"Nightmares" has some core problems, but is partially saved by several really great scenes. On one hand we get some real character gems from Buffy in the form of insight, emotion, and foreshadowing. On the other hand we have a premise that fails to live up to its potential and a pretty poor, heavy-handed plot with no real thematic gravitas or relevance to much of anything. The former certainly sticks around in my mind more than the latter, but I can't let that disguise how irrelevant the episode really is beyond said gems.

There are some really compelling scenes surrounding Buffy in "Nightmares" and it wastes no time in getting to them. The opening nightmare itself sports a nice dose of foreshadowing while simultaneously recalling the mission statement of the show, despite the usual poor music and the Master actually hissing at Buffy. We see Buffy finding her way down into the Master's lair as he skulks around in the shadows. He comes up behind her and paralyzes her with his gaze as he goes in for the bite. This is almost exactly what actually happens in "Prophecy Girl" [1x12] and is a great way to remind us of the prophetic lineage and mysticism that's always swirling around our complex hero. It also serves as a nice prologue to what happens within "Nightmares" itself.

With Buffy hollering "no no no" to the literal horrors that await her, Joyce's awakening response of "yes, it's time to go to school" is a nice callback to the central theme and recurring metaphor of the season: high school is hell. An additional welcome touch is the post-credits scene with the Master (about controlling fear) that begins in his tomb and slowly rises up through the ground and into the daylight where we see the high school. Note how this is the exact reverse of a similar scene in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" [1x01] where we start in the daylight and then slowly pan downward through the ground to uncover the Hellmouth itself. The earlier scene hints at the danger (and metaphors) that lurk below, while the scene here in "Nightmares" hints at that very danger rising to the surface and invading the world above which it, at least temporarily, very much does.

There's a truly cathartic moment, for those of us who have full knowledge of the show to come, later in the episode where the Scoobies, sans Buffy, notice that there's suddenly a cemetery across the street from the school… and it's nighttime over there. It's not only one of the sweetest-looking effects the season has, but it's also a moment that strikes me both emotionally and symbolically. It alludes to the separation that exists between Buffy's world and that of the other Scoobies. Buffy's always drenched in darkness despite her struggle to embrace the light. This reality will always, to an extent, lead to a separation between her, her friends, and the world around her, all of which informs her sense of loneliness and craving for human connection. As this scene evolves, we see the Scoobies try to enter Buffy's world only to want to immediately leave it, what with Buffy initially appearing dead and then rising as a vampire. While her friends are there to pull her out of the grave (hello "Bargaining Pt. 1" [6x01]) to face a depressing reality (in this case, being a vampire, in S6's case, depression itself), Buffy has already had to face the Master alone… and died (hello "Prophecy Girl" [1x12]).

Earlier in "Nightmares" there are some interesting insecurities unearthed about Buffy's relationship with her dad, which become increasingly important as the series progresses. Early in the episode Willow and Buffy have a conversation about the divorce of Buffy's parents. It's immediately clear that this is a big sore spot for Buffy, one that will not heal anytime soon (and it doesn't). We see that she fears her dad won't show up for their weekend outing and that her personal instability at the time contributed to why her parents got divorced. The scene later, with her nightmare dad, shows that she's also not entirely sure her dad wants to spend time with her. This scene is particularly rough to watch, mostly due to Gellar's ability to suck me into the emotion of the moment. It's heart-breaking to see Buffy's peppy excitement turned upside-down. Even sadder, though, is the knowledge that some of her fears are actually justified -- we see her dad really douche-it-up in the future.

Interesting to note is Buffy telling Willow that, back when she found out she was the Slayer, "I was in so much trouble. I was a big mess." This tidbit, in conjunction with Joyce's words to Buffy in "Becoming Pt. 2" [2x22], make the future knowledge that Buffy was briefly in a mental hospital ("Normal Again" [6x17]) all that much more believable for me.

While one would think an episode titled "Nightmares" would inspire relevant insight into most of the major characters, it sadly only does for Buffy in what begins as surface fears (being unprepared for a history exam), evolves to life fears (all the stuff surrounding her dad), and then climaxes with primal fears (the Master rising, being buried alive, and turning into a vampire). If only that logical progression had also been applied to someone else! Instead, we only get mostly surface-y stuff for Willow, Xander, Giles, and Cordelia.

Willow's sole nightmare here is that she has to perform in front of an audience, thus exposing her inherent insecurities. As funny as this is, it was hinted at already in the end-credits scene of "The Puppet Show" [1x09]. Xander's nightmare goes from walking into class without his clothes on (even though he's clearly in fine shape) to clowns and Nazi symbols on the walls. Giles gets a bit more ranging from getting lost in the stacks to losing the ability to read (which makes "Something Blue" [4x09] even funnier) to seeing his charge (Buffy) dead. Cordelia.... well, apparently Cordelia's deepest fears are having a bad hair day and being forced into the chess club, even though the depth she reveals in "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" [1x11] shows there's obviously more going on there. The major problem with all this is that these nightmares don't really tell us anything new about their respective characters. Where Buffy's are truly insightful, everyone else's nightmares are disappointingly superficial.

Sadly, the plot of "Nightmares" doesn't fare much better than the characters. Whereas most Buffy plots are supernatural metaphors for real-life problems, the plot here ends up being a straight-forward tale of a random man beating up a random kid in anger. Beyond the plot being poorly drawn and its resolution being ham-fisted, how is this relevant to either the characters or the larger story? The theme of the episode seems to be the effect one's fears have on those around them, but this theme is very poorly sewn into the episode and doesn't resonate at all. The finer details of the plot are pretty shoddy too, what with the lame "Ugly Man" bumbling around hollering "Lucky 19." Contrast all this with the similar but vastly superior "Fear, Itself" [4x04] in S4, where the plot and theme are clearly drawn and exist to serve the characters rather than to make a heavy-handed statement that doesn't have resonance or relevance.

There's material surrounding Buffy to admire in "Nightmares," some of which proves to be surprisingly meaningful and potent in the seasons to come – it's these scenes that hold the episode up. Unfortunately, there is almost just as much to be frustrated by. The episode is centered on a plot that is completely irrelevant, the byproduct of which give us nightmare sequences that are fun to watch but also largely uninteresting. While I love the episode's meaningful moments, they just simply don't connect well to what's actually happening in the episode itself. "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" [1x05], flawed as it is, is a better example of a plot with a coherent message that consists of both thematic and character relevance from start to finish. It's disappointing that "Nightmares" couldn't follow suit.