Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Once More With Feeling" Review (6x07)

Brief Synopsis: “A mysterious demon has arrived in Sunnydale and brought with it the ability to make everyone in town burst into song and dance, revealing their innermost secrets. The strange musical influence over Sunnydale takes a more sinister turn when some people can’t stop dancing and burst into flames. Can Buffy and the Scoobies stop the demon before they spill their secrets and become human torches?”


"All The Way" (6x06) quick link here                                                                                                              "Tabula Rasa" (6x08) 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?



“Where do we go from here?”

The last words echoed by the Scoobies at the conclusion of this episode are the most poignant. After spilling their deepest, darkest insecurities and secrets, how do the Scoobies move forwards? In the cases of Giles and Tara, their joint-reprise highlights that they’re both ready to leave the Scoobies behind, even though neither of them wants to. Giles understands that he’s standing in the way of Buffy growing up and also in facing her pain and regaining control of her life. In the case of Tara, Willow mind-raping her at the conclusion of “All The Way” was the last straw. Willow’s magic use is out of control, her actions have been selfish and self-serving, and Tara is walking away from the relationship...but not before one last chance that Willow receives and destroys in the same episode, “Tabula Rasa”. Xander, and to a lesser extent, Anya, are both terrified at the prospect of marriage. Anya because she’s spent the last thousand years exacting vengeance on men at the behest of their respective partners/wives and worries that her and Xander will end the same way, whereas Xander is petrified of turning into his abusive, alcoholic father, and his relationship with Anya evolving into a re-enactment of his parents’ marriage. Buffy is still having deep psychological issues with her resurrection and feels completely isolated, lost, and numb to the world. She’s merely going through the motions (hence the song) of living, but she has no spark, happiness, or appreciation of life that she once had. All her hope, joy, and positivity has been stripped away. Happy times. Dawn is indescribably lonely. While the rest of the Scoobies tackle their own problems, Dawn has nobody. Her mother is dead, her father is absent, her sister is trying to scrape together the will to live, Giles is leaving, and everyone else is distracted. To comfort herself, Dawn has turned to stealing. Spike, simply, wants Buffy to leave him alone (not really) because he’s realised that she’s using him to numb her pain, but he loves her too much to push her away. Willow doesn’t really have any problems except her growing addiction to magic and controlling the people around her, but she denies that these are even problems. So, with all of that (or most of it) now in the open, what next? Where do they go from here? The answer, simply, is depression-fest.

“Once More With Feeling” is widely considered one of – if not the – the greatest episodes of the Buffyverse and for good reason. Not only is it entirely unique due to the musical influences, but it ties together the first six episodes of the season with the fifteen yet to come. In true Buffyverse fashion, it takes a supernatural demon for the Scoobies to start communicating and expressing themselves. This isn’t new territory for the show or for Joss, as The Gentlemen served the same purpose in the fourth season. When the Scoobies lost their voices, they started communicating. Here, Joss takes a different approach by forcing all the Scoobies to sing their inner most fears and worries. Brutal, yes, but damn interesting. “Once More With Feeling” represents the fourth and final of the ‘Big Four’ episodes of the show – “Hush”, “Restless”, “The Body”, and “Once More With Feeling”, all written and directed by the head genius himself, Mr. Joss Whedon. So why is “Once More With Feeling” so universally loved? One would assume it’s because of the singing and dancing, yes? While the musical aspect of the episode is highly memorable and definitely adds a great deal, that’s not the main reason why the episode is special in my eyes...it’s the character exploration. Not since “Restless” and never again on the show are the characters so openly explored in such detail. Every single character except Willow receives varying degrees of dissection and development. This isn’t a musical episode for the sake of making a musical episode (although, granted, I’m sure that was a large part of why Joss created a musical), the musical aspects of the episode fit the story and are used as a device to explore the characters, the season, and the show as a whole. How often have we seen the show take a real-life, relatable issue , add a supernatural element, and explore it? From Angel losing his soul after sleeping with Buffy to Marcie Ross feeling so invisible that she literally disappears, the Buffyverse’s foundation is real-life issues with fangs slapped over the top of it. “Once More With Feeling” is no different. The thing that makes this episode so great is that so many threads are sewn together beautifully. Every character (bar Willow) gets dissected, the first six episodes of the season are addressed, and this episode kick-starts the rest of the season and gives hints into where the show is heading. What more can you ask for in one episode?

Another great facet of this episode is how well the music is used. Ignoring the lyrics, take a minute to sit and think about the music itself. How happy, inspiring, and upbeat almost every single song is. It’s lying to you, people! Joss doesn’t write episodes that contain happiness, inspiration, and positivity! This is the man that wrote the episode where Fred died, the man who wrote “The Body”, “Innocence”, “Passion”, “The Gift”, and more! Joss uses happiness to cover the gut-wrenching agony that’s imminent! “Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered” coming just before “Passion”, “Smile Time” coming just before “A Hole In The World”. However, Joss has upstaged himself this time, as this episode has two levels of misery. Firstly, you have the music in this episode trying to cover some of the agonising lyrics. Excluding “I’ve Got A Theory”, every song sang by the Scoobies is filled with lyrics of depression, isolation, loneliness, and fear...or maybe midgets? Secondly, you have the exciting Buffy-Spike kiss at the end of the episode, which is covering the depression-fest, physical abuse, and heartache to come. Joss is a genius and I love him, but I often find myself wanting to kill him. Finally, the poster boy for all this is Sweet.

