Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Season 7

Lessons

1. The scenes that are marked as taking place in Westbury were actually shot at Anthony Head's house in Somerset, England. Filming was done on his private property to avoid complications associated with doing business in Britain. He owns the horse seen in the episode, and it is named Otto.
2. When the writers first came up with the character of Robin Wood, they weren't definite on whether it would be a man or a woman, so they picked a name that could apply to either gender.
3. In season 6's DVD extras, the cast appeared on Academy of TV Arts and Sciences Panel Discussion. Here Michelle Trachtenberg said that she'd been begging Joss Whedon to let her character wear black, seeing as she'd never been allowed to in order to keep her looking youthful and innocent. Dawn is seen wearing almost all black here on her first day of school.
4. At this point, the Scooby Gang has the fewest active members at any time in the series: Buffy, Xander, and Dawn. From the previous season: Willow turned evil and is now being rehabilitated in England, Giles moved back to England, Anya became a vengeance demon after her failed wedding, Tara was killed, and Spike left Sunnydale to regain his soul. All will return to the Scooby Gang throughout the season, with the exception of Tara.
5. The teaser follows the trend of season premieres taking place in a graveyard since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: When She Was Bad (1997), in which Buffy, Willow and Xander reunite in a cemetery. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Anne (1998), Willow, Xander, and Oz patrol a cemetery in place of an absent Buffy. The next year, in Season 4's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Freshman (1999), Buffy and Willow decide on what college courses to take in the graveyard. Season 5's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy vs. Dracula (2000), shows Buffy needing that extra dose of slaying-in-the-graveyard before bedtime. With Buffy dead, Season 6's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bargaining: Part 1 (2001), shows Giles, Spike, Xander, Tara, Anya, and the Buffy Bot patrolling in the cemetery under the leadership of Willow. Finally, Buffy trains Dawn in the techniques of vampire slaying, here.
6. Dawn gets a mobile phone, the first use by the Scoobies since Cordelia in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Welcome to the Hellmouth (1997).
7. In the coffee shop scene, when Halfrek is advising Anya to improve her vengeance, Halfrek warns Anya to remember what happened with "Mr. Czolgosz" (phonetically spelled "Cholgosh" in the captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers). This is a reference to a moment in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Superstar (2000) in which Anya, while explaining what she used to do as a vengeance demon, said, "Vengeance wishes, on ex-boyfriends. I'd wish he was a dog, or ugly, or in love with President McKinley, or something." On September 6, 1901, a fanatical fringe Anarchist named Leon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Czolgosz is one of the main characters depicted in the Stephen Sondheim/John Weidman musical "Assassins;" Joss Whedon. The writer has given many interviews (mostly in conjunction with the musical Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001) ) in which he has expressed his admiration for the works of Stephen Sondheim.
8. This is the only time Spike ever meets either the Master or Mayor Richard Wilkins III onscreen, although they are only manifestations of the First here.
9. Buffy gives Dawn, Kit, and Carlos advice after rescuing them from the basement: "School is intense, but you'll do all right as long as you're careful. And you might want to think about sticking together." Kit and Carlos do not, however, appear again, although Dawn is on the phone with Kit when the First begins causing chaos at the Summers house.
10. As Buffy, Dawn and her friends are exiting the basement, Buffy comments that the school seems 'a bit smaller,' which is the same comment Willow and Xander make as they walk through the charred remains in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doomed (2000).
11. This episode reintroduces the First Evil, this season's Big Bad (although it is not identified until Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Leave Me (2002)). The First makes an initial probe of Sunnydale's mettle under Buffy's reign by tormenting Angel four years earlier, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends (1998).
12. This line from Dawn was cut due to length "...and my sister is a vampire slayer, her best friend is a witch who went bonkers and tried to destroy the world, um, I actually used to be a little ball of energy until about two years ago when some monks changed the past and made me Buffy's sister and for some reason a big klepto. My best friends are Leticia Jones, who moved to San Diego because this town is evil, and a floppy-eared demon named Clem."
13. Two girls and a boy (Dawn, Kit, and Carlos) form a friendship on the first school day after fighting the supernatural together, which is similar to the way Buffy, Willow, and Xander started their friendship.
14. This is the first of multiple episodes to begin with the murder of a Potential Slayer, until their pivotal stand in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen (2003).
15. Xander appears with a new car after his previous one was damaged by Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Two to Go (2002).
16. Dawn fails to kill the vampire by missing the heart, which Buffy claims she also did fighting her first vampire. This can be seen during a flashback in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Becoming: Part 1 (1998) and her retelling of the story in the comic The Origin, Part One.
17. This episode marks Dawn's first day at Sunnydale High. The First remarks to Spike, "We're going back to the beginning." The first episode, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Welcome to the Hellmouth (1997), depicted Buffy's first day at the old Sunnydale High.
18. In her intervention over Anya's lackluster vengeance, Halfrek praises Anya's previous hard-core performance as a vengeance demon, saying "Do I have to mention Mrs. Czolgosz?" This is exceptionally obscure in-joke directed at Jane Espenson, who wrote a joke in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Superstar (2000) about Anyanka making a male victim fall in love with President McKinley. Leon Czolgosz assassinated President McKinley. The joke was a little too obscure; Espenson didn't catch it.
19. Buffy says, "There's always a talisman." In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001), Xander accidentally summons the demon Sweet through Sweet's talisman.
20. Buffy warns Dawn to stay away from "hyena people, lizardy-type athletes" and invisible people - referencing the monsters who appeared respectively in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Pack (1997), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Go Fish (1998) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Out of Mind, Out of Sight (1997).
21. Dawn comments that she is taller than Buffy. This has been apparent since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crush (2001) and mentioned by Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Normal Again (2002).
22. This episode marks the first appearances (as visions) of Warren since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Villains (2002), Glory since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Gift (2001), Adam since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Restless (2000), Mayor Wilkins since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: This Year's Girl (2000), Drusilla since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crush (2001) the Master since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Homecoming (1998) and the First Evil since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends (1998).
23. Adam calls Spike "number 17," a reference to the Initiative's code name for him, Hostile 17.
24. The First (in the guise of Buffy) describes it not being about good or evil, but it being about power; Holland Manners also says this in Angel: Blind Date (2000)
25. Having worked at Doublemeat Palace since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doublemeat Palace (2002), Buffy is now employed at Sunnydale High. As he reveals in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date (2003), Principal Wood creates a counseling position for the express purpose of luring the Slayer.
26. Buffy and Xander discuss the layout of the new Sunnydale High and the location of the principal's office over the Hellmouth, an area previously rested over the library.
27. By appearing as Buffy, Drusilla, and Warren, the First demonstrates for the first time in the series that it can also appear as undead and resurrected individuals, not just permanently dead people like Angel's victims in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends (1998).
28. Willow's mentor in England, Ms. Harkness, is named after the Marvel Comics character, Agatha Harkness, who is also a witch.
29. This is one of only two episodes in the entire series where one of Sarah Michelle Gellar's real life tattoos can be seen. In the first act when Buffy and Xander are discussing the Sunnydale High, the Chinese symbol for hope or luck on her left hip is seen. It can also be seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave (2002), when Buffy and Giles are laughing in the training room and as she climbs out of the hole in the ground at the cemetery.
30. Harry Groener (Mayor) filmed his moment with Spike weeks after the rest was shot. You can tell there's a cut when the First change from Adam to the Mayor.
31. The First appears to Spike in the form of the Big Bads of the past seasons in reverse order -- Warren (Season 6), Glory (Season 5), Adam (Season 4), Mayor Wilkins (Season 3), Drusilla (Season 2), The Master (Season 1) -- and finally as Buffy. This shot of pseudo-Buffy is used as the last shot of the opening titles for season 7.
32. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, and Mark Metcalf are the only actors to appear in the first and last season premiers.
33. When the First states that they are going "Right back to the beginning. Not the bang, not the word, the true beginning..." it is a statement that the speaker predates the existence of the earth. "The Bang" is a reference to the Big Bang Theory. "The Word" is a probable allusion to a Bible passage about creation: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:1-3, NIV)
34. The character of Principal Wood is introduced. He is later revealed to be Nikki Wood's son in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date (2003), one of the slayers that Spike killed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000).
35. Kali Rocha was performing in the play Noises Off when season 7 was shooting. She was flown in for one day and filmed all her scenes (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Selfless (2002) and this episode) on that one day. She filmed Halfrek's death before a green screen for later super-imposition into the scene.

Beneath You

1. In the pre-title sequence, when the pink-haired girl is chased through Frankfurt, the German vocals of the song are "Von der Tiefe / es verschlingt", which translates to the idé fixe of the season, "From beneath you it devours" (although it should really be 'Aus der Tiefe'...).
2. Buffy asks Principal Wood if she can issue detention, much as Willow did in the Season Two's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Passion (1998).
3. Robin warns Buffy not to be a friend to the students she is mentoring in her new job or they would "eat you alive". She responds, "you heard about principal Flutie, right?" This is a reference to season one's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Pack (1997), when students possessed by demon hyenas ate Principal Flutie.
4. First appearance of the recurring line from season seven, "from beneath you, it devours."
5. When questioned about his fondest memory of filming, James Marsters explained that final scene had slight different direction and dialog, but Joss Whedon saw the footage and told him the scene was horrible: "It's not your fault. It was the direction. But it's just so on the nose, and it's just cringe-worthy." Whedon then decided to rewrite and direct it, then they filmed "12 to 20 hours to begin with, which is so much longer than other shows," Marsters said. "Then, after we finished those eight days, and the main unit started a new episode, we were doing pickups and extra shots on B and splinter units throughout the next week, which was not even entirely legal. But to go back and wholesale throw away an entire day's work and begin from scratch in the midst of all that other filming was just a huge, huge thing to do. He was willing to do that." Marsters described the new direction: "He directed me to be less emotional. To be more distant. To be hiding both in the shadows and in my feelings from Buffy rather than try and proclaim them to her. I think that's the way shame works. I think there's a lot of shame in this scene. And I think, in general, we say that writing can be too much on the nose, which is kind of a way of saying it's too direct, it's too literal, it's too obvious - and that can be a very subtle difference. The writing wasn't bad originally, it was just slightly too much on the nose, and it needed to be just a little more opaque and just get that right tone."
6. In addition to the First Evil's phrase itself ("From beneath you, it devours."), the episode title is reminiscent of Cecily's and Buffy's words to Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000), when both tell him: "You're beneath me."
7. Xander's line was cut due to length: "I forgot high school's unwritten rules of hallway etiquette. Of course, no one ever explained them to me. They'd just stuff me in a locker till I drew my own conclusion."
8. Spike's last words in the episode were orginally: "I was the enemy, then I was nothing, and now I'm God's garbage, not even a joke, less than, less than, less than all His creatures combined so tell me, dear Buffy..." [Buffy lets him approach, unmoving, but not letting go of that stake, either. He barely makes it to her - and SLAMS straight down, to his knees. And opens his arms wide.] "How ya like me now?"
9. This episode parallels to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel (1997). In this one, after Buffy finds out Spike has a soul, he drapes his body on a cross and it burns him. In "Angel", after Buffy finds out that he is a vampire with a soul, they kiss and we see the cross Angel gave her searing his chest. Angel says the line "I wanted to kill you," and in this one, Spike says "I dreamed of killing you."
10. When Dawn mentions Buffy's and Xander's tendency for relationship with demons, Buffy recalls the time Dawn herself was involved with a vampire in the previous Halloween's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: All the Way (2001).
11. The small number of Scooby Gang members is addressed when Dawn suggests to Buffy and Xander that they "round up the gang", only to be told that the three of them are the gang.
12. Buffy has flashbacks of Spike's attempted rape in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Seeing Red (2002).
13. Buffy dreams about the Potential Slayer being killed and mentions that there are more like her out there. This is the first hint anyone in Sunnydale has about the larger mission of the First Evil against the Slayer line.
14. Anya's friction with the rest of the demon world is made known to the rest of the group, being a vengeance demon since Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Entropy (2002).
15. Buffy is hired as a school counselor, invited in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lessons (2002). She'll begin her work there in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Help (2002) until Principal Wood fires her in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls (2003).
16. From the original final scene, Spike's poetry was also cut: "William the bloody awful poet / Skipping down the lane / Good boy, bad boy, / All the sodding same."
17. Buffy discovers that Spike has been ensouled; he tells her he went after "what she deserved," the same way he referred to his soul when he requested it in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave (2002).
18. Spike tells Buffy that she can lock the door behind him with any spell she likes, as she had a revoke invitation ritual performed against him at her home in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crush (2001).
19. Spike says that Angel should have warned him, in reference to the older vampire's own experience with ensoulment in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Becoming: Part 1 (1998).
20. At the Bronze, Spike asks Buffy if she's "up for another round on the balcony." This calls back to a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dead Things (2002) in which she and Spike discreetly have sex on the balcony.
21. Anya and Spike mentions the one time they had sex, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Entropy (2002).
22. Buffy discovers that Spike has regained his soul, though does not immediately tell the other Scoobies.

