Episode Trivia
Aleister Crowley
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In 5.08 Shadow, a Magic Box customer looks for the album ‘Aleister Crowley Sings’. English occultist and writer Crowley (1875-1947) dabbled in magicks. His works include Magick in Theory and Practice and The Book of the Law.
Aye Aye Captain
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Some characters have a habit of putting the word “Captain” before nicknames on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
- Angel has been called Captain America by Jack McNamara in 1.16 The Ring
- Angel has been called Captain Forehead by Spike in 5.02 Just Rewards
- Giles has been called Captain Slow-Poke by Spike in 5.20 Spiral
- Riley has been called Captain America by Xander in 5.08 Shadow
- Riley has been called Captain Can-Do by Sam in 6.15 As You Were
- Riley has been called Captain Cardboard by Spike in 5.05 No Place Like Home
- Spike has been called Captain Peroxide by Xander in 6.09 Smashed
- Spike has been called Captain Peroxide by Angel in 7.22 Chosen
- Wesley has been called Captain Courageous by Giles in 3.14 Bad Girls
- Wesley has been called Captain Obvious by Gunn in 4.08 Habeas Corpses
- Xander has been called Captain Fear by Anya in 6.04 Flooded
- Xander has been called Captain Logic by Anya in 6.04 Flooded
Big snake
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In 3.22 Graduation Day (Part Two), the Mayor turned into a giant snake-demon. His Ascension is referenced in several future episodes. In 4.03 The Harsh Light Of Day, Harmony and Willow discuss the “big snake” that threatened Sunnydale High in 3.22 Graduation Day (Part Two). It was during the confusion at the end of this episode that Harmony was bitten and turned into a vampire.
In 5.08 Shadow, Buffy says the snake is “big, but not Mayor-big”.
In 4.21 Primeval, Xander says,
“Does anyone miss the Mayor? ‘I just wanna be a big snake?’”
In 6.09 Smashed, Amy mentions a “giant snake thing” and “Snyder got eaten by a snake”.
Buffy memorabilia
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We see Spike stealing some of Buffy’s underwear in the episode 5.08 Shadow, and in 5.09 Listening To Fear, Spike steals photographs of the Slayer. In 5.14 Crush, we see he has a whole collection of Buffy-related articles, including photos, clothing and drawings of the Slayer. Buffy blames Dawn in 5.14 Crush for her missing blue cashmere sweater, but we discover that Spike has stolen it. Harmony wears the sweater when pretending to be the Slayer.
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.”
Carousel
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In 5.13 Blood Ties, Buffy asks the Scoobies if they looked for Dawn at the carousel, when she goes missing. This is most likely the same carousel that Riley took her to in 5.08 Shadow. Dawn told Riley that Joyce had rented out the carousel for Dawn’s birthday just after they moved to Sunnydale.
Daniel Attias
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Daniel Attias directed the episodes 5.08 Shadow and 5.14 Crush. Daniel has directed for The O.C., Alias, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos (for which he wrote the episode ‘Bust-Out’), Ally McBeal, Early Edition, Party of Five (on which he was also co-executive producer), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Northern Exposure. Daniel was second assistant director on E.T.
Dr. Isaacs
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Dr. Isaacs was the doctor who discovered Joyce Summers had a “shadow” on her brain after her CAT Scan, in the episode 5.08 Shadow.
Elvis Presley
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The following dialogue is from 4.06 Wild At Heart:
Veruca to Oz: “Number one? No. I gotta go with hound dog.”
Willow: “Me, too. That’s a great song. I mean, Elvis, what a guy.”
Veruca to Willow: “You a big Elvis fan?”
Willow: “The biggest. Well, I mean, after Dingoes, of course.”
In 5.08 Shadow, we see Willow wearing a shirt that says ‘Elvis Lives’.
Cordelia references Elvis Presley when she says to Xander in 2.16 Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered:
“Damn it Xander what’s going on? Who died and made you Elvis?”
In 1.18 Five By Five, Cordy references the King of rock’n'roll again when she says:
Cordelia: “Oh, and we should pick up the tab for lunch. Nothing says success less than splitting the bill.”
Angel: “I didn’t bring any money with me.”
Cordelia: “Okay, Elvis, when you’re a big star, you can get away without carrying cash.”
Gunn says to Angel in 2.08 Shroud Of Rahmon:
Gunn: “Don’t give me orders, Elvis!”
In 4.03 The House Always Wins, Angel references Elvis and his wife, Priscilla:
Angel: “Oh, now I remember that room! Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding reception, 1967. Yes! Alright. It’s not like I was, you know, really invited. They just put me near the dais.”
