Episode Trivia
A Doll’s House
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In the Angel episode, 1.17 Eternity, we see Cordelia acting her way (badly) through Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House. The play is a critical look at Victorian marriages, concentrating on the decline of the marriage of Nora to Torvald. Cordelia plays Nora.
Been to hell
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In 1.17 Eternity, Angel says about Cordy’s play:
“I’ve been to Hell but that was so much worse”.
He’s referring to 2.22 Becoming (Part Two), in which Buffy sent him to hell to save the world.
Cordelia’s surnames
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Cordelia has a habit of giving people sarcastic new surnames.
She has called Angel:
- “Mr. I Was Alive for 200 Years and Never Developed an Investment Portfolio” in 1.01 City of.
- “Mr. I can’t tail the suspect during the day because I’ll burst into flames Private Eye” in 1.15 The Prodigal.
- “Mr. ‘oh, you’re my big, fat hero!” in 3.05 Fredless.
- “Mr. Distance” in 1.17 Eternity.
- “Mr. Killing Spree” In 3.02 Dead Man’s Party.
- “Mr. ‘I’m so tortured’” in 1.11 Somnambulist.
- “Angel? Mr. Bumpy-face? Hello?” in 4.04 Slouching Toward Bethlehem.
She has called Gunn:
- “Mr. I don’t take orders - now where do I stick my axe?” in 2.11 Redefinition.
- “Mr. Rationalization” in 2.03 First Impressions.
She has called Lorne:
- “Mr. Big Mojo-guy” in 2.11 Redefinition.
- “Mr. Green-Mojo-Guy” in 2.20 Over The Rainbow.
She has called Wesley:
- “Mr. Fussy Pants” in 2.05 Dear Boy.
- “Mr. Grouchy Pants” in 1.16 The Ring.
- “Mr. Don’t Talk to Me Before I’ve Had my Flagon of Oatbran in the Morning” in 1.16 The Ring
- “Mr. Star-schmoozer” in The 2.08 Shroud Of Rahmon.
- “Mr. Too-much-cologne” in 1.14 I’ve Got You Under My Skin.
Others have also been named by Cordy:
- To Xander: “Mr. Excitement” in 3.13 The Zeppo.
- To Devon: “Mr. I’m-the-lead-singer-I’m-so-great- I-don’t-have-to-show-up- for-my-date-or- even-call” in 2.06 Halloween.
- To Xander: “Mr. Faithful” in 3.01 Anne.
- To Wesley and Gunn: “Mr. and Mrs. Bickerson” in 3.05 Fredless.
- To Pierce: “Mr. Armani” in 1.07 Bachelor Party.
- To Barney: “Mr. Emotional Radar” in 1.10 Parting Gifts.
- To Kate and Angel: “Mr. and Mrs. Spock” in 1.06 Sense And Sensitivity.
Cordelia has also thrown in a few Misses in her name calling. She has called Buffy:
- “Little Miss Likes-to-fight” in 3.22 Graduation Day (Part Two).
- “Miss Not-Over-Yourself-Yet” in 3.07 Revelations.
- “Miss Save-The-World” in 2.13 Surprise.
Cordelia has even called herself a name:
- “Miss one-foot-in-the-grave” in 5.12 You’re Welcome.
Donkey demons
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Cordelia mistakenly thinks that the Burrower demon from 1.02 Lonely Hearts is a “donkey demon” (she mistook “burrower” for “burro”, a small donkey). This is referenced again by Cordelia in 1.17 Eternity:
“He can fight off donkey demons who rip people’s guts out…”
E! True Hollywood Story
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E! True Hollywood Story has been referenced twice on Angel.
1.17 Eternity:
Cordelia: “We have to use this now, before she’s just another E! True Hollywood Story!”
Angelus: “I don’t believe this. You’re the one behind this whole True Hollywood sob story?”
Grow a pair
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In the Buffy episode 3.07 Revelations Faith says to Xander:
“For what? You to grow a pair? You handle the baby-sit, and I’m gonna kill Angel.”
Angel uses the same quote when he is speaking to Wesley in the Angel episode 1.17 Eternity:
“You warning me? What happened, Wes? Did you suddenly grow a pair?”
