.

[Scout]

Sounds like “It’s A Wonderful Life” meets “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Should be interesting.

[AutumnT]

TVGuide has now weighed in with their description:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Normal Again
60 min.
A demon doses Buffy with a powerful chemical that causes her to hallucinate, convincing the Slayer her parents are alive and Dawn never existed. Joyce Summers: Kristine Sutherland. Hank Summers: Dean Butler. Andrew: Tom Lenk. Jonathan: Danny Strong. Warren: Adam Busch. Giles: Anthony Stewart Head. Buffy: Sarah Michelle Gellar. Willow: Alyson Hannigan.

Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony S. Head, James Marsters, Amber Benson, Michelle Trachtenberg, Emma Caulfield, Kristine Sutherland, Dean Butler, Danny Strong, Adam Busch, Tom Lenk
Rating: TV-14
Category: Drama
Release Year: 2002

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Autumn

I have the sudden urge to dedicate my productive cooperation.

[Reba Namos]

Oh boy, that sounds very intense..... when I first read that the woman that played Buffy's mom was making a guest apperance, I was like "Huh???? she's dead, I though." But it looks good... thanks for posting it.

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"So, how long have you known that your girlfriend was tinkerbell" Xander to Willow

[kitten scout]

Sounds like a great episode! Can't wait for more Willow and Tara moments.

[Errol]

This will may be be like that ATS episode with Cordy this season. Buffy will in the end start to accept her life, Slayer status, caring for Dawn, and the Scoobies bringing her back. Buffy may come to realize that being the Slayer and all that it entails is good and noble. She won't want a life that doesn't include the Scoobies, slaying, and Dawn. At least that's what I'm hoping. Plus the Tara/Willow moments will be awesome.

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"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt

[Scarecrow]

Despite my policy on spoliers i had to post when i heard about the diretor.

Can anyone tell me is this the same Rick Rosenthal who direcetd Halloween II and the upcoming Hall8ween: Resurretion??

Thankx.

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The Futures Bright. The Futures Joss.
"Liberate tutemet ex inferis"

"Me and Willow always know how to find each other"

"There is no good, Munroe, there is no evil. There is only flesh"

"There are some corners of the Universe that have bred the most terrible things, things that stand against everything we believe in. They must be fought"

[KathleenWolf]

A poisioning episode is an interesting option... cause it leads to all previous people that Buffy is storying away in her brain to be included or thrown away... so a great way to bring Joyce and Giles back again...

as for how all of this is going to effect her... i don't know if poking the unstable Slayer with total instability is a way to get her on track again.

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"Are all you witches gay?" Buffy - Walking In Circles

[This message has been edited by KathleenWolf (edited February 26, 2002).]

[shellybean]

That does sound like a great ep. and I'll be looking forward to seeng Joyce again.

[Dazey]

quote:

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Originally posted by AutumnT:
convincing the Slayer her parents are alive

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Ooh! Ooh! Can I be the one to point out that Buffy's dad is not dead?

Thanks.

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"We are in the love. We are...the in love ones. Lesbian, in love with merry-type."quote:

[Caesar]

I heard from www.spoilerslayer.com that Buffy becomes violent in this episode and attacks one of the scoobies. Thats definatly not good, Spike is the only one who could handle a violent and insane Buffy. Now that you think about it he has to be a expert at that considering that he spent over 100 years dealing with Dru.

[supermus]

Hank's alive? Wow, you'd hardly notice. Maybe he is dead and they just don't know it yet.

[This message has been edited by supermus (edited February 27, 2002).]

[Caesar]

But then again if Spike did restrain Buffy the rest of the scoobies would know the chip doesn't work.

[This message has been edited by Caesar (edited February 27, 2002).]

[KathleenWolf]

if hank's alive then maybe he's only a figurative "dead"beat dad... maybe he can throw in some money to help his daughters out

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"Are all you witches gay?" Buffy - Walking In Circles

[Ange]

Trailer for "Normal Again" up at:

http://www.thebuffyverse.net

Ange.

[theatremouse]

quote:

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Originally posted by KathleenWolf:
if hank's alive then maybe he's only a figurative "dead"beat dad... maybe he can throw in some money to help his daughters out

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didn't he move to spain with some new woman? i think they mentioned that fourth season or something, sometime. never said he came back. just called here and there. but i never did understand why he doesn't send money. or more money than he does, if he does. or whatever, but it's good in showing the giles as father type dealio. HE gave buffy money. stupid hank.

and doesnt willow get hurt by buffy? i think in one of the other threads with the sides from entropy willow's got some injury....

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It's horrible! That's me as a vampire. I'm so evil and... skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay.quote:

[Tara Dimples]

I agree it sounds like a very intense episode
I didn't think Tara would be in this one as it seems to centre around Buffy.
I hoped that they would save her appearences for the last few eps, how many of her 16 signed eps has Amber got left to star in?
Since Tara is in Normal again i hope she has some more 'moments' with Willow and isn't just there to comfort Buffy!

[This message has been edited by WillTara (edited March 06, 2002).]

[wiccie]

Tara Dimples, Amber's contract is for a *minimum* of 16 eps, just like last season, when she actually appeared in 18.

I fully expect her to be in at least the same amount of eps this season, so "counting down" from 16 may not be accurate.

[This message has been edited by WillTara (edited March 06, 2002).]

