Conversations with Dead People (Buffy episode)
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"Conversations with Dead People" is the seventh episode of the seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Plot synopsis
Summary
Several separate encounters take place around Sunnydale on one night. What makes this particular episode unique is none of the major characters (Dawn, Buffy, Willow) interacts with each other during this show.
On patrol, Buffy discovers that her latest vampire foe is an old classmate, and the two reminisce. However, after she learns that Spike killed him - thus meaning that Spike can now harm humans - the vampire tries to convince her to die, and she kills him.
In the library, Willow runs into the ghost of Cassie, a girl Buffy once helped, who claims to have been sent by a ghostly Tara. The ghost, however, soon tries to warn Willow that she will kill everyone, and that she should kill herself. Willow is not fooled, and the figure reveals itself to be not Cassie, but The First.
At home, Dawn is attacked by a malevolent force, also witnessing what appears to be her mother's ghost.
Spike picks up a woman at a bar and takes her home, where he feeds on her.
Jonathan and Andrew, meanwhile, return from Mexico to dig up an artifact hidden near the Hellmouth. Andrew is secretly in contact with what he believes to be the ghost of Warren. After they have done their task, "Warren" goads Andrew into killing Jonathan, whose blood spills onto the artifact.
Expanded overview
Spike mopes at the Bronze, Buffy walks through a cemetery, Willow struggles to stay awake at the library and Dawn returns home from school to an empty house. Buffy finds a fresh grave with a vampire rising and it all begins. Jonathan and Andrew drive back into Sunnydale, returning from Mexico. They've been having nightmares about this something that will devour from beneath. In the cemetery, Buffy fights with the newly risen vampire until he stops, recognizing her from high school. Back at the Summers' house, Dawn enjoys a pizza while checking out Buffy's clothes and damaging the house as she plays with Buffy's weapons. While at the library, the ghostly form of Cassie pays Willow a visit.
Dawn talks with a friend while watching a scary movie. She hears several loud thumps and then the door blows open with a fierce wind. The previously muted TV suddenly starts to play sound again and frightened, Dawn unplugs it, but it doesn't turn off. Music starts to blare from stereos and Dawn finally takes an ax to the TV and stereo systems. A radio in the kitchen continues to play and the microwave glows and smokes before exploding. Dawn cowers in a corner as the radio continues to play and Joyce's voice is heard calling Dawn's name. The vampire, Holden Webster, tries to remind Buffy of their time together in high school, but they weren't the closest of friends and it takes her a while. They start to chat about life since high school, putting aside their destiny to try and kill each other for the moment. Holden talks to her about some of their former classmates and their current roles as vampire and Slayer.
Dawn panics and tries to call Buffy, but she doesn't answer the phone. Joyce's dead body appears on the couch behind Dawn and as the lights flash, furniture is rearranged and put back and a message is written in blood on the wall. Dawn asks the ghost questions to be answered by knocking sounds for yes or no. She finds it is her mother, but she's not okay and she's not alone. The house shakes violently and Dawn freaks out some more. Jonathan and Andrew sneak into the new Sunnydale High School with intent to find something that will help them save Sunnydale and hopefully earn them entrance into the Scooby Gang.
They split up and once Andrew is alone, he encounters Warren. Warren reminds Andrew that his death was part of the plan and that they need to stay calm until Jonathan has served his purpose for them. Willow wonders why she can't see Tara personally and finds that because she killed people, she's not allowed to see Tara. Willow talks to Tara through Cassie, professing her love and how much she misses Tara. Cassie relays messages back from Tara, giving Willow a little hope. Holden analyzes Buffy's life and her struggles with romance, but he knows they have to get back to the fighting soon. They continue to talk about Buffy's superiority complex and how it relates to her parents' divorce and her own personal difficulties making a relationship work. She doesn't think she has such a complex, but she starts to open up about her last relationship and Holden uses the opportunity to hit her with a statue. He leans in for the bite, but Buffy regains her composure and the fight is back on.
Dawn tries to talk to the evil spirit haunting the house and supposedly holding her mother captive. She can see a strange figure holding her Mom down on the couch and it swings an ax at Dawn. The figure wants her out of the house, but Dawn refuses to leave. Jonathan and Andrew search through the basement of the school and head into a room after Andrew receives a hint from Warren. Following their blueprints, they start to dig into the ground. Buffy pins Holden down and is about to stake him when he comments on her motivation and she's thrown for a loop. He questions and correctly guesses that her last relationship was with a vampire, earning him the chance to ask more questions as part of a deal.
