After Life
- Episode aired Oct 9, 2001
- TV-14
- 42m
Buffy and her friends battle a demon that may have hitched a ride with Buffy as she crossed into the world from another dimension.Buffy and her friends battle a demon that may have hitched a ride with Buffy as she crossed into the world from another dimension.Buffy and her friends battle a demon that may have hitched a ride with Buffy as she crossed into the world from another dimension.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe scene in which Anya is possessed by the demon ghost and slashes her face several times while laughing maniacally was trimmed by SkyOne for the UK broadcast to show her laughing and then collapsing, editing out the face-slashing.
- GoofsWhen Dawn is possessed by the demon that "hitched a ride" with Buffy when she was brought back from the dead, Dawn breathes fire and a pipe is clearly visible in one of the shots with the fire coming out of it.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Spike: Well, I haven't been to a hell dimension just of late, but I do know a thing or two about torment.
Buffy Summers: I was happy... Wherever I was... I was happy... At peace. I knew that everyone I cared about was all right. I knew it. Time... didn't mean anything. Nothing had form. But I was still me, you know...? And I was warm. And I was loved. And I was finished. Complete... I-I don't understand theology or dimensions, any of it, really... But I think I was in heaven... And now I'm not. I was torn out of there. Pulled out... by my friends. Everything here is hard and bright and violent... Everything I feel, everything I touch... this is Hell. Just getting through the next moment, and the one after that, knowing what I've lost...
[starts to leave]
Buffy Summers: They can never know. Never.
- Alternate versionsSkyOne trimmed the UK broadcast. When Anya is possessed by the demon ghost, she takes a knife, walks towards Xander, laughs maniacally, then slashes her face several times. On Sky, it cut from when she was laughing to her collapsing, editing out the face-slashing.
- ConnectionsReferences I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
As a conclusion (or epilogue, perhaps) to the "Bargaining" two-parter, in which the Scoobies must deal with the much-hyped consequences of bringing Buffy back to life, it falls flat.
Tara has a lot to say, back when Joyce died, about how "unnatural" a resurrection spell is. I guess that's the Wiccan equivalent of "unholy". So much did she fear the consequences, she couldn't even condone bringing Joyce back to assuage Dawn's grief. Gee, it must be a really bad thing to do then.
Only in "After Life", we find out it's not so bad. It just involves defeating a demon. You know, like they do every week in Sunnydale.
I wish it had been something much worse. I wish it had been something so bad it would leave the Scoobies legitimately questioning whether they had made a mistake in bringing Buffy back. An easy solution might be somehow tying Tara's death in "Seeing Red" directly to the spell. Like, she wouldn't have died if they hadn't resurrected Buffy.
I guess the argument might be that the TRUE consequence of bringing Buffy back is her subsequent depression at having been ripped out of heaven. Which, sure. Fine. Of course that only affects Buffy, which seems unfair, if nobody else really has to pay a price for their conduct.
- nightwishouge
- Apr 4, 2021