Anyanka’s origins

The exposition about Anyanka was changed in the episode The Wish. Giles’s original story of her ran as follows:

Joss Whedon’s favourite episodes

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon spoke to USA Today in May 2003 (after the final episode had aired) about his favourite Buffy episodes. They are as follows:

1. Innocence: “It’s a mission-statement show, and one of the ones where I first found out what we could do.”
2. Once More, With Feeling: “What am I going to say?”
3. Hush
4. The Body
5. Doppelgängland: “Because one Willow is certainly not enough.”
6. The Wish: “Very bleak, very fun. It went to a dark place, and that’s really exciting to me. That’s where I live.”
7. Becoming (Part 2): “Buffy loses everything. Also, it had a sword fight. I love sword fighting.”
8. Restless: “Most people sort of shake their heads at it. It was different, but not pointless.”
9. Conversations with Dead People: “I’m very fond of ‘Conversations with Dead People.’ I just thought structurally and tonally it was very interesting and had a lot to say. And I got to write another song.”
10. Prophecy Girl: “Because that was my first time, besides telling directors what to do, that I actually got to direct. And it was the first time I got to kill Buffy, and the first season ender, and it was the first time I realized I could take everything we did in the season and tie it in a bow.”

Todd’s favourite episode

Todd McIntosh, Buffy’s make-up supervisor, said in the October 1999 issue of Entertainment Weekly that his favourite episode was The Wish.

Vampy Aly

Alyson Hannigan got the Buffy make-up team to dress her as a vampire again one Halloween.

Emma Caulfield

Emma played ex-vengeance demon Anya. She was born on April 8, 1973, and her birth surname was Emma Chukker. She is half German on her father’s side and her mother is a singer who is Irish-American. Emma’s older sister, Samantha Killebrew, is a department store manager in San Diego. Emma was briefly married but the relationship didn’t last and the couple divorced. Emma had a couple of acting roles before Buffy, most notably as Brandon’s girlfriend Susan on Beverly Hills, 90210. After her early acting days, Emma decided to go to San Francisco State University and start a degree in Psychology. She was then offered the part of Anya in Buffy. In 2004, Emma joined up again with her ex-Beverley Hills 90210 co star Jason Priestly in the TV movie I Want to Marry Ryan Banks. She starred in the film Darkness Falls, alongside Chaney Kley Minnis (who played Harmony’s minion Brad in Real Me). Emma was the Executive Producer and star of the movie Bandwagon.

Mariah O’Brien

Mariah O’Brien, who played White Hat Nancy in The Wish, has also appeared in Being John Malkovich and Jam. She was briefly married to Giovanni Ribisi (Lost in Translation, Cold Mountain, Friends) with whom she has a child, but they divorced in 2001.

Nicole Bilderback

Nicole Bilderback played Cordelia’s friend (the girl killed by the Master’s machine) in The Wish. She also appeared in the Buffy pilot episode. Nicole appeared with Seth Green (Oz) in the 1998 film Can’t Hardly Wait as a girl with whom Seth’s character nearly has sex. Nicole also appeared in Bring It On with Eliza Dushku, who plays Faith, and Clare Kramer, who played Glory in season five. She played Heather in Dawson’s Creek and Brin in Dark Angel. Nicole has also appeared in Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane (which starred Azura Skye, who played Cassie Newton in season seven), ER, 7th Heaven, Clueless, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Anya

Anya first came to Sunnydale as Anyanka, a vengeance demon, but was made mortal when Giles destroyed her power source in The Wish. She began dating Xander, much to the astonishment of his friends. The two eventually decided to get married, though Xander left her at the altar in Hell’s Bells. Anya became a demon again after this but humanity had become a part of her and she decided to become human in Selfless. She joined the Scoobies in their fight against the First and was killed by a Bringer in the episode Chosen.

A world without Buffy

Willow and Xander are the Master’s favourite vampire lackeys in The Wish. This shows that they would be more powerful (yet evil) without Buffy, but both live in the Slayer’s shadow in real-life. Conversely, we see how Buffy could have been without the support of her friends. She is hardened and cynical like Faith.

Angel the puppy

Angel is referred to as a ‘puppy’ on a couple of occasions. In The Wish, vampire Willow keeps Angel locked in a cage as her plaything, and refers to him as “Puppy”. In The Harsh Light of Day, when Parker asks Buffy about the scars on her neck, she replies that they they were caused by an “angry puppy”. They were actually from when Angel bit her in Graduation Day (Part 2).
Puppies are a recurring theme with Angel - in Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered, Giles tells Buffy that one Valentine’s Day, Angel nailed a puppy to something (we don’t find out as Buffy stops him before he can finish). In Orpheus, we see that Angel saved a puppy from being killed in early 1920s Chicago.

