Episode Trivia
Alexandra again
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When Buffy looks at the family photograph of her as a little girl in 6.17 Normal Again, it is the same child (Alexandra Lee) who portrayed young Buffy in season five’s episode 5.21 The Weight Of The World. The photo can also be seen in 7.09 Never Leave Me.
Buffy gone mental?
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There are many references to mental institutions in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Here’s a favourite quip from Buffy in 7.07 Conversations With Dead People:
Holden: “No, but, other stuff, too. Majoring in psych, really loving that. And I was taking a year off to do an internship at the Sunnydale Mental Hospital.”
Buffy: “Wow, that’s gotta be a popular joint.”
This reference in episode 2.11 Ted hints at a future story 6.17 Normal Again where Buffy believes that she is in a mental institution.
Ted: “Or what? You’ll slay me? I’m real. I’m not some goblin you made up in your little diary. Psychiatrists have a word for something like this: delusional. So, from now on, you’ll do what I say, when I say, or I show this (holds up her diary) to your mother, and you’ll spend your best dating years behind the wall of a mental institution.”
And then from 6.17 Normal Again:
Doctor: “The Slayer, right, but that’s only one level. She’s also created an intricate latticework to support her primary delusion. In her mind, she’s the central figure in a fantastic world beyond imagination. She’s surrounded herself with friends, most with their own superpowers … who are as real to her as you or me. More so, unfortunately. Together they face … grand overblown conflicts against an assortment of monsters both imaginary and rooted in actual myth. Every time we think we’re getting through to her, more fanciful enemies magically appear.”
Finally, season 5 was full to the brim with mental patients and characters. In this quote from 5.21 The Weight Of The World, Xander is referring to a room in the hospital where all of Glory’s victims had been locked up:
Xander: “Oh, the mental ward? I already been. The vegetable section’s closed. Nobody there. It’s like they all just got up and walked away.”
Buffy’s basement stairs
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When they first show Buffy’s basement in 2.10 What’s My Line? (Part Two), and everytime thereafter until season six’s 6.04 Flooded, the stairs leading down are solid concrete. But in 6.17 Normal Again they’re suddenly wooden, with spaces in between the stairs (as seen when Buffy reaches through and trips Tara). They remain wooden throughout season seven.
Camera pulls back
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The following is a stage direction from the script for 6.17 Normal Again:
“The camera pulls back slowly, down the hall. Leaving the doctor and Buffy’s parents helpless, and Buffy lost in a distant delusion.”
Dean Butler
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Dean Butler played Buffy’s father, Hank Summers. Dean is famous for his role as Almanzo Wilder in the seventies American drama Little House on the Prairie. Dean appeared in the episodes 1.10 Nightmares, 2.01 When She Was Bad, 5.21 The Weight Of The World and 6.17 Normal Again.
Diego Gutierrez
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Diego Gutierrez wrote the episode 6.17 Normal Again and was Joss Whedon’s assistant during both Buffy and Angel. Diego also did the French dubbing for Xander’s dream in 4.22 Restless. Additionally, Diego has written for Dawson’s Creek and the TV series Kingpin.
DSL
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In 6.17 Normal Again, Buffy asks Willow why she is all, “home, hearth, and DSL anyway?” DSL, which stands for Digital Subscriber Line, is American broadband Internet.
Glarghk Guhl Kashmas
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Andrew summons a Glarghk Guhl Kashmas demon using a didgeridoo in 6.17 Normal Again. It has the power to create hallucinations in those it injects. The demon caused Buffy to believe she was really in a psychiatric institution, hallucinating that her real life was made up. It’s “pokey stinger” carries an antidote to its own poison.
Hank Summers
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Hank was Buffy and Dawn’s elusive father. Divorced from Joyce Summers, he became increasingly distant towards Buffy (for example, standing her up on her birthday in 3.12 Helpless). Hank failed to attend Joyce’s funeral or contact his daughters after their mother died. Buffy mentioned he had run off with his secretary to Spain. We see Hank twice in Buffy’s hallucinations in 5.21 The Weight Of The World and 6.17 Normal Again.
Hospitalised
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In 6.17 Normal Again, Buffy confesses to Willow that her parents put her into a clinic after she discovered she was the Slayer. She said they panicked and didn’t believe her, and felt there was something psychologically wrong with her. It seems strange, then, that Joyce didn’t mention anything about this after she discovered that Buffy was really the Slayer in season two’s Becoming, Part Two.
Ken Russell
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In 6.17 Normal Again, Warren says,
“Andrew’s demon pet has done some number on the Slayer. Got her trippin’ like a Ken Russell film festival.”
Ken Russell is a contraversial English director whose movies have included The Devils, Gothic and Women in Love which was based on the novel by D. H. Lawrence. The film broke the cinema taboo of full frontal male nudity.
Kirsten Nelson
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Kirsten Nelson played Buffy’s boss and manager Lorraine Ross in 6.12 Doublemeat Palace and 6.17 Normal Again. She has been in The O’Keefes (as Ellie O’Keefe), Baby’s Day Out, The Fugitive, Frasier, Ally McBeal, The West Wing, Just Shoot Me and Boy Meets World.
