Act Three
18GGG) "She couldn't've dressed up like Xena?" POP CULTURE TIME: "A playful pop reference to the other popular television show at the time with a butt-kicking female heroine. Xena, Warrior Princess, starring Lucy Lawless, is also known for the downplayed lesbian subtext of the show (which was brought out more in final seasons), perhaps an early allusion to Willow's eventual sexual identity."--Tyreseus, Fri, 01/31/01 at 18:51:15
18HHH) "Yeah. Lucky me." CORDY THE CAT: "Cordy's sexy cat custom which doesn't turn her into a cat – metaphorically, it wasn’t necessary to do so, Cordy is already catty. Also her costume shows her desire to flaunt her physical attributes, as she spends most of the episode...trying to attract Angel, the good vampire."--shadowkat, Sat, 02/01/03 at 13:18:34
18*1) "I was just attacked by Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy." HISTORICAL FUN: "'Fedor Jeftichew was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and brought to London in 1884 by circus manager Charles Reynolds. Because of the thick, long hair that covered his entire body, the boy became known as Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy. Jo-Jo's father Adrien was also hypertrichotic and the two of them toured together until the father's death. Jo-Jo was an intelligent, quiet young man who spoke Russian, German and English. He became a very successful sideshow performer in both Europe and the United States [with P.T. Barnum], although he found barking, growling and other doglike elements of his act degrading (http://phreeque.tripod.com/jojo.html).' It is typical of Cordy that she would mock someone for suffering for a condition she was lucky enough to escape (the transformation into one's costume) by deriding him with the stage-name of another unfortunate person. Also, we again have the theme of the outside person not being the same as the one inside. JoJo looked like an animal or a monster...but he was an intelligent and cultured man. Cordy, being Cordy, doesn't look beneath the surface--she doesn't even wonder WHERE the monster who attacked her came from."--submitted by Rhys
CONTINUITY CHECK: Cordelia refers to Jo-Jo again, in The Wish (see 43LLL).
18III) Xander has taken his shirt off and puts it around her shoulders. FORESHADOWY GOODNESS: "Even though this bit of chivalry comes from 'G.I. Joe'-Xander, it reveals the caring impulses [for Cordy] that regular Xander usually can't pull off, and within a few episodes, he and Cordy will no longer be able to 'disguise' their attraction for one another."--MaeveRigan, Sat, 02/01/03 at 14:08:10
18JJJ) "Well, i-it's not our place to fight. Uh, surely some men will protect us." SHRINKING VIOLET: "Buffy transforms herself into a 'real girl' (her words), and becomes the worst stereotype of the helpless female."--Vickie, Sat, 02/01/03 at 20:01:35
18LLL) "Who died and made her the boss?" FOLLOW THE LEADER: "This episode is probably the first to show Willow's taking on leadership when both Giles and Buffy are absent or incapacitated - as shown ultimately in The Weight of the World and Bargaining."--KdS, Sat, 02/01/03 at 04:19:04
18MMM) Giles is going through a stack of cards he's pulled from the card catalog. LIBRARIANY FUN: "Earlier, when Buffy was trying to get him to go to a movie he mentioned that he enjoyed cross-referencing. And that was what he was doing. Comparing the subject and title cards and adding 'see' and 'see also' references to them. I also need to point out that Jenny Calendar was right when she called Giles a dinosaur. In the U.S., a high school the size of Sunnydale would have an online catalog NOT a card catalog. Only the incumbent librarian could delay the march of technology. He would not be able to fight off an online catalog forever."--Isabel, Sun, 02/02/03 at 22:02:06
18NNN) He sees Willow come though the wall and jumps in complete surprise... COMIC BOOKY WILLOW: "…Willow has represented three famed Marvel comics heroines during the series: in Halloween, Ghost Willow is a double for Kitty Pryde, the plucky Jewish teenaged X-Man (code name Shadowcat) who can phase through walls; in Seasons 3-5, she's the Scarlet Witch, raven-tressed wielder of powerful mystic forces; and at the end of Season 6, she's Dark Phoenix, good guy gone nuts on a near-cosmic level..."--cjl, Sun, 02/02/03 at 20:25:54
18OOO) "What's up with your hair?" BAD HAIR DAY: See 18J.
