Episode Trivia
A Christmas Carol
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In 3.06 Band Candy, the Scoobies run into Principal Snyder who is giving students chocolate to sell. Xander says:
“You weren’t visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, by any chance?”
He’s referring to the Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol, in which a man named Scrooge changes his miserly ways after being visited by three ghosts who show him his past, present and future.
In 6.11 Gone, Buffy paraphrases a famous line from A Christmas Carol when she says:
“I am the ghost of fashion victims past”.
The following is from 4.15 Orpheus:
Angelus: “It annoyed the crap out of me the first time around. This sucks. And why do you get to be Marley’s ghost?”
Adidas
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When the two friends are touching feet under the table in 3.06 Band Candy, both Willow and Xander are wearing the same Adidas shoes except that Willow’s are orange and Xander’s are black. Maybe they shop together.
Angel’s Hope
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In 3.06 Band Candy, Angel mentions Scott Hope to Buffy, who still hasn’t told him they broke up in Homecoming.
Ankle sex
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In the original script for 3.06 Band Candy, the scene where Xander and Willow are playing footsy under the desk reads as follows:
Xander inches his foot over to nudge Willow’s. She crosses her foot over his…twining ankles. Ankle sex.
Barbarino
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In 3.06 Band Candy, Principal Snyder mentions Barbarino (”Call me Snyder. Just a last name. Like Barbarino”) who was a character played by John Travolta in the TV series Welcome Back, Kotter.
Burt Reynolds
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Joyce tells Giles in 3.06 Band Candy that he’s like actor Burt Reynolds, just after he takes the gun from the cop.
Cream
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Giles and Joyce listened to Cream’s “Tales of Brave Ulysses” together in 3.06 Band Candy. In season five’s 5.17 Forever, the episode after Joyce’s death, we see Giles silently listening to this song again in a tribute to his dead friend, and the memories he had of her.
Death of a Salesman
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Death of a Salesman is a play by Arthur Miller, first performed in 1949. It is the story of the final days of Willy Loman, an unhappy travelling salesman. The play is referred to twice in Buffy: in 3.06 Band Candy, Buffy name checks Willy Loman when faced with selling chocolate bars, and in Willow’s dream in 4.22 Restless, she dreams that she has a role in a school production of the play. It is directed by Giles (wearing a cravat), and includes Riley dressed as a cowboy, Buffy dressed as a 1920s flapper girl and Harmony as a milk-maid/vampire.
Driving Miss Buffy
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Buffy drives for the first time in the show in the episode 3.06 Band Candy. She also drives in the season seven episode 7.06 Him, and whilst in Faith’s body in 4.16 Who Are You?
Ethan Rayne
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Ethan was an old college friend of Giles, or ‘Ripper’ as he called him. The two used to hang out, worshipping demons and creating dark magic spells. After Giles went on the straight and narrow, Ethan continued his bad ways. He occasionally came to Sunnydale to cause havoc, such as turning people into their Halloween costumes, enchanting 3.06 Band Candy to turn adults into teenagers, and turning Giles into a Fyarl demon (4.12 A New Man).
Ethan was extremely powerful magically, but had no physical strength so would flee after creating chaos. He was arrested and removed to a secret military base in Nevada by the Initiative in 4.12 A New Man, never to be seen on the show again. We never found out what happened to Ethan, though he appeared in Buffy’s dream in The Long Way Home, Part 3.
Every Bit of Nothing
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In 3.06 Band Candy, when Snyder says Oz has cool hair, the song “Slip Jimmy” by Every Bit of Nothing can be heard in the background. This comes from the album Austamosta.
Four Star Mary
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The music for Oz’s band Dingoes Ate My Baby was provided by real-life band Four Star Mary. James Marsters has performed with them on stage (off screen) a few times. The band themselves appeared in the season four finale 4.22 Restless, as the band who play with Giles during the Exposition Song.
Four Star Mary songs can be heard in the following Buffy episodes:
- 2.04 Inca Mummy Girl - The songs ‘Shadows’ and ‘Fate’ at the Cultural party in The Bronze.
- 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered - ‘Pain’ is heard in The Bronze.
- 3.02 Dead Man’s Party - The Dingoes mime to ‘Pain’, ‘Nevermind’ and ‘Sway’ at Buffy’s party.
- 3.05 Homecoming - we hear the song ‘She Knows’ at the dance - it’s the song Oz wrote for Willow.
- 4.02 Living Conditions - ‘Pain is heard when Buffy and Willow move into their dorm room.
- 3.06 Band Candy - the Dingoes mime onstage at The Bronze to ‘Violent’, when the adults are acting weirdly.
- 3.07 Revelations - Dingoes Ate My Baby perform ‘Run’ in The Bronze at the start of the episode.
- 4.03 The Harsh Light Of Day - ‘Dilate’ is played at the Bronze at the start of the episode.
