Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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Tabula Rasa ranks 77,958 out of all 118,440 episodes (of all shows) on TV.com.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans have written a total of 43 reviews of Tabula Rasa.

Air Date

Tuesday November 13, 2001

Production Code

6ABB08

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  7 Good

  Season 6, Episode 8. hide show

  The Scoobies all lose their memories after a guilty Willow casts a spell to make Buffy forget that she was in Heaven.
  
  This episode was definitely different. Haha. It was entertaining though. I hate the spell-addicted Willow, though. I liked them waking up in the magic shop as amnesiacs. Anya & Giles are together, Willow & Xander are together, Dawn & Buffy are still sisters. It was interesting, to say the least, and entertaining, but it kinda got dull at times. And, first off, ew, Joan? Buffy likes the name Joan?! Bleh. Otherwise, not a bad episode. I'm liking how season six is shaping up so far. :)

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  Wanted23 Added Jul 27, 2009 All my reviews
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  10 Perfect

  Meet Randy. hide show

  'Tabula Rasa' is another great episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and one of the best of the sixth season. In it, Giles decides to go back to England while Willow, in order to erase Tara's memories, makes everyone forget who they are. The episode is the third to be written by story editor Rebecca Rand Kirschner and turns out to be really good, with lots of memorable moments, including some Spuffy romance and Giles/Anya interaction. Another important part was the continuation of Willow's magic addiction plot which eventually led to Tara's break up with her.
  
  Amber Benson and Alyson Hannigan were great in the more emotional scenes and everyone keeps getting better in the comedic ones. Other nice moments were Anya and the rabbits she summoned and Spike as Randy, but I'm not a big fan of Shark Boy.
  
  Awesome episode with an even more awesome ending set to Michelle Branch's Goodbye to You.

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  alias571 Added Jul 21, 2009 All my reviews
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  9 Superb

  Tabula Rasa is one of the best episodes of season 6!
  The storyline is great although it has a sad ending. hide show

  Okay so what I was saying about the sad ending is at the end they play this song and they show all the different characters who are all sad. The song is "Goodbye to You" by Michelle Branch and it shows (not in this order), Giles on the plane to England, Willow in the bathroom crying probably beacuase the next scene is Tara in the next room, packing her things and also crying. Dawn is outside on the porch and when Tara comes out with her things and tries to hug Dawn, she goes inside crying. Buffy is at the Bronze sitting by herself until Spike comes to her. She turns away and before he says anything he walks away.
  All in all a really good episode!

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  sophdoph13 Added May 23, 2009 All my reviews
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  8 Great

  Willow wants Buffy to forget her Afterlife experience and casts a spell. But the spell goes awry when everyone forgets who they are. hide show

  One of my favourite stand alone episodes of Season 6, Tabula Rasa definetly shows the hard times that everyone is having. Buffy is still getting over being torn out of heaven, Willow and Tara are arguing about how much magick Willow is using. Giles is planning on moving to England, Spike is having trouble with a Loan Shark and Dawn is...just coping being a teenager.
  
  The Willow using too much magic storyline is one of my favourite storylines and this episode shows how much Willow is in danger of being consumed with power. Willow's spell involves crystals and fire and other magical stuff which is a very, odd yet tasteful way to do a spell. It is a very funny episode, but not my favourite comedy episode. Everyone forgetting who they are is like scrapping everything and starting a new. The writers made Anya and Giles a couple, changed Buffy's name to Joan, Spike and Giles are son and father and Willow and Xander think they're going out. I loved the Loan Shark, a demon we don't see in any other episode. The end of this episode is so sad it's quite hard to watch. Willow is crying in the bathroom, Dawn is furious that Tara is moving out, Buffy and Spike kiss at the Bronze. I do think that the song and the scene went on for a long time and then after a couple of minutes got very boring. Even still, a very good episode with a sad ending, love it!

