Well meaning Willow: Xander's wariness of Willow's spell casting is well founded: he had been on the wrong end of a love spell before, thanks to Amy's magical trickery in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

People of Sunnydale: According to the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign that Spike knocks over at the beginning of this episode, Sunnydale's population is 38,500 (and, no doubt, getting smaller all the time�)

Singing Simpsons: Willow's lament that her test scores make her "Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokel" refers to a simpleton character in 'The Simpsons', who first appeared in the 1994 episode "Bart Gets an Elephant". Cletus is married to his sister, Brandine. They have 26 children and a "smellhound" called Geech. Cletus even got his own theme song in the episode '22 Short Films About Springfield': "Some folks'll never eat a skunk / but then some folks'll / like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel"!