Episode Trivia
28 Days
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself, we hear ‘Kool’ by 28 Days, as the frat boys prepare for the party.
Action figures
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Giles and Anya’s Halloween costumes (a Mexican and a bunny) from 4.04 Fear, Itself were so popular with fans that they were made into action figures by Clayburn Moore.
Annual vid fest
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According to Xander, Halloween during 4.04 Fear, Itself would be the second annual Halloween video screening, implying that the Scoobies watched videos the previous year. There was no Halloween episode in season three, so this makes sense.
Aradia
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Aradia is the Goddess of the Lost. She appears as a small light to guide those who are lost. In 4.04 Fear, Itself, Willow called upon Aradia using a guiding spell to get her friends out of the bewitched frat house:
“Aradia, Goddess of the lost, the path is murky, the woods are dense, darkness pervades, I beseech thee, bring the light.”
The spell went wrong and Willow was surrounded by hundreds of green lights.
In 6.02 Bargaining (Part Two), Tara successfully helped Willow and Xander out of the woods by sending Aradia to guide them.
Bunnies
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Anya has a fear of bunnies, first referenced in 4.04 Fear, Itself when she wore a bunny costume to a Halloween party, with the simple explanation: “bunnies frighten me”. This fear is shown in:
- 4.04 Fear, Itself: Anya’s bunny suit became so popular that model makers Clayburn Moore created a figure of the character.
- 5.08 Shadow:
Xander: “Just once I would like to run into a cult of bunny worshippers.”
Anya: “Great! Thank you very much for those nightmares!” - 5.22 The Gift: Anya finds a stuffed bunny in the Magic Box and says:
“God, who would put something like that there? Is this supposed to be some sort of sick joke?”
- 6.02 Bargaining (Part Two): Razor asks Willow what she’s going to do - “pull a rabbit out of a hat?” Anya turns to Tara to be reassured that she won’t.
- 6.07 Once More, With Feeling: Anya theorises through song that bunnies must be the cause of the musical:
“I’ve got a theory,
It could be bunnies…
Bunnies aren’t just cute Like everybody supposes!
They got them hoppy legs
And twitchy little noses!
And what’s with all the carrots?
What do they need Such good eyesight for anyway?
Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be bunnies!” - 6.08 Tabula Rasa: Anya accidentally conjures up hundreds of bunnies in the Magic Box
- 6.09 Smashed: Willow describes Anya to Amy as a “thousand-year-old capitalist ex-demon with rabbit phobia”.
- 7.05 Selfless: Anya shows she wasn’t afraid of bunnies before she became a demon: “The rapid reproductive rate of our rabbits has given me an idea. I can give the excess out to the townspeople, exchanging them not for goods or services but for goodwill and the sense of accomplishment that stems from selflessly giving of yourself to others.”
- 7.22 Chosen: Anya’s final words on the show are about bunnies. She thinks of them whilst preparing for the huge battle:
“Bunnies. Floppy, hoppy, bunnies.”
Bunny suit
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In 1.09 The Puppet Show, Buffy says,
“OK, everyone look at me like I’m in a bunny suit ‘cos I feel so stupid saying this.”
In season four’s 4.04 Fear, Itself, Anya wears a bunny suit to a Halloween party.
Chaz
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Chaz was a college friend of Oz who helped to arrange a frat house Halloween party on campus in 4.04 Fear, Itself. Chaz painted the Mark of Gachnar on the floor as a decoration, but it was activated when drops of Oz’s blood dripped onto the symbol. Gachnar then made everyone’s fears into reality. The Scoobies discovered Chaz hiding in a cupboard.
Costume fun
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Scooby Halloween costumes in 4.04 Fear, Itself include: Buffy as Little Red Riding Hood; Willow as Joan of Arc; Oz as God; Xander as James Bond (or a waiter); Anya as a bunny; and Giles as a Mexican.
Costume insurance
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself, Xander refers to the season two episode Halloween in which the Scoobies were turned into their costumes. He says, “Bond. James Bond. Insurance, you know, in case we get turned into our costumes again. I’m going for cool Secret Agent Guy.”
Fantasia
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The animated movie Fantasia has been mentioned twice in Buffy. In 4.04 Fear, Itself, Xander brings home Phantasm from the video shop but discovers he’s been given Fantasia instead. In 6.06 All The Way, the Scoobies discuss cleaning the Magic Shop. Willow says, “I could whip up a jaunty self-cleaning incantation, it’ll be like Fantasia.” The movie was made in 1940 and features Mickey Mouse in dramatic animated sequences to classical music.
