Teaser

26A) "What's Big Blue up to anyway?" POP CULTURE TIME: "Big Blue is, I believe, a popular nickname for the computer firm IBM."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36

"Most of the good characters in ME productions seem to prefer Apple machines - Willow has a succession of Apple laptops, Angel Investigations at various times own what appear to be an old-style cathode ray tube iMac and an Apple G4 tower. Given this bias, the use of the popular nickname for IBM to refer to a world-destroying demon might be a deliberate insult. Can anyone remember which computers are in the Initiative, and what the computer is that Adam uses in his hide-out in Yoko Factor/Primeval? I think Adam's machine appeared to be a Windows PC..."--KdS, Wes, 04/30/03 at 07:36:01

26B) "When do we destroy the world already?" SPIKE IMPATIENT: "Spike's typical impatience - once he's got psyched up, [even if he himself isn't so pro-Apocalypse; see ] he does find it quite difficult to wait for mayhem."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36

26C) Drusilla collapses to the floor and begins to cry. FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "She cries out in orgasmic pain, dropping to the ground...She is breathing hard and fast, like an injured bird."--"Innocence" by Joss Whedon, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume 3

26D) Outside it's still raining hard, and lightning strikes. WHEN IT RAINS...: "More symbolic weather. It rarely rains in Sunnydale except for symbolic purposes - there's a big storm for Xander and Anya's wedding in Hell's Bells. It snows at Christmas when Angel is saved from suicide by sunshine. Rain, water, unconscious forces leaking out."--MsGiles, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:13:25

26E) "Oh, no." SOUL-LOSSAGE: "Angel's loss of his soul doesn't happen immediately, implying perhaps that his moment of perfect happiness is post-coital."--MsGiles, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:13:25

26F) "I feel just fine." FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: "What we basically wanted to do was a horror movie version of the idea of, 'I sleep with my boyfriend, and now he doesn’t call me, and also he’s killing hookers in alleys'…We didn’t want the audience to think for a second that we were just faking. That’s why we killed the girl in the teaser."--Joss Whedon, DVD Commentary

LINKAGE: "That moment when Angelus drinks the prostitute in an alley is macabre, and funny. It also seems to refer to his original Vamping, in a dark alley by a blonde former prostitute. And, to the other blonde, Buffy who causes his second Vamping, as well as setting up the stereotype horror killing which Joss talks about so much - the blonde in the alley who dies at the hand at the monster."--Rahael, Mon, 03/10/03 at 04:14:20

GETTING GROINY: "The emotional and allegorical subtext of the episode and the Angelus arc - the bad effects that can come from rushing into sexual relationships too early in life."--KdS, Sat, 03/08/03 at 04:31:17

INNOCENCE LOST?: "Linking in with themes of sin and sexuality. Buffy and Angel get thrown out of 'paradise' for losing their 'innocence'."--Rahael, Sat, 03/08/03 at 09:37:36

SMOKING IS BAD: One of the first things Angel does once he turns evil is smoke a cigarette. "Thereby confirming what began with Spike: you can recognise the bad guy by his nicotine."--Scroll, Sun, 03/09/03 at 21:11:28 See 15F, 27Rx4 and 32O.

Symbolically, Angel exhaling the smoke from the poor hooker's windpipe is a dark parody of the post-coital cigarette.

HOW CAN ANGEL SMOKE?: See 11DDD.

GIVE AND TAKE: This begins the Buffyverse trope that any time Buffy or any of the other Scoobies becomes too happy, usually in love and usually after having been separated from that love for a time before that, what makes them so happy will be taken away from them. Other times this happens include when Giles loses Jenny only hours after deciding to go back to her (see 29YYY), when Buffy must send Angel to Hell only moments after getting him back (see 34Gx4), and when Tara is killed by Warren the day after she and Willow reunite after their months-long break-up.