Same Time, Same Place

1. On the map of Sunnydale, the location of the demon is labeled Wilkins Grove, after Mayor Wilkins.
2. When Spike says "What's a word means 'glowing'... Gotta rhyme," it is an allusion to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000) in which Spike, in a flashback as a human, was trying to think of a word that went with "gleaming" for a poem he was writing before being rejected by Cecily.
3. The site where Dawn finds information about Gnarl, "Demons, Demons, Demons", seems to be the same that Cordelia uses to find demons faster than Wesley, which has been used as a comedic joke several times in Angel (1999).
4. This is the only instance of the series not to feature any guest stars billed at the beginning.
5. This is the first instance of Dawn fully participating in a "Scooby-hunt", taking the role of a backup/replacement for Giles in researching.
6. When speaking with Anya, Willow cuts herself off from saying hop like a bunny because Anya is scared of bunnies.
7. When Willow asks Anya to help her do a demon locator spell, Anya asks her "This isn't gonna get all sexy, is it?" The question alludes to the use of magic in Seasons Four and Six (in scenes involving Willow and her now-deceased girlfriend, Tara Maclay) to represent lesbian sex. One of the candles used carries the Chinese character for love.
8. Camden Toy, the actor who portrayed the flesh-eating demon Gnarl, had previously portrayed one of the 'Gentlemen' in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush (1999). He would also have a recurring role of the "Ubervamp" Turok-Han later in the season, as well as playing the Nosferatu-like character "The Prince of Lies" in Angel: Why We Fight (2004). He named Gnarl as his favourite of his guest roles.
9. Camden Toy did his stunts and wirework.
10. Xander waits for Willow at the airport with a welcome back sign written in yellow crayon. This is a callback to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave (2002), when Xander mentioned to Dark Willow that she cried in kindergarten when she broke a yellow crayon.
11. Camden Toy recalled that he cut his tongue on the fake teeth he wore, as they hadn't been rounded yet.
12. Camden Toy recalled that he and Alyson Hannigan had fun filming the scene where Gnarl tortures Willow, due to her sense of humour. Since he was sitting on her for most of the scene, he had to figure out a way to do so without crushing her.
13. Camden Toy recalled that on his first day of filming, he was in the Gnarl costume for twelve hours. He was unable to go to bathroom in that time.
14. Willow and Anya are seen performing another spell together like they did in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doppelgangland (1999).
15. Dawn mentions to Buffy, "and I can wear heels more often." The comment could be a reference to Michelle Trachtenberg's desire to wear heels instead of sneakers in season seven, which she mentioned to Joss Whedon during an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences panel discussion with cast and crew. This may be because she is already significantly taller than all the other Scooby girls despite being the youngest in the cast.
16. This line of Dawn's in which she points out that Willow could be the one to blame for her own problems, was cut due to length: "Instead everyone just keeps secrets, and suffers alone, and then we're supposed to be all sympathetic when they start ripping the skins off people or dragging their sisters to the basement! I may have some stuff to work through."
17. The affectionate and tender scene between Buffy and Willow at the end makes definitely amend of their previous confrontation, the brutal and violent fight at The Magic Shop in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Two to Go (2002).
18. Anya is seen cleaning up the debris from The Magic Box following the events of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave (2002).
19. Anya's falling out with the demon community continues (she can no longer idly teleport).
20. Amongst the burnt items Anya is taking from the wreckage of The Magic Shop is the mummy hand from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Life Serial (2001).
21. During the demon locator spell, the area that represents Sunnydale High School on the map begins to burn up due to the vast number of dots. This is an early indication of The First's army of Turok-Han within the Hellmouth.
22. After slaying the Gnarl, Xander remarks "Eww, thumbs?!" In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls (2003), Xander loses an eye from Caleb's thumb.

Help

1. Cassie's name is an obvious reference to the mythological Cassandra. In the world of Greek/Roman mythology, she was a seer whose visions always came true. However, after rejecting the advances of the god Apollo, he placed a curse on her that ensured that her prophesies would never be heeded. This is reflected in Cassie's various predictions, which are in time realized, regardless of the surrounding people's doubts and disbelief.
2. This is said to feature the first known use on television of "Google" as a verb when Willow asks, "Have you googled her yet?" and Xander responds "She's 17!"
3. Willow visits Tara's grave for the first time, and she leaves a small handful of stones on top of the gravestone. There is a Jewish tradition (Willow is Jewish) that one leaves a small stone or two on the gravestone during every visit to a loved one's grave. This tradition is also visible at the end of another Joss Whedon project, Serenity (2005), in which such stones are visible on the graves at the end of the film.
4. The book Cassie Newton is reading, "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., deals with an alien race who can view the future as they travel through their lives in a non-linear time, but have no free will; much like Cassie knows what will happen but cannot change her fate.
5. Despite credited, Emma Caulfield Ford and Beth Skipp do not appear in this episode, as their only scene was cut. In the scene, Anya attempts to get a woman named Lulu to make a wish in revenge for her boyfriend forgetting her birthday, but accidentally ends up counselling her into forgiving him instead.
6. Willow mentions posting fan fiction of Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989) online. Doogie Howser was played by Neil Patrick Harris, who would go on to star in How I Met Your Mother (2005) with Alyson Hannigan.
7. This is the second time that Buffy refers to herself as "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," the first time being in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Anne (1998).
8. While Cassie informs Buffy that she herself will die next Friday, she tells Buffy she just "knows" things. At one point she tells Buffy she will go somewhere "dark and underground", which alludes to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen (2003), when Buffy enters the Hellmouth for her final stand against the First.
9. Cassie's situation is similar to Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Prophecy Girl (1997). Her story is similar to that of Buffy, in that both girls were "destined" to die because of it.
10. Cassie's speech above is similar to a speech made by Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Becoming: Part 1 (1998): "Do you think I chose to be like this? Do you have any idea how lonely it is? How dangerous? I would love to be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys or, God, even studying! But I have to save the world. Again.", and one made by Angel in Angel: War Zone (2000): "What do I want? Love, family, a place on this planet I can call my own. But you know what?...I'm never gonna have any of those things."
11. Cassie Newton's death is one of only two in the show's huge body count that were due to natural causes. The other was Joyce Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Body (2001).
12. Before Cassie Newton dies, she cryptically informs Spike, "Someday, she'll tell you." This was meant to foreshadow Buffy telling Spike that she loves him in the series finale Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen (2003).
13. This is the first appearance of Amanda, who will later be activated as a Slayer. She already demonstrates typical Slayer attributes such as violence and being attracted to a boy who makes her miserable. She'll appear again in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Potential (2003) and stay with the Scooby Gang for the rest of the season.
14. Tara was born on October 16, 1980 and died on May 7, 2002. This is the same date that Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Seeing Red (2002) was first aired and is when Tara was shot and killed by Warren Meers.
15. Azura Skye's (Cassie) character in American Horror Story (2011), a cult follower who breaks into the Harmon home, also has foreshadowing of her imminent deaths.

