After Life

I had a friend who had a brain injury. Even if he had positive feelings, the trauma he experienced made him seem blank. He showed no emotions and did not make eye contact when we talked. In many ways he was the same person, but something was missing. I have that feeling about Buffy. In her conversation with Spike at the end of the episode she lays it out. She talks about experiencing joy on the other side. Now she was back in her original world with all its pain, violence, and sadness. She feels she is now in hell. The gang is happy she is back, but she is posing for them, pretending to be something she is not.

On its own terms, I suppose, "After Life" is an entertaining episode, with some creepy imagery.

As a conclusion (or epilogue, perhaps) to the "Bargaining" two-parter, in which the Scoobies must deal with the much-hyped consequences of bringing Buffy back to life, it falls flat.

Tara has a lot to say, back when Joyce died, about how "unnatural" a resurrection spell is. I guess that's the Wiccan equivalent of "unholy". So much did she fear the consequences, she couldn't even condone bringing Joyce back to assuage Dawn's grief. Gee, it must be a really bad thing to do then.

Only in "After Life", we find out it's not so bad. It just involves defeating a demon. You know, like they do every week in Sunnydale.

I wish it had been something much worse. I wish it had been something so bad it would leave the Scoobies legitimately questioning whether they had made a mistake in bringing Buffy back. An easy solution might be somehow tying Tara's death in "Seeing Red" directly to the spell. Like, she wouldn't have died if they hadn't resurrected Buffy.

I guess the argument might be that the TRUE consequence of bringing Buffy back is her subsequent depression at having been ripped out of heaven. Which, sure. Fine. Of course that only affects Buffy, which seems unfair, if nobody else really has to pay a price for their conduct.