It’s a puzzle

The French title for the episode Some Assembly Required is Le Puzzle.

Amanda Wilmshurst

Amanda played Sunnydale High’s head cheerleader, Joy, in The Witch and Some Assembly Required. Amanda appeared in American Pie 2 (with Alyson Hannigan), Never Been Kissed and Port Charles.

Angelo Spizzirri

Angelo Spizzirri played Chris Epps in Some Assembly Required. He has also been in Thanks to Gravity, Underclassman, Pretty Persuasion, Jesus, Mary and Joey, The Rookie, Groove and Rocket’s Red Glare.

David Koneff

David Koneff was the set decorator for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has also been set decorator for Firefly, The Inside and CSI: Miami as well as several movies.
David’s name was immortalised in Buffy in the form of a tombstone in Some Assembly Required. According to the stone, he was a Sunnydale resident who died in 1963. This can be seen when Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles are digging up graves checking for bodies.

Ingo Neuhaus

Ingo played Daryl Epps in Some Assembly Required. Ingo played Rick in Weird Science and has also been in L.A. Confidential, The Rock and Monster Makers.

Melanie MacQueen

Melanie MacQueen played Chris and Daryl’s mother, Mrs. Epps, in Some Assembly Required. She has also been in Mousehunt, The Tie That Binds, Doc Hollywood, Robotech (voice of Lisa Hayes) and Nightkill.

Michael Bacall

Michael played Eric in Some Assembly Required. Michael has made numerous TV appearances, in shows such as NYPD Blue, Norm, Relativity, The Wonder Years, Mr. Belvedere and Bull (which starred Christopher Wiehl, who played Owen in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date. Michael also played Perry in Free Willy.

Ty King

Ty wrote the episodes Some Assembly Required and Passion. His full name is David Tyron King. Ty has also written for Family Ties, Newhart and Heart’s Afire.

Cathy Ryan

Cathy Ryan was a member of the Fondren High Pep Squad with Meredith Todd and Jane Atkins. All three girls were killed in a car accident. Chris Epps and Eric dug up her body in order to create a girlfriend for Daryl Epps in Some Assembly Required.
Cathy Ryan (same spelling) is also the name of a character in a series of novels by Tom Clancy. She is a doctor who is married to Jack Ryan who serves in the series at various times as CIA Director, Vice-President of the United States, and President of the United States.

Chris Epps

Chris Epps was a talented Sunnydale High School student who won the Science Fair every year. His brother Daryl was killed in a rock climbing incident and Chris brought him back from the dead. Chris and his friend Eric attempted to create a zombie girlfriend for Daryl out of dead girls’ body parts in Some Assembly Required.

Daddy

Ms. Calendar tells Giles “Call me Jenny, Miss Calendar is my father” in Some Assembly Required. I originally put this in the goofs section but ‘The Demon Alfalfa’ pointed out to me that this ‘mistake’ was probably intended by the Buffy writers, as it could be a clever take on the old saying usually said by men. By having a woman use it with the feminine pronoun it becomes a quirky language joke. Also, as Ms. Calendar’s father was not named Calendar (he would have been Kalderash), it’s more likely to be a genuine play on words.

Daryl Epps

Daryl Epps was Sunnydale High’s football star who once dated Cordelia. He died in a rock climbing accident, but his brother, Chris, brought him back from the dead. Daryl was so disfigured that he refused to go out. Chris and Eric attempted to make him a girlfriend from dead girls’ bodies, but Buffy stopped them in Some Assembly Required. Daryl was killed again in a fire when he refused to leave his new (headless) girlfriend.

Eric Gittleson

Eric helped his friend Chris Epps to create a girlfriend for Chris’s zombie brother Daryl. When Chris tried to back out of the project, Eric decided to attempt it himself, before being stopped by Buffy in Some Assembly Required.

