Sarah's symbols: Whilst Sarah Michelle Gellar sports two tattos - the Chinese symbol for integrity on her back and a heart & dagger on her ankle - she seems to have gained another on her right shoulder during the beach scenes.

All my Children (of the night): Dracula, Rudolph Martin played Sarah Michelle Gellar's onscreen lover in the daytime soap All My Children. Martin had another crack at Drac when he played Vlad the Impaler in the TV movie Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula soon after appearing in Buffy.

He also looks worryingly like Changing Rooms' Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.

Counting the similarities: Marti Noxon's script incorporates many elements from Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel. The possessed Xander is based on the book's bug-munching Renfield and the three sisters who ravish a willing Giles are Stoker's creations too. Wolves and bats feature heavily in the Dracula mythology too. The name Dracula means "Son of the Devil", by the way...

Castles in the sky: A great big castle in Sunnydale? Where on earth did that come from? Even Riley and Giles appear baffled by it.

It's a kind of magic: Despite his seemingly impressive powers, Dracula relies on "showy gypsy stuff," to appear smarter than your average vamp.