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  Loony-Boo Added Mar 15, 2009 All my reviews
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  10 Perfect

  The gang lose their minds. hide show

  Tara is annoyed at Willow for making her forget their argument, so Willow decides to give up magic for 1 week. Instead, Willow tries to make Tara forget this, but makes everyone forget who they are. Giles and Anya think their a couple, with Spike as their son, Randy. Willow and Xander think their together. Buffy thinks shes called Joan. Teeth and some vampires come to the gang, who are terrified. Joan and Randy fight them off, Xander, Willow, Tara and Dawn escape through the sewers, being chased by a vamp. Giles and Anya look through magic books to try and regain their memories. Anya just keeps making Bunnies. I loved the chemistry between Emma Caulfield and Annthony Head Stewart. It was awesome. This is definatley one of my fave Buffy episodes.

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  exterminator25 Added Feb 4, 2009 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Raymond O'Connor Teeth
  • David Franco Vamp #3
  • Stephen Triplett Vamp #2
  • Geordie White Vamp #1
  • Michelle Branch Herself/Performer
  • Anthony Stewart Head Rupert Giles

• Stars

  • Emma Caulfield Anya
  • Michelle Trachtenberg Dawn Summers
  • Alyson Hannigan Willow Rosenberg
  • Nicholas Brendon Alexander 'Xander' Harris
  • Sarah Michelle Gellar Buffy Anne Summers
  • James Marsters Spike

• Recurring Roles

  • Amber Benson Tara

• Special Guest Stars

  • Anthony Stewart Head Rupert Giles

• Directors

  • David Grossman Director
Episode Cast and Crew Details »

• When Spike passes out while sitting on the counter he slumps to his right and his legs are hanging down. Later, as everyone is waking up Spike is now lying on the counter on his back fully stretched out with his hands behind his head. It is possible that he moved while unconscious but nobody else moved much, if at all(Except Buffy as noted in another post). [edit]
• The establishing shot of the Magic Box uses film from the same establishing shot in "Bargaining, part 1". Though the actual footage is different, the same two people standing together talking with a large brown shopping bag at their feet can be seen and a woman in a tan coat is walking from left to right. [edit]
• At the moment the gang falls unconscious, Buffy has just walked up all the steps toward the door of the shop and is standing on the landing in front of the table. When she falls to the floor, she is parallel to the steps in front of her facing the gang. Yet when she wakes up she is sitting on the steps, her back to the gang and resting her head on her arms on the landing above her. [edit]

• In this episode, a statue of the two-faced Roman god Janus can be seen briefly. Ethan Rayne used a statue like this one to turn everybody into their costumes in the series 2 episode "Halloween". Presumably this is a different statue, as Giles had to destroy that one to reverse the spell. [edit]
• This episode is tenth in Joss Whedon's list of his top ten favorite episodes (which is more of a top twelve list) according to his personal letter included in the Australian Chosen Collection Box-set. The episodes on this top ten list are not ranked, but are put in order of which episode aired first. [edit]
• In the scene where Anya and Giles are first alone together talking and Giles looks in his coat and finds the ticket, if you look closely behind him on the shelf up on the left you can see the double faced statue that Ethane Rayne used to make everyone into the costumesin season two's episode "Halloween." [edit]

• Willow: I just wanted us not to fight anymore. I love you.
  Tara: If you don't want to fight, you don't fight. You don't use magick to make a fight disappear. [edit]
• Buffy: (about Spike) If I would just stop saving his life, it would simple things up so much. [edit]
• Anya: This is the book for us.
  Giles: Oh, good. Does it focus on mind control, or-or memory loss?
  Anya: Not exactly, I just, um ... my intuition tells me this is the book. And I figure being a magic shop owner and a natural at the supernatural, I should trust my intuition.
  Giles: Yes, fine, but as you recall, I too am a magic shop owner.
  Anya: True, but my intuition says that you're not so much the magic guy and more of a paperwork type. [edit]

• "a shark, but on land. A land shark."
  
  The term "land shark", dates back to sailor's chanties, referring to merchants who cheated sailors. In more recent usage, however, it refers to a classic Saturday Night Live skit spoofing Jaws shortly after it was released. [edit]
• Giles sword-fighting the skeleton is a possible reference to Ray Harryhausen's skeleton fight scene in Jason and the Argonauts, where he animated 7 skeletons fighting a live-action Jason with stop-motion photography. [edit]
• Xander: Sorry, I just got back the memory of seeing King Ralph.
  King Ralph is a 1991 comedy starring John Goodman as a brash, loutish American man who is identified as the next in line for the British throne when the Royal Family are all killed. [edit]