Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Forever" Review (5x17)

Brief Synopsis: “Refusing to accept her mother’s death, Dawn uses magic to try to bring her back. Meanwhile, Buffy receives some comfort from an old boyfriend who returns to Sunnydale to support her, and the Scoobies try to recover from losing Joyce and say goodbye at her funeral.”


"The Body" (5x16) quick link here                                                                                                                  "Intervention" (5x18) quick link here

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1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.

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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?



“Forever” is a wonderful accompanying piece to “The Body”, and is often overlooked by the fandom because “The Body” is such a masterpiece. It’s like if someone breaks a world record in a race, but the person who came second also breaks the previous world record. Nobody remembers that the person in second also broke the previous record, they only care that the person who came first broke it by even more. That’s the unfortunate position that “Forever” is in with the fandom. While it’s not the most amazing episode to ever grace television screens, it is strong in its own right. The episode has three primary story points. The first of which is Buffy trying to adjust to life without her mother. Through no fault of her own, Buffy’s been thrust into the adult world and now has to look after Dawn and be a responsible adult without her mother’s guidance or support. This would be a lot for a regular person to handle. Buffy’s not a regular person, she already has the weight of the world on her shoulders. She has to worry about protecting the world from vampires, demons, and now an angry Hell God that wants to hurt her friends and family until she gives up The Key’s location...at least Glory is conveniently staying out of the way while Buffy is dealing with Joyce’s death and funeral arrangements. Glory may be a Hell God bent on destroying Buffy, but at least she’s polite enough to give Buffy time to grieve. How splendid. Buffy simply isn’t ready for the responsibility of looking after Dawn and she doesn’t adjust to this new responsibility well until the season six finale, “Grave”. Buffy’s not a parent and she’s only 20 years old here. Of course it’s a difficult adjustment that takes time! The combined pressure of losing her mother, looking after Dawn, and fretting about Glory is sending Buffy over the edge mentally. That’s why I’m so pleased that Angel comes back to support Buffy just after her mother’s funeral. Just for that one night, that one moment, Buffy could forget about all her troubles and just allow herself to be supported and loved before all the stress and heartbreak of life engulfs her again the next day. Oh God, that ‘Bangel’ love theme will be the death of me.

The second story point of the episode is Dawn trying to resurrect Joyce through dark magic because she can’t cope with the pain of losing her mother. While this could be viewed as a dumb, stupid move by some people, I have to reiterate the point that Dawn is fifteen years old. She only recently found out that she’s actually a fake human with fake memories, and her original origin is a ball of mystical green energy. Can you blame Dawn for trying to bring back arguably the only stable point of her life? I sure as hell don’t. The third and final story point is how the rest of the Scoobies are reacting to Joyce’s death. Willow is visiting her mother more, even though they don’t get on particularly well, and she’s keeping a record of all her interactions with Tara in case anything happens to them in the future...I bet she’s glad she kept those after Tara gets shot in the next season...too soon? Joyce’s death makes Anya understand and appreciate humanity and sex a little more. She’s been around for 1,122 years and hasn’t learned a single thing about what it really means to be human in all of that time. Now she has. Death is a natural part of the life cycle and needs to exist to keep that cycle going. It makes Anya understand the world a little more. She has the ability to create new life with Xander if they so choose and it makes everything a little more clear and exciting for her. Giles reacts to Joyce’s death by sitting in his house, drinking scotch, and listening to Cream’s “Tales Of Brave Ulysses”, which is the same song Joyce and himself listened to in season three’s “Band Candy” when they reverted back to their teenage selves. Ugh, this might be the most heartbreaking scene of the episode for me. Giles is just so...empty. Staring into the darkness and thinking about Joyce. I always thought that Giles and Joyce should have had an affair at some point. Giles sneaking out the living room window as Buffy is sneaking into her bedroom one from patrolling...it would have been comedy gold. Finally, Spike leaves flowers for Joyce...I’ll get into that a little later.

