Wish Reality Episode

Lore & Background

In this alternate reality, 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 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.

In Their Own Story

The episode begins with Cordelia returning 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. Anya immediately transforms into Anyanka, the vengeance demon of scorned and wronged women, and grants the wish. In the alternate reality, Cordelia is once again popular, but the town is overrun by vampires. The Master has risen and created a vast army. Most students are dead or vampires. Cordelia encounters vampire Xander and Willow, who kill her. Giles leads a group of vampire fighters. He learns the amulet is Anyanka's center of power. Buffy arrives, cold and cynical, and offers to kill the Master. She finds Angel imprisoned and tortured. In the final battle, Xander kills Angel, Buffy kills Xander, Oz kills Willow, and the Master breaks Buffy's neck. Giles summons Anyanka and smashes her amulet, restoring the original reality. Cordelia once again makes the wish, but Anyanka is powerless without her amulet.

Reader's Guide

The episode is a standalone episode considered one of the best of the show. It features a parallel timeline created by a wish. The alternate reality is predictably nightmarish, with the Master's assembly line of bloodletting being horrific. The episode packs one of the strongest emotional wallops of the series, watching our heroes kill each other over and over again. The real genius is who kills whom and how it relates to the real world: Xander and Willow, the pair that essentially caused this brutal alternate reality in 'Lover's Walk,' drain Cordelia, one of the injured parties; Xander kills Angel, the vampire he never truly trusted; Buffy in turn avenges her alt.lover by staking Xander, while Oz kills Willow. Finally, The Master snaps Buffy's neck. The last five minutes are like watching all your friends die. Vox ranked it at #10 on their "Every Episode Ranked From Worst to Best" list. Paste Magazine ranked it at #9. Rolling Stone singled out The Wish as the 8th best episode of the show. Rhonda Wilcox and David Lavery 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 praised the performance of Mark Metcalf as the Master and pointed out the satire involved in the Master's plan to mechanize the draining of blood, its implicit criticism of progress through mass production, and the script's reference to Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. Lewis Call said the episode was a "multi-signifying masterpiece." Roger Pocock writes that the idea of a wish being granted so that history has followed a different course easily translates to the Buffy universe.

Did You Know?

• The episode was written by Marti Noxon and directed by David Greenwalt.
• It first broadcast on The WB on December 8, 1998.
• Vox ranked it at #10 on their 'Every Episode Ranked From Worst to Best' list.
• Paste Magazine ranked it at #9 on a similar list.
• Rolling Stone singled out The Wish as the 8th best episode of the show.