18PPP) "Catwoman, you're with me." POP CULTURE TIME: A reference to the comic book character, Catwoman, one of the arch-nemeses of Batman.
18QQQ) "I-I like the man with the musket!" SOMETIMES A CIGAR...: "I think the Freudian sexual symbolism is perfectly clear here, don't you? Not to mention the related foreshadowing: Buffy starts this episode sneakingly researching Angel, and after giving him one moment of perfect happiness, she'll learn much more than she really wants to know about him when she meets Angelus in Innocence. We get a mini-preview of this scenario when Angel vamps out, terrifying 18th-century!Buffy."--MaeveRigan, Sat, 02/01/03 at 14:08:10
18RRR) "A-a-and everyone who changed, they, they, they, they acquired their costumes where?" GILES: "Giles is stuttering and acts very befuddled. We can't imagine Giles being able to hurt a fly. That is until he shows up at Ethan's and Willow leaves him to find the others."--shadowkat, "Giles/Tara: Dealing with the Monster," from http://www.geocities.com/shadowkatbtvs
18SSS) The camera moves behind a tree where Spike is hiding... THAT'S OUR SPIKEY: "As usual, Spike is the exception to the rule [in this case, the vamps-stay-home-on-Halloween rule]. Of course, he's acting on Dru's vision, but also, as he'll tell the vampires who dare to ignore the Hallowe'en...[rule] in 6.6 All the Way, 'I'm a rebel. You're an idiot.'"--MaeveRigan, Sat, 02/01/03 at 14:08:10
18TTT) "...*tenderest* meat you've *ever* tasted..." CONTINUITY CHECK: "To me at least, the heavy emphasis on the word 'tenderest', along with Buffy's age, (16), strikes me as at least partly backing up the much-discussed scene in Never Leave Me where Spike admits to raping girl's 'Dawn's age' (which would, by this stage, again be 16)."--Tchaikovsky, Sun, 02/02/03 at 07:22:07
Act Four
18UUU) "Pretty, pretty!" TRUTH IN DISGUISE: "What does Larry's costume signify? A pirate is the ultimate want-take-have, and he doesn't apologize for his appetites. In this episode, we assume that Larry's appetites are average, and his attack on Duchess Buffy supports that idea. But in Phases, we learn that Larry is a closeted homosexual (see 27TTT). He's deeply conflicted between his orientation and his identity as high school athlete. In the light of that revelation, the pirate costume indicates a certain yearning to be 'normal,' in a misguided, young and insecure man's definition of normality."--Vickie, Sat, 02/01/03 at 20:01:35
18VVV) "Primarily the division of self. Male and female, light and dark." FORESHADOWY GOODNESS: "A possible foreshadowing of the Angel/Angelus split? Of course Giles quickly proves that he has a hidden self as well. The idea of the shadow self becomes a larger theme as time goes on, most notably with Faith in season three."--ponygirl, Sun, 02/02/03 at 16:28:25
18WWW) "Willow, get out of here, now." RIPPER: "A neat misdirect. Initially we believe that Giles thinks Ethan is a threat to Willow, but given Ethan's subsequently-revealed physical cowardice, and what Giles is about to do to him, it's more likely that Giles simply didn't want Willow to witness what he planned to do, or hear anything Ethan might say about their shared past."--KdS, Sat, 02/01/03 at 04:19:04
18XXX) She obeys him and goes. OOPS!: "A bit of a blooper, but when Willow leaves Ethan's shop there is the sound of the door opening and closing, despite it being established that she can't touch objects at this point."--ponygirl, Sun, 02/02/03 at 16:28:25
18YYY) "Hello, Ripper." POP CULTURE TIME: "According to Keith Topping, some American fans were led by this episode to suspect that Giles was actually Jack the Ripper! I blame [the sci-fi show,] Babylon 5, which shortly before had featured an artificially preserved Jack the Ripper, administering something rather similar to the Cruciamentum in the episode, Comes the Inquisitor."--KdS, Sat, 02/01/03 at 04:19:04
18ZZZ) "Angel is a good vampire. He would never hurt you." ISN'T IT IRONIC?: "The number of times the characters bring this up is interesting in the first part of Season 2 Cordelia brings it up in the bathroom scene with Buffy and Willow, when they inform her that Angel is a vampire. Continuously we emphasize how Angel is good and would never hurt anyone. He’s tame Cordy keeps saying. A mislead and possible foreshadowing of when Angel becomes Angelus and turns into the worst vampire they’ve faced – attacking Cordelia, Willow, Xander , Giles and Buffy at different points. Such irony."--shadowkat, Sat, 02/01/03 at 13:18:34
In typical Cordy fashion, she ends the episode believing that Angel isn't a vampire, even after being told twice to the contrary.
