Act Three
20UU) "I care from you lost weekending in your apartment." POP CULTURE TIME: "The Lost Weekend (1945), directed by Billy Wilder and starring Ray Milland and Jane Wyman, detailed the life of an alcoholic. One of the plot summaries from www.imdb.com describes it thus: 'Don Birnam, long-time alcoholic, has been "on the wagon" for ten days and seems to be over the worst; but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother Wick and girlfriend Helen, he begins a four-day bender. In flashbacks we see past events, all gone wrong because of the bottle. But this bout looks like being his last...one way or the other.'"--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20VV) "What about me? I care about Giles." SURPRISE: This may be the first time on the show that Cordy expresses concern for someone other than herself, let alone Giles.
20WW) She takes a sip of the drink. UM, GILES?: "I can believe Giles might overdrink while facing the Eyghon crisis, but not that he gives the recently knocked out Jenny a drink. Booze is very bad for concussion."--Vickie, Mon, 02/10/03 at 23:26:04
20XX) "So I got involved...That's what happens when two people get involved." WORDS: "And yet, Giles just told his Slayer and her friends--people he is also deeply involved with, albeit not romantically--to stay out of it, which they can't do. They are 'involved,' just as Jenny is, for they care about Giles and want to help."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20YY) "...but any fool can see it predates their iconology." HISTORICAL FUN: "From http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/indetail/darkage/trivia.shtml: 'Identifying the Mark of Eghyon, Willow exclaims that "any fool" could see that it predates Egyptian iconology. That's an interesting take on history she has there, as the Etruscans lived in Italy around 750 B.C.E., while the first Egyptian dynasty began over two thousand years earlier.'"--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20ZZ) "You're like a woman, Ripper." GIRLY RIPPER?: "Strangely, the Ripper--seen as so frightening by Ethan and such a shock to Buffy and the Scoobies--is seen as weak by Eyghon simply because the Ripper does grieve, does feel. The demon seems rather disgusted with the fact that Giles actually bears its mark and can be possessed by it. The cry "You don't DESERVE me!" is an inversion of the statement "I don't deserve this"; Eyghon may be able to possess a dead or unconscious Giles, but it clearly doesn't think that Giles merits such an honor."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20AAA) "You've got me. Under your skin." MUSICALLY SPEAKING: "[This] alludes to the Cole Porter song I've Got You Under My Skin from the 1936 Hollywood musical Born to Dance." It later was used as the title of a first season Angel episode, about a young boy possessed by an Ethros demon.--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36, with additions by Rob
20BBB) "Be seeing ya." POP CULTURE TIME: "Eyghon quotes The Prisoner here as Ethan did at the end of Halloween (see 18Px4). This suggests that either a) Eyghon, like Spike, is a bit of a couch potato when not killing people, or b) All the cult were Prisoner fans and Eyghon keeps the memories of people it possesses."--KdS, Mon, 02/10/03 at 06:19:54
20CCC) "Talk to me! Giles, you're scaring me." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "There is real helpless fear in his surrogate daughter's voice. He comes to, stares at her -- but can do no more."--"The Dark Age" by Dean Batali & Rob Des Hotel, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume 2
20DDD) "Because I created it!" OWNING UP: "Giles--one of the good guys--is doing something that almost never happens on network TV; he's accepting responsibility for a past action of his that has had evil results. And at the same time, he's not being presented as evil himself. He's just being presented as a man--a decent if flawed man--who did something wrong and regrets it."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20EEE) He hands her a picture of a young Giles in a leather jacket playing an electric bass. WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS: "According to some reports, this was a computer-merged picture of Anthony Stewart Head with none other than Sid Vicious [the inspiration for Spike; see 15R]!"--KdS, Mon, 02/10/03 at 06:19:54
20FFF) "The tedious grind of study, the...overwhelming pressure of my destiny." CONTINUITY CHECK: Here, Giles is elaborating on his backstory, which he first started to tell Buffy in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (see 5RR).
