Teaser

29A) Buffy and Xander are dancing together, but not close... LINKAGE: "Xander and Buffy dancing as Angel looks on. It's a replay of the scene in When She was Bad (see 13HH). Although Buffy's not exactly priggish this time, she's not trying particularly hard to drive anyone crazy. The music is much less tense, she's facing Xander and both of them look happy and relaxed. Angel in the background is still in the grips of the passion he talks about in the narrative."--Cactus Watcher, Fri, 04/25/03 at 20:35:18

29B) Behind them Cordelia and Willow are sitting at a table and chatting. CONTINUITY CHECK: Here we see that the bondy-ness continue to grow between Cordy and Willow, since their chat in Phases (see 27ZZ).

29C) "Passion." ANGELUS THE STALKER: "In Surprise, Angel lost his soul, and returned to being an evil vampire (see 25Gx4). We have seen him with Spike and Drusilla, hinting at plans to take out Buffy, but he has seemed slow to move. Now we begin to find out the reason why. As the episode opens, we see him watching Buffy, effectively stalking her. His voice-over talks about passion. He is still in love with her, but in his soul-less state his love is taking the form of a obsession. There is threat in the way he watches her from the shadows."--MsGiles, MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 04:47:23

FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: In the original script, all of the monologues that Ty King wrote for Angel were different than what we see in the finished product. Joss extensively rewrote all of them, creating the "amazing and poetic and creepy and unforgettable" works of art that they are in the finished product (a). Joss' "rewrite certainly takes the writing to another level. The script version comes across as utterly flat and obvious. The aired version -- imagery that isn't spelled out for us, but at the same time resonates more deeply. Essentially we're seeing the difference between prose and poetry (b)." Compare the two versions, and it's easy to see why Joss' is so superior:

Ty King: "Passion...it is born...and though uninvited, unwelcome, unwanted...like a cancer, it takes root. It festers. It bleeds. It scabs...only to rupture, and bleed anew. It lives...so, it must die, in time."

Joss Whedon: "Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping...waiting... And though unwanted...unbidden... it will stir...open its jaws, and howl. It speaks to us... guides us... Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have?(c)."--(a) Dyna, Mon, 12/09/02 at 13:38:33; (b) ponygirl, Mon, 12/09/02 at 14:01:08; (c) "Passion" by Ty King, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume 3 See 29ZZZ and 29Rx4.

ANGELUS' MONOLOGUE: "What is the purpose of Angelus’ monologue? It’s pretty for one thing, and it also illustrates the central theme of the season. Vengeance is described in Innocence as a living thing (see 26Y), here passion becomes personified in this speech though with a very animalistic metaphor. Passion is a force in season 2, it drives all of the characters at one point or another this year. So is Angelus explaining Buffy’s motivations? Giles’? Actually I think he’s trying to make sense of his own. Why doesn’t he kill Buffy? He demonstrates again and again that he has ample opportunity, but he doesn’t. The answer, I believe is passion. He is as much a victim of this force as anyone else. Of course his particular passion is for hurting Buffy."--ponygirl, Sun, 04/27/03 at 17:46:44

The monologues are some of "the most loved and quoted speeches in the show, but it's intensely morally ambiguous, because, hey, it's Angelus speaking! There's certainly evidence from the rest of the show that the essential idea, that love is simultaneously what makes us human and potentially a deadly danger, is close to ME's own opinions, but one can also look ahead to the S6/Heartthrob view of vampire love as essentially based on destructive sexual obsession."--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13

"For what its worth, I have always felt that the point of Angelus' monologue is that he is wrong. What he says is seductive and seems true, as much of the season is based on seduction. But the reality is that we have the choice to not be ruled by our passions. To be ruled instead by our compassion and our virtuous intent. If Angel was right, Buffy never would've killed him. But she does. She sacrifices her passion to do what needs to be done, because as a full human being, she has the power to make that choice. When we let our passions rule us, we are not accessing the spiritual nature that makes humanity special.

In the whole 'chakra' vision of the show, if you subscribe to it, the point of season 2 is that Buffy finds a way to answer the question that Angelus thought was rhetorical. We feel our passions, but they don't have to rule us. When you figure that out, you move on to the next level. Which Buffy appears to do."--manwitch, Mon, 04/28/03 at 17:48:28 For more on the "chakra" vision of the show, see Appendix B.

29D) The man lifts his head from the woman, and it's Angelus, just finishing a bite. TWISTAGE: "A twist on a device often employed in thrillers: the hero and a girl with him are following someone. At some point, being likely to be discovered by the following person, they engage in a deep kiss, which conceals their faces and distracts attention. It also provides an element of titillation, it's a pretext for the hero to get a snog. Here Angelus both conceals himself to watch the slayer, and gets a bite."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 04:47:23 See 34D.