18Ax4) "It's strange, but beating up that pirate gave me a weird sense of closure." XANDER THE BRAVE: Not only is this a great joke, and affirmation that, symbolically, the costumes allowed the characters to actualize their innermost desires and/or fears, but Xander's vanquishing of this "demon" parallels his vanquishing of the clown in Nightmares (see 10HHH).
LARRY BOY: "If Xander and the others remember their Halloween ('It was way creepy. It's like I was there, but I couldn't get out'), then it's likely Larry does too. He recalls Xander fighting him and knocking him cold. This may explain their improved (hmm, not relationship) uh, interaction in later episodes. The fight re-established Xander's macho bona fides. Larry is still a Neanderthal in Phases (in the early going), but...that's a smoke screen so no one figures out his secret. By the end of the episode, he's mellowed considerably, apparently because he's told Xander he is gay and has not been rejected (more than usual) or ridiculed. By the time Graduation Day rolls around, Larry's on board helping to build the big library bomb. It's his last hurrah, but it's a good one--and a great arc for a very minor character. The character Willow made waves as a series regular who is gay, and had a long term, committed, and beautiful relationship on screen. I submit Larry, in his peripheral role, is equally a milestone. Even the apparent homophobe Xander doesn't reject him, and by Earshot Larry is 'so out my grandma's setting me up with guys.' Nice job, ME."--Vickie, Sat, 02/01/03 at 20:01:35 See 27TTT.
18Bx4) "We need a triage!" MILITARY GLOSSARY: "Triage is a military medical term referring to the division of casualties into three types - those who are going to die, those who probably won't die, and those who might die. In an emergency, one attends to the third group. It's unclear why Xander says this, but he's probably referring to the injured Larry."--KdS, Sat, 02/01/03 at 04:19:04
18Cx4) "...but it's genius. The very embodiment of 'be careful what you wish for'." WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR: "That is the theme of many later Buffy and Angel episodes including: The Wish (and many others dealing with Anya [and vengeance demons, in general]), Something Blue, Earshot (where Buffy's desire to read Angel's mind about what he thinks of her, is twisted into the curse reading the minds of everyone one but Angel whther she wants to or not), Superstar (where Jonathan's wish comes with a price), Tabula Rasa (one of Willow's wishes again goes awry), Eternity, and Awakening (Angel's own desires are the key to bringing back Angelus)."--Cactus Watcher, Fri, 01/31/03 at 19:28:16
"At the end of Surprise, Buffy doesn't blow out the candle on her birthday cupcake, symbolizing her fear of wishing for anything, after the trauma of losing Angel to Angelus."--CW, Fri, 01/31/03 at 20:22:35
18Dx4) "It's sick, brutal, and it harms the innocent." ETHAN RAYNE IN A NUTSHELL: "'Milton ...in Paradise Lost: Briefly, Satan in his "screw you" to God said that he would make the best of hell to spite God. Satan had some power but relative to God he was weak. Ethan has his moments where he reminds me of this attitude. He comes to Sunnydale and decides to make the most out of his little Hellmouth by invoking the spirit of Janus and wreaking havoc, if only briefly, on the unfortunate dupes of Sunnydale. It's not the trick of the powerful; it's the trick of the weak. A mere illusion for his entertainment, petty and spiteful. I also find Ethan rather charismatic, in part to his own sense of self. I sort of found Satan to be that way too in Paradise Lost. Though while I have argued that Satan is in a way heroic, I could never do that with Ethan ...hiding behind Buffy when it came to dealing with Eyghon (Cleio, 10 Jan 1999)...
