The Buffy and Angel Trivia Guide

Episode Trivia

1800-COLLECT

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When the episode 3.08 Lover’s Walk first aired in the U.S, it was followed by an advert for the phone service 1800-COLLECT, in which Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz, as Buffy and Angel, offered a prize of a walk-on part in the show.
The winner of the competition was Jessica Johnson of Maryland, who won a three day trip for two to participate in the episode 3.20 The Prom.

Alcohol

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Drinking alcohol in Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always been frowned upon, though the rules were relaxed slightly as the Scoobies got older. The general rule is: if you have a drink, something bad is going to happen to you. Here are some examples of this rule:

In 1.04 Teacher’s Pet, Xander is the first of the Scoobies to drink alcohol. He has a sip of Martini given to him by Natalie French who is really a giant preying mantis in disguise. The drink has been drugged and he passes out. When Xander awakes he only narrowly escapes mating with and being killed by the mantis.
In 2.05 Reptile Boy, Buffy and Cordelia go to a frat house party where they drink alcohol which has (again) been spiked. They pass out and awaken in a basement, ready to be sacrificed by Machida.
In 2.08 The Dark Age, Giles gets busy with the whiskey and then his girlfriend gets possessed by Eyghon the Sleepwalker.
In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Spike returns to Sunnydale and gets extremely drunk, he awakes in the morning when sunlight touches his hand, which goes up in flames.
In 4.09 Something Blue, Willow’s friends freak out a bit too much when they see she’s drinking - GASP! - low-alcohol beer. She’s reminded by Buffy that when she got drunk she turned into a cave woman (in 4.05 Beer Bad). Willow later does a spell which makes her will be done, causing havoc for her friends.
4.05 Beer Bad: the episode title says it all. Buffy drinks beer and literally turns into a Neanderthal.
In 6.05 Life Serial, Buffy and Spike go drinking together and Buffy is really ill. She then tells Giles about how she’s messing up (though in fairness this started before she was drinking!)
The Bronze serves alcohol but the rules are very strict about the age limit. Underage people have to wear a stamp on their hand so they won’t get served (Dawn in 5.06 Family) and when Anya tries to get a beer in 3.16 Doppelgangland, she’s asked for ID.
The rules are later relaxed and finally, in 6.14 Older And Far Away, Buffy celebrates her 21st birthday, meaning she can now legally drink alcohol, though we saw her previously drinking beer in 6.13 Dead Things.

Angel’s language skills

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Angel is shown to be fluent in several languages other than English throughout the show.

In 1.10 Parting Gifts, he speaks Chinese
In 1.16 The Ring, he speaks Spanish, Italian and Russian.
In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, he reads Sartre’s La Nausée in the original language. Later, in 2.19 Belonging, he speaks French.
In 5.13 Why We Fight, he speaks German.
In 5.11 Damage, he is shown to understand (and presumably speak) Romanian.

Benefits of a Sunnydale education

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In the Angel season two episode 2.04 Untouched, Bethany, the telekenetic girl, stabs Angel through the torso with a bar. When he gets back to the hotel the following lines are said.

Angel: “You know how hard it is to think straight with a re-bar through your torso?”
Cordelia: “Actually, I do. Benefits of a Sunnydale education.”

This is a reference to the Buffy episode 3.08 Lover’s Walk, when Cordelia fell and was impaled on a metal bar after finding Xander and Willow kissing.

Bewitched Xander

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Xander tells Willow in 3.08 Lover’s Walk:

“Have you forgotten that I tend to have bad luck with these sorts of spells?”

This is a reference to the love spell cast by Amy Madison in 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered.

Blisters

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James Marsters had huge blisters all over his hand after filming the hand-on-fire scene outside Angel’s mansion in 3.08 Lover’s Walk.

Breakers Woods

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In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Giles went to Breakers Woods, which has a clearing in which druidic rituals were performed and which is about a 45-minute drive from Sunnydale.