The episode opens with Buffy, Dawn, and Giles trying to choose a casket for Joyce to be buried in. It’s obvious right from the first scene that Dawn is having difficulty adjusting to her mother’s death. Not in a sad, depressed, hurt way like everyone else, but in a pissed off, rebellious way that’ll eventually lead to zombie-Joyce. I feel I need to take a moment to just say this...Hank Summers, you are the worst father in the world. Your two daughters have just lost their mother and you haven’t even picked up the phone to ask if they’re okay. More than that, you’re off in Spain somewhere and are almost impossible to get a hold of. Buffy’s left messages everywhere, so I fully believe that Hank is aware of Joyce’s passing and is just being his usual moronic self. Even if he isn’t aware of it, why hasn’t he given his daughters his new telephone number? He’s the perfect example of a father that couldn’t care less about his children. I feel an attack of unresolved daddy issues coming on...

Xander: “You going home?”
Willow: “I’m gonna stop by my mom’s first. Been doing that a lot lately.”
Xander: “Yeah, I actually might stop by your mom’s too...well, I’m not going to my place. Those people are scary.”

Let’s take a moment to appreciate the wonderful friendship of Willow and Xander. They’ve been best friends since they were five years old and Xander is so close to Willow and has been such a big part of her life for so long that he’d rather visit her mother than his own. This is yet another piece of the puzzle for Xander and his relationship with his parents. We’ve been told a lot by this point and we saw a great deal of it firsthand in Xander’s dream in “Restless”, but we don’t get to see Xander interact with his non-dream parents until the sixth season, which I still maintain is way too late.

Xander: “The guy thinks he can put on a big show and con Buffy into being his sex monkey.”
Willow: “Xander...he didn’t leave a card.”

It’s clear that Spike has grown a lot since “Crush”. After being forced out of Buffy’s life (both emotionally and physically), Spike has taken the time to re-evaluate things and put things into perspective. He knows that Buffy will never have feelings for him and he still has feelings for her, but this isn’t about Buffy at all. For the first time this season, Spike’s actions towards Buffy aren’t for selfish reasons. When Spike was helping Buffy before in this season, he was doing so to try to win her affections. Now, he’s made peace with the fact that it’s never going to happen (which he says to Buffy in “The Gift” during his “I know that I’m a monster” speech), and yet he leaves flowers and chooses to help Dawn anyway. Why? Why is Spike helping Dawn? There’s nothing in it for him. He’s doing it because he doesn’t want to see Dawn suffer any more than she has done. Selfless behaviour...

Dawn: “I know why you’re doing this.”
Spike: “Do you now? Enlighten me.”
Dawn: “Spike, I’m not stupid. You’re, like, stalking my sister. You’d do anything to get in good with her.”
Spike: “Buffy never hears about this, okay? She found out what I was doing, she’d drive a redwood through my chest.”
Dawn: “Then, if you don’t want credit, why are you helping me?”
Spike: “I just don’t like to see Summers women take it so hard on the chin is all. And I’m dead serious, you breathe a word of this to Buffy, I’ll see to it that you end up in the ground, got it?”

...It was going so well, Spike. As far as the flowers for Joyce go, I genuinely believe that it wasn’t about Buffy at all, it was purely about Joyce. Spike and Joyce did have a weird, dysfunctional friendship. ‘Friendship’ might be too strong of a word, but Joyce did always offer Spike a hot drink, a listening ear, and some advice without prejudice, which is something that no Scooby outside of Dawn has offered Spike thus far in his four years in Sunnydale. To Joyce, it didn’t matter if you were a vampire or soulless, if you needed some help or wanted to fangasm over “Passions”, she was there for you. This shows me that, yet again, Spike is capable of being good, even without a soul. The lack of soul makes it harder for him, but he can be a good man. Look how caring, compassionate, and selfless he is to the Summers women here! I’ll talk about this a lot more during my review of “Seeing Red”, as I don’t buy into that “Spike was soulless!” excuse for this very reason.

 Angel: “I can stay in town as long as you want me.”
Buffy: “How’s forever? Does forever work for you?...that’s a bad idea. I’m seriously needy right now.”
Angel: “Let me worry about the neediness. I can handle it.”
Buffy: “I told you, you better go.”
Angel: “I’m sorry.”
Buffy: “No, I’m so grateful that you came, Angel. I didn’t think I was gonna be able to make it through the night.”
Angel: “Well, we still have a few minutes before I have to go.”