First Initiative glimpses
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We saw the Initiative soldiers for the first time in 4.01 The Freshman. The Scoobies saw them for the first time in 4.04 Fear, Itself, but attributed their attire to Halloween costumes.
Foreshadowing fear
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself, Gachnar tells Buffy, “They’re all going to abandon you, you know.” They do: in season seven’s 7.19 Empty Places, when everyone chooses Faith over Buffy. In the same episode, Oz is scared of the wolf within him and Willow screams, “don’t leave me” to Oz. Both these fears come true in Wild at Heart when Oz leaves Willow to try and control his wolfish side.
Frankenstein
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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, was first published in 1818, but the story of Frankenstein’s monster has been retold numerous times.
- 2.02 Some Assembly Required: Daryl Epps is brought back to life by his brother, who then sets about making a ‘girlfriend’ for him using the body parts of various dead girls.
- The villain of season four, Adam, was clearly based on Frankenstein’s monster. Professor Walsh created him to be a super-monster, made of different demons and humans. Although Shelly never named Victor Frankenstein’s monster in the book, she did at times refer to him in talk as “Adam,” obviously referencing the story of Adam and Eve from The Bible. Buffy’s Adam definitely parallels Shelly’s Adam: Both monsters were built out of a pure want to do good and help people, but the monster turns and becomes a killing menace.
- 4.04 Fear, Itself: Giles says, “It’s alive!”, which is from the 1931 movie Frankenstein.
- 4.05 Beer Bad: Buffy’s “Fire bad” line comes from the 1931 movie. The monster in the movie (played by Boris Karloff) is chased by angry villagers with torches, when he shouts, “Fire Bad!”
- 4.14 Goodbye Iowa: the shot with Adam and the little boy is an homage to the 1931 movie Frankenstein. When Frankenstein’s monster escapes, he walks through a forest and comes upon a little girl, Maria, who is throwing flowers into a pond. The monster joins her in the activity but soon runs out of flowers. At a loss for something to throw into the water, he looks at Maria and moves toward her. In all American prints of the movie, the scene ends here. But as originally filmed, the action continues to show the monster grabbing Maria, hurling her into the lake, then departing in confusion when Maria fails to float as the flowers did. This bit was deleted because Karloff - objecting to the director’s interpretation of the scene - felt that the monster should have gently put Maria into the lake. This scene is restored in the video cassette reissue. Both monsters were created using body parts from other people/demons and both encountered a child and expressed curiosity, which ended in the child’s death.
- 5.16 Shells: Gunn says:
“Everything you know, or there won’t be enough of you left to stitch back together, Frankenstein.”
- 5.04 Hell Bound: Nina says to Angel:
So, what? You’re, like, a Frankenstein?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
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The title of the episode 4.04 Fear, Itself comes from American President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inaugural address, on March 4th, 1933. He said:
“This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Gachnar
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Gachnar was an Irish fear demon who was able to make people’s fears come true, seen in 4.04 Fear, Itself. It trapped a group of students in a frat house at a Halloween party, and forced them to live out their worst nightmares. Buffy accidentally summoned the demon who revealed himself to be only a few centimetres tall. Buffy crushed him wih her shoe.
Gaelic Gachnar
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself Willow guesses that the book from which the frat boys took the occult symbol is written in “Gaelic” (which she can, handily, translate). We later see, however, that it’s written in English - describing various aspects of exorcism.
The only apparently “Gaelic” bit, as Giles confirms, is the inscription under the drawing of Gachnar. This reads “Fir Meit”. As anyone who’s been to an Irish pub toilet will tell you, “Fir” means “Men” (being the plural of “fear”). “Meit” doesn’t, as far as I know, mean anything.
What I think it should have read (at least if it’s Irish Gaelic) is “fíor meid”: “fíor” meaning “true”, and “méid” meaning “size” (or “amount”). Even still, the normal word order in Irish is to have the adjective after the noun , as in “an méid fíor” (”the true size”), so zero points all round for the Buffy prop linguists!