Chaos demons

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After leaving Sunnydale in 2.22 Becoming (Part Two), Spike and Drusilla went to Brazil, which is where she left him for a chaos demon. In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Spike claims chaos demons are, “All slime and antlers” - which we discover is literally true when we finally see one in 5.07 Fool For Love. In 4.03 The Harsh Light Of Day, Harmony mistakenly says Dru left Spike for a fungus demon.

Dan Vebber

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Dan Vebber wrote the episodes 3.08 Lover’s Walk and 3.13 The Zeppo. He was a producer, writer and executive story editor on Futurama, and also wrote for American Dad! and Daria.

Drive-through

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In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Xander says to Buffy:

“You and I are going to be manning the drive-through window side by side.”

He’s not far wrong. Buffy briefly worked at a burger joint called Doublemeat Palace in season six, and Xander worked in various fast-food related positions in season four.

Elvis Costello

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the title of the Buffy season three episode 3.08 Lover’s Walk is also the title of an Elvis Costello song.

Fireman Xander

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As a child, Xander appears to have had a great interest in becoming a fireman. In 3.08 Lover’s Walk he says:

Xander to Willow: “Yeah, I wish for a lot of things! I told you I wished I was a fireman when we were in sixth grade, but you didn’t follow through on that!”

Later, in 5.03 The Replacement:

Xander: “Let’s see. Stuff only you and me know. Okay! On my seventh birthday … I wanted a toy fire truck, and I didn’t get it, and you were real nice about it, and then the house next door burnt down, and then real fire trucks came, and for years I thought you set the fire for me. And if you did, you can tell me…”

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.

Holy Water

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Holy Water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy. Like other religious symbols (such as the crucifix) it burns vampires, and can even kill them if it touches them in large amounts. Holy water has been used as a weapon occasionally in the Buffyverse:

In 1.02 The Harvest, Willow threw holy water on Darla.
In 2.10 What’s My Line? (Part Two), Drusilla tortured Angel by dripping holy water on him.
Buffy tricked Zachary Kralik into drinking holy water in 3.12 Helpless.
In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Buffy, Angel and Spike warded off attacking vampires by throwing holy water at them.
Buffy gave Andrew a bottle of holy water as a weapon in 7.11 Showtime. Later, when the Scoobies and the Potentials hide while Buffy distracts the Turok-Han, Buffy takes the bottle from Andrew and then uses it against the Turok-Han, smashing it in the face.

La Nausee

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As Spike watches him in the mansion in 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Angel can be seen reading La Nausee (”Nausea”), the 1938 first novel by the French existentialist philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). Joss Whedon mentioned in his commentary for the Firefly episode ‘Objects in Space’ that La Nausee had a great influence on him.

Life imitating art

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In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Cordelia sees Xander kissing Willow, runs away, falls and gets spiked in the stomach. In real life, Charisma Carpenter (who plays Cordelia) was impaled by a cement construction bar after falling in a pool when she was five years old. She has a large scar on her stomach from this.

Lilac gal

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In the season four episode 4.07 The Initiative, Spike tells Willow he was once tempted to bite her:

“Remember last year? You had on that fuzzy pink number with the lilac underneath.”

He’s referring to the events of the episode 3.08 Lover’s Walk.

Love spell

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In 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered, Xander asked Amy Madison to put a love spell on Cordelia after she broke up with him. Amy needed something personal of Cordelia’s and lots of candles. In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Spike returned to Sunnydale and kidnapped Willow to make her perform a love spell to get Drusilla back. She had left him for a chaos demon. Willow needed a spell book, essence of violet, cloves, a set of runic tablets and rat’s eyes for her spell. Another example of a love spell was in 7.06 Him, when a bewitched letterman jacket made women fall for it’s wearer.

Love’s a funny thing

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In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Spike says, “Love’s a funny thing”. Clem repeated this line to him in the episode 6.19 Seeing Red.