Glory’s domain
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We see Glory’s apartment for the first time in the episode 5.08 Shadow. From the outside it looks quite like the building where Anya and Xander live. Glory’s minions call her many names including: “Shiny Special One”, “Your Terrifically Smooth One”, “Your Creamy Coolness”, “Silky and Effervescent Glorificus” and “Your Most Fresh and Cleanness”.
Go boom
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In 6.06 All The Way, Xander says, “Store. Go boom.” In 5.08 Shadow, Willow said, “Tomb. Go boom” after Riley blew up a tomb in the graveyard.
Joyce’s tumour
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Joyce has a CAT scan (CAT stands for Computed Axial Tomography) in 5.08 Shadow. She is diagnosed with a low-grade Glioma in the left hemisphere of her brain. This is a tumour of supporting tissue in the brain. They’re slow growing so you can have one for many years without symptoms.
Kevin Weisman
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Kevin Weisman, who played Glory’s minion Dreg in season five, played Marshall J. Flinkman in Alias. He has also appeared in Lip Service, Gone in Sixty Seconds, The Rock, Charmed, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, Felicity, The X Files, Roswell, The Drew Carey Show, ER and Frasier. Kevin appeared in Beverly Hills Family Robinson with Sarah Michelle Gellar in 1998.
Magic Box
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Giles opened the new Magic Box shop in 5.05 No Place Like Home and took on a new member of staff - Anya. He first eyed up the prospect of opening a magic shop in 5.02 Real Me, after the previous owner was found dead. Giles dressed as a wizard for the grand opening but Buffy told him, without words, how very silly he looked.
The Magic Box is located at 5124 Maple Court in downtown Sunnydale. The phone number there is 803-555-8966. Their slogan is “Your one-stop spot to shop for all your occult needs. Let us make it easy”, which Tara says in 5.08 Shadow is great in a hard-to-read way.
A sign at the Magic Box warns customers that “Shoplifters will be transfigured”.
The magic box was trashed by Olaf the Troll in 5.11 Triangle, but miraculously restored by the next episode, 5.12 Checkpoint. It was finally destroyed completely by Willow in 6.22 Grave after she consumed dark magics and fought Giles there. We see in 7.03 Same Time, Same Place that the Magic Box has an “Unsafe” sign on the outside, presumably because the building was structurally damaged.
Megan Gray
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Megan Gray, who played Sandy in 3.16 Doppelgangland, 5.06 Family and 5.08 Shadow, played Emma Jones in Dawson’s Creek. She has also been in Welcome 2 Ibiza, Picking Up Chicks with Harland Williams and Giving It Up.
Next day…
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The episode 5.08 Shadow begins the day after the events of the previous episode, 5.07 Fool For Love. There we saw Joyce packing for her trip to the hospital.
Sandy
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When Vampire Willow was at the Bronze in 3.16 Doppelgangland, she bit a girl named Sandy. Riley later met the girl in Willy’s Bar in the season five episode 5.06 Family. He realised she was a vampire, so Vampire Willow or another vampire must have followed through and sired Sandy. Riley staked Sandy in 5.08 Shadow, after allowing her to bite him.
Sobek
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Glory brought a Khul’s Amulet and a Sobekian Blood Stone from the Magic Box in order to raise Sobek, and find the Key in 5.08 Shadow. She found a normal snake in the zoo and transformed it into a giant demon snake. In the Buffyverse, the Sobekites were an ancient Egyptian cult heavy into dark magic, and the Kohl’s Amulet was a transmogrification conduit. Historically, Sobek was an ancient Egyptian deity but he was a crocodile, not a snake.
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.”
William Forward
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William Forward, who played Dr Isaacs in 5.08 Shadow, has appeared in Beautiful, Gilmore Girls, The X Files, Babylon 5 (as Lord Refa) and Beverly Hills, 90210.
Yellow pages
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The following is a stage direction for the episode 5.08 Shadow, from the script:
GLORY’S POV - Push in on a phone book resting on the vanity, opened to (wait for it…yes…) the ad for “The Magic Box”
Zoo
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The Scoobies go on a school trip to the zoo in 1.06 The Pack. All the zoo scenes in that episode were filmed at the Santa Ana Zoo in California. All the signs are in the same font as that in Jurassic Park. The zoo is seen again in 5.08 Shadow, when Glory raises Sobek in the reptile house.
[Goof] Buffy’s arm
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Glory injures Buffy’s right arm during the fight at the zoo in 5.08 Shadow, but the Buffy puts an ice pack on her left shoulder when she gets to the hospital.