As we get closer to Halloween, let's troll through the archives in search of episodes that put us in a Spooky Mood.
The basic "Nightmare" episode starts off slow with minimal weirdness, then builds to a crazed climax where everything teeters on the brink of chaos. With but a minute (or three) to spare, the Hero figures out how to press the Universal Reset button and everything returns to normal. The point of all this fuss is to tell us something about the characters by telling us what they are afraid of.
Turns out? Everyone's kind of afraid of the same stuff: pain & dismemberment, being unprepared for a history test, rejection by a loved one, and guys in masks and hoods who chase you around while waving sharp objects. (Do crazed killers ever carry guns?)
- Avatar - Nightmares and Daydreams
- Fears include showing up for the final showdown without your pants. And I think that's all we need here, yes?.
- Buffy - Nightmares
- Fears include spiders, clowns, unpopularity, singing opera in public, going to school naked, rejection by a parent, failing to protect someone, and turning into a vampire.
- Charmed - From Fear to Eternity
- Fears include drowning and losing / killing your sister.
- Charmed - Sand Francisco Dreamin
- Fears include abandonment, self-sabatoge, losing your sexiness, being left out of your wife's pregnancy, and having to look at Phoebe's wardrobe.
- Dollhouse - The Attic
- Fears include eating yourself as sushi, being raped, being trapped in a war zone, and the end of the world. (You can't say this show wasn't ambitious.)
- Enterprise - Vanishing Point
- Fears include transporters, being invisible, and aliens.
- Farscape - Picture If You Will
- Fears include not reading the Supervillain Handbook before you set your Grand Plan in motion, thereby being unprepared for your Big Moment of Gloat.
- Mutant X - Nothing to Fear
- Fears include fire, losing control of your mutant abilities, and... not remembering because it's been awhile since I saw this episode.
- Painkiller Jane - Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself
- Fears include fire, screwing up in a war zone, rejection by a parent, and being tortured to death by the FBI.
No one's ever afraid of just plain DEATH. Probably because it's hard to "do" on television. If you were on a TV show, what would your biggest fear be?