S06E07 Once More, With Feeling¶
A demon comes, casting a spell on Sunnydale.
Backstory¶
Important points to note, leading up to this.
- Spike and Buffy started a friendship.
- Buffy died at the end of season 5, sacrificing herself to save her sister.
- Willow and Xander raised her from the dead with a spell.
- Willow and Xander did this, thinking Buffy was in Hell. They did not tell anyone beforehand about their attempt.
- They didn’t think the spell worked. It did, they just forgot to un-bury her.
- Buffy was in heaven, not hell. She didn’t tell them, but she hasn’t been doing well coming to Earth.
- Buffy hasn’t been the same.
- Anya hates bunnies.
- Dawn, Buffy’s surprise sister, has been stealing things.
- Spike and Buffy’s relationship grows. He understands what it is like to be dead. It starts a bit abusive, as Buffy does not treat spike well.
- Willow and Tara had an argument. Willow cast a spell using a flower to make Anya forget about it.
- Anya and Xander just got engaged.
- Dawn recently snuck out of the house to cruise around with some boys that liked her. But they were vampires.
- In a prior episode, Tara’s abusive family tried to get her to leave and go back home. The Scooby gang ‘adopted’ her and made her part of their family.
From the Episode¶
- Buffy, just “going through the motions” hoping no one notices she’s not into it.
- She doesn’t know who she is anymore
- Anya and Xander are starting to find things that annoy each other
- They realize they are annoying each other
- They don’t know if they want to be around someone like that
- They aren’t sure they other person wants to be around them.
- They are headed towards marriage, but not sure it is the right thing
- Xander doesn’t want to turn into a verbally abusive drunk like his dad.
- Buffy is too young to be a mom to her sister. Is passing the hard part of raising
a kid off to Giles.
- Giles doesn’t just talk to Buffy about her wanting to pass the raising of Dawn to him.
- Spike doesn’t want to talk about his feelings for Buffy
- As
Lyrics for all songs are available here:
https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Once_More,_with_Feeling/Lyrics
Themes¶
Relationships (romantic, platonic, family) take maintenance. Not every relationship is going to survive this episode. Lack of communication is a common theme here. When secrets finally come out, it can be too late to heal the damage.
Discuss
- What causes a person to just ‘go through the motions?’
- How do you get out of that mindset?
- What leads to a healthy relationship? How does communication play a part of that?
- Giles feels the need to leave Buffy, so that she’s forced to grow and be independent.
- In what way to our parents/mentors stop us from growing?
- What are the risks of letting our kids go off on their own?
- What is the best way of striking the balance between helping a twenty-year-old, and letting them grow on their own?
- Tara’s only family is now the Scooby gang.
- Should she leave Willow?
- If she stays, how can she enforce boundaries?
- If she leaves, does she have a family?
- If she leaves Willow, can she stay as part of that family?
- Should Willow be cast out of the group?
- “The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.”
- What does this mean?
- Do you agree?
- What do the lyrics below try to say?
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Life's not a song
Life isn't bliss
Life is just this
It's living
You'll get along
The pain that you feel
You only can heal
By living
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