Power-walking
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The following lines discussing Cordelia’s role in A Doll’s House were cut for length from 1.17 Eternity:
Wesley: “I’ve always regarded Nora as one of the seminal characters of late-nineteenth, early-twentieth century literature”
Cordy: “Yeah, but I thought I managed to breathe a little life into her, anyway. You have to train for a tour de force like this, lots of water, lots of power walking”.
Wesley: “Yes, I, uh, don’t recall seeing Ibsen’s Nora portrayed as a power-walker before”.
Cordy: “I brought that to the part, the director was, like, clueless”.
Rebecca Lowell
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Rebecca Lowell was a Hollywood star, known to everyone as Raven from the TV show On Your Own. After her show was cancelled, Rebecca began to find it difficult to get work, due to her age and the fact that the series was in syndication - meaning no one would forget her as Raven. She realised that she was being stalked by someone and enlisted Angel to help her, attracted to the fact that he didn’t know who she was. When Rebecca discovered Angel was a vampire, all she could see was eternal youth and beauty, and decided to make Angel sire her. After spiking Angel’s drink in 1.17 Eternity, Rebecca ended up on the receiving end of Angelus’s evil, realising too late just how cruel vampires were. Rebecca was saved by Wesley and Cordelia, and never heard from again.
Tamara Gorski
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Tamara Gorski played Rebecca Lowell in 1.17 Eternity. She has also appeared in Man with the Screaming Brain, The In-Laws, Earth: Final Conflict, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, To Die For, Highlander, The Kids in the Hall, The Lost World, Return to the Lost World, Dracula: The Series and Friday the 13th.
The Wizard of Oz
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The movie The Wizard of Oz, made in 1939, in mentioned several times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- Buffy refers to the hyena-possessed bullies in 1.06 The Pack as the “winged monkeys”. The phrase comes from the scene in The Wizard of Oz in which the Wicked Witch of the West sends her loyal winged monkeys to collect Dorothy and the ruby slippers.
- In 6.04 Flooded, Andrew says he trained flying demon monkeys to disrupt the school play.
- In 1.10 Nightmares, Billy Palmer awakens from his coma and, seeing the Scoobies around his bed, says, “I had the strangest dream. And you were in it, and you”. This is a reference to when Dorothy wakes in her bed and sees her friends around her.
- In 2.10 What’s My Line? (Part Two), Xander says, “Welcome my little pretties”. In The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West called Dorothy her “pretty”.
- Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch of the West by throwing water on her. The following dialog is from 1.17 Eternity:
- In 4.20 The Yoko Factor, Willow says, “If ever a whiz there was.” This is a line from the song in the film ‘Follow the Yellow Brick Road’ / ‘We’re Off To See the Wizard’.
- The episode 5.05 No Place Like Home takes it’s name from Dorothy clicking her heels together and repeating the phrase, “There’s no place like home” in order to get back to her Kansas home.
- A similar reference to this phrase is in the Angel episode 2.22 There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb. In that episode, Lorne also sings the song ‘Over the Rainbow’.
- In 6.22 Grave, Willow says, “Fly my pretty…fly!” when she sends her ball of fire to find Andrew and Jonathan. This is what the wicked witch says to her flying monkeys when she sends them off.
- In 7.19 Empty Places, Rona says, “Ding, dong, the witch is dead.” This is from a song in The Wizard of Oz.
- A similar reference to this phrase is in the Angel episode 4.13 Salvage. Lorne says, “Well, ding-dong, the Beast is dead!”
- The title of the Angel episode 2.20 Over The Rainbow is another reference to The Wizard of Oz, in which the land of Oz is said to be ‘over the rainbow’. In that episode, Cordelia clicks her heels three times (as Dorothy does in the film) and says, “Worth a shot.”
- In 4.15 Orpheus, Cordelia says, “You want to go, Glinda?” This is a reference to Glinda, the Good Witch of the South.
- In 5.02 Just Rewards, Angel says, “To see the wizard”, is a reference to The Wizard of Oz song called “We’re Off to See the Wizard”.
- In 5.21 Power Play, Lorne says, “And what if he’s skipped too far down that evil brick road?” This is a reference to the yellow brick road which Dorothy and the others follow to Oz.
(Cordy pulls off the top of a water container.)
Cordy: “Back off!”
Angel: “What are you going to do? Melt me?”
Cordy: “One more step and you’ll find out. You think this is just water?”