Act One

26G) "Is something wrong?" INNOCENCE LOST?: "Buffy has changed - or has she? (see 26LLL) She has 'lost her virginity', a first sexual experience seen in many cultures as an important rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood. In pre C20 Euro/American culture it was the important first stage of marriage, verified to establish the paternity of any future children as the grooms. It therefore doesn't have particularly good connotations for women, being redolent of a culture of patriarchal control and female guilt. Although in contemporary Europe and America the symbolism of the transition has waned, and it often passes unmarked, there is still a sense of a boundary being crossed. Here Joyce senses that something is up with Buffy, but does not, or chooses not to, intuit what."--MsGiles, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:13:25

26H) "Yeah? Well, those of us who were born with feelings are gonna do something about this." LINKAGE: This recalls Xander's shock at Giles for "letting" Buffy face the Master alone, in Prophecy Girl. See 12QQ and 12RR.

26I) "My God, you people are all..." ANGRY WILLOW: See 17HHH.

26J) "No assembly required." LINKAGE: "A pun on the earlier episode title, Some Assembly Required (see 14A)."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36

26K) "Uh, we got stuck in the sewer tunnels, and with the hiding, we just split up..." BUFFY BAD LIAR: See 5S.

26L) "I'm naming all the stars." TWINKLE TWINKLE: "One of the oddest little references in Buffy - Tara tells Willow on the roof at the beginning of Listening to Fear that she makes up her own names for constellations - very weird parallel between the two (OK, Tara was briefly nuts, but never evil)."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:25:38

This is an interesting link, because it emphasizes how "Tara and Drusilla are like mirror images of dark and light. For Willow and Spike respectively, they act as maternal figures, lovers, soothsayers and spiritual guides."--Shadowkat, "Spike and Willow's Journey, Part One: Separation from the Mother," from http://www.geocities.com/shadowkatbtvs

"'He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.' - Psalm 147:4

Biblical reference. Psalm 147 is a song of praise and thanksgiving, about God's might and his providence for Israel. Here Drusilla, who once was the obedient Catholic novice, usurps God's domain by naming the stars, and makes a big muddle out of it."--Scroll, 21:11:28 03/09/03 Sun

"Perhaps the mention of stars also refers to Buffy and Angel being 'star-cross'd lovers'. After Angel loses his soul, Buffy's world is thrown into chaos and confusion."--Scroll, Sun, 03/09/03 at 23:37:04

26M) "...he moves to New York and tries to fulfill that Broadway dream. It's tough sledding, but one day he's working in the chorus when the big star twists her ankle." THERE'S NO BUSINESS...: "A reference to the classic plot of the 1930s backstage musical. Another hint that Angel may have paid more attention to 20th century popular culture than he sometimes claims."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36

26N) "I'll be there." LITERATURE CORNER: "While it's probably been paraphrased in a million different ways for comics and the movies I'd suggest that the original source for Angelus' remark is Tom Joad's speech near the end of [John Steinbeck's classic novel,] The Grapes of Wrath: 'I’ll be ever’where - wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there...'"--ponygirl, Mon, 03/10/03 at 10:23:24

26O) "Yeah, baby. I'm back." THE JUDGE'S TOUCH: See 25TTT.

FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: "Spike, Dru, and Angelus were 'villains [that] were really a part of Buffy’s life, and not just external [like the Master. They were] something emotional that she couldn’t fight. Most villains, more or less like the Judge, who we designed simply as a way of saying, ‘This is a terrible thing that you must have sex, because it was so terrible to meet him,' [sic] and then as a way of saying unconditionally in this scene that Angel had gone bad and that Spike and Dru knew It, and didn’t just have to take it on faith."--Joss Whedon, DVD Commentary See 26KK.

Act Two

26P) "We're family again." FAMILY GATHERING: "In Season 5 of Buffy and Season 2 of Angel, we finally see this vampire family in action in the crossover episodes, Fool For Love and Darla. Lot of Oedipal and Elektra references (see 23Y). Darla the Mommy, Angelus the Daddy, Dru the Daughter, Spike the bratty Son."--Scroll, Sun, 03/09/03 at 21:11:28

26Q) "I've got to tell you, it made me sick to my stomach seeing you being the Slayer's lap dog." LOVE'S BITCH: "Irony, thy name is Spike. Give him a couple of years, and he'll be singing a different tune. Either Slayer-love is contagious, or there's something wacky going on in that family's bloodline. Even poor Connor's not immune!"--Scroll, Sun, 03/09/03 at 21:11:28

