Nightmares

Nightmares
Written by Joss Whedon. Teleplay by David Greenwalt.
Directed by Bruce Seth Green

Original Airdate: May 12, 1997

Plot: The residents of Sunnydale begin to experience the worst nightmares come to life....

Review

Warning: If having all the twists and turns of an episode of Buffy is one of your "Nightmares" I suggest you turn back now. Major SPOILERS for "Nightmares" are just ahead....

In short: Excellent work.

As some of you know, the first two or three weeks of season one, I wasn't happy with the overall stories. Yes, they were good in some points, but they didn't quite have the magic that I'd come to associate with Buffy. I'm afraid I'm having to eat those words now, because looking back I can see that those episodes served a very important purpose--to set up the character and their dynamics so that the last few eps (Angel, the Pack, Nightmares, even to some extent IRYJ) could kick some major vampire butt.

Joss, I will never doubt you again.

That all said, "Nightmares" is an episode that takes all of what we know about the characters and used it to produce a taut, rivetting, and scary hour of Buffy. Yes, I say scary. I am usually on the edge of my seat watching Buffy due to the superlative use of dramatic tension on the show. But I can't remember an episode of Buffy that is quite as unnerving as "Nightmares" turned out to be.

And you've got to give a lot of credit to the script and the direction. Of course, the script was from a story by Joss and the direction from Bruce Seth Green, so that's a great pedigree right there. And while I've been wholly impressed by Green's direction in the past, I was stunned by it here. His fusing of the nightmare images into the everyday world was done subtly but surrealy enough to be unnerving, but also to keep your eyes glued to the screen. It was amazing to watch how seamlessly the two worlds came together when it was necessary. And the beginning moments with the spiders, Xander's lack of clothes, and Buffy's dad were just so superlative done that all I can do is rave about them here. But once the "Nightmares" became more prevelant in our world, the jarring non-reality of them was really done.

One sequence I particularily liked was Buffy's meeting the Master in the graveyard. The direction here really made the scene click.

Of course, it was helped in no small part by some superb performances by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Mark Metcalf. I've been a bit underwhelmed by the Master since the opening episode, but here he was everything I wanted in the ultimate bad guy. Scary, teasing, toying, cruel. And his earlier scene with the Annoited One when he put his hand on the cross to face his fear of it was very well done as well. (And coming off the closing shot of "Angel" was a nice little bit of parallel structure for the show).

But what set "Nightmares" apart really was how strong the images presented in those dreams were on screen. This is the type of epiosde that is similar to Star Trek's "The Naked Time" in which having a working familarity with the characters makes it better. Joss has placed this story late enough in the series run so that the images and nightmares presented can come out of characters we know and love. If the story is placed too early (such as TNG's "The Naked Now") it can come off as cliched, obtrussive, and misplaced. But this late in season one, we've had a chance to get to know a bit more about each character (though Cordy really gets the short end of the stick all around in her dreams!) and so getting to see what frightens them is quite fun.

I liked that Giles fears were losing his mind (it seemed almost like he was getting Alzheimers, which I can see as being a great fear to him) and failing Buffy, while Willow's was facing a huge crowd. Buffy's fears were well founded and really seemed to make a lot more sense having also seen the flashbacks in Becoming, Part One.

But the thing that throws this episode over the top and into the realm of being a great episode along the lines of Lie to Me is the explanation. It's not just a simple ending really. Instead, the entire dream runoff comes from one traumatized child. And I've got to be honest--what the coach did was scarier than any of the images we saw on screen. And what could have easily been a subject that was treated as a bad "After School Special" topic was handled with grace and sensitivity here. There were enough hints as to what had happened, without having to tell us right out. We are to draw our own conclusions about what's happened and that really works. Personally, I loved the idea of the boy having to face his fear in order to free them all from their fears. And the monster he created was pretty scary, and really seemed a lot more horrifying than the last monster we saw in a hospital in Killed by Death.

So, all in all, I've got to say, this one is definitely a keeper. In fact, I'd have to say it ranks up there as my favorite first season episode to date.

I guess that about wraps it up, except for a few small things...

--The monster that chased the boy and Buffy...was it played by the same guy who was the coach? I tried to see but couldn't ever tell. If so, that's a really cool detail.

--Buffy's fear of not being as powerful as she thinks she is was a nice touch. And the scene with her dad in the dreamworld was like being punched in the gut. Sarah Michelle Gellar really gave a great, great performance here.

--Of course, so did the whole cast. It was an all around great acting effort. They all stood out in their own way.

--Some of the nightmares had a funny streak--eps the "cool" guy with his mom kissing him. I love the way this show combines humor and horor, when necessary.

Well, that's about it for now. Easily one of the best Buffy episodes I've ever seen and one I will definately be watching again and again....

My rating: 10.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: There's an invisible girl in Sunnydale....

"You slay...we party."

--Xander