Sweet is the embodiment of demon perfection and his special ability is to force people to sing about their secrets...isn’t it perfect? Whoever came up with the idea of Sweet needs a basketful of cookies. When UPN announced that a musical episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was looming, I, like most people, was expecting it to be filled with hugs and puppies, metaphorically speaking...well, mostly. I was expecting a light-hearted episode that would give us an ample distraction from Buffy’s depression as a way to break up the overwhelming force of misery that is this season (in a good way). Then I saw Joss’ name on the writing credits and my excitement quickly turned to fear that the bastard was going to use the musical to kill someone.

One final thing to mention before diving into the episode itself is the talent level of the cast. At the Buffy Fanmeet last month, James Marsters mentioned that everyone on the cast was sceptical and overwhelmingly terrified at the prospect of a musical episode...except Tony Head, I imagine. They are paid to act, not to sing, and only James and Tony had sung professionally before this episode (read: paid to sing). Almost everyone on the cast tried to convince Joss to change his mind, but Joss was having none of it. He’d already written the lyrics, recorded the music on his piano (with his wife and himself covering the vocals), and put the music on CD. If it’s on CD, it’s final. Like laminating paper. It’s binding. James said that his proudest moment ever on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was watching the cast go from terror, to denial, to acceptance, to pulling together.

 
Almost everyone on the cast hired private singing and dancing coaches (at their own expense) and spent the next month or so trying to get everything as perfect as possible before filming began on “Once More With Feeling”. When you’ve seen the finished product, you wonder what they were all worried about! Does everyone on the cast have an incredible voice? No, they don’t. However, everyone is passable and some people do have amazing voices! James, Tony, and Amber Benson all instantly spring to mind. I’m just happy that the whole cast did their own vocals instead of getting voice-doubles, like the show did with Jonathan singing at The Bronze in “Superstar” (little trivia fact, the singing voice of Jonathan was Brad Kane, who played Tucker Wells in “The Prom” (ANDREW’S BROTHER!) and was also the singing voice of Aladdin). While some of the actors don’t have the best singing voices, it fits their characters perfectly! These characters are being forced to sing against their will! If Xander suddenly became a world-class soprano, I’d have been more than a little sceptical.

The opening credits to the episode are different to the norm., which is surprising, if not a spectacular change of pace. The reason why it’s surprising is that creating a new opening titles sequence is very costly. When Joss wanted to add Jesse to the opening credits of “Welcome To The Hellmouth” and “The Harvest”, but then remove him from “Witch” onwards (so that his death would be shocking), he was refused because it was too expensive. Granted, the show growing in popularity and moving to UPN both helped facilitate this process for “Once More With Feeling”, but it was still a pleasant surprise. “Game Of Thrones” have a different opening title sequence for every episode, so I guess it’s becoming less of a big deal. After the opening title sequence, the episode opens on Buffy’s alarm clock going off. Remember, this is a Whedon written episode, so you have to pay attention to everything, as Joss often uses visual stimuli to express the mental states of his characters (see “Restless” as a very detailed example). When the alarm clock goes off, Buffy simply stares at the time for an extended period. This is what Buffy’s life is right now, trying to pass time and survive the next minute. Finding the determination and motivation to get out of bed each morning is a challenge in itself for Buffy right now and finding the strength to survive each minute is a daunting task. Yet, outside of Spike, Buffy cannot relay this information to anyone, as they need her to be okay. Once Buffy gets out of bed, the episode transitions to a beautiful fast-forward scene of Buffy, Dawn, Willow, and Tara getting ready to start their respective days. This eventually ends with Buffy going patrolling at night. Notice that the episode started in the morning, but was already the end of the day by two minutes in? This sums up the first song nicely, as that’s what life is like for Buffy right now...empty. By day, she’s just going through the motions, pretending that she’s okay. By night, when she’s alone, she can express her misery.

Buffy: “Every single night, the same arrangement, I go out and fight the fight. Still I always feel this strange estrangement, nothing here is real, nothing here is right. I've been making shows of trading blows, just hoping no-one knows that I've been going through the motions, walking though the part. Nothing seems to penetrate my heart. I was always brave and kind of righteous, now I find I'm wavering. Crawl out of your grave, you find this fight just doesn't mean a thing.”
Henchman: “She ain't got that swing.”
Buffy: “Thanks for noticing.”
Demon & Henchmen: “She does pretty well with fiends from Hell, but lately we can tell that she's just going through the motions, faking it somehow.”
Demon: “She's not even half the girl she...owww!”
Buffy: “Will I stay this way forever? Sleepwalk through my life's endeavour?”
Handsome Young Man: “How can I repay...?”
Buffy: “Whatever! I don't want to be going through the motions, losing all my drive. I can't even see, if this is really me, and I just wanna be alive.”

The lyrics here are fairly self-explanatory and I’ve touched upon the mental state of Buffy already. Like most songs, the ironic thing here is that the music is so damn upbeat and joyous! Honestly, the happy music mixed with the dark lyrics is half of the reason why this episode is so entertaining. We’ve watched Buffy act this way ever since being dragged out of her grave, but now she’s openly expressing everything that she’s feeling inside, which is kind of liberating. Buffy is lost. She’s isolated, confused, directionless, and has no desire to live. Yet, what’s her alternative? She can’t kill herself because her sister and friends need and rely on her. I also enjoy the comedic moment of the ‘Handsome Man’ asking Buffy how he can repay her and Buffy just blowing him off (metaphorically speaking!). This isn’t something that the Buffy of the first five seasons would do. Buffy almost seems indifferent to the man she just saved. No witty puns, no words of reassurance or positivity for the victim, just a quick brush off. Also, it does beg the question of what the vampires and demon were going to do to the handsome man with his shirt half undone. Seems more like a kinky roleplaying orgy than a man in distress to me. Buffy sums up the first song of the episode best with her final line...“I just wanna be alive”. She wants to find some spark of humanity again.