26R) Angelus growls and grabs Spike by the shirt. Then he kisses him on the forehead... GETTIN' SLASHY: "One of the few clear hints to Angel/Spike slash...[fan fiction writers]."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36

26S) "Yeah. Destroying the world. Great. I'm really more interested in the Slayer." BAIT AND SWITCH: "By the end of the season, Spike and Angelus's attitudes will be completely reversed."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36

26T) "She made me feel like a human being. That's not the kind of thing you just forgive." ANGEL VS. ANGELUS: "The core motivation for Angelus for the rest of the season - self-disgust at what his soul made him do and feel."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36

"And Angel spends all his time in self-disgust for what he did as Angelus!! As you say, both personas feel responsible for what the other does, and tries to 'atone'. That's one consistency!!"--Rahael, Mon, 03/10/03 at 06:04:29

26U) "You were too busy rushing off to die for your beloved Buffy." LINKAGE: "A sentiment pretty much echoed by Anya in Xander's 'vision' of the future in Hell's Bells:

XANDER: Oh, no no no. Not the Buffy thing again.

ANYA: You had no business fighting demons with her.

XANDER: Buffy needed me. I had to help.

ANYA: (bitterly) Well, it didn't save her, did it? (Xander drinking beer) All it did was ruin our lives."--MsGiles, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:13:25

Also echoed in Anya's line in I'll Never Tell, her duet with Xander from Once More, With Feeling: "When things get rough, he/Just hides behind his Buffy/Now, look, he's getting huffy/'Cause he knows that I know..."

26V) "Willow, uh..." FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: This is a "pivotal [episode] not just for Buffy but for Willow, when she...discover[s] Xander and Cordelia are making out. One of the other exciting things about the show for me is the changing relationships. In the first season, obviously, we had Willow loves Xander, Xander loves Buffy, Buffy loves Angel, who is unattainable. Very simple triangle, or, I believe, actually trapezoid. And, as we went on in the season, we knew we wanted to shake that up. The idea that Cordelia, who, in the first season, was just ‘resident bitch’ would end up falling for Xander…that would be a perfect…romance, because they are so very wrong for each other that of course they must have each other, and they must have each other now…That’s one of the realities of high school. Nobody is what they are forever. They change. Their alliances change and, sometimes, dissolve (see 2W)."--Joss Whedon, DVD Commentary

METAPHORICAL GOODNESS: "Willow, Xander, Cordelia as metaphors for Buffy in the 'Willow discovers Xander/Cordelia' scene: Willow is a metaphor for Buffy's spirit. This will be made explicit at the end of Season 4. Xander is a metaphor for Buffy's heart--during Season 2 that means the organ of desire. Again Xander as heart will be made explicit at the end of Season 4. Cordelia is a metaphor for Buffy without spiritual commitment.

So the scene of Willow's discovery of Xander/Cordelia functions to tell us about Buffy's place on her spiritual quest in Season 2. By indulging her desire with Angel, Buffy is abdicating her spiritual commitments. Consequently, her heart (Xander), the organ of desire, is focused on a version of herself without that commitment (Xander desires Cordelia). Her Spiritual life itself (Willow) is what is left out in the cold, and is not only sick over it ('things are not ok between us'), but is threatened with termination by the monstrous results of Buffy's indulgence (Angelus grabs her and threatens to kill her). It will not be possible for Buffy to resolve the conflicts of Season 2, without a realignment of heart and spirit, and therefore a realignment of the relationships of these characters. The heart must recognize that it desires the spiritual life."--manwitch, Mon, 03/10/03 at 12:27:46

26W) "You two were fighting way too much. It's not natural!" THE FEUDING LOVEBIRDS: This "refers to the cliche that if a couple are antagonistic toward each other at the beginning of a movie/book, it's really sublimated sexual attraction. They will be together by this end. One classic example is Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice[; another is Beatrice and Benedick from William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing]. It's yet another macabre reference to Angel/Buffy. When Buffy first meets Angel, she finds him 'irritating' but gorgeous. The sparks turn into attraction. But now, they are fighting for sure. Sex still underlies it, but now it is very dark, twisted, and creepy."--Rahael, Mon, 03/10/03 at 04:14:20