Selfless

1. In the DVD audio-commentary, writer Drew Goddard said he asked Joss Whedon to write a song for Emma Caulfield Ford. Whedon refused, arguing he was too busy (he was working on Firefly (2002) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) at the same time). The day after, Whedon showed up with the song, saying he could not stop thinking about it.
2. Sarah Michelle Gellar was only available for three days of shooting on this episode because of her wedding to Freddie Prinze Jr.. Drew Goddard said in his commentary for the episode that her hair in the show (the little braid at the side of her head) was her "wedding hair".
3. Anya (then Aud) and Olaf are speaking Swedish (or rather, they try to - some of what they say is actually Swedish, but the rest is gibberish).
4. During Anya's song there are numerous pieces of trivia. Before she begins to sing the viewer can hear people singing outside about spilling mustard on their clothes, and worrying it will never come out. Also, she talks to Xander about the 'coconuts, and asks him if it was weird - in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001) at the beginning all the Scoobies are talking together and you can hear Xander and Anya mentioning the coconuts. In "Once More With Feeling" a group of ecstatic people sing happily about mustard being removed from a man's clothes just outside the Magic Box. Also, Anya says in her song that she is good at math, most probably a nod towards her love of money, yet in her first appearance after losing her powers she complains that she is stuck in Sunnydale High and "flunking math!" An allusion to her duet with Xander "I'll Never Tell" is also included, in the line "Although he can be - I'll never tell."
5. In the DVD commentary, writer Drew Goddard claims that the Sjornjost scenes were written in Swedish but he intended for the lines to be dubbed badly in English. Thus, Emma Caulfield Ford and Abraham Benrubi were told that they did not need to memorize the Swedish that carefully because it would not be heard. Both actors memorized all of the alleged Swedish words phonetically, and the show creators were so pleased with their performances that they decided to subtitle the scenes rather than dub them.
6. Buffy states to Xander "I am the law." Faith had once told Buffy "We are the law." in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Consequences (1999) but Buffy had denied it at the time.
7. Drew Goddard considered a flashback to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush (1999) rather than to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001), but decided that it would be difficult to show Anya defining herself through Xander without dialogue.
8. In the audio commentary, writer Drew Goddard mentioned whether or not the "Mrs." scene should have been shown in widescreen for American audiences since it was a flashback to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001), the only Buffy shown in widescreen in the US. Director David Solomon thought it would have been too confusing to switch between full-frame and widescreen, so it was not done.
9. During Anya's song, she sings the name she invented in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Checkpoint (2001), Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins. She later sings that it was a stupid name she made up.
10. When Anya is singing, she says she's good at math, but in the Season Three's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doppelgangland (1999), while she is trying to be a vengeance demon again, she says she's failing math.
11. Olaf bemoans the illogical reasoning of Trolls, pre-shadowing Xander's phrase 'Insane troll logic'.
12. In this episode, we learn that Anya's outlandish behavior throughout the series is not because she is an ex-demon; rather, she has been an outcast all of her life. Part of her revenge on her cheating boyfriend is to make him an outcast by transforming him into a troll.
13. When Halfrek is congratulating a remorseful Anya in the interior of her new apartment, the camera passes a round glass jar in a box of leftover "Magic Box" supplies. It closely resembles the "Mu-Ping" Jar that will temporarily house Angel's soul during the fourth season of Angel (1999).
14. During the battle, Anya asks of Buffy "Are there any of your friends you haven't tried to kill?" This is most likely a reference to Buffy's trauma in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Normal Again (2002), in which, under the influence of a hallucination, Buffy sets a demon loose to kill Xander, Willow, Dawn, and Tara, along with her fight with Willow at the end of the previous season, and such fights with Angel and Spike. Furthermore, she has forcefully attacked (albeit by mistake in all cases) Cordelia Chase, Oz, Riley Finn, and Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Welcome to the Hellmouth (1997), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: What's My Line?: Part 1 (1997), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Initiative (1999) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A New Man (2000); respectively. Therefore, Anya is correct: Buffy has attacked the majority of her friends in some manner.
15. When Anya rouses herself after Buffy stabs her through the chest, she says that Buffy knows better, that a sword through the chest doesn't kill vengeance demons. She is referencing Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Older and Far Away (2002) in which Halfrek, a fellow vengeance demon, is stabbed through the chest and calls it a "flesh wound."
16. In Sjornjost 880, Aud happily raises rabbits, while from season 4 until the end of the series Anya demonstrates fear and hate toward rabbits. This implies that Anya's hostility toward rabbits might be a subconscious association of them with the simple, happy life she enjoyed with Olaf before his infidelity, the action which set her life as a vengeance demon into motion.
17. This line of Xander's was cut due to length, when D'Hoffryn tells Anya she must pay a price: "Something that involves grueling, hard labor. At fair market value taking into account your project's special needs."
18. The episode ends with Anya walking alone in the UC Sunnydale campus at night, which mimics the last scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Harsh Light of Day (1999) and mirrors her dissatisfaction with the state of her recent relationship with Xander at the time.
19. The 1905 Russian Revolution scene at the dinner table required extras, including three women at least 5'6 in height with 22-inch waists to be shrunk even further with the use of corsets to play three Russian princesses. One day before shooting the scene, the extra agency in charge still only had booked two female extras for the parts. They ended up hiring [link=nm0487740, who had been with the extra agency for a short time over a decade prior, whose measurements hadn't changed, and who agreed to sign on because filming was to take place only a half mile from her home. She can be seen in a yellow gown at the dinner table with other members of Russian nobility as well as in the next scene, where out of the three princesses, she volunteered to play dead at the dinner table, and thereby not to breathe for the tight corset would have revealed it. She was so close to the man on fire who bursts into the dining room that she could see the brightness from the flames with her eyes closed.
20. The Xander and Anya problem is reversed in Buffy and Spike, which would be fully explored in further episodes.
21. Willow insists that she didn't finish her classes and finals using magic and she wasn't lying. She was "on the wagon" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Gone (2002) until Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Seeing Red (2002) where she had to catch up on her classes and finish her finals since she couldn't have done the finals after Tara's death.
22. Drew Goddard says that he chose the name Aud for Anya's original human name because, while researching Viking names, he found a Viking king named Olaf who had a wife named Aud, known for her sense of humor and her ability to manage money. The description of Aud fit Anya so well that he had to use the name.
23. When Xander and Buffy are arguing about Buffy wanting to kill Anya, Buffy brings up the fact that she killed Angel to save the world. She adds "do you remember cheering me on? Both of you. Do you remember giving me Willow's message, 'kick his ass'?" Willow then says "I never said that". This is a reference to season 2's finale Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Becoming: Part 2 (1998) when Willow was trying the spell to restore Angel's soul and told Xander to tell Buffy. However, due to Xander's dislike for Angel, he blurts out to Buffy that Willow's message was simply 'kick his ass'.
24. After Anya takes back her wish to D'Hoffryn and he kills Hallie instead, Anya tells him, he should have killed her instead. D'Hoffryn replies "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. From beneath you, it devours. Be patient. All good things in time." This foreshadows the death of Anya in the series finale.
25. In this episode, we see Willow using the talisman that D'Hoffryn gave her in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Something Blue (1999) to summon him if she decides to become a vengeance demon, but she instead uses it to ask D'Hoffryn to turn Anya into a human again.
26. When D'Hoffryn appears to Willow, he asks "have you done something to your hair?" This is a reference to season 6 when she turned into Dark Willow and her hair went black. His praising of Warren Meers' flaying is also from then.
27. When Buffy and Xander are in the woods underneath the tree, after the spider attacks Xander it leaves a streak across his left eye. He will lose his eye later this season at the hands of Caleb.
28. In Anya's flashback sequence, before she starts singing her song, Xander mutters "I just want a happy ending". In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001), Xander claims to have summoned Sweet, a demon who makes people dance until they burn. His excuse for summoning Sweet was that "I just wanted to make sure we were gonna work out. Get a happy ending."
29. Final appearance of D'Hoffryn and Halfrek in the series.
30. Kali Rocha was performing in the play Noises Off when Season Seven was shooting. She was flown in for one day and filmed all her Season Seven scenes (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lessons (2002) and this episode) on that one day. She filmed her "death scene" before a green screen for later super-imposition into the scene.
31. Both this and the Angel (1999)'s Angel: Supersymmetry (2002) are the fifth of their respective season. Both feature a secondary female character who either carries out or intends to carry out vengeance and the reactions of others and consequences of that choice. Here, since Anya is a vengeance demon, the vengeance is not personal but the scale shocks others. In Supersymmetry, Fred's decision is born out of deeply painful history and marks a major change for the character.
32. D'Hoffryn tells Xander that he sees with the "eyeballs of love." In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls (2003), Caleb tells Xander that he sees everything before putting his thumb in Xander's eye.

Him

1. Buffy, in her role as guidance counselor, tells RJ (Thad Luckinbill) that "I'm not that much older than you. In fact we're practically the same age." In reality, Luckinbill is two years older than Sarah Michelle Gellar.
2. In the season Two's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Inca Mummy Girl (1997) Devon and Oz are talking about dating. Devon asks Oz, "what does a girl have to do to impress you?" and Oz replies, "well, it involves a feather boa and the theme to A Summer Place. I can't discuss it here." The "Theme from A Summer Place" ( the music by Max Steiner for the soundtrack for the Sandra Dee / Troy Donahue movie A Summer Place (1959) ) is the music that plays each time a woman is enchanted by R. J.'s jacket.
3. When talking about love spells Xander flashes back to the Season Two's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (1998) where a spell goes scarily wrong and every woman in Sunnydale is lusting after him.
4. Spike, whose aspirations as a poet date back to his human days in the 1800s, rolls his eyes after R.J.'s older brother Lance said that he'd been worried about R.J. when he discovered poetry the younger brother had written.
5. There are a few nods to season one's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Witch (1997). In Witch, Buffy tries out for the cheerleading squad, Dawn does it here using Buffy's uniform. Dawn is also the same age as Buffy was then. RJ's magic causes Dawn to take out competition for RJ by pushing his team mate down the stairs. In Witch, Amy used magic to take out her competition for the cheerleading squad.
6. The Breeders make an uncredited appearance as the band playing the Bronze.
7. Four of the six credited guest stars (Riki Lindhome, Angela Sarafyan, Thad Luckinbill and Brandon Keener) have made guest appearances as UnSubs or victims on Criminal Minds (2005), a series on which "Buffy" cast regular Nicholas Brendon had a recurring role.
8. The song "Theme to A Summer Place" is used often in this episode, playing whenever a woman falls for R.J. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Inca Mummy Girl (1997), Oz mentions having a fantasy involving "a feather boa and theme to A Summer Place."
9. Buffy is shown driving only four times during the course of the series. The first was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Band Candy (1998), where she is seen driving badly; the second was in Faith's body in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Who Are You? (2000) (again badly). The third is Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Gone (2002) where she drove a vehicle perfectly (although while invisible), and the fourth time is in this episode. She still owns Joyce's green 4x4 (which was referred to as the Geek Mobile in "Band Candy".
10. When visiting Lance with Xander, Spike stands up and walks past Lance in order to turn around a number of porcelain angels so that they face away from him. This may be a reference to his insanity early in Season 7, or it could be due to his dislike of Angel.
11. It is never revealed whether Buffy and RJ actually progress to sex before being interrupted by Xander (or indeed afterward when he leaves them alone again). If they do, then RJ is her fifth lover and the last time she has sex in the series. He's also the only sexual partner she never beats up.
12. Anya's bank robbery takes place across the street from where Xander and Spike grab R.J.'s jacket.
13. Initially not recognizing it is her, Xander and Willow become attracted to Dawn at the Bronze when they see her dancing with RJ, then feel guilty afterwards. Xander and Dawn would later become an item in the comic books.
14. RJ becomes the third poetry enthusiast Buffy becomes attracted to. Previously, she dated Emily Dickinson fan Owen Thurman in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (1997), and had an affair with Spike.
15. Goddess Hecate had also been summoned in Amy's spells in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (1998) and [link=tt0533430. Xander was present at the first usage, and in this episode, after he prevents Willow from completing her spell, he says "Quit with the Hecate".
16. Anya's robbery spree means that nearly all the Scooby girls have committed a form of theft - Dawn shoplifting in season 6, Buffy implying she has shoplifted lipstick in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Becoming: Part 1 (1998), and Willow taking things without paying for them from The Magic Shop in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Triangle (2001). Joyce also keeps the coat "Ripper" stole for her in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Band Candy (1998), whilst Cordelia keeps the necklace from the museum in Angel: The Shroud of Rahmon (2000).
17. Starting with this episode, until Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sleeper (2002), Spike lives in a spare bedroom in Xander's apartment. Spike has "bunked" with Xander before, in Season Four from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush (1999) until Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A New Man (2000).
18. This is one of only two occasions where Xander takes charge of the Scoobies (because of the girls all being affected by the love spell). The other is in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bargaining: Part 2 (2001).
19. Dawn becomes the sixth and final Scooby to walk in on her beloved cheating on her. Other examples include Willow discovering Cordelia with Xander and Oz with Verruca in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Surprise (1998)/Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wild at Heart (1999), Buffy discovering Riley with his vampire whore and Spike with Anya in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Into the Woods (2000)/Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Entropy (2002), Xander discovering Spike with Anya (Entropy) and Cordelia and Oz discovering Willow and Xander together in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lovers Walk (1998).
20. When Dawn lies down on the tracks to die by suicide, it is a reference to the novel Anna Karenina, where the titular character dies by lying down and being run over by a train, after being rejected romantically.
21. This exchange was cut due to length, where Dawn tries to figure out the relationship between Spike and her sister: Dawn: "And I'm even trying to understand that. A little. The rape part."Buffy: "He didn't. I mean, he tried-"Dawn: "Not that. I just...you guys had sex a lot, right? It's not like you were strangers. Weren't you even...being kind of rough with each other? Anya said some stuff."Buffy: "I should have killed her when I had the chance. Dawn, it was complicated. But I'd broken it off with him. I didn't want it anymore."
22. The rocket launcher Buffy tried to use to bazooka Principal Wood away before Spike intercepted it is the same one she used to blow up The Judge in Season Two's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Innocence (1998)
23. Final Apperance of Cordelia in the show, albeit uncredited archive footage.
24. Xander's first idea for the reasoning behind Dawn's sudden crush on RJ is RJ's letterman jacket. Although Xander said this jokingly, it turns out to be accurate.

