Writer:

Tracey Forbes

Director:

Nick Marck

Regulars:

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

James Marsters as Spike

Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Stars:

Marc Blucas as Riley Finn

Emma Caulfield as Anya

Elizabeth Anne Allen as Amy

Cast:

Andy Umberger as D'Hoffyrn

We learn for the first time that some demons have the power to turn humans into demons. D'Hoffryn (who made Anya a demon) seems disposed to getting the human's permission first, but it is unknown whether they have to do so. D'Hoffryn, by the way, was seen in "Doppelgängland" (see Continuity).

Anonymous Vampire

Staked by Buffy at UC Sunnydale.

Demon

Drowned by Xander and Anya in Xander's basement.

Total: Two

Buffy: "It's just so sudden, I don't know what to say."
Spike: "Just say yes, and make me the happiest man on earth."
Buffy: "Oh, Spike, of course it's yes!"

Riley: "What's his name?"
Buffy: "Who?"
Riley: "The groom?"
Buffy: "Spike."
Riley: "That's a name?!"
Buffy: "Don't be mad."
Riley: "I'm not mad!"
Buffy: "No, you are mad!"
Riley: "No, I am! I really... Wow. Who is this guy? Does he go here?"
Buffy: "Spike? Oh, no, he's totally old!"
Riley: "Old?"
Buffy: "Well, not as old as my last boyfriend was."
Riley: "OK. It's late, and I'm... I'm very tired now, so, I'm just gonna go far away and be... away."
Buffy: "But —"
Riley: "No. Stay."

Spike: "This is the crack team that foils my every plan? I am deeply shamed."

More quotes from this episode...

Willow: "Baking lifts about 30% of my guilt, but only 7% of my inner turmoil."

At least Buffy isn't so cheesy when she pines.

• Something Blue

The title itself is a reference to the Old English rhyme: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe" (although the "silver sixpence" part often gets left out these days). The rhyme is in regards to weddings; it is traditional for the bride to have something fitting each category in order to secure good luck in the marriage (a vintage wedding dress, a new necklace, borrowed earrings, and a blue garter, for example).

• Spike: "I'm chained in a bathtub drinking pig's blood from a novelty mug. Doesn't rate huge in the Zagat's guide."

Zagat's Survey guides are pocket-sized books (as well as maps and software) containing in-depth ratings of restaurants, hotels, resorts, and spas. A book is published every year for over 40 major U.S. and foreign cities, and the ratings are based on surveys of thousands of customers who rate each business on multiple criteria.

• Willow: "'Cause you had your hands full with the undead English patient?"

Willow is punning on the Oscar winning 1996 film, The English Patient, based on Michael Ondaatje's novel of the same name.

• Spike: "Passions is on! Timmy's down the bloody well, and if you make me miss it I'll —"

Passions is a one-hour daily soap opera heavily targeted towards teens. It's relatively new, having only premiered in July of 1999, and is known for its far-out storylines (even by soap opera standards). One such storyline includes that of Tabitha (Juliet Mills), a mean witch, and Timmy (Josh Ryan Evans), a doll she brought to life. Some people think this is a reference to Timmy on Lassie, but for the record, we disagree. He says Passions, and Timmy is a character on Passions. The only thing you could argue is that it's a double reference, but we happen to not think so. It sounds to us like a soap opera joke, plain and simple. Everyone is free to make up their own mind, but you probably aren't going to change ours.

• Xander: "I believe that's the dance of a brave little toaster."

The Brave Little Toaster is a 1987 animated movie about a group of appliances, led by a toaster, who embark on a search for their "master," who's gone on vacation with the family. Based on the book by Thomas M. Disch.

• Willow (wanting to have a girl's night with Buffy): "You know, eat sundaes, and watch Steel Magnolias, and you could tell me how at least I don't have diabetes."

Steel Magnolias is the tear-jerking 1989 "chick flick" starring Sally Fields, with Julia Roberts as her diabetic daughter (hence the diabetes reference). It was originally written by Robert Harling as a play.

• Anya: "I liked those Fruit Roll-Ups."

Fruit Roll-ups, made by General Mills are sticky fruity snack (really more like candy) popular with kids.

• Buffy hums "The Wedding March" processional

Also known as "Here Comes the Bride," "The Wedding March" processional is from Wagner's opera Lohengren, which is played at a large majority of weddings as the bride walks down the aisle.

• Spike: "Oh, not with the girl-power bit."

One could consider this a reference to the Spice Girls, a late 90-s pop group who made famous the phrase "girl power" (though they didn't exactly invent the phrase).

• Spike: "Well, I'm not the one who wanted 'Wind Beneath My Wings' for the first dance."

"Wind Beneath My Wings" is a ballad popular at weddings (it's also included on many a Wedding Songs compilation album).

• Angel: I Will Remember You

  Buffy mentions having seen Angel in L.A. for five minutes, which she did on the crossover episode last week.

• The Initiative

  All this to-do about Spike having been captured by commandos and made unable to bite or fight refers back to "The Initiative," in which the commandos gave him an implant that renders him unable to hurt anyone (he doesn't know it's an implant, though).

• Wild at Heart

  Giles mentions Oz's departure, which took place at the end of "Wild at Heart." Also, Willow mentions the spell she almost did against Veruca (and Oz). (Willow's storyline/depression itself is an indirect reference to this as well.)

• Beer Bad

  Buffy reminds Willow of her own "beer fest," when she became Cave Buffy.

