"The Wish"

Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by David Greenwalt


In which Cordelia’s wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale is granted, giving birth to a nightmare realm where vampires prey on humanity and familiar faces are dramatically different...

Status Report - Memorable Quotes - Final Analysis







Status Report

Having established the theme for the third season as “the path not taken”, this episode takes it to a completely different level. A very simple question is answered, at least in part: what if Buffy never came to Sunnydale, allowing the Master to ascend? What would be the fate of all the characters that have survived, largely thanks to Buffy and her intervention?

Marti Noxon starts off where the previous episode left off, with the key relationships in tatters. Willow continues to wallow in her guilt, while Xander knows that he screwed up, only he’s a lot less contrite, as usual. Buffy is reeling a bit less than the others, but then again, she had plenty of time to come to terms with not being around Angel.

It’s interesting to note that Faith’s apparent decision to distance herself from Buffy and the Scoobies is indirectly addressed. It’s a nice tie into the end of “Revelations”, and keeps Faith in the minds of the audience. At this point in the season, it’s hard to see Faith’s character arc; this small mention actually helps when watching the series on DVD, where the plot threads are more easily followed and recognized.

Oz seems to be taking Willow’s betrayal in his usual reserved manner. He actually explains his point of view in detail when Willow tries to push him into talking when he doesn’t want to, and it’s actually a scary look at what’s barely kept below his surface demeanor. On the other hand, Cordelia makes Oz look like the most rational and calm person in the world.

Cordelia’s reaction is far more disturbing. While Xander might have had genuine feelings for Cordy, he took them about as seriously as he takes everything. In other words, hardly at all. Cordy, on the other hand, was actually honest in her feelings for Xander. So she overcompensates, which only serves to make things worse. The high school caste system comes into play when Cordy discovers the price of dating someone outside of the self-defined elite.

In a sense, Cordy’s right about Buffy. Her arrival did change everything. Without Buffy’s presence, Cordy would have never considered becoming friends with anyone outside of her social circles. What Cordy seems to forget is that the Scooby Gang isn’t just Buffy’s entourage; all of them have Buffy to thank for being alive. Granted, hanging out with Buffy placing them in danger, but it’s more correct to say that the danger was always present.

This basic truth is explored through the time-honored plot device of the “alternate reality”. Enter Anya, who makes her first appearance in this episode. At this point, there’s nothing hinting at the character that Anya would become; she’s little more than a plot device. Emma Caulfield is her usual gorgeous self, at least in her non-demony guise, but she’s just there to provide the means of altering reality.

Cordelia’s wish cuts to the heart of the season’s theme, as history is instantly changed so that Buffy never moved to Sunnydale. While the results are requisitely dark, there are some logical errors strewn throughout. In the new reality, Buffy never stopped the Master from rising out of the Hellmouth. If that’s the case, then what about all the demons that were supposed to be unleashed? Apparently that didn’t happen, even without Buffy’s presence.

Equally odd is the concept that the population of Sunnydale would stick around once the Master started taking over. This is supposed to be more than a year later, and yet, a lot of the same people are still living in town. Why wouldn’t everyone relocate under the circumstances? One possible explanation is that the Hellmouth did open as intended, and the rest of the world is just as bad as Sunnydale. Perhaps the Master simply took Sunnydale as his center of power.

It’s also hard to believe that Cordy’s friends, such as they are, wouldn’t make an effort to protect her from herself. They have to know that Cordy’s acting strangely, somehow unaware of the vampire threat, so why let Cordy walk home on her own? Why not take her to their house and make sure she’s all right? Of course, that would prevent Cordy from encountering Dark Xander and Dark Willow, which is really the point of having her wander around.

As wicked as Dark Xander is, enough can’t be said about Dark Willow. To say that she’s memorable is a vast understatement. The writers should have found a way to stick Alyson in a goth leather corset more often! More importantly, she retains a certain “Willowness”, even demonic as she is. It gives Alyson the chance to show some range, something that was becoming more and more important as the series progressed.

Of course, Giles arrives to save Cordy, and at this point, the usual plot device would dictate that Cordy explain everything and give the good guys all the information they need to make things right. In this respect, Marti does a great job of defying expectation. It doesn’t quite make sense for Giles to completely overlook the idea of calling in the Slayer, but perhaps that’s a side effect of Cordy’s wish: until Cordy mentions Buffy, the alteration to reality kept everyone in Sunnydale from thinking of it. Cordy’s death is a great plot twist, because it leaves the resolution of the episode in doubt. It’s only through chance that Giles thinks to keep Anya’s pendant.

