S03E09 - The Wish

Get up to date. Xander was dating Cordelia. Cordelia had committed social suicide by dating Xander.

In the prior episode, Cordelia caught Xander and Willow kissing.

In this episode, Cordelia’s pain over Xander’s betrayal unknowingly summons Anyanka, a demon who grants wishes to women scorned. (She becomes a recurring character.) Cordelia wishes Buffy never came to Sunnydale. Anyanka grants this wish.

Because of this, Sunnydale is over-run by vampires. Xander and Willow are vampires. The Master is in charge. People keep dying.

Giles reverts to the other reality by destroying Anyanka’s necklace that grants the power.

The episode was inspired by the 1946 movie It’s a Wonderful Life, where the main person wishes he’d never been born. An angel shows him how much worse his loved one’s lives would have been.

This episode touches on the way-to-familiar feeling of being betrayed. How does it make a person feel? Having feelings of wanting to ‘get back’? Wanting other people to see you happy?

How does it feel to know you betrayed someone else?

• Willow: It’s true - Cordelia belongs to the justified camp. She should make us pay. And pay, and pay, and pay… In fact, there’s just not enough pay for what…
• Xander: Look, you want to do guilt-a-palooza, fine.
• Oz: Just…You can leave me alone. I need to figure things out.
• Willow: But maybe if we talk about it, we could…
• Oz: Look…I’m sorry this is hard for you. But I told you what I need. So I can’t help feeling like the reason you want to talk is so you can feel better about yourself. That’s not my problem.

Buffy told her friends how she felt with Angel, and it got better. Why did that not work for Cordelia?

• Buffy: World is what it is. We fight, we die. Wishing doesn’t change that.
• Giles: I have to believe in a better world.
• Buffy: Go ahead. I have to live in this one.