26X) "You got a lot to learn about men, kiddo. Although I guess you proved that last night." FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: Originally, the "Buffy-runs-into-Angel-and-he’s-really-mean-to-her scene [was shot on Buffy’s front lawn, but] they [Sarah and David] were unable to [play the scene convincingly]…We couldn’t get them there emotionally, we couldn’t figure out why. Sarah felt it was all her fault. I quickly realized that it was all mine but didn’t tell her that. The fact of the matter is, she had to see him in the bedroom. She had to see him with his shirt off, and it had to be as intimate a scene as possible when Angel decides to torture Buffy by pretending he just doesn’t love her anymore…Clearly they came up to the level that I hoped for, and surpassed it...[When] I wrote this scene, I actually felt like an ugly person. I didn’t know how I was able to write this so easily. It felt icky that I could make him say these things. It felt icky and…kind of powerful. It was very uncomfortable, and very exciting for me to do it..."--Joss Whedon, DVD Commentary

26Y) "Vengeance is a living thing." VENGEANCE WITH A PULSE: "Funny how Anya, a vengeance demon, later becomes so enamoured of commerce and capitalist enterprise. After becoming human, vengeance no longer seems quite as appetizing. And the sentence, 'Vengeance is a living thing' -- well, Anyanka, Halfrek, and D'Hoffryn are certainly living things, though a demony living thing. Best example of vengeance...is Holtz [a man who hunted Angelus down after Angelus killed Holtz's entire family]. That man breathed vengeance even more than Anyanka. His desire for vengeance was palpable. And he passed that thirst for vengeance on to future generations."--Scroll, Sun, 03/09/03 at 21:11:28

FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: "Interestingly enough...[this] scene is more of an achievement for me, as a writer, than [the Buffy and Angel] one was...because I had to take a lot of disparate elements that just didn’t work. The fact is Jenny had been sent there as a gypsy, but had never done anything, had never accomplished anything. The gypsy curse didn’t make any sense. He’d become a monster and kill more people if he was happy. That’s not a good plan…so I had a lot of disparate elements to take care of...but one of the things that I’ve done as a script doctor is take things that don’t fit together and desperately try to make them all connect...and in this case, it was the idea of ‘vengeance is a living thing,’ the idea that they serve a kind of arbitrary god that was itself irrational, completely justified the idea that nothing we had written before actually connected that well. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this…With that one phrase...we could just sort of make everybody accept what had gone before, make it make some kind of sense, a quiet, little accomplishment, but an important one...Some people say the gypsy curse, a hokey concept, but Danish curse just doesn’t sound as good. Y’know, I love the classics..."--Joss Whedon, DVD Commentary

26Z) "It is not justice we serve. It is vengeance." THE HAPPINESS CLAUSE: "The curse that restored Angel's human soul had a rather strange condition attached to it. If Angel achieved even just a moment of true happiness, he would lose his soul, and Angelus would once again have free reign on the body. Theories about the reason for the happiness clause:

1) The gypsies' desire for vengeance was petty; if it cannot torture, if it cannot get the revenge it wants, it basically restores the very situation that caused the trouble in the first place: it brings back the killer.

2) 'I think that the *happiness clause* was the price the gypsies had to pay to get Angel's soul out of the ether. Whom/Whatever granted the power of the spell to the gypsy elder woman also placed the burden of the *happiness clause* on the gypsy clan. It was their duty/fate/price to spend the rest of their lives to insure that Angel never knew happiness. They failed and the soul was returned to the ether. The *happiness clause* wasn't the gypsies idea, it was a burden/penalty put upon the gypsies (gazoo, Jan 4 22:10 1999).'

