Episode Trivia
Asian Dan
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In the season four DVD commentary for 4.06 Wild At Heart, Seth Green, Joss Whedon, and Marti Noxon mention the frequent appearances of the extra they call “Asian Dan”. He can also be seen in the episode 3.18 Earshot.
Aspect of the demon
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Some demons have the ability to ‘infect’ those who come in contact with them with an aspect of themselves. In 3.18 Earshot, Buffy became infected when she absorbed the blood of a telepathic demon and began to read the minds of those around her.
Azarath
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In 3.18 Earshot, Giles and Wesley are still drawing a blank about the Mayor’s Ascension, despite Buffy and Angel’s attempts to get information from Faith in 3.17 Enemies. They both confirm that the Mayor’s Ascension is not related to the ritual flaying of the demon Azarath.
Berk
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In 3.18 Earshot, when Giles and Wesley are talking about the demon heart needed to cure Buffy’s telepathy, Giles says, “Who’s going to get the demon heart? Berk!” The word Berk (Berkeley Hunt) is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘cunt’.
Buffy and Shakespeare
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The cast and crew of both Buffy and Angel regularly visited Joss Whedon’s house on a Sunday to read Shakepeare plays together. Paul Ruditis wrote in Once More With Feeling: The Script Book (Pocket Books: 2002):
“Joss missed the acting that he had not done since high school, so he started hosting informal Sunday night Shakespeare readings at his home with some of the writers and cast members of Buffy and Angel.”
Joss himself said in an interview with The Onion AV Club:
“Some people get more big roles, some people don’t want them. Some people are terrified by the prospect and refuse to come. I try to shift it around, try to make everybody do spear-carrying duty. It’s extraordinary. More than putting on make-up for three hours and dancing around like an idiot, that really gives you the feeling of being inside a piece, really acting. It gives you perspective, which is good to have. It’s not good that I should think of myself as a TV star, because I’m not. But it is good to be in touch with what an actor goes through, because it makes you better.”
Other cast members have talked about these get togethers. Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn) said in an interview with Jill Meisner at New York Times: Upfront Online:
“We just sit around read a play. There was a play where James [Marsters] had to sing and play on his guitar. We all have fun, we have a great time.”
Amber Benson (Tara) said in the UK’s Buffy Magazine (issue 32, April 2002):
“As long as I’ve been on the show we’ve been having Shakespeare readings where everyone - producers, actors, everybody - would show up at Joss’s house and we’d read Othello or Romeo and Juliet. I got to play Romeo opposite Michelle Trachtenberg’s Juliet, which was so much fun! Everyone was asking, “Should we let James do it? No, we’ll let Amber do it - she’s sexually benign.” And then afterwards, we would all just sing. We’d have [executive producer] Marti Noxon sing, and I’d sing, and Tony’d sing - Tony Head’s an amazing singer - we even got Michelle and Mere Smith, who’s one of the writers on Angel, singing.”
Change of play
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Buffy’s class discuss Shakespeare’s Othello in the episode 3.18 Earshot. In the original script, they discussed Henry VIII (you can still see this written on the board later in the episode) but Joss Whedon rewrote the scene to make it have more meaning to Buffy’s feelings.
Chicken and stars
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In 3.18 Earshot, Joyce offers “chicken and stars” soup to Buffy. She also offers it to Dawn in the season five episode 5.13 Blood Ties, after Dawn discovers she’s the Key.
Columbine
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The episodes 3.18 Earshot and 3.22 Graduation Day (Part Two) were delayed by the network because of the events at Columbine High School, in which two students shot and killed several of their fellow students. It was felt that the events of the Buffy episodes (which contained violence at school) might have upset some viewers so close to the tragedy. Some Buffy fans were mad at the decision, as they felt the show held a good message for unpopular kids, but the decision was mostly supported by the Buffy crew.
Demon deformities
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In 3.11 Birthday, Cordelia checks to see if she has any demon deformities, including horns and a tail. These are also the first things that Buffy checked herself for in the Buffy episode 3.18 Earshot when she gained an aspect of a demon.
Demon tails
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Jane Espenson said that Joss Whedon normally hates having demons with tails on the show, as the tails almost never look realistic. The demons in 3.18 Earshot have tails, though, as Jane had written a joke about Buffy checking to see if she had one.