- 4.07 The Initiative - Riley gets the song ‘Fate’ turned off at the party as it upsets Willow.
Giles and Joyce
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Whilst under the influence of the drugged 3.06 Band Candy, Giles and Joyce have sex on the hood of a police car. Twice. Buffy discovers this in 3.18 Earshot when she reads her mother’s mind, and later mentions it again to Giles when she’s in Faith’s body in 4.16 Who Are You?
Giles’s place
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The first time we see Giles’s home is in 2.08 The Dark Age. In 3.06 Band Candy, a courtyard outside Giles’s apartment can be seen where there once were stairs. His place became the focal point for the Scoobies in season four. The final time we see Giles’ apartment in the series is in the episode 5.17 Forever.
Giles’s tattoo
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Giles’s tattoo, the mark of Eyghon, can be seen in the episodes 3.06 Band Candy and 4.14 Goodbye Iowa. It was first seen in 2.08 The Dark Age.
Giles’s thrilling lapel
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In her blog, Jane Espenson wrote about her stage directions in the 3.06 Band Candy script being taken a touch too literally by members of the production staff:
“Oh! And now I’m remembering another story. Once, in a Buffy script (3.06 Band Candy), I wanted to indicate that Giles was very embarrassed and self-conscious about something Buffy was talking about. I wrote “Giles finds something interesting on his lapel.” Several members of the production staff came to me to ask about the thing on Giles’ lapel — would it turn out to be the villain of the next week’s episode, they asked?”
Good taste
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Joyce tells Giles he has good music albums when she’s looking through them in 3.06 Band Candy. This is also noted by Oz and Xander in the episode 4.03 The Harsh Light Of Day.
Hand holding
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The scene from 3.06 Band Candy where Giles and Joyce kiss at the hospital and Buffy says “don’t do that” was changed from what was in the original script.
The original script only had them holding hands, not kissing.
Harry Groener
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Harry Groener played the Mayor of Sunnydale - Richard Wilkins III. He was born in Germany in 1951. Harry has three Tony nominations for his stage work in Oklahoma, Cats and Crazy for You. He has also been in Dear John, The West Wing, Roswell, Malcolm in the Middle, The Drew Carey Show, Boston Public, Judging Amy, Charmed, Family Law, Just Shoot Me, Mad About You, Home Improvement, Star Trek: Voyager, Law & Order, Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Enterprise and Remington Steele. His final Buffy episode was 7.20 Touched.
Jane Espenson
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Jane Espenson was born in Iowa and studied linguistics at UC Berkeley. She won the Disney Writing Fellowship for 1992-93 for a Seinfeld script she had written. From that, Jane wrote for Dinosaurs for a couple of months, and then worked as a writer on Ellen for a year. Jane also wrote an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called ‘Accession’, which included Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder) playing Quark. Jane then got the job as a writer for Buffy.
She quickly became popular as the comedy-writer on the show and has written some of the funniest episodes in the series including 4.12 A New Man, 5.11 Triangle and 7.16 Storyteller. Jane wrote the Jonathan-centric episode 4.17 Superstar and she and Danny Strong became good friends. She is one of the only long-term Buffy writers never to have directed an episode of the show. Jane has also written for Angel, Firefly, Tru Calling, The O.C. and Gilmore Girls.
Jason Hall
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Jason Hall played Devon, the lead singer of Oz’s band Dingoes Ate My Baby. British fans might be interested (or appalled) to know that Jason appeared in an episode of the British TV sitcom Birds of a Feather in 1992, playing a gas man. He also appeared in an episode of the TV show Love Hurts and in Goodnight Sweetheart. Jason appeared in and co-produced Me and Will.
Juice Newton
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In 3.06 Band Candy, Joyce mentions Juice Newton when looking at the coat in the shop window. Newton was a country and pop singer in the 80s.
Kiss
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Some graffiti at the school in 3.06 Band Candy says ‘Kiss rocks’, which Willow notices:
“Why would anybody want to kiss… oh, wait. I get it.”
Kiss were a glam metal group formed in the early 70s whose trademark was wearing black and white paint on their faces.
Kristine’s favourite episodes
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Kristine Sutherland’s (Joyce) favourite Buffy episodes are 2.11 Ted, 3.06 Band Candy and 2.01 When She Was Bad.
Locker girl
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We see one of Cordelia’s homecoming queen posters from 3.05 Homecoming hanging in Xander’s locker in 3.06 Band Candy.
Louis Louis
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In 3.06 Band Candy, a group of adults sing “Louis Louis” by The Kingsmen on stage at The Bronze.
Love torches
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Just before Buffy used the gas pipe to destroy the demon in 3.06 Band Candy she says:
“I love that you guys love torches.”
This line was deleted from the final cut of the episode.