'I think of Ethan as embracing Chaos with real passion and fondness. He *likes* it. He wants the man he loves and hates -- who may even have introduced him to chaos-for-fun -- to join them again. It's only somewhere underneath that, possibly, that Ethan believes he was made for evil and cannot escape it, and why should anyone else. And why should Giles in particular (Dawn, 24 Jun 2000 19:12)."--collected by Masquerade, "The Evil of Ethan Rayne," from http://www.atpobtvs.com
18Ex4) "You get to live." RIPPER: "There's a little of the old monster in Giles after all, isn't there? He may not be the harmless Watcher we've all come to know and love. In this scene he reminds me a little of our friend Spike (a). In an interview – Joss Whedon stated that Spike is what Giles grew out of and Giles is what Spike refused to become. If you watch closely – when Giles plays Ripper – his accent and mannerisms are very close to Spike’s. According to interviews with James Marsters – he has used Anthony Stewart Head’s off-set accent as a template for Spike – ASH’s real accent apparently is closer to Ripper than Giles (b)."--shadowkat, (a) "Giles/Tara: Dealing with the Monster," from http://www.geocities.com/shadowkatbtvs; (b) Sat, 02/01/03 at 13:18:34 See 40AAA.
18Fx4) Giles kicks him hard in the kidney, and he yells out in pain. RIPPER: Symbolically, "Giles rids the others of their false personas is by shedding his own. Giles saves the day by taking off the mask that he's carefully constructed over the years and comes as he is, rather than as he isn't. This isn't to say that everything about the Giles we'd known up to that point was false, just that the extremely bookish nature of his personality was there to cover up some of the angry, violent tendencies that lay within."--Rook, Tues, 02/04/03 at 18:36:36
18Gx4) "Janus. Break its statue." BREAKAGE: This is the first in a long line of spells in the Buffyverse that are broken by the physical breaking of the charm or amulet that enacted and sustained the spell. Other examples include Anyanka's amulet in The Wish, Joyce's photo in Forever, Jonathan's "magic bone," and the talisman in Lessons.
18Hx4) "Hi, honey. I'm home." POP CULTURE TIME: "Great example of a BtVS's pop-culture reference on several levels, as well as the show's feminist mission that turns stereotypes upside-down. This is the line of every 50s/60s TV sitcom paterfamilias as he returns home from a hard day at the office: Ricky Ricardo, Ozzy Nelson, 'Father' of Father Knows Best, even Bob Newhart. But now it's our girl Buffy who's back, knows best, and takes charge. As usual on BtVS, traditional gender roles are anything but usual.
And get this: The line was also the title of a 1991-92...[Nickelodeon] sitcom [which also aired on ABC] starring Julie Benz (Darla): 'Hi Honey, I'm Home! was a comedy in which a sitcom family from the 1950's, The Neilsens, moved into a suburban neighborhood via the Sitcom Relocation Program. Wacky hijinx ensued as they interacted with their new neighbors, the Duffs' (http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-433/).'" Like the later film Pleasantville, about two modern teens transported into the black-and-white world of a 50's sitcom, the interior of the Neilsens' home, and everyone in it, was black and white, but, when company came over, it could be turned to color with the help of a magical remote. Each week, a guest star from a famous old sitcom would have a cameo.--MaeveRigan, Sat, 02/01/03 at 14:08:10, with additions by Rob
18Ix4) "It was way creepy. It's like I was there, but I couldn't get out." LINKAGE: This is similar to Xander's experience in The Pack (see 6QQ).
18Jx4) "Give it up, Cordy. You're never gonna get between those two. Believe me, I know." CORDY & XANDER: A great line, and, more importantly, another step closer to igniting the firey passion that is the Xander/Cordy relationship. As soon as Xander and Cordy both acknowledge that they will never come between Buffy and Angel, they are free to pursue other romantic possibilities...Each other.
