NORMAL AGAIN

SUMMARY WRITTEN BY LEOFF

 

 

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Xander questions the whereabouts of the nerd herd, Willow and Dawn talk about Tara at the Bronze, Dawn's loneliness talk to Buffy, Buffy breaking up with Spike, Anya preps for Wedding, Xander walks away from wedding.

Buffy walks down a nighttime Sunnydale street, carrying a list of addresses that are of houses for rent, searching for a possible 'hideout' for the Troika, and she starts up the front walk to investigate one.

Jonathan sleeps at a computer monitor as the barrel of a gun is slowly pointed at his head, then a moment later, BLAM! He is hit with a big blast of water! Warren and Andrew chuckle as Jonathan wipes his head dry and complains about being tired and cooped up in the basement for days. He wonders why they can't go upstairs, especially since they rented the whole house, but Andrew says they've got to lay low... literally! Just then, Warren notices Buffy on one of the computer monitors, lurking around the outside of their house! Warren tells Jonathan not to panic as Andrew grabs a demon summoning horn and gets help from a little "friend."

Lurking outside, Buffy is surprised by a waxy, bald-headed demon who instantly attacks! The two fight outside and Buffy starts to get the better of the demon, but then a small spike comes out of the demon's arm and he jams it into Buffy's arm...

Buffy struggles with the two orderlies as they inject the tranquilizer into her arm. Outside of her hospital room, mental patients and doctors roam the hall.

Opening Credits: nothing new.

Buffy awakes, leaning against a car in the alley where she was fighting the demon. She looks around confused as she feels her sore arm.

The next day at Sunnydale U, Willow waits in a hallway, practicing some lines to ask Tara out on a date. Willow sees Tara come out of class and smiles wide, starting to approach her friend, but then sees Tara approached by another woman, who greets Tara with a light peck on the cheek. Surprised and hurt, Willow turns and starts walking away quickly, but Tara notices Willow's hasty exit and is bothered herself.

Standing over a deep fryer at the Doublemeat Palace, Buffy is a bit out of it. She's called by a co-worker at the front counter...

"Buffy, come on; It's time for your drugs" says the hospital orderly to Buffy, who stands confused in a hospital gown.

"I said, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were on drugs." Says the co-worker to a distracted Buffy, who turns and empties some badly overdone fries from the fryer.

The next day, Buffy walks into the kitchen to find Willow on-line. Willow's looking for any sign of Xander's whereabouts, even in e-mail, but there's nothing. Buffy then asks Willow why she wasn't seeing Tara, and Willow sadly describes the earlier scene, knowing that it might just be nothing, but it still bothers her.

The doorbell rings and Xander is greeted with hugs from Buffy and Willow. He's looking for Anya and wonders if she's there, saying that she took a suitcase with some clothes and that there's a closed sign on the Magic Box door. He talks to his friends, saying that he knows he made a mistake and that he's still confused by the wedding and his family and her demon friends, but he misses her badly and feels lost without her. Buffy and Willow are sympathetic to his "screw up."

Spike walks through his graveyard with a bag of groceries as he comes upon a patrolling Buffy. He asks how the wedding went, if there was sobbing and flying rice. The two sit as Buffy informs him that it didn't take place because Xander left, which Spike is surprised at. Xander and Willow appear and Buffy tries to pass off their conversation as an interrogation, trying to ignore their friendship in front of Willow and Xander. A little hurt and pissed, Spike starts to walk away but Xander starts letting the insults fly and Spike turns back to let some insults fly back. Willow tries to calm the two down, but all three don't notice Buffy start to get dizzy and fall to her knees in back of them...

Crouched in a corner of her hospital room, a Doctor kneels by Buffy who is confused and tired. He asks her where she his. She says Sunnydale. The Doctor says no, that none of that is real, she's in a mental institution and has been for the past 6 years.

Spike is sent to the ground by a Xander punch as Buffy continues to act strange.

Buffy starts to panic in the corner but the Doctor calms her down, showing her who just arrived in the room: her mother and father! Joyce kneels by her daughter and says "Welcome home, sweetie."

Commercial Break: Nicoderm CQ, now in Cherry, Lime, and Grape flavors!

Buffy's mom and dad smile at her as she looks at them, confused about the images in her mind.

Willow and Xander help Buffy up as Spike says they should bring her back to his crypt, but Xander coldly says no to Spike and they start to slowly walk her home. Spike tells them to put ice on the back of her neck as he picks up his groceries and walks away, hurt and concerned.

