YMMV / Buffy the Vampire Slayer S6E17 "Normal Again"

• Ass Pull: The idea that Buffy had been institutionalized by her parents when she first learned about vampires is often criticized as a transparent retcon. It didn't came up in the season 2 finale when Buffy came out to Joyce and it doesn't gel well with her previous Sarcastic Confession about fighting vampires she would have avoided if she was under the threat of being sent back to the institution. The comics try to rectify this by revealing that Buffy's institutionalization was caused by Dawn...who didn't actually exist at this point, making it likely that it was just false memories.
• Bizarro Episode: The episode implies that the series may or may not be the hallucinations of a mental patient.
• Delusion Conclusion: The episode leaves it ambiguous as to whether the entire series were all the delusions of Buffy in a mental hospital.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Not the last time Sarah Michelle Gellar will play the mental patient.
• Idiot Ball: Willow spent all night making the antidote, by non-magical means (and it exploded twice). After all that hard work she hands the mug to Buffy and promptly leaves the room to tell Dawn, rather than making sure Buffy drinks the potion. She barely takes time to tell Spike to watch Buffy and make sure she drinks it. And then, because of something Buffy says to him when Spike knows she's not-all-there, Spike leaves without watching her drink, in contradiction of Willow's instructions. Very much Plot Induced Stupidity, because without it, the episode would be over quickly.
• Les Yay: Buffy is once again fed up with work.
  Buffy: I could wrestle naked in grease for a living and still be cleaner than after a shift at the Doublemeat.
  Willow: Plus, I'd visit you at work every single day.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: After his incredibly traumatic treatment of Anya last episode and then disappearing for two days, Xander comes back in and everyone is immediately thrilled to see him, reassures him that none of what happened is his fault, and are only mildly skeptical about him thinking that he can still date Anya and go on as normal. No one even slightly scolds him or asks him to explain himself except Spike, who is generally dismissed and mocked. They brush the problem away so thoroughly that it ends up making Xander look like even more of a jerk.

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