[Nic C]

Tara Dimples: love your name! Gave me a chuckle.

In a vain effort to make this post relevant, this sounds like (wait for it...) a very intense episode.

But why would Buffy think Dawn wasn't real, though? I mean, all of her (and everyone else's) memories have Dawn in them now, since the monks' spell. The way I understood it, the Scoobies all remember Dawn pre-season 5 as clearly as they do, say, Angel going bad. Even though it never happened, it's all there in their minds. So why Dawn exactly? Clearly Buffy remembers her parents, even if she thinks Joyce is still alive (it'll be great to see Joyce again, I've missed her so...). Or is the poison perhaps attacking anything magic-related (which would include Dawn)?

Or is it all just a big plot device to examine the Buffy/Dawn neglect dynamic again?

I suppose it makes a bit more sense if Buffy forgets her friends, too. Maybe she just retreats into this warm happy cocoon of - ultimately false - family bliss (which, incidentally, is what her 'heaven' sounded a bit like... a sorta trauma-induced delusion. That could be massively wrong, just a thought).

Rambling...

Nic

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No sun, no moons, no stars over Al-Rassan.

[This message has been edited by Nic C (edited March 06, 2002).]

[DianaBouvier]

Nic C Said:

I suppose it makes a bit more sense if Buffy forgets her friends, too. Maybe she just retreats into this warm happy cocoon of - ultimately false - family bliss (which, incidentally, is what her 'heaven' sounded a bit like... a sorta trauma-induced delusion. That could be massively wrong, just a thought).

I think you might have a point. Didn't someone's spoiler say that Buffy learns something about her Afterlife experiance in this episode?

Good catch!

[circe]

since I am fairly new at this... can we comment on the trailer or just the tv guide type comments only? cos if we can say anything about the trailer and watching it in slo mo... I have a few things to comment on....

carrie

[Wiccagrrl]

Not sure, Circe...I think the trailer is fair game here, but if ya wanna be safe, put it in the general spoilers thread. Or wait a few minutes for someone else (like one of the mods) to clarify

[Genea]

This seems like an awfully intense episode. Maybe we'll move past the whole poor Buffy thing and on to a happy Buffy and even happier things like Willow and Tara lovin', I miss their extra flaminess.

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Sugarloaf
"..I just want something thats ya know,mine."
"I am you,you know."
"What."
"Yours."

[Warduke]

The trailer is fair game in this thread

[shellybean]

It'll be nice to see Joyce again, even Hank. We've only actually seen him twice, right? and it is the same actor, right? I really hope those rumors about Willow and Tara getting back together in this ep are true.

[circe]

Thanks Warduke!

After being gone most of the day, I finally got to come back tonite...
Anyway, I slomo'd the trailer

besides the obvious Buffy scenes, I saw what could probably be :

1 Buffy throwing Spike against a wall.
2 someone was chained up and she is freeing their hands... it's been speculated on a diff board that they were Spikes hands...
3 Dawn is running down the hallway of their house
4 Xander is fighting someone in the cemetary.. big gravstone in the background
5 Our Willow fighting with someone in what looks like the same area that Spike was in... possibly a basement...
6 Buffy wearing a white shirt, being 'thrown' or knocked to the ground...

that's all... hope you all like it... I slomo'd this thing 6 times... I have no life evidently...

[Thanatopsis]

Okay, so here's a question. It says in the TV guide summary that Giles is in it, but since it also said he was in Hell's Bells, should we assume he's not in this one either? I kinda hope not. I miss Giles.

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Kind of an unusual name. There's hardly any except Warren Beatty and, you know, President Harding. It's probably not either of them.
~Willow in IWMTLY

[DianaBouvier]

This is what I saw with the promo--I got it off of Mr Video's site:

Doctor shining a pin light.

The light sweeps over a cationic Buffy's face.

Blurry image of Buffy lifting Spike(?) over her head.

Blurry image of Buffy (arms with a white shirt on) breaking chains that appear to be wrapped around a post or a door.

A frightened Buffy looking out from under the stairs in her basement.

Dawn running down the upstairs hallway either screaming or crying.

The doctor, in his office, Hank and Joyce on one side of the room, Buffy sitting curled up in a chair on the opposite side. The doctor is telling Hank and Joyce that Buffy is nuts.

A Blurry image of Xander hitting something at the graveyard.

A blurry image of Willow swinging some weapon, it looks, to me, like a pipe.

Buffy with her eyes close tightly shut.

Buffy, (white shirt again) rolling on the floor covering her head as in defense.

Buffy and the doctor in the corner of the hospital room. He asks her if she know where she is--she answers Sunnydale--he tells her that's not real.

Then he tells her she's then at the hospital for 6 years.

Fade out with the image of the bed with the unused tie downs/ restraints on it.

Can I just say that I can't wait for this episode to see if the rumors about our girls are ture?

[GODisTigger]

quote:

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Originally posted by shellybean:
It'll be nice to see Joyce again, even Hank. We've only actually seen him twice, right? and it is the same actor, right

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Same actor. Three times.

Season 1 Nightmares
Season 2 When She Was Bad
Season 5 Weight of the World

D

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They have Dial-A-Prayer for atheists now. You call up but nobody answers.

[This message has been edited by GODisTigger (edited March 07, 2002).]quote: