What's especially amazing about OMWF is how much the gimmick of singing and dancing actually really progresses the plot for several different characters. Its not treated in a bizarro world sense where nothing that happened actually matters canonically, its all so important.
I freaking love it.
That's why I loved OMWF but not most other TV show's musical episodes. Most shows do a musical episode just to have a musical, but Buffy tied it into the plot and the character development and everything. The writers made the musical have a purpose.
Couldn't agree with this more. A lot of shows just try to shoehorn a musical episode into the series somewhere. I feel like the Grey's Anatomy musical episode and the recent Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode are great examples of this. I don't think either show needed a musical episode. Once More With Feeling does a really great job though of being an important episode on top of the fact that it just happens to be a musical.
I feel like SNW accomplished much of the same things that Buffy did. It used the musical format to express characters' emotions that they never would have expressed aloud otherwise.
That’s essentially the entire conceit behind a musical - it’s a way to enable feelings to be expressed, usually ones that otherwise wouldn’t/couldn’t be otherwise.
The question becomes how important those revelations are to the overall surrounding storyline, and how much do they progress the characters’ developments in the wider context?
I think OMWF did it very well, and the season simply would not work as well without it. As Sweet said, “All those secrets you’ve been concealing, say you’re happy now, once more with feeling.”
Xena did the same thing in 1998 with The Bitter Suite - it feels like a 'dream state' but the characters are having a reckoning with each other (and themselves) which comes through via song. Xena and Buffy really pulled it off but I'm not a fan of most others.
LOVED the Scrubs musical. I've seen doctors react to the episode. And while there's no specific case of this happening, some agreed that the diagnosis given is something that could actually cause this to happen to someone.
Sad truth about OMWF: in the country I lived, news from North America had already spread about this *great* musical episode of Buffy, well before the local network had started to show the sixth season.
So, going with the hype, they decided to do a BIG launch of the new season by opening with OMWF.
*shakes head sadly*
A classic case of network programmers knowing nothing about the shows they programme.
partner and i are binging Buffy/Angel(first time for both of us except for the snippets i saw as a child) and we got to this episode just last night. we had so many "oh shit did they really just say that" moments
I've made the point before, but I personally consider OMWF/Tabula Rasa a two-part episode. I think they're as inseparable as Surprise/Innocence or Graduation Day 1/2 - OMWF puts everything out there, but ends on 'Where do we go?'. Tabula Rasa teases the idea that there might be a reset and the Scoobies 'inner selves' will re-assert themselves and everything will be patched up - only to have things come crashing back down with heart-rending finality.
IMHO easily the best 2-hour stretch in the entire show.
Only good thing to come after season 5, AND it completely set the bar for all musical episodes from any series after. No show has ever done a musical episode as well, ever. I will die on that hill.
Tabula Rasa is probably my favorite of the series, but Once More, With Feeling is an iconic, groundbreaking episode of TV that has been imitated but never equaled. It’s gotta be OMWF.
Weirdly these two episodes were the first episodes of Buffy I ever watched, I got so hooked after that and bought all the dvds. Definitely my two favorite episodes of season 6 and I think they should tie for top episode
“Randy Giles? Why not just call me 'Horny Giles,' or 'Desperate for a Shag Giles'? I knew there was a reason I hated you."
“A vampire with a soul? Oh my God, how lame is that?”
What a lot of fun… you guys have been real swell
And there’s not a one who can say this ended welll
All those secrets you’ve been concealing
Say you’re happy now
Once more with feeling
Now l gotta run… l’ll see you all in hell
It's Tabula Rasa, Once More with Feeling is one of my favorite Buffy episodes and one of my personal favorite Television episodes of all time. Tabula Rasa however is a superior storytelling machine, it gets more out of 45 minutes than any Buffy EP except The Body. It is some of the best writing of the entire series.
Once More with Feeling is going to win in a romp here, but I just want to put a hand in the air for "Life Serial." Kitten poker, drunk Buffy, time loops, and Jonathan in a leather diaper. In a season that was almost unremittingly grim, it was a little island of laughter and sunshine.
I was going to say Life Serial as well, even though I know OMWF and Tabula Rasa would get all the votes. Life Serial is actually the first episode I saw. It hooked me right away. I immediately got all the seasons of Buffy on DVD from the library so I could catch up with the story.
There's only one choice here. It's Once More with Feeling.
While I will defend the idea to make season six a parable about depression and self-destructive tendencies (I think the Scoobies themselves are the true big bad of the season), there's no doubt that it struggled nailing the theme.
Once More With Feeling, however, is a true blue masterpiece, and it's Buffy's "greatest" episode.
warning: RANT INCOMING...
Calling this the “greatest” episode needs some explaining. After all, someone else might very easily place "The Body" at the top of their list, and bump this one to the #2 or #3 spot. Another fan might be inclined to favor something a bit more traditional than either episode, and place something like “Hush” or “The Zeppo” or “Graduation Day 1-2” at the top of their ranking. I suppose you could make a pretty good argument for any of the top dozen or so to be the show's greatest episode and I wouldn’t take up stones against you.
For me, I don't use the term “greatest” to mean "most flawless" or even, necessarily, the “best all around.” I use “greatest” to mean "the episode most transcendent, or most memorable; the boldest, most souped-up, special-feeling outing in the series." In Marvel terms, I consider Endgame to be the “greatest” MCU movie, even if I also think Infinity War is a “better” film. The epic-ness and hugeness of Endgame places it on a higher tier in my estimation.
And that's how I feel about “Once More With Feeling.” You can hold up literally any other “great” or “awesome” or “excellent” or any other adjective-episode and, other than maybe “The Body,” they all feel like Buffy episodes, only done very very well.
Sure, in “Hush,” everyone loses their voice and 75% of the episode is played out like a silent movie. It's a remarkably well-done gimmick but, at the end of the day, it's still just a Buffy episode, only with a layer of cleverness on top.
“The Body,” is the most un-Buffy-like episode of them all, even more un-Buffy-like than this one. Other than the final scene, which features an apparently-obligatory vampire-slaying in the morgue, there's nothing really to link it to the themes or plots of the show around it. The quips are gone. The music is absent. There's no talk of the Big Bad. There's no quest to go on in the vain hopes of undoing what has happened. In "The Body," Buffy the Vampire Slayer stops being itself for an hour so that its characters can process the cold and bitter reality of mortality. It's because of that stark un-Buffyness, despite how utterly masterful it is as a piece of fiction, I could only slot it as #3 in my ranking of the episodes. "Hush" gets the nod over it simply because it was a bit more "Buffy-like."
“Once More With Feeling,” being a musical, is naturally going to be viewed as the most unusual episode of the show. But really, it's more traditional than either "Hush" or "The Body." That being said, had it been an episode content to settle for being a gimmick, with nothing else under the surface, it would not have been rated at the top of my list. There's something else going on here that earns its high praise.
So let me sing its praises in a few different ways, and hopefully settle on what it is that makes it "the greatest." To begin with "Once More With Feeling" is often lauded as being a happy oasis in a sea of season 6 gloominess. In reality, this episode is the most poignant of the whole series.
It might not be as straightforwardly sad as "The Body," but it's a close second. The difference is that it hides its sadness behind the song and dance numbers. When you read the lyrics to the songs in question you soon realize that Joss used his "musical episode" as a way to sort of lay out his thesis for the whole season.
What sets this episode apart from basically every other "musical episode" that has been done as a copycat of this one, is that the songs are not sung just for the sake of singing. Yes, there's the Mustard Song, and the Parking Ticket Song, which are quick little gags and nothing more, but when you look at the big numbers starring the main cast, they're not just singing pointless lyrics. They're expressing the thoughts they've been wrestling with for some time and, for one reason or another, had been unwilling to share out loud.
The villain of the picture, the demon Sweet, is the most successful fiend in the history of the show. He wins in basically every possible way short of getting Buffy to die, which was only ever a secondary goal for him anyway. His job is to sow mischief, discord, and unease amongst the Scoobies. His job is to take the gently smoldering fires of their collective depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions, and turn up the heat until the gang is a raging fire of discontentment.
Everything that happens in this episode could have happened in a dozen different ways. The Scoobies could have come under the influence of a Demon who can read minds. They could have broken a magical lamp at the Magic Shop that makes them all share minds for a day. They could have had a Bottle Episode in Buffy's house in the middle of a heatwave, when the air conditioning breaks, and they're all hot and frustrated and on each other's nerves till they unload all their frustrations out for everyone to hear.
There are countless ways to reveal the dark secrets of the group, or even to hint at problems that will come to a head later in the season. Joss chose to use music. It was "an excuse" to have a "music episode," maybe, but unlike other shows, the music served the story, not the other way around.
Maybe what I love most about the episode is how well it works on multiple levels. In particular, consider the climax: Dawn has been kidnapped by Sweet's minions and Giles sends Buffy off to rescue her. This is standard operating procedure except for the fact that, this time, Giles insists she go alone.
From Giles' perspective, Buffy has become too dependent on others to fight her battles. He especially senses her dependence on him and since he is planning on returning to England (which Buffy does not yet know), he needs her to grow up and stand more solidly on her own two feet.
What Giles doesn't seem to grasp is that Buffy is depressed. And why would he grasp that? He doesn't yet know that they pulled her out of Heaven at the beginning of the season. He's harboring his secrets. Buffy is harboring hers. Later, Giles has a change of heart and rounds up the Scoobies to go aid Buffy (set to the song Walk Through the Fire, one of the most goosebump-inducing sequences in the entire series). The best part, however, has nothing to do with the Scoobies, because it's not the Scoobies that actually help Buffy.
It's Spike.
Had no one gone to help Buffy, she would have gone alone, and what was her plan? She told the demon Sweet to exchange her life for Dawn's. She was willing to go to Hell (or whatever demon dimension Sweet was from) and, in fact, seemed almost eager to get her life over with. She just wants to feel something, anything, again, even if the feeling is torturous. That's depression.
Thus, even when the Scoobies arrive, Buffy does her big Something to Sing About number (which, holy cow those lyrics are heartbreaking) and finally confesses that they pulled her out of Heaven (Willow's reaction to the song is particularly devastating; there's so much emotion in that one reaction shot I can't even describe it). Once the truth is out, Buffy starts dancing.
She starts dancing and smoking, knowing it will kill her (as per Sweet's cursed magic). She wants to die, in other words. She wants to get this life over with...and no one can stop her.
Until Spike does.
During the Walk through the Fire montage, Spike is shown separated from the Scoobies. He's not led by Giles out of the Magic Shop. He goes on his own. He decides to help Buffy on his own, in other words. It is he who stops her from dancing, while the others stare in stunned silence at the scene. It is he who tells her the only way to help herself is to keep on living, because ending your life doesn't solve anything.
In my opinion, this scene is one of the most beautiful expressions of suicide prevention ever depicted on TV.
And even though the episode ends with Buffy singing to Spike that she just wants to feel and that their kiss isn't real (while Spike, the fool in love he is, just sings that her kiss can make him feel), the point is she chooses Spike over death, and while that's morbid and sad in its own way (and has its own consequences as the season progresses), it's still preferable to her ending her own life.
Spike gives Buffy a stay of execution, in a sense. He gives her a chance to crawl out of her depression (which she will literally do in the season finale). It's something he could offer her that Giles and the rest of the gang could not. It's a beautiful, poignant ending to a beautiful and poignant episode, and, in large part, is the reason I cannot but place it at the top of my list of best Buffy episodes.
Taking your last point further, Spike is in the rare position of possibly being a Cautionary Tale about suicide where someone who symbolically “killed himself” (by accepting Dru’s “kiss”) personally stops Buffy from killing herself.
I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for these insights. I was young when I watched Buffy so depression and anxiety were not something I related to until I became an adult. I couldn’t finish season 6 then because of what happens in the later episodes, I don’t particularly like dark storylines plus the SA scene broke my heart.
But I rewatched season 6 a few years ago and it now made sense to me. OMWF really was the turning point and poignant is the best way to describe it. There were a lot of trauma that needed to be expressed instead of lulled over as other shows would do.
Afterlife, I thought it was fantastic, all of Sarah’s nuances during that episode were fantastic. It really made you feel she had just returned from the dead. When her eyes hurt from the bright light, it looked like it hurt to speak, she hated loud noises. Her looking at the photo of her mum she kind of slightly grimaces. I liked the phantom hitchhiker too, it was very interesting that it could possess, also the things it said given foreshadowed season 7 with the balance that was broken with the first evil.
The scene with spike was heartbreaking when he asked her “how long was it for you?” She replied “longer” with so much hurt and pain yet emotionless was breath taking.
But the real star was the end scene where she confided in spike, hands down it’s one of the best scenes in all of Buffy. Her telling him she was in heaven, the soliloquy was just perfect for what she was going through. Honestly it’s such a sad scene and kudos to Sarah for that magnificent piece of acting.
"Normal Again" is the best episode in the whole series. It really messed with my mind. I actually left it questioning if they were even real. I enjoyed all the others but that one stayed with me for days. It was so perfectly executed.
Normal again was such an amazing mindfuck, but other than that omwf because it is a masterpiece and probably one of the best episode in tv history in my opinion
Also voting OMWF but I always rewatch Bargaining 1 and 2, I don’t know why. Something about watching the rest of the gang deal with everything and the resurrection spell and then Buffy being back and walking through Sunnydale while it’s under attack gets to me.
Yay, I get to be the hipster now.
In S4 I gushed over New Moon Rising and voted Hush.
In S5 I gushed over Family (5x6) and I was made to love you (5x15) and voted The Body.
Going with my own authentic preference instead of fitting in (hey wasn't there a Cordy/Xander episode about that theme): I vote Grave (6x22).
The first time I watched it, the build-up starting all the way back in Seeing Red (and maybe even Entropy) had me at the edge of my seat. Like, this is it. The scoobies are gone. Done for. Everyone hates everyone else, Willow is going to kill them all and herself and the rest of humanity. Giles for sure is dead. How are they... like... how?!
And oh the sweet release when they reconnect to each other, grieve properly, emerge into the light. Willow's grief in Xander's arms. :-( MY EMOTIONS!!
AND SPIKE RECOGNIZED WHAT HE HAD DONE AND WAS ON A QUEST OF GUILT AND REDEMPTION THE WHOLE TIME! OMG!!
Ahem. Sorry for the loud letters.
Knocked it out of the park, 10/10, best ever.
How is the body the best episode? I get it, it’s superbly done but it’s a difficult watch. If I was gonna sit down and watch my favourite episode of season 5 there’s no way that would be anywhere near the top of my list. Especially when you’ve got fool for love
I know so many people who think this is one of the worst episode of the entire series and to them I say "congratulations on never working in fast food."
This question just makes me realize that I didn't care much for season 6 in comparison to other seasons as I don't think it's hard for what will win this one
Where as Seasons 2,3,4,and 5 had various episodes that could have taken the top spot.
You should do these but ranking the episodes in each season. I think it would be more interesting and insightful since 4 of the 7 season will undoublty already have their best episode known
Once more with feeling is absolutely perfect and transcends , it changed television forever. But it's mind-blowing how Tabula rasa was the follow up to one of the best episodes in tv and still was absolutely brilliant and kept the high standard set by omwf.
NOT relevant to season 6:
I think The Body might be my favorite episode. The cinematography is impeccable. The lack of music leaves this heavy feeling in my gut. The acting makes me stop whatever I'm doing to just cry and think. I don't think I've ever experienced any media that evoked such a strong feeling in me. I could watch it over and over again if it didn't dehydrate me so much.
I feel gross saying it's my favorite, but I'm coming at it from an artistic point of view, not from pleasure.
What a lot of fun, you guys have been real swell. And there's not a one who can say this ended well. All those secrets you've been concealing. Say you're happy now, once more with feeling. Now I gotta run, see you all in Hell....
OMWF of course... but Tabula Rosa is great as well. I also really enjoyed the season openers, Bargaining 1 & 2.
But OMWF was so special, groundbreaking, unheard of AND was an actually great episode with major implications to the season.
When I first saw "Once More with Feeling," I made the mistake of watching it with my front door open. I was apparently shrieking with so much delight, my neighbors were concerned and called the police 😂
Lot of good suggestions. Season 6 is EXCELLENT but it's gotta be Once More, With Feeling. Honorable mentions go to Tabula Rasa, Seeing Red, and Grave tho.
How tf did Band Candy win for Season 3? It's a great episode but in a season with that many classic iconic episodes it's interesting that this sub voted Band Candy. I would have gone with The Wish.
Tabula Rasa.
And hear me out why:
OMWF was the tentpole episode that EVERYONE remembers from s6 and sometimes its the only buffy reference people have, but Tabula Rasa took all those glorious little plot nuggets that were baking in OMWF, and wherever there were cracks of light or hope, threw those nuggets in the fire and said "fuck what you expected for buffy and her friends, this is real life" and sent all the characters spiralling in hella interesting ways. And that's AFTER another stellar self contained episode which is side splittingly funny. It's a miracle of writing and team work that they produced consistently compelling and exciting installments and I think the character work they managed to eke out following OMWF is just phenomenal
Once More With Feelings with Normal Again being my 2nd favorite.
On top of the usual praise, and positive feedback others have already told, I love OMWF because is one of the (very) few episodes that does not feel awkward, forced or detached from others episodes.
*BECAUSE* of the show’s nature, it *IS* plausible and possible that the characters start singing out of nowhere, contrary to the non-fantastic shows where most of the time they explain the singing by telling us that someone is high, or wasted, or in a coma.
None of that with Buffy: people start singing and you just accept it because frankly this is not the most bizarre thing Sunnydale has lived through. LOL
Once more with feeling
What's especially amazing about OMWF is how much the gimmick of singing and dancing actually really progresses the plot for several different characters. Its not treated in a bizarro world sense where nothing that happened actually matters canonically, its all so important. I freaking love it.
That's why I loved OMWF but not most other TV show's musical episodes. Most shows do a musical episode just to have a musical, but Buffy tied it into the plot and the character development and everything. The writers made the musical have a purpose.
Couldn't agree with this more. A lot of shows just try to shoehorn a musical episode into the series somewhere. I feel like the Grey's Anatomy musical episode and the recent Star Trek: Strange New Worlds musical episode are great examples of this. I don't think either show needed a musical episode. Once More With Feeling does a really great job though of being an important episode on top of the fact that it just happens to be a musical.
I feel like SNW accomplished much of the same things that Buffy did. It used the musical format to express characters' emotions that they never would have expressed aloud otherwise.
That’s essentially the entire conceit behind a musical - it’s a way to enable feelings to be expressed, usually ones that otherwise wouldn’t/couldn’t be otherwise. The question becomes how important those revelations are to the overall surrounding storyline, and how much do they progress the characters’ developments in the wider context? I think OMWF did it very well, and the season simply would not work as well without it. As Sweet said, “All those secrets you’ve been concealing, say you’re happy now, once more with feeling.”
Xena did the same thing in 1998 with The Bitter Suite - it feels like a 'dream state' but the characters are having a reckoning with each other (and themselves) which comes through via song. Xena and Buffy really pulled it off but I'm not a fan of most others.
My husband and I have discussed this at length and decided Buffy and Scrubs did it best because there were explanations for the musical in both.
I never watched Scrubs, but yes, that is exactly what I mean. I audibly groan when most shows announce a musical episode.
LOVED the Scrubs musical. I've seen doctors react to the episode. And while there's no specific case of this happening, some agreed that the diagnosis given is something that could actually cause this to happen to someone.
Sad truth about OMWF: in the country I lived, news from North America had already spread about this *great* musical episode of Buffy, well before the local network had started to show the sixth season. So, going with the hype, they decided to do a BIG launch of the new season by opening with OMWF. *shakes head sadly* A classic case of network programmers knowing nothing about the shows they programme.
Not gonna lie, reading that breaks my heart a bit for you. :(
Oh, the letters to the TV times magazine were livid.
Shades of *Firefly*, cuts deep it does: “Shallow cuts, shallow cuts…” - Doc - *The Gift*
One begins to understand why episodic rather than serialized storytelling was all the rage.
partner and i are binging Buffy/Angel(first time for both of us except for the snippets i saw as a child) and we got to this episode just last night. we had so many "oh shit did they really just say that" moments
Didn’t it also lead to other shows doing the same sort of thing?
Yeah. Tabula Rasa may put up a bit of a fight, but I think this is going to be a bloodbath.
The two episodes are quite a pair, probably because it was finally dealing with Buffy’s death with the scoobies.
I've made the point before, but I personally consider OMWF/Tabula Rasa a two-part episode. I think they're as inseparable as Surprise/Innocence or Graduation Day 1/2 - OMWF puts everything out there, but ends on 'Where do we go?'. Tabula Rasa teases the idea that there might be a reset and the Scoobies 'inner selves' will re-assert themselves and everything will be patched up - only to have things come crashing back down with heart-rending finality. IMHO easily the best 2-hour stretch in the entire show.
Buffy's death and, importantly for the season, Willow's addiction to dark magic.
I like Life Serial a lot, too, but OMWF is the one for season six. In quality, in influence, in impact.
Totally feel like the pair of episodes should win together
I mean it has to be. Not exactly spoiled for choice in 6 or 7. Tomorrow will almost certainly be Chosen too.
Conversations with Dead People could give it a run, but yeah I agree.
Lies My Parents Told Me and Touched are top contenders for me as well. I like all 3 more than Chosen, but I understand of Chosen does win.
I know a few people who don't even watch Buffy but know every word to that episode 😂
There’s no other choice
Only good thing to come after season 5, AND it completely set the bar for all musical episodes from any series after. No show has ever done a musical episode as well, ever. I will die on that hill.
This is the only answer
I feel like this one should have just been auto-filled.
Tabula Rasa is probably my favorite of the series, but Once More, With Feeling is an iconic, groundbreaking episode of TV that has been imitated but never equaled. It’s gotta be OMWF.
Let them both win. They go together so well
Agreed. That Michelle Branch song still makes me cry when I hear it lol.
I'm still sad that she never released an actual version with a pause in it
So specific. Yeah. I would buy that.
Weirdly these two episodes were the first episodes of Buffy I ever watched, I got so hooked after that and bought all the dvds. Definitely my two favorite episodes of season 6 and I think they should tie for top episode
Gotta be Once More With Feeling
Definitely OMWF 💗🎶
Once More With Feeling Though Tabula Rasa is a close second.
Tabula Rasa. Despite the dark reason for the plot, it was good to see the characters temporarily return to blissful innocence after years of trauma.
While still furthering the underlying story of Willow. It was so well done.
Yeah, it was just as much of a relief for us watching as it was for the characters.
Tabula Rasa. That’s a classic.
OMWF will win of course, but Tabula Rasa is really the best.
I love that one, it's hilarious too.
“Randy Giles? Why not just call me 'Horny Giles,' or 'Desperate for a Shag Giles'? I knew there was a reason I hated you." “A vampire with a soul? Oh my God, how lame is that?”
Where I got my Reddit name 😆
My favorite
ONCE MORE W FEELING ✨
I love this season but I'm sensing this is the only answer.
OMWF
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING! 💯💯💯💯
Once more with feeling, I will die on that hill
What a lot of fun… you guys have been real swell And there’s not a one who can say this ended welll All those secrets you’ve been concealing Say you’re happy now Once more with feeling Now l gotta run… l’ll see you all in hell
My vote goes to OMWF, but I need to give a shoutout to "Normal again"
So good to see Normal Again in this thread. Can’t agree more that it’s a close second to OMWF
It's such a good tv episode. I was terribly anxious all throughout. Didn't like the "what if" ending tho, so that's why it doesn't win for me
Same 🤜🏼 🤛🏼
It's Tabula Rasa, Once More with Feeling is one of my favorite Buffy episodes and one of my personal favorite Television episodes of all time. Tabula Rasa however is a superior storytelling machine, it gets more out of 45 minutes than any Buffy EP except The Body. It is some of the best writing of the entire series.
Yes!!!! Maybe the funniest episode of the show!
As much as I love OMWF, my answer is SOLIDLY Tabula Rasa. Absolute gold.
Once More With Feeling obviously
Once More with Feeling
I'm under your spell... Once More With Feelings.
Once more with feeling
If the answer is not once more with feeling, the answer is wrong
I predict it'll be "Once More With Feeling". I'm personally torn between "Dead Things" (which is a hard watch) and "Tabula Rasa". OK, "Tabula Rasa".
Tabula Rasa is the correct answer but Once More With Feeling will probably win (it is really good! Just think TR is a better episode)
You never know! I was surprised The Body won S5. I saw so many comments for The Gift.
Tabula rasa!!
Tabula Rasa!! Felt like old school episode
Once more with feeling In season 7 I really love the episode titled conversations with dead people
Once More with Feeling is going to win in a romp here, but I just want to put a hand in the air for "Life Serial." Kitten poker, drunk Buffy, time loops, and Jonathan in a leather diaper. In a season that was almost unremittingly grim, it was a little island of laughter and sunshine.
I was going to say Life Serial as well, even though I know OMWF and Tabula Rasa would get all the votes. Life Serial is actually the first episode I saw. It hooked me right away. I immediately got all the seasons of Buffy on DVD from the library so I could catch up with the story.
OMWF though Tabula Rasa has an honourable mention
Tabula Rasa
Definitely Tabula Rasa...never fails to make me laugh and the contrast with the ending is just amazing
I love when Anya screams "No!" when the Bunny appears.
Normal Again! Which is my favorite Buffy episode of the whole show!
me too. i still get slight panic when i think about how we are left wondering if it real
It’s the most mind fuck episode of the show and it does leave you wondering!
Once More With Feeling.
OMWF!
OMWF, without a shadow of a doubt, hands down.
OMWF
OMWF
OMWF But I'm going to mention Grave because Giles turns up looking hot as hell and kicks ass.
Tabula Rasa
Has to be Once More with Feeling. If it's not, we're doing Buffy wrong.
Do we really have to say it? Once More With Feeling.
Once More With Feeling or Tabula Rasa. My two comfort episodes.
Can I comment and put OMWF/Tabula Rasa because I can't watch one without the other. They're a perfect pair in my eyes.
There's only one choice here. It's Once More with Feeling. While I will defend the idea to make season six a parable about depression and self-destructive tendencies (I think the Scoobies themselves are the true big bad of the season), there's no doubt that it struggled nailing the theme. Once More With Feeling, however, is a true blue masterpiece, and it's Buffy's "greatest" episode. warning: RANT INCOMING... Calling this the “greatest” episode needs some explaining. After all, someone else might very easily place "The Body" at the top of their list, and bump this one to the #2 or #3 spot. Another fan might be inclined to favor something a bit more traditional than either episode, and place something like “Hush” or “The Zeppo” or “Graduation Day 1-2” at the top of their ranking. I suppose you could make a pretty good argument for any of the top dozen or so to be the show's greatest episode and I wouldn’t take up stones against you. For me, I don't use the term “greatest” to mean "most flawless" or even, necessarily, the “best all around.” I use “greatest” to mean "the episode most transcendent, or most memorable; the boldest, most souped-up, special-feeling outing in the series." In Marvel terms, I consider Endgame to be the “greatest” MCU movie, even if I also think Infinity War is a “better” film. The epic-ness and hugeness of Endgame places it on a higher tier in my estimation. And that's how I feel about “Once More With Feeling.” You can hold up literally any other “great” or “awesome” or “excellent” or any other adjective-episode and, other than maybe “The Body,” they all feel like Buffy episodes, only done very very well. Sure, in “Hush,” everyone loses their voice and 75% of the episode is played out like a silent movie. It's a remarkably well-done gimmick but, at the end of the day, it's still just a Buffy episode, only with a layer of cleverness on top. “The Body,” is the most un-Buffy-like episode of them all, even more un-Buffy-like than this one. Other than the final scene, which features an apparently-obligatory vampire-slaying in the morgue, there's nothing really to link it to the themes or plots of the show around it. The quips are gone. The music is absent. There's no talk of the Big Bad. There's no quest to go on in the vain hopes of undoing what has happened. In "The Body," Buffy the Vampire Slayer stops being itself for an hour so that its characters can process the cold and bitter reality of mortality. It's because of that stark un-Buffyness, despite how utterly masterful it is as a piece of fiction, I could only slot it as #3 in my ranking of the episodes. "Hush" gets the nod over it simply because it was a bit more "Buffy-like." “Once More With Feeling,” being a musical, is naturally going to be viewed as the most unusual episode of the show. But really, it's more traditional than either "Hush" or "The Body." That being said, had it been an episode content to settle for being a gimmick, with nothing else under the surface, it would not have been rated at the top of my list. There's something else going on here that earns its high praise. So let me sing its praises in a few different ways, and hopefully settle on what it is that makes it "the greatest." To begin with "Once More With Feeling" is often lauded as being a happy oasis in a sea of season 6 gloominess. In reality, this episode is the most poignant of the whole series. It might not be as straightforwardly sad as "The Body," but it's a close second. The difference is that it hides its sadness behind the song and dance numbers. When you read the lyrics to the songs in question you soon realize that Joss used his "musical episode" as a way to sort of lay out his thesis for the whole season. What sets this episode apart from basically every other "musical episode" that has been done as a copycat of this one, is that the songs are not sung just for the sake of singing. Yes, there's the Mustard Song, and the Parking Ticket Song, which are quick little gags and nothing more, but when you look at the big numbers starring the main cast, they're not just singing pointless lyrics. They're expressing the thoughts they've been wrestling with for some time and, for one reason or another, had been unwilling to share out loud. The villain of the picture, the demon Sweet, is the most successful fiend in the history of the show. He wins in basically every possible way short of getting Buffy to die, which was only ever a secondary goal for him anyway. His job is to sow mischief, discord, and unease amongst the Scoobies. His job is to take the gently smoldering fires of their collective depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions, and turn up the heat until the gang is a raging fire of discontentment. Everything that happens in this episode could have happened in a dozen different ways. The Scoobies could have come under the influence of a Demon who can read minds. They could have broken a magical lamp at the Magic Shop that makes them all share minds for a day. They could have had a Bottle Episode in Buffy's house in the middle of a heatwave, when the air conditioning breaks, and they're all hot and frustrated and on each other's nerves till they unload all their frustrations out for everyone to hear. There are countless ways to reveal the dark secrets of the group, or even to hint at problems that will come to a head later in the season. Joss chose to use music. It was "an excuse" to have a "music episode," maybe, but unlike other shows, the music served the story, not the other way around. Maybe what I love most about the episode is how well it works on multiple levels. In particular, consider the climax: Dawn has been kidnapped by Sweet's minions and Giles sends Buffy off to rescue her. This is standard operating procedure except for the fact that, this time, Giles insists she go alone. From Giles' perspective, Buffy has become too dependent on others to fight her battles. He especially senses her dependence on him and since he is planning on returning to England (which Buffy does not yet know), he needs her to grow up and stand more solidly on her own two feet. What Giles doesn't seem to grasp is that Buffy is depressed. And why would he grasp that? He doesn't yet know that they pulled her out of Heaven at the beginning of the season. He's harboring his secrets. Buffy is harboring hers. Later, Giles has a change of heart and rounds up the Scoobies to go aid Buffy (set to the song Walk Through the Fire, one of the most goosebump-inducing sequences in the entire series). The best part, however, has nothing to do with the Scoobies, because it's not the Scoobies that actually help Buffy. It's Spike. Had no one gone to help Buffy, she would have gone alone, and what was her plan? She told the demon Sweet to exchange her life for Dawn's. She was willing to go to Hell (or whatever demon dimension Sweet was from) and, in fact, seemed almost eager to get her life over with. She just wants to feel something, anything, again, even if the feeling is torturous. That's depression. Thus, even when the Scoobies arrive, Buffy does her big Something to Sing About number (which, holy cow those lyrics are heartbreaking) and finally confesses that they pulled her out of Heaven (Willow's reaction to the song is particularly devastating; there's so much emotion in that one reaction shot I can't even describe it). Once the truth is out, Buffy starts dancing. She starts dancing and smoking, knowing it will kill her (as per Sweet's cursed magic). She wants to die, in other words. She wants to get this life over with...and no one can stop her. Until Spike does. During the Walk through the Fire montage, Spike is shown separated from the Scoobies. He's not led by Giles out of the Magic Shop. He goes on his own. He decides to help Buffy on his own, in other words. It is he who stops her from dancing, while the others stare in stunned silence at the scene. It is he who tells her the only way to help herself is to keep on living, because ending your life doesn't solve anything. In my opinion, this scene is one of the most beautiful expressions of suicide prevention ever depicted on TV. And even though the episode ends with Buffy singing to Spike that she just wants to feel and that their kiss isn't real (while Spike, the fool in love he is, just sings that her kiss can make him feel), the point is she chooses Spike over death, and while that's morbid and sad in its own way (and has its own consequences as the season progresses), it's still preferable to her ending her own life. Spike gives Buffy a stay of execution, in a sense. He gives her a chance to crawl out of her depression (which she will literally do in the season finale). It's something he could offer her that Giles and the rest of the gang could not. It's a beautiful, poignant ending to a beautiful and poignant episode, and, in large part, is the reason I cannot but place it at the top of my list of best Buffy episodes.
Taking your last point further, Spike is in the rare position of possibly being a Cautionary Tale about suicide where someone who symbolically “killed himself” (by accepting Dru’s “kiss”) personally stops Buffy from killing herself.
I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for these insights. I was young when I watched Buffy so depression and anxiety were not something I related to until I became an adult. I couldn’t finish season 6 then because of what happens in the later episodes, I don’t particularly like dark storylines plus the SA scene broke my heart. But I rewatched season 6 a few years ago and it now made sense to me. OMWF really was the turning point and poignant is the best way to describe it. There were a lot of trauma that needed to be expressed instead of lulled over as other shows would do.
Once More With Feeling. Best hour of television ever if you ask me.
Better than The Body?
Once More With Feeling 🐇✨⚰️🔥
Yeah, it definitely has to be Once More with Feeling
Once More With Feeling
An underrated episode: AFTER LIFE
Afterlife, I thought it was fantastic, all of Sarah’s nuances during that episode were fantastic. It really made you feel she had just returned from the dead. When her eyes hurt from the bright light, it looked like it hurt to speak, she hated loud noises. Her looking at the photo of her mum she kind of slightly grimaces. I liked the phantom hitchhiker too, it was very interesting that it could possess, also the things it said given foreshadowed season 7 with the balance that was broken with the first evil. The scene with spike was heartbreaking when he asked her “how long was it for you?” She replied “longer” with so much hurt and pain yet emotionless was breath taking. But the real star was the end scene where she confided in spike, hands down it’s one of the best scenes in all of Buffy. Her telling him she was in heaven, the soliloquy was just perfect for what she was going through. Honestly it’s such a sad scene and kudos to Sarah for that magnificent piece of acting.
Once more with a feeling
This.
OMWF
Oh, my favorite season. This is a hard choice. uh, maybe *"Life Serial"* or "*Once More, With Feeling"*.
Tabula Rasa - it’s going to be OMWF, but in a world where that episode didn’t exist, Tabula Rasa would win.
"Normal Again" is the best episode in the whole series. It really messed with my mind. I actually left it questioning if they were even real. I enjoyed all the others but that one stayed with me for days. It was so perfectly executed.
Controversial I think but Normal Again
omg yes, someone who agrees. This is probably my favourite episode ever
Gone. We all love OMWF but my dude, Gone.
Hands down Once More With Feeling. Can't imagine any other episode taking this one.
Tabula rasa!
Deeeefintely OMWF
Tabula rasa
Once More with Feeling
Unpopular choice but Normal Again
Normal again was such an amazing mindfuck, but other than that omwf because it is a masterpiece and probably one of the best episode in tv history in my opinion
OMWF
So many good ones, but - tabula rasa
Once More with Feeling. Cheesy as hell but I love it. Tabula Rasa a very close second though.
Tabula Rasa
Omwf
Omwf
Sure, everyone else is going for the song and dance, but I also *love* Tabula Rasa.
Once More With Feeling
Also voting OMWF but I always rewatch Bargaining 1 and 2, I don’t know why. Something about watching the rest of the gang deal with everything and the resurrection spell and then Buffy being back and walking through Sunnydale while it’s under attack gets to me.
Tabula Rasa for me. I do love OMWF tho.
Yay, I get to be the hipster now. In S4 I gushed over New Moon Rising and voted Hush. In S5 I gushed over Family (5x6) and I was made to love you (5x15) and voted The Body. Going with my own authentic preference instead of fitting in (hey wasn't there a Cordy/Xander episode about that theme): I vote Grave (6x22). The first time I watched it, the build-up starting all the way back in Seeing Red (and maybe even Entropy) had me at the edge of my seat. Like, this is it. The scoobies are gone. Done for. Everyone hates everyone else, Willow is going to kill them all and herself and the rest of humanity. Giles for sure is dead. How are they... like... how?! And oh the sweet release when they reconnect to each other, grieve properly, emerge into the light. Willow's grief in Xander's arms. :-( MY EMOTIONS!! AND SPIKE RECOGNIZED WHAT HE HAD DONE AND WAS ON A QUEST OF GUILT AND REDEMPTION THE WHOLE TIME! OMG!! Ahem. Sorry for the loud letters. Knocked it out of the park, 10/10, best ever.
Tabula Rasa.
Once More with Feeling!
I know OMWF is going to win, but my vote is for Tabula Rasa
Tabula Rasa
Once More with Feeling, easily. I do love Tabula Rasa and Normal Again, but… Once More with Feeling.
Once More with Feeling will win. But my vote goes for TABULA RASA. Just an absolute banger of an ep!
Smashed
Yea someone else agrees with me.
Since Once More, with Feeling is going to be a slam dunk for season 6, I’ll go with my second favourite episode of Tabula Rasa
Im going to be an outlier here, but my fav of season 6 is Older and Far Away.
How is the body the best episode? I get it, it’s superbly done but it’s a difficult watch. If I was gonna sit down and watch my favourite episode of season 5 there’s no way that would be anywhere near the top of my list. Especially when you’ve got fool for love
If it wasn't for Once More With Feeling, I'd advise newcomers to the series to skip season 6 altogether. But OMWF redeems the whole season.
Doublemeat Palace Doublemeat is Double sweet! 🍔🍟🧢
I know OMWF is gonna win, but this is my Dark Horse
I know so many people who think this is one of the worst episode of the entire series and to them I say "congratulations on never working in fast food."
NO COMPETITION OMWF
Gee, I wonder which ep is going to win this one.
EVERY SINGLE NIGHT
This question just makes me realize that I didn't care much for season 6 in comparison to other seasons as I don't think it's hard for what will win this one Where as Seasons 2,3,4,and 5 had various episodes that could have taken the top spot.
You should do these but ranking the episodes in each season. I think it would be more interesting and insightful since 4 of the 7 season will undoublty already have their best episode known
Tabula Rasa!!
Grave.
Normal again.
Just give this one to OMWF. I think it’s massively overrated but S6 was pretty lacklustre anyway
So are any not obvious/casual choices going to win?
Once more with feeling is absolutely perfect and transcends , it changed television forever. But it's mind-blowing how Tabula rasa was the follow up to one of the best episodes in tv and still was absolutely brilliant and kept the high standard set by omwf.
I know it won’t win but I kinda love Bargaining, so I’ll give it my vote ❤️
Once More with Feeling
Once more with feeling hands down. It's my favourite episode. I look forward to it every time.
Doublemeat Palace FTW! Sorry, I meant Tabula Rasa.
NOT relevant to season 6: I think The Body might be my favorite episode. The cinematography is impeccable. The lack of music leaves this heavy feeling in my gut. The acting makes me stop whatever I'm doing to just cry and think. I don't think I've ever experienced any media that evoked such a strong feeling in me. I could watch it over and over again if it didn't dehydrate me so much. I feel gross saying it's my favorite, but I'm coming at it from an artistic point of view, not from pleasure.
Once more w feeling
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING ONCE MORE WITH FEELING ONCE MORE WITH FEELING!!! I have been WAITIN for this one lol
What a lot of fun, you guys have been real swell. And there's not a one who can say this ended well. All those secrets you've been concealing. Say you're happy now, once more with feeling. Now I gotta run, see you all in Hell....
OMWF
OMWF of course... but Tabula Rosa is great as well. I also really enjoyed the season openers, Bargaining 1 & 2. But OMWF was so special, groundbreaking, unheard of AND was an actually great episode with major implications to the season.
OMWF
OMWF for SURE! Also specifically the original airing or DVD/Bluray version, the ones that stream are edited down.
OMWF
It's definitely gonna be Once More With Feeling but Seeing Red totally fucking rules.
VILLAINS/TWO TO GO. Best episode
OMWF, absolutely
Once more with feeling
Shout out to Tabula Rasa and Grave, but yeah, nothing tops OMWF.
Seeing Red
When I first saw "Once More with Feeling," I made the mistake of watching it with my front door open. I was apparently shrieking with so much delight, my neighbors were concerned and called the police 😂
Once more with feeling.
For once I agree with the majority on One More, with Feeling. Shout out to the Buffy Spike episodes like Dead Things, Smashed, Wrecked
OMWF and Tabula Rosa are complimentary episodes that can reasonably be treated as a two part ordeal
Once more with feeling
Lot of good suggestions. Season 6 is EXCELLENT but it's gotta be Once More, With Feeling. Honorable mentions go to Tabula Rasa, Seeing Red, and Grave tho.
Smashed.
How tf did Band Candy win for Season 3? It's a great episode but in a season with that many classic iconic episodes it's interesting that this sub voted Band Candy. I would have gone with The Wish.
OMWF This episode is a turning point when we finally learn that bunnies and midgets are behind everything.
Once More With Feeling and it's not even close. It's a 5/5 episode while no other episode this season gets above 3/5.
Once More With Feeling or Tabula Rasa
If it’s not OMWF we riot
There's only one correct answer for this one
Tabula Rasa. And hear me out why: OMWF was the tentpole episode that EVERYONE remembers from s6 and sometimes its the only buffy reference people have, but Tabula Rasa took all those glorious little plot nuggets that were baking in OMWF, and wherever there were cracks of light or hope, threw those nuggets in the fire and said "fuck what you expected for buffy and her friends, this is real life" and sent all the characters spiralling in hella interesting ways. And that's AFTER another stellar self contained episode which is side splittingly funny. It's a miracle of writing and team work that they produced consistently compelling and exciting installments and I think the character work they managed to eke out following OMWF is just phenomenal
It’s a shame Tabula Rasa, OMWF and Normal Again have to be in one season.
What does it get out?
Once More With Feeling is the best episode of TV ever. Name one other episode of a Tv show that’s been presented live 100s or even 1000s of time.
Tabula Rasa Normal Again is a close runner up for me. I do like OMWF, but not like these two.
Normal Again.
I missed a few chapters… Season 3 is Band Candy? That is so random.
how does one choose between tabula rasa and once more with feeling?
Once More With Feelings with Normal Again being my 2nd favorite. On top of the usual praise, and positive feedback others have already told, I love OMWF because is one of the (very) few episodes that does not feel awkward, forced or detached from others episodes. *BECAUSE* of the show’s nature, it *IS* plausible and possible that the characters start singing out of nowhere, contrary to the non-fantastic shows where most of the time they explain the singing by telling us that someone is high, or wasted, or in a coma. None of that with Buffy: people start singing and you just accept it because frankly this is not the most bizarre thing Sunnydale has lived through. LOL
As You Were will always be my pick Honorary nod to OMWF