18Kx4) ...starts to put the sheet back on, but thinks better of it and throws it into a trashcan as she walks off the porch. PERSONAL GROWTH: Although it will be a long time before Willow truly gains more self-confidence, it is nice that she leaves this episode feeling a little more comfortable in her own skin. After having been forced to reveal herself to the world, these events are among the many factors that eventually lead to her becoming more confident in exploring other sides of herself and using magic. There's also the more immediate benefit of Oz seeing Willow, becoming more enamored with her than before, and eventually asking her out on a date in What's My Line.
18Lx4) Oz is driving along in his van. DRIVING SIDEWAYS: "When Oz sees Willow walking down the street he's driving a van with the driver's wheel on the right side."--Isabel, Sun, 02/02/03 at 22:02:06
18Mx4) "Who is that girl?" CONTINUITY CHECK: Again, a reference to his initial reaction to Willow in Inca Mummy Girl (see 16Bx4).
18Nx4) "I always wished I could meet someone...exciting. Interesting." ANGEL LIKES: "The intention of this is clearly to mean Buffy, but considering how Angel's history is later constructed, there's a heavy undertone of Darla in this statement." Long ago, she took him away from the life of "simpering, mindless" noblewomen.--Tchaikovsky, Sun, 02/02/03 at 07:22:07 See
18Ox4) "Still, I had a really hard day." BUFFY KNOWS BEST: "Still playing off the 'Hi honey, I'm home' riff (see 18Hx4)--for Buffy, 'a really hard day' is getting what she wished for, being an ordinary 18th century girl, weak, foolish, helpless. Fighting vampires--for Buffy, piece of cake."--MaeveRigan, Sat, 02/01/03 at 14:08:10
18Px4) "Be seeing you..." POP CULTURE TIME: "A reference to the surreal 1960s British thriller series The Prisoner, which dealt with a secret agent confined to a mysterious prison run like a sinister holiday camp, where 'Be seeing you!' was the standard farewell."--KdS, Sat, 02/01/03 at 04:19:04 See 20BBB.
CONTINUITY CHECK: Ethan's ominous promise will be fulfilled in the episode after next, The Dark Age.
ETHAN RAYNE: "Ethan Rayne always shows up whenever Giles is a little too comfortable in his role as the tweed-bound watcher, and he's an unwelcome reminder of Giles' days as Ripper. On the other hand, Ethan may be a chaos-bringer, but sometimes a little chaos is not necessarily a bad thing. Due to Ethan's interference, Buffy breaks new ground with Angel, Oz notices va-va-voom Willow, and Sgt. Xander makes a big impression on Cordelia. Our heroes experience goodness and badness in equal measure in this episode--the two faces of Janus.
Similarly, in his three subsequent appearances, Ethan digs up the old days: first figuratively returning Giles to his bad old past (The Dark Age), then LITERALLY returning him to his bad old past (Band Candy), then bypassing memory and plugging Giles directly into the primal anger (A New Man) he's constantly repressing. Each time, the initial result is chaos for Giles and the Scoobs, but the end result is a closer-knit Scooby Gang--and in one case, a wonderful memory for Giles and Joyce that he elegizes so beautifully in Forever."--cjl, Sun, 02/02/03 at 20:25:54
WHAT'S IN A NAME?: "Ethan's first name is from the Hebrew Eithan or Eythan, meaning 'firmness, strength.' Ethan shares his last name, Rayne, with another fictional TV character, and one which had been on television since April 21, 1996--Derek Rayne, the leader of the group of supernatural scholars and warriors known as The Legacy. Judging by the opening of Poltergeist: The Legacy, The Legacy was not unlike the Watchers--or Buffy herself: 'Since the beginning of time mankind has existed between the world of light and the world of darkness. This journal chronicles the work of our secret society, known as The Legacy. Created to protect the innocent from those creatures that inhabit the shadows and the night.' (http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-741/) Also, the name Rayne serves as a double pun. Ethan wants to REIGN with chaos, and often gives it assistance by allowing it free REIN."--Rhys, Tues, 02/11/03 at 01:37:41