S6-17 Normal Again
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Episode Guide
Buffy
Buffy Season 6
Author: Stuart Millington Publishing date: 03.12.2002 00:17
Buffy is checking newly rented houses looking for Jonathan's gang. They are in a basement and see her, on their surveillance equipment, checking the house. Andrew summons a demon, which Buffy fights. But, the demon stabs her with a spike [No pun intended!]. The scene changes to Buffy being restrained as a patient in a mental institution.
Buffy regains consciousness in an alley, in the clothes she wore when fighting the demon. Willow is at college practising to ask Tara on a date. Then she sees Tara with another woman.
Buffy is working at the restaurant, but the scene switches between the restaurant and the institution. At home Buffy talks to Willow, who tells her about Tara.
Xander arrives looking for Anya, who left a few days ago. He realises that he made a mistake and wants to start again.
Spike finds Buffy on patrol. He hasn't heard the outcome of the wedding, so she tells him. Xander and Willow arrive while they are talking. Spike and Xander argue, then fight. As they fight, Buffy collapses and she is back in the institution.
The doctor tells her that Sunnydale doesn't exist and that she has been in the institution for six years. Joyce and her father are there.
Willow and Xander take Buffy home. She tells them of the visions she has been having since the demon stabbed her. At the institution the doctor talks to Buffy's about her fantasy life.
Warren and Andrew return to the basement with some boxes, but they refuse to tell Jonathan what is in them or what they are planning.
Willow has identified the demon and it's spike contains an antidote as well as the poison it infected Buffy with. Buffy tells Willow that when she saw vampires for the first time, she told her parents and they sent her to a mental institution for a couple of weeks. Buffy wonders if she is still there.
Xander and Spike are hunting the demon and arguing. They find the demon and knock it out. Dawn talks to Buffy, who is partly at the institution. Dawn realises that she is not in Buffy's alternative life.
Spike and Xander restrain the demon in Buffy's basement while Willow snaps its spike off and uses it to make an antidote. Willow gives Buffy the antidote to drink. Spike tells Buffy that she is addicted to misery and should live her life instead of being miserable all the time. He tells her that if she does not tell the rest of the gang about their relationship, he will. She pours the antidote away without drinking it and goes back to the institution. She wants to stay there.
The doctor tells her that she has to deal with her friends who keep dragging her back into her fantasy. She lets Willow believe that she drank the antidote. Xander returns to the house. Buffy attacks him when he starts to talk about Spike. She drags him to the basement - where she has already bound and gagged Willow.
Buffy goes upstairs to do the same to Dawn. Dawn leads Buffy on a chase around the house while trying to persuade her that the institution is the false reality. Buffy catches Dawn and ties her up with the others.
Buffy frees the demon and watches while it attacks Xander. Tara arrives at the house and finds them in the basement. She uses magic to free Willow and Dawn, but Buffy trips her as she comes down the stairs. Buffy watches while the demon attacks Willow and Dawn.
Joyce is with her at the institution helping her to recover from her fantasies. Joyce tells her to believe in herself. Buffy thanks her and says goodbye. She returns to reality and kills the demon.
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