Nightmares
Reviewed by Christophe | Rating: 9/10

Nightmares
Teleplay by David Greenwalt
Story by Joss Whedon
Directed by Bruce Seth Green.

Have you ever had that feeling where you realise that your worst nightmare has come true? Be thankful you don’t live in Sunnydale – where everyone’s nightmares become reality! That’s right folks, in “Nightmares” Buffy and her friends are forced to face their fears, while the hellmouth works it’s wonders, turning itself into a psychedelic landscape for people’s fears to manifest.

An appropriate opening for the episode is of course Buffy’s bad dream sequence, where the Master sinks his fangs into her. This alerts us that the Master will be present in the episode, despite vampires not being the evil focused on.
The episode plays like a slide show, revealing each character’s nightmare, one by one. The first is Wendell, a student at Sunnydale. During class he opens his books, and spiders begin to crawl all over him. As Buffy watches this, she sees a young boy standing at the doorway (aren’t you just going “oooh?!”)
Buffy is next in line. Suddenly a history test has appeared out of nowhere, and she hasn’t studied and barely even attended classes. You think that’s scary? How about….when you sit down to do the dreaded test, you begin to sharpen your pencil – when finished sharpening, it’s an hour later, and you still haven’t had time to write your name! This is the first of Buffy’s nightmares to manifest. Once again, she notices the young boy standing at the doorway after her test. By now, we’ve pretty much established something is definitely not right, and whatever is causing these occurrences has something to do with the nameless young boy.

In the hallway of Sunnydale High, a pretty female student heads down to the basement alone, to have a smoke. The mysterious young boy warns her, but his voice falls on deaf ears. She is attacked by a vicious demon that yells, “lucky 19!” Amazingly, she survives the traumatic ordeal, and is confronted by Buffy and Giles in hospital. She tells them about the creature’s spoken words of “lucky 19.” While inside the hospital, Buffy sights the young boy who has repeatedly appeared to her. He is in a coma, a doctor informs Buffy that he is the first victim in a line of attacks.

When everyone’s back at school, nightmares are still popping up left right and centre. Xander walks into class wearing nothing but his briefs. Cordelia looks into her mirror to see herself with a really really bad hairstyle! Giles’ nightmare comes in the form of losing his ability to read in all of his 5 fluent languages. Buffy is also put down for a second nightmare round when a personal and hurtful nightmare is realised. Hank Summers (her father) comes to see her with some disturbing revelations. He tells Buffy that it is because of her that he split with her mother. Hank says it was too hard to live with a reckless daughter, and that she is not nearly as bright as he had hoped she’d be. Poor Buffy is left feeling very low.

Meanwhile, Giles has pieced together a few parts of the puzzle. Billy (the young buy in a coma) has crossed over from the nightmare world he’s trapped in, bringing the nightmares with him. When he appears to Buffy, it is his astral projection. If Billy were to be aroused from his coma, the nightmares would cease. Giles, Xander and Willow split up in their hurry to inform Buffy of this news.

Buffy has left her father, and now wanders the streets in a state of misery. She comes across Billy, and the two begin to talk. Billy tells her about “The Ugly Man.” He calls Billy “Lucky 19” and wants to kill him. Just as Buffy seems to be making progress with Billy, the Ugly Man himself shows up, forcing Buffy into combat. We get quite a good look at this bogeyman in this scene. His face is hideously distorted. He has a flap of skin that runs over his lips, one of his eyes is badly shredded, and instead of a right arm is a big club. Buffy finds she can’t fight the Ugly Man – he is too strong! So she and Billy run!

Meanwhile, in their search for Buffy, Xander and Willow have only found more of their nightmarish fears. Willow finds herself being introduced as the worlds greatest Soprano in full costume, to a hugely gigantic crowd! Xander, on the other hand, is haunted by his childhood fear of clowns, as a particular knife-wielding clown chases him. Both however, manage to escape their nightmares and meet up with Giles.

Buffy and Billy have been chased into the cemetery, and fortunately it seems they have lost the Ugly Man. One strange problem, as soon as they entered the cemetery, day became night! Never the less, they search the cemetery for Willow, Xander and Giles, knowing that together they may be able to end this nightmarish link to reality.
Buffy doesn’t find her friends, she finds – The Master! The Master attempts to speak with Buffy, as she outwardly shows her fear. He pushes her into an open grave, and begins to bury the slayer alive!

Giles, Willow and Xander find the “night” cemetery. Once inside, they see the grave of Buffy Summers. Giles begins to blame himself for her death…. But what’s this?! Something begins to rise from the ground. Well…it was Buffy! Buffy has turned into a vampire, as she hides her vampface from her friends in shame. Giles explains that the Ugly Man is a fear of Billy’s, and is able to kill people in this dimension. The only way to stop the ugly man and return things to normal is to awaken Billy. So, off to the hospital go our 4 nightmare plagued heroes!

At the hospital two things are found. The Ugly Man, and Billy. Billy cannot wake up because he cannot face his fear, as he continually hides from the Ugly Man. So, Buffy boosted by her new vamp identity, takes on the Ugly Man, bringing him down. This gives Billy a change to come out from hiding, and face his fear. With this done, Billy awakens from his coma, destroying both the Ugly Man and people’s nightmare manifestations.
Billy was in a coma due to a beating. Soon after awakening Billy’s Kiddie League Baseball coach comes to visit him, calling him “Lucky 19.” This makes Buffy realise that the coach had beaten Billy, and the Ugly Man was a manifestation of Billy’s fear of his coach. The man is caught and put behind bars. And there you go folks! Another snuff from the Buff!

I absolutely loved this episode! Peoples nightmares becoming a reality, a hideous murdering bogeyman on the loose, and a mysterious ghost like child running around – makes for riveting and chilling viewing! The evil is always more terrifying when it is a projection of the unconscious mind, especially if it results from such traumatic experiences like Billy’s. The Ugly Man was a fantastic evil character who…well…was pretty damn ugly! Seeing the character’s fears come to life was a real treat, and added both humor and creepy atmosphere to the episode.

Cordelia’s nightmares are especially fun as we see this vain bimbo’s reaction to having bad hair and joining the CHESS club! Seeing Buffy as a vampire is also a rare and interesting twist, which gives this episode a sense of uniqueness above many others.
“Nightmares” is a great example of that winning BTVS formula – the mixing of humor, horror, action and drama, to create a perfectly entertaining and thrilling hour of television!

9/10

Memorable Quotes:

“My parents don’t even bicker, sometimes they glare…” – Willow

“NO! What are you doing? Wait no! You don’t understand….I don’t wanna go! I’m not even on the CHESS team I swear, I’m NOT!….NO! – Cordelia’s manifesting nightmare of being forced to join the chess team.

Vamp Buffy: “Well we better hurry, I’m getting hungry.”
Xander: “That is a joke…right?”

Willow: “Well how do we wake Billy? What if we can’t?”
Giles: “Willow, do shut up!”

Buffy: “ I’m glad you showed up. You see, I’m having a really bad day.”
The Ugly Man: “Lucky 19”
Buffy: “Scary. I’ll tell you something though. There’s a lot scarier things out there than you. And now, I’m one of them!”
- After Buffy’s nightmare of becoming a vampire has come true.

Willow: “Personal question”
Xander: “Yeah shoot.”
Willow: “When Buffy was a vampire, you weren’t still like attracted to her, were you?”
Xander: “Willow how can you… I mean that’s really bent…she was…grotesque!”
Willow: “Still dug her huh?”
Xander: “I’m sick I need help…”
Willow: “Don’t I know it!”
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