Cleveland

Buffy lived in Cleveland, Ohio in the alternative universe in The Wish. In Chosen, Giles reveals that there is another Hellmouth in Cleveland in Chosen.

Cordy’s room

We see Cordelia’s bedroom in Sunnydale for the first and last time in the episode The Wish.

Costume re-use

In the Bones episode (starring David Boreanaz) called ‘The Man With The Bone’, the Mayor’s wife is wearing what appears to be Vamp Willow’s leather top from Doppelgängland and The Wish. The only difference is there are some ruffles round the cuffs.
A screen capture of this can be found here.

Gotta have Faith?

When vampire Willow and Xander walk to the Bronze in The Wish, a vampire is drinking from a girl who looks like Faith.

Jonathan dating

At the end of the episode Reptile Boy, Cordelia has decided that “younger men are the way to go” by dating Jonathan. In the season three episode The Wish, Harmony bitchily suggests that Cordelia date Jonathan as he probably wouldn’t cheat on her.

Mention of Amy

Willow mentions Amy Madison in The Wish. Amy told Willow she saw Cordy in the mall. Amy was previously seen in The Witch and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

Snake bite

In The Wish, Cordelia references the time when she was bitten by a snake in I Only Have Eyes For You.

The Master’s domain

In the alternative universe in The Wish, Buffy’s old season one foe, The Master, is ruling over Sunnydale.

Vamp Willow again

Anya attempts to regain her powers in Doppelgängland and accidentally calls vampire Willow to Sunnydale.

White Hats

The White Hats are the good guys in the episode The Wish. They consist of Giles, Oz, Larry and Nancy. The name comes from classic Westerns in which the ‘good guys’ always wore a white hat.

Gingersol

Gingersol’s “Never Noticed” plays at the end of the episode The Wish, when Cordy is saying all the wishes.

The Spies

In The Wish, “Tired of Being Alone” by The Spies (from the album Toy Surprise Inside) plays at the Bronze when Xander and Cordy are trying to show each other they are okay.

Anyanka’s power centre

In The Wish’s alternate reality Giles states that, “In order to defeat Anyanka, one must destroy her power centre. This should reverse all the wishes she’s granted, rendering her mortal and powerless again.” However, that turns out not to be the case. While, indeed, Cordelia’s wish is revoked and Sunnydale returns to its former condition, we later learn of at least one of Anyanka’s prior wishes that was not revoked, i.e., the demon who appears on Anya and Xander’s wedding day and shows Xander the bogus vision of his life with Anya. Presumably, if Giles was correct, that vengenge spell/wish she used to turn that philanderer into a demon would have been revoked, and the demon would have returned to a human and never have arrived to disrupt their wedding.

Vamps and colours

In the episode The Wish, it is revealed that vampires are attracted to bright colours.

Vengeance demons

Anyanka was the first vengeance demon we met (The Wish). She was the patron saint of scorned women, though we discovered in Older and Far Away that other vengeance demons specialise in different areas, such as mistreated children. A vengeance demon is either summoned or appears in human form. Each demon has a necklace that is their power centre. D’Hoffryn was the leader and father-figure of the vengeance demons, with the ability to turn humans into demons if he felt they were talented enough (learnt in Something Blue).

Brave New World

In The Wish, Cordelia unwittingly made a wish to vengeance demon Anyanka. She wished that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. Later, Anyanka, admiring her work, said, “Brave New World. I hope she likes it.” She’s referring to Aldous Huxley’s science fiction novel Brave New World.
The origin of the phrase “Brave New World” comes from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. In Act 5, Scene 1, Miranda says, “How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in’t!”

It’s a Wonderful Life

The episode The Wish is clearly influenced by the 1946 movie It’s a Wonderful Life, which tells the heart-warming story of a suicidal man who is shown how the world would have been different if he’d never been born. The film was directed by Frank Capra and starred James Stewart.

Jeeves and Wooster

Giles is called Jeeves by Buffy in The Wish, and by Willow in Grave. Jeeves was an intelligent English butler in P. G. Wodehouse’s fantastic series of Jeeves and Wooster novels.