Descartes
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Oz’s thought in 3.18 Earshot, “We think, therefore she is” comes from Descartes’s theory of consciousness. Descarte’s most famous statement is “cogito ergo sum”, translated as “I think, therefore I am”.
Fantasies are fun
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In 3.18 Earshot, when the Scooby gang is trying to find out who the potential killer is, Willow questions Jonathan:
Willow: “Fantasies are fun, aren’t they Jonathan?”
Jonathan: “I guess…”
Willow: “We all have fantasies where we’re powerful and respected, where people pay attention to us.”
Jonathan: “Maybe.”
Willow: “But sometimes the fantasy isn’t enough, is it Jonathan? Sometimes we have to make it so people don’t ignore us… make them pay attention. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”
Later, in season four’s episode 4.17 Superstar, Jonathan performs a spell to make his fantasy of being rich and powerful true.
Freddie Iverson
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Freddie Iverson was the cynical editor of Sunnydale High’s newspaper. He thought Oz was after him as he wrote a terrible review of Oz’s band Dingoes Ate My Baby in 3.18 Earshot.
Freddy Munson
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According to The Watchers Guide Volume 2, the character Freddy Iverson (the editor of Sunnydale High’s newspaper in 3.18 Earshot) was originally called Freddy Munson.
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 bump
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Anthony Stewart Head came up with the idea of Giles walking into the tree at the end of 3.18 Earshot, when Buffy told Giles she knew he slept with Joyce.
Grateful Johnny
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Jonathan shows his gratitude to Buffy in 3.20 The Prom for saving his life in 3.18 Earshot when he presents the Slayer with the “Class Protector” award. He later went for special counselling after trying to commit suicide, where he learnt a few spells which would prove useful to him in seasons four and six.
Hogan Martin
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The Sunnydale High jock in 3.18 Earshot was named after a gymnast Jane Espenson went to school with. She used his name, Hogan Martin, as she felt it was very memorable for building up the cast for the ‘whodunnit’ at the end of the episode. Hogan and Oz also had one of the best pieces of dialogue in 3.18 Earshot:
Hogan: “This is for the yearbook?”
Oz: “Yeah, personality profiles.”
Hogan: “Can you ask it again?”
Oz: “Sure.” (reading) “Do you ever feel that you’ve created a false persona for yourself, the ‘guy who does everything right’, and how much of a strain does it put on you to maintain it?”
Hogan: “Huh. I guess ‘moderate strain’? Is that a good answer? I want to get this right.”
Jonathan’s gun
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How was Jonathan going to kill himself with that high-powered rifle considering it was so long and his arms were so short?
Jonathan’s gun
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The gun Jonathan has in 3.18 Earshot is made by “Sturm, Ruger and Company Inc. - Arms makers for responsible citizens.”
Keram Malicki-Sánchez
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Keram Malicki-Sánchez, who played Freddie Iverson in 3.18 Earshot, has had a busy career. He studied classical music and Gregorian singing for eight years and then began acting on stage, with roles in Oliver!, Mame and Evita in Toronto. At the age of ten, Keram launched his music career, singing on various records. He recorded a full length album in South America when he was 14 years old. He was signed to a major label there and had two songs which entered the charts. The same year, Keram was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for his performance in an adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper.
At fifteen, Keram formed the band Blue Dog Pict. The band released three albums and toured across North America. At seventeen Keram founded an independent record label and production company called Constant Change. Keram played the lead role of Chris Black in Skin Deep which won the People’s Choice award at the Berlin film festival. Keram also appeared in films such as American History X, Happy Campers, Crazy/Beautiful and John Q (in which he played another character called Freddie).
Keram is currently a music producer as well as an actor who and scores independent films and animations. Keram’s father is Polish and his mother Ecuadorian. He speaks English, French, Polish, and Spanish.