Halloween
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Halloween gets its name from the Catholic celebration of All Hallow’s Eve, a day when all the saints, not just those with their own feast day, were honoured. Its real origins go back much further, to the ancient festival of Samhain, the Celtic new year. On that day it was believed that the boundaries between the worlds of the living and dead were weakened. Thus spirits were able to cause trouble on earth, and humans to gain otherworldly knowledge. According to Giles, Halloween is traditionally a quiet night for undead activity as they think it’s corny. Halloween is celebrated in the Buffy episodes 2.06 Halloween, 4.04 Fear, Itself and 6.06 All The Way.
Homicidal robot
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself, Joyce opens up to Buffy a little about her life post-Hank. She says,
“It certainly didn’t help that my last boyfriend turned out to be a homicidal robot.”
She is referring to Ted Buchanan, her boyfriend in the episode 2.11 Ted.
Joan of Arc
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Willow dressed as Joan of Arc when going to a Halloween party in 4.04 Fear, Itself. Joan of Arc is the patron saint of France. From a young age she thought she heard voices which she believed to have been sent by God. They told her to free France from the English, who were occupying northern France. She was given troops to command and she led them to victory but she was captured, interrogated and tried for witchcraft. Joan was burned at the stake at only nineteen years of age. The people of Sunnydale attempted to burn Buffy and Willow at the stake in 3.11 Gingerbread when they were under a spell and thought the girls were witches.
In 6.08 Tabula Rasa, after losing her memory, Buffy decides to name herself Joan (“I feel like a Joan”). This isn’t completely random - like Buffy, Joan of Arc also died young after a violent life.
Julius Caesar
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In 4.08 Pangs, Spike tells the Scoobies:
“You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That’s what conquering nations do. It’s what Caesar did and he’s not going around saying, “I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it.”
Spike is referring to the Roman military and political leader Gaius Julius Caesar (c.100 BC-44 BC). The words “Veni Vidi Vici” (”I came, I saw, I conquered”) are often attributed to him.
Caesar is also referenced in 4.04 Fear, Itself, when Willow says:
“Okay, Brutus” (off Oz’s confused look) “Brutus? Caesar?… Betrayal? Trusted friend? Back-stabby?”
In his play Julius Caesar, Shakespeare wrote Caesar’s final words as “Et tu, Brute?” after he was stabbed to death by a group of senators including his trusted friend Marcus Brutus.
Party last Friday
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself, Willow mentions the party “last Friday”. She’s probably referring to the party at Wolf House in 4.03 The Harsh Light Of Day.
Red
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself, Xander calls Buffy “Red”. Spike called Willow “Red” in 7.03 Same Time, Same Place and 4.20 The Yoko Factor, and Faith called Willow this in 4.15 This Year’s Girl. Kennedy also calls Willow “Red” in 7.22 Chosen, when they’re in the Principal’s office getting ready for Willow to work her mojo.
Squeaky shoes
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Willow and Xander may want to choose less noisy shoes in the future. From 4.02 Living Conditions:
Buffy: “No such luck. Kathy’s nice and all, but she’s… she’s sort of… I don’t know, like, ‘mini-mom of Momdonia.’ Wait. Did you just hear something?”
Willow: “I’m chewing my gum kinda loud.”
Buffy: “That’s not it.”
Willow: “My sneakers are squeaky.”
Buffy: “I’m looking for something lurky here, Will.”
Fear Itself:
Buffy: “Shh! Do you hear something? Like a - squeaking noise?”
Xander: “Oh, it’s these rented shoes, patent leather. I asked the guy to…”
Willow: “No, no, I – wait. It’s something else. I hear it, too. Something like…”
Stake burned
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Willow refers to the events of the episode 3.11 Gingerbread when she says in 4.04 Fear, Itself:
“I’m Joan of Arc. I figured we had a lot in common, seeing as how I was almost burned at the stake…”
Star Wars
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George Lucas’s Star Wars films are a cult phenomenon. They are referenced numerous times in the Buffyverse. The original trilogy included the movies Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return Of The Jedi (1983) and the movies The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) were made later on.
- 2.01 When She Was Bad: when Xander and Willow play Guess the Movie from the tag line:
Willow: “Use the Force, Luke.”,
Xander: “Do I even have to dignify that with a guess?” - 2.03 School Hard: Spike told Angel that, “You were my Yoda!” Yoda was the ancient Jedi master who became the mentor and teacher for both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker.
- 3.13 The Zeppo: A visual reference to Star Wars is seen when Xander runs into the corridor and runs back out with the gang members chasing him. Han Solo does the same thing in Star Wars.
- 3.19 Choices: Buffy says that Faith has turned to ‘the dark side’.
