Episode Trivia
A little extra
details | 12 comments | suggested by Jess
Sometimes Buffy writers leave little jokes of their own in their scripts. The following is a stage direction for 2.14 Innocence, a little nod to the fact that it costs more for extras to speak:
“A couple of soldiers pass. Xander suavely nods to them. They nod back and pass without comment, because they are extras.”
Another direction from the same episode regards a kiss between Xander and Cordelia:
“They haben der big smootchen.”
Air day
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2.13 Surprise was the last episode to air on a Monday in the U.S. It aired on Tuesdays from the next episode on, so the second part (2.14 Innocence) was shown the day after 2.13 Surprise.
Angel’s cross
details | 2 comments | suggested by Jess
Angel gave Buffy a cross necklace when he first met her in 1.01 Welcome To The Hellmouth. She can be seen wearing the necklace in 1.02 The Harvest and 1.12 Prophecy Girl. The cross is later seen in 2.14 Innocence, hanging on Buffy’s nightstand. She holds the cross for a moment before breaking into tears over the loss of Angel.
Angel’s curse
details | 8 comments | suggested by Jess
Is that a “perfect moment of happiness” in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me? The vampire Angelus tortured and killed a gypsy girl, and was cursed by Kalderash gypsies. They restored his soul and gave him a conscience, so that he must live with the guilt of all he had done as a vampire. The curse would be broken if Angel had one second of “perfect happiness” (a big fat euphemism for sex). He and Buffy made love and his soul was stripped from him, causing him to kill again. Ironically, one of his victims was Jenny Calendar, a member of the Kalderash clan, in 2.17 Passion.
Arm in a box
details | 2 comments | suggested by Mel
Cordelia references Buffy episodes 2.13 Surprise and 2.14 Innocence when she tells Doyle about Spike in 1.03 In The Dark:
“Oh, and this one time he and Dru raised this demon that burned people from the inside. It was this whole weird thing with an arm in a box.”
Brian Thompson
details | 4 comments | suggested by Jess
Brian Thompson played Luke in 1.01 Welcome To The Hellmouth and 1.02 The Harvest and The Judge in 2.13 Surprise and 2.14 Innocence. Brian has played a shape shifting character on two different shows: The X-Files and Birds of Prey. Brian has also been in Charmed (as Cronus in ‘Oh My Goddess’), Falcon Crest, Three Amigos, Star Trek: Generations, Walker, Texas Ranger, Dragonheart, Perfect Target and Knight Rider.
Changed his mind?
details | 8 comments | suggested by Jess
In 2.14 Innocence, Spike and Drusilla attempt to get rid of humanity by reassembling the Judge. This makes no sense considering that in Becoming, Part Two, he admits to Buffy that he loves the “Happy Meals on legs” in the world.
Cup cake
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Joss Whedon admits that the final, low-key moment of 2.14 Innocence, in which Buffy and her mother watch an old movie on TV and celebrate her birthday with cupcakes and a single candle, made him just as happy as “his big man toy” (the rocket launcher, seen previously in the episode).
In an interview with The Watcher’s Guide, Kristine Sutherland, who plays Buffy’s mother, says that this scene is one of her favourites. She says, “Joyce being her mother and knowing that something is going on that is very hard for her. Just being there and not asking what it is.”
Cut scene in Innocence
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Two actors are credited in 2.14 Innocence but they do not actually appear in the episode. Their parts were ‘Teacher’ (James Lurie) and ‘Student’ (Parry Shen). Their scenes, in which Buffy runs out of class after having bad thoughts about the sex she had the night before, were cut due to length.
Evil David
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Joss Whedon recalls worrying whether David Boreanaz’s acting skills would be up to the dramatic transformation into Angelus. Boreanaz, Whedon quickly discovered, “plays a bastard with extraordinary aplomb.”
Fiction or not?
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In 2.14 Innocence, Cordelia finds (and replaces) a book about the Judge in a section of the library we can see is labelled ‘Fiction’. Also on display in the ‘Fiction’ section is the presumably non-fictional The Story of Hockey. Rupert Giles: good watcher, sloppy librarian.