Knocked out
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In 5.01 Buffy Vs Dracula, Giles falls into Dracula’s basement, where he is surrounded by the sisters. After he falls he says, “Good show, Giles. At least you didn’t get knocked out for a change.” In 4.12 A New Man, Giles says he has a “tendency to get knocked on the head”. He’s not kidding. Giles has been knocked unconscious in the episodes:
- 1.03 The Witch (by vampires who want to raise the Master again)
- 1.05 Never Kill A Boy On The First Date (by Andrew Borba in the crematorium)
- 1.12 Prophecy Girl (by Buffy, to stop him from trying to help her)
- 2.01 When She Was Bad (by the vampires attempting to raise the Master)
- 2.17 Passion (by Angelus, after Giles attacks him for killing Jenny)
- 2.21 Becoming (Part One) (by a group of vampires who take him to Angelus)
- 3.04 Beauty And The Beasts (shot with a tranquillizer gun)
- 3.05 Homecoming (by Lyle Gorch and Candy).
- 3.07 Revelations (by Gwendolyn Post, in his office)
- 3.11 Gingerbread (by the MOO mob as they come to take Buffy away. When Cordy wakes him up she says, “I came over here to tell Buffy to stop this craziness and found you all unconscious… again. How many times have you been knocked out, anyway? I swear, one of these times, you’re going to wake up in a coma.”)
- 3.18 Earshot (he doesn’t get knocked out in this episode - but he does walk into a tree in a very amusing manner)
- 6.04 Flooded (by the Mfashnik demon as it breaks ino Buffy’s house. Giles later says, “Well, I know I’m back in America now. I’ve been knocked unconscious”).
Larry Bagby III
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Larry played Sunnydale High bully turned gay activist Larry Blaisdale. Larry is a Mormon, but this didn’t stand in his way of playing a gay character (Mormons do not condone homosexuality). Larry was in an episode of Mr. Belvedere with Seth Green when the two were about 12 years old. The two also worked together on Airborne. Larry played another bully in Hocus Pocus, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Bette Midler.
Larry Blaisdale
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Larry was Sunnydale High’s school bully (2.06 Halloween, 2.15 Phases) who was “outed” by Xander and transformed himself into being comfortable with his sexuality (3.18 Earshot). Larry helped his classmates to battle with the Mayor’s Ascension. The last we saw of Larry was him being thrown into the air by the Mayor’s tail, which killed him.
Lauren Roman
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Lauren Roman, who played Nancy in earshot, and Sarah Michelle Gellar worked together previously in the soap opera All My Children, where Lauren played Laura Kirk English and Sarah played Kendall Hart.
One down… one gone
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In the episode 2.09 What’s My Line? (Part One), Spike’s vampires steal the DuLac cross from a tomb in the graveyard. Buffy stakes one of the two vampires and then watches Dalton (the other vamp) running away for his life, saying:
“One down, one… gone.”
In 3.18 Earshot, Buffy fights two telepathic demons at the beginning of the episode. She kills one of the two, and then says:
“One down, one… gone.”
Oops, no mouth
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In the original scene of Buffy fighting the telepathic demons in 3.18 Earshot she said:
“Say ‘Uncle.’ Oops. No mouth.”
This was deleted from the episode in it’s final cut.
Othello
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Othello is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. In 3.18 Earshot, Buffy develops telepathy after touching the blood of a mouthless demon. She goes to school and is able to excel in her English class using her new-found skill. The class are studying Othello.
Pierce Brosnan
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In 3.18 Earshot, Xander says of Wesley:
“Oh, my god! He’s looking at her! He’s got his filthy, adult, Pierce Brosnany eyes all over my Cordy!”
Actor Pierce Brosnan played James Bond. Writer Jane Espenson explains in the Buffy season 3 DVD featurette ‘Buffy Speak’ that she came up with this line because Wesley reminds her so much of the actor.
Regis Kimble
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Regis Kimble, who directed the episode 3.18 Earshot, also designed the title sequence of the spin-off show Angel.
Saving Buffy
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Buffy is saved in a similar way by Spike and Angel:
In 3.18 Earshot, when Buffy receives telepathic powers, she becomes overwhelmed, and would eventually become insane if not cured. Angel hunts down the telepathic demon to get it’s heart to make a concoction to cure Buffy.
In 6.17 Normal Again, Buffy is stung by a Glarghk Guhl Kashmas demon, causing her to hallucinate that she’s in a mental institute. Spike captures the demon to get the antidote, of which Willow makes “yummy antidote goodness”, Buffy drinks it, and she is cured.
School clocktower
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The Sunnydale High School clocktower was constructed especially for the episode 3.18 Earshot.
