Nightmares (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode)
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| "Nightmares" | |||
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 10 | ||
| Directed by | Bruce Seth Green | ||
| Written by | Ashley Gable Thomas A. Swyden | ||
| Production code | 4V10 | ||
| Original air date | May 12, 1997 | ||
| Guest actors | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
| ← Previous "The Puppet Show" | Next → "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" | ||
| List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes | |||
"Nightmares" is the tenth episode of the first season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode's teleplay was written by David Greenwalt, with a story by Joss Whedon, and directed by Bruce Seth Green. The episode originally aired on May 12, 1997, attracting a Nielsen rating of 2.5. The episode is about the students at Sunnydale High beginning to experience aspects of their worst nightmares while awake, leading the Scooby Gang's investigation to a young boy with a secret. However, before they can get to the bottom of things, they must face their own nightmares, which are rapidly taking over reality.
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[edit] Summary
The episode begins with Buffy having a nightmare about going to The Master's lair and being choked by him. Buffy's mother Joyce shakes her awake, and as Buffy wakes up, she remembers that she is excited to be spending the coming weekend with her father. Buffy confides to Willow that she thinks she might have something to do with her parents' divorce. In a class, when the teacher asks Wendell to read from the text book, tarantulas crawl out of it. Buffy sees a boy standing in the door way, saying that he is sorry.
The next day, as the Master explains to Collin, the Anointed One, how wonderful he finds fear, Buffy is nervous about being picked up by her father after school, and her mother calms her down. At school, Willow and Xander are worried about the spiders, and want to talk to Giles about it. Giles mutters that he "got lost," seemingly in the stacks of books. Giles has no information on the spiders so the gang goes to talk to Wendell, who explains he has been having recurring spider nightmares.
In the meantime, Cordelia lets Buffy know about a history test that Buffy has not studied for. Buffy has a hard time even finding the class, and the test is over in what feels like a moment; Buffy has not even filled in her name. She once again sees the same boy outside the classroom. As break-time begins, a girl named Laura takes a smoking break in the basement. An ugly man comes out of the shadows and says, "lucky nineteen" before assaulting Laura.
Later, Buffy and Giles interview Laura in the hospital, where they hear about "lucky nineteen." They also find the young boy from before (Billy), in a coma due to a similar attack. More nightmarish instances start to occur, starting with Xander losing his clothing while stepping through a classroom door. Giles now cannot read but he finds a picture of Billy. Buffy realizes that she had been seeing Billy at school while he was still in a coma at the hospital. Giles theorizes she might have been seeing Billy's astral projection.
Buffy's father shows up and immediately blames her for the family's troubles, then scolds her for crying at his hurtful accusations. The Scooby Gang quickly figures out that their nightmares are becoming reality, including Xander's nightmare of being chased by a clown and Willow's nightmare of having to appear on-stage. Buffy finds Billy's astral body, and then they are both found by the man who assaulted Laura. Nightmares plague everyone and Buffy learns Billy has experienced some sort of punishment for poor baseball skills. They evade the scary man and find themselves in a graveyard where The Master confronts Buffy, and buries her alive.
Meanwhile, Willow, Xander and Giles find Buffy's grave. Giles explains that it is his worst nightmare to let Buffy die on his watch. Buffy then crawls out of the grave as a vampire, revealing her worst nightmare is dying and becoming a vampire herself. The gang decides that they must wake up Billy from his coma to stop the nightmares. In the hospital, they find Billy's astral body near Billy's comatose body. As the ugly man finds him, Buffy confronts him. After knocking him out, she encourages Billy to face him. Billy wakes up and everything is back to normal.
Billy's Kiddie League coach shows up, and refers to him as his "lucky nineteen". Billy realises he must be the "ugly man" who put Billy into a coma after they lost the game. He tries to run after Buffy confronts him, but is stopped by Giles and Xander and put into jail. The episode ends when Buffy and her real father leave for their weekend together.
[edit] Production details
A line of Xander's and an exchange between Giles and Buffy was cut from the original script due to length:<ref>Golden, Christopher, and Nancy Holder. The Watcher's Guide, Vol. 1. New York: Pocket Books, 1998.</ref>
Xander: Okay, despite the rat-like chill that just crawled up my spine, I'm going to say this very calmly: Helllppp...
Giles: Are you all right? You look a bit peaked.
Buffy: Hospital lighting. It does nothing for my fabulous complexion.
Giles: Are you... sleeping all right?
Buffy: I'll sleep better when we find this guy. Nothing like kicking the crap out of a bad guy to perk up my day.