- 4.01 The Freshman: Xander confuses the Star Wars Jedi code quoted by Yoda in The Phantom Menace.
“Hate leads to anger…no wait…Fear leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side.”
Also in that episode, the old frat house that the vampires are holed up in is the Psi Theta house. If you write those two greek letters together, and pronounce them together, you get Sith.
- 4.04 Fear, Itself: Xander says to Oz, “Sensing a disturbance in the Force, Master?”
- 5.08 Shadow: Buffy using the chain to choke Sobek the snake-demon is reminiscent of Princess Leia killing Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi.
- 5.17 Forever: Ben calls Glory’s minions “Jawa rejects” after the small hooded and robed creatures in Star Wars.
- 6.05 Life Serial: Andrew paints a Death Star from Star Wars on the side of the gang’s van. It’s the Empire’s revised design from Return of the Jedi, which Jonathan says is flawed.
- 6.21 Two To Go: Andrew says:
“We’ve got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds us all into to Jawa burgers and not one of you bunch has the Midichlorians to stop her.”
These are all Star Wars references: Darth is a title given to a Sith Warrior (such as Darth Vader); Jawas are the hooded creatures who live on Tatooine, and Midichlorians are micro-organisms which exist in all living things.
In that episode, Andrew says another two Star Wars quotes:“Laugh it up, Fuzzball.”
“…in a galaxy far, far away…”
- 6.06 All The Way: Tara and Willow see a couple dressed as Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker kissing in the Bronze. Willow asks:
“Do they know they’re brother and sister?”
- 6.09 Smashed: we see that the three nerds own a mint condition (though out of its packaging) 1979 Boba Fett action figure. Though Boba Fett was first introduced in The Empire Strikes Back (made in 1980), the earliest Boba Fett figure was made in 1979, before the film was released.
- 6.13 Dead Things: Jonathan and Andrew play fight with green light sabres.
- 6.18 Entropy: Warren calls Jonathan “Padawan”.
- 7.07 Conversations With Dead People: Jonathan and Warren have the following conversation, all quotes from Star Wars:
Warren: “Come on, “If you strike me down…”
Andrew: “I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine…That boy is our last hope.”
Warren: “No, there is another.” - 7.12 Potential: Xander says to Andrew:
“Say Skywalker, and I smack you.”
- 7.11 Showtime: Andrew says, “I’m bored. Episode I bored.” He’s referring to George Lucas’s disappointing movie Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He also says: “Um, deflector shields - deflector shields up!”
- 7.09 Never Leave Me: Warren/The First says, “I’m like Obi Wan”. He also says to Andrew, “We’re right in the trench, and the exhaust port’s in sight.” This is a reference to the scene in Star Wars in which the Death Star is under attack.
- 7.10 Bring On The Night: Andrew says:
“I’m like Vader in the last 5 minutes of Jedi with redemptive powers minus a redemptive struggle of epic redemption which chronicles…”
He’s referring to the last scenes of the final Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi. He also says:
“I admit I went over to the dark side, but just to pick up a few things, and now I’m back.”
- 7.16 Storyteller: there are two framed Star Wars comics on the wall in Andrew’s opening scene.
- 7.18 Dirty Girls: Andrew says:
“But like so many tragic heroes, Faith was seduced by the lure of the dark side.”
- 1.06 Sense And Sensitivity: Cordelia’s line “Jar Jar is getting his own talk show” is another reference to Star Wars.
- 1.05 Rm W/A Vu: Cordy says to her ghost, “Hey, hey - Phantom Dennis, put that back.” Jane Espenson says in her commentary fo the episode that she insisted the ghost be called Dennis to be able to pun the title of The Phantom Menace which was in cinemas at the time.
- 1.11 Somnambulist: Cordelia references Star Wars again when she calls Penn “Psycho-Wan Kenobi”.
- 2.03 First Impressions: Gunn says to Cordelia and Wesley,
“You two? I find Deevak, I’m gonna need more than C-3PO and Stick Figure Barbie backin’ me up, no offence.”
C-3PO was a droid in the Star Wars films, designed to assist with etiquette, customs, and translation so that meetings of different cultures run smoothly.
- 5.11 Damage: Andrew says (about Dana): “Driven insane by Yoda-knows-who.”
- 5.10 Soul Purpose: Spike references Star Wars, when he says “Sorry Mr Vader, but I don’t have an itch to join the evil Empire.”
