The next Slayer?: "My death could make you the next slayer", says Buffy to the potentials. This has to be rhetoric: if meant literally, she's having a real mental block about Faith. When the rogue Slayer appeared in season three's Faith Hope and Trick, it was clear she'd been called because of Buffy's fleeting death in Prophecy Girl and then the death of her activated replacement Kendra in Becoming Part One.
As long as there is a 'Chosen One', the line of succession would rest on Faith's death now. Dawn and Xander both seem to share this amnesia later.
Ain't Nobody: Buffy renames the First's Ubervamp as Chaka Khan. Born 1953 as Yvette Marie Stevens, Chaka Khan is a soulful singer-songwriter (or R'n'B Diva, if you will) who came on the scene in 1973 as the singer with Rufus. In the UK, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan had a 1978 hit with Ain't Nobody. In 1984 I Feel For You was a solo UK #1 hit, and US #3, for Chaka. It was one of the first chart-toppers with a section performed by a featured rapper (Melle Mel) alongside the named artist.
Clem - how ya been?: It's James C. Leary's first appearance this season as the snacks-loving loose-skinned demon, Clem. He appeared in six episodes of season six. We don't see quite what Clem does with his face to shock the girls, but it's very similar to a comic-horror scene in Tim Burton's 1988 film Beetlejuice, starring Batman-to-be Michael Keaton. Don't miss our own interview with Leary, will you?
Potentialwatch: Arriving this week, in one sense, is:
- Amanda - the tall, gawky brunette. We first met her in Help, when she was one of counsellor Buffy's first visitors. Amanda is played by Sarah Hagan, who had a recurring role on the 1999 'I Love 1980' series Freaks and Geeks. Sarah has also appeared in legal series Boston Public, as has Indigo - her fellow potential Rona - and Sarah Thompson, who appears in Angel season five.
TiVO: Clem says his went wrong during a History Channel programme he thought Buffy wold love. Digital video recorder TiVO is a tape-free piece of kit which can handle up to 80 hours of TV, being based on a hard-disk. It has rewind, fast-forward and pause capabilities. In early 2003, TiVO announced it was withdrawing from the UK, having attracted only 35,000 subscribers. BSkyB, who show Buffy and Angel in the UK, took much of TiVO's target market with their own digital video recorder Sky Plus.
A wolfy mojo: Xander makes a rare reference to Oz, Willow's boyfriend from the late nineties. Oz hasn't been seen in Sunnydale since the end of season four, so is another of those characters who season five arrival Dawn would only have met in the "fake memories" which Anya refers to earlier in this episode.
Giles