Buffyverse Dialogue Database - EPISODE: 'Listening to Fear'


Season: Episode 9 of Season 5
Original Air Date: 11/28/2000
Written by: Jane Espenson
Directed by: David Solomon

Notes:

An alien creature (Queller) stalks the lunatic fringe as Joyce awaits her operation.
Plot Highlights:

Buffy devotes herself to Joyce. The Scoobies patrol and Willow stakes 2 vamps, then plays Santa. Willow & Tara see a meteorite, the scoobies investigate. Riley secretly calls in the army. Buffy takes Joyce home. Dawn gets upset about crazies telling her she's not real. The Queller hitches a ride to the Summers'. Buffy's crying jag is interrupted by the Queller's attack on Joyce. Spike helps Buffy kill it. Riley & the commandos show up too late. Ben justifies his decision to call in the Queller to Glory's toady. Joyce figures out about Dawn, then goes into surgery.
Quick Review:

For some reason this ep gets all muddled in my head with "Shadow", which is really unfair to it because on repeat viewing it's clearly the better of the two. There's a lot of quiet angst here, and the last half is really quite affecting, with Dawn's hurt confusion, Buffy's lonely breakdown and Joyce's this-may-be-the-last-time-I-see you mother-daughter moment with Buffy. There's rather more funny than you would expect in a basically downer ep though, all compliments of the Scoobies and that one eminantly smirk-worthy aborted "hey are those pictures of me?" at the end. Not a brilliant ep, but solid & decent rewatachability. As long as giant plastic cochroaches don't freak you out...
Memorable Moments:

Willow's hoppy excitement at having dusted 2 vamps, followed by her half-fall when those dizzy knees give in under her.
Willow playing tiny jewish Santa to the Summers girls.
Scoobies investigating a meteorite with a chewy demon center, esp Anya's sarcastic comment about it frisking away like a fluffy lamb, Xander's '2nd instinct' line & Gile's "killer snot monster from outer space" bit.
Buffy reassuringly lying to a very vulnerable Dawn about why the crazies keep telling her she doesn't belong.
Buffy covering up her crying jag with dishes and festive music.
Spike playing off his stalking as theft, helping Buffy to kill the Queller and snarking at Riley as he and his commandos arrive on the scene too late.
Joyce revealing that she has figured out Dawn isn't her daughter and the ensuing tearful mother-daughter moment.

Transcript Source:

Download from http://www.studiesinwords.de/87listeningtofear.html
Transcribed by Joan the English Chick (pisces@englishchick.com).
(If the link above doesn't work, try looking here, under multimedia.)

There are 29 clips for this episode

AKAs

characters

Story Arcs

NOTES ON EPISODE ART: CREATED 01/2002 ~For me, the most important scene for this ep was that last pre-surgery scene between Buffy & Joyce, and so for the collage -- with the exception of the Dawn image -- I pulled all my captures from there. When I had the basic layout, I felt that it was too plain, flat and uninteresting to leave everything photo-clear, so I overlayed some texture and started playing with fragmenting it with different sized and shaped translucent boxes, and here we are. A little more abstract than I usually go, but not bad...

Notes: An alien creature (Queller) stalks the lunatic fringe as Joyce awaits her operation. Plot Highlights: Buffy devotes herself to Joyce. The Scoobies patrol and Willow stakes 2 vamps, then plays Santa. Willow & Tara see a meteorite, the scoobies investigate. Riley secretly calls in the army. Buffy takes Joyce home. Dawn gets upset about crazies telling her she's not real. The Queller hitches a ride to the Summers'. Buffy's crying jag is interrupted by the Queller's attack on Joyce. Spike helps Buffy kill it. Riley & the commandos show up too late. Ben justifies his decision to call in the Queller to Glory's toady. Joyce figures out about Dawn, then goes into surgery. Quick Review: For some reason this ep gets all muddled in my head with "Shadow", which is really unfair to it because on repeat viewing it's clearly the better of the two. There's a lot of quiet angst here, and the last half is really quite affecting, with Dawn's hurt confusion, Buffy's lonely breakdown and Joyce's this-may-be-the-last-time-I-see you mother-daughter moment with Buffy. There's rather more funny than you would expect in a basically downer ep though, all compliments of the Scoobies and that one eminantly smirk-worthy aborted "hey are those pictures of me?" at the end. Not a brilliant ep, but solid & decent rewatachability. As long as giant plastic cochroaches don't freak you out... Memorable Moments: Willow's hoppy excitement at having dusted 2 vamps, followed by her half-fall when those dizzy knees give in under her. Willow playing tiny jewish Santa to the Summers girls. Scoobies investigating a meteorite with a chewy demon center, esp Anya's sarcastic comment about it frisking away like a fluffy lamb, Xander's '2nd instinct' line & Gile's "killer snot monster from outer space" bit. Buffy reassuringly lying to a very vulnerable Dawn about why the crazies keep telling her she doesn't belong. Buffy covering up her crying jag with dishes and festive music. Spike playing off his stalking as theft, helping Buffy to kill the Queller and snarking at Riley as he and his commandos arrive on the scene too late. Joyce revealing that she has figured out Dawn isn't her daughter and the ensuing tearful mother-daughter moment.
Transcript Source: Download from http://www.studiesinwords.de/87listeningtofear.html Transcribed by Joan the English Chick (pisces@englishchick.com). (If the link above doesn't work, try looking here, under multimedia.)
There are 29 clips for this episode

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