29E) ...and a hand reaches over to stroke her hair with its fingers. ANGELUS PATIENT?: "At this stage, we are not very clear where this is leading, but it does not seem good. However, that Angelus has Buffy in his power, and he is not biting her, is interesting. The teaser is saying, could it be that his love for her will stop him killing her, even in his vampire form?"--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 04:47:23 See 26KK.

Act One

29F) Morning in Buffy's room. FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: "INT. BUFFY'S BEDROOM - MORNING. A security blanket of sunshine lights the room as Buffy wakes. A smile. The promise of a new day. Buffy rolls onto her side, coming face to face with an envelope made of parchment paper. The envelope is propped against the side of her pillow at eye level. She sits up, heart-beating, picks up the envelope. CLOSE ON: THE PARCHMENT ENVELOPE. She removes a sheet of parchment paper, unfolds it to reveal a CHARCOAL SKETCH - skilled, accurate, lovingly rendered - of Buffy sleeping, her head on her pillow… obviously drawn while she slept the night before."--"Passion" by Ty King, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume 3

29G) On it is a pencil sketch of her sleeping. ANGEL THE ARTIST: "The drawing of Buffy is the first indication of Angel's artistic talent which shows up again occasionally, including in season 4 of Angel with a drawing of Cordelia."--Cactus Watcher, Fri, 04/25/03 at 20:35:18

"On one level the significance of the sketch is simple. It is evidence that Angelus was in Buffy's room, that he watched her, and that he was there for some time. This is what he wants her to know. It is also evidence of his obsession…He is making an image of the object of his obsession, in the same way that peoples draw their pop heroes, collect photographs of their lovers, put posters of Buffy on the walls :). Creating or collecting an image or icon is partly an attempt to possess the object of the obsession, equating the image with the person in an ancient, totemic way. By drawing Buffy and Joyce, Angel is trying to assert power over them and over his passion, something that (from the voice over) he feels is out of his control. As Angel, he tries to reassert power by helping Buffy. As Angelus, his technique is very different."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 04:47:23 See 29Cx4.

29H) "He was in my room." NEW DECOR: "Buffy's room is seen from a number of angles in this episode. Under her window is a "Map of the Sky." there are butterfly decorations on the wall, and the slanted ceiling has a picture of sunflowers. After Angel's visit strings of garlic are added to Buffy's bedroom decor. They will appear again in season six when she doesn't entirely trust her personal defenses against Spike's charms."--Cactus Watcher, Fri, 04/25/03 at 20:35:18

29I) "A visit from the pointed-tooth fairy." PILLOW TALK: "A play on the...practice of having a child who loses a tooth put it under his/her pillow at night, the parents then replacing the tooth with a small sum of money while the child sleeps (a). This tradition seems to be widespread over much of Europe as well as the US, so it may have roots in some more ancient belief system. The Tooth Fairy is seen, with Santa Clause, as a myth specifically for children, with disbelief in it being a mark of increasing maturity. 'Believing in the Tooth Fairy' is often used as a metaphor to describe people who believe, unrealistically, that they will get freebies for one thing or another. The Tooth Fairy is also a serial killer in the recent film Red Dragon, and in Thomas Harris's 1990 book from which it is adapted (b)."--(a) Sophist, Fri, 04/25/03 at 19:55:25; (b) MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 04:47:23

"I'm sure it's just coinci, um, dental, but...the Tooth Fairy is also the monster in the movie Darkness Falls, with...Emma Caulfield!"--anom, Tues, 04/29/03 at 21:28:10

29J) "Yes, but, uh, once you've invited them in, thereafter they're, they're always welcome." ANGEL/ANGELUS: See 7GG.

29K) "Y'know, I think there may be a valuable lesson for you gals here about inviting strange men into your bedrooms." XANDER JEALOUS: See 7J.

29L) "I invited him in my car once." CONTINUITY CHECK: This occurred in Some Assembly Required (see 14BB).

29M) "Yep, you're doomed to havin'...to give him and his vamp pals a lift whenever they feel like it." LINKAGE: A similar fate almost befalls Xander in the third season's The Zeppo, when he falls in with a bad crowd of recently-resurrected rotting corpses who pressure him into joining their gang and driving them around town.