20GGG) "We practiced magicks." CONTINUITY CHECK: "Giles admits that his statement in The Witch about that being his first casting was a lie (see 3VV)."--Cactus Watcher, Mon, 02/10/03 at 08:38:40
20HHH) "It was an extraordinary high!" FORESHADOWY GOODNESS : "The summoning of Eyghon to get an extraordinary high seems to echo Willow's future desire to get magical highs from visiting Rack." Those, also, who claim that the magic-as-drugs metaphor only arose in the sixth season, are proven wrong by this episode.--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20III) "One of us, Randall, he lost control." WHAT'S IN A NAME?: "Randall, for whom we have no other name but who was the first one that Eyghon possessed and the first to die, has a name which is a derivation of Randolph. Randolph comes from the Old English 'Rand-wulf,' or 'shield-wolf.' The implication was that the person with such a name possessed a shield or defense which made him all but invincible. Eyghon's zombies and Demon Jenny were indeed all but invincible--and certainly capable of throwing a Slayer across the room--but at a terrible price."--Rhys, Tues, 02/11/03 at 01:37:41
20JJJ) "No. We killed him." RESPONSIBILITY: "Giles isn't letting himself off the hook, though it would be easy to do so. The demon killed Randall--but he admits to himself that it wouldn't have been around to kill Randall if Giles and his friends hadn't summoned it in the first place."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20LLL) "I know." TABLES TURNED: After the many times Buffy has had to apologize to Giles, Buffy is now in the parental role for the first time. Giles is asking forgiveness from her for irresponsible actions he did when he was a teenager. And just as Giles is always remarkably understanding of Buffy's transgressions (in retrospect, perhaps due to his own when he was her age), so is Buffy with him.
20MMM) "'Cause he's Giles." ACCEPTANCE: "Fantastic statement. Buffy knows what Giles did, knows the depths of his responsibility--and she still wants to protect him, because of who he is. Good, bad, whatever, it's all Giles. Blame isn't in the equation. Giles blames himself far more than Buffy does; indeed, Buffy appears to have forgiven him already."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20NNN) "Aren't we manly?" GENDER ROLE TWISTAGE: "Ethan is sneering at Buffy, essentially because she's not living up to the sexual stereotype and fleeing danger in a panic. Buffy neatly turns Ethan's comment back on him in the next line--'One of us is'--changing the insult from being one of failure to live up to accepted gender roles to failure to face problems with courage."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
Act Four
20OOO) "I actually kinda like you. It's ju, it's just that I like myself a whole lot more." EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF: An affirmation of the extent of Ethan's self-centeredness, which is perhaps even more serious than Cordelia's. His "I like you" line to Buffy is a nod to the recurring theme in comic books and films that the villain actually admires the hero in many ways. A battle between equals is always more interesting for a villain.
20PPP) "...giving so that others may live." SACRIFICE: "Of course, this is exactly what Buffy does in The Gift--taking her sister's place to close the portal to a Hell dimension, giving her life so that her sister and the universe can live."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20QQQ) "Uh, 'hot lava.'" HOW TO KILL A DEMON: "Willow pooh-poohs this, but that turns out to be the way to kill a demon like The Mayor becomes in the next season."--Cactus Watcher, Mon, 02/10/03 at 08:38:40
20RRR) "And if you two aren't with me a hundred and ten percent, then get the hell out of my library!" WILLOW OF FURY: Willow once again takes control of the situation, by scolding the bickering people around her. See 17HHH.
20SSS) "Take me!" SACRIFICE: "This is absolute courage on Giles' part. He has every reason to expect that something evil wearing the face and form of someone he loves very deeply will kill him in a horrible and painful manner--and he does it ANYWAY. This also echoes Xander's future actions with Dark Willow in Grave."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20TTT) "Buffy, get out of here!" CONTINUITY CHECK: Once again, we see Giles not wanting the others to be part of what he considers to be his battle. Further, he doesn't want them to see him like this. See 18WWW.