Conversations with Dead People

1. Originally, Xander was supposed to talk to The First in the form of Jesse (Eric Balfour), his buddy from Season 1. However, when Eric was unavailable, a replacement for him couldn't be found, so the scene was never filmed and as a result, Xander doesn't appear, making it the only time Nicholas Brendon was not featured.
2. Joss Whedon and Marti Noxon are both uncredited writers, each writer writing one of the four different segments. The Dawn/Joyce segment was written by Jane Espenson, the Andrew, Johnathan and Warren segment was Drew Goddard's, Marti Noxon wrote the Willow/Cassie segment, and Joss Whedon wrote Buffy's conversation with Holden.
3. This plot is told entirely in real time in between the commercials.
4. According to the DVD commentary, a scene was intended for Kali Rocha to return as Halfrek to haunt Anya. This scene was never made as Kali Rocha was busy with her stage acting in New York.
5. The song "Blue" was written by Angie Hart specifically for the series.
6. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan are the only two actresses to appear in all 144 shows, with the exception of the unaired pilot in which Willow was played by Riff Regan
7. The monster appearing to strangle Joyce is actually the Gnarl costume from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Same Time, Same Place (2002) shot from the back and spray-painted black.
8. Kristine Sutherland is the only actress to appear as a guest star in all seven seasons.
9. Holden mentions that some of Buffy's classmates thought she was involved with an older man, which she indeed was: the centuries-old Angel. Others, he notes, thought she was overly religious, presumably because Buffy invariably carried and wore crosses in order to ward off vampires.
10. The date in the show, November 12, 2002, is the same day that it was initially broadcast.
11. Holden Webster pronounces "nemeses" correctly and Buffy replies "Is that how you say that?" In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Gone (2002) (season 6), both Warren and Buffy have trouble with the word.
12. Joss Whedon named this as one of his ten favourite episodes.
13. This is the only episode with a specific date and time given at the beginning of the episode - November 12, 2002; 8.01 PM. This is the same date and time as the original air date of the episode.
14. If you freeze at around 26:21, there is a flash of Joyce being held down on the couch by a black demon. Joyce is wearing the same outfit as when she died in Season Five's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Body (2001), and is in the same place (on the couch) as where Buffy found her dead.
15. Buffy learns that Scott Hope, who she dated briefly from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Faith, Hope & Trick (1998) to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Homecoming (1998) came out as being gay in college. This is possibly a reference to the fact that his actor Fab Filippo went on to star in Queer as Folk (2000).
16. When Buffy confides with Holden "I have all this power. I didn't ask for it. I don't deserve it. It's like... I wanted to be punished," the original script had her telling instead: Buffy: "I just wanted to be touched. To be reached. Were you here when everything turned into a musical?Holden: "I missed it."Buffy: "I explained it a lot better then. With rhyme, and all, but I just... I can't go back to that."Holden: "And you think you might? You're still attracted to this guy? Buffy: "Well, he's changed, a lot, a LOT a lot, but no, I... I just can't feel as low as I did then and do what I have to do. Things are getting worse. More of you guys are rising, and... something's coming."
17. With the exorcism, Dawn display a little magic knowledge learned from Willow. Over the course of the season, she displays many skills gotten from other characters, such as fighting skills from Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Potential (2003) and some Sumerian from presumably Giles shown in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Get It Done (2003).
18. Sunnydale's population appears as 32,900, a drop from the 38,500 that appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: School Hard (1997).
19. This is one of only two episodes in the whole series that has the episode title appear on-screen at the beginning of the program. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001) was the other.
20. Holden pronounces "nemeses" correctly and Buffy replies "Is that how you say that?" This is an allusion to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Gone (2002) when both Warren and Buffy mispronounce it "nemesis-es."
21. Andrew and Jonathan discuss the nightmares they've been having, as will be shown in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Storyteller (2003).
22. Jonathan and Andrew discuss their interest in joining the Scooby Gang. Jonathan had expressed this desire in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Superstar (2000), but only Andrew will "even hang out at [Buffy's] house" and join the group permanently, as confirmed in the comic Predators and Prey.
23. Jonathan tells Andrew that he won't be back to the big house, in reference to their incarceration in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Villains (2002).
24. Willow recognizes Cassie mentioning seeing her picture, as she had found her blog in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Help (2002).
25. Buffy and Holden debate over her knowingly "doomed" relationships; she discussed the supposed impossibility of being with Angel, Riley, and Spike just before beginning a relationship with each of them, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel (1997), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doomed (2000) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Smashed (2001).
26. This episode further establishes the season's Big Bad, whose shapeshifting ability was displayed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lessons (2002) and previously in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends (1998).
27. In the Slay the Critics featured in the comic No Future for You, Part One, a mail pointed out the contradiction of Warren's reveal in The Long Way Home, Part Four that he didn't die in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Villains (2002), while he was still impersonated by the First Evil, such as in this episode. About this, Joss Whedon answered: "He was legally dead for like a second. Amy didn't tell him 'cause she didn't want to upset him. I forgot, okay?!"
28. Buffy tells Holden he'd laugh if he heard some of the things she's done to her friends; in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave (2002) she and Giles laughed together as she told what happened with her and the Scoobies in the previous year.
29. Buffy confides with Holden about her most recent relationship, mentioning she mistreated Spike, "behaved like a monster," "let him completely take [her] over," and the "joke" was that he loved her. This dynamic was most prominent in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dead Things (2002), when she both accepted to have sex in a public space with him and beaten him after he told he loved her.
30. Amber Benson was initially going to appear as Tara, taunting Willow instead of Cassie, but she turned it down on the grounds that she thought having Tara as a villain would ruin her character. According to the writers in this episode's DVD commentaries, she simply wasn't available.
31. When Dawn accidentally gets pizza sauce on one of Buffy's shirts (around 04:37) she shrugs and says "she'll think it's blood". A continuance to this scene is mentioned later in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date (2003) when Buffy is getting ready for her date with Principal Wood. She recruits Anya's help in removing a stain from this same shirt and when Anya can't get the stain out, she says "I'm not even sure this is blood. It might be pizza".
32. Jonathan M. Woodward who plays the vampire (Holden Webster) Buffy talks to throughout this episode, before staking him at the end, appears in an episode of Joss Whedon's Firefly (2002) in which he is also killed by the lead character towards the end of the story.
33. When Dawn sings about anchovies (around 04:28), Jane Espenson, who wrote the "Dawn/Joyce" scenes, mentions in the commentary that this was due to her love for anchovies and a "certain prominent pizza delivery chain stopped offering anchovies" and she wants them to bring anchovies back. She has made it her mission/"personal crusade", whenever she writes scenes for teenagers, to mention how cool anchovies are.
34. The First appears as Warren Meers, who was killed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Villains (2002). It is revealed in the canonical comic storyline "The Long Way Home" that Warren was saved from death by Amy Madison. On the letters page of Buffy Season Eight #6, Joss Whedon responds to the question of how the First could have impersonated Warren if he'd never died, by saying, "He was legally dead for like a second. Amy didn't tell him 'cause she didn't want to upset him. I forgot, okay?!"
35. On the DVD commentary for the show, Jane Espenson revealed that the image of Joyce is The First. In the original draft of the script, Dawn was going to try to raise her mother. When Joyce appeared, she was to say, "They said I couldn't bring someone back." To which The First/Joyce would reply: "Maybe I'm the First."
36. Jonathan M. Woodward, who plays the vampire who Buffy speaks with, also appears in the fifth season of Angel (1999) as a scientist with Wolfram and Hart.
37. Dawn's "Mom? ...Mommy?" when trying to reach Joyce echoes Buffy's pleas to her mother's corpse in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Body (2001).
38. Cassie, supposedly speaking for Tara, reminds Willow that she is "strong like an Amazon", referencing a conversation that Willow and Tara have in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Body (2001), when they discuss being strong for Dawn. She also reminds Willow of the time when Tara sang to her on the bridge ("Under Your Spell") in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001).
39. Danny Strong read the script with Tom Lenk on their way home from a convention and reportedly skipped the part where Jonathan's death was described and Tom had to break the news to him.

Sleeper

1. Aimee Mann sang two songs; "This is How it Goes" and "Pavlov's Bell" at the Bronze. During "Pavlov's Bell", a fight broke out between some Spike and another vampire, the band stopped playing, Aimee Mann stopped singing for a second and after her performance, she spoke the line "Man, I hate playing vampire towns". Aimee Mann is the only singer/band featured on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) to have a speaking part.
2. In one scene, the bouncer refers to Spike as "a Billy Idol wannabe," and Buffy starts to say that Billy Idol actually stole the look from him (implying Spike had told her this in conversation at some point). In Season Five's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000), Spike's resemblance to Billy Idol was depicted (though not acknowledged in dialogue) during his flashback fight with the Slayer Nikki Wood in 1977, at which time Spike's attire and hair mimicked Idol almost perfectly, several years before Idol's fame.
3. Willow refers to The First as the "Big Bad" - a term coined in the series and used since in other programs to describe the main antagonist of a season.
4. The female vampire that accosts Spike in the Bronze suggests "I take him, you take her?" while looking at a couple, just as Drusilla did in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crush (2001).
5. This is the last time in the series not to guest star Tom Lenk.
6. This line of Anya's was cut when she tries to explain why she is in Spike's room: "I... am here, obviously, because of the reason which I am about to tell you, with the following words, and that reason is... uh, clearly and obviously too, um... sex."
7. Anya fools Spike about investigating his bedroom by recalling the time the two had sex in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Entropy (2002).
8. Buffy realizes that something is controlling Spike and takes him to her house. It would not be revealed as The First until the next episode.
9. Spike will be used again to fight Buffy outside of his own control in the comic Relationship Status: Complicated, Part Two, as he'll refer to the events from this episode as well: "I'm no one's puppet. Never again."
10. After breaking from the First's influence, Spike pleads to "forget it again". The memory that has been triggering him will be revealed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lies My Parents Told Me (2003).
11. It'll be only confirmed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date (2003) that Giles survives the attack of the Bringers and his following appearances were not a manifestation of the First.

