Faculty Publications

"What if I'm Still There? What if I Never Left That Clinic?": Faërian Drama in Buffy's "Normal Again"

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Slayage: The International Journal of Buffy

Volume

16

Issue

2

First Page

29

Abstract

“Normal Again” (6.17) is one of the most studied and written-about episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997- 2003). Emotionally wrenching in its depiction of mental illness and institutionalization, the deliberately ambiguous ending leaves the audience disoriented and calls the internal reality of the entire series up to that point into question. Initially inspired by Marquette University’s possession of the J.R.R. Tolkien papers, this presentation from the 2017 “Buffy at 20” conference at Marquette posits that applying several theoretical concepts from J.R.R. Tolkien’s influential lecture “On Fairy-stories” (1939) to this episode can help to clarify both what Buffy experiences and how the episode may best be understood by the viewer; specifically, this essay will use Tolkien’s term “Faërian drama,” and his definitions of the functions of the fairy tale, as tools to unpack “Normal Again.” While Buffy is more often thought of as a whole as belonging to the genre of horror, it may quite often be more profitably considered as fairy tale or mythopoeic fantasy—and this episode in particular straddles the genres. Viewed one way, it fits John Clute’s pattern (elaborated in “Fantastika in the World Storm”) for the horror story: the realization of a wrongness in the world, the thickening of the fog around the hero, revelation of the horrible

Department

Rod Library

Original Publication Date

1-1-2018

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