From The TV IV

Life Serial is the fifth episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the one-hundred and fifth episode overall.

Guest Stars: Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles), Amber Benson (Tara Maclay), Danny Strong (Jonathan), Adam Busch (Warren), Tom Lenk (Andrew), Paul Gutrecht (Tony), Noel Guglielmi (Vince), Enrique Almeida (Marco), Marcia Ann Burrs (Professor Bellamy), Jonathan Goldstein (Mike), Winsome Brown (Woman Customer), Christopher May (Male Customer), David J. Miller (Rat-Faced Demon), Andrew Cooper Wasser (Slime-Covered Demon), Richard Beatty (Small Demon), James C. Leary (Loose Skinned Demon (Clem)), Jennifer Shon (Rachel), Jabari Hearn (Steve), Derrick McMillon (Ron), Clint Culp (Bartender), Mark Ginther (Horned Demon), Alice Dinnean (Mummy Hand)

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

• No monsters of the week appear with enough screen time to be considered a Monster of the Week.

[edit] Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Demon	Buffy	Stabbed with a shovel	Construction Site
2	Demon	Buffy	Snapped Neck	Contruction Site
3	Demon	Buffy	Crushed by a Skyjack	Contruction Site

[edit] Arc Advancement

[edit] Happenings

• The Trio: The trio's plan goes into effect, but it doesn't seem like they have much of a plan besides being annoying.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Referbacks

• Tough Love: Although Buffy says she quit school when her mother got sick, she actually quit school following her mother's death. This occurred in the referenced episode.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] The Show

• Drunk Buffy: This episode marks the third time Buffy has been drunk, the other two being Reptile Boy and Beer Bad. Joss Whedon seems to push the Beer Bad message as whenever a main character starts drinking, something bad happens. See also: Xander in Teacher's Pet, Willow in Something Blue and Giles in The Dark Age and The Yoko Factor.

[edit] Behind the Scenes

• Writing Split: This episode was evenly split between the two writers. David Fury wrote the teaser and the first two acts of the episode. Jane Espenson wrote the final two acts.

[edit] Allusions and References

• Gidget: Gidget was the title character of a television series Gidget, which aired between 1965 and 1966. The series starred Sally Field as Gidget, a teenager growing up in Southern California with her widowed father. One can draw parallels between the two series on a base level, like Buffy and Gidget both growing up in California and losing their mother. Also, the way Buffy wore her hair in the scene was the same way that Gidget appeared in the series.

Tony the Foreman: ...and now I'm supposed to babysit Gidget.

• Monty Python: Several references are made to the Monty Python's Dead Parrot Sketch from 1x08 - Full Frontal Nudity during Buffy's timeloop. In the sketch, John Cleese is attempting to return a dead parrot to the pet store he bought it from where the clerk insists that the parrot is only playing dead.

Woman: This hand is dead. The power is gone. I'm not giving you money for this.

• Star Trek: The episode which Andrew refers to in the episode is Cause and Effect. In the episode, the Enterprise is stuck in a "temporal causality loop" which ends with the destruction of the ship. The loops is broken by managing to send a message between the time loops in order to change the ending in such a way that the ship doesn't explode. This same plot was also used in the Sealab 2021 episode Lost in Time.

Andrew: I just hope she solves it faster than Data did on that ep of TNG where the Enterprise kept blowing up.

• The X-Files: The episode which Warren refers to is Monday, from the sixth season of the series. The episode centered around a Woman perpetually repeating the day as she attempts to stop her boyfriend from blowing up a bank with Mulder and Scully inside it.

Warren: Or Mulder, in that X-Files where the bank kept exploding.

[edit] Memorable Moments

[edit] Quotes

• Buffy: I don't know how to say this. But, it's a little like having Mom back.
  Giles: In your scenario, I'm your mother?
  Buffy: Wanna be my shiftless absentee father?
  Giles: Is there some sort of rakish uncle?

[edit] Reviews

• Overall Grade: no reviews yet
• Review Breakdown: A+: 0 A: 0 A-: 0 B+: 0 B: 0 B-: 0 C+: 0 C: 0 C-: 0 D: 0 F: 0