Never Leave Me

1. Camden Toy portrays Ubervamp (Turok Han). He also appears in Season Four's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush (1999) as one of the Gentlemen, in Season Seven's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Same Time, Same Place (2002) as Gnarl, and in Angel (1999) Season Five's Angel: Why We Fight (2004) as Prince of Lies.
2. Andrew will appear in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) from this point onward.
3. Andrew encounters the Scoobies for the first time since the season six finale, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave (2002).
4. The Bible passage quoted by Travers before his death is Proverbs 24:6.
5. Anya says, "maybe it's another musical," when Buffy says Spike was singing. She's referencing Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001).
6. When Anya says to Andrew, "C'mere, you pipsqueak!", you can see her brown panties.
7. Willow's enormous powers, even if she is not fully in control of them, forced the writers to figure out a way to keep her from being part of every fight. Here, she is immediately knocked unconscious when the Bringers attack. The same plot device is used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Get It Done (2003).
8. Anya refers to Spike's singing with the words "Maybe it's another musical.", relating to the events in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001).
9. The first Turok-Han vampire is released by the First and will be a major threat against Buffy for a few episodes.
10. Quentin Travers makes a reference to a speech by Winston Churchill on September 9, 1941. He was paraphrasing the final two lines of the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley with these lines: "We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls."
11. This line where Xander plays the good cop was cut due to length: Xander: "I know. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I get that. But they don't. They need your answers. It does seem suspicious, you know, you buying the blood."Andrew: "That blood wasn't for me. I was just buying meat."
12. Andrew is tied up, knocked out, and bitten by a vampire in this episode as nearly every Scooby has.
13. This is the second time in Season Seven (the other being Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Beneath You (2002)) to feature an image toward the end of Spike being crucified on a cross, foreshadowing that Spike will sacrifice himself in the series finale to close the Hellmouth.
14. The title is taken from the chorus of Spike's trigger song, the English folk song, Early One Morning: "Oh, don't deceive me, Oh, never leave me, How could you use a poor maiden so?" Its double meaning also being that Buffy vows to Spike she believes in him and won't abandon him. Something he takes with him and keeps him going when he is kidnapped by the bringers and tortured by the ubervamp.
15. This was the last to feature Harris Yulin as Quentin Travers. It was aired on the same night as Yulin's first appearance on 24 (2001).
16. The headquarters of the Watchers Council was destroyed, killing many of the Watchers, including Lydia, Nigel, Phillip and Quentin Travers. It is later revealed that Caleb was responsible. However, Wesley refers to the Watchers Academy being in Hampshire rather than London, so presumably the organization is not entirely destroyed. Prior to the destruction of the Council headquarters, Travers hears reports of their satellite offices all over the world being hit in a coordinated attack; with one Watcher estimating that they've been "crippled". Though Travers offers reassuring words, it's plausible the Watchers Academy was among those hit, either unreported or reported off screen; and the explosion at the London headquarters was the final death blow of the Council.

Bring on the Night

1. This marks the last appearance of Joyce Summers.
2. When Xander says, "It's a loop... like the Mummy Hand!" he is referring to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Life Serial (2001) in which Buffy is caught in a time loop and must battle a severed, magical Mummy's hand.
3. This is the last episode written by Marti Noxon.
4. Though not apparent when they first show up, the Potentials will redefine the nature of the series, in that the sheer amount of eventual Potentials represents a major shift in style for Buffy's seventh season: taking in account the eventual total number of potentials, in addition to the main characters, plus Giles, Faith, Principal Wood, Andrew, Caleb and the multiple manifestations of the First, the number of named characters grows to more than 20. This significant expansion of the cast means that screen-time is now divided among a great number of characters (some of which are excluded from some episodes entirely), where previous seasons were always mainly focused on the original Scooby Gang (Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles), with only a few more characters receiving notable amounts of attention.
5. The First-as-Drusilla saying "ring, ring, ring" is a gag recycled from Angel: Reunion (2000).
6. Buffy's final speech, as she asserts her own and her friends' confidence and acknowledgment of the severity of what they are facing becomes a recurring trait of season seven. In fact, in later episodes both Buffy and Andrew poke fun at this fact.
7. Joyce claims that the sun "always comes up". Coincidentally, Angel: Long Day's Journey (2003), that featured the sun being blotted out of the sky aired only a month later.
8. This takes place mid December 2002, 4 years after Buffy stopped Angel from killing himself due to the First haunting him in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends (1998), which took place mid December 1998. Buffy revisits the same cave underneath where the Christmas tree lot was in Amends, which is where she finds the Turok-Han.
9. It is assumed by the gang that when Buffy dies, a new Slayer would activate; however, Faith is the true Slayer since Buffy had already died and her successor activated who also died thereby activating Faith. Buffy, while having the power of the Slayer, is not actually the Slayer.

Showtime

1. In keeping with this season's theme of going "back to the beginning", in the shot right before the opening credits Buffy greets Rona by saying "Welcome to the Hellmouth", which is the title of the first show of the series.
2. Xander is shown sleeping on the couch at Buffy's house, completing the Scooby Gang's migration to the Summers residence.
3. The barrier Willow uses to stop the Turok-Han from entering Buffy's house is the same barrier she used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spiral (2001).
4. It is revealed exactly why the First has decided to mount an attack on the slayer line. It is explained by the Beljoxa's Eye that The First exploited a weakness in the Slayer line that was created when Buffy died in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Gift (2001), and was subsequently resurrected.
5. Kennedy is intrigued by Willow's use of magic. She will continue to try to coax her into using her powers more throughout the series. Willow tells her that the dark magic in her is something Kennedy doesn't want to see. This will come to light in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Get It Done (2003), which will strain their relationship for a little while.
6. This line of the First (as Eve) was cut due to length: "And Chloe, honey... you don't have to worry about getting called to be the Slayer before you're ready. You'll be dead before that happens. All o' you".
7. The fact that Buffy might have brought back something evil from the grave with her was first introduced in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: After Life (2001), when she had to fight a demon created in thaumogenesis from the resurrection spell.
8. After killing the Turok-Han, Buffy gives a motivating speech to the Potentials, ending the speech by saying: "Here endeth the lesson". This is exactly what Spike said to her in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000). At the very end of his teachings he stated "Here endeth the lesson." In the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, "Here endeth the lesson" is announced at the conclusion of each reading of biblical passages during the Order for Daily Morning Prayer. The English poetry-writing Spike would be well acquainted with Anglican canonical forms. The Master also says this in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (1997) after he reads about The Anointed One and throwing a vampire into a coffin.

Potential

1. Buffy tells the Potentials that although most people have no idea why they exist, the Potentials do - they have "a mission, a reason for being here." This is very similar to what Giles told her in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Reptile Boy (1997), when he asked her how many people her age can say that they have a purpose, a commitment in life.
2. Andrew makes references to Dragon Ball Z (1996), Vegeta and Goku when trying to express his desired role in the group, and also asks Dawn if she wants to "play Dragon Ball Z". James Marsters, who plays Spike, portrayed Piccolo in Dragonball Evolution (2009) and is an open fan of the anime. He would later voice Zamasu in the English Dub of Dragon Ball Super (2015).
3. The role of Amanda ( who first appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Help (2002) ) was originally intended as a one-time part, but was brought back as a recurring character due to Sarah Hagan's connection to writer Rebecca Kirshner, who wrote for Hagan's previous series Freaks and Geeks (1999).
4. Dawn also says to Xander "seeing" may be his super power. This will appear again in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls (2003) when Caleb will note that Xander was "the one who sees everything."
5. Buffy tells the Potentials that her death could make one of them the next Slayer. Dawn also makes the same assumption, stating that if she were to become the Slayer, it would mean that Buffy had died. It's known that Faith became a Slayer after Kendra died, but the possibility of the line continuing due to another death of Buffy is never clear in the series, even after her death, when no new Slayer is discovered or mentioned.
6. The twelfth episode of the season was generally the episode in which Buffy has her birthday. Apart from the first season, which was a mid-season replacement and probably began just after Buffy's sixteenth birthday, this is the only season where Buffy's birthday isn't acknowledged. In the birthday episode of the previous season, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Older and Far Away (2002), Spike did suggest Buffy should not celebrate her birthday anymore.
7. Chloe is the only Potential Slayer currently residing at the Summers residence who misses this episode's trainings, not appearing or being mentioned in the entire episode.
8. Amanda's comment that most students think Buffy is a high-functioning schizophrenic relates back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Normal Again (2002), in which Buffy is diagnosed with schizophrenia in the mental hospital reality.
9. Andrew sits in on a Scooby meeting for the first time, a first step in his integration into the Scooby Gang.
10. Andrew complains that Spike has just killed people and Buffy explains that he didn't have free will, as the Scoobies discovered in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Showtime (2003). Buffy also tells Andrew that he did have free will, in reference to when he killed Jonathan.
11. Andrew mentions the microwave needing to be replaced; it exploded in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Conversations with Dead People (2002) and a new one will be bought in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date (2003).
12. While preparing for the potential-seeking spell with Willow, Andrew says "Killing pigs is just so wrong... and also hard." This is a reference to his attempt and failure to kill a pig in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Leave Me (2002).
13. This episode marks the beginning of the Potentials' formal training under Buffy and Spike.
14. When Buffy, Spike, Dawn, Molly, Rona, Vi, Kennedy, and Andrew are in the kitchen, this line from Kennedy was cut due to length: "Hey guys, we fit three more people in here and we can call the Guinness Book people."
15. Willow recalls the information on Buffy and Dawn sharing the same blood, as Buffy concluded in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Gift (2001).
16. Spike tells Buffy that a couple of his ribs haven't set right, being recently rescued from the First's tortures in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Showtime (2003).
17. Dawn begins to tell the Potentials she has killed things before; she staked Justin in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: All the Way (2001) and beheaded an earth golem in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Grave (2002).
18. Dawn refers to the message her mother (actually the First Evil) told her in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Conversations with Dead People (2002): "When it's bad, Buffy won't choose you. She'll be against you."
19. Spike says he doesn't know if "posh" is the right word to describe his crypt, despite having told Buffy it was "quite posh" in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: After Life (2001).
20. Buffy describes Spike's crypt as "comfy" and Kennedy asks about when she found it so, the Potentials noticing this as another sign that they dated in the past. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dead Things (2002), Buffy praised the crypt as well, while lying with Spike after indeed having sex with him.
21. Xander tells Dawn about his experience as part of the Scooby Gang for seven years, founded in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Harvest (1997).
22. Buffy tells the Potentials a Slayer wouldn't usually go to a demon bar to drink, then lies that she doesn't drink at all. Buffy drank at a demon bar in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Life Serial (2001), incidentally when she first met Clem.
23. Dawn says to Xander, "You had that sexy army training for a while," which refers to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Halloween (1997). Although Dawn didn't appear in this episode, as reality was not yet modified by monks of the Order of Dagon, Dawn is present in their memories and they in hers. She also smiles fondly at the mention of Oz although the two characters never meet onscreen.
24. When Dawn is thought to be a Potential, Willow says that it would make sense because she shares blood with Buffy, then Anya goes on to say that she "never really got that", referencing the fan confusion over the subject.

