1800-COLLECT

When the episode Lover’s Walk was aired in the U.S, it was followed by an advert for the phone service 1800-COLLECT, in which Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz, as Buffy and Angel, offered a prize of a walk-on part in the show.
The winner of the competition was Jessica Johnson of Maryland, who won a three day trip for two to participate in the episode The Prom.

Blisters

James Marsters had huge blisters all over his hand after filming the hand-on-fire scene outside Angel’s mansion in Lover’s Walk.

Life imitating art

In Lover’s Walk, Cordelia sees Xander kissing Willow, runs away, falls and gets spiked in the stomach. In real life, Charisma Carpenter (who plays Cordelia) was impaled by a cement construction bar after falling in a pool when she was five years old. She has a large scar on her stomach from this.

Dan Vebber

Dan Vebber wrote the episodes Lover’s Walk and The Zeppo. He was a producer, writer and executive story editor on Futurama, and also wrote for American Dad! and Daria.

Suzanne Krull

Suzanne played the magic shop clerk in Lover’s Walk. She has also been in Kids in America, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Next Best Thing, Go, Nash Bridges and Will & Grace.

Benefits of a Sunnydale education

In the Angel season two episode ‘Untouched‘, Bethany, the telekenetic girl stabs Angel through the torso with a bar. When he gets back to the hotel the following lines are said.

Angel: “You know how hard it is to think straight with a re-bar through your torso?”
Cordelia: “Actually, I do. Benefits of a Sunnydale education.”

This is a reference to the Buffy episode Lover’s Walk, when Cordelia fell and was impaled on a metal bar after finding Xander and Willow kissing.

Bewitched Xander

Xander tells Willow in Lover’s Walk, “Have you forgotten that I tend to have bad luck with these sorts of spells?” This is a reference to the love spell cast by Amy Madison in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

Breakers Woods

In Lover’s Walk, Giles went to Breakers Woods, which has a clearing in which druidic rituals were performed and which is about a 45-minute drive from Sunnydale.

Chaos demons

After leaving Sunnydale in Becoming (Part 2), Spike and Drusilla went to Brazil, which is where she left him for a chaos demon. In Lover’s Walk, Spike claims chaos demons are, “All slime and antlers” - which we discover is literally true when we finally see one in Fool For Love. In The Harsh Light of Day, Harmony mistakenly says Dru left Spike for a fungus demon.

Drive-Through

In Lover’s Walk, Xander says to Buffy, “You and I are going to be manning the drive-through window side by side.” He’s not far wrong. Buffy briefly worked at a burger joint called Doublemeat Palace in season six, and Xander worked in various fast-food related positions in season four.

Lilac gal

In the season four episode The Initiative, Spike tells Willow he was once tempted to bite her: “Remember last year? You had on that fuzzy pink number with the lilac underneath.” He’s referring to the events of the episode Lover’s Walk.

Love’s a funny thing

In Lover’s Walk, Spike says, “Love’s a funny thing”. Clem repeated this line to him in the episode Seeing Red.

Microscopic pain

Xander gets smashed in the head with a microscope in two episodes: Lover’s Walk and Bad Eggs.

Population Count in Sunnydale

According to the sign Spike passed on the way into Sunnydale in School Hard, the town’s population was 38,500. Interestingly, the population was the same in season three’s Lover’s Walk. Either nobody had changed the sign or people have babies rapidly in the town because people sure have been dying.

Spike’s movements

The Mayor claims in Lover’s Walk that he was fully aware of Spike’s presence and activities in Sunnydale in the previous year.

Welcome to Sunnydale

Spike mirrors his first entrance to Sunnydale from School Hard in Lover’s Walk when he crashes through the ‘Welcome to Sunnydale’ sign.

Xander photos

In Lover’s Walk, we saw that Cordelia had pictures of Xander in her locker. Presumably these were removed after that episode.

My Way

In Lover’s Walk, Spike listens to ‘My Way’. A common misconception is that it’s Sid Vicious’s version. It’s not - it’s Gary Oldman from the soundtrack of Sid and Nancy. Joss Whedon has said that Spike and Drusilla were based on Sid Vicious and his groupie girlfriend Nancy.

