Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S6/E17 Normal Again

"You think this isn't real just because of all the vampires and demons and ex-vengeance demons and the sister that used to be a big ball of universe-destroying energy?"

A demon summoned by The Trio poisons Buffy, making her think her adventures had been all a delusion and she's really stuck in a mental hospital.

"Female Doctor: Come on, it's time for your drugs. [Flash back to the Double Meat Palace.] Buffy: (confused) What? Lorraine: I said, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were on drugs. Buffy: (confused) Okay. Good."
 * Absentee Actor: Anya
 * Adult Fear: Losing your child to madness.
 * All Just a Dream:
 * Ambiguous Situation: Buffy is injected with a poison that make her hallucinate... Or is it the other way around? According to a psychiatrist, who may or may not be a real person, she is in fact getting better -- She has been sick all along, and now she's finally waking up from years of catatonic schizophrenia. So, the whole series is either This Is Reality or a mad All Just a Dream with a dash of The Schizophrenia Conspiracy. In the end, Buffy choses her life in Sunnydale over her life in the mental institution,
 * And You Were There: Buffy imagines her manager at the Doublemeat Palace is a doctor in the mental hospital.

"Spike: It might explain some things, this all being just in that brain of hers. Yeah, whips up some chip in my head, make me soft, fall in love with her. Then, turn me into her soddin' Sex Slave."
 * Anywhere but Their Lips: Willow is working herself up to ask ex-girlfriend Tara out for coffee and lesbian love when she sees her greet-and-kiss another girl. From her viewpoint it's difficult to see how intimate the kiss was, but she runs off anyway. Willow tries to tell herself later that she overreacted ("I press my lips against my friends all the time.")
 * Badass Decay (In-Universe)

"Buffy: (very quietly) I feel so lost. Willow: I know. You're confused. It's, it's that crazy juice inside you. Buffy: It's more than that. (Willow frowning) Even before the demon ... I've been so detached. Willow: We've ... all been kind of slumming. Buffy: Every day I try to ... snap out of it. Figure out why I'm like that."
 * Basement Dweller: The Trio, though this time it's because they're hiding from Buffy in an empty house.
 * Bound and Duct-Taped
 * Completely Missing the Point: Dawn gets mad at Buffy because she doesn't exist in her delusions.
 * Continuity Nod: Buffy looks at a family photo of her parents with herself as a child -- the same child actress used in Season 5's "The Weight of the World".
 * Cuckoo Nest
 * Description Cut: Willow says that Xander has help finding the demon; cut to Xander and Spike stalking through the woods. The doctor's description of this years Big Bad as "just three pathetic little men who like playing with toys" to the Trio in their lair.
 * Despair Speech

"Doctor: Buffy, you used to create these grand villains to battle against, and now what is it? Just ordinary students you went to high school with. No gods or monsters ... just three pathetic little men who like playing with toys."
 * Discreet Drink Disposal: Willow asks Spike to make sure Buffy drinks the mug of yummy antidote goodness, but Spike gets into an argument with Buffy and leaves, giving her a chance to pour it away.
 * Downer Ending:.
 * Education Through Pyrotechnics: Willow mentions that her previous attempts at making the antidote "went boom twice" before she got it right.
 * Foe Yay / Ho Yay: Between Xander and Spike -- lampshaded in a Deleted Scene where James Marsters gives Nicholas Brendon a kiss right after calling him a "pathetic poof" in their graveyard fight.
 * Foreshadowing: For "Entropy" -- Spike threatens to tell the Scoobies about their affair if Buffy doesn't do so.
 * Frying Pan of Doom: Buffy hits Xander with one, then drags him to the basement where he and Willow and Dawn can be eaten by the Monster of the Week.
 * Group Hug: Xander gets a hug threesome when he returns home.
 * Hannibal Lecture: Spike gives one to Buffy. Becomes a Nice Job Breaking it Anti-Hero moment when it causes Buffy to pour away her antidote.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather: Buffy changes into the Black Leather Jacket Of Ass-Kicking while searching for the Trio, but not the Red Leather Pants of Death -- she's not quite her old self yet.
 * A House Divided: The Trio are starting to fray.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Dawn tries this, but Buffy is too far gone by that stage.
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Plenty of this.

"Xander: I altered his reality!"
 * Leave Your Quest Test
 * Lotus Eater Machine: In the asylum Buffy has no responsibilities, and her parents are alive and still together.
 * Mind Screw
 * The Nicknamer: Xander calls Spike "Willie Wannabite", and Buffy "Sane Girl" -- right before she clonks him with a frying pan.
 * One Head Taller: Buffy notes that she should be taller than her 'little' sister.
 * Out-of-Genre Experience / Slasher Movie: The scene where Psycho!Buffy stalks her sister through their home.
 * Person as Verb: Jonathan says he's "going Jack Torrence" cooped up in the basement.
 * Post Mortem One Liner

"Willow: "Hello, Tara. Would you like to go out with me for coffee, food, kisses and gay love?""
 * Rousing Speech: Joyce gives one to Buffy, that ironically has the opposite effect of what she intended.
 * Saying Too Much: Spike vents about how his Badass Decay led to Buffy using him as a sex toy. Fortunately Xander thinks it's just some stupid Spike fantasy.
 * Smash Cut: From the demon injecting Buffy to Buffy being injected in the mental hospital.
 * Staircase Tumble: Tara's Big Damn Heroes moment is stopped by Buffy tripping her up from beneath the staircase.
 * Summon Magic
 * Surrogate Soliloquy: Willow rehearsing asking Tara out.

"Buffy: Some kind of gross, waxy demon-thing poked me. Xander: And when you say poke... Buffy: In the arm."
 * Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Spike and Xander capturing the demon.
 * Testosterone Poisoning: Spike and Xander work out their frustrations over their recent relationship cock-ups on each other.
 * That Came Out Wrong

"Buffy: (staring vacantly) I'm okay, Dawn. Dawn: The, uh, thousand-yard stare really helps sell that."
 * Thousand-Yard Stare

"Willow: Dawnie, you can help me research. We'll hop on-line, check all the-- [Smash Cut to Buffy in the asylum. A doctor is talking to Buffy's parents.] Doctor: --possibilities for a full recovery, but we have to proceed cautiously."
 * Tranquillizer Dart: The anti-Oz rifle makes a reappearance. Instant Sedation is averted -- the Glarghk Guhl Kashma'nik demon takes several darts, plus Xander and Spike bashing away at it, before it's subdued.
 * Twisted Echo Cut

"Spike: Oh, balls! You didn't say the thing was a Glarghk Guhl Kashma'nik.
 * The Unpronounceable

Xander: That's 'cause I can't say Glarma-- (demon hits him)"


 * No Mere Windmill: Buffy reveals that her parents had her sent to a mental clinic for two weeks after she first told them about seeing vampires.