Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Flooded

Flooded
Season 6, Episode 4
Airdate	October 16, 2001
Production Number	6ABB04
Written by	Douglas Petrie & Jane Espenson
Directed by	Douglas Petrie
← 6x03 After Life	6x05 → Life Serial
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season Six

Flooded is the fourth episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the one-hundred and fourth episode overall.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike)

and Alyson Hannigan (Willow)

Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles)

Guest Starring: Danny Strong (Jonathan Levinson), Adam Busch (Warren Meers), Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells), Todd Stashwick (M'Fashnick Demon), Amber Benson (Tara)

Co-Starring: Michael Merton (Mr. Savitsky), John Jabaley (Tito), Brian Kolb (Bank Guard)

Plot Overview

When a pipe breaks in the Summers basement, Buffy finds herself in a battle with debt. Trying to get a loan, she finds the bank is attacked by a demon that was hired out by a trio of upstarting nerds bent on crime. Meanwhile, Giles returns and tries to take in what went down in his brief absence.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• M'Fashnick: The demon that appeared at the bank when Buffy was attempting to get her loan was a demon known by reputation as a mercenary demon that performs acts of slaughter and mayhem for the highest bidder. In this case, the highest bidder was an ominous group of social misfits known as the Trio.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	M'Fashnick	Buffy	Beaten With a Pipe	Buffy's Basement

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Giles: Giles returns to Sunnydale after being in England for a couple days.

Referbacks

• Superstar: Jonathan offers to make the M'Fashnick demon look "super cool" in comparison to the other demons. This is a reference to when he changed reality in season four to give him wealth, popularity and charm.

• I Was Made to Love You: Warren offers to get the M'Fashnick demon a girlfriend, but he's shot down when Andrew explains that the girlfriend would be robotic. Warren created a robotic girlfriend in season five and is also responsible for the Buffy robot.

• The Prom: Andrew claims to be the brother of Tucker Wells, the same person who unleashed demon dogs on the prom.

Trivia

The Show

• Angel Tie-In: Although it isn't a direct reference to Angel, Anya's idea to start charging for saving lives is nearly the same as Cordelia's idea to start a private investigation service in season one of the spin-off.

• First Appearance: Although Warren and Jonathan have appeared in past episodes, the trio appears for the first time as a group in this episode.

• To-Do List: The trio's to-do list has the following on it: Control The Weather, Miniaturize Fort Knox, Conjure Fake I.D.s, Shrink Ray, Girls, Girls, The Gorilla Thing, Hypnotize Buffy.

Behind the Scenes

• Writer Follies: Jane Espenson commented once that co-writing this episode was a bad idea because she and Douglas Petrie didn't actually co-write the episode. Instead, they rewrote each other's scripts as opposed to the usual method of dividing the episode up.

• The Fourth Beatle: Tucker Wells was originally meant to be the leader of the trio, but producers couldn't cast Brad Kane due to scheduling conflicts. While recasting the role, they were so impressed by Tom Lenk that they changed the role to Tucker's brother so Warren could have the leadership role.

• Reunion?: Although Angel is mentioned at the end of this episode and is alerted to Buffy's revival during "Carpe Noctem" from his series, their reunion is never shown on screen due to bad blood between WB and UPN over the series moving networks.

Allusions and References

• Spider-Man: Spider-Man is a Marvel Comics superhero created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and is one of the most popular and well known superheroes ever to exist. In the comic, Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider which gave him heightened strength, agility and a sense to tell him when he's in danger. He later evolved slightly to have organic webshooters. In the episode, Xander quotes a lyric from the Spider-Man cartoon series after Dawn and Anya have an argument as to whether or not he makes people pay for saving them.

Xander: Action is his reward.

Quotes

• Buffy: (transfixed by the flowing water) Dawn, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It's unbelievably important. You should eat breakfast at least 3 times a day.

• Dawn: (looking at the plumber's bill) That's a weird phone number. Oh, wait. Is that the bill?

• Dawn: (worried about money) So, what do we do?

Buffy: Easy. We burn the house to the ground and collect the insurance. Plus, fire - pretty.

• Buffy: (about almost going broke) It's bills. It's money. It's pieces of papers sent by bureaucrats that we've never even met. It's not like it's the end of the world... which is too bad, you know, 'cause that I'm really good at.

• Anya: If you wanna pay every bill here and every bill coming and have enough to start a nice college fund for Dawn... start charging.

Buffy: For what?

Anya: Slaying vampires. You're providing a valuable service to the whole community. I say cash in.

Buffy: Well, that's an idea... you would have. Any other suggestions?

Anya: Well, I mean, it's not so crazy.

Dawn: Yes, it is! You can't charge innocent people for saving their lives.

Anya: Spider-Man does.

Dawn: He does not.

Anya: Does too!

Dawn: Does n-- Xander?

