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My 50th favorite Buffy episode of all time:

Season 5, episode 17.

Written by Marty Noxon.

Apparently, one episode is not enough time to mourn the death of Joyce Summers. So they settle for two.

This episode's existence is completely understandable: you can't go from "The Body" straight back to normalsville. "The Body" was the initial shock, without the actual mourning. There was some desperate need of reflecting, and absorbing, and grieving. Unfortunately, and this is from someone who had experienced a similar loss, getting "over" the death of someone dear to you doesn't not make for good T.V.

And Indeed, 95% of "Forever" is like this quiet, uneventful phase you go through once the disbelief wears off. There's planning and adjusting to do, and above all, there's a whole lot of nothing. Because after you've gone through one of the most intense emotional experiences of your life, everything seems to start moving in slow motion: the coffin-picking and the funeral; Dawn's stay at Tara and Willow's; Xander and Anya's conversation in bed; Spike bringing flowers in Joyce's memory; and the most distinguished example: the cross-over with Angel, that was the most mellow, easy-going silent cross-over I have ever seen in my lifetime.

And it's nice that the show takes it's time to get the intended "feel" across. But when that intended feel is, as one might call it, "the boring aftermath of death", it does not make for thrilling storytelling. But then something changes, and the episode takes a turn for the scarier: Dawn would not just accept her mother's passing away. She would find a way to bring her back.

I find the concept of the supernatural messing with people's natural emotional struggles fascinating. Instead of working to solve the problem on the inside, Dawn chooses to try and solve it on the outside, because hey, she "grew" in a world where magic exists and everything is possible. Things aren't as simple, though, because:

A) In the buffyverse, magic has consequences of its own, and

B) It's easy to get confused by what's real and what isn't in this kind of anything-goes world, and thus you must set some boundaries of your own if you wish to remain sane.

So although Dawn is enamored by the possibility of seeing her mom one more time, she backpedals at the very last second. But the twist is, it's Buffy who couldn't remember the two very important magic rules I had mentioned above, and wanted to get another glimpse at her mommy, the price be damned, because her being composed and in charge was just an act and she has no idea what to do and she needs her mommy.

I consider this moment one of the best, most chilling moments in the show's entire run. When you see Joyce, or whatever it was, getting closer and closer to the house, you get caught in the exact same terror mixed with excitement that Buffy and Dawn are feeling at the thought of what's about to enter the door. And when Dawn (and not Buffy) rips the picture in two, you are overwhelmed with genuine relief mixed with grief. At least that's what happened to me.

So the episode as a whole wasn't something special, but its closing minutes really lift it up for me, all the way to the top 50.

Best part:Doc. Endearingly creepy.

Worst part:The dragon with the eggs, A.K.A. the three-headed inanimate doll. You could practically see the person pulling the strings.

Quality Quote:

ANYA: Mmmm... that was different.
XANDER: Yeah, it was more... intense.
ANYA: It's because of Joyce.
XANDER: huh?

Room for Debate: did anyone read "Pet Semetary"? What do you think of the whole "my loss is so great that I'm willingto bring back anything that resembles my loved one, no matter how awful it is"?

I actually liked Dawn in this episode. By ripping the picture, she was finally showing some growth.
But this was a rough episode, and not in a bad way. It was just hard to see Buffy break down like that and then open the door to find nothing . It was just very powerful and very well done.

It's not the most exciting episode, but except for the whole egg-thing I think it was good. Willow helping Dawn to find out about rasing the dead, even if it's against the wicca "code", shows us that she's starting to push the boundaries on the whole magic-thing, something we see more of in the next season.

Oaf wrote:

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Everything you have written is the correct (and only) way to look at things.

This makes me nervous. I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. Lol. Seriously though, do tell me if I become overbearing.

Anyway, Forever <3! Pretty good episode. Personally, I would have ranked it a tad higher, maybe 40th. 50th is a good place for it though. The Buffy/Dawn scene at the end MADE the episode. It dealt with exactly what needed to be dealt with while still managing to set up Buffy's final arc of the season so well. Though Buffy has certainly matured a lot since season 1, she wasn't prepared for this yet (could she ever have?). Her desperate "who's going to take care of us?" showed that she still had a little vulnerable girl in her, and who can blame her... she's only in her early twenties.

The writers also made a very good choice in introducing the whole resurrection issue with Willow in this episode. This is already quite late into season 5, I don't know if they already planned the storyline for season 6; but I think it is quite likely. It fit in very well with the themes of the episode and laid the foundations for season 6. Im glad this episode did that. Honestly, if they had said that there was much debate about resurrection among witches of the world only after it became a necessary point to be raise in season 6, I would have thought of it as a really contrived attempt to bend the existing universe just to accomodate the plot.

Regarding the debate. Have you guys read this short story called The Monkey's Paw? The Joyce ressurection storyline was really really obviously inspired by (ripped-off, heh) The Monkey's Paw. Go read it, its a pretty good story; it's short too so all you'll need is 10 minutes. Umm, I think it's fine for pets but not humans. I mean, barring any movie zombie stuff happening, you pretty much "own" your pet already. I love animals, but I don't see why someone can't bring something similar back since you're the owner anyway and it comes from a place of love in their hearts? For humans, I don't know. I would say no only because it isn't healthy for the psychological growth of the person who resurrects the loved one. They will have to deal with their loss and mourn in their own way,having something around that's the likeness of their departed loved-one will just prolong their grief. I'm assuming that the resurrection was done purely out of grief and lonliness of course. If there are other issues at hand like the resurrected person being the sole-breadwinner or something, it's different; we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.