The next morning or afternoon (again, another quick jump for Buffy Summers), Buffy arrives at The Magic Box and openly asks the other characters if they burst into song. The fact that the Scoobies are actively discussing this is wonderful as it’s so rare for a show to acknowledge a phenomenon such as this. However, I will never forgive Joss for not showing us Giles singing with his guitar while an invisible backing orchestra play behind him and the room service ‘chaps’ synchronise dance. This is the episode’s – or indeed the world’s – biggest failure. The discussion of the singing-dancing phenomenon quickly leads us into Giles’ exposition theory about the cause...of course it’d be Giles that comes up with the first theory, and of course it’s Giles’ theory that turns out to be accurate. Notice that when everyone puts a theory forth, Buffy is in the background not contributing, which is another subtle way of emphasising how disconnected she is from the Scoobies right now. When Buffy starts singing about what can’t they face if they’re together, she doesn’t mean these words, she’s just saying what everyone else needs to hear, which is what she’s been doing ever since returning from Heaven...supporting everyone else. This takes me back to last season’s “The Weight Of The World”. Buffy has the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she’s never allowed any time off to heal or recover because of this weight. She can’t say, “I’m taking a vacation, you go patrolling and guard the Hellmouth” because nobody else has the power to do so. Faith does, but she’s in prison. Buffy is in an endless cycle of misery and she can’t even start to fix it before openly addressing that she was in Heaven, which is coming later in the episode.

Next up is the most stereotypical musical number of the episode, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” writer, David Fury, singing about how ‘they’ got the mustard out of his shirt. This one doesn’t involve much character dissection or exploration as he’s simply overjoyed that the mustard is out of his shirt. I would be too. You may also recognise David Fury as someone trying to slaughter goats for Wolfram & Hart in “Angel” season two, the man who the puppets are controlling in “Angel” season five’s “Smile Time”, and one of the two weather forecasters in “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”. The other forecaster being Marti Noxon, the lady who’s not wearing underwear later in this musical episode.

After the mustard man calms the fuck down, we witness Willow and Tara sneak off for some not-no-subtle loving. Much like “Going Through The Motions”, the song is deceivingly upbeat. However, in this case, even the lyrics are upbeat. The only problem is that these lyrics are being sung because Willow mind-raped her girlfriend at the end of the last episode. Therefore, “Under Your Spell” has two dual meanings. Tara is using ‘under your spell’ as a metaphor for her overwhelming love of Willow, but we, the audience, know that Tara is quite literally under Willow’s spell. These things cloud the song and take it from gut-wrenchingly cute into the realms of agonisingly disheartening. It’s clear to see just how much Tara loves Willow. How much Willow affected her life and brought her out of her shell. Before Willow came along, Tara lived her life in shadows, which is evident by her submissive behaviour when she was first introduced in “Hush”. Look at the Tara we see now and look at the Tara that first appeared. She’s an entirely different person. Sadly, Willow has gone from this overwhelmingly positive influence in her life to someone that is manipulating her and violating her to bend her to how she desires...just like Tara’s father was doing by pretending that Tara was part-demon. The underlying sadness of the song for the audience is supported by the lines that could be read two ways, such as “Now I’m bathed in light, something just isn’t right. I’m under your spell”. Indeed, something isn’t right! I despise Willow for manipulating Tara like this! Tara is so adoring towards Willow and so genuinely appreciative of Willow here. THIS IS WHAT THEIR RELATIONSHIP COULD BE LIKE IF WILLOW WASN’T SO ADDICTED TO MANIPULATING THE WORLD AROUND HER THROUGH MAGIC! Finally, this is a Joss song. It’s only fitting that it’s filled with naughty, juvenile, sexual lyrics too, such as “you make me complete” with the emphasis being on the first syllable of the word, while Willow disappears below the floating Tara’s legs off screen. Naughty, naughty...but oddly sexy. Also, Amber Benson’s voice is heavenly.

Xander: “I bet they’re not even working.”
Buffy: “Who now?”
Xander: “Willow and Tara. You see the way they were with each other? The get-a-roominess of them? I bet they’re...*glances at Dawn*...singing. They’re probably singing right now.”
Giles: “I’m sure Willow and Tara are making every effort.”
Xander: “Oh, yeah.”
Buffy: “Xander.”
Dawn: “Buffy, it’s okay. I do know about this stuff. Besides, it’s all kinda romantic.”
Buffy/Xander: “No it’s not.”
Dawn: “Come on! Songs, dancing around...what’s gonna be wrong with that?”
*The episode cuts to a man dancing until he bursts into flames and falls at the feet of a stylish demon wearing a red suit*.

To be fair to Xander, for once he’s right. Willow and Tara are...singing.