Klepto Dawn
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After her mother died, Dawn started stealing things to try and get attention. She took some of Anya’s earrings in 5.18 Intervention, a necklace in 6.06 All The Way and an amulet in 6.07 Once More, With Feeling. She told Justin in 6.06 All The Way that
“I haven’t paid for lipstick since forever”
and in 6.14 Older And Far Away she stole a leather jacket for Buffy’s birthday. Dawn’s kleptomania was discovered in 6.14 Older And Far Away when Anya found stolen jewellery in Dawn’s room. In 6.17 Normal Again, Buffy tells Dawn she has to try harder and stop stealing things.
Lorraine Ross
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Lorraine Ross became the manager of the 6.12 Doublemeat Palace after Manny was killed, after working with the company for five years. She explained to Buffy (in complete confidence) that the Doublemeat meat was actually vegetables. Lorraine allowed Buffy to have her job back after the wig-lady debacle. In 6.17 Normal Again, Lorraine told Buffy:
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were on drugs.”
Marti on Buffy’s hallucinations
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Marti Noxon said about the episode 6.17 Normal Again:
“It was always something we saw as a sort of stand-alone that could fit in almost any season. The idea was really strong and I thought the episode turned out kind of nice and moody and intriguing. The question that seemed to bother people was whether we were actually saying the whole series was in her mind. I think we were teasing that, but we weren’t coming out and saying, ‘Don’t believe it, it’s all fake.’”
Michael Warren
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Michael Warren played the doctor in the episode 6.17 Normal Again. He can also be seen in Soul Food, 1.01 City of, Murder One, A Different World, The Hunted, Days of Our Lives, Storyville, and Hill Street Blues as Officer Robert ‘Bobby’ Hill.
Momentary awakening
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In 6.17 Normal Again, the doctor in Buffy’s hallucinations explains a couple key events of the past few years. He tells Buffy that she had a ‘momentary awakening’ during the summer and it was her friends who pulled her back into the delusion. This is a reference to Buffy’s death and resurrection in seasons five and six.
The doctor explains how Buffy created Dawn recently due to a need for a familial bond (for some reason, she had killed off her mother). Dawn was added unexpectedly to the show in season five.
More Janice
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We met Dawn’s friend Janice Penshaw in the episode 6.06 All The Way. In that episode, Dawn and Janice lied to their families so they could go out on dates with what turned out to be vampires. Janice is mentioned in several more episodes. In 6.12 Doublemeat Palace, Dawn mentions that her friend Janice has a sister who is a lawyer. In 6.13 Dead Things, Dawn tells Buffy she’s sleeping over at Janice’s house, but Buffy says she isn’t falling for that again. In 6.17 Normal Again, Dawn says:
“I’m going over to Janice’s where they actually like having me around.”
In 6.19 Seeing Red, Dawn tells Spike:
“I’m sleeping over at Janice’s.”
Non-wedding
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After the fiasco of their non-wedding in 6.16 Hell’s Bells, Anya is nowhere to be seen in 6.17 Normal Again. Xander returns to Sunnydale and says that Anya’s things are gone and there’s a closed sign in the Magic box.
Ocean’s Eleven
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Andrew says in 6.17 Normal Again,
“I still say we’re gonna need at least eight other men to pull this off.”
He’s referring to the movie Ocean’s Eleven in which 11 people pull off a heist.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
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In 6.17 Normal Again, Willow refers to Buffy as, “Cuckoo’s Nest”. This is a reference to the book about a mental asylum One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. It was turned into a movie, starring Jack Nicholson.
In the Angel episode 5.11 Damage, Harmony says, ”
A girl over in the nuthouse went all Cuckoo’s Nest, hacked up a couple of guards and went over the wall.”
Rescheduled
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The episode 6.17 Normal Again was originally supposed to be shown as episode eight in season six but was later changed to seventeen.
Rick Rosenthal
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Rick Rosenthal directed 6.17 Normal Again and 7.04 Help. He has also worked on Reunion, Point Pleasant, Tru Calling, Halloween: Resurrection, Smallville, Strong Medicine, Providence, The Practice, Bad Boys and Halloween II.
Saving Buffy
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Buffy is saved in a similar way by Spike and Angel:
In 3.18 Earshot, when Buffy receives telepathic powers, she becomes overwhelmed, and would eventually become insane if not cured. Angel hunts down the telepathic demon to get it’s heart to make a concoction to cure Buffy.
In 6.17 Normal Again, Buffy is stung by a Glarghk Guhl Kashmas demon, causing her to hallucinate that she’s in a mental institute. Spike captures the demon to get the antidote, of which Willow makes “yummy antidote goodness”, Buffy drinks it, and she is cured.
Star Trek
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There are many cast/crew links between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the long-running cult sci-fi show Star Trek. Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder) played Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for seven years. Dominic Keating, who played Blair in the episode 3.12 Helpless, later went on to star in Star Trek: Enterprise as Lt. Reed. Jennifer Hetrick, who played the teacher Ms. Moran in 3.05 Homecoming (whom Buffy asked for a reference) played the girlfriend of Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Buffy writer Jane Espenson wrote an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called ‘Accession’. Star Trek has also been referenced numerous times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- In 1.12 Prophecy Girl, upset by Giles’ reserve, Xander says:
“Calm may work for Locutus of Borg here, but I’m freaked and I intend to stay that way.”