The Killer in Me

1. Each scene with Willow/Warren was filmed twice - once with Alyson Hannigan playing Willow and again with Adam Busch as Willow. Which actor performed the scene first depended upon how "Willow" Warren was supposed to be. That is, when Willow first changes into Warren she acts more or less like Willow; in these early scenes Hannigan would act first so that Busch could somewhat mimic her performance. In later scenes when Warren's personality is more prominent Busch would act first. Because of this decision to use both actors, filming the Willow scenes took much longer than usual. In an interview with the BBC, Elizabeth Anne Allen says, "everything had to be so exact." She explains that if Alyson or Adam "gestured or moved their head differently from the other person, they had to do the take over again. So that one scene took us a day and a half to shoot."
2. During the same time that Spike is chained in the basement, Angel is also caged in Los Angeles. Both for the reason that, if free, each of them is a threat to their respective groups.
3. This marks the eighth and final appearance of Elizabeth Anne Allen as Amy.
4. Although a military committee ordered the Initiative to be filled with cement, at least portions of it remained intact.
5. It's obvious in the first couple of scenes, that Sarah Michelle Gellar is suffering a cold. Her voice is hoarse and movements slow, adding a scarf and mug within the dialogue was probably a nod to her feeling unwell without writing it into the script or making it overly obvious to those who miss it.
6. This is the last episode where Tara is mentioned.
7. The largely unseen vision quest is implied to be the same one Buffy underwent in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Intervention (2001). Giles remarked that someone (meaning Buffy) told the potentials that the vision quest involved dancing the Hokey-Pokey.
8. Drew Z. Greenberg and David Solomon say in their DVD commentary that the reason there are no potential Slayers (apart from Kennedy) in the episode is because their budget wouldn't stretch to allow for the extra actors.
9. In the DVD commentary, David Solomon notes that Iyari Limon had to do a lot of kissing in this episode. He says she joked that her lips hurt after having to do long kisses with both Alyson Hannigan and Adam Busch.
10. During the same time that Spike is chained in the basement, Angel is also caged in Los Angeles - both for the reason that, if free, each of them is a threat to their respective groups (although in Angel's case he is a clear threat as he has literally reverted to his evil state of Angelus, where Spike is only a potential threat because of the First's control).
11. The way Andrew confronted what he believed to be the First showed that he was beginning to feel remorse and take responsibility for what he did. His behavior when talking about the possibility that Giles could be the First also showed he had finally realized the gravity of the events around him, was beginning to take them seriously and began to genuinely want to make amends.
12. An exchange between Giles and Dawn was cut due to length: "Well, thank goodness I needn't worry myself with the idea of bad things happening in my absence. You getting shot, for example. Or throwing everybody in the basement and trying to kill them. Or Willow turning evil..."/ "Oooh, don't forget, Anya turned evil too."
13. Willow's line was cut due to length: "The chip operates on intent, and Spike didn't intend to hurt..."
14. When Willow enters Buffy's backyard with the gun, her lines are similar (but not identical) to what Warren said before he shot Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Seeing Red (2002). Willow said "You think you could just do that to me? That I'd let you get away with it?" while Warren said "You think you could just do that to me? You think I'd let you get away with that?"
15. After Kennedy and Willow kissed, they went to see The Daughters of Gaea, which was also where Willow and Tara first met. They finally started using real magic, but still held bake-sales every month.
16. Anthony Head was not allowed to touch anything while onscreen for several shows prior to this one, in order to set up the suspicion that Giles might actually be The First. According to the DVD commentary, this was apparently quite a pain for all involved. When asked why he set up this misdirection, Joss Whedon says it was "to make people wonder. Just to have a little fun in the sense of pulling a mystery... an exercise, something to spice things up." Whedon wanted to play off the "creepy" idea that "we don't know where the bad guy is, we don't know where he's coming from. Our trusted mentor could be the bad guy."
17. This marks the final appearance of The Initiative, and the removal of Spike's chip.
18. Later, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight's "The Long Way Home, Part 4", it is revealed that Amy and Warren (who had survived through Amy) concocted this revenge plan together.
19. The gang learns of Giles' possible death. It's confirmed however that he is in fact alive. His survival is explained in the next episode.

First Date

1. At the very beginning, when Giles and the Scoobies are walking in the graveyard, there's a gravestone clearly marked "Snyder", a reference to Principal Snyder, played by Armin Shimerman, who was a major character in the high school years.
2. When Anya is trying to clean Buffy's shirt she says, "It must be blood", but then continues, "Or pizza". In season seven's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Conversations with Dead People (2002), Dawn is eating pizza and drops some on one of Buffy's shirts, and says, "She will think it is blood".
3. The clip of the first vampire stepping into the alley was footage recycled from the teaser of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Gift (2001).
4. The flash cards Giles shows Chao-Ahn are similar to the ones he used in order to communicate information about the Gentlemen, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush (1999).
5. The flashback confirms that Giles survives the Bringer's attack in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sleeper (2002), revealing how he did so.
6. During Xander's monologue about turning gay, he makes a reference to fantasizing about Scott Bakula. Andrew then mentions Captain Archer, his role in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001), which was also airing on UPN at the time.
7. In a deleted scene, Wood confirms that he grew up in Beverly Hills: "See now, that detail takes the edge off my Little Orphan Robin story, but yeah, that was true."
8. Spike references picket fences, later saying they are "bloody dangerous." Buffy previously staked a vampire with a picket fence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (1997).
9. The First (as Jonathan) plans a gun massacre, just as Jonathan was suspected of doing in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Earshot (1999).
10. Wood tells Buffy that he went through a whole "avenging son" phase in his twenties. As he was born sometime after his mother's Tento di Cruciamentum in 1973 and was 4 years old in July 1977, he's not over 30 at the time this episode takes place.
11. Xander originally asked Lissa a very logical question: "Did you hatch out of a praying mantis egg in the old high school?"
12. As Xander himself points out, Lissa was only the latest of several demonic women who have been drawn to him. Her predecessors included the She-Mantis (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Teacher's Pet (1997)), the Inca Mummy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Inca Mummy Girl (1997)), and Anya. Even Xander's ex-girlfriend Cordelia Chase eventually became part demon in Angel: Birthday (2002).
13. Suggesting Spike to try out having dates too, Buffy recalls the girl he had brought to Anya and Xander's canceled wedding, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hell's Bells (2002).
14. Andrew was setting up a new microwave in the Summers house kitchen. The microwave was destroyed when Dawn was visited by The First in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Conversations with Dead People (2002). Andrew had previously wondered about getting a new one when he wanted to make popcorn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Potential (2003).
15. Andrew recovers the gun used by Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Killer in Me (2003), Buffy having kept in her underwear drawer.
16. Spike's painless attack of Giles revealed to the rest of the Scoobies that Buffy decided to have his chip removed, given the choice in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Killer in Me (2003).
17. Amanda still has a scar from the cut she received in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Potential (2003).
18. Principal Wood reveals to Buffy that his mom was a Slayer. We find out he is the son of Nikki Wood who was killed by Spike. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000) Spike tells the story of how he killed two slayers, including Nikki Wood.
19. Robin Wood is revealed to be the son of the Slayer Nikki Wood, killed by Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000).

Get It Done

1. Answering Principal Wood about whether the rise in school violence is normal, Buffy says, "The Hellmouth has begun its semi-annual percolation. Usually, it blows around May." This is an in-joke referring to the fact that season finales, which usually center around Hellmouth problems, are always shown in May, as American [network] shows run from September to May.
2. The language the Shadowmen speak is Swahili.
3. The bag Robin gives Buffy had already appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Restless (2000). In her dreams, Buffy draws mud from the bag and spreads it over her face.
4. Spike puts on his leather coat, last seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Seeing Red (2002), and with it regains his love for a good fight. Unfortunately, the coat proves to Wood that Spike is the vampire who killed his his mother, setting the stage for their battle.
5. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy vs. Dracula (2000), Dracula tells Buffy that there is darkness in her power. It is finally revealed in this story what that really means and what that darkness is.
6. The 'Sumerian' Dawn is supposed to be reading is actually English words written in Greek characters. In fact, it's how the text would appear if one wanted to write a phrase in English, but left the keyboard switched to Greek.
7. The final appearance of the First Slayer in the series.
8. Spike tells Robin Wood that his soul makes him "unique, more or less," referring to Angel.
9. Andrew's reference to visitors seeing the big board when Buffy brings Principal Wood in to see the potential slayers is a reference to Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). In the film the President of the United States invites the Soviet Union ambassador into the war room to which a U.S. general protests by saying "he'll see everything, he'll see the big board"
10. Buffy is disgusted with how the very first Slayer was created, influencing her decision to bring down the whole system in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen (2003).
11. Anya tells Buffy her role on the team is to provide much-needed sarcasm. This is actually true. In season 4, the writers noticed that some scenes involving the main characters could get too mawkish and sentimental, so they decided to bring Anya in to fill the gap left by Cordelia to keep things from getting too hokey. Spike also ended up serving this purpose (although James Marsters defined his role as being the one who had to say "Buffy, you're stupid and we're all gonna die").
12. A similar exchange portal is used to carry Buffy to Fray's future in "Time of Your Life" in Season Eight in the comics.
13. The origin of the Slayer as well as the existence of the Shadowmen appear on the television series, first introduced in comic issue Ready, Steady....
14. Buffy arrives at the desert where she always met with the first Slayer, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Restless (2000) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Intervention (2001).
15. After Spike learns that Buffy has told Wood that he has a soul, this exchange was cut: Spike: "What are you spilling next, that I bleach my hair?"Wood: "But it has such a natural sheen."
16. Anya complains about being human again, having lost her position as a vengeance demon in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Selfless (2002).
17. Anya reminds having sex with Spike on a table, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Entropy (2002).
18. Robin asks for how long Spike's been in Sunnydale; he first arrived in town about five years earlier.
19. This line of Andrew's was cut: "Welcome to our perfectly typical American household where nothing unusual happens."
20. In the shooting script, Buffy's vision of the First's Turok-Han army was of the creatures on a rampage within a ravaged, post-apocalyptic Sunnydale.
21. The vision given to Buffy by the Shadowmen reveals the First's army of Turok-Han vampires inside the Hellmouth, which she'll face in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen (2003).
22. Kennedy finally sees the violent nature of Willow's powers, and is uneasy, causing a brief strain in their relationship.
23. This episode marks the beginning of Buffy's estrangement from the rest of the Scooby Gang, following her expulsion from the group in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Empty Places (2003).
24. The army of Ubervamps appearing in Buffy's vision consisted entirely of Camden Toy and his stunt double, made to look like "thousands" thanks to visual effects.
25. Willow tries to cover for the Potential Slayers training in the backyard, telling Principal Wood that it's cheer practice and exclaiming, "Bring It On!" Bring It On (2000) was a cheer-leading movie starring Eliza Dushku, who plays Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) and who Willow will bring back to the action later in the series. Clare Kramer who played season five's Glory is also in "Bring It On!".