3) Demon ascendance is simply a metaphysical side-effect of experiencing happiness..."--Masquerade, "Surprise/Innocence" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com

ENYOS & THE JUDGE: "Both [Enyos and the Judge] carry out processes that pass for justice...1) the separation of people into those who follow an approved worldview and those who don't, and the extermination of the latter, and 2) the view that an appropriate reponse to suffering is the infliction of more suffering."--MsGiles, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:13:25

26AA) "...you have gross emotional problems..." JUDGE MUCH?: "A Pysch 101 student would recognize this as projection by Willow. Xander may be fickle, and he may be embarrassed with his attraction to Cordy, but his actions are perfectly normal. Willow is the one who is having difficulty letting go of her fixation on him, even though her relations with Oz are already deepening. I'd hardly call this a sign of her latent lesbianism, but certainly the fact that she doesn't recognize it in herself must be adding to her problems at this stage in her life."--Cactus Watcher, Sun, 03/09/03 at 16:00:25

26BB) "Willow. Xander." FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: In the dark lighting, "you can almost see that Angel’s in vamp face, if you really look, kind of reminiscent of the Joker, when he first confronts Jack Palance in [Tim Burton's film version of] Batman."--Joss Whedon, DVD Commentary

26CC) "Wrong. I *am* Angel." ANGEL VS. ANGELUS: "A very interesting line for the debate about the relation between Angel and Angelus." To muddy the waters even further, only a few moments later, Angelus proclaims to Buffy that her boyfriend is dead, again seemingly claiming that Angel is a different "person" than he. Then, at the end of the episode, when Buffy says that he is not Angel, he replies, "You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" On one level, he is playing both sides (that he is the same person as Angel, and that he isn't) to further confuse Buffy's mind, torture her, and throw her off her guard. On a second, deeper level, Angelus himself is in denial. While he would like to claim that Angel and he are different people, he knows how affected he is by Angel's experiences and vice versa; the fact that each experiences the other's actions on such a deep, personal level calls that into question. See 7NN and 7OO.--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36, with additions by Rob

26DD) "Why don't you give it to me yourself?" FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: "We shot this as a horror movie but also as a Western, the idea of being over people, cowboy style, where they’d be holding their guns, to give it kind of an epic feel, sort of Sergio Leone stand-off between all of them (see 16RRR), and then of course, Buffy herself, makes it a bit of a threeway stand-off."--Joss Whedon, DVD Commentary

26EE) "Angel, there must be some part of you inside that still remembers who you are." ISN'T IT IRONIC: "Buffy tells Angel that some part of him must still be alive, in Angelus, and he replies 'Dream on schoolgirl' - ironic because she does have a dream where the real Angel appears (see 26MM). And ironic of course, because Angel's memories are still there. She made Angelus feel human, and now he's going to punish her."--Rahael, Mon, 03/10/03 at 04:14:20

26FF) Xander shoves the cross into Angelus' face from behind. XANDER BRAVE: "The first of a series of occassions where Xander shows remarkable courage confronting Angelus. Maybe his dislike for Angel gives him more willingness than some of the others to confront Angel's alter ego."--KdS, Mon, 03/10/03 at 05:53:36 See

26GG) "Buffy, you okay?" FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: "Politics of the thing are always complicated. Y’know I said I didn’t want to kill the girl who has sex [unlike horror movies, where the girl who has sex always dies], and yet I punish the shit out of her. That brings up a lot of issues with me. I don’t like the idea of a reactionary message that everything you do must be punished. I believe that Buffy and Angel were in love and that what they did wasn’t bad. At the same time, I don’t want to be saying, 'All teenagers must boff! You must boff now, boff each other, do it!' It’s complicated. I don’t really want to be telling them one thing or another, but inevitably, in a horror show, you end up punishing people for everything that they do just so you can find the horror, the real emotional horror of everything they go through. Buffy drinks beer, not gonna go well for her (see 17VVV). Buffy has sex with her boyfriend, not gonna go well for her. The important thing is to make the punishment emotional and not have her be ax-murdered. And also, let her grow from it, let her be strong, or let it resonate on a normal emotional level instead of on some evil higher power that must put an ax into their heads just because they dared to have sex. Eventually, of course, we deal with that with all the characters, but with Buffy, we knew it was all gonna be about the pain."--Joss Whedon, DVD Commentary

Part Two