The third morning of the episode arrives and brings with it the start of another song. This time it’s Xander and Anya’s turn to be at the forefront of the episode. Another little trivia fact for you, the singing/dancing scene in Xander and Anya’s apartment living room was the first part of “Once More With Feeling” to get filmed. This was Joss’ reaffirmation to himself that he did the right thing by creating a musical episode. The lyrical content of Xander and Anya’s song starts positive, with both characters expressing their love for one another. Every time I hear Xander’s line about being in Anya’s tight...‘embrace’ (such Joss humour)...I giggle hysterically. Like, really hysterically. As the song rolls along, the lyrics start to turn towards things that they don’t like about each other. From a comedic perspective, this is the best part of the song and brings up a lot of former episodes as a nod to die-hard fans of the show. Anya referencing Xander’s syphilis from “Pangs” is a particular favourite of mine. I feel that Xander and Anya are raising each other’s flaws because they’re both getting cold feet about the wedding. When you’re going through a big relationship shift such as an engagement or a breakup, your mind works in overdrive. If someone has just broken your heart, you think about all the good times you shared and wallow in a pit of misery before you start to heal. I can imagine that the opposite is true for looming marriages. When you’re dedicating the rest of your life to someone, it seems natural to me that you’d start to highlight their faults to discover if you really want to be with them for the rest of your life...or about 23 days in the case of most Hollywood marriages.

After a brief dancing section to the song, the lyrics take on a much more serious tone. Both Anya and Xander start to express their genuine, deep-rooted fears. This is significant as this coupled with Xander’s freak-out in “All The Way” after their engagement was made public are the foundation to Xander’s decisions to leave Anya at the altar in “Hell’s Bells”. Granted, Anya expresses fears here too, but I think Xander’s affect him much deeper than hers. His strained relationship with his parents and his feelings of inadequacy stem back to almost the beginning of the show. I always find it somewhat amusing when people tell me that they were “shocked” by Xander not going through the wedding. I always wonder how they didn’t see it coming. Firstly, Xander chooses “The Gift” to propose. Anya’s suggestion that Xander was doing this because he knew the world was going to end so he wouldn’t have to go through with it is at least in part true in my eyes. Secondly, Xander kept stalling and stalling the public announcement of their engagement, thus making it easier on himself to pull out of the marriage if he wished to. Then you have his terrified behaviour throughout “All The Way” at the prospect of marriage and children. Finally, you have his lyrics here...

Xander: “That’s why I’ll never tell her that I’m petrified. I lied, I said it’s easy. I tried, but there’s these fears I can’t quell. Is she looking for a pot of gold? Will our lives become too stressful if I’m never that successful? Am I crazy? Am I marrying a demon? We could really raise the beam in making marriage a Hell, so thank God I’ll never tell.”

Everything is right there. His fears, his thoughts of not being good enough, his desperation in trying to not become his father (which was explored in tremendous detail in “Restless”), and his insecurities that their marriage will never work. Simply, Xander’s not ready for marriage. He’s not secure enough in himself yet. Soon after the conclusion of Xander and Anya’s song, the episode transitions to Giles explaining to Xander and Anya what’s going on in regards to the burned body. Notice that Xander explicitly asks Giles if the dead man is related to the singing and dancing. Why is Xander asking this? Because Xander raised Sweet in the first place. TECHNICALLY, this death is Xander’s fault, which gets brushed aside waaaaaaaay too often. Xander is responsible for raising Sweet, who is responsible for the dead human man. The episode ignores this fact way too much for my liking. Xander should be feeling much more guilty.

Spike: “I died, so many years ago, but you can make me feel like it isn’t so, and why you come to be with me, I think I finally know (*Mmm, mmm*)...you’re scared, ashamed of what you feel. And you can’t tell the ones you love, you know they couldn’t deal. But whisper in a dead man’s ear, that doesn’t make it real. That’s great, but I don’t wanna play. ‘Cause being with you touches me more than I can say, and since I’m only dead to you, I’m saying stay away, and let me rest in peace.

Let me rest in peace, let me get some sleep, let me take my love and bury it in a hole six foot deep. I can lay my body down, but I can’t find my sweet release. So let me rest in peace. You know, you’ve got a willing slave. And you just love to play the thought that you might misbehave, but ‘til you do I’m telling you, stop visiting my grave, and let me rest in peace.

I know I should go, but I follow you like a man possessed. There’s a traitor here beneath my breast and it hurts me more than you’ve ever guessed. If my heart could beat, it would break my chest, but I can see you’re unimpressed, so leave me be, and let me rest in peace.”

In essence, Spike’s dialogue here is a bitter message to Buffy telling her to leave him alone because she’s using him to avoid dealing with her pain. Spike’s song represents the changing of tone for the episode. From the exploration and inner feelings to the hopeless, the miserable, and the depressing. Spike’s song is interesting in that he’s the only character that seems to be expressing a great deal of self-hatred at the same time. This is a common pattern with Spike...hating himself. Spike despises himself for loving Buffy. Not only is she unattainable (in his eyes), but she’s a Vampire Slayer, everything that he should loathe and want to avoid. Yet, Spike has always been a fool for love. He’s always been love’s bitch. Spike even expresses in “Crush” that he knows it’s wrong for him to love her. I’m sure 99% of the people reading this can identify with Spike’s unreciprocated love. We all know how much it sucks to love someone who doesn’t love you...especially when they keep stopping by your crypt because you’re the only person that can identify with their current struggles. Spike’s too in love to turn her away and too in love to leave her behind, so his love is turning to bitterness and despair. This is all important to consider when you think of the rest of the season, including the attempted rape scene in “Seeing Red”. Let’s be honest, Buffy treats Spike like shit for the vast majority of this season. Using him when she needs to feel better about her life, treating him like dirt the rest of the time.