Storyteller

1. The episode was an experiment to see how the audience would respond to a show centered around Andrew, since the series was ending and they were trying to find a character upon whom they could build another spin-off show.
2. Andrew and Jonathan's nightmare feature scenes from previous episodes, including: both the Istanbul Potential Slayer and the Frankfurt Potential Slayer being attacked by Bringers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lessons (2002) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Beneath You (2002), Spike bleeding on the Seal in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Leave Me (2002), a Turok-Han going after Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Showtime (2003), and the Cheese Man in Willow's dream in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Restless (2000).
3. When the Scoobies pressure Andrew for useful information about the evil Seal of Danzalthar, Andrew tries to squirm out of it by asking instead for a "cool, refreshing Zima." Buffy replies, "No Zima!" and Spike says, "Shut your face about the Zima, just talk." Jane Espenson had some years before created the name "Zima" for the adult beverage while working for a marketing firm.
4. The sequence with the Mutant Enemy mascot, the little monster that goes "Grr Arrgh" at the end of the credits, was changed a total of six times: in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Becoming: Part 2 (1998) (#2.22) it said, 'Oh, I need a hug."in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends (1998) (#3.10) it wore a Santa hat and bells were jingling.in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Graduation Day: Part 2 (1999) (#3.22) it wore a graduation cap.in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001) (#6.07) it sang its "Grr Argh."in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Storyteller (2003) (#7.16) it sang, "We are as gods."in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen (2003) (#7.22) it looked out at the viewers instead of looking straight-forward.
5. That famous piece of baroque music in the beginning (when Andrew imagines himself as as some kind of host in the style of Masterpiece Classic (1971) is the first movement of the 3rd Brandenburg Concerto in G minor by Johann Sebastian Bach.
6. In the DVD commentary for Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Conversations with Dead People (2002), Danny Strong (Jonathan) revealed that the interstitial scenes of Andrew visualizing himself, Jonathan and Warren "as Gods" were the final scenes he shot for the series.
7. Tuareg isn't a demon language, it's the language of the Tuareg people, a subset of the Berbers, who live in the Sahel in northwestern Mali and southern Algeria and other neighboring countries.
8. Buffy says that she's seen all of the things happening in Sunnydale High before, mentioning the swim team monsters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Go Fish (1998) and the hellhounds from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Prom (1999). A student turning invisible echoes the events of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Out of Mind, Out of Sight (1997).
9. The voice in the nightmare says in Spanish "Desde abajo te devora", that is, "From beneath, it devours you". Andrew and Jonathan hear it as "Desme adbul te debora", and incorrectly translate it as "It eats you, starting from your bottom."
10. The script reveals there was a deleted scene where Kennedy is interviewed, indulging in her fave passtime actually: bitching out Buffy and claiming she's not all she's cracked up to be.
11. After having sex with Xander, Anya states that they are now "really over" and "can move on". It's similar to her declaration in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Harsh Light of Day (1999) following their first time having sex, where she says "So I'm over you now."
12. Andrew says that "Dawn used to be a key." However, her identity as the Key remains, as she begins exploring in in the comic In Pieces on the Ground, Part Five.
13. Tom Lenk named this as his favourite episode. "I just got to make such an ass out of myself. It was so much fun. Dancing in a toga on a hillside singing with unicorns was pretty embarrassing. I don't do that sort of thing ever in my down time. So, I just had so much fun doing it".
14. Andrew has flashbacks to the events of episodes, although altered to his own version of the story, including his encounter with Dark Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Two to Go (2002) and the murder of Jonathan in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Conversations with Dead People (2002).
15. When the First (as Warren) asks Andrew to show him the recently acquired knife, he misinterprets the request as referring to the assortment of other weapons sold by the demon that had the knife. He explains that he didn't actually buy them, but begins describing them before the First cuts him off. A nearly identical conversation occurs in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: First Date (2003), between Andrew and the First (as Jonathan), about the gun that had been hidden in Buffy's underwear drawer, and again in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: End of Days (2003) between himself and Anya about a rash he once had.
16. This exchange was cut due to length: Wood: "I think out biggest problem is here in the music room. I fear there could be open hostilities between swing choir and marching band."Buffy: "I don't know if we can keep a lid on this all by ourselves. We might need some kind of help."Wood: Like what? Police?"
17. Andrew steps out of the room while Buffy gives a speech about her vision of hundreds of Turok-Han from the previous episode.
18. When interviewing Xander and Anya, Andrew mentions that it has been exactly one year since Xander left Anya at the altar. This and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hell's Bells (2002) were both the sixteenth episodes of their respective seasons.
19. The pig that Robin hopes isn't a student is the pig that Andrew kept failing to kill in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Never Leave Me (2002).
20. This exchange was also cut due to length: Buffy: "We had to call in guards to keep the place from going up like a prison riot."Andrew: "Oh my."Wood: "The guards were still clearing kids out of there when we left."
21. Andrew will bring his video camera and storytelling out again years later in the comic Retreat.
22. Andrew calls Xander "the heart of the Slayer machine." This references the enjoining spell in which Xander served as "the heart" for, in episode Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Primeval (2000).
23. During the flashback to Mexico, when Andrew is talking to Warren/The First, he explains how he got the knife from a demon selling "all kinds of weird weapons" which included collapsible swords. In Angel (1999), around the 3rd or 4th season - after Wesley kidnaps Angel's son, Connor - Wesley detaches from Angel Investigations and goes somewhat rogue. He turns a bit dark and has a connection with a sort of underground weapons dealer in which he purchases a collapsible sword that is worn on his wrist under his sleeve; amongst other things.

Lies My Parents Told Me

1. Spike makes mention of his mother's personal physician - a Dr. Gull. This is Dr. William Gull, Physician-in-extraordinary to the royal family, and who some believe was Jack The Ripper.
2. Willow receives a telephone call from Winifred Burkle, causing her to go to Los Angeles in Angel: Orpheus (2003).
3. In the unedited version, Giles revealed to Buffy in the graveyard that he murdered Ben to stop Glory resurfacing, however this was cut just before broadcast.
4. Nikki Wood (Principal Wood's mum) is seen before in Season 5 Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000) but it is a different actress than in Season 7.
5. This was the final appearance of Juliet Landau in the series.
6. Giles mentions that knowledge comes from books, not computers. This is the same argument he had with Jenny in season one's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I, Robot... You, Jane (1997).
7. In the commentary David Fury notes that a major reason Caroline Lagerfelt was cast as Anne was due to her notable physical resemblance to Sarah Michelle Gellar. Also the name Anne was used because it is Buffy's middle name, although the name is never mentioned onscreen during the story.
8. Originally intended to air March 18, 2003, a day before Angel: Orpheus (2003), but was postponed due to the start of the Iraq War.
9. This is the last episode written or directed by David Fury.
10. It is revealed that the fight between Spike and Nikki Wood depicted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000) was not their first meeting.
11. This was the final appearance of Juliet Landau in the series. She later appeared in flashbacks on Angel (1999).
12. Buffy tells Robin about losing her own mother months earlier, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Body (2001).
13. Spike tells Robin that Nikki didn't love him enough to walk away from being a Slayer. In the comic On Your Own, Part One, Robin concludes she wasn't strong enough, as it's revealed that Nikki attempted to leave with him with Crowley's help.
14. In arguing against Buffy's preferential treatment of Spike, Anya said, "[Spike] could slaughter a hundred frat boys," referencing the time that Buffy tried to kill Anya for doing so in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Selfless (2002).
15. Buffy tells Robin that apocalypses she averts without dying are the easy ones, in reference to her death preventing the Master to open a hellmouth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Prophecy Girl (1997), as well as her sacrifice to close a portal that would cause all dimensions to bleed together in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Gift (2001).
16. Spike's flashback also bears some resemblance to the story of The Vampire Lestat. Lestat's mother, suffering from tuberculosis, becomes the first vampire to be sired by Lestat.
17. Spike later refers to the traumatic events with his mother when attempting to comfort Wesley after he shoot a cyborg that appeared to be his father, in Angel: Lineage (2003).
18. In the comic I Wish, Part One, Spike is trapped in the illusion of a Hamelin demon and experiences his ideal childhood of reciting poems to his mother forever, like he did in this episode. However, the trauma of his mother as vampire that makes him attack the demon and free himself.
19. Willow leaves expecting to return with good news; in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls (2003), she returns to Sunnydale bringing Faith Lehane back.
20. In the flashback, Spike tells Nikki he loves her coat. It's the duster he eventually takes from her corpse, as seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000).
21. In the DVD commentary, it is said that during the teaser, before Spike kills a vampire, he twirls the shovel he's using. He twirls it exactly like he did in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000). This action is a direct homage to that episode.
22. In the cemetery, Giles and Buffy discuss Buffy's refusal to consider allowing Dawn to die to save the world in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Gift (2001). Buffy states that she would now allow Dawn to die if necessary, which is a major deviation from Buffy's previous devotion to Dawn. This also adds to the storyline of Buffy's separation from the Scooby Gang.
23. The song that The First uses to trigger Spike to become evil again is well known to millions of Canadians - it was used as the theme song of the long running children's TV show, The Friendly Giant (1958).

Dirty Girls

1. While Buffy, Spike and Faith are fighting in the graveyard, Faith asks "May I?', before taking a stake from Buffy, a nod to the first time Buffy and Faith met in the season three's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Faith, Hope & Trick (1998), when Faith asks the same thing before taking Buffy's stake to dust the vampire she is fighting.
2. Faith's line, where she offers a theory why the blind Bringers are so good in battle, was cut: They say your other senses get better. Maybe all blind people are smokin' in a knife fight... Not saying it's likely.
3. Dawn and Faith recognize each other, despite never having met before. This is further demonstration of the spell that the monks cast in Season 5 to make everyone in Buffy's life believe that Dawn had always been Buffy's sister.
4. Carrie Southworth has a small role as one of Caleb's previous victims. She and Nathan Fillion later worked together again in Castle: A Death in the Family (2009).
5. Caleb's line to Xander that he "sees everything" references Xander's conversation with Dawn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Potential (2003), in which Xander said "I see more than anybody realizes because nobody's watching me."
6. Buffy walks in Faith and Spike's conversation and looks at the pair jealously. Faith has actually professed an attraction for or tried to seduce nearly all of Buffy's former boyfriends, including Scott Hope in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Faith, Hope & Trick (1998), Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Enemies (1999) and Riley in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: This Year's Girl (2000). She notably breaks this pattern with Spike, when he attempts to casually flirt with her years later in Spike and Faith but she refuses him, explaining she no longer wants to be just a rebound to Buffy.
7. The episode title resembles the title of season three Faith-centric episode Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bad Girls (1999).
8. Faith mentions to Willow that someone tried to kill her while she was in prison, as shown in Angel: Salvage (2003).
9. It is revealed in this episode that Caleb, under orders from the First Evil, caused the explosion that destroyed the Watchers Council. This event was mentioned by Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bring on the Night (2002), in which he believed the explosion to have been caused by an agent of the First following his theft of several books and documents from the Council's archives.
10. Emma Caulfield Ford is credited as Anya, but does not appear in this episode. She is however in the shooting script, only present in the group discussion.
11. Faith tells Willow that she has spent too much time in hospitals. She is referring to her eight-month-long coma, spanning from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Graduation Day: Part 2 (1999) to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: This Year's Girl (2000).
12. This episode marks the first appearance of Caleb.
13. Andrew's narration on Faith features archive footage from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Zeppo (1999), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Revelations (1998), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Beauty and the Beasts (1998), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Enemies (1999), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bad Girls (1999), [link=tt0533422, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Choices (1999), Buffy the Vampire Slayer: This Year's Girl (2000) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Graduation Day: Part 1 (1999).
14. Willow took Faith with her from Los Angeles at the end of Angel: Orpheus (2003).
15. This marks Faith's first re-appearance on the show since she ran away from Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Who Are You? (2000).
16. Xander's erotic dream with the Potential Slayers is reminiscent to a dream about Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Teacher's Pet (1997).
17. When defending Buffy against the potentials, Xander says that he "saw her heart" so he knows that she cares about people a lot. Angel also stated similarly that he "saw her heart" in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Helpless (1999) when Buffy asked how he could love someone like her.
18. Faith recognizes Spike, but Spike thinks they've never met. In the episode "Who Are You?", Faith met Spike for the first time while inhabiting Buffy's body. Spike then reveals that Buffy filled him on the body swap eventually.
19. Caleb's message of having something that belongs to Buffy refers to a Slayer weapon, as she'll discover in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Touched (2003).
20. Joss Whedon briefly toyed with the idea of killing Xander, and having him appear as the First to Buffy for the remainder of the season. However, he decided against this because Xander was one of her best friends, and doing so this late on in the final season would not leave enough time to properly deal with his death. He ended up having his eye gouged out by Caleb instead.
21. According to the DVD commentary, the scene between Faith and Spike was meant to lay groundwork for a possible spin-off featuring the two. The scenes were written by Marti Noxon with the idea of "showing these two people off," according to Drew Goddard.
22. Just before the confrontation with Caleb, a potential slayer notes that his residence looks like "an evil vineyard", to which Spike responds, "Like Falcon Crest." Falcon Crest (1981) was a CBS soap opera in the 1980s that revolved around a wealthy, feuding California family who made their money from the wine industry. This reference also reminds us that Spike is a fan of soap operas.
23. When prepping the potential slayers for the raid on Caleb's base, Xander mentions to go for the eyes. This is ironic as Xander will lose an eye to Caleb.
24. Molly is killed in this episode, making Kennedy the only remaining Potential from the original three that Giles first brought in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bring on the Night (2002).
25. Caleb gouges Xander's eye, causing him to wear an eyepatch from now on.