29N) "Like a barrier, a no shoes, no pulse, no service kind of thing?" POP CULTURE TIME: "The usual slogan [put on signs outside stores] is 'no shoes, no shirt, no service.'"--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13

"I don't know the origin...of this, but I can tell you it's older than the stylishly sloven late 1960's [the time period with which those signs are usually associated]. Before wide spread air-conditioning, in the 1950's and no doubt earlier, it was a chore to get teenagers to dress up enough to keep up decorum in restaurants on a hot day. Then too, it was something of a general introduction into a more affluent, less rural society. Even when I was in early grade school there were kids who weren't desperately poor who wore shoes only when they went to school, the store or church."--Cactus Watcher, Fri, 04/25/03 at 19:48:03

29O) "We're supposed to get some books. On Stalin." RUSSIAN ROULETTE: "Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili was born in Gori, Georgia, December 9 1879. His political name, Stalin, means Man of Steel, and was adopted when he was 34. A Bolshevic party member from 1903, he supported Lenin in the Russian Revolution of 1917, and became General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1922. After Lenin's death in 1924, he controlled the USSR until his own death in 1953. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union became increasingly inwardly focussed and oppressive, imprisoning, exiling and killing dissenters and creating an atmosphere of acute paranoia. Worldwide supporters of the communist movement only gradually came to acknowledge that the workers revolution had turned into a brutal dictatorship, but after Stalin's death the backlash was rapid, resulting eventually in the dismantling of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War with the US. Stalin may feature here as part of a serial killer theme: the deaths he was responsible for, never accurately counted, could have run from thousands into millions."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 04:47:23 See 29CCC.

29P) "Does this look like a Barnes & Noble?" POP CULTURE TIME: "Barnes & Noble is a large American bookstore chain."--Sophist, Fri, 04/25/03 at 19:55:25

29Q) "Since when?" METANARRATIVE HUMOR: "A metanarration on the fact that much of the show takes place in an otherwise-deserted school library."--Sophist, Fri, 04/25/03 at 19:55:25 See 5F.

29R) "Why doesn't he just slit her throat or..." YEAH, WHY IS THAT?: "This episode makes it clear that Angel is more interested in inflicting psychological torture on Buffy and her friends than simple killing. He taunts Spike's wheel-chair bound helplessness and comes on to Drusilla in front of him. Rather than use his invitation to Willow's house to kill her or her family, he kills her fish to frighten her. Although he does kill Jenny, he takes as much delight in taunting and belittling her verbally and chasing her through the school. And he doesn't drink from her. Instead, he breaks her neck in a perverse play on the way Angel saved her life in The Dark Age. The real fun, though, comes in putting Jenny's dead body in Giles' bed and decorating his living room in a way that implies that Jenny is upstairs waiting for romance. The way Giles' expression goes from giddy expectancy to shock is Angelus' legacy (see 29YYY). Finally, Angelus lurks outside of Buffy's house to see Buffy and Willow's sorrowful reaction to Jenny's death (see 29ZZZ). He smiles. Evil-as-sadism in its pure demonic form."--Masquerade, "Passion" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com

29S) "The...nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah approach to battle?" SCHOOLYARD GAMES: "A well known series of notes used to taunt. Can be wordless or can have words set to it (as in 'Xander is a scaredy'). It's the same as the opening line (and in fact all the lines) of the lullaby 'Bye Baby Bunting.' Also (nearly) the same as the Darth Vader theme in Star Wars."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 07:22:06

"One of those songs goes: 'Cry, baby, cry, put your finger in your eye.' What happens to him in Dirty Girls makes it very creepy that Xander has this line!"--anom, Tues, 04/29/03 at 20:00:42

29T) "Giles, Angel once told me that when he was obsessed with Drusilla, the first thing h-he did was to kill her family." CONTINUITY CHECK: He told her this in Lie to Me (see 19MMM). "Buffy reminds us of Angel's history of obsessive behavour, the story he told her before he lost his soul. If we hadn't realized already, it is now clear why he has not killed her. He is following a pattern, a murderous/obsessive pattern established during his unsouled years. The desire to possess, to dominate, expresses itself through controlling behaviour. The murders of Drusilla's family and friends had the sole aim of destroying Dru's mind. He prolongs the pleasure of the power trip by spinning out the process, playing macabre jokes, refusing to let the victim guess where the next blow will fall.Since, as Angel, he already has Buffy's love (and if he had chosen to play it that way he could well have made some headway into drawing her into vampirism with him), it is clear that the power play is not really about Buffy. It is about Angelus's feelings for her (and, formerly, for Dru), feelings that he rejects, cannot accept, and seeks to control through these extreme actions, making the object, the trigger of the feelings, stand in for the feelings themselves."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 07:22:06

"Might the writers have had in mind the possibility that Angelus would try to turn Buffy, rather than just kill her? Buffy's worst nightmare, as of course Angel would have known (see 10MMM)..."--dream of the consortium, Tues, 04/29/03 at 07:30:46

29U) "The more people who know the secret, the more it cheapens it for the rest of us." METANARRATIVE HUMOR: A nice little joke that really challenges the superhero convention of the secret identity. See 5P.

