Forever

Forever
Written & Directed by Marti Noxon

Original Airdate: April 17, 2001

Plot: Old friends return to Sunnydale as the Scooby gang says their final farewells to Joyce Summers and Dawn hatches a plot to help ease the pain of losing her mom--by bringing her back from the dead. Meanwhile, Glory gets a vital clue that may help her find the Key....

Review

WWarning: There is absolutely no telling what will happen if you cast a spell to try and get rid of all the SPOILERS that are just ahead for the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Forever." My suggestion is that if you've not seen it yet and want to see it completely unaware of any of the details, you turn back now...

In short: Exactly the follow-up "The Body" needed and a nice way to start season five's final run...

Every year since season two about this time, I've always started off my review with a lament that it's been far too long since we got any new Buffy and that it's hard to review the latest new episode objectively, simply because I'm so happy that Buffy is back. But this year, while I have complained about the lack of new episodes for the past seven weeks, I wonder if it might not have helped a bit. Simply put, "The Body" was one of the most profoundly moving and emotionally draining hours of television and it's honestly take this long for it to really settle in with me. And I think the WB imposed hiatus on new episodes might have actually helped the dramatic impact of this episode.

Not that it really needed too much help.

I have to admit that Marti Noxon's second stab (no pun intended there) at both writing and directing came felt a lot stronger than her first one. As most of you know, I'm a huge fan of Marti's and I usually find that she has a strong grasp on the characters and how the speak and react. In fact, I usually rank her as second only to Joss on the writing staff. And she's improved in leaps and bounds since her initial offerings in season two and it's been a pleasure to watch her grow up as a writer as the seasons have unfolded.

And she certainly took the ball and ran with it here.

"Forever" served as a nice coda to "The Body" by taking some of the plot threads there were left and the ramifications of Joyce's death and really running with them. I am certainly glad that we got to see Buffy, Giles and the rest of the Scooby gang dealing with the preparations for Joyce's funeral, the funeral itself and the aftermath. We certainly got a little snap-shot into each of the characters--from Anya's fear and uncertainty coming back to Willow's desperate desire to help make things better for Buffy and Dawn, all the while struggling with her own feelings on the matter. (Indeed, Willow's line about dropping by to see her mom and that she'd been doing that a lot lately rang especially true. A couple of years ago, my best friend lost his mother and I will admit that, while I'm usually very close to my family, I spent a lot more money on the long distance bill for the first few months talking to my mom (I'd have gone to see them but they lived in Hawaii at the time so the idea of just dropping by while appealing was just unfeasible))

But the real focus of the episode was on Spike and Dawn. I found Spike's whole reaction to Joyce's death fascinating. And while it might be easy to do as Xander did and dismiss Spike's feelings of loss as simply being a way for him to score points with Buffy, I think it goes much deeper than that. Indeed, I can see that Spike has some motivation to really feel a lot of impact from the death of Joyce Summers. His line that Joyce was the only one who was nice to him out of the Scooby gang certainly rings true--though I wonder how he'd feel if he knew Joyce's reaction to his having a crush on Buffy. It made me think a great deal about how Joyce did small things for people that turned out to be not as small as you might think. Spike's memory of Joyce--as having made him a simple cup of tea and listened to him talk (which brings up continuity as far back as season three's "Lover's Walk") was nicely done. And it shows how far in a lot of ways Spike has come as a character.

But the biggest reaction came from Dawn. I really liked the focus on Dawn's characters. Outside of Giles, she got the least amount of focus in her reaction to Joyce's death in "The Body." Yes, we got the great glimpse into Dawn's life at school there, but we really only saw a bit of her overall reaction to the death of her mother. Here, we got to see a lot of Dawn's reaction and her actions based on that. I loved Dawn's slowly calculated, but entirely motivated out of desperation to stop the pain at the loss of her mom, plan to resurrect Joyce. It wasn't really surprising that she asked Willow and Tara to help her bring her mom back. What was surprising was how far she was willing to go after Willow and Tara deep-sixed the idea. Seeing her go to such lengths as stealing a book and some supplies from the Magic Box was nicely done. And then to see that she was willing to sacrifice her life and Spike's to bring back her mom was nicely done.

I've got to admit that all season long I've liked the dynamic that's built-up between Spike and Dawn. In many ways, it's similar to the dynamic that was between Spike and Joyce--namely that Dawn treats Spike like a person. And you can tell that on some levels Spike has a sort of big-brother type of feeling for Dawn. He is willing to watch out for her and to keep her out of trouble as much as he can. Seeing him being willing to make sure she did the spell right and had the right ingredients was nicely done. If there is a person in the Scooby gang who I think might pick up the torch of treating Spike like a person and not a monster, it will probably be Dawn.