Hacked me to pieces
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The following line was cut from the script of 2.14 Innocence for length. The Judge’s line would have followed Spike’s line “So let’s take some! I’m bored!” from the beginning of the episode.
The Judge: “I fought an army. They hacked me to pieces. For six hundred years my living head lay in a box buried in the ground. I’ve learned to be patient.”
Heavy breather
details | 4 comments | suggested by Jess
In the flashback scenes of Buffy and Angel making love in 2.14 Innocence, the heavy breathing wasn’t voiced by David and Sarah, but by series creator Joss Whedon and supervising sound editor Cindy Rabideau. Joss was too embarrassed to ask the stars to record it.
Joss on Buffy’s rocket launcher
details | 2 comments | suggested by Jess
In the episode 2.14 Innocence, when Buffy hoists the rocket launcher to her shoulder, about to obliterate the Judge, Joss Whedon says in his DVD commentary that:
“I’ve never loved her more”.
Judge
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The Judge was a demon brought forth a thousand years ago to rid the Earth of the plague of humanity. His body was dismembered by an army and the parts were buried in every corner of the Earth (despite the fact that it’s a sphere). Spike and Dru arranged for all the parts to be sent to Sunnydale where they reassembled him (2.13 Surprise). Buffy killed him using a rocket launcher (2.14 Innocence) and the Scoobies kept the thousands of pieces apart so he was unable to reassemble.
The Judge was played by Brian Thompson, who also played Luke in season one.
Marcia’s favourite episode
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Buffy casting director Marcia Shulman’s favourite episode is 2.14 Innocence.
Naming the stars
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In 7.05 Selfless, Spike says that Drusilla liked to look at the stars. We saw her doing this in 2.14 Innocence:
Drusilla: “I’m naming all the stars.”
Spike: “You can’t see the stars, love. That’s the ceiling. Also, it’s day.”
Drusilla: “I can see them. But I’ve named them all the same name. And there’s terrible confusion.”
In 2.10 Reunion, Angel of Drusilla:
“Soil. - Soil near the stars. She said she wanted to be near the stars. She used to - talk to the stars. She spent *hours* in my garden in Sunnydale, communing with the night sky.”
No Assembly Required
details | 2 comments | suggested by Jess
Buffy says of the Judge in 2.14 Innocence, “No assembly required,” which is a reference to an episode title from earlier in the season.
No weapon forged
details | 1 comment | suggested by Jess
The original “no weapon forged” that was to be used to defeat The Judge in 2.14 Innocence was to be a tank. The rocket launcher was David Greenwalt’s idea. Though its cost seemed beyond their means, they knew they just had to have it.
Own fun
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In the episode 2.11 Ted, Willow says:
“I have my own fun.”
In 2.14 Innocence, she says of herself and the Scoobies:
“Well we don’t have cable so we have to make our own fun.”
Oz’s van
details | 1 comment | suggested by Jess
In 2.06 Halloween, Oz drove a zebra-striped van with right-hand drive. His van changes to a dark left-hand drive van in 2.14 Innocence.
Pesky soul gone
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The following scene was cut from the episode 2.14 Innocence, I assume the “Gypsy Man” was Jenny’s uncle:
Gypsy Man: “You! Evil one”
Angel: “Evil one? Oh, man, now I’ve got hurt feelings.”
Gypsy Man: “What do you want?”
Angel: “A whole lot. Got a lot of lost time to make up for. Say, I guess that’s kind of your fault, isn’t it? You Gypsy types, you go and curse people, you really don’t care who gets hurt. Of course, you did give me an escape clause, so I gotta thank you for that.”
Gypsy Man: “You are an abomination. The day you stop suffering for your crimes, you are no longer worthy of a human soul.”
Angel: “Well, that pesky little critter’s all gone. So we can get down to business…Don’t worry, it won’t hurt a bit…after the first hour.”