Empty Places

1. Marking the Bronze's sendoff, the band playing is Nerf Herder, the same band that performs the show's theme song.
2. This marks the final appearance of the Bronze.
3. While on the mission with Andrew, Spike talks of his love for the onion blossom appetizer. This is the third time he has mentioned his fondness for them, the first time being in Season Five's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Triangle (2001), and the second being in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crush (2001).
4. Justin Shilton, who played Officer Monroe, previously played Billy Blim in the third season of Angel (1999).
5. When Spike and Andrew are on the motorcycle, Andrew is wearing the same helmet and sitting in the same pose as when Dawn is on the bike with Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bargaining: Part 2 (2001).
6. The inscription that Spike & Andrew are shown in the Church is written using Greek letters, but is Latin. Transliterated, it reads: NON TIBI EST EI SOLAE TRACHTARE LIXET. There are several interesting things about this inscription. First, because Greek literature pre-dated Roman (and even during the period of the Roman Empire, Greek continued to be the lingua franca of the Eastern Roman Empire), virtually all transliterations were from Greek into Latin, not the reverse. Second, the transliteration uses the Greek letter chi (X) instead of the correct letter kappa ("K"), and so the transliteration contains two words (TRACHTRARE & LIXET) which aren't actually words (but would be if the chi's were replaced by kappas, yielding the Latin NON TIBI EST EI SOLAE TRACTARE LICET). Third, the Latin is inauthentic (i.e., it is not something a person who knew Latin would write, but is more akin to an elementary translation of the desired English meaning that Spike tells us). Fourth, Spike interestingly renders the Latin into archaic English: "It is not for thee, it is for her alone to wield." The portion of the inscription that Spike translates as "It is not for thee" is "non tibi est", and there is no lexeme (word) in the Latin that corresponds to the English "it". Like many languages, the subject is implied by the form of the verb, in this case "est" (the 3rd person singular indicative active form of "sum"; the Latin verb "to be". Spike renders "tibi" as "for thee", although there is no reason to use "thee" rather than you (or yours). Finally, a more accurate but less interesting translation would be "it is not yours [not for you]; only she may handle it".
7. This episode marks the end of the enmity between Dawn and Faith, who dance together at the Bronze along with Kennedy and Amanda. Despite only being present in fabricated memories, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls (2003) Dawn mentioned her distrust for Faith due to past events.
8. The inscription that angered Caleb, "It is not for thee. It is for her alone to wield," refers to the Slayer weapon destined for Buffy. She'll take it from Caleb in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: End of Days (2003) after Spike tells Buffy about it in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Touched (2003).
9. Out of habit, Faith attempts to trade a bag of chips for cigarettes and soap, as she was a prisoner in the Northern California Women's Facility.
10. The Gilroy mission is the same monastery in which Buffy sought Father Gabriel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Pangs (1999).
11. The extent of the exodus from Sunnydale is shown more explicitly in this episode (the massive traffic jam, the totally deserted school). By the final episode, the town will be completely emptied.
12. Clem leaves Sunnydale, to only meet Buffy again in the comic Day Off (or Harmony in My Head).
13. This exchange where we learn how Andrew became evil was cut: Andrew: "This one time, when I was in Sunday school, I woke up late, so my mom made me skip breakfast and I was really hungry, so I told the teacher I had to go to the bathroom, but I really broke into the supply closet and ate a whole package of communion wafers."Spike: "Yeah? Good on you, boy."Andrew: "But then I got sick for two days."
14. This line of Anya's regarding the Seal was cut: "Andrew's got plenty of tears left in him. Just tell him they canceled Stargate SG-1 (1997)".
15. As Caleb threatens to take out Xander's other eye following the events in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dirty Girls (2003), Buffy gives Caleb a warning, stating she would "end you" to Caleb. This is a reference to a saying in Buffy and Angel creator, Joss Whedon's other sci-fi show, Firefly (2002) in which the line "I will end you" and the like were frequently uttered by the characters, most notably by Nathan Fillion himself, who on Buffy, plays Caleb, the character now receiving the warning instead of giving it.
16. Buffy is ejected from the house and Faith is put in charge of the Potentials. Faith will lead them in a mission in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Touched (2003) and Buffy will resume her leadership in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: End of Days (2003).

Touched

1. The sex scene between Willow and Kennedy is the first lesbian sex scene ever on network TV, as noted by "After Ellen" network site.
2. The weapon that is revealed at the end first appeared in the Dark Horse Comics series "Fray", which was written by Joss Whedon about a Slayer in the distant future.

End of Days

1. When Dawn and Xander are in the car looking for her crossbow, she mentions that she doesn't leave it around ever since an incident with Miss Kitty Fantastico, Willow and Tara's cat, which has not been seen since the end of the fifth season.
2. The concept of the Scythe was previously and originally created for Joss Whedon's comic series Fray.
3. This features the actors who play the lead characters in all of Joss Whedon's television shows. Sarah Michelle Gellar played Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), David Boreanaz played Angel in Angel (1999), Nathan Fillion played Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly (2002), and Eliza Dushku played Echo on Dollhouse (2009).
4. This is a crossover with Angel: Home (2003) from Angel (1999), in which Angel learns of the Apocalypse Buffy is facing and comes to help, arriving just in time to save her from Caleb.
5. Spikes use of the words 'holy hand grenade' is a reference to 'Month Python and the Holy Grail' which a priest uses a 'holy hand grenade' to kill a rabbit

Chosen

1. The scene in which Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles stand and discuss what they'll do the next day, which ends with Giles saying to himself "The Earth is definitely doomed" is an homage to the very first story-line of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Harvest (1997) ends with Buffy, Xander, and Willow walking away talking about ways for Buffy to get herself kicked out of school, and Giles turns and mutters "The Earth is doomed".
2. According to Joss Whedon in the DVD commentary, Buffy's monologue in the house before heading to the final battle was twice as long, so he cut a lot in the editing. Although, referring to Sarah Michelle Gellar's talent, he said she did the original monologue in one go several times, to the point that some crew members applauded spontaneously.
3. Cleveland is mentioned once again as an area of Demonic activity. The first time was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Wish (1998).
4. While speaking at the Wizard World Chicago Convention in August, 2004, Joss Whedon revealed that he had planned to bring the character of Tara back from the dead at the end of Season 7. It would have centered around Buffy being granted one "life-altering" wish. Buffy would have struggled trying to decide what she wanted to do with the wish (including, possibly, restoring Angel's humanity). It would have ended with Buffy telling Willow that she'd just gotten a great new pair of shoes, and when Willow asked her if she used up her wish on new shoes, Buffy would have said, "No, silly!" and stepped aside to reveal Tara. This plan was abandoned when Amber Benson, who played Tara, was unavailable for filming. However, some fans doubt how true this statement is, feeling that Joss wanted to simply please the fans.
5. In the original script, the conversation between Buffy and Angel was supposed to be longer making Angel reveal to Buffy that he loved Cordelia and also that he had a son, making Buffy the only one that knew of Connor. This was ultimately changed so as not to confuse too much of Angel's story-line with Buffy's.
6. The sequence with the Mutant Enemy mascot, the little monster that goes "Grr Arrgh" at the end of the credits, was changed for a total of six times: in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Becoming: Part 2 (1998) it said, 'Oh, I need a hug."in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends (1998) it wore a Santa hat and bells were jingling.in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Graduation Day: Part 2 (1999) it wore a graduation cap.in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (2001) it sang its "Grr Argh."in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Storyteller (2003) it sang, "We are as gods."in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen (2003) it looked out at the viewers instead of looking straight-forward.
7. When Alyson Hannigan was asked by interviewer Fred Topel what it was like shooting the last day of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), Hannigan answered, "It was very, very bittersweet. An emotional day for everyone. It was lots of tears, lots of hugs, it was great." [Interview, 6 May 2003]
8. In an interview, David Boreanaz (Angel) said that he did not really want to do the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) finale, because he hates it when TV shows do reunions.
9. Stunt woman Ming Qiu portrays a newly activated Slayer in the final battle. Ming Liu previously portrayed Xin Rong in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fool for Love (2000) as the Slayer killed by Spike.
10. According to visual effects supervisor Loni Peristere, the scenes of the cave filled with thousands of übervampires were created with various software tools. CG supervisor Andrew Orloff, says Peristere, wrote "a pretty powerful crowd duplication tool that incorporates motion capture data working with flocking locators on alterable terrain for any number of CG extras you might require. Maya's new toolset lets you pick a square, decide how big that square is, decide how many digital people you want in that square, decide how randomly you want their movements and tell them where to go. It brings together a bound model, motion capture data and Maya's powerful character setups. You can also exchange whether those are sprites or full rez people. In that shot we started with a close-up and ended up with over 50,000 folks."
11. During the Dungeons and Dragons game between Andrew, Giles, and Amanda, reference is made to "Trogdor the Burninator" a character from Mike Chapman and Matt Chapman's HomestarRunner.com cartoons.
12. Buffy tells Angel she doesn't see "fat grandchildren" in her future with Spike. Jenny Calendar's ghost once told Angel she had envisioned her death as being surrounded by "fat grandchildren." In another Joss Whedon show, "Firefly," one character sarcastically wishes another character would have "hundreds of fat children."
13. This features both Nathan Fillion (Caleb) and David Boreanaz (Angel). When the show was originally being cast, Fillion had tried out for the part of Angel. They have also both voiced iterations of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in the DC Animated Universe.
14. Emma Caulfield Ford chose to let the producers kill off Anya in the finale, because she did not want the character reappearing on Angel (1999) or any other possible spin-off.
15. The series finale had two different major-character death scenes written, one in which Anya was killed, and the other in which Andrew was.
16. Anya is killed fighting alongside Andrew. Originally, Xander was to be killed protecting Dawn. But when Emma Caulfield Ford said she did not want to be involved in future Buffy projects, the writers switched the characters, keeping the general situation and dialogue the same, including Xander calling out for Anya as the building collapses.
17. Irritated by the jealousy between Spike and Angel, Buffy says "I should just put you two in a room so you can wrestle it out.' This comes to pass in the Angel (1999) show Angel: Destiny (2003).
18. Buffy's final line in the show is "Spike." Anya's is "Bunnies."
19. Spike once again destroys the Welcome to Sunnydale sign: this time it initially survives the destruction of Sunnydale only to fall into the crater moments later.
20. In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) movie Buffy defines her life aims as 'Graduate, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater and die'. By the time of Buffy's last appearance during the Angel (1999) story Angel: The Girl in Question (2004), she has indeed achieved a score of four - although she hasn't married Christian Slater, Buffy did graduate, she went to Europe, and she has died twice.
21. The Scythe, after Willow who empowers it, is wielded by Kennedy, who doesn't use it but carries it to Buffy, Faith when Buffy is wounded, then Rona (who can wield it one-handed), then again Buffy.
22. The entire town of Sunnydale is destroyed in the finale.