Xander: Action is his reward.

• Willow: Okay, let me make you mad again. Uh, ready? Um, last semester, I slept with Riley.

Buffy: And you know I really doubt it.

Willow: Caught me. Big fib... to cover up the sleazy affair I had with Angel.

Buffy: Will? What the hell are you doing?

Willow: Pissing you off?

Buffy: Yes. True. Why?

• Dawn: (looking at an illustration of a demon) That's a weird place for a horn. (pause) That's not a horn.

• Dawn: I'm guessing on how you say it. It's got an apostrophe. I think it's M'fashnik. Like, "Mmm, cookies."

Xander: Or maybe Muh'Fashnik. Like, "Muh... fashnik".

• Giles: Willow told me, but I didn't really let myself believe it.

Buffy: I take a little getting used to. And I'm still getting used to me.

Giles: It's, uh - You're --

Buffy: A miracle.

Giles: Yes. But then, I always thought so.

• Buffy: Giles, are you miserable about it or just really British?

• Giles: You seem to be doing remarkably well under extreme circumstances. I'm proud of you.

Buffy: Well, actually, it wasn't me. Willow brought me back. I just lay there.

Giles: You know, I meant --

Buffy: I know what you meant. That was just a little post-post-mortem comedy.

• Andrew: You owe me, man!

Warren: Or else what? You'll train another pack of devil-dogs to ruin my prom? Graduated!

Andrew: That wasn't me. How many times do I have to say it? The prom thing was my lame-o brother, Tucker.

Jonathan: Yeah, well, tell him I was at that prom.

Andrew: Hello? Screen wipe. New scene. I had nothing to do with the devil-dogs. I trained flying demon monkeys to attack the school play. School play, dude.

• Giles: You're a very stupid girl.

Willow: What? Giles.

Giles: Do you have any idea what you've done? The forces you've harnessed, the lines you've crossed?

Willow: I thought you'd be impressed, or - or something.

Giles: Oh, don't worry, you've... made a very deep impression. Of everyone here, you were the one I trusted most to respect the forces of nature.

Willow: Are you saying you don't trust me?

Giles: Think what you've done to Buffy.

Willow: I brought her back.

Giles: At incredible risk!

Willow: Risk? Of what? Making her deader?

Giles: Of killing us all. Unleashing Hell on Earth. I mean, shall I go on?

Willow: No. Giles, I did what I had to do. I did what nobody else could do.

Giles: Oh, there are others in this world who can do what you did. You just don't want to meet them.

Willow: No, probably not, but - Well, they're the bad guys. I'm not a bad guy. I brought Buffy back into this world and maybe the word you should be looking for is "congratulations".

Giles: Having Buffy back in this world makes me feel indescribably wonderful, but I wouldn't congratulate you if you jumped off a cliff and happened to survive.

Willow: That's not what I did, Giles.

Giles: You were lucky!

Willow: I wasn't lucky. I was amazing. And how would you know? You weren't even there.

Giles: If I had been, I'd have bloody well stopped you. The magicks you channelled are more ferocious and primal than anything you can hope to understand, and you are lucky to be alive, you rank, arrogant amateur!

Willow: You're right. The magicks I used are very powerful. I'm very powerful. And maybe it's not such a good idea for you to piss me off. (pause) Come on, Giles, I - I don't want to fight. I... Let's not, okay? I'll think about what you said, and you... try to be happy Buffy's back.

Giles: We still don't know where she was or what happened to her. And I'm far from convinced she's come out of all this undamaged.

• M'Fashnick Demon: You have cost me, Slayer!

Buffy: I cost you? That's a designer lamp, ya mook!

• Buffy: (beating a demon to death) Full... copper.. re-pipe! No.. more... full... copper... re-pipe!

• Andrew: We can do anything. We could stay up all night if we wanted.

Warren: Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't get all crazy on us, Andrew.

Andrew: I was only saying.

• Giles: Well, I know I'm back in America now I've been knocked unconscious.

• Buffy: Who's calling me? Everybody I know lives here. I'll be back. (leaves to answer phone)

Dawn: (to Giles) I bet it's creditors. The hounding's begun. I read about it. So you think we'll starve?

Giles: I very much doubt it.

Dawn: No chance I'd have to quit school to work assembling cheap toys in a poorly ventilated sweatshop?

Giles: Poorly ventilated -- What have you been reading?

(Buffy returns)

Giles: Buffy, what is it?

Buffy: Angel.

Giles: Is he in trouble?

Buffy: He knows that I'm - He needs to see me. I have to see him.

Giles: Well, of course. You'll leave for L.A. tomorrow.

Buffy: Not L.A. And not here. Somewhere in the middle. There's a place.

Giles: I see. Well, we should get these, uh, bills and things out of the way before --

Buffy: I got to go now. Oh, um, thanks for taking care of this for me.