29V) "Until then, you and your mother are welcome to ride around with me in my car." THAT'S OUR CORDY!: Although ostensibly a sweet and selfless act, offering to drive around a girl who she claims to hate and her mother, even here there is a twist, Cordelia-style. Since she's already established that Angel can get into her car (although since a car isn't a residence, he probably could've gotten in, invitation or not--see 7E), she is in most likelihood offering Buffy and her mom rides so that she can get protection from the Slayer until Giles can figure out how to change the mystical locks.

29W) "Buffy, I-I understand your concern, but it's imperative that you keep a level head through all this." IGNORING YOUR OWN ADVICE: "Buffy does keep her wits in the episode. It's Giles who let's his anger nearly ruin him. Prop note - at this point in the conversation a flyer for a self-defense course appears on a pillar beside Giles' head."--Cactus Watcher, Fri, 04/25/03 at 20:35:18"You don't have Angel lurking in your bedroom at night." TRAGIC IRONY: By the third act of this episode, Angelus will have.

29X) "You don't have Angel lurking in your bedroom at night." TRAGIC IRONY: By the third act of this episode, Angelus will do just this.

29Y) "But as the Slayer, you don't have the luxury of being a slave to your, your passions." THE SLAYER'S LOT IN LIFE: See 17M.

29Z) "So what you're basically saying is, 'just ignore him, and maybe he'll go away'?" SCHOOLYARD GAMES: This is classic cliched advice that parents tell their children in order to deal with bullies. "Ignore them and they'll go away."

29AA) "Watcher's pet." THAT'S PUNNY!: A riff on the phrase, 'teacher's pet.' See 4*1.

29BB) "Oh, and I want both a paper printout and a copy on disk." COMPUTER NECESSITIES: "Could be taking this too far (never!) but in her final confrontation with Angel, Jenny had a paper print out of the spell (which Angel burnt) and a disk (which fell hidden from view, but was later found and successfully used by Willow). See, back up your files people! It is important!"--Helen, Tues, 04/29/03 at 07:33:14

29CC) "Really? Me? Teach the class? Sure!" MS. ROSENBERG: "The rapid demise of teachers at Sunnydale High gives Willow lots of stand-in opportunity. She should be getting paid, but given Snyder as principal, it seems unlikely. A lot of responsibility seems to be loaded onto her quite suddenly, which may increase the consequences when she finally revolts against her responsible image."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 08:44:51

29DD) "W-what if they don't recognize my authority? What if they try to convince me that you always let them leave class early?" SCHOOLTIME: These are classic ruses that schoolchildren since the dawn of time have tried to play on substitute teachers.

29EE) "Will I have the power to assign detention? Or make 'em run laps?" IT'S ABOUT POWER: This is similar to the way Kennedy, in the seventh season's The Killer in Me will treat the other Potentials like underlings while training them, acting like a drill seargent and calling them "maggots." "I was in a couple of fairly paramilitary youth organisations in my youth, and I spent two years at a traditionalist English school which still had prefects (which I consciously refused to be when I joined). I've seen how the kindest and most sensitive people aged under eighteen can suddenly mutate into power-crazed bullies as soon as they're given any kind of official power over others." Of course, the situation doesn't get quite as out of hand here with Will as it does later with Kennedy, but it is interesting to point how a small taste of power does get Will interestingly thinking about her abilities to punish the students.--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 04/25/03, with additions by Rob

"For a shy person she actually doesn't seem to have many problems with discipline when it comes to it - perhaps the assertive Willow of S5 is already coming into view here."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 08:44:51

29FF) "Sorry. I have to talk to her." WILLOW RESPONSIBLE: "Very dutiful Willow! While Buffy is going through her teen rebellion, Willow is still the perfect student, accepting and being accepted by the school system to the point of strangeness. She is also different to Oz in this respect - although he is an able student, school is failing to register on his 'important things in life' list, at least if he is to be believed. Willow's teen rebellion is not averted however, merely postponed to S6, when she's in her 20's. Always worse."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 08:44:51

29GG) His hands are in his pockets. TWEEDY BEHAVIOR: "Tweed-wearer's body language, signalling discomfort, embarrassment, suppressed emotion."--MsGiles, Tues, 04/29/03 at 08:44:51

29HH) "This might help." HELPFUL JENNY: Significantly, Jenny plays a major role here in supplying Giles with the key to revoking the invitations to Angel. This undoubtedly helps Giles let his guard down and consider rekindling their romance. Ironically, her helping Giles and Buffy with Angel is what will lead to her death.

29II) "My duty to them was the first thing I was ever taught." WAS IT RIGHT FOR JENNY TO KEEP HER REAL IDENTITY AND MISSION FROM GILES AND BUFFY?:

"*Jenny explains to Giles that she was raised by the gypsy clan who originally cursed Angelus to avenge the gypsy girl he killed. Her loyalties when she came to Sunnydale were with her people, her only goal, to keep an eye on Angel and report back.

