Once More, with Feeling


 * This article is about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, for the soundtrack album of the same name, see Once More, with Feeling (Soundtrack).


 * To see the lyrics, click here.

"Once More, with Feeling", the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is the seventh episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the one hundred seventh episode altogether. It was written and directed by Joss Whedon, the creator of the show. The lyrics and music were also written by Whedon, with a score by Christophe Beck and arrangements by Beck and Jesse Tobias. It originally broadcast on November 6, 2001.

In this episode, a mysterious force compels Sunnydale residents to sing songs that reveal their true feelings and deep secrets. Buffy is forced to finally admit to her friends that they pulled her out of heaven -- not hell as they believed. Later, she and Spike share a kiss.

Synopsis
Buffy is patrolling in a cemetery at night, but there is something wrong with her and with the demons she meets and kills: they are all singing and dancing. Buffy sings about her life after returning to Earth, and the way she feels detached from it ("Going Through the Motions").

The morning after, the friends find out such things have happened to them all. They suddenly burst into song again, first wondering what can possibly be the cause for this ("I've Got a Theory") - including a novel idea by Anya ("Bunnies") - and then, guided by Buffy, asserting their ability to deal with it together ("If We're Together"). They further learn that it's not just happened to them -- all the people in Sunnydale are forced to sing about their inner feelings ("The Mustard").

Later Tara sings a love song to Willow about the difference she's made in her life ("Under Your Spell"). Xander and Anya sing together about things they would otherwise have never told themselves or each other, namely their fears about their coming marriage ("I'll Never Tell"), and Spike sings to Buffy about the torturous nature of their relationship ("Rest in Peace").

A new, unidentified demon in town (referred to as "Sweet" in the credits) is responsible for all the singing. Unfortunately, some people are singing and dancing so much that they spontaneously combust, due to the dramatic release of their pent-up emotions. Sweet has Dawn kidnapped by his minions, interrupting her just as she begins singing a lament about her life ("Dawn's Lament"). When Dawn wakes up in The Bronze, she and three of Sweet's minions engage in an interpretive dance, which was Dawn's attempt to escape. ("Dawn's Ballet") Sweet explains that he thinks she is the one who summoned him, and intends to take her to the Underworld and make her his queen ("What You Feel").

Meanwhile in the Magic Box, Giles sings his thoughts, that his continued presence encourages Buffy to remain emotionally dependent on him and that he should no longer act as a father to her lest she never mature, thus he decides to leave again and return to England for good ("Standing"). Tara finds out about a forgetting spell Willow had cast the evening before to make her forget about a fight they had, and decides to break up with her. Giles and Tara's songs merge into a duet about leaving as they look at Buffy and Willow respectively, the two of whom are distractedly chatting ("Under Your Spell/Standing (Reprise)").

The gang discovers through one of Sweet's minions the location where Dawn is being held. Xander, Anya, and Willow are eager to help save Dawn, but Giles insists that Buffy should go alone. Spike, dismissing Giles' stubbornness, offers to back Buffy up, but Buffy takes him to task regarding his wish for her to stay away from him, and a humiliated Spike skulks away, telling her he hopes she will dance until she burns. Buffy leaves alone, once again singing about her inability to feel, as both a conflicted Spike and the Scoobies express their desire to fight along with her, accompanied by Sweet, who summons them in song ("Walk Through the Fire").

Arriving at The Bronze, Buffy starts to sing and dance defiantly, cynically expressing her current condition and the hardships of being the Slayer.

Then she finally reveals to Sweet and her friends that, by resurrecting her, they had ripped her out of heaven rather than rescuing her from a hell dimension as they thought. As her friends react in horror to the admission, and once she has vocalized her anger and despair, she dances ecstatically to the point of fuming, in a somewhat suicidal effort. Spike arrives and helps her recover, telling her that the only way to mend her wounds is to carry on living, "so one of us is living" ("Something to Sing About").

Applauding, Sweet prepares to leave with Dawn, but it turns out that it is not Dawn who had summoned him, but Xander -- who had not understood the implications. This leads to the demon giving up on the queen matter and vanishing. As Sweet leaves, he points out that due to all the hidden feelings he caused them to reveal to each other, none of them can claim "it ended well" daring them to say that they are really happy "once more with feeling" ("What You Feel (Reprise)"). The group does, questioning the Pyrrhic victory they've achieved and what to do next ("Where Do We Go from Here?").

