Episode Trivia
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
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In 4.21 Primeval, Spike says:
“Alice heads back down the rabbit hole.”
He’s referring to Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, about a girl named Alice who sees a rabbit in a waist-coat and follows him down a rabbit hole into a world named Wonderland.
The Angel episode 2.21 Through The Looking Glass is a direct title reference to Lewis Carroll’s sequel novel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In Through the Looking Glass, Alice steps through a mirror into an alternate reality, which is a parallel to the Angel Investigations crew entering Pylea through a portal.
Cordelia quotes the Queen of Hearts within the episode:
Narwek: “Shall we gut the cows now that you might dine on their ignoble flesh, oh most high?”
Cordy: “You’re most high if you think that’s gonna happen. Besides, shouldn’t there be some extended groveling first?”
Angel: “Cordelia?”
Cordy: “Okay. - Off with their heads!”
(Some of the guards draw their swords to obey as the guys flinch in the hold of the rest of them.)
Cordy: “Just kidding.”
Cordelia references Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when she’s talking to herself in 3.22 Tomorrow:
Cordelia: “Slow poke! I’m late. I’m late. And it’s not a date.”
Bad things happen
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In 5.17 Underneath, when Angel is talking to Spike about how he should have never let Fred leave Pylea, he says, “bad things always happen here”. Fred said the same line when referring to Pylea in Through the Looking Glass.
Bambi
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Cordelia references Disney’s Bambi in 2.21 Through The Looking Glass:
Wesley spots the head of the animal engraved on its cover.
Wesley: “Fascinating. A hart.”
Cordy: “It’s not a heart, it’s a Bambi. And we expect him to read this
Wesley: “No not h-e-a-r-t, h-a-r-t. A male red deer or staggard. Often associated with rural mysticism.”
Blair Witch Project
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Buffy name checks the scary movie The Blair Witch Project when she’s talking to Principal Wood in 7.10 Bring On The Night:
“And what can I say, I just love those evil, evil movies. Like Exorcist, you know, Blair Witch…”
In 6.04 Flooded, Willow and Giles have the following conversation:
Giles: “Tell me about this spell you performed.”
Willow: “Oh, okay, first of all? So scary. Like, the Blair Witch would have had to watch like this.” [She covers her eyes with one hand, peeks through parted fingers]
In 2.21 Through The Looking Glass, Gunn says to Angel:
“You’re having a Blair Witch moment?”
Dance of Revolution
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In the Angel episode 3.13 Waiting In The Wings, Groo comes back and mentions that the monarchy ended when someone did the Dance Of Revolution. This is an obvious nod back to dancing Numfar, who Joss Whedon played in 2.21 Through The Looking Glass.
Evil lawyer beast
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In Through the Looking Glass, Angel refers to the episode To Shasnshu in L.A. when he tells the villagers the story of cutting of Lindsey’s hand:
“…and the scroll is just tipping from his fingertips, and his eyes lighting with fierce determination, and then whack! (Angel makes a chopping motion and some of the kids jump) I chopped off the evil lawyer-beast’s hand and he screamed and he screamed and then I left.”
Groosalugg
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The Groosalugg (affectionately known as ‘Groo’) was a dedicated half-human warrior from the dimension Pylea. His name means ‘brave and undefeated’. He was summoned from the Scum Pits of Ur to Com-shuk (mate) with Cordelia and absorb her visions. Groo ended up proving to Cordy that he was a good man, not a tool of evil and she appointed him as the new ruler of Pylea before she escaped Pylea.
Back in L.A, and just as Cordelia and Angel were close to starting a relationship, Groo unexpectedly appeared at Angel Investigations. He explained that he had been deposed in a revolution on Pylea, and decided to find Cordelia again. Cordelia rekindled her romance with Groo and even went as far as to find a mystical spell which allowed her both to have sex with Groo and to keep her visions. Angel was jealous of Groo for many reasons, as Cordelia had chosen Groo over him and Groo was just as formidable a fighter as himself. Unable to withstand being witness to the relationship between Cordy and Groo, Angel gave them money and asked that they go on an extended holiday.
When Cordy and Groo returned, they found that some terrible things had happened in their absence. Cordelia immediately began to pay more attention to Angel, and Groo started to realize that Cordelia did not love him but rather Angel. He finally mustered up the courage to tell Cordelia this, and then left L.A.
Handsome man saves me…
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Fred’s first words to Angel when they met in Pylea were: “Handsome man - saved me from the monsters.” In 5.15 A Hole In The World, the last words Fred ever says to Angel are: “Handsome man saves me…..”
Hans Christian Anderson and Quentin Tarantino
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In 2.21 Through The Looking Glass, Lorne says to Angel, as he tells a gory story:
“Well! You’re a regular Hans Christian Tarantino, aren’tcha?”
He is referring to Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen (whose most famous fairy tales include The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina and The Ugly Duckling) and American film director and actor Quentin Tarantino (whose films include Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and Kill Bill).