20UUU) "I've been waiting a long time to do this." UM...: "One unanswered question in this episode. Why does Eyghon turn up now?"--KdS, Mon, 02/10/03 at 06:19:54
20VVV) "I've had a demon inside me for a couple hundred years...just waitin' for a good fight." THE DEMON INSIDE: "It is…interesting that Angel uses the demon within him, an evil force he is always shown struggling against, to battle and defeat Eyghon. As Angel explains, the demon was just ‘waiting for a good fight.’ This implies either that Angel can control it for his own purposes, or perhaps that the demon doesn't care who he fights, as long as the fight's an enjoyable one (something which is plausible given Angelus' sadistic tendencies)."--Masquerade, "The Dark Age" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com
CONTINUITY CHECK: "How does Cordelia manage to possess Angel briefly in Birthday without getting clobbered by his demon? Does the demon sleep when Angel's human mind does? "--KdS, Mon, 02/10/03 at 06:19:54
20WWW) "...and now I have to blow my entire allowance to get this stupid tattoo removed." OOPS!: "Ethan put Buffy's tattoo high on her back…[Here] Buffy complains that she will (in the future) have to spend her allowance to get the tattoo removed, so her mother won't see it. Not only is Buffy wearing the same kind of thin-strapped low-back top that she was wearing when Ethan tattooed her which ought to leave the tattoo out where her mother could see it, when she talks to Giles we actually see her back and there is no tattoo."--Cactus Watcher, Mon, 02/10/03 at 08:38:40
20XXX) "I wasn't sure it was going to work." WITCHY WILLOW: One of the early cases of Willow successfully figuring out and carrying out a magical plan. Her success here perhaps inspires her experimentation and then full-blown immersion into witchcraft in the coming years.
20YYY) "And the dental plan is crap." SMILE, DARN YA, SMILE: "Either this comment is funny sarcasm or a stereotype about British people having bad teeth. I haven't decided which, yet. Either way, for someone who gets hit in the head so often, Giles has a remarkably intact smile."--Tyreseus, Mon, 02/10/03 at 21:36:33
20ZZZ) "I mean, I'm not... running around, wind in my hair, 'the hills are alive with the sound of music' fine..." SO LONG, FAREWELL: "The Sound of Music--Rodgers and Hammerstein musical/1959 Broadway show/1965 movie. The title song, which opens the movie, shows Julie Andrews running across the mountains and singing a euphoric song concerning how happy and blessed she feels while seeing certain aspects of nature."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20Ax4) "Yeah. Sometime." BETRAYAL: Unfortunately, Jenny's feelings of betrayal and her decision to stay away from Giles for a while foreshadow Innocence, her betrayal of Giles, and Giles' decision to stay away from her.
20Bx4) "I'm so used to you being a grownup, and...then I find out that you're a person." ADULTS ARE PEOPLE, TOO: This episode, by the end, makes Giles and Buffy closer than ever. Further, Buffy can now understand Giles as a person, and identify with him as she never has been able to before. Also, interestingly, these new revelations about Giles, and the darker side of an adult who has been her role model, come right after her heart-to-heart with him at the close of Lie to Me, when she learned that all good guys aren't all good, all bad guys aren't all bad (see 19Kx4).
20Cx4) "Um, need to concentrate on your flexibility." WORDS: "I know Giles is talking about flexibility of muscles, but Buffy showed considerable flexibility in terms of resourcefulness during a fight and in acceptance of a friend's flaws."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36
20Dx4) "Bay City Rollers. Now, that's music." MUSICALLY SPEAKING: "I truly suspect that Giles is pulling Buffy's leg here. The Bay City Rollers was a British pop quintet that formed in Edinburgh in 1970 and disbanded in 1978. They wrote lightly romantic pop songs, affected tartan plaid in portions of their costumes and were extremely popular with girls of twelve or thirteen. Not really the kind of group I'd expect a guy described in another episode as Mr. 'I spent the [early 70's] in an electric Koolaid funky Satan groove' to fancy."--Rhys, Mon, 02/10/03 at 05:05:36