Bringing Spike’s inner feelings back into this specific episode and not the rest of the season, Spike is feeling resentful towards Buffy for never loving him back. After telling Buffy that he’s immune to the effects of the spell and trying to kick Buffy out of his crypt, he suddenly bursts into song. I know it shouldn’t be, but it’s ridiculously amusing. Look at his face when he starts singing! You can just feel his internal monologue of ‘oh shit...’. It’s also interesting to note Spike’s range of emotions while singing this song because that’s exactly how he’s feeling inside...conflicted. He loves Buffy, but resents her. Wants to support her, but wants her to leave him alone. He’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. Spike goes from embarrassed to annoyed, from angry to sullen. He’s trying to break through Buffy’s isolated exterior and help her see that she should love him back. The harder he tries, the more frustrated he becomes. Through Spike’s lyrics, we learn that he’s very aware of Buffy using him for her own benefit. I’ve often said that Spike is the most observant character on the show and he once again demonstrates this with his line, “you just love to play the thought that you might misbehave”. Spike knows that Buffy has been contemplating toeing the line to try to feel something and distract her from her grief. He knows that Buffy has been seeking something new to find solace in. Although Spike is desperate for Buffy to misbehave with him, he knows that she’s only contemplating it for selfish reasons, not because she has romantic feelings for him. These romantic feelings don’t come, in my opinion, until the next season of the show for Buffy. Spike is also self-aware in that he knows that he’s Buffy’s slave. It doesn’t matter how she treats him or what she does to him, he’ll still keep coming back for more. This is proven true time and time again this season, and even before this season with Buffy constantly hitting him and treating him badly. He can’t make up his mind on if he wants her to be around him while she doesn’t have feelings for him. This inner conflict is a very important aspect of Spike’s character all season.

After Buffy runs away from Spike, we arrive at a conversation between Tara and Dawn, where Dawn inadvertently reveals to Tara that she’d had an argument with Willow a few days previously. Tara, of course, has no recollection of this argument and instantly enters into research mode to figure out what the feck is going on. In doing so, she leaves Dawn home alone. HAVE THEY LEARNED NOTHING IN THE PAST 18 MONTHS?! NEVER LEAVE DAWN ALONE EVER!

Dawn: “Does anybody even notice? Does anybody even care?”

...Not really, no.

Alas, that sums up Dawn’s entire journey this season. The single biggest reason for this is that the writers had no idea what to do with Dawn after her Key-status became obsolete. I don’t think Joss thought about what he’d do after Buffy sacrificed herself to save the world and Dawn survived. Perhaps he never intended on a 6th season? Perhaps he simply hadn’t thought that far ahead. Either way, Dawn spends most of this season alone, directionless, and arc-less outside of stealing. I can’t help but feel a little sorry for Dawn this season, as I mentioned in my review of “All The Way”. Also, I know it’s mean, but I kinda love that Dawn’s big song is two lines long as it sums up her character this season pretty perfectly.

We discover that Dawn has been kidnapped by three large people that look suspiciously like Sid from “The Puppet Show”. I sense a conspiracy. A well choreographed dancing number concludes with Dawn being slid across the floor of The Bronze to land near the stage, which is where Sweet is properly introduced to the episode. I will admit, I’d never heard of Hinton Battle before this episode. However, I quickly became a fan. Is there anyone that could have played this role as well as he did? Anyone with that level of singing ability, dancing ability, and charisma? Hinton brings such likability to Sweet! Sweet’s “What You Feel” isn’t a hard song to distinguish the meaning of as it’s very simple. He’s simply explaining why he’s in Sunnydale and how his power works. The only thing of significance that he reveals is that if someone is having powerful, challenging emotional turmoil, they may, slightly, potentially, accidentally burst into flames until they die...but that’s a minor detail, right? There’s something oddly poetic about people literally being consumed by their own grief. Yet another example of the show taking real-life issues, slapping fangs on them, and making them a part of the process. When you think about it, Sweet’s not evil at all. He’s merely saving people from their grief and agony...like a good fairy or something. A good fairy that wears amazing suits and should be my friend. OH MY GOD, I just had a thought while typing this! What if Sweet and Mr. Trick are cousins?! They both wear colourful suits and have witty remarks! Officially head-canon now! Somebody write the fanfic, for the love of God! Oh, Dawn also accidentally reveals that her sister is the Slayer. Oops. Dawn...foot, mouth. One is not supposed to reside inside the other.