Quest for Camelot
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The final fight between Buffy and Angel in 2.14 Innocence takes place in a movie theatre lobby which is lined with posters for the movie Quest for Camelot, an animated film which was released in 1998 by WB.
Rain in Innocence
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The pouring rain in the scene where Xander visits the military base to steal a rocket launcher (2.14 Innocence) was not in the script. The rain poured down in the outside shots and Joss was delighted as it added so much atmosphere to the scene.
Reshoot
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Angelus cruelly dismisses Buffy’s concern for him the first time they meet after having sex. This scene is in his bedroom in 2.14 Innocence and Buffy can be heard saying she saw him at “the house”. The scene had actually already been filmed outside of Buffy’s house, but no-one was satisfied with the final cut so they filmed it again. Sarah Michelle Gellar felt as though she hadn’t given enough justice to the gravity of the situation between Buffy and Angel, so she asked for the scene to be reshot.
Ryan Francis
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Ryan Francis, who played the soldier who questioned Xander in 2.14 Innocence, previously played the young Peter in Steven Spielberg’s Hook.
Shutdown
details | 17 comments | suggested by cardboardy
Filming the scene in 2.14 Innocence where Buffy is crying in her room, heartbroken for the loss of Angel, was deeply affecting for Sarah Michelle Gellar. So much so that the set was closed down for 25 minutes while Sarah recovered from the difficult emotional place she visited when performing this scene. She said in an interview with Nylon magazine:
“Last year, with Angel and the heartbreak, I would go home and cry. My body couldn’t work properly. I don’t take the demons home with me, but I do take Buffy’s pain. The vampires I’m immune to, but not the emotion. When we filmed the episode where Angel breaks up with her, I cried for 25 minutes. I thought I was having a breakdown. They had to shut down the set. When they say rip your heart out, that’s really what unfufilled love does.”
Slayage alternatives
details | 12 comments | suggested by somethingblue
Buffy shows some ingenious ways of killing demons, and the gang have some great suggestions too. Here’s a list of alternative ways of killing, seen or mentioned on the show:
Hummus and Ebola: In 3.22 Graduation Day (Part Two), Oz suggests:
“We attack the Mayor with hummus.”
Cordelia later suggests:
“No, we’ll get a box with the Ebola virus and… or it doesn’t even have to be real. We can just get a box that says Ebola on it and… chase him! … With the box!”
Licking: In 4.09 Something Blue, When Spike’s in the bath-tub at Giles’ apartment:
Spike: “Passions is on! Timmy’s down the bloody well, and if you make me miss it, I’ll…”
Giles: “You’ll do what? Lick me to death?”
Nuzzling: In 5.01 Buffy Vs Dracula, Riley says to Giles about his being found with Dracula’s ladies:
“You were gonna nuzzle ‘em to death?”
Puppets: In 7.15 Get It Done, Xander says:
“Puppets! That’s it. The First hates puppets. Now if we can just airlift Kermit, Fozzy the Bear and Miss Piggy into town, The First will be a-runnin’.”
Soldier Boy
details | add a comment | suggested by Jess
A large part of the episodes 2.14 Innocence and 3.22 Graduation Day (Part Two) rely on Xander’s recollection of the events of 2.06 Halloween, when he became a soldier for a short time. In 2.14 Innocence he says he still has all his memories of being a soldier, including:
“Procedure, ordnance, access codes, everything.”
Xander’s military knowledge was a great plot device help to Buffy writers when they needed lots of gun power easily. We discover in the episode 4.03 The Harsh Light Of Day that Xander has lost his power when he has a girly scrap with Harmony, though in 4.13 The I In Team, he says:
“My pseudo-soldier memory bank tells me that’s a tracer.”
In 4.14 Goodbye Iowa, Anya says:
“It’s not like he was in the ‘Nam. He was G.I. Joe for one night.”
In 7.09 Never Leave Me, Xander realises that Spike has a “trigger”, to which Willow replies,
“Is this left over from your days in the Army?”
