David on directing

The Angel episode Soul Purpose was directed by it’s star, David Boreanaz. He said of the experience:

“Well, I always wanted to do that, and I approached [the producers] last season with that. They were kind of like, “yeah, sure.” It was not really much to think about. Being around set, on my set, on my show, for four seasons, you see directors come and go, and you learn from them what to do and what not to do.
If anybody knows the show, it would be me, because I’m there every day. To have that opportunity to direct under my belt was fantastic, so I’m glad I did it.”

David’s knee

The episode Soul Purpose, in which Angel spends most of his time in bed, was devised because David Boreanaz had a knee operation and could not move well.

Shell people

During one of his feverish dreams in Soul Purpose, Fred says to Angel, “Nothing. I can’t seem to find anything wrong with you. I mean… except that you’re empty. There’s nothing left. Just a shell.” A few episodes later Fred is infected by Illyria and becomes just that - a shell.

Soul Purpose

In the Angel episode Soul Purpose, Angel hallucinates that Spike is having sex with Buffy. Dialogue from the Buffy episode The Prom was used in the scene:

Buffy: “Every time I say the word prom, you get grouchy.”
Angel: “Buffy?”
Spike: “Won’t be long now.”
Angel: “You’re taking Buffy to the Prom?”
Buffy: “Can you say jumping the gun? I kill my goldfish.”

Walnut heart

In The Cautionary Tale Of Numero Cinco, Number 5 calls Angel’s heart a “dried-up walnut of a dead thing”. When Fred dissects Angel in his dream in Soul Purpose, she finds his heart and says, “Hey! What do you know? It is a dried-up little walnut.”

Selminth parasite

In Soul Purpose, Eve uses a Selminth parasite on Angel. It’s teeth inject an anesthetic, and it pumps neurotoxins into the body causing paralysis, hallucinations and fever dreams.

Jaws

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 shark movie Jaws is alluded to a few times in Buffy.
In Go Fish, Xander says, “This was no boating accident” - which is a line from the first Jaws movie.
In Graduation Day (Part 1), Xander and Giles open a page of a book to see a giant monster they may have to face. Xander says, “We’re going to need a bigger boat”, which was the phrase used by Brody (Roy Scheider) in the movie when he first sees the size of the great white shark he’s hunting.
In the episode Anne, Oz suggests that Willow uses the phrase “This time it’s personal” as it’s a “classic”. He’s quoting from the fourth Jaws movie.
Anya makes an explicit reference to the movie in End of Days when she suggests killing demons with gas cylinders, “They’d only be useful if something big was attacking, and then we could shove one down their throat and blow ‘em up like Roy Scheider did with that shark in Jaws.”
In Empty Places, Xander mentions the abysmal third movie in the Jaws series, made in 1983. After he loses his eye, Xander says, “Oh, you know what the best part is? No one will ever make me watch Jaws 3-D again.”
In Soul Purpose, whilst dissecting Angel in his dream, Fred holds up a Mexican license plate saying, “Hmm. Came up the gulf stream, huh?” This is a reference to the first Jaws movie,in which Hooper opens the dead shark and says, “Ah. Just like I thought. He came up with the Gulf Stream - from southern waters” before holding up a licence plate from Louisiana.

Machiavelli

Giles says to Xander in Bad Eggs, “I suppose there is a sort of Machiavellian ingenuity to your transgression.” He’s referring to Renaissance philosopher Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) whose most famous work was The Prince (1515). In it, he says that to remain in power and be truly effective, a ruler must reject traditional morality and use his power ruthlessly. The term “Machiavellian” therefore means to achieve goals by whatever means necessary. In As You Were, Todd asks Buffy “you know Machiavelli, right?”
In Soul Purpose, Gunn says of an evil warlock, “We open a can of Machiavelli on his ass.”

Miami Vice

In Soul Purpose, Gunn and Wesley call on Spike, who says, “Well, look who’s come to call— Crockett and Tubbs.” Crockett (played by Don Johnson) and Tubbs (played by Philip Michael Thomas) were two detectives in the TV series Miami Vice, which ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984 to 1989.

Pinocchio

In Once More, With Feeling, Spike says, “Strong. Someday, he’ll be a real boy”, when he notices the strength of one of Sweet’s henchmen. This is a reference to Italian author Carlo Collodi’s children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio which features an animated marionette whose dream is to become human. The story was made famous by Walt Disney’s film Pinocchio.

In To Shanshu in L.A, Wesley realises that the Shanshu prophecy means that Angel will become human after fulfilling his destiny. The gang have the following conversation:

Wesley: “Well, it’s saying that it won’t happen tomorrow or the next day. He has to survive the coming darkness, the apocalyptic battles, a few plagues, and some - uh, several, - not that many - fiends that will be unleashed.”
Angel: “So don’t break out the champagne just yet.”
Cordy: “Yeah, break out the champagne, Pinocchio. This is a big deal!”

In Hellbound, Spike says,”To making me a real boy again?” - an echo of the comment he made in the Buffy musical. It’s also a Pinoccio reference. In Soul Purpose, Freds says that Spike, “Deserves to become a real boy.”
In Smile Time, Lorne says of the injured puppet-Angel, “Medic! Doctor! Is there a Gepetto in the house?” Gepetto was Pinocchio’s wood-carver father.

Prince Matchabelli

In Soul Purpose, Harmony confuses Machiavelli with the perfume Prince Matchabelli, “It’s Matchabelli, Einstein, and it doesn’t come in a can.”