Nightmares

These snapshots may contain SPOILERS for the entire series, so if for some reason you haven't yet seen some of the episodes and do not want to know what is going on, read no further.
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When strange things start happening to the students at Sunnydale High, it seems that everyone is living their worst nightmares. Buffy and the gang must hold together to stop the phenomena before reality and the nightmare world become one.

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BUFFY: Scary! I'll tell you something, though. There are a lot scarier things than you. And I'm one of them.

Nightmares for everyone this episode, however Buffy is the only one who gets a extra dose of her fears. Being late for an exam that she didn't study for, in a class she never really attended. Her dad abandoning her, the Master killing her, being buried alive and then returning as a vampire. Most of these come true literally, and the last, returning as a vamp also comes to pass, metaphorically, since it is learned that Buffy's powers come from distilled essence of a demon (vampires being demons).

The Scoobies nightmares are all the run of the mill fears lots of people have, being naked in front of classroom, having to perform in front of an audience, a scary clown. Giles and Cordelia's aren't to far out there, bad hair day and forgetting a vital skill.

A lot of the good points for this episode only comes in retrospect. The different elements, story, theme and plot, just don't mesh that well.

After Buffy gets turned, she's in the graveyard in the pocket nightscape. She travels to the hospital, which is bright daylight. How did that happen, ala Spike running and smoking across town?

Buffy's tombstone puts her date of birth at 1981. Speaking of tombstones, Sarah Michelle Gellar had a morbid fear of real graveyards and being buried alive. She did overcome her fear of grave/yards as shown in the Blackwood interview.

My views/status of characters;
Buffy - like
Willow - like
Xander - like
Giles - like
Cordelia - neutral
Angel - absent
The Master - like


Overall I consider this an average episode compared to the rest of the season.