Bye, crossovers

Angel discovers that Buffy is alive during an off-screen phone call from Willow in the Angel episode ‘Carpe Noctem‘. Angel calls the Slayer in the Buffy episode Flooded, and she goes off to meet him - not in Sunnydale, not in L.A., but somewhere in the middle. This is a nod towards the fact that there are no more Buffy/Angel crossovers now that Buffy has moved from the WB to UPN. Buffy returns to Sunnydale in Life Serial but doesn’t want to talk about her meeting with Angel (she just says it was “intense”), another nod to the lack of crossovers. Likewise, in Fredless, Angel says he really doesn’t want to talk about meeting Buffy.

Roger and Trish Burkle

Fred’s parents, Roger and Trish Burkle were devastated when their beloved daughter disappeared. They hired a private eye to locate her which led them to Angel Investigations. The gang initially thought Fred was frightened of her parents, and believed they were untrustworthy. They were in fact perfect parents, and, after a fight with giant insect demons, they ask Fred to go home to Texas with them. Fred decided to stay with Angel, but remained in close contact with her parents.

Buffy and Angel’s love

In the Angel episode Fredless, Cordelia and Wesley do an amusing re-enactment of Buffy and Angel’s relationship for Fred. It goes as follows:

Cordy: “Let me break it down for you, Fred.”
Cordy now pretends to be Buffy while Wesley is Angel.
Cordy: “Oh Angel! I know that I’m a Slayer and you’re a vampire and it would be impossible for us to be together, but…”
Wesley: “But, my gypsy curse sometimes prevent me from seeing the truth. Oh, Buffy”
Cordy: “Yes, Angel?”
Wes: “Oh, I love you so much I almost forgot to brood.”
Cordy: “And just because I sent you to hell that one time doesn’t mean that we can’t just be friends.”
Cordy: “Oh!”
Wes: “Or possibly more.”
Cordy: “Gasp! No! We mustn’t.”
Wes: “Kiss me.”
Cordy: “Bite me!”
Angel: “How about you both bite me?”

Smoker Lorne

When Fred goes to Caritas in Fredless, she finds Lorne drinking, watching TV, and smoking a cigarette, which he immediately puts out. This is the first time Lorne is seen smoking. We also see him smoking in Spin the Bottle.

Weapons inventory

In Fredless, Wesley, Gunn and Angel are carrying out an inventory of the weapons cabinet, as Cordelia had moved some “dust-catchers” down to the basement in Angel’s absence, seen in Heartthrob. Cordelia: “No. Angel - keeps complaining that the weapons cabinet is all different.”

Aliens

In Bad Eggs, the offspring of the Mother Bezoar is very similar to the facehugger parasite (designed by swiss artist H R Giger) in the Alien(s) movie series. The Bezoar dissection scene is also a clear nod to a scene in Aliens, in which the android Bishop (Lance Hendriksen) examines one of the creatures.
In Fredless, Trish Burkle says, “I mean, Rog’s always had a thing for those disgusting Alien movies, all the slime and teeth. Ugh, he just can’t get enough of them. Except for that last one they made - I think he dozed off.” This is an in-joke at the expense of Joss Whedon, who was credited as co-writing the fourth movie, Alien: Resurrection, though his script was extensively rewritten.

Bob Hope Desert Classic

In Fredless, Roger Burkle and Angel have the following dialogue:

Roger: “Well, I tell ya, I hadn’t seen a stroke like that since Nicklaus took on Gary Player in the ‘63…”
Angel and Roger in unison: “Bob Hope Desert Classic.”

They’re talking about a PGA Tour golf tournament which is played each January in California’s Coachella Valley. It is part of the Tour’s early season West Coast Swing and is also well known for its celebrity pro-am. Jack Nicklaus is a famous golfer.

Spiro Agnew

In Fredless, Fred’s father and Angel have the following conversation:

Roger: “Now, Spiro Agnew, I know he was…”
Angel: “A Grathnar demon! You knew that? I thought I was the only one that knew that!”
Roger: “What else would he be, but a demon?”

Spiro Agnew was the thirty-ninth Vice President of the United States, serving between 1969 to 1973 under President Richard Nixon. He is most famous for his resignation in 1973 following evidence of tax evasion.

The Godfather

Ethan Rayne says to Buffy in Halloween, “I feel quite moved to make you a deal you can’t refuse.” This is a reference to the 1972 movie The Godfather, in which Don Vito Corleone often uses the phrase, “an offer you can’t refuse”. In Choices, Faith tells the Mayor, “I made him an offer he couldn’t survive”, paraphrasing the famous line.
In Fredless, Lorne says, “But it turns out massacres are a lot like sitting through Godfather 3: once is enough.”

Winston Churchill

For some unexplained reason, Wesley has a framed photograph of British war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill behind his desk in the Hyperion Hotel. This can be seen clearly in Fredless.