He admits that knowledge comes from Army movies.
In 7.12 Potential, Dawn says to Xander:
“Well, you had that sexy Army training for a while.”
Stowaway
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At the end of 2.14 Innocence, Buffy and her mother wach the movie Stowaway, a 1936 musical starring Shirley Temple, Alice Faye and Robert Young. The song “Goodnight, My Love”, heard in the episode, is sung by Faye and Young.
Thanks a lot
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Speaking admiringly in the DVD commentary for 2.14 Innocence of the performance of Robia La Morte as Jenny Calendar, Joss Whedon comments. “And what did we do to thank her? We killed her”.
The Mall in Innocence
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The shopping mall and multiplex scenes in 2.14 Innocence were shot inside a Los Angeles department store on South Grand Avenue called Robinsons. The production team constructed a trench to stop the water from the sprinkler system from flooding the shop.
The Smurfs
details | 2 comments | suggested by Jess
The Judge was nicknamed “The Smurf” on set because of his blue colour, a reference to the cartoon characters in the 80s TV cartoon The Smurfs. In 2.14 Innocence, Buffy calls the Judge a Smurf.
In 5.14 Smile Time, Lorne says to Framkin:
“Yeah? Well, a fight suits us just fine, Papa Smurf. We’re gonna let the entire world know what you’re up to.”
Papa Smurf was the leader of the Smurfs.
True love and gristle
details | 3 comments | suggested by Jess
Joss Whedon joked at the Posting Board:
“Yes, the Buffy Angel romance is based on something from my own life. A very similar situation, except obviously I’m not a vampire, and the girl was a little taller, and her name was Emily, and a year older than me, and she didn’t really like me, and I just kind of hung around outside her bedroom once or twice, not peeking or anything, but you know, and the one time I talked to her she was eating hamburger and she choke on this piece of gristle and coughed in my face, her friends were all laughing but I kept the gristle in my memories book, at first it kinda smelled but then it got hard so that wasn’t so bad, I don’t think Emily really knew my name exactly, but our love was forbidden, I’m pretty sure I remember that. So, yeah, I AM Angel. But in a Snyder kind of way.”
Vincent Schiavelli
details | 3 comments | suggested by Jess
Vincent Schiavelli, who played Jenny’s uncle in 2.13 Surprise and 2.14 Innocence, was a well known face on TV and film. His movies include: Tomorrow Never Dies (as Dr. Kaufman), The People vs. Larry Flynt (as Chester), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (as Frederickson). Vincent played the Organ Grinder in Batman Returns, which may be where the organ grinder’s monkey in Buffy’s dream in 2.13 Surprise comes from. He was also the voice of Mr. Bailey in the Hey Arnold cartoon and movie. Vincent was the author of three cookbooks, based on Sicilian food.
He died of lung cancer on December 26, 2005 at the age of 57.
Was it good for you?
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Angelus scrawled the words, “Was it good for you too?” in blood on the wall at the scene of his murder of Uncle Enyos. During his DVD commentary, Joss says he’s amazed at what Buffy is sometimes able to “get away with.”
Ways to kill Wood
details | 11 comments | suggested by Jess
In 7.06 Him, whilst under a love spell, Buffy goes to kill Principal Wood using a rocket launcher. She used one of these to kill the Judge in 2.14 Innocence so it’s possible that it’s the same launcher - otherwise where would she have got it from?
We Hate Cordelia Club
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Willow discovered in 2.14 Innocence that Xander would rather kiss Cordelia than her. She reminded Xander that he was treasurer of their ‘We Hate Cordelia Club’ in past years.
Weeds
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The pilot of the comedy Weeds, entitled ‘You Can’t Miss the Bear’, makes two possible Buffy references.
The first occurs in an exchange at a youth soccer game between teammates Deven and Shane after the latter drinks fruit punch, staining his lips red.
Deven: “Don’t even talk to me, weirdo.”
Shane: “Why? I was just trying to help.”
Deven: “I don’t need your help, lipstick.”
