Catchy number: The song that acts as a trigger for Spike is called Early One Morning. It's a folk song about a woman whose lover leaves her, and has the following lyrics:

Early one morning, just as the sun was rising
I heard a maid sing in the valley below
"Oh don't deceive me, Oh never leave me,
How could you use, a poor maiden so?"

Buffy's not a fan, obviously preferring P!nk's Gotta Get This Party Started.

Where did you get that hat?: What on Earth is Anya wearing on her head? It looks as though she's about to enter a synchronised swimming contest - or possibly do the Charleston.

Stoned: Giles uses a Prokaryote Stone (which Buffy mistakenly describes as a prophylactic stone) to unleash images, ideas and memories from spike's mind. Although Giles claims it will enter Spike's brain through his optic nerve - which runs from the back of the eye socket - the stone travels under his eyebrow and appears to pass straight through his skull.

Hark, the lark: Spike's terrible poetry is dedicated to Cecily, who we see spurning him and inadvertently setting him on the path to becoming a vampire in Fool for Love.

Speech!: Recognising that Buffy has been spouting endlessly tedious rhetoric to her troops over the past few weeks, the Slayer sends herself up with the line to Giles: "Have you heard my speeches?" Andrew had previously poked fun at the painful pep talk in Storyteller.

Return of the Mac: As is the way on Buffy, all the cool kids have an Apple Mac as their computer of choice. Wood uses his to play a version of Early One Morning - Spike's trigger song - on Apple's iTunes software.

Read it and weep: Giles loathes the fact that Sunnydale High's library doesn't appear to contain any books - just computers. It did seem to to be well stocked when we saw it in Help, however. Giles also champions books over computers, something that harks back to his arguaments with girlfriend-to-be enny Calendar during season one's I Robot, You Jane.

Dead and buried: Spike once told Buffy that he knew what it was like to dig his way out of his own grave. Yet, when he returns home to his dear old mum after being sired by Drusilla, there's no evidence that he's been anywhere near a coffin. There certainly hasn't been a funeral, as his mother would have attended it.

It's the end: The fact that the final ever episode of Buffy was only a few weeks away was advertised during the US transmission of this episode.

Looking good: Wood's mother was killed in 1977 - so judging from how old little Wood looked in this episode, he must be in his early thirties now.

Do what... you're told: Nikki Wood's watcher was called Bernard Crowley - a reference to famous Edwardian black magician Aleister Crowley (catchphrase: Do what thou wilt), perhaps?

Meanwhile, in LA: The phone call Willow recieves is from Fred, over at Angel. Alyson Hannigan crossed over for the episode Orpheus, where she acted opposite real-life husband (then fiancee) Alexis Denisof (Wesley).

Mommy dearest: Spike's mother Anne is played by Caroline Lagerfelt, a veteran TV and film actress with a host of cult credits to her name. These include appearances on The X Files, Deep Space Nine, Six Feet Under and the role of Greta Van Eyck in Minority Report.