Now that Dawn is in her usual state of capture, it’s time to hear Tony’s heavenly singing voice. Buffy’s remark about being “pretty spry for a corpse” might seem humourous on the surface, but it’s yet another example of her morbid sense of humour that we’ve seen repeatedly since her resurrection. Barring Spike, who’s aware of the situation, whenever someone asks Buffy how she’s doing in regards to her mental state, she responds with some form of morbid humour. It’s perfectly in character for Buffy to do this as we see it all the time in real life. Often when people are feeling self-conscious about something, they’ll joke about it in the hope that it’ll stop others from doing it instead. Buffy is using morbid humour to deflect follow-up questions that could be uncomfortable to answer. From Giles’ facial expressions and demeanour, it’s clear that he knows Buffy isn’t adjusting well. He knows that she’s hiding something from him, he’s just not sure what. When he asks Buffy if she has talked to Dawn regarding Dawn’s lying and vampire-kissing from the last episode, “All The Way”, Buffy responds with “I thought you took care of that?”. Yet again, this is a repeating pattern of behaviour since Giles returned to Sunnydale. When Buffy was feeling too overwhelmed to handle her financial situation, she left Giles to sort out the bills while she disappeared to meet Angel. When Dawn has been rebelling or acting out, Buffy has left Giles to scold her and address the situation. Giles is stuck in a catch-22 situation. He wants to stay in Sunnydale and continue what he’s doing because he adores Buffy and looks at her as his daughter (which “Restless” confirms once and for all). He wants to support her, to carry her, and to save her, but he knows that if he continues to do that, Buffy will never stand on her own two feet. Why would she? Why would she face up to her responsibilities if Giles is handling them for her? The only way Buffy can A) grow as an adult, and B) start to deal with her death and resurrection, is to be forced into openly addressing them. That will never happen with Giles around. He loves her too much to see her suffer, so he’ll always, always, always save her from having to face the difficult questions and situations.

I’ve heard the argument that Giles should have waited longer before leaving, as Buffy has only been back from the dead a few weeks. While I can see why people would think this, when you take the above into account, the longer Giles stayed, the harder it would have been for both himself and for Buffy in the long run. I personally feel that Giles did the right thing by leaving when he did. He’s made sure that Buffy is safe financially for a few months, he’s helped her through her initial return to Earth, and now it’s time to let her fly the nest and learn to walk again on her own. Sooner or later in every young adult’s life, they need to learn how to become an adult. They need to experience the world without stabiliser wheels and they need to be able to try different things and make their own mistakes. Giles knows that Buffy is more than capable in succeeding. He knows that she’s resourceful, headstrong, intelligent, and powerful. However, what Giles isn’t aware of is that Buffy was in Heaven, nor does he realise the extent of her emotional trauma. If he did, would he have left? By the end of this episode he knows that Buffy was in Heaven, but he’s certainly not aware of how isolated and depressed Buffy is feeling. I don’t think he could ever have torn himself away from her if he knew this.

Giles: “You’re not ready for the world outside. You keep pretending, but you just can’t hide. I know I said that I’d be standing by your side, but I...

Your path’s unbeaten and it’s all uphill. And you can meet it, but you never will. And I’m the reason that you’re standing still, but I...

I wish I could say the right words to lead you through this land. Wish I could play the father and take you by the hand. Wish I could stay here, but now I understand. I’m standing in the way.

The cries around you, you don’t hear at all. ‘Cause you know I’m here to take that call. So you just lie there when you should be standing tall, but I...

I wish I could lay your arms down and let you rest at last. Wish I could slay your demons, but now that time has passed. Wish I could stay here, your stalwart, standing fast, but I’ve been standing in the way. I’m just standing in the way.”

By the conclusion of his song, it’s clear that Giles has made up his mind to leave Sunnydale again. He’s giving Buffy the opportunity to face her demons and to try and come out the other side of it a well-adjusted adult. It’s kind of beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time, isn’t it? Ultimately, it’s merely a father looking at his daughter and deciding to move away in order to give her the space and opportunity to become an adult. Should Giles have waited longer? Should Giles have supported Buffy for a few more months before deciding to do this? Based on what comes after he leaves, it’s certainly open to debate, but I think Giles acted in the best way he thought he could. He was definitely acting in Buffy’s best interests in his head. During my writing on this review, I did a little research online and found a fascinating essay written about this exact topic. One of the moments the essay went back to was season four’s “A New Man” and a conversation between Giles and Maggie Walsh...

Giles: “I think it’s best if we let a young person find their own strengths. If you lead a child by the hand then they’ll never find their own footing.”
Maggie: “She (Buffy)’s very self-reliant, very independent...which is not always a good thing. I think it can be unhealthy to take on adult roles too early.”

Which method is correct? I think that depends on the individual. Giles acted in Buffy’s best interests and there was no way of knowing for sure what would happen, so I’m gonna give Giles the benefit of the doubt. This leads us nicely into a duet reprise between Giles and Tara, who have both clearly decided to leave their ‘partners’ by this point. With the discovery of the forgetting spell Willow used on her, Tara is ready to leave. This is particularly heartbreaking as Willow and Tara have easily been the most stable couple in the Buffyverse at this point and one could argue that nobody comes close to them in this regard. Tara does give Willow one last chance in the next episode, but Willow royally screws that one up too. The decision to combine these two songs was a genius one by Mr. Whedon. Not only do their two respective stories tie together nicely, but their powerful voices combined makes for a feast for the ears. It’s kind of ironic that it’s Giles and Tara because they’ve had almost no interaction throughout their run together on the show. How many conversations have they had? Two? Three? Now, they’re both in very similar emotional spaces.

Spike arrives at The Magic Box with one of Sweet’s musical, Sid-looking minions in tow. The minion relays Sweet’s message to the Scoobies that Sweet has Dawn and he wants Buffy to meet him at The Bronze alone. Spike reacts to this news with flat-out rejection, but Giles’ reaction is much more interesting. With Giles’ newfound goal of encouraging Buffy to stand on her own two feet, he decides that Buffy will go to The Bronze alone to save Dawn. This isn’t new behaviour for Giles as he tried something similar in “The Freshman” as Buffy started college. Like “The Freshman”, Giles ends up changing his mind and charging after Buffy to come to her aid. This proves exactly what he was singing about! If he remains in Sunnydale, he’ll always go against his better judgement and help Buffy, regardless. When Willow suggests using magic to combat Sweet, Tara reacts with a loud, stern “no!”. It’s quite out of character for Tara to raise her voice, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this reaction from her. Buffy being sent out to face Sweet alone leads to what is easily my favourite song of the episode. “Rest In Peace” is amazing, “Standing” is amazing, “Something To Sing About” is heartbreaking, “Under Your Spell” is beautiful, but “Walk Through The Fire” is the masterpiece of the group. It’s the episode’s black album or “Appetite For Destruction”. The best of the best, and all those other clichés. 