Jane Atkins

Jane Atkins was one of the of three high school girls from Fondren High who died in a car accident. Chris and Eric dug up her body in order to create a girlfriend for Daryl Epps in Some Assembly Required.

Meredith Todd

Meredith was one of the of three high school girls from Fondren High who died in a car accident. Chris and Eric dug up her body in order to create a girlfriend for Daryl Epps in Some Assembly Required.

Mrs. Epps

Mrs. Epps was the mother of Chris and Daryl Epps, seen in Some Assembly Required. She was greatly affected by Daryl’s death and when Buffy visited her house, she found Mrs. Epps watching old tapes of Daryl’s sports achievements.

Stephan Korchak

Stephan Korchak was a Sunnydale resident who was killed and then sired by a vampire. At the beginning of Some Assembly Required, Buffy is waiting at his grave in a Sunnydale cemetery for him to rise. He subsequently rises as a vampire and Buffy makes short work of him staking him with a shovel handle.

Age of Angel

Angel revealed to Buffy that he was 241 years old in Some Assembly Required. He also said this in Reptile Boy. This means he would have been born in 1755 or 1756. In Halloween, Willow states that Angel was eighteen in 1775. But in Becoming (Part 1) we see that he was made into a vampire in 1753, even though by previous reckonings he wouldn’t have been born yet. It’s all very confusing, but Joss Whedon has admitted that he’s terrible at maths, so I’ll leave it at that.

Fondren High

Fondren High (a rival school to Sunnydale High) was mentioned in Some Assembly Required.

Footballers

Giles and Jenny continue their unconventional romance by going on a date to a school football game in Some Assembly Required. How very romantic.

Razorbacks roster

A roster of the Sunnydale High School Razorbacks football team is shown in Some Assembly Required:
15-Jack
17-Gold
32-Burke
33-Unknown
37-Lewis
38-Roll
47-Unknown
54-Kueshick
54-Maverick
58-Unknown
61-Kauten
66-Unknown
67-Curtis
70-Nelson
71-Trueba
80-Courtney
81-Unknown
82-Russell
87-Unknown
92-Delautour
98-Cox

Scooby Cordy

The first seeds are sown for Cordelia’s future relationship with Xander when he saves her from the burning science lab in Some Assembly Required. She thanks him but he’s too busy asking Willow why he can’t get a date to listen to her. Cordy is almost part of the gang at that point - they even invite her to dig up bodies with them.

Unappreciative Xander

In Some Assembly Required, Xander states, “People don’t fall in love with what’s right in front on them. They want the dream. The more unattainable, the more attractive.” In Phases, Willow says a similar thing, ironically about Xander: “He’s so busy looking around at everything he doesn’t have, he doesn’t even realize what he does have.”

My Girl

Eric sings “My Girl” in Some Assembly Required, a song written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White in 1965. The Temptations did a famous Motown cover of the song.

Sticky mess

The point is made in Some Assembly Required about worthless parts due to formaldehyde - did Chris dig up his brother’s body the very next day? Even so, did he learn all of the biology needed to be successful in such a short time or did he always have this knowledge just in case a loved one died prematurely?

Age of Angel

Angel revealed to Buffy that he was 241 years old in Some Assembly Required. He also said this in Reptile Boy. This means he would have been born in 1755 or 1756. In Halloween, Willow states that Angel was eighteen in 1775. But in Becoming (Part 1) we see that he was made into a vampire in 1753, even though by previous reckonings he wouldn’t have been born yet. It’s all very confusing, but Joss Whedon has admitted that he’s terrible at maths, so I’ll leave it at that.

American Red Cross

An American Red Cross poster can be seen in Some Assembly Required, posted on a bulletin board in the high school library.

Batman

The comic Batman, by DC Comics, is mentioned several times in Buffy.

