producer/writer marti noxon commented; "it was a fake out; we were having some fun with the audience. i don't want to denigrate what the whole show has meant. if buffy's not empowered then what are we saying? if buffy's crazy, then there is no girl power; it's all fantasy. and really the whole show stands for the opposite of that, which is that it isn't just a fantasy. there should be girls that can kick ass. so i'd be really sad if we made that statement at the end. that's why it's just somewhere in the middle saying "wouldn't this be funny if ...?" or "wouldn't this be sad or tragic if...?" in my feeling, and i believe in joss' as well that's not the reality of the show. it was just a tease and a trick".