Again, how amazing is it that Angel shows up to support Buffy, even though they haven’t been romantically linked for almost a season and a half (since Angel’s “I Will Remember You”...which Buffy doesn’t even remember!)? For those of you that don’t watch “Angel”, Angel’s appearance here makes perfect sense for his current storyline on “Angel”. If Joyce had died a few episodes earlier, it would have completely ruined Angel’s story for him to appear here. Angel was down a very, very dark path just before this. He fired Wesley, Cordelia, and Gunn, he distanced himself from humanity, and he was intent on getting revenge against the evil law firm, Wolfram & Hart. However, after sleeping with Darla and not losing his soul, he had an epiphany and started to change his ways. His epiphany happened roughly the same day that Joyce died. Since having his epiphany, he’s been reaching out to his friends and trying to make amends and be a more caring, supportive person again. Therefore, Angel showing up here is not only a great moment for Bangel fans, but also a very realistic part of his journey. I do wonder though, how did Angel know about Joyce’s passing? Based on Buffy’s “I’m so grateful you came” comment, I can only assume that she called him, but we never know for sure. Did Xander or Willow tell Cordelia, who then told Angel? That would be nice continuity as well. Buffy needed this moment with Angel. She needed to be reminded of the fact that the world can be a loving, caring place sometimes. It’s also a nice reminder that Angel has a special place in Buffy’s heart that nobody else is ever going to touch.

Anya: “She got me thinking. About how people die all the time and how they get born too, and how you kind of need one so you can have the other. When I think about it that way, it makes death a little less sad and sex a little more exciting.”
Xander: “Again, I say ‘huh’?”
Anya: “Well, I just think I understand sex more now. It’s not just about two bodies smooshing together, it’s about life. It’s about making life.”
Xander: “Right, when two people are much older and way richer, and far less stupid...”
Anya: “...Breathe. You’re turning colours. I’m not ready to make life with you, but I could. We could. Life could come out of our love and our smooshing, and that’s beautiful. It all makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger. Like I’m more awake somehow.”

Well, that’s kinda beautiful, isn’t it? Her character has made a complete 180-degree turn over her feelings about death in just one episode. In “The Body”, Anya didn’t understand death and she thought it was “mortal and stupid”. Now, she gets it. She doesn’t like death, but she understands it more. Anya realising this is huge for her character. She’s never understood humanity or emotions, but now she’s slowly starting to understand everything. When you think about Anya’s speech to Andrew in “End Of Days” about human beings, this episode could be considered step one in her journey to that speech.

Dawn makes bad choice after bad choice in this episode, but, as I’ve said, it’s completely understandable behaviour. Dawn is fifteen years old. She doesn’t understand death, she just wants her mother back. She doesn’t understand the negative repercussions that go with raising someone from the dead through dark magic, she just wants to see her mother’s face again. Understandably so, Tara explains to Dawn that witches don’t mess with the natural order of things. They don’t mess with life and death by natural causes. Buffy’s death at the end of the season is different because it’s mystical in origin, but Joyce died of a brain tumour. Even if they could resurrect her, how would her brain behave?

Someone whose behaviour isn’t as responsible as Tara’s during this episode is Willow. Unlike Tara, Willow seems much more lenient about bending the rules of magic in order to help Dawn bring Joyce back. Willow loosens a book on their bookshelf in order to aid Dawn in her quest, which is highly irresponsible when you stop and think about it. Willow is allowing Dawn to alter her life in the way that she sees fit, rather than helping Dawn accept that Joyce is gone and supporting her through her grief...do you see a pattern here? When Oz left Willow in the last season, rather than accept that Oz was gone and work through the pain, Willow cast a spell to have her will done so that she could breeze through the heartache. In the next season, Willow does a spell so that Tara will forget about an argument that they had. Willow’s character during seasons 4-6 of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” is all about manipulating magic so that she can alter her life however she sees fit. She mind-rapes Tara and does pretty much whatever she wants so long as it suits her desires...but more on that in the next season. Here, Willow shows us just how little regard she has for the laws and history of magic. How can she possibly think that bringing Joyce back will go well and be problem-free? Has she learned nothing in five years?! LIKE, ANYTHING?!

