Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S5/E17 Forever

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Joyce is buried. Dawn, with Spike's help, casts a spell to bring Joyce back. Guest starring Angel.


  • Affably Evil: Doc
  • Ambiguously Evil: The Ghora Demon. Sure it's big, ugly, and nasty, but only a threat because Dawn and Spike sneak into its lair to steal its eggs.
  • An Axe to Grind: Spike vs. the Ghora Demon.
  • Angst? What Angst?: How Dawn sees Buffy's reaction to their mother dying. Turns out, not so much.
  • Armour Piercing Slap: Buffy slaps Dawn when she accuses her sister of treating Joyce's funeral arrangements like "just another chore".
  • Award Bait: The scene of Buffy's anguish near the end might as well have "For Your Emmy Considerations" subtitled under it.
  • Bait and Switch: The episode opens with Buffy stalking through a row of coffins, slowly raising the lid on one...whereupon a funeral home salesman enters and asks if that's the one she wants to buy.
  • Because She Was Nice to Me: Spike is accused by Xander of leaving flowers to get in Buffy's good books. Spike retorts that it's because Joyce was the only one not to treat him like a freak. Xander remains skeptical until Willow notices that he didn't leave a card - if they hadn't seen him, the flowers would have been anonymous.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: Dawn warms to Doc when he helps her free of charge, then freaks out when his pupils disappear while he's shaking her hand.
  • The Bus Came Back: Angel turns up simply to comfort Buffy.
  • Came Back Wrong: Implied with Joyce.
  • Character Development / Pet the Dog: Spike helps Dawn because "I just don't like to see Summers women take it so hard on the chin" (as opposed to last year's "The Yoko Factor" where he enjoyed making Buffy miserable).
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Doc reappears in the season finale to shed Dawn's blood and open Glory's portal.
  • The Confidant: Buffy tells Angel that she might have saved her mother's life if she'd come home just ten minutes earlier.

Angel: You said they told you it wouldn't have made a difference.
Buffy: They said ... "probably" ... wouldn't have made a difference. The exact thing they said ... was "probably." I haven't told that to anyone.

  • Continuity Nod: Giles is shown alone in his house listening to Tales of Brave Ulysses, which he played for Joyce in "Band Candy".
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Raising the dead is this for Wicca, as both Tara and Willow warn Dawn.
  • Disappeared Dad: Buffy can't contact her father in Spain.
  • Dramatic Thunder: A distant peal of thunder is heard when Dawn casts the resurrection spell.
  • Foreshadowing: Several of the issues raised with Buffy's return from the dead in Season 6. Also Dawn turning to Willow/Tara as a surrogate family when she thinks her sister is emotionally distant.
  • "Glad to Be Alive" Sex: Anya and Xander. Angel has to leave Buffy to prevent this happening.
  • Hey, Wait!: Non-comedic example; Dawn thinks Spike is going to stop her from doing the ritual or tell on her. Spike, in fact, wants to help her do it right.
  • I Miss Mom: Dawn tries to solve this problem by raising the dead. Never a pitfall free solution to this problem.
    • Climaxes in a real Tear Jerker scene when Buffy confronts Dawn over her use of dark magic. Dawn accuses Buffy of not even missing her, prompting Buffy to break down in tears, revealing that she was just trying to stay strong for Dawn's sake. Dawn is so moved and Buffy is so distraught after opening the floodgates to her grief that they end up switching positions on the resurrection spell, with Buffy rushing to greet "mom" at the door and Dawn deciding to undo the spell at the last second and let their mother rest in peace.
  • In the Hood: Ben complains of Glory sending her 'Jawa rejects' to talk to him.
  • It's Always Sunny At Funerals: Joyce is buried on a bright sunny day.
  • Leitmotif: The Buffy/Angel love theme "Close Your Eyes" plays as they kiss.
  • Money Fetish: Anya gets alarmed when Giles offers to let Dawn work the cash register.

"She gets to fondle the money?"

  • The Nicknamer: Ben refers to Glory as "The Most Unstable One". After being ordered about by Dawn, Spike dubs her "Bitty Buffy". Glory's minions refer to her as "Your New-and-Improvedness."
  • Not So Dire: Continuing the subversions of this trope in the previous episode, "Forever" opens with Buffy stalking a dark room full of caskets, lifting the lid of one and peeking inside... and then we realise she's not hunting vampires, but picking out a casket for her dead mother.
  • Overnight Age-Up: Played with. Buffy stands at her mother's grave as night falls, and the shift in color pallet from the aforementioned bright sunny day to darkness makes it look as if she ages 20 years in a few seconds.
  • The Real Heroes

Buffy: I can stick wood in vampires ... but Mom was the strong one in real life. She always knew how to make things better ... just what to say.

Spike: Hey! Heads up! [Ghora demon lifts up three heads; Spike gets an Oh Crap look] Right, heads it is.

  • Ritual Magic: Dawn is able to do the spell even though she's not a witch -- Doc does warn her that a powerful witch is required to do it successfully though.
  • Saying Too Much: Ben tells Jinx he won't help find the Key, because he refuses to harm an innocent. He realises too late that he's just tipped off Jinx the Key is in human form.
  • Shout-Out: To The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs.
  • Sinister Silhouettes: As Buffy and Dawn argue, Joyce's shadow can be seen through the curtains moving towards the door.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Willow after she tipped off Dawn which book to look in for information on resurrection spells.

Tara: [having discovered the book is missing] God, what else did she take?
Willow: Nothing! I-I think. I think n... she took nothing else. But maybe she did, and we should probably look. Because who knows? I-I don't.

Spike: I know good and well what you're up to. That book you've got is infamous.

  • Villainous Demotivator: Glory tells Jinx not to bleed on the carpet and asks him to be patched up so she can hear his story again without all the annoying moaning. She does forgive him for his inadequate grovelling due to his injury though.
  • You Know Too Much: Ben stabs Jinx to prevent him talking to Glory, but he survives.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer/Recap/S5/E17_Forever?oldid=2006209"