At the Summers living room, Buffy calmly re-tells the events of the demon attack the prior night to Xander, Willow, and Dawn, and then continues to tell of the images of her in the mental ward. In the images, Sunnydale and the entire slaying lifestyle did not exist according to the Doctor. Buffy then looks at Dawn and says that Mom was there, with Dad, and they were still together. Buffy's talk is slow and lucid, as if not knowing what to believe. Willow then jumps up and takes charge, telling Xander to check out all the local demon haunts and Dawn to help her with research...

In the Doctor's office, Joyce and Hank talk to the Doctor with Buffy sitting nearby, curled up in a chair. Her parents are hopeful that some sort of new breakthrough will take place, but the Doctor tells them what they already know, that for the past 6 years Buffy has been in a schizophrenic dream world in which she the central figure, a type of superhero with friends who also have super powers. In the world they battle mythical monsters, but with each victory, the world gets more diverse and detailed. Buffy becomes agitated for a moment, saying that Warren and the others did this to her, then she calls Dawns name. The Doctor explains that Buffy created Dawn to re-establish a closer connection to try to calm things down, but her creation, along with the continuing stories of her friends and family became too complicated and were no longer comforting to her. Her battles used to be grand, against monsters and gods, but now they are much less, with the villains being reduced to three pathetic little men.

Warren and Andrew walk into their basement and Jonathan, overtired and paranoid, wants to know where they were. Warren tries to calm Jonathan down, telling him they were just going out for supplies, but Jonathan is sick of being trapped in the basement and he's jealous that they got to go out. He starts on his way out, saying he wants to get supplies too, but Warren grabs him and coaxes him back, purposely keeping him downstairs and seemingly in the dark about something, which adds to Jonathan's paranoia. Andrew looks on silently as Warren smooth talks Jonathan into staying put, saying it's dangerous for him to go out alone and if one gets caught, they all get caught.

Buffy stares at a picture of her and her and Joyce and Hank. Willow walks up and says they have some luck and shows her a picture and description of the very demon Buffy fought earlier. Buffy looks as if she could care less and says that she's very lost. Willow talks to her as Buffy says she's been detached even before the demon attack.

Buffy then goes on to tell Willow something shocking: that when she was younger and first encountered vampires, she told her parents and they freaked, thinking there was something wrong with her and sent her to a clinic for a couple of weeks. Eventually she stopped talking about it and they let her go. In time her parents simply forgot. Tearfully, Buffy questions Willow, wondering if she's still in that clinic and has been for the past 6 years. Willow assures her that she's not, that it's a bad memory from the past mixed with the demon poison in her system, and that the demon holds the antidote to it's own poison, which Xander is currently tracking.

Xander and Spike walk through a forest, looking for the demon. Spike goes on to think it funny that they're all part of Buffy's delusions, including the chip in his head, and making him soft on her, and making him her sex slave, which Xander questions and Spike quickly shakes off. The two start to get into an argument about Xander's wedding fiasco when the wax demon jumps out of nowhere and attacks! After a fierce struggle, with Xander shooting two tranquilizer darts into the demon, it's subdued.

Dawn brings Buffy some tea in her bedroom and Dawn notices that Buffy has a fever. Buffy starts to ramble a bit, saying that they have to try harder, with the grades and the stealing. Dawn looks a bit hurt as Buffy then asks her if Willow's been doing her chores? Dawn chalks it up to the fever, but Buffy grabs Dawn and says they have to deal with them...

"You don't have a sister, Buffy." Joyce tries to get through to her daughter, saying that all of that other life is just a dream and that they'll all soon go home and get things back to normal.

Dawn stares at her sister and starts to cry. "I'm not even there, am I?" she says. Buffy has been talking aloud and Dawn isn't in her 'perfect' dream world. Hurt, Dawn leaves to go and do chores.

Leading the chained demon into the basement of the Summers house, Xander and Spike wrestle it to a standstill (after Xander is kicked down twice). Willow comes up and jabs the demon in the arm, forcing the large spike to shoot out of it's hand, which Willow breaks off and puts in a jar. Willow then orders Xander to go to the Magic Box and get some supplies so she can get to work on a "non-magical" antidote. Spike stays behind to keep an eye on the demon.

Later, Willow approaches Buffy with a warm mug full of the thick antidote. Buffy's really out of it. Spike walks in and Willow tells him to make sure she drinks all the antidote "you need to leave me alone. You're not a part of my life" says a dazed Buffy. Spike then gets upset and goes off on Buffy, saying that she's not drawn to the dark, but instead she's addicted to misery. She's got to stop worrying about everything and just live, then maybe things will be better. He then lays down an ultimatum: either Buffy tells the others about their former romance or he will, then he storms out. Buffy grips the mug and is ready to drink, but then gets lost in thought, thinks for a moment, and pours the antidote into the garbage next to her.