• In Some Assembly Required, Buffy says to Willow, “Sorry to interrupt, Willow, but it’s the Bat-Signal.” She’s alluding to the ‘Bat-Signal’ in Gotham city which is used to alert Batman that he is needed.
• In Halloween, Xander says to Cordelia, “Catwoman, you’re with me.” In the Batman comics, Catwoman is a cat-burglar, and the alter ego of Selina Kyle.
• In The Yoko Factor, Xander says, “You and Willow go do the superpower thing, I’ll stay behind and putt around the Batcave with crusty old Alfred here.” The Batcave was Batman’s high-tech base and Alfred was his loyal butler.
• The nerds’ freeze ray gun in Smashed may have been inspired by Batman’s Mr Freeze, who used a similar device.
• In Beneath You, Spike says, “A little touchy-feely, and you’re off to the Batpoles?” He’s referring to the 1960s TV show Batman in which Batman and Robin would slide down poles to the Batcave when they were needed.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew mentions Batman’s foe The Riddler.
• Vincent Schiavelli, who played Jenny’s uncle in Surprise and Innocence played the Organ Grinder in the movie Batman Returns.
• In the Angel episode Lonely Hearts, Doyle says, “It’s not like you have a signal folks can shine in the sky whenever they need help, you know?”, referring to the Batsignal.
• In ‘In the Dark‘, Spike says of Angel, “quickly to the Angelmobile, away” - another Batman reference.
• In Benediction, Lilah says of Connor,”Who’s the boy wonder?” This is the name often given to Batman’s sidekick, Robin.

Cyrano de Bergerac

In Some Assembly Required, Giles tries to think of a way to ask Jenny Calendar on a date. Overhearing him, Buffy suggests he say, “Hey, I got a thing, you maybe have a thing, maybe we could have a thing” to which Giles replies, “Oh, thank you, Cyrano.” This is a reference to the character Cyrano de Bergerac in Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play. Cyrano was an eloquent poet and swordsman whose only flaw was his insecurity about his large nose. He helps his friend Christian woo the beautiful Roxanne by giving him the right words to say to Roxanne, even though Cyrano is in love with Roxanne himself.

Frankenstein

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, was first published in 1818, but the story of Frankenstein’s monster has been retold numerous times. In Buffy, there are a couple of examples of similar monsters to those in Shelly’s novel. In Some Assembly Required, Daryl Epps is brought back to life by his brother, who then sets about making a ‘girlfriend’ for him using the body parts of various dead girls. The villain of season four, Adam, was clearly based on Frankenstein’s monster. Professor Walsh created him to be a super-monster, made of different demons and humans.

Gene and Roger

In Some Assembly Required, Buffy says, “Then if you wouldn’t mind a little Gene and Roger…” She’s referring to Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times who are two famous film critics in America.

Seen at 02.25 minutes:

There are a few errors when Buffy falls into the open grave. Firstly, the walls of the grave seem to be too neat to have been dug with shovels. Secondly, why did Chris and Eric leave the grave uncovered and the coffin open? It would be too easy to find out there had been grave-robbing going on. Lastly, there is no earth next to the grave - did Chris and Eric take it with them?

Seen at 06.20 minutes:

In Some Assembly Required, near the beginning of the episode, you can see a girl in a red top and short skirt as she walks behind Willow (when she’s writing down her science project). A few seconds later we see Eric walk down the stairs, towards Willow, and the same girl is walking down the stairs next to him. Then he takes Willow’s picture and the girl is suddenly behind her, walking out the door. When Buffy shows up the girl is walking up the stairs, but we never saw her come in again.

Seen at 07.23 minutes:

None of the prints of Cordelia or Buffy in Eric’s montage correspond with the poses the girls made when Eric took the photos.

Seen at 31.17 minutes:

The Sunnydale High football team are called the Razorbacks. Principal Flutie states this in The Pack, and the little flags that Giles carries in Some Assembly Required even say ‘Razorbacks’ on them. Why, then, are Cordelia and the other Sunnydale High cheerleaders cheering for the ‘Greenbacks’? The name can even be seen in the subtitles for the scene.