Everything about this song works. From the lyrical content to the fire trucks driving past the Scoobies, to the medley of voices working alongside each other towards the end of the song, to Willow’s one solo line of the song being a very self-aware line about how it’s mostly filler...everything works. Furthermore, Sarah Michelle Gellar is beyond captivating. This is some of her best work of the season. Buffy wants to be the person she was before she dived to her death and was dragged out of Heaven. She wants to be okay again, but she can’t. She doesn’t have a clue how to be happy again and it’s taking all her effort just to stay afloat. Buffy’s feelings of contemplating suicide are clearly still at work, as evident by the line “to save the day or maybe melt away, I guess it’s all the same”. She couldn’t care less if she defeats Sweet and saves the day. She couldn’t care less if she dies during the attempt. At least that way she’ll feel some peace. Her reaction to either scenario is a simple, metaphorical shrug, which is a very dangerous place to be mentally, as I discovered myself countless times while battling depression. In comparison to this is Spike, who seems to care too much if Buffy lives or dies. He’s still feeling deeply conflicted about Buffy and what to do with his love for her. One second he’s hoping she dies and the next second he’s deciding to go after her to help her in case she dies. He wants to see her die and be her knight in Spike’ing armour. Most amusing. It’s interesting to note that Spike is the one who actually does save her at the conclusion of the next song, “Something To Sing About”. Buffy is desperately trying to hold on to her last great secret, that she was in Heaven. She never wants her friends to find out, even if this means that they’ll never be aware of why she ‘froze’. I think she should let it go, personally...“Frozen” jokes are the best. Whenever I hear Tara sing the line “everything is turning out so dark”, I quickly flash forwards to her death scene in “Seeing Red”, as the light leaves her eyes. By the end of this season, there will be nothing but darkness for Tara.

After arriving at The Bronze and exchanging witticisms with Sweet, he gives Buffy one last thing to sing about. From a lyrical perspective, this is probably the most deep, thought-provoking, startling, fascinating song of the episode. This could arguably be Sarah’s strongest acting of the season as well. The amount of raw emotion and honestly that Sarah has to express here – alongside the singing and dancing demands – is overwhelming to watch, let alone perform. Even after “What You Feel” and Sweet explaining the power of his magic, I never expected Buffy to sing about how she was in Heaven. I simply didn’t think that was on the table. However, when you really think about it, this episode was heading that way all along. If Sweet makes you sing about your deepest, darkest emotional complexities and secrets, then Buffy revealing that she was in Heaven is the only reason why this episode was constructed in this way. There were other ways to have a musical episode without Sweet’s special gift...but they would have ignored Joss’ Dementor powers of living off of the misery of his audience. Why have a heart-felt musical when you can have a musical and crush souls of your audience? It’s win-win for Joss! I swear, he bathes in the tears of his audience. Her revelation that she was in Heaven destroys everyone. It destroys Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya because they were the ones who brought her back. It destroys Giles and Dawn because they love Buffy and now have a new perspective on what she’s going through. For some strange reason, Buffy singing this revelation instead of simply saying it makes it more powerful. So much more powerful. Therefore, I’m going to start singing every important event in my life. Wedding day? Gonna sing my vows. Best Man speech? Gonna sing the sarcastic remarks. Death bed? I’m soprano’ing my ass into the afterlife. Sarah’s facial expressions while delivering this gut-wrenching news to the Scoobies is so above and beyond what most actors are capable of it’s not even funny.

Before the revelation, Buffy’s lyrical content is a great reflection on life in general...

Sweet: “Come now, is that really what you feel? Isn’t life a miraculous thing?”
Buffy: “I think you already know...”

I adore Buffy’s “and you can sing along” directed right into the camera, encouraging the audience to sing their little hearts out alongside her. Joss clearly wants the audience to feel everything that Buffy is feeling in this moment, just to make it hurt even more when she tells the Scoobies that she was in Heaven...bastard! Buffy starts the song on a positive note to some extent. Even when things go wrong in life, you can still always “sing a happy song” and get over it. You can lean on your friends and family to get through it. Then, rather quickly, it begins to spiral downwards. Buffy sings about how she’s worked hard all day, every day to be like other young women. To fit into a world where she doesn’t belong because she’s the Slayer. This has been a huge part of Buffy’s journey ever since “Welcome To The Hellmouth”. Trying to fit into the regular, normal, human world. Life isn’t always going to be shits and giggles. A lot of life is challenging. Trying to make money, trying to make friends, trying to cope with death and disease, trying to make something of yourself and make a difference to the world. Life is a constant, overwhelming struggle. This isn’t something that gets better with age, either. In fact, it often gets worse because you’ve experienced more. As Buffy says, “every single verse can make it that much worse”. Being the Slayer, this is even truer for Buffy. Not only is she facing these problems like everyone else, but she also has to deal with patrolling, the Hellmouth, and that pesky protecting-the-world-from-evil thing. She’s straddling two worlds, but living in neither. Buffy then goes on to say that her friends don’t know why she ignores the “million things or more” that should be keeping her happy and positive. She should be happy because of the joys that life offers, such as friends and family. However, part of enjoying life stems from the fact that we, as humans, die. Without death, without knowing that there is an end, how can you truly appreciate life? For many people, death is a motivator and encourages people to live life to the full and not procrastinate. Buffy had a very difficult life with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Even through the struggles, she enjoyed herself.  She had a wonderful family, a great Watcher, and terrific friends. But, she left that life behind her. She chose to die. She sacrificed herself to save Dawn and the world. She was ready for peace and she received it in Heaven. Her friends, whether their intentions were good or not, stole that peace away from her. Buffy has no idea how to find the will to live again. She’s miserable, depressed, lonely, isolated, and can no longer enjoy the “million things or more” that make life wonderful.

