From The TV IV

Lies My Parents Told Me is the seventeenth episode of the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the one-hundred and thirty-ninth episode overall.

Special Guest Star: Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles)

Guest Stars: Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells), Iyari Limon (Kennedy), Indigo (Rona), Caroline Lagerfelt (Anne), K. D. Aubert (Nikki Wood), Juliet Landau as Drusilla

And: DB Woodside as Principal Wood

Co-Stars: Damani Roberts (Young Robin), Ira Steck (New Vamp)

Contents 1 Plot Overview 2 Notes 2.1 Monster of the Week 2.2 Body Count 3 Arc Advancement 3.1 Happenings 3.2 Characters 3.3 Referbacks 4 Trivia 4.1 The Show 4.2 Behind the Scenes 4.3 Allusions and References 4.4 Memorable Moments 5 Quotes 6 Reviews

[edit] Plot Overview

[edit] Notes

[edit] Monster of the Week

• There's no monster of the week in this episode, because it is mainly about Spike and his past, as well as Robin's attempt to cope with working with the man who killed his mother.

[edit] Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Vampire	Spike	Decapitated	Alleyway
2	Vampire	Spike	Staked	Alleyway
3	Anne	Spike	Staked	Spike's Home (1800s)
4	Vampire (Richard)	Buffy	Staked	Graveyard

[edit] Arc Advancement

[edit] Happenings

[edit] Characters

• Spike: More of Spike's past is shown through flashbacks. This is the first time that Spike is given a proper flashback episode since Fool for Love. It particularly showcases the relationship with his mother, who essentially abandoned him after he sired her in order to heal her. The trigger that the First set up in his brain is removed in this episode.

[edit] Referbacks

• 7x13 - The Killer in Me: Buffy had the chip that the Initiative placed in Spike's brain removed when given the choice by the active Initiative cell. Most of Buffy's friends believe this to be a mistake.

Giles: I told you my concerns when you recklessly chose to remove the chip from his head.

• 7x05 - Selfless: Anya makes a reference to when Buffy tried to kill her after she used her vengeance demon powers to kill a room full of frat boys. The spell was eventually reversed, but she was still considered a threat afterwards.

Anya: I mean, he could slaughter a hundred frat boys, and—

• 5x16 - The Body: In case you forgot, Joyce had an aneurysm after she recovered from her operation to remove her brain tumor.

Buffy: I lost my mom a couple years ago.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] The Show

• Angel Crossover: Willow gets a call from Fred from Angel in this episode and leaves for Los Angeles. Her story is told in the Angel episode Orpheus. Incidentally, this is the first time that characters have crossed between series since Buffy aired on WB.
• Deleted Scene: During Buffy's long fight with the vampire, a scene in which Giles admitted to killing a human once was cut. Giles did kill a human in the fifth season; He killed Ben in order to stop Glory forever in The Gift.
• Final Appearance: This is the final appearance of Juliet Landau as Drusilla in the series.
• Product Placement: Wood apparently is using a G4 iMac with iTunes in order to trigger Spike into attacking him. This falls inline with the rest of the show's Apple promotion, as Willow can be often seen with what looks like a G3 Powerbook.

[edit] Behind the Scenes

• Original Title: This episode was originally going to be called "Mother and Son," but Drew Goddard convinced co-writer David Fury to change it because the episode also deals with Buffy's relationship with her "father" (Giles) and Robin's relationship with his mother.
• Self-Reference: When Buffy says "have you heard my speeches," this is a wry reference to the criticism that Buffy's speeches attracted from the fan community, particularly on the various Buffy forums and newsgroups.

[edit] Allusions and References

• Tuberculosis: Although it isn't said specifically in the episode, it can be presumed that the disease ailing Anne was tuberculosis, a disease targeting the lungs and central nervous system. This would explain why she was coughing up blood. Additionally, tuberculosis was thought of as vampirism during the Industrial Revolution because when one person died in a family, the remainder of the family would also get ill and people thought it was the original sick person cursing their family. People with TB had symptoms of sensitivity of light due to swollen eyes, pale skin and coughing blood (which people presumed that needed to be replaced through sucking blood). This is often cited as the beginnings of the vampire myth.

• Dr. Gull: When Spike offers to send for Dr. Gull, he almost certainly means Dr. William Gull, a doctor who was in service to the Royal Family during the time period this flashback took place in. Gull was most notably the man who gave name to Anorexia Nervosa and was theorized to be Jack the Ripper.

Should I send the coach for Doctor Gull?

• Pink: Buffy references the song "Get This Party Started" by Pink, a pop artist popular in 2003. The song hovered around the Billboard hits chart for several weeks and has a high ranking video on the various countdown shows on MTV and VH1.

Buffy: It wasn't like it had a catchy hook or anything like "I'm coming up, so you better get this party started."

• Yul Brynner: Yul Brynner is an Americanized Russian actor who immigrated to the United States and starred in movies like The King and I and The Ten Commandments.

Buffy: It was boring, old, and English. Just like you—ull. Yul Brynner.

• Hamlet: Spike quotes a line from the "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet. In the play, Hamlet reflects on his cowardice that's preventing him from commiting suicide when he says, "to sleep, perchance to dream. Ay there's the rub. For in the sleep of death what dreams may come." He fears what might come after death and thus refuses to commit suicide.

Spike: Well, that's the rub, innit?

[edit] Memorable Moments

[edit] Quotes

[edit] Reviews

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