Episode Trivia
Back to college
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The Scoobies do research in the UC Sunnydale library in 5.09 Listening To Fear, which we saw first in 4.01 The Freshman.
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.
Collecting specimens
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When Major Ellis and Graham meet Riley in 5.09 Listening To Fear, Riley has a bottle containing the substance found in the dead body’s mouth. Where did the bottle come from? Does Riley carry a bottle around at all times?
Debbie Lee Carrington
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Debbie Lee Carrington, who played the Queller demon in 5.09 Listening To Fear, has also played an Emperor Penguin in Batman Returns, and an Ewok in Return of the Jedi. She has made appearances in Seed of Chucky, Austin Powers in Goldmember, She’s All That, Mighty Joe Young, Men in Black, Total Recall and Harry and the Hendersons. Debbie has done stunts for Bride of Chucky, Titanic, Spawn, Dumb & Dumber and A Nightmare On Elm Street 7. She has a degree in Child Psychology.
Don’t want to find bodies
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In 5.09 Listening To Fear, Willow says:
“I don’t want to be the one who finds the bodies anymore.”
She is referring to the episodes 5.02 Real Me (when she tripped over the body of Mr. Bogedy, the magic shop owner) and 4.11 Doomed (when she found a dead student in a bed).
Gelatine
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In 5.09 Listening To Fear, Dawn says:
“There’s a girl at school told me that gelatine is made from ground-up cow’s feet, and that if you eat Jell-O, there’s some cow out there limping with no feet.”
She’s not far from the truth. Gelatine is obtained from collagen, which is usually cows’ bones and skin.
Joyce knows about Dawn
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Joyce reveals to Buffy in the episode 5.09 Listening To Fear that she knows Dawn is not her daughter. She asks Buffy to take care of her, no matter what, which leads to Buffy’s determination at the end of season five that nothing should happen to her sister:
Joyce: “That Dawn… she’s not mine, is she?”
Buffy: “…No.”
Joyce: “She does belong to us, though.”
Buffy: “Yes, she does.”
Joyce: “And she’s important. To the world. Precious. As precious as you are to me… Then we have to take care of her. Buffy, promise me. If anything happens, if I don’t come through this…”
Buffy: “Mom…”
Joyce: “No, listen to me. No matter what she is, she still feels like my daughter. I have to know that you’ll take care of her, that you’ll keep her safe. That you’ll love her like I love you.”
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.
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
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The following dialogue is from 5.09 Listening To Fear:
Xander: “I still don’t get why we had to come here to get info about a killer snot monster.”
Giles: “Because it’s a killer snot monster from outer space… I did not say that.”
This could be a reference to the 1988 cult classic, Killer Klowns From Outer Space.
Major Ellis
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Major Ellis was an army man in charge of the special ops unit that tried to track the Queller demon in 5.09 Listening To Fear. He recruited Riley to go to Belize on a demon-hunting mission, on the recommendation of Graham in 5.10 Into The Woods.
Nick Chinlund
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Nick Chinlund, who played Major Ellis in 5.09 Listening To Fear and 5.10 Into The Woods, has appeared in Tears of the Sun, Once in the Life, Mr. Magoo, Con Air, Eraser and Lethal Weapon 3. He played Donald Addie Pfaster in The X Files.
Past and future
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The titles of both the preceding and the following episode are referenced in 5.09 Listening To Fear. When the body is found at the crash site, Giles suggests exploring further - going “into the woods”. Later on, Joyce tells Dawn she’s nothing but a “shadow”.
Pinata
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In 5.09 Listening To Fear, Xander jokes about the meteorite being a “festive pinata”. Piñatas are a tradition often found at children’s birthday parties. They are papier-mache figures filled with sweets. Children are blindfolded and given a stick to hit the piñata, to try and break it open to get at the sweety goodness inside. Nicholas Brendon (Xander) appeared in a movie called Demon Island in 2002, in which a demon is hidden in a piñata and is let loose.
In 5.13 Blood Ties, Buffy says:
“I just don’t think this is the best time to break out the party piñata”.
Queller demon
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The Queller demon was called to Earth to quell plagues of madness. Ben summoned the demon to clean up the crazy people left in Glory’s wake in 5.09 Listening To Fear. It suffocated it’s victims by vomiting a protein alkaloid into their face. The demon looks like a slug with a long hard shell. It slithers across ceilings and walls, looking for victims. Buffy stabbed it to death after it tried to kill her mother.
According to Xander’s research, primitive people used to believe that the moon was a cause of insanity. Mental illness has long been associated with the Moon (lunatic is a derivative of lunar). Sometimes they would pray to the moon to send a special meteor to fix the problem the moon had caused. These meteors were expected to quell the madmen, which they did, due to the Queller Demon which arrived inside them.
Riley’s decision
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Riley lies to the Scoobies in 5.09 Listening To Fear and calls the military for help with the Queller demon. He eventually decides to join the military in 5.10 Into The Woods.
Sucker
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The mental patient who is attacked by the Queller demon at the crash site in 5.09 Listening To Fear is the night watchman who was brain-sucked by Glory in 5.05 No Place Like Home.
Summers taste
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The music Dawn plays in the kitchen when she is alone at home in 7.07 Conversations With Dead People is similar to the music Buffy played while washing dishes in 5.09 Listening To Fear.
Tara’s constellations
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Tara makes up her own star constellations in 5.09 Listening To Fear including the Big Pineapple, Short Man Looking Uncomfortable, Moose Getting A Sponge Bath and Little Pile’O'Crackers. In 2.14 Innocence, we see Drusilla ‘naming the stars’ (even though she’s inside). She was less creative than Tara - she called them all the same name, causing “terrible confusion”.
Wigged
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The following is a stage direction from the script for 5.09 Listening To Fear after Joyce says something weird:
“The girls are a bit wigged. Joyce smiles at them and nestles into her pillow, closing her eyes. Dawn and Willow look to Buffy: What the hell?”
Willow the Slayer
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Willow stakes two vampires in 5.09 Listening To Fear, making Buffy’s role as the one and only vampire Slayer practically obsolete.
[Goof] Dawn’s lips
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When Dawn is talking about jello in 5.09 Listening To Fear, we see a shot of Joyce reacting to this. To her left we see Dawn, but her lips aren’t moving in time to what we hear her saying.
[Goof] Tunguska
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In 5.09 Listening To Fear, Willow mentions the Tunguska meteor explosion in Russia, and says the year was 1917. It was actually in 1908.