"I don't wanna go back there. I wanna be healthy again. What do I have to do?" Buffy looks up at the Doctor, making the decision that she doesn't like the 'other world' and wants to live in what she thinks is the real one.

Commercial Break: Windex makes it SHINE!

Buffy begs her parents and the Doctor for help, saying she wants to go home. The Doctor tells her the only way to help herself is to try and get rid of the things in her mind that support her other world, namely her friends. Her friends are 'tricks' that are keeping her from getting healthy.

Willow walks into a still dazed Buffy in the hallway. Willow offers to make Buffy some food to pep her up and the two walk off to the kitchen.

Xander knocks at the front door and calls out for the others, but no response is heard. He walks through the house and comes upon Buffy in the kitchen, standing silently by the sink. He is happy to see her and asks her if she got the antidote ok. She is silent as Xander rambles about some delusions Spike was mumbling earlier when Buffy unexpectedly grabs a pan and hits Xander in the face with it! The two wrestle before Buffy pulls him down into the basement. Xander sees a bound and gagged Willow laying on the basement floor before he goes unconscious. The wax demon struggles in it's chains, bound to a post nearby.

Buffy comes up from the basement and walks slowly, calmly, up to Dawn's room, where Dawn is packing to go to stay with a friend. Dawn starts to act hurt and defensive, but soon sees Buffy is not herself. Buffy says she has to go downstairs with the others, it's the only way she can get healthy. Buffy grabs for Dawn, but Dawn escapes and runs into another room, pleading with Buffy to try and be calm and think. Dawn tries to explain that this world is real and that the institution world isn't, but Buffy stalks Dawn from room to room, saying that it's ridiculous for her to believe she lives in a world populated with monsters, where she sleeps with a vampire that she hates. Dawn tries to escape, but Buffy grabs her and wrestles her to the ground.

Down in the basement, Dawn pleads with Buffy, who gags her into silence next to bound and gagged Willow and a tied to a post Xander.

The Doctor says that Buffy is doing well, and she must continue to get rid of those elements that are keeping her in the dream world. Buffy is shaking as her parents look on, hopeful.

Buffy starts to unchain the wax looking demon as Xander comes to and sees the demon come for him.

Commercial Break: Heinz Ketchup. Way better than Catsup, cause hey... an extra letter!

Buffy slowly backs away under the stairwell as the demon comes at Xander. Xander stands, hands bound around the post, and kicks at the Demon, begging Buffy to help him.

Tara enters the front door and calls "Hello? Anybody home?"

Shaken and confused, Buffy watches as the demon breaks Xander's bonds, grabs him and throws him across the basement.

Joyce says that it's ok and tries to calm Buffy down in the hospital room. Buffy struggles a bit before running to a corner and slowly sinks down.

Xander calls for Buffy's help again as the demon pummels him. Tara then opens the basement door and starts downstairs. She sees the carnage and casts a spell, shouting "exemente!" which releases the bonds of Willow and Dawn, then casts another spell which sends a shelf full of paint cans and other things flying into the demon. Tara continues downstairs but Buffy, still hiding underneath the stares, grabs Tara's foot from in-between two steps and Tara tumbles down...

Joyce looks at a panting, confused Buffy, reassuring her that she can do this, that she's a survivor.

The demon struggles with Xander and throws him aside, does the same with Dawn, then Willow attacks it with a baseball bat as Buffy watches dazed from under the stairs.

"Willow" cries Buffy as she sits in her hospital room with her mom there by her side. Joyce continues to reassure her, telling her to fight on. "Fight it. You're too good to get them. You can beat this thing. Be strong, baby. I know you're afraid. I know the world seems like a hard place sometimes, but you've got people who love you. Your dad and I have all the faith in the world in you. We'll always be with you. You've got a world of strength in your heart, I know you do, you just have to find it again. Believe in yourself."

Slowly Buffy calms down during Joyce's speech. She looks up calmly at her mom and says "you're right. Thank you. Goodbye." Joyce looks on as Buffy retreats into herself.

From under the stairs, Buffy slowly becomes more aware of her surroundings and charges out, attacking the demon. A brief struggle ensues before Buffy punches the demon in the chest. Literally INSIDE it's chest. She pulls out her hand which is covered in goo as the demon falls, dead. Buffy turns towards the others, who all stand in surprise. "I'm sorry" she says to them all, still not quite with it. Willow assure her that everything is ok, and that they'll get her some more antidote soon.

The Doctor flashes a penlight into Buffy's eyes. "I'm sorry, there's no reaction at all. I'm afraid we've lost her." Joyce sobs as Hank holds her. The camera pulls back from a catatonic Buffy sitting crouched in a corner of the hospital room.

Grr... Arrg...