"The Wish" is the ninth episode of season three of ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...

''. It was written by

Marti Noxon Martha Mills Noxon (born August 25, 1964) is an American television and film writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as a screenwriter and executive producer on the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1 ...

, directed by

David Greenwalt David Greenwalt (born October 16, 1949) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He was the co-executive producer of the TV series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and co-creator of its spinoff, ''Angel''. He is also co-creator of the sh ...

, and first broadcast on December 8, 1998. Although a standalone episode, "The Wish" is considered one of the best episodes of the show.

Plot

Cordelia returns to school only to be rejected by Harmony and her former clique, who taunt her as "Xander's castoff". She goes to The Bronze where Buffy accidentally humiliates her further by knocking her into a pile of trash in front of her friends. Cordelia decides that Buffy is to blame for her predicament. The next day, new girl Anya gives Cordelia an amulet while trying to goad her into wishing something bad would happen to Xander. Instead Cordelia wishes that Buffy had never come to

Sunnydale Sunnydale is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all ...

. Anya immediately transforms into Anyanka, the vengeance demon of scorned and wronged women, and grants the wish. Cordelia is once again popular in school, her Cordettes are at her beck and call, and handsome jock John Lee wants to date her. Her happiness is short lived when she realises that the town is overrun by vampires. The Master has risen and created a vast army of vampires, which terrorize the surviving humans. Most of the students are either dead or vampires and there is a nighttime curfew. Walking through the streets at night Cordelia encounters Xander and Willow who are now aggressive, capricious vampires. She is saved by a group of vampire fighters led by Giles. Cordelia tries to explain to Giles what happened and asks to have Buffy back so that things could be the way they were; but, before she can elaborate, she is killed by Xander and Willow. Giles calls Buffy's contacts in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

but is able only to leave a message for the very busy Slayer. He learns that the amulet Cordelia was wearing is that of Anyanka, whose granted wishes can be undone only if her center of power is destroyed. The Master has created machinery to industrialize harvesting of blood from captive humans. Giles, on his way home, is nearly captured by vampires who are rounding up humans for the plant; he is rescued by Buffy, the slayer, who in this reality is cold and cynical. She doubts that Giles can reverse Anya's spell, but does offer to kill the Master. Buffy finds Angel imprisoned; when she sees that he is a vampire, she initially rejects his help, but the marks of torture on his chest persuade her that he is no friend of the Master. The Master starts up the plant with the first human victim before a cage of prisoners, including Oz and Larry. Buffy and Angel attack the vampires. During the battle, Xander kills Angel, Buffy kills Xander, Oz kills Willow, and the Master breaks Buffy's neck. Meanwhile, Giles uses a spell to summon Anyanka to his house. He guesses that Anyanka's own amulet is the center of her powers and smashes it, restoring the original reality. Cordelia once again makes the wish and Anyanka tries to grant it, but without her amulet she is powerless.

Reception

Rhonda Wilcox and

David Lavery David Lavery (August 27, 1949 – August 30, 2016) was an American linguist and professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University who specialized in studying pop culture, especially television. From 2006 to 2008 he served as Chair in Film ...

described "The Wish" as "one of the darkest of ''Buffy'' episodes. The moment Vamp Xander and Vamp Willow kill Cordelia-without remorse and with visible pleasure-the tone of the episode shifts, climaxing in the scene where the cast regulars are killed in slow motion and with haunting music underneath."

Matthew Pateman Matthew Pateman is Professor of Popular Aesthetics and has worked as Head of Department at Kingston and Sheffield Hallam universities, and is now at Edge Hill University. Pateman received his Ph.D. from the University of Leeds where he wrote a th ...

praised the performance of

Mark Metcalf Mark Metcalf (born March 11, 1946) is an American television and film actor often playing the role of an antagonistic and aggrieved authority figure. He is best known for his role as sadistic ROTC officer Douglas C. Neidermeyer in the 1978 Ame ...

as the Master. He also points out the satire involved in the Master's plan to mechanize the draining of blood, its implicit criticism of progress through

mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...

, and the script's reference to

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxley ...

's novel ''

Brave New World ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarch ...

'' where such themes are explored.

Lewis Call Lewis Call is an American academic and central post-anarchist thinker. He is best known for his 2002 book ''Postmodern Anarchism'', which develops an account of postmodern anarchism through philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and cyberpunk ...

said the episode was a "multi-signifying masterpiece". In "

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered "Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered)" is a show tune and popular song from the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical '' Pal Joey''. It is part of the Great American Songbook. The song was introduced by Vivienne Segal on December 25, 1940, in the Broad ...

", an earlier episode also written by

, a love-struck Willow responds to Xander's threat to use force with an enthusiastic "Force is OK!". Call writes that this indicates a character trait in Willow that is brought to the fore in "The Wish" where she is portrayed as

polymorphously perverse Polymorphous perversity is a psychoanalytic concept proposing the ability to gain sexual gratification outside socially normative sexual behaviors. Sigmund Freud used this term to describe the sexual disposition from infancy to about age five. Fre ...

and

sadomasochistic Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...

References

External links

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"The Wish"
at BuffyGuide.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Wish, The 1998 American television episodes Alternate history television episodes Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 3) episodes Television episodes about parallel universes Television episodes about mass murder Television episodes about human trafficking Television episodes written by Marti Noxon