The Master's back finally! And this time he's haunting Buffy in her dreams. Luckily, the Slayer has school to contend with and a rare meet up with her father to look forward too. Events take a turn when a young boy appears to Buffy in a vision while in class, and the next thing class mate Wendell is covered in spiders which come out of the book he was reading from. Giles is at a loss to explain the weird event (a weird event in itself), so the Scoobies investigate and find out that Wendell had been having nightmares about spiders (even though he loves them?..) and including then one came true.
Further strange happenings unfold when Buffy is unprepared for a test she didn't even know about, and a fellow student is attacked by a cartoonish looking monster with Buffy's vision boy once again at the scene. Soon these things stange events are taking place all over school with the students of Sunnydale High forced to face their worse nightmares, including the Scoobies, and Buffy worse of all, including a brutal one involving her father Hank. All some how connected to the myterious young boy and the Master.
Nightmares had a lot of promise as an episode, mostly because it foreshadows many of the themes which are to fellow in leter episodes and seasons, for example Willow's stage fright. The problem is that if you take the episode in isolation then it just seems like a thrown together one off. The tone is very uneven, between the darker moments involving Buffy and Gile's personal traumas, and the more cheesy and comical events which are littered throughout the episode. As a result, Nightmares often has the feel of an over the top sitcom, in stead of a surreal teen Sci-Fi show. Because at this point the show lacks a proper effects budget this makes these scenes more problematic, and left me with the sense of disconnection. The other main issue, was that the young boy at the center of the narrative I just wasn't invested enough in, he just felt like a device to tie things together rather than a fully rounded and interesting character to engage with.
Of course, there was still plenty of interest elsewhere. I liked the moment of Cordelia actually being nice to Buffy and trying to help her out for change. This starts building the link between the two characters which gets further development in the next episode, and is touched on again over the next two seasons, including significantly in season 3's Homecoming. This small scene starts building Cordelia's growth and connection to the Scoobies, its a nice little touch. Buffy's nightmarish encounter with her father is one of the most powerful, and devastating scenes of this first season. It is just one of many examples of Sarah Michelle Galler producing a raw, emotionally fragile, and subtle piece of acting, which is just so moving, and lingers more than any other moment in the episode. With Buffy being a show all about the challenges of growing such scenes are all the more important. Mostly, this is a forgettable episode, but it is worth it just for that moment, and nice to see the season's big bad back involved.