Even after Willow loosened the book for Dawn, I didn’t think that Dawn would succeed in her resurrection spell. I thought she’d try, get close, and then realise that she was doing the wrong thing in trying to bring her mother back from the dead. Either that or Buffy wouldn’t stop her just in the nick of time after Willow tells her what Dawn is trying to do. With Spike’s help, Dawn not only gets close, but she brings Joyce back from the dead! While trying to complete her mission, Dawn encounters a friendly demon known as “Doc”, who tells her how she can bring Joyce back. Keep an eye out for Doc, as he will become much more important as the season rolls along. Gotta hand it to the monks, Doc couldn’t even tell that Dawn wasn’t human based on her hair DNA. That’s some quality keymanship, right there.

Oh, while all of this drama is going on, Ben lets it slip to Jinx that The Key is an innocent (translate: human). I knew Ben was boring and wooden, but now I can add “stupid” to that list as well. Think before you speak, Benjamin! He does try to make up for his blunder by stabbing Jinx, but he’s so inept at life that he even fails to successfully complete that...can Buffy slay him already? Please? He makes me miss Parker...okay, not quite, but it’s closer than I’d like to admit.

The best scene of this episode - without comparison - is the closing one between Dawn and Buffy, who are arguing over Dawn’s resurrection of Joyce. This scene is so eerie! I like the decision to not show Joyce directly. We just see Joyce’s feet and shadow as she slowly stumbles towards her old house. It leaves so many unanswered questions...did she come back okay? Does she look different? Did Dawn bring back the Joyce that left us? How wrong has she come back? After Dawn rips up the picture, did Joyce’s body return to the grave or did it disappear forever? Both Sarah and Michelle are superb in this scene. Sarah is always praised for being an amazing actress on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, but I think Michelle is underrated. Perhaps it’s because whenever people think of Dawn, they think of her angsty teenage outbursts of “get out, get out, get out!”, but when Michelle is given legitimately emotional or powerful scenes, she shines...especially for someone so young.

Buffy: “I’m trying, Dawn, I am. I am really trying to take care of things, but I don’t even know what I’m doing. Mom always knew.”
Dawn: “Nobody’s asking you to be mom.”
Buffy: “Well, who’s gonna be if I’m not? Huh, Dawn? Have you even thought about that? Who’s gonna make things better? Who’s gonna take care of us?”
Dawn: “Buffy...”
Buffy: “I didn’t mean to push you away, I didn’t. I just, I couldn’t let you see me.”

What’s wonderful about this scene is that both Summers women get to air their grievances and move forwards together. Even though this particular problem is resolved, the themes behind the problem continue for more than a year after this scene. Buffy has a lot of trouble adjusting to being a responsible parent with a teenager to look after as well as her slaying responsibilities. Due to Buffy’s distractions, Dawn rebels. She starts lying and stealing things because she feels unneeded and unloved. Buffy has been neglecting Dawn since Joyce’s death, but it’s not intentional. Buffy has had a funeral to arrange and has been trying to keep herself distracted so she doesn’t have to think about the fact that her mother is gone forever. Anybody who has lost someone they’re close to will empathise with Buffy’s actions here. You don’t want to accept that you’ll never see them again. Never hear their voice or be able to touch them. It’s not a realisation that you want to come to grips with...especially when you’re still trying to arrange the funeral and get in contact with your father! However, Dawn doesn’t know this! Dawn just thinks that Buffy’s avoiding her. When zombie-Joyce knocks on the door and Buffy whispers “mom...”, my heart just breaks. For both of the Summers women. Dawn has to make the decision to send her mother back to the grave, while  Buffy flings the door open expecting to see her mother stood there. Buffy opens the door and sees nothing in front of her but the scenery she usually does. Joyce isn’t there and Buffy knows once and for all that her mother isn’t ever coming back. Buffy and Dawn have an emotional hug together and sink to the floor, both having to accept that they’re alone and they have to grieve together and support each other. Joyce is gone and they’re all each other has now.


Quote Of The Episode

Willow: “What did I have for breakfast this morning, do you remember?”

Tara: “Huh?”

Willow: “I wanna say bagel, but I think that was yesterday. You had two eggs, sunny-side up. I remember because they were wiggling at me like little boobs.”

Tara: “Sassy eggs.” 

FINAL SCORE: 7/10

What are your thoughts on "Forever"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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