Vampire invitation rule
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In vampire mythology (and the Whedonverse), a vampire cannot enter a person’s home unless it has been invited. This is first seen in the Buffy episode 1.07 Angel:
Angel: “It’s all right. A vampire can’t come in unless it’s invited.”
There has been some debate as to whether Buffy actually invited Angel into her home in that episode, but she does quickly say to him, “Get in! C’mon!” as they’re being chased by vampires. When Angel first became a vampire he returned home to kill his family. From 1.15 The Prodigal:
Father: “Be gone, unclean thing! A demon can not enter a home where it’s not welcome. He must be invited!”
Angel: “That’s true. - But I was invited.”
Angel looks to the doorway. His father turns and sees Angel’s sister slumped against the wall.
Dad: “Och!”
Angel: “She thought I returned to her – an angel.”
A vampire can enter a public place such as a school or hospital (this is seen in 2.17 Passion and 2.18 Killed By Death). In 2.17 Passion Angel says the sign outside the school says ‘Romatia transicara edicatorum’ which translates to ‘Enter all ye who seek knowledge’. Vampires can also enter hotel rooms, which are considered public. In 2.09 The Trial, Angel says to Gunn after he has entered a motel room:
Angel: “Oh, Motel, public accommodation. She didn’t live here.”
Another vampire invitation rule is clarified in 5.02 Real Me: only someone who lives in a residence can invite a vampire in:
Xander: “Yeah, actually, she– Harmony– kind of happened to sort of get an invite.”
Buffy: “You guys can’t invite her in. I mean, only someone who lives here can…
If the owner of a house is dead, a vampire can enter. This is seen in 3.21 Graduation Day (Part One) when Angel enters the home of the dead Professor. It is also seen explicitly in 1.15 The Prodigal (Angel can only enter the home of Kate’s father after he has been killed) and in 2.04 Untouched (Angel enters when a victim on life support dies). In the latter example we see a visible barrier ripple when Angel tries to enter.
When a vampire is invited into a home once, it can enter again at any point, unless a reversal spell is done. The spell was first seen in 2.17 Passion, after Angel lost his soul and started stalking Buffy. The last words of the incantation (read by Willow at Buffy’s house) are “Hicce verbis consensus rescissus est,” which translates into English roughly as “By these words permission is rescinded.” Buffy uninvited Spike from her home in 5.14 Crush, Harmony was uninvited in 5.02 Real Me, and Dracula was uninvited in 5.01 Buffy Vs Dracula.
There have been several goofs/continuity errors concerning vampires and invitations in the Whedonverse:
- When Angel and Buffy are running from the Three in 1.07 Angel, they take refuge in Buffy’s house. As they close the door, one of the Three gets his arm through the door before Buffy forces him back out. But he was a vampire and also uninvited, so how did he get his arm in?
- A similar event occurs in 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered - when Drusilla pushes Buffy’s door down, her hands go into the house - but Drusilla was never invited in.
- Angel says that he needs an invitation to enter Buffy’s dorm room in 4.20 The Yoko Factor, but Sunday and her gang didn’t need one in 4.01 The Freshman. This doesn’t count only for Buffy - the vamps are able to access Eddie’s room as well, and presumably they can get into the rooms of the other students they killed. How do they do that?
- In 1.17 Eternity, how can Angel jump through the window into Rebecca’s apartment to save her from the intruder? He was never invited in, and Rebecca only said to him to “Stop by”. Is this enough of an invitation?
- In 1.18 Five By Five, Faith is torturing Wesley in the apartment of the man she injured previously in the episode. When Angel finds them, he walks straight into the apartment… no invite needed. If Faith had killed the man, Angel would not have required an invitation. However, in 1.19 Sanctuary, the following dialogue is heard between Kate and a fellow officer:
Kate: “So do we think she is the one who threw the party here?”
Kendrick: “The guy who lives here identifies her as the woman who mugged him. Put him in the hospital, stole his keys, his wallet. We’re lifting prints now. My bet is - we get a match.”It’s apparent he is alive, therefore Angel should not have been able to enter his apartment. (It’s possible that Angel called the victim to ask permission to enter but this would be a very strange conversation indeed!)
- There is some confusion over who invited Spike back into the home he shared with his mother in 7.17 Lies My Parents Told Me, but this could have been a servant who lived there.
- In 5.15 A Hole In The World, Angel and Spike enter Lindsey and Eve’s residence without an invitation.