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Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Intervention

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Intervention
Intervention
Season 5, Episode 18
Airdate April 24, 2001
Production Number 5ABB18
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Michael Gershman
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Forever
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Tough Love
Buffy the Vampire SlayerSeason Five

Forever is the eighteenth episode of the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the ninety-sixth episode overall, and focuses on Buffy's role as the slayer now that she has so much more responsibility on her hands. Instead of going back to training, she sets out on a quest. Meanwhile, yet another robot is in town, but this one looks just like Buffy.

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

and Anthony Stewart Head (Giles)

Guest Starring: Clare Kramer (Glory), Adam Busch (Warren Meers), Troy T. Blendell (Jinx), Amber Benson (Tara)

Co-Starring: Sharon Ferguson (Primitive), Todd Duffey (Murk)

and Kelly Donovan (Xander Stunt Double)

Contents

Plot Overview

When Buffy starts to worry that she's losing her ability to be emotionally open to others, Giles helps by taking her on a vision quest. While gone, Spike receives his own robotic version of Buffy from Warren. Unaware of the Buffybot, the Scoobies mistake it for the real Buffy and worry about her strange behaviour. Glory, meanwhile, seeks out whoever the Slayer values, leading to confusing Spike for the Key.

Notes

Monster of the Week

  • Buffy-Bot: Spike commissioned Warren, from I Was Made to Love You, to make another robot like April. She was programmed to love Spike. She was programmed to be as close as possible to Buffy as possible, including fighting skills and the compulsion to slay. She can't, however, pronounce Giles' name correctly. She also wasn't as durable as April was, because she was put out of commission by one sharp blow to the head.

Body Count

# Whom By Whom How Where
1 Vampire Anya Staked Cemetary
2 Vampire Buffy-Bot Staked Cemetary
3 Vampire Spike Staked Cemetary

Arc Advancement

Happenings

  • Ben & Glory: Glory reveals that Ben inhabits her body.
  • The Key: Glory figured out that the key was human and a recent arrival to Buffy's group, so she sent her minions out to get it. They don't find Dawn, but instead go after Spike.

Characters

  • Buffy: Buffy meets with the first slayer again to find if she's losing the ability to love. She is told that she is full of love and that love will lead her to her death.

Referbacks

  • Hush: The clothes that the Buffy Robot wears are the same clothes she wore during the referenced episode.
  • Restless: The first slayer made her first appearance in this episode in the dreams of Buffy and her friends.
  • The Replacement: Xander assumes that both Buffys are real because of his experiences with being split in two from the referenced episode. In the episode, he assumed that one Xander was an evil robot and he was real but was wrong. In this episode, he assumed that both Buffys were real, but he was wrong again. Xander just can't win.

Trivia

The Show

  • Final Appearance: While it isn't expressly mentioned in the episode, this is the last time that, Glory's minion, Jinx is seen in the series.

Behind the Scenes

  • Stunt Xander: Kelly Donovan, Nicholas Brendon's twin, is credited in this episode because Nicholas fell ill during the shoot with several scenes to go. Kelly stood in for him in some of those scenes.

Allusions and References

  • The Holy Grail: The holy grail is the cup which Christ drank from at the last supper and also the cup which collected his blood during the crucifixion. Legend has it that whoever drinks from the cup is granted immortality. The myth of questing for the grail dates back to even before the Arthurian times in which it was popularized. The core story involves a young adventurer meeting up with the Fisher King, who is impotent. The two actually seek a grail that is like a platter of plenty which produces an endless supply of food, rather than a cup of immortality like the Arthurian myth (as well as the Indiana Jones version).
Buffy: A quest? Like finding a grail or something?
  • Lord of the Rings: Hobbits were created and popularized by the J.R.R. Tolkein novels, particularly the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They are described as short, hairy men with big feet and are extremely similar (if not entirely) to Halflings. The Lord of the Rings was recently adapted into an award winning trilogy of movies directed by Peter Jackson and starring Elijah Wood, among others.
Xander: The guys that work for Glory, you said they're kind of like hobbits with leprosy?

Memorable Moments

  • Buffy converses with the first slayer at a campfire in the desert.
  • Buffy confronting Spike in his crypt after he escapes from Glory in the midst of battle.

Quotes

  • Buffy: Dawn, if there are any dishes in your room, let's have 'em before they get furry and we have to name them.
Dawn: Hey, I was, like, five then.
  • Giles: There is something... in the Watcher's Diaries. A quest.
Buffy: A quest? Like finding a grail or something?
  • Buffy: So, how's it start?
Giles: I, uh, jump out of the circle, then I jump back in it and then, um, I shake my gourd.
Buffy: I know this ritual. The ancient shamans were next called upon to do the Hokey-Pokey and turn themselves around.
Giles: Go quest.
  • Buffybot: Anya! How is your money?
Anya: Fine. Thank you for asking.
  • Tara: Everyone, before we jump all over her, people do strange things when someone they love dies. When I lost my mother, I did some pretty dumb stuff, like lying to my family and staying out all night.
Anya: Buffy's boinking Spike.
Willow: Oh. Well, Tara's right. Grief can be powerful, and we shouldn't judge --
Tara: What, are you kidding? She's nuts.
  • Tara: What can we do?
Anya: Sometimes in the movies, when they go crazy, they slap 'em.
Xander: I'm gonna go find her and talk to her. If she's losing it, we gotta help her before she gets herself hurt.
Tara: You aren't really gonna slap her, are you?
Xander: No, but if I have to see her straddle Spike again I will definitely knock myself unconscious.
  • Buffybot: (about sleeping with Spike) It wasn't one time. It was lots of times. And lots of different ways. I could make sketches.
Willow: No!
  • Buffybot: Angel's lame. His hair goes straight up and he's bloody stupid.
  • Glory: (about Spike) What the hell is that and why is its hair that colour?
  • Willow: No, there's only love. And... some fear.
Anya: We're just kinda thrown by the you having sex with Spike.
Buffy: The who whating how with huh?
  • Xander: No one is judging you. It's understandable. Spike is strong and mysterious and sort of compact but well-muscled.
Buffy: I am not having sex with Spike, but I'm starting to think that you might be.
  • Giles: It's quite extraordinary, really.
Buffybot: Thank you. But I really think we should be listening to the other Buffy, Guy-iles. She's very smart and she's gonna help us save Spike.
Giles: "Guy-iles"? Spike didn't even bother to program my name properly.
  • Buffy: (as the Buffybot) Spike! You're covered in sexy wounds.
  • Buffybot: Why did you let that Glory hurt you?
Spike: She wanted to know who the key was.
Buffybot: Oh, well, I can tell her, and then you won't -- (begins to leave)
Spike: No! You can't ever. Glory never finds out.
Buffybot: Why?
Spike: 'Cause Buffy -- the other not-so-pleasant Buffy -- anything happened to Dawn, it'd destroy her. I couldn't live her bein' in that much pain. I'd let Glory kill me first. Nearly bloody did.
  • Spike: And my robot?
Buffy: The robot is gone. The robot was gross and obscene.
Spike: It wasn't supposed to --
Buffy: Don't. That... thing -- it wasn't even real. What you did for me and Dawn -- that was real. I won't forget it.