- 4.15 Orpheus:
Wesley: “Sorry. I think my sense of humor’s trapped in a jar somewhere.”
Willow: “It does seem like you’ve given in to the grumpy side of the Force.”
Sulo Williams
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Sulo Williams played Chaz in 4.04 Fear, Itself (the frat guy who said Arbor Day was the only holiday not about getting laid) and in 4.10 Hush. He also played Puff Dog in Passions.
The many faces of the Whedonverse
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In order to describe the state or reaction of a character, there have been several variations using the word ‘face’:
2.09 What’s My Line? (Part One):
Buffy: What’s up?
Angel: Nothing.
Buffy: Only you don’t have a nothing face. You have a something face. And you don’t have to whisper. Mom’s in L.A. till Thursday. Art buying, or something.
Buffy: “Then what? What’s with the dire?”
Angel: “It’s uh, it’s nothing.”
Buffy: “No, you have ’something’ face.”
Joyce: “I’m just glad I could find it. There. Try it now. I let down the hem and loosened it a little around the hood.”
Buffy: “Oh, it feels better. Oh, no. Someone is getting nostalgic face.”
Joyce: “I’m sorry. I’m thinking about the little girl who wore that. What is it? Five? Six years ago.”
Cordy: “Wait you’ve got pensive face.”
Angel: “I’ve always got pensive face.”
Cordy: “Well, pensive-r face.”
Giles: “Buffy, I don’t want to ask you to betray any confidences, and I certainly don’t want to interfere–”
Buffy: “Uh-oh, you have ‘but-face.’” (Off his look) “You look like you’re gonna say ‘but.’”
Dawn: “Great. Now I look like a wet rat.”
Lisa: “Yeah, you know you can’t go out there looking all cry-faced. That’ll just give Kirsty more ammo.”
Dawn: “So Giles is blaming Giles, and we’re blaming us. Is anyone gonna blame Willow? (to Buffy) Oh, don’t give me shock face. I mean, will anyone around here ever start asking for help when they need it?”
Third Grade Teacher
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself, ‘Ow Ow Ow’ by Third Grade Teacher as people arrive at the party.
Tucker Gates
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Tucker Gates directed the Buffy episode 4.04 Fear, Itself and the Angel episode 1.09 Hero. Tucker has also directed episodes of Skin, CSI: Miami, Roswell, Providence, Cracker, Dark Skies, and The X Files.
Uncle Rory
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Xander’s Uncle Rory, who was a “stodgy taxidermist” by day and at night it was “booze, whores and fur flying”. Mentioned in 2.08 The Dark Age, 3.13 The Zeppo (when he lent Xander his car), 4.04 Fear, Itself, 6.11 Gone and 6.15 As You Were. We finally got to meet Uncle Rory when he was a guest at Xander’s wedding in 6.16 Hell’s Bells - and he didn’t disappoint. He pretended to be electrocuted by a toaster and hit on a waitress at the wedding, pretending she was his date. He then explained the finer points of taxidermy to her.
Verbena
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In 4.04 Fear, Itself, we hear ‘Pretty Please’ by Verbena as the Scoobies arrive at the party.
Walter Emmanuel Jones
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Walter Emmanuel Jones, who played Edward (the frat guy who painted the pentagram) in 4.04 Fear, Itself, starred as the Black Power Ranger in Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. He also starred alongside Charisma Carpenter in Malibu Shores and has been in Love And A Bullet and American Gun.
Willow and Xander miss each other
details | add a comment | suggested by Jess
The following is from the original script for 4.04 Fear, Itself:
Willow: “Oz!”
Xander: “Will!”
She appears, moving down the hall.
Xander: “We’ve got trouble. There’s something terribly wrong with Buffy. She can’t even tell that I’m –”
Willow: “Oz!”
Xander stops, defeated. She can’t see him, either. She looks around, upset.
Willow: “Oh, God…Okay, guiding spell. Okay. Yeah. I can do it.”
She takes off. Xander turns back and, with a mounting frustration, knocks a small pumpkin off a side table. Exits at a good clip.
[Goof] Buffy’s braid
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Buffy’s braid goes from behind her shoulder to in front of it when Willow and Oz check her wound in 4.04 Fear, Itself. Willow then disappears out of shot.
[Goof] Xander’s hair
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In the scene in which Xander and Oz bring over the sound system to the frat house in 4.04 Fear, Itself, Xander’s hair changes in a few shots without him moving it.