In the Buffy story 'Normal Again' the possibility is raised that Buffy is a patient in a mental hospital and that the entire Buffyverse is just her hallucination. Whilst this seems highly unlikely (not least because of scenes in episodes such as this which she never knows about) if it is true then her delusion begins here when we see a 15 year old Buffy imagining meeting Merrick on the steps of Hemery High and ends with her regaining her sanity again 7 years later at the end of the final Buffy story 'Chosen'.