* Once she arrived, she met Giles and Buffy and became their friend, but lied to them about her real purpose in town, probably because they were friends with the vampire she had been taught to hate. Later, after getting to know Angel and seeing his attempts to do good, she became his friend as well.

* As she moved into her new life, she gradually began to neglect her duty as a member of the gypsy clan. By the time her uncle arrived to remind her of it, it was too late--Angel had turned. Her lie caught up with her.

* Even though she didn't know about the 'happiness clause' of the curse until after Angelus was back, Giles felt betrayed by her duplicity. It is possible that if she had told them the truth, Giles might have wondered why the gypsies wanted someone to spy on Angel, and might have discovered the happiness clause before it was invoked."--Masquerade, "Passion" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com

29JJ) "I've read all the parenting books. You cannot surprise me." CONTINUITY CHECK: See 2DD. Ironically, Buffy will surprise her quite soon!

29KK) "... the college boy who was tutoring you in history?" CONTINUITY CHECK: See 7G.

29LL) "Don't tell me. He's changed. He's not the same guy you fell for?" METAPHORICAL GOODNESS: Joyce's line here basically sums up the Angelus as "I-had-sex-with-my-boyfriend-and-now-he's-like-a-different-person" metaphor. Similar to her classic "Everything is life or death when you're a 16 year-old girl" line in The Harvest (see 2EE), Joyce is trying to understand Buffy based on the parenting books she has read, and in speaking knowingly to Buffy explains what are supernatural dilemmas to Buffy in normal terms. See 26F.

29MM) "A-anyway, um... since he changed, he's been kinda following me around. He's having trouble letting go." ANGELUS THE STALKER: "Buffy is the queen of understatement here. However, her characterisation of Angelus as an ex-lover turned stalker seems pretty accurate in essence. When Angelus turns up later on at her house and talks to Joyce, he even plays the part himself, with deadly irony (see 29LLL)."--MsGiles, Wed, 04/30/03 at 04:42:47

29NN) Cut to Willow's room. ROOM DECOR: "Willow's room. She has a cluttered collage on a bulletin board, most prominent on it are the word "Sheep" written in red, and near the bottom the same oval 'WP' sticker that shows up all the time on the lockers at the high school. She has straw hats hung on her wall."--Cactus Watcher, Fri, 04/25/03 at 20:35:18

POP CULTURE TIME: "The WP sticker...reportedly refers to a rock group called Widespread Panic."--KdS, Sat, 04/26/03 at 02:40:16

29OO) "...try and keep happy thoughts..." LITERATURE CORNER: "Happy thoughts" are, in most likelihood, a reference to the classic British children's novel, Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie, where the children are given the gift of flight by being sprinkled with pixie dust and thinking happy thoughts.

29PP) "Hey, sorry about your fish." CARING BUFFY: It's sweet that even in such a moment of personal crisis, Buffy stops a moment to remember that Willow's pets had been killed, and consoles her.

29QQ) "Although for the first time I'm glad my parents didn't let me have a puppy." CONTINUITY CHECK: See 28GG.

PET PEEVES: "In Triangle Willow suggested that she hadn’t been allowed to have fish for years due to an unfortunate re-enactment of a Dr. Seuss scene. Willow and pets do not seem to be a good mix, besides the fish, there’s the long-lost Miss Kitty Fantastico, and her 'puppy' Angel in the Wishverse."--ponygirl, Sun, 04/27/03 at 17:46:44

29RR) "Every time something like this happens, my first instinct is still to run to Angel." ANGEL AS BUFFY'S FATHER FIGURE: See 25S.

29SS) "You're still the only thing he thinks about." ANGELUS LOVES BUFFY?: See 26KK. It is also interesting to note that it is Will who picks up on the fact that Angel isn't a completely different being from Angelus, since it is in reference to VampWillow in Doppelgangland that Angel will reveal this to be the truth about vampires' personalities (see 2LL and 2MM).

29TT) "Sunshine!" DRU'S HUMOR: "A vampire naming a puppy Sunshine is twisted in a fine Dru fashion - why not 'Wooden Stake'?"--dream of the consortium, Mon, 04/28/03 at 13:08:00

FEEDING TIME: "Remember here that most vampires seem to see feeding on non-sentient creatures as a gross humiliation..."--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13

29UU) "Might be handy to have you around if I ever need a really good parking space." HANDICAPPED PARKING: "Under CA law, businesses must set aside a percentage of their parking spots for the disabled. These spots are usually nearest the store entrance." This is also true in other states, as well.--Sophist, Fri, 04/25/03 at 19:55:25, with additions by Rob

29VV) "Anything I'm not already doing, that is." ANGELUS THE BASTARD: "Ever since Angelus came back he's been dropping innuendos to Spike about his relationship with Dru (see 28S). It seems unlikely that he's really interested in Dru though. He likes annoying Spike, asserting his superiority, and he's distracting attention from his obsession with Buffy, which Spike is only gradually coming to realise. Angelus's obsessive interest in Dru can be presumed to have ended when he finished tormenting her and turned her into a vampire."--MsGiles, Wed, 04/30/03 at 04:42:47

29WW) Cut to a Tarot shop. CONTINUITY CHECK: "The first appearance of The Magic Box, which will assume an increaisngly important role over the next few years."--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13

29XX) "Love potion?" CONTINUITY CHECK: A love spell was the focus of the previous episode, Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered (see 28CC).