Joss Whedon
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Joss Whedon (a third-generation screenwriter) spent three, presumably formative, years, attending (the super-posh) Winchester College in Hampshire, England where he took his ‘A’ levels. He received his degree in film studies from Wesleyan University, before moving to Los Angeles and getting a job as a staff writer on Roseanne (his first proper writing job). He began writing the script for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie during that time since, having written five scripts in the first half of the year he worked on the show, he found himself in a position where he was asked to write only one in the final six months. As a result he had a lot of free time on his hands and was able to devote much of his time to the Buffy screenplay.
After quitting Roseanne as a result of being underused he got a job on Parenthood (a spin-off from the movie of the same name) which ran for about 13 episodes. After the disappointment of the way the 1992 movie version of his Buffy script panned out, Whedon worked in various capacities on the scripts of Speed (1994), Waterworld (1995), and Toy Story (1995), before finally getting round to bringing the Buffster to the small screen. Joss’s short lived TV show Firefly was made into a movie called Serenity, released in April 2005. He has written for the comic X-Men, of which he was a huge fan.
Whedon’s wit is, of course, well known and loved by fans of the show but his refreshing candour (refreshing for someone who works in L.A.) emerges in many of the interviews he has given. In an interview with The Onion AV Club for instance, he describes Donald Sutherland as ‘a prick’, claims the experience of working on Alien Resurrection (1997) was so frustrating that at one stage he “went and dented the bathroom stall with [his] puddy little fist”, and generally argues that as far as movies go he’s “had almost nothing but bad experiences”. In fact, in answer to the oft-asked question, “What’s the worst job you ever had?” Whedon claims he gives the answer, “I once was a writer in Hollywood”.
Joss is married to Kai Cole and has one son.
Mark Lutz
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Mark Lutz played the Groosalugg in seasons two and three of Angel. He was born in Montréal, Québec and lived in Hong Kong for 4 of his teenage years before moving to Toronto. Mark graduated with n Honors BA in Political Science from the University of Guelph, and decided to try his hand at acting. He got an agent after a series of improv comedy gigs. He played Finnish hockey superstar Jukka Branny-Acke in 5.21 Power Play before being cast as Groo. Mark has also appeared in Friends, Due South, ER and Doc.
Off screen, Mark enjoys swimming, for which he has set Canadian National records, as well as swimming internationally for his country, including World Cups and the Olympic Trials.
Michael Phenicie
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Michael Phenicie played the Pylean head priest Silas in 2.22 There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb, Through the Looking Glass, and Over the Rainbow. He has also been in Alias, Ghosts Never Sleep, The Shield, Judging Amy, The Pretender, Gentleman’s Bet, Knots Landing and Desperate Moves.
Numfar
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Joss Whedon appeared as Numfar in the Angel season two episode 2.21 Through The Looking Glass. Joss had the idea of Numfar dancing the dance of joy and showed how it should be done, it was then decided that Joss should perform it himself. Andy Hallett (Lorne) didn’t know who it was until filming had finished.
Sorcerer’s limbs
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In Through the Looking Glass, Landok says, “Angel. You must again tell the tale of the sorcerer who could remove his limbs and reassemble at will!” Angel has clearly told him the events of the episode Falling to Pieces.
Wolf book
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In 3.14 Couplet, Wesley and Angel go to a book store to purchase the Grammaticus Third Century Greek Commentaries. As they are walking into the store, the camera pans behind a bookcase. There is a red book on the top shelf with a wolf engraved into the cover. This book resembles one of the three Priests’ books seen in Pylea in 2.21 Through The Looking Glass. Each of the three holy books were engraved with an animal: Wolf, Ram, and Hart.
Wolf, Ram, and Hart Volumes
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The sacred books of the Priests in Pylea consisted of three volumes. Each volume’s cover was engraved with an animal: Wolf, Ram, and Hart.
While searching the books for portal information, Wesley discovered in 2.21 Through The Looking Glass that they were written in Trionic:
Wesley: “Of course! The holy books are written in Trionic.”
Cordy: “What?”
Wesley: “No one volume is complete without the other two. - Uhm. I-It’s really one book broken up into three pieces.”
Cordy: “Like a trilogy.”
Wesley: “No. No. Much more complex than that. See this passage here, it continues in this volume here then concludes in this one. The rhythm of the sentence structure - lets one know when to jump from book, to book, to book.”
The books possessed information concerning the “Cursed One”:
Wesley: “Though I do seem to be finding references to the cursed one.”
Cordy: “Really? There is stuff about messiah me?”
Wesley: “Com-shuk.”
Cordy: “Huh?”
Wesley: “Contextually a - a verb.”
Cordy: “Something I’m going to do?”
Wesley: “With a ‘groosalug’”
Cordy: “What does that mean?”
Wesley: “I have no idea.”
Gunn: “Sounds dirty if you ask me.”
Cordy: “Nobody did.”
We later find out that “Com-shuk” is a mating ritual. During the ritual, the visions of the “Cursed One” would pass on to the Groosalug.
The Priests’ formulas within the books allow Team Angel to locate a portal Fred has opened and successfully return to LA.