The Wish

First televised December 8, 1998, première diffusion française le 11décembre 1999
Guest Starring: Mark Metcalf(The Master), ErnniaCaulfield (Anya), LarryBogbytil (Lorry), andMercedes McNab (Hormany)
Written by Marti Noxonr Directed by David Greenwalt; Edited by Nancy Forner

Intro: Buffy, Willow, and Xander fight off a demon during a picnic. Buffy hasn't been able to reach Faith. Cordelia isn't returning. Xander's phone calls. Willow misses Oz. Cordelia cuts up a picture of the group and burns it.

Act 1: At school the next day, Cordelia talks with her friends and meets Anya. Harmony thinks it's funny that Xander cheated on her. Oz tells Willow he wants her to leave him alone. One student refers to Cordelia as "Xander Harris's cast-off." Later, at the Bronze, Cordelia and Anya hang out. Outside, Buffy kills a vampire, and Cordelia falls in some trash as Harmony and friends walk by. Cordelia decides her problem is Buffy. Anya gives Cordelia her "good luck" necklace. Cordelia wishes Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. Anya turns into a monster and says, "Done."

Act 2: Cordelia is at school; it's almost deserted. A teacher announces that tomorrow there's no class-it's the "monthly memorial." Curfew starts in an hour. Cordelia wants to go to the Bronzetonight; Harmony thinks something's wrong with Cordelia. Cordelia learns that Xander and Willow are dead. Cordelia walks and runs into Xander and Willow. She asks about Buffy, whom she now misses. And she can't believe Xander and Willow are together, even in this "bizarro land." Xander turns into a vampire; Cordelia flees. Giles, Oz, Larry, and Nancy rescue Cordelia. Xander and Willow go to the Bronze, where vampires torture humans. The Master is in charge. The Master is concerned Cordelia talked about a Slayer; he tells Xander and Willow (his `most vicious disciples," according to Giles in act four) to kill her. Cordelia talks to Giles about Buffy. Xander and Willow arrive at the library and trap Giles in the cage (and find out he's a Watcher), then they both bite Cordelia on the neck, killing her.

Act 3: Giles breaks out of his cage and learns that Nancy is dead,too. Giles takes Cordelia's necklace. Xander and Willow report to the Master that Cordelia is dead. Giles calls another Watcher and tries to get a Slayer to come to Sunnydale. Willow goes to play with "puppy"Angel chaine dup. She tortures him by burning him with matches. Giles researches the necklace. He drives home to get more books, on the way rescuing some people, then being saved himself-by Buffy. She doesn't understand what she's doing there.

Act 4: Giles finds a spell to reverse Cordelia's wish-but he needs to destroy her power center, and he doesn't know what her power center is. Buffy isn't enamored of the plan. Giles believes a better world has to be possible. Buffy will go to the Bronze to fight the Master. Buffy finds Angel in the basement of the Bronze, still chained up. He recognizes her, but she 'Aciesn't remember." He's been waiting for her. 7he Master rose. He let me live to punish me. I kept hoping maybe you'd come." The Master is at the Factory: It starts tonight." He will take her to him. At the Factory, the Master introduces "mass production." Giles works on a spell. The monstrous Anya appears. At the Factory, a live girl is put on a conveyor belt and drained of her blood. Buffy attacks; a fight breaks out. Xanderkills Angel as he tries to protect Buffy. Buffy kills Xander (without a second thought). Oz and Larry kill Willow. The Master kills Buffy. Giles grabs Anya's necklace and smashes it. Everything returns to normal. Cordelia is at school talking with Anya, but she can't decide what to wish for. And Anya doesn't have her necklace, anyway, or the power now to grant wishes.

COMMENTS: Though the basic idea behind this episode is nothing extraordinary, it is presented in such a powerful way that
The Wish is a winner. For one thing, its placement in the schedule is perfect: after the events of "Lovers Walk." Cordelia
would be on a rampage, especially combined with Harmony's teasing. And it's not as if Cordelia had any great love for Bully to
begin with. However, an opportunity is lost in making this episode a psychological examination of Cordelia: the "what if' story is
presented literally, with no room for interpreting the events as Cordelia's daydream or imagination. As a result, the viewer
doesn't really learn anything about the character because of the events, and in fact the gist of the story tells what everybody
already knows-if Buffy never came to Sunnydale, things get really, really bad. (However, the story cheats in this regard,
because Buffy does end up coming to Sunnydale, even though Cordelia had wished otherwise.)

Despite some weaknesses, the episode is spiced with several wonderful scenes, such as where Harmony is ridiculing Cordelia
and, in the altemate world, the vampiric Willow is torturing Angel. Willow, and even more so Xander, make great vampires,
and the actors seem to be enjoying their altemate roles.

But the real power of this episode is in the final few minutes. As the Buffy/Master battle reaches its climax, the scenes are shot
in slow motion and without live sound, leavingonlythe melancholy score (presumably by Christophe Beck)-a wordless,
haunting, hin~like piece with a single female vocalist-on the soundtrack. This happens immediately after Angel, attempting to
save Buffy from an attack from behind by Xander, gets killed himself, his last word being, "Buffy." Sadly, it means nothing to
Buffy-in this world, she never knew of their love (though, oddly he seems to).

In a voice-over, Anya (talking to Giles) says, '-this is the real world. This is the world we made. Isn't it wonderful?" At this point the slow motion begins, and not only does Bufly kill Xander, but she does it without emotion or a twinge of regret. Here, and during her final confrontation with the Master. Gellar is phenomenal, portraying a truly different Buffy from the one she has
portrayed during the first two-and-a-half seasons. Bufty's death coincides with a cut to Giles, about to smash Anya's necklace.
"You trusting fool!" she says, "How do you know the other world is any better than this?" Giles responds, -Because it has to
be." The necklace gets destroyed as Buffy gets killed-and suddenly everything returns to normal.

The storyline involving the Master refers back to events in the first season, in which he was the dominant villain attempting to
ascend to the surface world (having been trapped underground) so that he can take over. He makes it to the surface. but Buffy
is there to meet him and, together with Giles and the gang, defeats him.
The Wish has a sequel of sorts in the third-season episode "Doppelgangland."