Sunnydale High Sentinel
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The school paper is called the Sunnydale High Sentinel, seen in 3.18 Earshot. It has an obituary section (which Oz likes to read) and Cordelia checks it out for comments on the cheerleaders. The editor is Freddie Iverson.
Telepathy
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Telepathy is the ability to communicate via the mind (telepathically). Buffy encountered some demons with no mouths that communicated telepathically in 3.18 Earshot. She killed one and its blood infected her with its mind reading ability.
Willow’s magical power became so strong that she was able to communicate telepathically with her friends (6.01 Bargaining (Part One), 6.22 Grave, 7.11 Showtime).
The Bangles
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Buffy reveals in 3.18 Earshot that Principal Snyder has The Bangles song ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ stuck in his head.
Vampires and sunlight
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We first learn that vampires can be killed by direct sunlight in 1.02 The Harvest, when Buffy says:
Xander: “So, what else?”
Buffy: “What else what?”
Xander: “For vampire slayage.”
Buffy: “Oh, fire, beheading, sunlight, holy water, the usual.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that the actors who play vampires can be destructed using sun beams. There are several occasions when direct sunlight lays on vampires in the show without them being destroyed.
- When Angel is sitting on Buffy’s bed in 3.18 Earshot, sun is shining in but he doesn’t burst into flame.
- In 4.19 New Moon Rising Adam confronts Spike in his crypt during the daytime. There’s lots of sunlight around, yet Spike doesn’t dust.
- In 5.18 Intervention, Spike’s face is in direct sunlight when Glory pulls him up by his lip. She then throws Spike on the bed, and his left arm is also in direct sunlight - he doesn’t burn on both these occasions.
- In the scene with Spike and the mannequin in 5.03 The Replacement, Spike has a tan line on his arms, where his t-shirt has been, though it may be possible to tan in indirect sunlight.
- During the Angel episode 1.03 In The Dark, there are quite a few incidents where sunlight is laying directly on vampires without them burning. This can be seen in particular during the warehouse torture scenes, and when Angel is in the van, about to attack Marcus.
- When the demon attacks Angel in his office in 1.08 I Will Remember You, Angel is clearly standing in direct sunlight.
As Harfang says in the comments section of this trivia - vampires’ resistance to sunlight appears to be directly dependent on their importance to the story.
Another point to note is that only direct sunlight harms vampires - and it just kills them. In 2.10 What’s My Line? (Part Two), Angel is seen being weakened by sunlight which is actually nowhere near him.
Wendy Worthington
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Wendy Worthington, who played the rat poison-wielding lunch lady in 3.18 Earshot, is a recognisable face from TV and film. She can be seen in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, Catch Me If You Can, Cast Away, Father of the Bride Part II and in Mannequin: On the Move. Wendy has also appeared in Charmed, Ally McBeal, That ’70s Show, Suddenly Susan, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Chicago Hope, Diagnosis Murder, Seinfeld and Picket Fences.
Willow and Percy
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In 3.16 Doppelgangland, Principal Snyder makes Willow teach Percy in order to keep his grades up so he can play basketball. He made Willow coach students previously in the episode 2.20 Go Fish. Snyder refers to the events of that episode as “the swim team debacle of last year”. Willow continues to coach Percy until graduation (We see that he’s “needy” in 3.18 Earshot).
Willow the bad cop
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In 2.20 Go Fish, Willow questioned Jonathan about the Swim Team and he admitted to peeing in the school swimming pool. In 3.18 Earshot, Willow interrogated Jonathan again, whilst questioning him about the threat on the school.
[Goof] Angel’s necklace
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When Buffy and Angel are talking at the mansion in 3.18 Earshot, Angel’s necklace moves from inside his shirt to outside as the camera switches angles.
[Goof] Clock tower
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When Buffy first looks up at the clock tower in 3.18 Earshot, the clock says 12:40, but when she looks back up a moment later, it says 12:10. Shortly before this scene, it says 11:00.
[Goof] Lunch lady
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The lunch lady’s stunt double in 3.18 Earshot is clearly nowhere near the same shape or size as the actress.
[Goof] Telepathy
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If the demons in 3.18 Earshot were telepathic, why didn’t they anticipate Buffy’s moves when they were fighting?