Holy Water

Holy Water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy. Like other religious symbols (such as the crucifix) it burns vampires, and can even kill them if it touches them in large amounts. Holy Water has been used as a weapon occasionally in the Buffyverse. In The Harvest, Willow threw holy water on Darla. In What’s My Line? (Part 2), Drusilla tortured Angel by dripping holy water on him. Buffy tricked Zachary Kralik into drinking holy water in Helpless. In Lover’s Walk, Buffy, Angel and Spike warded off attacking vampires by throwing holy water at them.

Love spell

In Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Xander asked Amy Madison to put a love spell on Cordelia after she broke up with him. Amy needed something personal of Cordelia’s and lots of candles. In Lover’s Walk, Spike returned to Sunnydale and kidnapped Willow to make her perform a love spell to get Drusilla back. She had left him for a chaos demon. Willow needed a spell book, essence of violet, cloves, a set of runic tablets and rat’s eyes for her spell. Another example of a love spell was in Him, when a bewitched letterman jacket made women fall for it’s wearer.

Werewolf smell

In Lover’s Walk, Oz reveals that he has heightened werewolf senses even when he’s in human form - he can smell Willow from afar.

Elvis Costello

Lover’s Walk, the title of a season three episode, is also the title of an Elvis Costello song.

La Nausee

As Spike watches him in the mansion in Lover’s Walk, Angel can be seen reading La Nausee (”Nausea”), the 1938 first novel by the French existentialist philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). Joss Whedon mentioned in his commentary for the Firefly episode ‘Objects in Space’ that La Nausee had a great influence on him.

The Exorcist

The 1973 movie The Exorcist starred Linda Blair as a child named Regan who becomes possessed by a demon. The film was adapted from the horror novel by William Peter Blatty, and banned in the UK for more than fifteen years. It is referenced a few times in Buffy and Angel:

• In Teacher’s Pet, Buffy says that Miss French’s head did a “full-on Exorcist twist”, referring to a famous scene in the movie.
• In I Only Have Eyes For You, When Willow suggests an exorcism, Cordelia replies “Are you crazy? I saw that movie: even the priests died!”
• In Lover’s Walk, Buffy says of her mother, “her head spun round and exploded” (to which Giles replies, “I’ve been on the Hellmouth too long. That was metaphorical, yes?”).
• In Living Conditions, Xander says, “Are you saying that Buffy’s been doing a Linda Blair on us because Kathy’s been sucking her soul?” At the beginning of her possession in The Exorcist, Regan showed dramatic changes in her behaviour, just as Buffy did in Living Conditions.
• Buffy name-checks The Excorcist in Bring on the Night.
• In the Angel episode I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Cordelia says, “I’m wondering if I should put plastic down. Angel, are you expecting any big vomiting here? Because I saw the movie.” Large parts of this episode are a nod to The Exorcist - in the book and movie, a Catholic priest dies in much the same way as Angel’s Father Fredricks.

The Simpsons

Buffy says in What’s My Line? (Part 1), “Have a cow Giles.” This is a play on the phrase “Don’t have a cow”, made popular by Bart in the TV show The Simpsons. It means don’t get excited/worked up.
In Lover’s Walk, Willow compares herself to Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel. This is a reference to the stupid hick who is a recurring character on The Simpsons.
An episode of The Simpsons called ‘Treehouse of Horror 16′ (which aired on November 6, 2005) contained a reference to the season two Buffy episode Halloween. In that episode, everyone in town is turned into their costumes - which included Principal Skinner turning into a GI Joe, and his mother turning into a 17th century woman (like Xander and Buffy in Halloween).

Weird Science

In Lover’s Walk, Buffy and Cordelia come across Willow’s abandoned spell in the science lab. Buffy says, “What is all this stuff? I’m thinking weird science.” Weird Science was a movie made in 1985 about two nerdy boys who created their perfect woman. There was a TV spin-off of the same name which ran from 1994-1997. In it’s cast were Michael Manasseri (who played Skyler in Enemies and Ingo Neuhaus, who played Daryl in Some Assembly Required.

Seen at 18.30 minutes:

Spike grabs Willow and threatens her by shaking her. In one shot, her hair covers her face and in the next it’s smoothed back.

Seen at 24.39 minutes:

When Buffy pins Spike down on the table in her house, her hand changes position on his chest several times in different shots.