29YY) "Sold a couple as new age paperweights last year." CONTINUITY CHECK: "This reference to paperweights sets up a joke in the episode, Becoming (see 33Vx4)."--Sophist, Fri, 04/25/03 at 19:55:25

29ZZ) "Yeah, I just love those new-agers, boy." New Agers are people who subscribe to a philosophy known as the "New Age." Kimberly Clark defined it as "a controversial term applied to a diverse spiritual movement including a broad range of interests in religion, philosophy, mysticism, health, psychology, parapsychology, ecology and the occult. The fact that so-called "New-Agers" actually are into concepts that are centuries-old set up a joke in Showtime, when Kennedy tells Willow that her witchcraft sounds very "new-agey," and Willow corrects her, "No. Safe to say what I practice is definitely old-agey." Likewise, this scene teases those who would consider an ancient Romani item "new age."--Wisewoman, Mon, 05/05/03 at 17:34:07, with additions by Rob

29AAA) "Without the annals, the surviving text is gibberish." BUFFYVERSE MYTHOLOGY: "The transliteration annals: Like other rituals, the text of "the ritual of the undead" has been kept safe from those who would misuse it by putting it in a secret code. Deciphering it requires "transliteration annals". Without the annals, the text of the ritual makes no sense. This is why Jenny told Buffy that re-cursing Angelus "couldn't be done" in Innocence--thanks to the mass slaughter of the Kalderash, her people no longer know how to break the code. But Jenny resourcefully uses her computer to translate the encoded incantation to English based on a random sampling of the text."--Masquerade, "Passion" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com

29BBB) "I don't like computers. They give me the willies." WORDS: "He is in agreement with Giles (see 8SS). Also on [the word derivation of] the willies: 'The 'willies' in the ballet [Giselle] take their name from the Serbo-Croatian word 'vila' (in English, 'wili' or 'willi') meaning a wood-nymph or fairy, usually the spirit of a betrothed girl who died after being jilted by her lover. It seems entirely possible to me that 'willi,' the spirit or ghost, became the 'willies,' the feeling that something creepy is going on (http://www.word-detective.com/back-d.html#willies).'"--MsGiles, Wed, 04/30/03 at 04:42:47

Act Two

29CCC) "Siberia." RUSSIAN ROULETTE: "Well now, that's where Stalin sent his dissident intellectuals (see Stalin, earlier). From a Siberian website: 'When a Westerner hears 'Siberia', images of frozen tundra and prison camps come to mind. But things are changing even in this lost region. Tundra and prison camps are still there but people go to concerts of organ music and dig ground out of pure curiosity (http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/siberia/).' Well, it sounds, er, wonderful."--MsGiles, Wed, 04/30/03 at 06:50:04 See 29O.

29DDD) "And I don't suppose either of you had the presence of mind to locate a camera to capture the moment." SEX ON THE BRAIN: "Xander as usual spotting the lech potential in this scenario."--MsGiles, Wed, 04/30/03 at 06:50:04 See 23I.

29EEE) "He misses you. He doesn't say anything, I mean, but I know he does. And I don't want him to be lonely. I don't want anyone to." BUFFY KIND: This is an incredibly mature moment for Buffy. Although she herself has not gotten over her anger at Jenny, she decides not to deny Giles his love. In effect, she says that it is okay, whether or not she is angry at Jenny, for Giles to date her again. One couple was lost as a result of Angel's turning; Buffy doesn't want to be the cause of another.

29FFF) "Sleepless, but no human fatalities." SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES: No human fatalities. "Only fish. Fish torture trivia: in the 1988 Brit film A Fish Called Wanda the (supposedly Nietzschean) Kline character tries to torture information from the (stuttering, animal-loving-but murderous) Palin character by eating the contents of his tropical fish tank (including Wanda)."--MsGiles, Wed, 04/30/03 at 06:50:04

29GGG) "I actually had to talk my grandmother into switching cars with me last night." THAT'S OUR CORDY: "Cordelia's single lowest point. At least when not possessed."--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13

29HHH) "It's just the recitation of a few rhyming couplets, burning of, uh, moss herbs, sprinkling of holy water..." REVOKING THE INVITATION: "The ritual to revoke the invitation to vampires: The owner of a private residence can revoke the invitation to a vampire by reciting certain rhyming Latin couplets, burning moss herbs, sprinkling holy water, and hanging crosses..."--Masquerade, "Passion" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com