Meanwhile, Spike walks a woman he met at the Bronze to her home and they stop to talk outside. Willow talks to Cassie about everything that happened after Tara was shot. Willow is warned not to use magic again because of the danger it poses. Willow promises not to use magic again and hurt people like that again, but Tara says she will; she's going to kill everyone. Andrew and Jonathan dig together and Jonathan talks about how much he misses high school and his fellow students. Andrew chimes in, saying that none of Jonathan's fellow students care about him. Dawn tries to perform a spell to cast the spirit out of the house, but it fights her attempts furiously. She's tossed around and cut and all of the windows in the living room shatter.
Buffy continues to confide in Holden about her feelings. She thinks that because she's the Slayer, her friends and family don't understand her and never will. Defeated by the truth, she realizes that she does have a superiority complex. They get ready to fight again when Buffy mentions Spike's name as the vampire she was involved with and it catches Holden's attention. Dawn struggles against the wind and the violent spirit, but she manages to succeed in expelling it from the house. Weakened, Dawn collapses to the ground as a glowing, angelic figure of her mother appears in the room. Cassie tells Willow that she only has two options: never perform magic again, or kill herself. The second option alerts Willow to the fact that Cassie isn't who she says she is and she was never talking to Tara.
Holden tells Buffy that Spike sired him while across town, Spike viciously bites into the woman's neck. Joyce's spirit warns Dawn about impending danger and how when it happens, Buffy won't be there to protect Dawn; she'll be Dawn's enemy. Jonathan looks up to see Warren standing behind Andrew just before Andrew shoves a knife into Jonathan's stomach. Cassie taunts Willow and it doesn't take long before Willow realizes Cassie is representing the thing that will devour everyone from below. Cassie explains that the end will be monumental before she morphs into a mouthy monster then disappears. Jonathan falls dead onto the symbol, Spike drops the woman's dead body to the ground and Buffy finally stakes vampire guy.
Writing and acting
Regular cast
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
- James Marsters as Spike
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow
Guest cast
- Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
- Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells
- Adam Busch as Warren Mears
- Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson
- Azura Skye a Cassie Newton
- Jonathan M. Woodward as Holden Webster
Production details
Music
- Angie Hart - "Blue" - Used at the beginning and end of the episode. Joss Whedon wrote the song for this episode. It's sung by Angie Hart, and can be heard in both the beginning and end of the episode.
- Los Cubaztecas - "Nicolito"
- Scout - "The Never Never"
Quotes and trivia
- This episode was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.
- Neither Emma Caulfield nor Nicholas Brendon appear in this episode. This is the only episode Brendon, and the character of Xander, does not appear in throughout the series' run. James Marsters appears but does not speak.
- Amber Benson was initially going to appear as Tara, taunting Willow instead of Cassie, but she turned it down on the grounds that she thought having Tara as a villain would ruin her character.
- Other storylines considered were for Eric Balfour, who played Jesse in the pilot episode, who would have conversed with Xander; and for Kali Rocha (Halfrek) to return and haunt Anya, but she was unavailable.
- Buffy learns that Scott Hope, her high school boyfriend in season three, came out as being gay in college. This may have been a nod to the fact that the actor that played Hope, Fab Fillippo had gone onto have a major role in the Showtime television series Queer as Folk as a gifted violinist at a private University that is openly gay.
- Jonathan M. Woodward, who plays Holden Webster, also appeared in every Joss Whedon series, as Knox in the fifth season of Angel and as Tracey in the Firefly episode "The Message". All three of these characters died violently.
- Holden Webster pronounces "nemeses" correctly and Buffy replies "Is that how you say that?" This is an allusion to the Season 6 Episode "Gone" when both Warren and Buffy have trouble with the word.
- In addition to the two credited writers, show runners Joss Whedon and Marti Noxon also made significant contributions to the script of this episode. Each of the four plot strands were written by a different writer: Whedon wrote the Buffy-Holden scenes, Noxon wrote the Willow-Cassie scenes, Espenson wrote the Dawn scenes and Goddard wrote the Geek Trio scenes.
Continuity
Arc significance
This episode further establishes the season's "Big Bad", whose shape-shifting ability was displayed in the season premiere, "Lessons".