In one of the more interesting scenes of the episode, Dark Willow is given permission to torture Angel, who had been captured attempting to stop the Master’s rise. In what would become a staple of Marti Noxon episodes, Dark Willow has one hell of a good time engaging in some S&M-style licking and caressing. In a sense, this should have been Darla’s role, but one could assume that Angel still managed to stake her in the past. Not that there’s reason to complain about Dark Willow taking her place!

It’s hard to believe that someone as intelligent as Giles, having lived through more than a year of vampire infestation, would jump into a group of vampires assaulting people, with absolutely no backup. Of course, this is an excuse to give the alternate Buffy a cool entrance. Of course, this is the same Giles that couldn’t make the simple deduction that the pendant is Anyanka’s power center, even though it’s prominently displayed in his reference text!

The alternate Buffy takes the term “flat affect” to a completely new level. It’s as if all the joy and promise in life has been stripped away through constant loss and violence. In many ways, this Buffy is like Faith, immersed in the mission, but without the primal desires. Buffy seems to have survived through sheer force of will, killing everything that needs to be killed. Again, it suggests that the Master’s rise did, in fact, turn the planet into Demon Central.

Given that impression of the alternate Buffy, it’s hard to understand why she would let Angel live once she realizes he’s a vampire. It’s not that he convinces her to let him live, because Buffy was ready to just walk away and leave him hanging. If Buffy is supposed to be this hard-edged warrior, she should have simply staked him and been done with it. Of course, that would have gone against the idea of bringing all the characters together in the big melee at the episode climax.

Some find the Master’s little contraption to be rather inefficient, citing the small amount of blood that seems to come out of an awful lot of bloodletting. Of course, one has to consider that they were only drawing off enough for the Master to sample. There must be something to keep the blood fresh in storage, at least for a little while!

For all the necessary plot contrivances that went into the climax, it’s definitely worth it. Giles’ anguished decision to hope for a better world, for any chance at preventing the vampires taking over, is played as a nice counterpoint to the futile battle at the factory. Angel, Dark Xander, Dark Willow, Buffy…all of them die, one after the other, which was part of the fun of creating an alternate reality in the first place.

Even if the last scene is a little too quick and simple, it does leave Anya in the perfect state for a future appearance. And of course, the general obsession with Dark Willow led to her future appearance, which also marked a decision point for Joss and the writers, something they had left open to interpretation. In this episode, Dark Xander is the one with sexual ambiguity, something that was in keeping with the early hints throughout the second season that Xander might eventually be homosexual. For whatever reasons, this is one of the last hints about the possible future of Xander’s character development; by the second half of the season, Willow becomes the one with possible homosexual tendencies.

For all its faults, this is a memorable episode. Anya was introduced, and her character would last until the very end of the series. Equally important, Dark Willow would come to presage much of Willow’s later character development. In terms of the season’s theme, this is about as literal an interpretation as one can get, and while she barely makes an appearance, the alternate Buffy aptly demonstrates how Buffy’s support system has kept her human.


Memorable Quotes

BUFFY: “Your logic does not resemble our Earth logic.”
XANDER: “Mine is much more advanced…”

BUFFY: “He’s actually making sense. We’re young and free in America. How dare we be spun by love or the lack of same?”
WILLOW: “Absolutely! It’s self indulgent. I’m in! I’m on the joy train!”
(Pause)
BUFFY: “That didn’t work. Who wants chocolate?”

DARK XANDER: “Buffy? The Slayer?”
CORDELIA: “No, Buffy the Dog-Faced Girl!”

DARK WILLOW: “I love this part.”
DARK XANDER: “You love all the parts…”

MASTER: “I’ve lost my appetite for this one. She keeps looking at me. I’m trying to eat, and she looks at me!”

DARK WILLOW: “Bored now…”

DARK WILLOW: “That’s right, puppy…Willow’s gonna make you bark…”

GILES: “I have to believe in a better world.”
BUFFY: “Go ahead. I have to live in this one.”

MASTER: “I say to them…well, I don’t say anything to them, because I kill them…”


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode fit the season’s premise extremely well, even if the plotting was filled with odd and unnecessary conveniences. Notable for introducing Anya and Dark Willow, this episode also demonstrates the importance of the entire Scooby Gang on Buffy’s mental health. What the writing lacks in consistency, the episode makes up for with style.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 8/10




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