29III) "Hanging of crosses..." FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT: In the original script, Buffy's last line was followed by a funny line by Cordelia, "Holy water?! But… my car has leather upholstery!" instead of this line of Giles'.--"Passion" by Ty King, available through Pocketbooks, Inc. as Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume 3

29JJJ) "I have to go over to Xander's house just to watch 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' every year." POP CULTURE TIME: Peanuts was an enduringly popular comic strip drawn by the legendary Charles Schultz, from 1950 until his death in 2000, which told the story of lovable loser Charlie Brown and his gang of friends, Lucy, Linus, Schroder, Marcie, Peppermint Patty, his sister, Sally, and dog, Snoopy, and Snoopy's bird friend, Woodstock. The comic strip was spun off as a TV cartoon series, as well as some holiday specials, including the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas.

CONTINUITY CHECK: "Remarkably, this dialogue forms the basis for a scene 3 years later (The Replacement, S5)."--Sophist, Fri, 04/25/03 at 19:55:25

29LLL) "I'll die without Buffy. She'll die without me." ANGELUS THE STALKER: "Angelus may simply be playing the part of the crazed stalker, as he toys with Joyce. He must have already been inside once, to draw the picture of Joyce that Willow found. And he is, after all, dead already. When he says Buffy will die without him, he could be talking about his intention to vamp her."--MsGiles, Wed, 04/30/03 at 06:50:04

29MMM) " I haven't been able to sleep since the night we made love." EVIL ANGELUS: And more with the psychological torture. Angelus knows that this revelation will not only shock and hurt Joyce but will lead to punishment for Buffy. To Joyce's credit, it does not, and she does not freak out. In fact, it helps Buffy and her grow closer.

29NNN) "Special project." WHAT IF?: If Jenny had told Giles here what she was doing, might he have stayed with her, thus preventing her death?

29OOO) "You could stop by my house." NO HAPPY ENDINGS: In typical Buffyverse fashion, the second things start working again for a couple, doom will strike.

29PPP) "She wants to know what you and the mean teacher talked about." LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: "Although we don't see his death explicitly, the first proof of the low life-expectancy of magic shop proprietors in Sunnydale (See also Lovers' Walk--see 42VV, The Real Me)."--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13

29QQQ) "I was invited." THE RULES OF INVITATION: "Since the invitation rule applies only to dwellings, Angelus must be joking here."--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13 See 7E.

29RRR) "The Orb of Thessela. If memory serves, this is supposed to summon a person's soul... from the ether... store it until it can be transferred." BUFFYVERSE METAPHYSICS: "The Orb of Thessela is the 'spirit vault for the rituals of the undead'--in other words, it is a temporary container of a human soul (presumably, of someone who has been vamped) summoned from the ether. It is unclear why the orb glows when Angelus picks it up. It also glowed when Jenny picked it up, so this might just be a response to being held.

The Ether: We know very little about the ether, except that this is where Angel's human soul is residing while Angelus rules the body. It is implied that this is (a dimension?) where all human souls reside while a vampire is in possession of their bodies. If this is true, it means that any human soul could be brought back to its vamped body. This is what happened in Angel's case. The other thing we know about the ether is that Angel seems to have no memory of his time there (Becoming II).

Fan speculation on the ether:

'I don't think that the Buffyverse is lacking in heaven. I believe that the reason that Angel's soul was in the ether and not in heaven was because while his body was "dead" his memories and such were still in use. It's my theory that those souls who's [sic] bodies become the domain of vampires are relegated to the ether until the vampire using their body is distroyed, at which point soul can be reuinited [sic] with memorys [sic] and experience and be finally put to rest in paradise. I think of the ether as a kind of cold storage for souls. They just float around in oblivion till they get connected with the rest of what made them human (minus the body of course) then they get to go to heaven (Lovely Poet, Apr 8 09:53 1999).'"--Masquerade, "Passion" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com

29*1) "...and deja vu just isn't what it used to be." CONTINUITY CHECK: "Angel's reference to deja vu is interesting in that it is a moment of deja vu [of a pencil rolling off Ms Calendar's desk] that helps Buffy find [the disk that contains] the spell that Angel is attempting to destroy at this very moment."--Tyreseus, Mon, 05/05/03 at 21:51:01

29SSS) "Looks like I get to kill two birds with one stone." COMPUTER ILLITERATE: "Actually, the monitor burning out wouldn't necessarily destroy the contents of the hard disc. Blame Angelus's lack of technical knowledge."--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13

SOUND ADVICE: "As Angel breaks up Miss Calender's computer, she stands by the door. By her head is a reminder that all is not lost, a bulletin reading, 'Remember to back up your files.' Of course, Angel has missed the existence of the critical floppy disk...[For the trivia fans...] the bulletin has been written over, and presumably corrected by hand (a). A prankish student changed it to 'remember to hack up your files (b).'"--(a) Cactus Watcher, Fri, 04/25/03 at 20:35:18; (b) tost, Mon, 04/28/03 at 18:54:19, paraphrased by Rob

29TTT) A cleaning cart is in the hall by the stairs, and Jenny grabs it and pushes it into Angelus. LINKAGE: This motion was foreshadowed by Buffy in School Hard (see 15III).

