The Wish

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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Wanting to be rid of Xander for good, Cordelia comes to the conclusion that Buffy is the cause of all her problems and makes a wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. A demon grants the wish and Cordelia's world suddenly changes.
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Xander: And they burst in, rescuing us, without even knocking? I mean, this is really all their fault.
Buffy: Your logic does not resemble our Earth logic.
Xander: Mine is much more advanced.


Great character development, good dialogue and an good plot.

This episode has been compared to everything from "It'a A Wonderful Life," and "Mirror, Mirror," to "Psycho."
"It'a A Wonderful Life," what would life be like without you in it?
"Mirror, Mirror," parallel realities.
"Psycho" main narrative character is killed off half way through the movie.

While the audience is able to come away with some insight into the characters, at the end of the episode the show hits the reset button with no one remembering anything, except Anya. This seems kind of trite, but it actually winds up working. We get a different perspective on what Sunnydale would have been like, along with the character interactions that comes from it.

Cordelia's thinks her wish will give her peaceful happy outcome, but it only leads to her death. She is convinced that in a world where she never got close to Xander because of Buffy she'll be happy. We're shown that not only is she not happier she's also certainly not better off, being dead and all. It's unfortunate that at the end of the episode Cordelia is no wiser for her troubles, because these events never happened in the Buffyverse.

The other character in this drama is Buffy. In this wish!verse Buffy is a hardened, cold, humorless, battle scarred and battle weary slayer from Cleveland. She's used to fighting alone in this reality, and she's just one more girl in the long line of slayers to be killed that same way. Just like her predecessors. It seems the prophecy is fulfilled in this reality as well; the Master rises and the Slayer dies. But then the Slayer looked dead (on the inside) already when she got to Sunnydale. The Master just granted her her wish - death.

It seems that both Cordy and Buffy got their wish and got dead. Nice symmetry there.



My views/status of characters;
Buffy - like
Willow - like
Xander - like
Giles - like
Cordelia - like
Spike - absent
Anya - neutral
Angel - neutral
Oz - like

Overall I consider this a very good episode compared to the rest of the season.