The episode ends with Spike and Buffy kissing, as the curtains fall, as predicted in the previous song's final verse, as the chorus swells one last time ("Coda").

Starring

 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
 * Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
 * Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
 * Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
 * James Marsters as Spike
 * Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

Special Guest Star

 * Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

 * Amber Benson as Tara Maclay
 * Hinton Battle as Sweet

Co Starring

 * Timothy Anderson as Singing Vampire/Street Sweeper/Henchman
 * Hunter Cochrane as College Guy #2
 * Alex Estronei as Singing Vampire/Street Sweeper/Henchman
 * David Fury as Mustard Man
 * Marti Noxon as Parking Ticket Woman
 * Matt Sims as College Guy #1
 * Daniel Weaver as Handsome Young Man
 * Zachary Woodlee as Demon/Street Sweeper/Henchman
 * Scot Zeller as Tap Dancing Victim (Incorrectly credited as "Henchman" in closing credits)

Trivia

 * Joss Whedon had wanted to create a musical episode since the first season of Buffy, but wasn't allowed to until the show was moved to a more lenient network, UPN.


 * Buffy's line, "Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday", is a reference to UPN, which was airing Buffy on Tuesday nights. Buffy also aired on Tuesday nights on the WB for the majority of its run.


 * This is the longest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- 50 minutes long, even with shortened opening credits, as opposed to the usual 42 minutes. Joss Whedon comments in the extra material on the DVD that the network graciously allowed him to run past the regular hour.


 * At the end of the episode, Spike says to Buffy, "The day you suss out what you do want, there'll probably be a parade. Seventy-six bloody trombones." This is a reference to the song "Seventy-six Trombones", from the musical The Music Man.


 * Sweet's henchmen appear wooden and puppet-like. When Spike is unable to stop a henchman from escaping, Spike mutters "Strong. Someday he'll be a real boy". This is a reference to the story of Pinocchio.


 * "I'll Never Tell" also references the song "You're Just Too Too" from "Les Girls" by Cole Porter. Both songs have a very similar filming style (two people dancing around a living room) and content (a couple somewhat-facetiously discussing each other's good and bad points), and it even features one direct reference: Anya's line "Look at me, I'm dancing crazy!" is also said by actress Kay Kendall in the original song, in both cases during the songs' dance breaks.


 * Xander's line, "Respect the cruller. And tame the donut!" is a reference to a similar (yet far more obscene) line from the film Magnolia.


 * Spike's line, "Finish the big group sing. Get your kumbaya-yas out", is a reference to both the song "Kumbaya" and to The Rolling Stones album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!.


 * One of the lines in "Going Through the Motions" references the song "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". Buffy sings "You'll find this fight just doesn't mean a thing..." and the vampire she punches finishes, "...she ain't got that swing."


 * Tara makes a reference to Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance when she says to Dawn, "Willow said they have a lead on the whole musical extravaganza evil. This demon that can be summoned, some sort of Lord of the Dance. Oh, but not the scary one. Just a demon."


 * The original airing of "Once More, with Feeling" received 5.4 million viewers.


 * In the production documentary included as extra material on the DVD version, it is mentioned that as well as singing, James Marsters played guitar for "Rest in Peace".


 * The scene featuring Amber Benson's musical number, "Under Your Spell", featured heavily-implied sex between two females, and was edited out during the episode's first broadcast in some countries like the Philippines and China.


 * Action figures of Buffy Summers, Anya Jenkins, and Dawn Summers were produced, based on this episode.


 * The same three actors play the demons in the opening number, the chorus line of street sweepers, and the puppet head demons.


 * Choreographers Adam Shankman and Mama Fletcher appear in the background after the parking ticket song.


 * In a press interview Amber Benson admitted to dancing into a pole during the backup dance at The Bronze. The viewer can see her laughing as she steps back (this occurs during the lyric "and every single verse / can make it that much worse" within "Something to Sing About").


 * Sarah Michelle Gellar said she "hated" making this episode (in particular the complicated singing and dancing she had to perform for "Something to Sing About").


 * Writer Joss Whedon said in the audio commentary on the DVD that part of the lyrics in "Under Your Spell" was "pornography" and that they were the dirtiest lyrics he had ever written.