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) | Buffyverse: Fall 2002 - December 2002 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.01 Lessons (Buffy episode)>Lessons |
| Mexico, 2002 | Buffy/Angel book: Seven Crows (Buffy/Angel novel)>Seven Crows |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.01 Deep Down (Angel episode)>Deep Down |
| L.A., 2002 | B7.02 Beneath You (Buffy episode)>Beneath You |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.02 Ground State (Angel episode)>Ground State |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.03 Same Time, Same Place (Buffy episode)>Same Time, Same Place |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Apocalypse Memories (Buffy novel)>Apocalypse Memories |
| L.A., Las Vegas, 2002 | A4.03 The House Always Wins (Angel episode)>The House Always Wins |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.04 Help (Buffy episode)>Help |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Dark Mirror (Angel novel)>Dark Mirror |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Mortal Fear (Buffy novel)>Mortal Fear |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy book: Spark and Burn (Buffy novel)>Spark and Burn |
| Sunnydale, L.A., 2002 | Buffy/Angel book: Heat (Buffy/Angel novel)>Heat |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.04 Slouching Toward Bethlehem (Angel episode)>Slouching Toward Bethlehem |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.05 Selfless (Buffy episode)>Selfless |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.05 Supersymmetry (Angel episode)>Supersymmetry |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.06 Him (Buffy episode)>Him |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Solitary Man (Angel novel)>Solitary Man |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.06 Spin the Bottle (Angel episode)>Spin the Bottle |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Love and Death (Angel novel)>Love and Death |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Monolith (Angel novel)>Monolith |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.07 Conversations with Dead People (Buffy episode)>Conversations with Dead People |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.07 Apocalypse, Nowish (Angel episode)>Apocalypse, Nowish |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.08 Sleeper (Buffy episode)>Sleeper |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.08 Habeas Corpses (Angel episode)>Habeas Corpses |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.09 Never Leave Me (Buffy episode)>Never Leave Me |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.09 Long Day's Journey (Angel episode)>Long Day's Journey |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B7.10 Bring on the Night (Buffy episode)>Bring on the Night |
| Unknown, 2002 | |
| New York, 2002 | |
| Unknown 2002 | |
| L.A., 2002 | A4.10 Awakening (Angel episode)>Awakening |
| Buffyverse | ||
| Main | Canon | Index Chronology: Ancient | Modern | BS1 | BS2 | BS3 | BS4/AS1 | BS5/AS2 | BS6/AS3 | BS7/AS4 | AS5 | Future | Flashbacks | |
| Buffy | Characters (main) | Characters (minor) | Episodes | Plot | Comics | Film | Pilot (unaired) | Promo: History.. | Novels | Promos: Pre-"Bargaining" | |
| Angel | Characters (main) | Characters (minor) | Episodes | Plot | | |
| Spin-offs | Comics | Fan made productions | Fray | Novels | Spike movie | Undeveloped productions Buffy Animated | Card Game | RPGs | Tales of Slayer (prose) | Tales of Slayers | Tales of Vampires | Toys | Video Games Upcoming: Blackout | | | | | | Portal Through Time | Spike vs Dracula | | |
| Powers | Angel Investigations | Circle of the Black Thorn | Order of Aurelius | The First Evil | The Initiative | Monsters | Old Ones | The Powers That Be | Ra-Tet | Scooby Gang | Senior Partners | Watchers' Council | Wolfram & Hart | |
| People | Adam | Amy | Andrew | Angel | Anya | Buffy | Caleb | Connor | Cordelia | Dawn | Darla | Doyle | Dru | Eve | Faith | Fred | Giles | Glory | Gunn | Harmony | Holtz | Illyria | Jasmine | Jenny | Joyce | Jonathan | Kate | Kennedy | Lilah | Lindsey | Lorne | The Master | Mayor Wilkins | Oz | Professor Walsh | Riley | Spike | Tara | Warren | Wesley | Willow | Xander | |
| Places | L.A. | Sunnydale Bronze | Caritas | Hellmouth | Hyperion | Library | Magic Box | Pylea | Sunnydale High | |
| Music | Complete Tracklist | Use of Music in Buffy & Angel | Dingoes Ate My Baby | Film | | | Once More, With Feeling | |
| Key Terminology | "Demon" | "Slayer" | "Vampire" | "Watcher" | "Werewolf" | "Witch" "Child of Senior Partners" | Shanshu | Sunnydale Syndrome | Tro-Clon | |
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