12 Small Details You Only Notice Rewatching Buffy The Vampire Slayer
6. Dreams 1
In season three closer Graduation Day, Part Two, Buffy and rogue slayer Faith both find themselves comatose. They meet in a dream state and enjoy a civil, if oblique conversation. It seems like little more than a mood setter. Faith makes confusing references to something Buffy has to take care of, Buffy dismisses it as riddles, and soon wakes up.
It sounds like an oddly worded reminder of the Chosen One’s responsibilities, but watch it back and you’ll see that it maps out the plot of season five. The key line is Faith’s “Miles to go. Little Ms. Muffet counting down from 7-3-0”.
Eagle eyed fans have noted - and Joss Whedon has confirmed - that “730” is the number of days until season five closer The Gift, in which Buffy sacrifices herself for humanity. “Miles to go” refers to a line from a Robert Frost poem about death. “Little Ms Muffet” is Dawn, yet to debut on the show (who is referred to as “curds and whey” by a mentally ill man in season five).
How much of this was intentional at the time rather than reverse engineered is unclear, but it’s fair to say Joss Whedon’s long term planning is second to none.