Shane: “Lipstick?”
Deven: “Your fruit punch lipstick. Fruit punch! It’s perfect. Fruit for the fruit. Or are you just pretending it’s blood? Because we all know how much you love the taste of blood. Is that it? Vampire!”
Shane: “Ok, I’m confused. Am I weirdo, lipstick, fruit punch, or vampire? You really need to pick an insulting nickname and stick to it.”
This may be a reference to 1.12 Prophecy Girl, in which Buffy informs the Master that he has “fruit punch mouth.”
The second reference occurs later in the episode after Shane and his older brother Silas discuss a television show called Bear Hunt with Silas‘ girlfriend Quinn.
Silas: “Think of the time this would save us on foreplay. You just whisper “shoot me in the optimum kill zone” and I’d be good to go.”
Quinn: “I could whisper linoleum and you’d be good to go.”
This may reference 2.14 Innocence, when Xander says to Cordelia:
“I’m seventeen. Looking at linoleum makes me wanna have sex.”
X-Men
details | 3 comments | suggested by Jess
Buffy creator Joss Whedon is a huge comics fan, particularly the Marvel comic X-Men. His dream came true when, post-Buffy, Joss wrote the Astonishing X-Men comics. The comic has been referenced numerous times in Buffy.
In 5.05 No Place Like Home, Riley says, “Giles, you got that Danger Room set up out back?” The Danger Room was a training room in the X-Men.
In 5.19 Tough Love, Xander reads an X-Men comic while in the Magic Box.
In 6.21 Two To Go, Jonathan says Willow is like the “Dark Phoenix” who was a character in the X-Men comics.
In 7.06 Him, Xander calls Spike a “nimrod”. Xander himself was called this by a soldier in 2.14 Innocence, and Spike called Warren a nimrod in 6.09 Smashed. Nimrod was a figure in ancient Babylon, and was also an X-Men character.
In 7.10 Bring On The Night, Andrew mentions Apocalypse, who was also an X-Men character (”Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Andrew, bad guy. You think I’m a super-villain like Dr. Doom or Apocalypse or The Riddler”).
Gwen Raiden in Angel’s season four appears to have been inspired by Rogue from the X Men - the two had great powers which could harm other humans by touch, and had to wear gloves to protect others.
Joss Whedon has said that the X-Men character Kitty Pryde (AKA Shadowcat) was a large influence for the character of Buffy.
[Goof] Disappearing book
details | add a comment | suggested by Mel
In 2.14 Innocence, when Cordelia is looking in the book for information on the Judge we see her put the book back on the shelf sideways. Then when she and Xander start kissing, the book appears and disappears behind Cordelia in different shots.
[Goof] Dru’s reflection
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Drusilla’s reflection can be seen in a pillar in the mall in 2.14 Innocence.
[Goof] Judge on fire
details | 1 comment | suggested by Jess
The Judge bursts into flame before the missile actually strikes him in 2.14 Innocence.
[Goof] Secured area?
details | 1 comment | suggested by Jess
At the military base in 2.14 Innocence, why is a door labeled “Secured Area” left unlocked? Especially considering the secured area contains a building full of weapons - next to a broken fence!
[Goof] Slo-mo Angel
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We see Angel running from the Judge in slow-motion in 2.14 Innocence. He reaches the barrier at bottom of the staircase and is about to jump over it. In the next shot, he is seen further away from the barrier and running towards it again.
[Goof] Stunt doubles
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In the final fight between Buffy and Angel in 2.14 Innocence, you can see their stunt doubles clearly in several shots.
[Goof] Time error
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In 2.14 Innocence, Xander tells Cordelia to meet him at Willow’s house in thirty minutes, wearing “something trashier”. Then Buffy has a dream and goes to school the next day. It’s then night again and Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Oz are at the army base. Joss himself has spoken on this:
“I was watching the final mix of 2.14 Innocence when I noticed this huge mistake. Let’s just think of it as them going to Willow’s the night before to practice and go over what they were going to do.”