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Ted is the eleventh episode of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the twenty-third episode overall. Buffy is disturbed to find her mother kissing a man named Ted in her kitchen and, although everything seems normal, she's still suspicious about Ted's motives.

Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), David Boreanaz (Angel)

And: Anthony Stewart Head (Giles)

Special Guest Star: John Ritter (Ted)

Guest Starring: Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), Robia LaMorte (Jenny Calendar), Ken Thorley (Neal), James G. MacDonald (Detective Stein)

Co-Starring: Jeff Langton (Vampire)

Contents 1 Plot Overview 2 Notes 2.1 Monster of the Week 2.2 Body Count 2.3 Music 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

[edit] Plot Overview

[edit] Notes

[edit] Monster of the Week

Ted, after much investigation, is revealed to be a robot masquerading as a human. Several small references to electronics which hint to his true identity are made through out the episode, particularly him saying that he's not "wired" a certain way and his coworker referring to him as a "machine."

The real Ted was a "sickly loser" who was presumably an inventor during the 1950s. When his wife left him, he built a new Ted with the qualities he thought his wife would want. However, the robotic Ted lacks rationality and held Ted's ex-wife hostage in his bunker until she died. The process was repeated three more times with new wives who fit the same archetype of the first wife.

In addition to being a robot, Ted also draws some elements from The Stepford Wives and the fairytale of Bluebeard. The Stepford Wives is a 1975 horror/science-fiction film about women who are replaced with submissive, "1950s housewife" robot doubles by their husbands. Xander's response to finding Ted's wives in the closet is reminiscent of a similar scene from the Bluebeard fairytale, when Bluebeard's newest wife found the remains of his previous wives in a "forbidden room."

[edit] Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Vampire	Buffy	Staked	Park
2	Vampire	Giles	Staked	Park
3	Ted	Buffy	Hit with Frying Pan	Kitchen

[edit] Music

[edit] Arc Advancement

[edit] Happenings

[edit] Characters

[edit] Referbacks

[edit] Trivia

[edit] The Show

[edit] Behind the Scenes

• Cut Line: In the conversation between Xander and Willow about The Captain and Tennille, Willow had a line that was cut from the episode: "I'm just saying that if Tennille were in charge, she would have had the little captain hat."
• International: Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been dubbed into many different languages and the title translated for each different international version. Some international translations of this episode's title are:
  • French: "Le Fiancé" ("The Fiancé")
  • Italian: "Il fidanzato di mamma" ("Mom's Fiancé")
  • Japanese: "テッド" ("Teddo" - "Ted")

[edit] Allusions and References

• 2x09 - What's My Line? (1): Spike put out a hit on Buffy in an attempt to either distract her while he was performing the ritual to restore Drusilla or outright kill her. When Spike was incapacitated and most of the assassins sent after her killed, they've apparently called off the contract.

• 2x10 - What's My Line? (2): When Buffy is in Angel's home complaining about how much she hates Ted, she's also wrapping his hand in a bandage. The redressing is a result of the wound he suffered during Spike's ritual, which necessitated stabbing a hole in Angel's hand to mix his blood with Drusilla's.

• 2x08 - The Dark Age: During his youth, Giles and his band of occultist friends would routinely summon the demon Eyghon to possess them for a short time as a manner of getting high. Many years later, the demon began to systematically kill the people who summoned him in order to gain corporeal form in reality, including Giles. Among those killed was Phillip Henry, who Cordelia refers to.

Cordelia: I guess you should know since you helped raise that demon that killed that guy that time?

[edit] Memorable Moments

[edit] Quotes