And it's nice to see two actors so easily able to play off of each other. Michelle Trachtenburg and James Marsters once again delivered superb performances.

And I loved the resurrection plotline. Part of it that may come from the fact that I recently re-read Stephen King's "Pet Semetary," which I consider to be one of the most frightening books he's ever written or that I've ever read. There were a whole lot of themes that ran through both the novel and this episode. One was from the tag-line for the movie (which you should avoid like the plague...trust me, the book is so far above the movie it's pitiful), "Sometimes dead is better." Indeed, that certainly seemed to be the warning that everyone tried to give Dawn about bringing Joyce back--because you never know what you're going to bring back. Another was how the most seemingly insane ideas such as trying to bring back a loved one from the dead can seem like a really great idea while you are in a state of shock and grief. In the novel and here, we see characters who have been presented as fairly stable but who convince themselves that the best idea is to bring back their loved one from the dead. And in both cases, once they become convinced this is the course of action to take, there is nothing that will turn them back from it. Of course, if you've read the book or seen the movie, you know it ends badly in Pet Semetary. And it had the potential to end badly here.

Instead of it ending badly, by bringing Joyce back as a zombie or possibly worse, we get a nice coda that highlights the sister relationship between Buffy and Dawn. Indeed, the scene at the end where Buffy confronts Dawn about resurrecting Joyce and Dawn calls Buffy on her lack of grief was superb. You could have stuck the words "Emmy nomination clip" on the scene. Both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Michelle Trachtenberg came through in a huge way. I loved that Buffy is trying to be caught up in the details to avoid thinking about the big-picture and that her mom is really gone, while Dawn has dealt with her denial in another way. The final scene with both sisters breaking down in each others arms and sobbing uncontrollably was superbly done and gut-wrenching to watch. Also of interest was to note that even though Buffy was infuriated by what Dawn did, there was a moment when there was the knock at the door where Buffy had some hope that Joyce might actually be back from the dead and this nightmare might be over.

However, if there's one thing Buffy has shown us over the past five years, it's that Joss and company are willing to put the Scooby gang in hard situations and not give them an easy way out. Buffy had to face the choice of saving the world or keeping Angel, killing Faith or letting Angel die and much more. In each case, the choices have been difficult and have had consequences--both good and bad. I can only imagine what the consequences of the actions set in motion here will have--and their impact on the final run of five episodes as they unfold.

Speaking of consequences, in all of this myriad of pain and denial, we got some interesting hints of the future.

For one thing, Glory's search has narrowed. Her minion finally delivered the news that the Key is in human form. This should prove to be interesting to see how Glory uses this information to aid her quest to find the Keys.

Of course, this brings up an interesting nit-pick. Supposedly Ben is a medical student and he knows the creatures that serve as Glory's minions. He seemed desperate to keep the knowledge of the Key being human from Glory, but he didn't do a very good job of killing her favorite minion. That seems a bit odd based on his background.

The next long-term continuity was Doc. I have a deep, dark feeling we may see him again. And certainly it may be interesting that while he didn't charge Dawn a monetary fee for his services, he may call in the debt in another way. Indeed, I was reminded a great deal of Londo from Babylon Five here and the deal he made with Morden that had far reaching consequences that Londo could barely begin to imagine when he made the deal with the Shadows. I wonder if Doc is somehow or another connected to Glory and her plans for the Key.

But, again, the real strength of this episode was the emphasis on the impact of Joyce's death and how the characters reacted to it. And it was all superbly done.

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

--We've really seen how all the Scooby gang reacted to Joyce's death--except Giles. Giles has been serving as the rock that all the Scooby gang are leaning on. I wonder how long it will be before the death of his friend hits him. After all, he did have a strong relationship with Joyce, even though it was at times a bit rocky. And let's not forget what happened in "Band Candy."

--Buffy's father going AWOL was painful to hear about.

--One question that I've wondered about is--who will get custody of Dawn? One some levels, Buffy is legally old enough to be the guardian for her sister. But will she get the chance?

--Joel Gray did a nice job. The lizard-like eyes were very similar to the Black Oil in the X-Files.

--I liked Angel's cameo. I also liked the temptation both characters had to fall-back on a comfortable relationship rather than deal with their own personal pain.

Well, that's about it for now. All in all, "Forever" was a nice return to new Buffy and it seems to have set the stage for the final run. I have a feeling that we were given clues and shown things here that will only become clear once we've seen how the entire plotline plays out. But along that way, we were given a nice coda to "The Body." In short, it was exactly the episode that was needed at this point in Buffy.

My rating: 9.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Spike's and Buffy-bot, sitting in a tree...K-I-S-S-I-N-G...and a bit more....