Forever (17 Apr. 2001)

With some help from Spike, Dawn attempts to bring Joyce back from the dead.

Director:

Marti Noxon

Writers:

Joss Whedon (creator), Marti Noxon

Stars:

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Sarah Michelle Gellar	...	Buffy Summers
Nicholas Brendon	...	Xander Harris
Alyson Hannigan	...	Willow Rosenberg
Emma Caulfield	...	Anya
Michelle Trachtenberg	...	Dawn Summers
James Marsters	...	Spike
Anthony Head	...	Rupert Giles (as Anthony Stewart Head)
David Boreanaz	...	Angel
Clare Kramer	...	Glory
Charlie Weber	...	Ben
Troy Blendell	...	Jinx (as Troy T. Blendell)
Amber Benson	...	Tara Maclay
Joel Grey	...	Doc
Todd Duffey	...	Murk
Andrea Gall	...	Customer

Storyline

Buffy organizes the funeral services for Joyce without a wake, respecting her last will, and after the service she meets Angel, who has come to Sunnydale to support her. Meanwhile Dawn becomes obsessed in bringing her mother back. She steals infamous witchcraft books from Willow and from the Magic Box, and helped by Spike, they visit the demon Doc, an expert in black magic that teaches Dawn resurrection techniques. She steals a Ghora demon egg in the Hell Mouth with Spike for her black magic, and she interrupts her spell after a serious conversation with Buffy. Meanwhile Ben unintentionally discloses to Jinx that The Key is an innocent in a human form.

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Plot Keywords:

sister sister relationship | heroine | female protagonist | lesbian

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 April 2001 (USA)

Filming Locations:

1800 Stewart St., Santa Monica, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At 30:55, when the shopkeeper is looking for the correct book for Dawn and Spike, he hums a little song to himself. That song is the theme for Peter from Sergei Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf'.

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Goofs

When Willow "magics" a book at 21:17, you see it slide out on its shelf as she gestures with her hand, but the subsequent shots in the sequence do not match its motion, so you see it slide out a second time in close-up and then see it slide out a third time in the background as she walks away.

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Quotes

Willow: What did I have for breakfast this morning? Do you remember?
Tara Maclay: Huh?
Willow: I-I wanna say bagel, but I think that was yesterday. You had two eggs sunny side up. I remember because they were wiggling at me like little boobs.
Tara Maclay: Sassy eggs.

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Connections

References Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Band Candy (1998)

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Soundtracks

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theme"
Written by Nerf Herder
Performed by Brandon K. Verrett

User Reviews

One of the finest hours of television ever

Becoming part 2, was only the beginning of heartbreaking Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.

I have waited so much for The Body episode and I was astonished, but not as much as the rest of the IMDb viewers. The Body which got a higher grade than Forever, is a bit understandable, but not completely.

Still Forever is not a episode for every watcher, it's heartbreaking, mournful and gives you guilt. When I watched it I could not laugh to Americas Funnies Homevideos (AFV) and that is actually rare(!) It's different from the other episodes, because there is just a minute or two of violence. But in the end you forget about it, you just want to be with Buffy and hug her and lie and tell her that everything is going to be fine, when she falls down to the floor, broken-hearted.

An unforgettable episode in TV history...