 " Once More , with Feeling " propelled the story arc for season six by allowing characters to confess previously taboo issues to themselves and each other . Whedon commented that he was " obsessive about progressing a plot in a song , about saying things we haven 't said " , comparing the musical theater format to the fourth season episode " Hush " , in which characters begin communicating when they stop talking . According to Buffy essayist Zoe @-@ Jane <unk> , earlier episodes ' " false saccharine behaviour " impedes the characters so crucially that it summons a demon to force them to be honest . The consequences in the episode of concealing truth , spontaneous combustion , is an allusion to Bleak House by Charles Dickens — of whom Whedon is a fan — where characters also face immolation for being deceitful . For Buffy , however , truth is slow in coming , as she continues to lie to the Scoobies , claiming to forget what she sang about in the graveyard during " Going Through the Motions " . Buffy continues her charade in the chorus number " If We 're Together " , beginning the song by persuading others to join in one by one , as if each is convinced that she is still invested and in charge , and their strength as a group is infallible . Although she asks in verse " Apocalypse / We 've all been there / The same old trips / Why should we care ? " , all the Scoobies join her , including Giles despite his suspicions that Buffy is no longer interested in her life . 