Lurconis
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Lurconis was a massive snakelike demon that lived in Sunnydale’s sewers. The Mayor had made a deal with it to offer a tribute of live babies every thirty years. Mr Trick hired Ethan Rayne to distract the population of Sunnydale whilst the tribute took place in 3.06 Band Candy. Buffy killed Lurconis by lighting an exposed gas pipe in the sewer and torching it. Lurconis means ‘Glutton’.
Mad Cow
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Mad Cow’s song “Blasé” (from the album Eureka) can be heard in 3.06 Band Candy as the gang are discussing the SAT’s.
Miss Barton
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Miss Barton was a teacher who became heavily influenced by the drugged 3.06 Band Candy. She dismissed Study Hall (called Principal Snyder a “commandant”) and was later seen in the Bronze saying:
“Oh, I’m cool, Willow. Willow… That’s a tree. You’re a tree! Yeah…are there any nachos in here, little tree?”
Peg Stewart
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Peg Stewart, who played Miss Barton in the episode 3.06 Band Candy, has also been in Charmed, The Norm Show, Frasier, The A-Team and CHiPs.
Robin Sachs
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Robin played Giles’s college friend turned nemesis Ethan Rayne. Sachs starred as Heinrich the vampire acrobat in the 1972 British horror film Vampire Circus. He’s also featured in Ocean’s Eleven, Jurassic Park - The Lost World, Bridehead Revisited, Galaxy Quest (where he played the villain Sarris) and a couple of episodes of Babylon 5 as Hedronn. Robin voiced the character of Ethan Rayne for the Buffy video game Chaos Bleeds.
Seals and Croft
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Joyce asks Giles if he likes Seals and Croft in 3.06 Band Candy. They were a 70s group whose most famous song was ‘Summer Breeze’.
Slash and slay
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In the original script for 3.06 Band Candy, Giles says the line:
“So, let’s go do something, right? Find the demon, slash and slay.”
This line was changed in the episode to:
“Well, then let’s do something. Let’s find the demon and, and… kick the crap out of it.”
Spiritual Angel
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The exercise Angel is doing in the courtyard of the mansion in 3.06 Band Candy, is T’ai Chi Ch’uan, a Chinese martial art which is also used as a form of Taoist yoga. Snyder later says in that episode he learnt “Tae Kwan Do at the Y” - a marked contrast to Angel. In 3.07 Revelations Buffy and Angel do T’ai Chi together, before it gets too sexy for them.
We also see Angel performing T’ai Chi in the Angel episode 1.03 In The Dark.
Summoning Lurconis
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This is the chant that the robed figures are using to summon Lurconis in 3.06 Band Candy:
Lucronis adventet. Lucronis satietur. Lucronis vetustate miliorum daemonum novus alitus carne novorum, potens alitus precibus potentium. Lucronis hodie epuletur et clemens nobis utatur. Lucronis exsistat ut dona nostra edat illaque in carnem suam vertat. Lucronis adventet.
This translates as:
Lurconis come near. Lurconis be sated. Lurconis with the age of a thousand demons, kept young by the flesh of the young, kept strong by the devotions of the strong. Lurconis feast this day and treat us with mercy. Lurconis emerge to consume what we offer and make it of his flesh. Lurconis come near.
The Real World
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In 3.06 Band Candy, Buffy compares her life to The Real World, a reference to the MTV reality TV show which films a group of strangers living in a house together.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
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In 3.06 Band Candy, when she and Willow enter the Bronze to find it full of teenage-adults, Buffy says:
“Let’s do the time warp again!”
This is a reference to a song from the musical The Rocky Horror Show.
In 3.01 Anne, Lily wears a T-shirt which is partially hidden by her sweater. The T-Shirt has the Denton sign (a Heart with the phrase “The Home of Happiness”) from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) played Frank-N-Furter in the RHPS in London in the early 1990s.
Trick who?
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Although she didn’t hear his name in either Faith, Hope and Trick or Homecoming, Buffy seems to know who Mr. Trick is when Ethan mentions him in 3.06 Band Candy. They meet for the first time later in that episode.
[Goof] Close but no heart
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When Buffy stakes the two vamps in the sewers in 3.06 Band Candy, she stakes them much too low to hit their hearts but they die anyway.
[Goof] Ethan’s box
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How did Ethan get inside the wooden box in such a short space of time in 3.06 Band Candy?
[Goof] Joyce’s jumper
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When Joyce and Giles are lecturing Buffy in 3.06 Band Candy, the jumper around Joyce’s neck goes up and down her shoulder without her touching it.
[Goof] No answer
details | 3 comments | suggested by tadpole
In the teaser for 3.06 Band Candy, we see Buffy’s practice page for the SAT’s - but there are no answers completed, and the answers don’t appear to correspond to the question Giles asks.
[Goof] Spelling error
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In 3.06 Band Candy, when the Scoobies are researching in the library, Xander hands Willow an old book and the two have a little “moment” together. If you look at the book, you can see that it is entitled ‘Demon Dimention’. Is that really how you spelled dimension in the old days?