• Gingerbread

  Willow refers to Amy having turned herself into a rat, which she did in "Gingerbread." (Willow has had possession of her since then.) Amy was also seen in "The Witch" and "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered."

• Teacher's Pet and Inca Mummy Girl

  Willow refers to all the demons who've been attracted to Xander: "Insect Lady ['Teacher's Pet'], Mummy Girl ['Inca Mummy Girl'], Anya." (Cordy may not be nice, but she's not a demon.)

• School Hard

  Buffy makes reference to Drusilla, Spike's former love, first seen in "School Hard" and last seen in "Becoming Part Two."

• Doppelgängland

  D'Hoffryn was first seen in "Doppelgängland" when Anya went to him to request that he give her powers back to her (he refused).

• In the first scene, Buffy's hair is crimpy, but that night when she's out with Willow, it's very straight. The next day, it's straight again, but that night in her dorm, it's crimpy again. Sure, it's possible she's stopping in the middle of each day to shower and/or redo her hair, but that would be pretty weird even for Buffy.
        Spotted by Morgan.

• When Willow and Giles argue in her dorm, she tosses her bag onto her desk, hitting a hanging star. The star swings, but after a couple of cuts from Giles to Willow, it stops swinging a bit too suddenly.
        Spotted by Keem.

• Spike's reflection can be seen multiple times in Giles' glass bookcase.

• When the demon breaks through the door into Xander's basement, he knocks the break-away wood onto the floor. A moment later, though, we can see a big chunk of the wood leaning up against the door (light side out).

• When the demon throws Xander onto the tool bench, a large piece of paper falls to the floor. Xander rolls onto the floor, and when he gets up, the paper is back on the bench as if it never left.
        Spotted by Mathew.

• We've been informed that the rat used to "portray" Amy is a male. It may be picky, but it's amusing nonetheless, as one would expect Amy to be female, even in rat form. :-) (The same mistake is made later in "Doomed.")
        Spotted by Barbara.

• UC Sunnydale has a park-like area known as Rugg's Field.

• Buffy and Willow still have the same recording on their answering machine that they did in "The Harsh Light of Day."

• There is a bridal shop in downtown Sunnydale.

• Anya was originally human; D'Hoffryn turned her into a demon and gave her her powers.

• Anya says that D'Hoffryn made her a demon 1120 years ago, and in "Doppelgängland," she stated that she was 1120 years old. One could argue that this is a goof, but when stating her age in "Doppelgängland," she may have been referring to her age as a demon.

• Blink 182 - "All the Small Things" (From Enema of the State, Universal, 1999)
  This is the song Willow dances to in the Bronze.

Jeremy:

Nick Marck seems to be a promising new director, but one tiny stupid thing REALLY bugged me — the cut to the slices of apple when Willow said they are browning. I do know that this is really stupid, but I just think it was totally unnecessary. Also, the costume person needs to be nice to some of these demon actors and give them some lighter costumes. The demon with the really long horns seemed to be fighting just to keep his head up. Other than these two little gripes (and I thought Jamie was supposed to be the obsessive-compulsive one around here), this episode was very enjoyable. Sure it seemed at first like it was going to be some fan fiction that actually made it on screen, but it played very nicely. I am very glad that they still remembered what happened to them afterwards. I wouldn't have been able to stand two episodes in a week like that (as in last week on Angel's "I Will Remember You"). James Marsters still as brilliant as ever, and I think Sarah is becoming a better actor each and every week. It seemed that perhaps Willow should have gotten a little more screen time since it was her problem she had to deal with, but I also wouldn't have wanted to take away anyone else's screen time to compensate for it, so I guess I'm bitching for nothing. The Amy thing was a nice treat for us die-hard viewers, but this episode as a whole seemed to be geared towards us anyway. I'm giving this episode a very un-blue rating of: (9/10)

Jamie Marie:

In one word: Fun. Just plain fun, and you can't really complain about that. This is like a fan fiction come to life, what with the whole Spike and Buffy thing. Hopefully this will satiate those silly people who think that Spike and Buffy should get together (for real). It was absolutely hilarious, though, as was Giles' reaction to it. Riley and Buffy's relationship is coming along nicely, if slowly. I was sure he was going to kiss her, and then he just walks away. I guess they still don't know each other well enough for him to get fresh with her. What a guy. Let me tell you, I am developing a major crush on Riley — sure, he's fictional, but so what? In my eyes, Angel is a Fling Guy (not really his fault, what with the whole vampire thing), whereas Riley is a Relationship Guy, and Buffy is better off with that kind. Anyhow. Anya got her hair cut very much like mine — I like her more every week. ;-) I was disappointed with Xander and Buffy's treatment of Willow behind her back, announcing that they were tired of her "griefy, poor-me mood swings." It was rude and very out of character (and, hello, have they forgotten about all of Buffy's time spent pining over Angel and Parker?). And please don't try to tell me this was due to the spell; I will only argue with you, as the spell had nothing to do with it. Amy's made her annual appearance now — is it possible that's it for the season? I wouldn't really care, I don't see what the big to-do about her is. Willow does another spell in a strange location. I'm thinking that for Hanukkah, the gang should pitch in to lease her some office space. And they should also throw away that disturbing sweater-blanket thing she was wearing. Speaking of disturbing, I think I've now had my fill of goofy demon-grunting/roaring sounds. Anyhow, this is the good kind of filler episode: very funny, easy-going, and not completely devoid of plot developments. (9/10)