He is referencing Star Trek’s emotionless cyborgs from the episode ‘The Best of Both Worlds’. Locutus was the name given to Captain Pickard (Patrick Stewart) when he was captured, and ‘assimilated’, by the Borg.
- In 3.05 Homecoming, Cordelia woos the nerds at Sunnydale High by saying:
“Are you kidding? I’ve been doing the Vulcan death grip since I was 4.”
In 3.15 Consequences, Cordy calls Wesley, “Giles the next generation” in a reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- In 5.04 Out Of My Mind, Buffy says:
“You’re like my fairy godmother and Santa Claus and Q all wrapped up into one… Q from Bond not Star Trek“.
- In 5.03 The Replacement, the two Xanders say, “Kill us both Spock” - a reference to a Star Trek episode where Kirk is split two - one being good and one bad.
- In 6.04 Flooded, the nerds vote with the Star Trek Vulcan salute, which is the same salute that Cordelia used to impress the ‘geeks’ in Homecoming.
- In 6.09 Smashed, Spike tells the nerds, “You can play holodeck another time” - he means the virtual reality technology used in Star Trek.
- The nerds compare Buffy’s time loop in 6.05 Life Serial with an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called ‘Cause and Effect’:
Andrew: “I just hope she solves it faster than Data did on the ep of TNG where the Enterprise kept blowing up.”
- In 6.15 As You Were, Buffy says. “they’re like really mean Tribbles”, referring to the popular, but quick breeding, pets on board the Starship Enterprise.
- After her visit to the nerds’ ‘lair’ in 6.12 Doublemeat Palace, Willow says that they had numerous pictures of the “Vulcan women from Enterprise“. She’s referring to Jolene Blaylock, who played T’pol in UPN’s Star Trek show.
- The episode 6.17 Normal Again is similar to the season five episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called ‘Far Beyond the Stars’. In that episode, Captain Benjamin Sisko imagines that he is a science fiction writer living on 1950s Earth and writing about a station full of aliens called Deep Space Nine. He hallucinates that the people he knows in the 1950s are futuristic aliens and is thrown into an asylum.
- In 6.19 Seeing Red, Andrew references Star Trek: The Next Generation when he discusses who’s boss of the nerds:
“Warren’s the boss. He’s Picard, you’re Deanna Troi. Get used to the feeling, Betazoid.”
Also in that episode, Xander realises that the nerds had love poems in their lair written in Klingon.
- In 7.07 Conversations With Dead People, we learn that Andrew learned Klingon (a language in Star Trek) from a dictionary in two and a half weeks.
- In 7.18 Dirty Girls, Andrew hilariously confuses Faith’s murder of a volcanologist with a Vulcan:
Andrew: “Nobody was immune to her trail of destruction. Not friends, not family, not even the most pacifist and logical of races…”
Amanda: “What the hell are you talking about? I thought Faith killed a volcanologist.”
Andrew: “Silly, silly Amanda. Why would Faith kill a person who studies Vulcans?” - From Sense and Sensitivity:
Cordy: “Mr. and Mrs. Spock need to mind meld now.”
The Shining
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In 1.09 The Puppet Show, Xander holds up Sid the Dummy and says, “Redrum, Redrum”. Redrum is from Stephen King’s novel The Shining, and for those not in the know, it’s ‘murder’ spelt backwards. The Shining was made into a movie starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance. In The Shining, the main character, Jack Torrance, writes the words “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” when he starts to go crazy from cabin fever.
In 2.19 I Only Have Eyes For You, Willow says:
“You’ve been doing that a lot. Patrolling and sacking. In fact, you’ve kind of been All-Work-And-No-Play Buffy.”
In 6.11 Gone, Buffy says:
“All work and no play makes Doris a dull girl”.
In 6.17 Normal Again, Jonathan says:
“I’m going all Jack Torrance here, you know?”.
In 2.02 Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been, Angel is staying in room 217 in the hotel. This is the same room number in The Shining in which young Danny Torrance finds a dead woman in the bathtub.
In 3.06 Billy, the scenes of Wesley chasing Fred through the hotel with an axe are reminiscent of the move version of The Shining, in which Jack Torrence does the same thing.
[Goof] Key
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After Buffy locks Xander in the basement in 6.17 Normal Again, she locks the door. You can see she has the key upside down when she locks it.
[Goof] Mad Spike
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Spike gets mad at Buffy and leaves the room in 6.17 Normal Again. When Buffy tries to kill the Scoobies, Spike is not in the house - so he must have gone outside in the middle of the day.
[Goof] Tape
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When Tara releases Willow and Dawn from the ropes in 6.17 Normal Again, Dawn’s tape has disappeared from her mouth, though Willow’s is still there.
[Goof] Xander’s shirt
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When Xander lands from being thrown down the stairs in 6.17 Normal Again, his shirt is halfway up revealing his lower back. When the camera pans back to him, his shirt is fixed and covering his back.