 * This is Joss Whedon's second favorite episode. (The first being "Innocence".)
 * Writer and Producer Marti Noxon can be seen singing and acting as the "Parking Ticket Girl" as Giles, Anya and Xander walk the street.

Quotes
Xander - "Merciful Zeus!"

Xander - "You're the cutest of the Scoobies, With your lips as red as rubies, And your firm yet supple... tight embrace!"

Giles - "I was able to examine the body while police were taking witness arias."

Spike - "Don't be a stupid git." Giles - "When I want your opinion, Spike, I'll... I'll never want your opinion."

Giles - "She needs backup...Anya...Tara..." [Anya and Tara step in to provide backup singing in "Something to Sing About".

Anya - "It has to be stopped. It was like we were being watched, like there was a wall missing from our apartment. Like there were only three walls and not a fourth one. In reference to her and Xander's duet - also a reference to breaking the fourth wall."

Anya - "Dawn may have had the wrong idea in summoning this creature. But I've seen some of these underworld child-bride deals and they never end well. Maybe once." Most likely a reference to the Greek myth of Persephone.

Willow - "I think this line's mostly filler."

Woman - "I've been having a bad, bad day, Come on, won't you put that pad away, I'm asking you, please no! It isn't right, It isn't fair, There was no parking anywhere, I think that hydrant wasn't there Why can't you let it go? I think I've paid more than my share, I'm just a poor girl, don't you care? Hey, I'm not wearing underwear... [The Parking Ticket Song, performed by Marti Noxon]

Buffy - "I'm not exactly quaking in my stylish yet affordable boots, but there's definately something unnatural going on here. And it doesn't usually lead to hugs and puppies."

Continuity

 * Although he is never named in dialog or lyrics, the demonic villain of this episode is called Sweet per the episode's closing credits and the shooting script.


 * When Buffy asks the Scoobies if they had burst into song the previous night, they reveal that they each had but only thought it had happened to themselves. Giles was playing his guitar and singing at the hotel when he heard a backing orchestra accompany him and the room service staff performing synchronized dancing. He previously played "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who at an espresso bar in the episode "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd at home in "The Yoko Factor". Willow and Tara started singing whilst doing the dishes after dinner; there was a whole verse about cous cous. Xander and Anya had been arguing when their words started rhyming and they presumably started singing. Xander finds the whole thing disturbing, yet Willow seems to enjoy it. Ironically, it was Xander who summoned the demon responsible, and Willow, who has stage fright, sings only backing vocals and a few sparse solo lines.
 * Anya asks if they are the only ones being bursting into song as "that would indicate a spell" however this conflicts with a flashback in "Selfless" were she closes a window after hering a man singing about getting mustard on his shirt.


 * Anya is very concerned that her duet with Xander, "I'll Never Tell", is a retro pastiche and isn't likely to become a 'breakaway pop hit', reflecting the trend of musicals often featuring songs that become popular after being covered by singers other than the original cast members. She also asks Spike if his song, "Rest in Peace", was a breakaway pop hit 'or more of a book number'.


 * Anya's line "His penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe" refers to the fourth season episode "Pangs", in which a Native American spirit infects Xander with a cornucopia of various diseases, including syphilis.


 * The song "I've Got a Theory" features numerous references to previous episodes:
 * Willow suggests that "some kid is dreaming, and we're all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare", a reference to the events of "Nightmares". In that episode, when the characters come to realize that people's dreams are coming true, Giles says, "Dreams? That would be a musical comedy version of this. Nightmares — our nightmares are coming true."
 * Anya reinforces her fear of bunnies, introduced in "Fear, Itself", as she blames the singing on them ("Bunnies", a short rock and roll section inside "I've Got a Theory").
 * Buffy sings "I've died twice", referring to the season finales of season 1 and season 5.


 * Dawn ends the song "Something to Sing About" by saying "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it." This is the same line Buffy used when speaking to Dawn in "The Gift"


 * In the season 7 episode "Selfless", there is an extended flashback to this episode. Anya and Xander reference an earlier song involving coconuts, and Anya sings about wanting to become 'Mrs. Xander Harris.' She also opens the window to hear a man complaining (in song) that he got mustard on his favorite shirt, providing backstory for a well-known gag in this episode.