ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING
Episode 107, #7of Season 6

Previously on Buffy. Stuff happened. Xander and Anya announced their engagement, Dawn steals things and, you know, stuff happens. Cut to the brand spanking new credits with rousing instrumental!

We return to a montage of the Extended Scoobies going through their day until we arrive at night and Buffy walking through the cemetery. Pretty much a normal show until she breaks into song.

Going Through the Motions
Libretto: Buffy sings about how, since returning to life, she is simply going through the motions with no emotional connection to the events around her.

Buffy goes to the Magic Box where the rest of the Scoobs are and asks if they too suddenly burst into song. Turns out they have and each just thought it was them and are seriously wigged out. On cue, the Scoobs start to sing an ensemble piece.

I Have a Theory
Libretto: The Scoobies each propose various theories on who is causing this latest outbreak of weirdness until Buffy asks why they’re so worried when together they will prevail as they always have.

Buffy determines that the whole city is affected when she spots David Fury and his backup dancers gleefully extolling the fact that the dry cleaners got the mustard out of his shirt. The group breaks into serious research mode except for Willow and Tara who decide that they need to be somewhere else (using the same lame excuses that Riley and Buffy use to use). On the walk home Willow points out that some boys were checking Tara out, a fact that totally amazes Tara. She, of course, breaks into song.

Under Your Spell
Libretto: Tara sings of the joy and wonder over her relationship with Willow and how it has transformed her from her old dowdy self into a someone perceived by others as beautiful.

Meanwhile, research continues although Xander is a bit put out by the fact that Willow and Tara get to levitate while he’s stuck looking at books. Dawn palms yet another trinket from the counter. Fade to next morning.

I’ll Never Tell
Libretto: Xander and Anya sing a duet that both extols the virtues of each other while bringing out every annoying and aggravating habit and every fear and insecurity along with the blatant lie that they’ll never tell because they just did.

Buffy heads over to Spike’s crypt to see if he knows anything about what’s going on. He doesn’t and futiley tries to usher her out before he breaks into song.

Rest in Peace
Libretto: Spike laments that his love for Buffy is a torturous one, beyond his control and one that enslaves him. He further laments that she only tolerates him because she can tell him things she can’t tell her friends and that he is tired of being used in this fashion.

Around now there starts to be an ominous presence felt to counter all the fun and frivolity. Something is making people dance until they burst into spontaneous combustion. Plus, the songs are forcing a few truths better left unsaid. Like the fact that Marti Noxon tries to get out of a ticket by telling the cop she isn’t wearing underwear. (And betchya Joss enjoyed throwing in that line.)

At the Summers’ residence Dawn tells Tara that she’s glad that Tara and Willow are no longer fighting, an argument that Tara has no memory of. She does, however, remember finding a pressed herb underneath Willow’s pillow during the opening montage and heads to the Magic Box to a) do research and b) leave Dawn conveniently alone. Dawn takes the stolen trinket from her Box o’Stolen Stuff and tries it on. She is about to break into song when she is rudely interrupted by three guys in giant clown-doll heads. She is taken to an empty Bronze where she meets Sweet, the Lord of the Dance, a demon with the sense of style of The Mask and a fondness for the legend of the Red Shoes. He, of course, breaks into song.

Dawn's Dance/I Know What You Feel
Libretto: The Lord of the Dance explains that he was summoned by Dawn and, when he has finished his fun here, she will return to his demon realm as his queen. Dawn let’s slip that she is the sister of the Slayer and the LotD sends his minions to bring her to him.

At the Magic Shop Buffy and Giles work out, ever mindful of the risk that a 1980s training montage will start. Giles discovers that Buffy has left the entire parent thing on Giles and hasn’t spoken to Dawn about her misbehaving on Halloween. This bothers Giles so much that he bursts into song.

Wish I Could Stay Solo
Libretto: Giles laments how his role as surrogate father, mother and rugged uncle are emotionally hampering Buffy’s journey to becoming and adult and resolves to amscray as soon as possible.

Tara arrives and discovers that the herb is used for memory altering and mind control spells. This bothers Tara so much that she bursts into a duet with Giles’.

Wish I Could Stay Duet
Libretto: Giles regrets that he must leave in order for Buffy to grow into an adult while Tara regrets that she must leave as she can no longer trust Willow.

