Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Normal Again

Normal Again
Season 6, Episode 17
Airdate	March 12, 2002
Production Number	6ABB17
Written by	Diego Gutierrez
Directed by	Rick Rosenthal
← 6x16 Hell's Bells	6x18 → Entropy
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season Six

Normal Again is the seventeenth episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the one-hundred and seventeenth episode overall.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya) (credit only), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike)

and Alyson Hannigan (Willow)

Guest Starring: Danny Strong (Jonathan Levinson), Adam Busch (Warren Meers), Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells), Dean Butler (Hank Summers), Michael Warren (Doctor), Kirsten Nelson (Lorraine Ross), Amber Benson (Tara)

and Kristine Sutherland (Joyce)

Co-Starring: Sarah Scivier (Nurse), Rodney Charles (Orderly), April Dion (Kissing Girl)

Plot Overview

After Buffy is attacked by a demon as she gets close to the Trio’s lair, she begins experiencing hallucinations of herself in a mental hospital with her still married parents looking out for her. Initially, dismissing them, the recent burdens of her life and her own history in a mental hospital make Buffy question whether she is the Slayer or if she's still in an institution.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• Glarghk Guhl Kashmas'nik: The demon summoned by the trio is strong and fast, but most notably wields a retractable spike in his arm which causes the victim to hallucinate extremely detailed fantasies. These fantasies are so detailed that they're almost like alternate realities within the mind of the victim. The only cure to the venom in the spike is an antidote within the same weapon.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Glarghk Guhl Kashmas'nik	Buffy	Impaling Punch	Buffy's Basement

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Buffy: Buffy was once admitted to a mental institution six years prior to this episode after she first told her parents about vampires.
• Buffy: Finally gets to say goodbye to her mother (sort of).

Referbacks

• Real Me: The doctor talks about how Buffy rewrote her own fantasies in order to create a familial bond in the form of Dawn. This is a sly reference to the initial outcry over Dawn suddenly appearing in the series as if she was always there.

• Bargaining: The doctor tells Buffy that she had a "momentary awakening" during the summer, but her friends pulled her back into the delusion. This refers to her death and resurrection.

• The Weight of the World: The little girl in the picture is the same little girl from Buffy's flashbacks seen by Willow.

Trivia

The Show

• Gone Fishing: Emma Caulfield does not appear in this episode.

• Final Appearance: This episode marks the final appearance of Dean Butler as Hank Summers, Buffy's father.

Behind the Scenes

• Episode Order: This episode was originally meant to be aired eighth in the season.

Allusions and References

• The Shining: Jack Torrence was the main character from Stephen King's novel, The Shining. In the story, Jack and his family are given the responsibility to watch over a hotel for the winter. But as he grows increasingly isolated and introverted, he goes insane and attempts to kill his wife and son. The novel was adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick where the character of Jack Torrence was played by Jack Nicholson.

Jonathan: I'm going all Jack Torrence here, you know?

• Ken Russell: Ken Russell is a British director known primarily for his controversial and unusual films. He controversially broke taboos of full frontal male nudity on screen, homosexuality of Tchaikovsky and The Devils, a film that received the X rating. Russell also notably filmed Tommy and Lizstomania.

Warren: Got her tripping like a Ken Russell Film Festival.

• Oceans Eleven: Ocean's Eleven was a film first produced in 1960 directed by Lewis Milestone and starring several members of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack. The film followed Ocean (Sinatra) and his plans to steal several million dollars from the vaults of a casino. The movie was later remade with George Clooney at the helm and a superstar cast including Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.

Andrew: I still say we're gonna need at least eight other guys to pull this off.

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey and later adapted to film by Miloš Forman. The novel and film differ in very key ways (particularly in perspective), but they both deal with life in a mental institution during the mid to late 1960s. In the film a man who isn't insane attempts to change how things are done, only to end up like the patients after intensive shock-treatment is used on him.

Willow: No more Cuckoo's Nest?

Quotes

• Buffy: I was in an institution. There were, um, doctors and nurses and other patients. They told me that I was sick. I guess crazy. And that, um, Sunnydale and all of this - none of it was real.

Xander: Aw, come on, that's ridiculous. What, you think this isn't real just because of all the vampires and demons and ex-vengeance demons and the sister that used to be a big ball of universe-destroying energy?

• Doctor: In her mind, she's the central figure in a fantastic world beyond imagination. She's surrounded herself with friends, most with their own superpowers, who are as real to her as you and me. More so, unfortunately. Together they face grand, overblown conflicts against an assortment of monsters, both imaginary and rooted in actual myth.

• Doctor: Buffy, you used to create these grand villains to battle against. And now what is it? Just ordinary students you went to high school with. No gods or monsters. Just three pathetic little men who like playing with toys.

• Spike: Oh, balls! You didn't say he was a Glarghk Guhl Kashma 'nik.

Xander: 'Cause I can't say Glarba --

• Xander: (after tranquillising the demon) I altered his reality. Get it? I -- Never mind.

• Dawn: You're my sister. I need you and love you. Somewhere inside, you must know that's real.

Buffy: Sure it is. 'Cause what's more real? A sick girl in an institution...

Dawn: Don't. Please listen to me.

Buffy: Or some kind of supergirl chosen to fight demons and save the world. That's ridiculous. A girl who sleeps with the vampire she hates? Yeah, that makes sense.

• Joyce:: We'll always be with you. You've got a world of strength in your heart. I know you do. You just have to find it again. Believe in yourself.

Buffy: You're right. Thank you. Goodbye.