Microscopic pain

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Xander gets smashed in the head with a microscope in two episodes: 3.08 Lover’s Walk and 2.12 Bad Eggs.

My Way

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In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Spike listens to ‘My Way’. A common misconception is that it’s Sid Vicious’s version. It’s not - it’s Gary Oldman from the soundtrack of Sid and Nancy. Joss Whedon has said that Spike and Drusilla were based on Sid Vicious and his groupie girlfriend Nancy.

Population Count in Sunnydale

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According to the sign Spike passed on the way into Sunnydale in 2.03 School Hard, the town’s population was 38,500. Interestingly, the population was the same in season three’s 3.08 Lover’s Walk. Either nobody had changed the sign or people have babies rapidly in the town because people sure have been dying.

Spike’s movements

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The Mayor claims in 3.08 Lover’s Walk that he was fully aware of Spike’s presence and activities in Sunnydale in the previous year.

Suzanne Krull

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Suzanne played the magic shop clerk in 3.08 Lover’s Walk. She has also been in Kids in America, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Next Best Thing, Go, Nash Bridges and Will & Grace.

The Exorcist

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The 1973 movie The Exorcist starred Linda Blair as a child named Regan who becomes possessed by a demon. The film was adapted from the horror novel by William Peter Blatty, and banned in the UK for more than fifteen years. It is referenced a few times in Buffy and Angel:

In 1.04 Teacher’s Pet, Buffy says that Miss French’s head did a “full-on Exorcist twist”, referring to a famous scene in the movie.
In 2.19 I Only Have Eyes For You, When Willow suggests an exorcism, Cordelia replies “Are you crazy? I saw that movie: even the priests died!”
In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Buffy says of her mother, “her head spun round and exploded” (to which Giles replies, “I’ve been on the Hellmouth too long. That was metaphorical, yes?”).
In 4.02 Living Conditions, Xander says, “Are you saying that Buffy’s been doing a Linda Blair on us because Kathy’s been sucking her soul?” At the beginning of her possession in The Exorcist, Regan showed dramatic changes in her behaviour, just as Buffy did in 4.02 Living Conditions.
Buffy name-checks The Excorcist in 7.10 Bring On The Night.
In the Angel episode 1.14 I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Cordelia says, “I’m wondering if I should put plastic down. Angel, are you expecting any big vomiting here? Because I saw the movie.” Large parts of this episode are a nod to The Exorcist - in the book and movie, a Catholic priest dies in much the same way as Angel’s Father Fredricks.

The Simpsons

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Buffy says in 2.09 What’s My Line? (Part One):

“Have a cow Giles.”

This is a play on the phrase “Don’t have a cow”, made popular by Bart in the TV show The Simpsons. It means don’t get excited/worked up.
In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Willow compares herself to Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel. This is a reference to the stupid hick who is a recurring character on The Simpsons.

An episode of The Simpsons called ‘Treehouse of Horror 16′ (which aired on November 6, 2005) contained a reference to the season two Buffy episode 2.06 Halloween. In that episode, everyone in town is turned into their costumes - which included Principal Skinner turning into a GI Joe, and his mother turning into a 17th century woman (like Xander and Buffy in 2.06 Halloween).
In an episode of The Simpsons called ‘The Homer of Seville’, the family are looking for somewhere to eat and pass a restaurant called “Buffet the Hunger Slayer”.

Weird Science

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In 3.08 Lover’s Walk, Buffy and Cordelia come across Willow’s abandoned spell in the science lab. Buffy says:

“What is all this stuff? I’m thinking weird science.”

Weird Science was a movie made in 1985 about two nerdy boys who created their perfect woman. There was a TV spin-off of the same name which ran from 1994-1997. In it’s cast were Michael Manasseri (who played Skyler in 3.17 Enemies and Ingo Neuhaus, who played Daryl in 2.02 Some Assembly Required.