Giles and Tara stop singing, both looking down at their banes, just in time for Spike to burst in with a Dollhead Demonette. The Dollhead waits for the music to swell and then doesn’t burst into song. Instead he simply tells Buffy that the Lord of the Dance has Dawn at the Bronze before escaping. Buffy is all for charging en masse to the Bronze but Giles vetos that, apparently deciding that tough love starts now. The Scoobies and Spike object but Buffy simply shrugs and walks off so that she can have another solo. A short lived one as it turns into a multilayered ensemble number.

Walk Through The Fire
Libretto: Buffy confesses how she is still distant from humanity and unconnected from those around her, likening the dichotomy in her life to a fire that freezes rather than burns. Spike cuts in to compare his love to a torch. The Lord of the Dance jumps in to say that Buffy is drawn to him as if to a flame. Giles and the Scoobies begin to rethink their whole non-involvement and head to the Bronze. As the players converge on the Bronze each sings about fire. Go read the lyrics, they rock.

Buffy arrives first, and cuts a deal where if she doesn’t kill the demon she’ll go to the hell realm instead of Dawn. She breaks into the song.

Life’s a Show
Libretto: Buffy paraphrases the Bard in that all the world is a stage and then adds that’s she’s pretty tired of it and wants to have a reason to sing rather than just listen to the songs. The Scoobs arrive as backup (singers) and finally Buffy lets drop the big secret that she was in heaven. She begins to dance faster and faster until smoke starts but Spike interrupts to sing that life is living and Dawn repeats Buffy’s final words back to her.

The Lord of the Dance tells them that it’s all well and good but he’s leaving now with the person who summoned him. Dawn swears that it wasn’t her although she’s wearing his token, the trinket that she stole from the shop. Xander now confesses that he summoned the demon to see if they’d have a happy ending. The Lord of the Dance decides that Xander just isn’t queen material, breaks into a parting song and leaves.

See You in Hell
Libretto: Pretty much what the title says. The Lord of the Dance leaves, sure in the knowledge that the truths uncovered, the trusts broken and the angst engendered will torture them far more than any Hell Dimension. The gang immediately break into the closing number.

Where Do We Go From Here?
Libretto: The Scoobies wonder where their future lies now and question their path. Except for Buffy and Spike who duck out early to neck in the alley.

Fade to black.

Random Quotes
Tara: Oh God, I’m cured! I want the boys!

Giles: I saw the body while the police were taking witness arias.

Spike: Drink?
Buffy: World of no.

Spike: Oh, so that’s all. Just come to pump me for information.
Buffy: What else would I want to pump you for? I really just said that, didn’t I?

Spike: Whisper in a dead man's ear/ It doesn't make it real

Tara: Playing with my memory/ You know I've been through hell/ Willow, don't you see?/ There'll be nothing left of me

Giles: If I want your opinion, Spike… I never want your opinion.

Giles: She needs backup! Anya, Tara!

Dawn: The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.

Lord of the Dance: All those secrets you've been concealing/ Say you're happy now/ Once more, with feeling

Random Notes:

• I was really becoming concerned that Buffy had jumped the shark, that it had reached the apex of it’s originality and brilliance and was on a downward slide to mediocrity. Because the last three episodes were nothing to write home about. However, my fears are laid to rest. Unless of course the rest of the season sucks. They have a big episode to live up to. Because this one was a good as Hush and The Body.
• Looks of the Weeks: Willow’s look of horror, Xander’s look of pain on finding out about the whole heaven thing.
• The inevitable comparison to Bitter Suite is moot. It would be like comparing Bitter Suite to Lyre Lyre or apples to oranges. Ultimately, for me, OMWF is the better show because, in terms of story, it accomplished it’s objective (advancing the plot to song and dance) while Bitter Suite failed miserably (resolving The Rift to song and dance).
• So, why didn’t Xander ‘fess up earlier? Did the same magic that presented unwanted truths prevent him so that the “show” would continue to the end.
• Bunnies. No, really. Why do they need such good eyesight?
• More witches flying. Metaphoric sex. We discussed this before, right?
• Yes, I misused the word libretto. Sue me.

Angel Notes:
Fred: Who’s Darla?
Gunn: Angel’s old girlfriend.
Fred: The one that died and came back?
Gunn: Yes. No. The other one that died and came back.
Fred: Y’all have a chart or something?
Gunn: Yeah, I’ll get it for you later.

Isn’t that reason enough?