This is where the revelation comes.

Buffy: “There was no pain. No fear, no doubt, ‘til they pulled me out of Heaven. So that’s my refrain. I live in Hell, ‘cause I’ve been expelled from Heaven. I think I was in Heaven.”

The tragedy of Buffy Summers is that she lived, she did her job, she saved the world numerous times, and she died at peace. That should have been the full-circle moment of her story. She resented being the Slayer, she grew to accept it, she discovered that death was her gift to the world, and she voluntarily, selflessly sacrificed herself to save it. Her friends stole this away from her and thrust her back into a world where she no longer belongs and where she doesn’t want to be. She had no choice in the resurrection, no option. As I’ve mentioned before, Willow and the others were careless in not confiding in Giles. He may have known something that they didn’t, such as the ‘Axis of Pythia’ that Angel uses to discover where Cordelia is after she ascends on “Angel”. Willow’s reaction to the revelation is particularly satisfying as it was her above everyone else that resurrected Buffy and refused to get Giles involved in the process. Buffy has a long, painful journey ahead of her to even start to be happy again and this is reflected in the season that lays ahead of her. Now that Buffy’s friends and father-figure are aware that she was in Heaven, she’s desperate for Sweet to give her something to sing about and distract her from her pain. Sweet refuses, so Buffy turns to lost art of interpretive dance. Was Buffy trying to kill herself in that moment or was it simply Sweet’s spell causing her to dance? Was it a conscious action on her part? Just as she’s about to become a human torch, Spike steps in and stops her from sizzling. Not only does he save her life, but he gives her some advice about how she can heal...by living. Living and fighting, and working through the pain slowly is the only way to heal from what has happened to her. Ironically, outside of suicide, living is the only way to combat Buffy’s depression over living again. Then Dawn echoes Buffy’s final words to her in “The Gift” and I become a puddle of goop on the floor...“the hardest thing in this world is to live in it”. Using Buffy’s own wisdom against her! Well played, Dawn!

Oh, also, Amber Benson accidentally bumping into a pillar during this song will never not be the funniest part of the episode.

Sweet tries to take Dawn back to the underworld with him to be his queen and it is revealed that Xander raised the magical singing, dancing demon to try to cheer everyone up from their misery. Good work, Xander! Someone is dead and everyone is more miserable. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again...it is way too forgotten about by the characters and the fandom that Xander is responsible for the death of a human. I love that Sweet only decides to leave after Willow aggressively tells him to. He can smell her power and rage, and this is enough to make him disappear. This is foreshadowing what is to come for her character very soon...power, greed, and aggression. One look and a few words from Willow were enough to make him metaphorically piss himself and disappear. However, he doesn’t leave before giving the Scoobies one final song, “Where Do We Go From Here?”.

This is the ultimate message behind the episode. With all these problems being openly addressed by the characters, where do they go now? What do they do next now that they know Buffy was in Heaven? What does Giles do next now that he realises he’s standing in Buffy’s way? What does Tara do next now that she’s aware of the forgetting spell? What do Xander and Anya do next regarding their wedding? All of these story points are left open-ended as a way to set up the rest of the season. Only one of these gets a small sense of resolution in this episode: Buffy’s need to feel something to escape her problems.

“The curtains close on a kiss; God knows we can tell the end is near.”

Now that her secret is in the open, Buffy has decided to turn to something she’s been slowly leaning towards since “Life Serial”...using lust, desire, and eventually sex as a coping mechanism. Buffy is hoping that distracting herself with Spike will make her feel less miserable. She’s just hopelessly desperate to feel something again, anything. It reminds me of Angel in the 2nd season of his show. At the end of his tether, he sleeps with Darla in an attempt to feel something besides the cold. That is exactly what Buffy is doing here. Hell, she tells Spike as much...“this isn’t real, but I just wanna feel”. While this distraction might sound great on paper, it leads to a plethora of dramatic consequences down the line including sexual abuse, depression, physical abuse, and a whole lot more. This season has been unrelentingly dark already, but it’s only just beginning. Grab some popcorn, grab some tissues, and hold on for dear life. Things are about to get even darker and more upsetting.

“Where do we go from here?”


Quote Of The Episode

Because it’s naughty and hilarious...

Spike: “Oh. So that’s all. You’ve just come to pump me for information.”

Buffy: “What else would I want to pump you for?...I really just said that, didn’t I?”

I’d just like to point out that Buffy will be pumping Spike for much more in just two episodes.



FINAL SCORE: 10/10

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

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