We don't know - they leave it deliberately vague, so you can choose your own ending. Of course, if you believe that it's all in Buffy's head, all of the Buffyverse is in her head as well, a la St. Elsewhere. Of course, in that scenario, the whole world of 'Angel' would not exist, either.
It seems unlikely that 'Normal Again' could be true as Buffy is always up to date with cultural references which she couldn't be as a mad girl in an asylum. Also things happen in the Buffyverse that she doesn't know about and never finds out about which wouldn't be the case if she had created it all in her mind. Equally characters from her life in LA such as Joyce, Hank and Ford couldn't exist in both the real world and her delusion. In various eps such as 'Anne' Buffy attempts to run away from her calling and live an ordinary life so her delusion would be the last thing she would want to maintain.
The final scene in the episode seems to be saying, "Surprise; that was more than just an hallucination". This would either mean that the Glarghk Guhl Kashmas'nik created an alternate reality, complete with an alternate Buffy, and linked the two Buffys' minds together...or that the alternate reality already existed. If that is the case, the alt. Buffy was never a Slayer, but had been having visions of the Slayer's life which have driven her insane. Whichever is the case, it certainly is interesting to consider all the possibilities.
In the final scene of the show Buffy has destroyed the Hellmouth, literally defeated her demons and triumphed over herself in the form of the First Evil. Faith tells her that from now on she has to live as a normal human being and Dawn asks what they're going to do now? If mad-Buffy is the real one then she now wakes up in the asylum with her sanity restored after 7 years. Equally both worlds could be true with the alternate Buffys maintaining some form of psychic link across the dimensions. This means that at the end of 'Chosen' asylum Buffy is cured of her delusion at age 23 and able to live a normal life once more because whilst Sunnydale Buffy still has the odd supernatural threat to contend with it no longer dominates her life and she too can now live more or less like a regular person. The post-Chosen comic continuations of the series are the dreams of/successful fictional creations written by ex-asylum Buffy in her world now that she's sane again but reality for Sunnydale Buffy in her universe, hence the change in format.
In 2011, Sarah Michelle Gellar guest starred on her former soap opera All My Children, one of several past cast members to return to the show in the final few episodes in order to commemorate its conclusion after 40 years. Gellar played a young woman who had been brought in for psychiatric evaluation, as she claimed to see vampires. This could be interpreted either as the actual Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who has been percieved as mad simply for pointing out real vampires, or former Asylum Buffy (judging by her fashionable clothes/appearance and coherent behavior) undergoing recuperative treatment after suffering a slight relapse.
It seems unlikely that 'Normal Again' could be true as Buffy is always up to date with cultural references which she couldn't be as a mad girl in an asylum. Also things happen in the Buffyverse that she doesn't know about and never finds out about which wouldn't be the case if she had created it all in her mind. Equally characters from her life in LA such as Joyce, Hank and Ford couldn't exist in both the real world and her delusion. In various eps such as 'Anne' Buffy attempts to run away from her calling and live an ordinary life so her delusion would be the last thing she would want to maintain.
The final scene in the episode seems to be saying, "Surprise; that was more than just an hallucination". This would either mean that the Glarghk Guhl Kashmas'nik created an alternate reality, complete with an alternate Buffy, and linked the two Buffys' minds together...or that the alternate reality already existed. If that is the case, the alt. Buffy was never a Slayer, but had been having visions of the Slayer's life which have driven her insane. Whichever is the case, it certainly is interesting to consider all the possibilities.
In the final scene of the show Buffy has destroyed the Hellmouth, literally defeated her demons and triumphed over herself in the form of the First Evil. Faith tells her that from now on she has to live as a normal human being and Dawn asks what they're going to do now? If mad-Buffy is the real one then she now wakes up in the asylum with her sanity restored after 7 years. Equally both worlds could be true with the alternate Buffys maintaining some form of psychic link across the dimensions. This means that at the end of 'Chosen' asylum Buffy is cured of her delusion at age 23 and able to live a normal life once more because whilst Sunnydale Buffy still has the odd supernatural threat to contend with it no longer dominates her life and she too can now live more or less like a regular person. The post-Chosen comic continuations of the series are the dreams of/successful fictional creations written by ex-asylum Buffy in her world now that she's sane again but reality for Sunnydale Buffy in her universe, hence the change in format.
In 2011, Sarah Michelle Gellar guest starred on her former soap opera All My Children, one of several past cast members to return to the show in the final few episodes in order to commemorate its conclusion after 40 years. Gellar played a young woman who had been brought in for psychiatric evaluation, as she claimed to see vampires. This could be interpreted either as the actual Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who has been percieved as mad simply for pointing out real vampires, or former Asylum Buffy (judging by her fashionable clothes/appearance and coherent behavior) undergoing recuperative treatment after suffering a slight relapse.
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