'Nightmares'

Buffy walks through the Master's lair, hunting him, only to be caught within moments, about ready to die....until her mom wakes her up for school. On their drive to school, Buffy wants to make sure her dad is really coming to pick her up and take her on a father/daughter weekend in Los Angeles, where he now lives. She seems worried he might break his promise.

When they get to class, moments after it starts, one of the students screams as he is suddenly covered with tarantulas. A little boy is seen in the doorway. He says, "Sorry about that."

Next morning...

Xander: Oh, the spiders! Willow's been kind of, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Insane about what happened yesterday.
Willow: I don't like spiders, okay? Their furry bodies, and their sticky webs, and what do they need all those legs for anyway? I'll tell you: for crawling across your face in the middle of the night. Ewww! How do they not ruffle you?
Xander: I'm sorry! I'm unruffled by spiders. Now, if a bunch of Nazis crawled all over my face...

Why is Xander afraid of Nazis? I don't think we'll ever find out.

So, why did a bunch of spiders crawl across this kid during class? Apparently the kid used to have nightmares about this happening to him, ever since his brother accidentally killed his tarantula collection. He assumed he had nodded off in class, until everyone else started screaming.

Cordelia comes by and tells Buffy there's a history test. Buffy wigs. She never knew there was a history test. As she goes to write her name, the pencil breaks. After she sharpens it, somehow time has moved forward a period and the bell rings. She didn't answer a single thing! She notices the little boy standing in the doorway...

Cut to a girl going into the boiler room to smoke. She gets attacked by some creature yelling "Lucky 19!" Buffy and Giles visit her in the hospital and then see a boy who's been in a coma for a week. He looks awfully familiar.

A super cool dude in a leather jacket is talking to his buddies about kicking someone's ass when his mother comes down the hall and exclaims his pet names, hugging him and severely demoting his cool status. Xander and Willow giggle about this until they walk into their classroom and...



Xander attempts to pinch himself. Who only wears underwear in their nightmares? It's all or nothin', am I right? I think I'm just disappointed about the lack of actually naked Xander, haha! Anyway, he runs away screaming with Willow chasing after.



Buffy goes to talk to Giles to see if he found anything about 'Lucky 19'. However, Giles can no longer read. They find an article about a little boy in a coma and Buffy realizes this is the kid she's been seeing around school.

Buffy: Could I be seeing Billy's asteroid body?
Giles: Astral body, and I-I don't know. As usual, one doesn't have an inordinate amount of information to work with.

Hank Summers, Buffy's father, pops to the school early to talk to her about something. This part is just heartbreaking. I can really empathize with her in this because my parents split up when I was young.



Hank: Having you. Raising you. Seeing you everyday. I mean, do you have any idea what that's like?
Buffy: What?
Hank: Gosh, you don't even see what's right in front of your face, do you? Well, big surprise there, all you ever think about is yourself. You get in trouble. Youembarrass us with all the crazy stunts you pull, and do I have to go on?
Buffy: No. Please don't.
Hank: You're sullen and... rude and... you're not nearly as bright as I thought you were going to be... Hey, Buffy, let's be honest. Could you stand to live in the same house with a daughter like that?
Buffy: Why are you saying all these things?
Hank: Because they're true. I think that's the least we owe one another. You know, I don't think it's very mature, getting blubbery when I'm just trying to be honest. Speaking of which, I don't really get anything out of these weekends with you. So, what do you say we just don't do them anymore?

Hank leaves and Buffy spots the little boy, Billy, again. She has a talk with him about how there's a man following him. The Ugly Man. And he soon attacks Buffy.



At least hilarity ensues inside. Poor Cordelia is a mess. She's become a nerd! They drag her off to the chess club. I love that her nightmare is being an unpopular nerd. At least she was popular enough with the nerds to be dragged away.



Willow hears a voice that sounds like Buffy coming from the boiler room and heads to check it out. Soon, she is pulled into an opera, forced to perform with a renowned opera singer. Of course, we all know poor Willow has horrible stage fright and from the musical we know she is not the greatest singer, so this is definitely a nightmare!



Xander tries to find Buffy and instead finds a trail of chocolate bars which lead him to a scary clown with a knife! YIKES! I apologize for this picture because it terrifies me, too.



Buffy and Billy head off in search and escape of the Ugly Man and are transported to a graveyard at night, where the Master is just chillin' out.



He's out of his entrapped church because Buffy fears it. Ack! So, he tosses her into an open grave and buries her alive. (Thinking of season 6, this is very ironic, don'tcha think? Talk about a nightmmare!) Giles, Xander, and Willow head out to grave yard and find Buffy's tombstone.



Failing Buffy as a watcher and letting her die is Giles' greatest nightmare. It doesn't last for long, however and Buffy emerges....as a vampire!



Buffy: We better hurry...'cause I'm getting hungry.

They head off to the hospital to try and wake Billy up because his 'asteroid body' is causing everyone's nightmares to manifest. The ugly man chases them and Buffy kicks his ass slayer/vamp style! But, Billy has to finish it. He has to face his greatest nightmare...



He pulls of the ugly man's mask and the nightmares go away. Buffy is human again, Billy wakes up, and confronts his little league coach, the one who put him in a coma. Xander, in a show of extreme manliness, grabs him and holds him. We later learn the man was arrested and Billy is going to be just fine.

Hank comes to pick up Buffy and they have a happy reunion.



Buffy: Have a killer weekend, guys.