JoJo the Dog-Faced Boy

Cordelia references JoJo the Dog-Faced Boy in the episodes Halloween and The Wish. A real person, JoJo was amongst the human oddities exhibited in the 1880s by P T Barnum. He suffered from hypertrichosis, or abnormal hair growth, which caused him to grow long hair all over his face.

Merchant of Venice

In Out of Mind, Out of Sight, Cordelia’s English class discuss Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice:

In The Wish, the Master asks Willow and Xander, “What news on the Rialto?” This is a line from Merchant of Venice. The Rialto is a bridge in Venice, and Salanio, who asks the question, is asking for the latest news on the local scene (gathered, in this case, from local gossips, who apparently hung out on the bridge).
In I Only Have Eyes For You, Xander quips “The quality of mercy is not Buffy…” This is a reference to the famous “Quality of Mercy” speech delivered by Portia in Merchant of Venice.

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

Xander says of Cordy in The Wish, “tears of a clown”. He’s quoting from the 1968 hit song by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Superman

Comicbook hero Superman has been epitomised in many comics (by DC Comics), movies (starring the late Christopher Reeve), TV shows (eg. Lois and Clarke, Smallville), cartoons (eg. The Adventures of Superman) and even a musical. He and the world he lives in have been referenced many times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel:

• In Never Kill a Boy on the First Date, Buffy says, “even Clark Kent has a job”, alluding to Superman’s alter-ego.
• In Reptile Boy, Xander’s chances of ever belonging to a fraternity of rich and powerful men are rubbished by Cordy as likely only “in the Bizarro world.” The Bizarro world is a weird, back-to-front version of the real world in Superman.
• In the episode Ted, Cordelia says of Buffy, “But she’s like this Superman.”
• In The Wish, Cordelia says to vamps Willow and Xander, “No. No! No way! I wish us into Bizarro Land, and you guys are still together?! I cannot win!”
• In Helpless, Oz and Xander discuss which colour Kryptonite hurts Superman. Writer David Fury said in his DVD commentary for the episode that he wasn’t sure which Kryptonite was which so wrote this scene as such.
• In The Zeppo, there area few references to Superman: Xander’s line, “But, gee, Mr White, if Clark and Lois get all the good stories I’ll never be a good reporter”, which he acknowledges as a “Jimmy Olsen joke”. He also name-checks the Daily Planet’s editor Perry White, Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent, and his colleague Lois Lane. Cordelia’s jibe “You must feel like Jimmy Olsen” is another reference to the Daily Planet’s youngest photographer.
• In Doomed, Forrest says to Riley, “Granted they’re a little rarer than the one’s you grew up with on that little farm in Smallville.” Smallville, Kansas, was the small town where Clark Kent (Superman) grew up.
• In Superstar, Xander mentions Kryptonite again.
• In Real Me, Xander says, “She can turn this place into the fortress of solitude again”. Superman built the Fortress of Solitude in the North Pole as a place where he could relax and keep his souvenirs.
• In Gone, Andrew mentions Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor. Buffy also mentions Bizarro World again.
• In Two To Go, Andrew says, “Lex Luthor had a false epidermis escape kit in Superman Versus the Amazing Spider-Man Treasury edition”.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew says, “An evil name should be something like Lex” He’s referring to Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor.
• In the Angel episode Blind Date, Wesley says, “The human eye is only capable of registering a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. But if Brewer were somehow equipped to see outside that range…” to which Cordelia replies, “She’d be Superman.”
• In You’re Welcome, Cordelia ends her seeming obsession with the Bizarro world when she says, “What Bizarro-world did I wake up in?”

Seen at 06.44 minutes:

If you look behind Oz as he talks to Willow near his locker in The Wish, you can see a student in a white shirt, khaki pants, and black bag emerge around the exact same corner twice.

Seen at 13.58 minutes:

We know Anya’s necklace is her demon power centre. So why would she give it to Cordelia? In future episodes where she makes wishes reality (such as Selfless), she never gives the necklace away.

Seen at 22.44 minutes:

If the Master is free, then the Hellmouth should be open as it was Buffy’s presence in previous episodes, such as Welcome to the Hellmouth and Prophecy Girl, which stopped him rising before. Yet Giles and the White Hats are working in the library.

Seen at 35.30 minutes:

Why did the vamps construct a wooden cage to hold their prisoners? Wood is hardly vampire-friendly.

Seen at 38.50 minutes:

How did Anyanka get her necklace back? She gives it to Cordelia to make her wish. Giles then takes the pendant off Cordelia’s neck and uses it to identify Anyanka the vengeance demon, whom he summons. Anyanka appears wearing the necklace. How did she get it back?