29UUU) ...and snaps her neck. FROM THE MOUTH OF THE ALMIGHTY JOSS: "We needed to kill somebody, because we needed to tell the audience that not everything is safe, that not everyone is safe, that we are willing to take a character who is interesting and integral and get rid of them to show that death is final and death is scary. We also wanted to show that no, Angel isn’t just pretending to be evil. He’s not just...a little bit evil. He’s not just grouchy. He is...now her enemy...

We spent a lot of time discussing how to kill Jenny Calendar. Obviously, the first idea would be that he should bite her, but we didn’t want people thinking that she might come back as a vampire. We wanted to make it very clear that he just killed her, and there was something about the fact of him breaking her neck instead of biting her that was almost an insult. It was off-hand. I’m not even gonna bother to feed...

There was a lot of discussion whether he should kill her with his human face on or his vampire face on, and we ended up using the vampire face because we thought it would just be too disturbing if he had his human face on and that nobody would ever want to see that face kissing Buffy again...

We wanted to make it as hard for our characters and for the audience as possible. We wanted to make them as unhappy as possible, and we wanted to make them know that redeeming or getting Angel back would be either impossible or so difficult and fraught with consequences that they themselves would be unsure if they would want to."--Joss Whedon, DVD Interview

WHO IS MORALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR JENNY'S DEATH?:

"The demon Angelus is solely responsible. 'Legally...this is a hard call. Demonic possession is not something that the courts tend to rule on although people are not held accountable for actions (and results) they make when they sleepwalk or are having seizures. People are accountable for their actions when they are 'under the influence.' The difference being that being under the influence is generally a choice; whereas an epileptic seizure or sleep walking may be an uncontrollable condition (but even this has degrees of culpability). Philosophically - I am not sure where I would land. Probably that Angelus is solely responsible for Jenny's death because for all intents and purposes, the essence that is Angel (the soul) was not present when the act occurred. The only analogy that I can think of is also supernatural - a zombie. Ethically...it is my belief that Angel and Angelus are different 'persons' - Angel = the soul; Angelus = the demon. I know that this is somewhat sophistry because the demon is always there; however, I don't feel that Angelus is always there (advocate, Dec 7 10:16 1998).'

Many people are responsible--including Jenny. 'Let's start with Darla, who made Angelus, then Angelus who actually killed Jenny (*sob*), Buffy holds some responsibility, Jenny (*sob*) herself is somewhat responsible, Jenny's (*sob*) uncle and the person who cursed Angel both have responsibility. Now if you want to assign percentages, I can't, except to say that Angelus is by far the most responsible (Cosmic Bob, Dec 7 06:50 1998).'

'On one hand you have Angel forced to carry the guilt of what his demon did, BUT Jenny did know what she was getting into by trying to restore his soul...she had to have known there was a risk (noni, Dec 7 06:34 1998).'

Angel himself has some responsibility. 'I think [Angel's memories] had an affect on the "person" Angelus was. ...The person Angel was had, through the parts left when the demon took over the first time, an influence on how the demon acted. The "person" Angel was when he lost his soul in Surprise had an influence on the demon Angelus and his acts. This doesn't mean Angel is to blame in entirety. But he isn't free from blame. Giles can't condemn Angel for killing Jenny... it wasn't Angel. But Angel can't feel like Jenny's death had nothing to do with him. Because it did (Lady Bathory, Dec 20 16:53 1998).'

Does Ty King bear any responsibility? 'I hold Ty King the most responsible (Leather Jacket, Dec 7 07:31 1998).'

'Don't blame me for Jenny's death. I said it before - I did not write in Jenny's death... David B. improvised that. You believe that, don't you? (Ty King, May 22 09:20 1998).'

Masquerade's note: holding the author of an episode responsible is akin to holding God responsible in a universe where God controls (at least some of) our actions and we do not have (complete) free will."--Masquerade, "Passion" Analysis from http://www.atpobtvs.com

POP CULTURE TIME: "Every time I see this episode, I'm convinced that the shot of Angelus with one arm raised, against the oriel window, is a specific film homage....I believe that there is a virtually identical shot of Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell against the bedroom window in Night of the Hunter, just before the character murders Shelly Winters's character."--KdS, Fri, 04/25/03 at 12:29:13

Part Two