Asian Dan

In the season four DVD commentary for Wild at Heart, Seth Green, Joss Whedon, and Marti Noxon mention the frequent appearances of the extra they call “Asian Dan”. He can also be seen in the episode Earshot.

Bye, Seth

Seth Green left the show after the episode Wild at Heart. He was due to leave a little later in the season but a heavy work schedule made him pull out earlier than expected. The relationship between Oz and Veruca was therefore supposed to go on a little longer than it actually did. He returned for two further episodes: New Moon Rising and Restless. After leaving Buffy, he filmed Knockaround Guys in Canada, and supplied voices for the fantastic cartoon Family Guy. He later appeared in the movies Rat Race and The Italian Job.

Oz on acid

In the Wild at Heart commentary by Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon and Seth Green, Seth mentions that the stage direction for the scene when he is in his cage in the cemetery, waiting for the sun to go down and Veruca walks in was, “I want you to act like you’re just about to come on to acid. And you know that it’s coming and you feel all that tension and anxiety but it hasn’t happened yet.”

Oz’s Japanese T shirt

The t-shirt that Oz is wearing at the Bronze in Wild at Heart when Veruca’s band is playing has two Chinese characters which read (in Japanese) as “taihen” meaning ‘terrible’.
On the DVD for the episode, there is a running commentary by Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon, and Seth Green, and they comment on the character’s t. shirts. Joss notes it as a “Japanese thing going”, but they don’t remember what it meant, or that it even had any significance so it obviously wasn’t put there by Joss or Marti.

Wild cuts

The following lines were all cut from the episode Wild at Heart:

Maggie Walsh continues to talk about the ‘wild dogs’ which attacked her:

A line of Buffy’s:

More lines of Veruca’s to Willow:

And finally, a nice line from Xander:

Paige Moss

Paige played the werewolf Veruca. She appeared with Seth Green previously in the 1998 film Can’t Hardly Wait. Paige has also been in The Ranch, It’s All Relative, Beverly Hills, 90210, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, ER, The Ranch, Diagnosis Murder and ‘The Muffin Tops’ episode of Seinfeld.

Veruca

Veruca was a confident singer with band Shy and student at UC Sunnydale. She flirted with Oz, making Willow jealous. Even the fact that her rival was named after a fungal foot infection didn’t help Willow’s cause. Oz discovered she too was a werewolf, though they felt differently about their condition - Veruca embraced it and he didn’t want to harm anyone. Oz locked the two in a cage before they turned one full moon, and Willow discovered them naked together the next morning. Veruca intended to hurt Willow but Oz ended up killing her when he was a werewolf.

Big Bad

‘Big Bad’ is Buffyspeak for a villain who is tough to beat (though not unbeatable). The Big Bads on the show were usually the main villains of each season (The Master, Spike and Angelus, The Mayor, Adam, Glory, Evil Willow and The First) but the phrase was also used for other non-standard villains, such as Caleb. The phrase was first used by Spike in Wild at Heart when he said, “‘Cause the big bad is back”.

Big Bad is gone

Spike makes his final appearance as a vampire who is able to kill in Wild at Heart. From that episode on he’s disabled by either a chip or love.

Cibo Matto poster

We see in Wild at Heart that Oz has a Cibo Matto poster in his room. They are a band who performed on Buffy in When She Was Bad.

College wiccans

There’s a Wicca group on UC Sunnydale campus which Willow looks into joining in Wild at Heart. She meets Tara there in Hush, and they bond over the fact that their fellow Wiccans aren’t interested in spells. Amy Madison joins the group in season seven, seen in The Killer in Me when Willow goes to the group for help.

Giles in the Bronze

Giles goes to the Bronze in Wild at Heart and the gang react with shock. He was there previously in Welcome to the Hellmouth when he was looking for Buffy; and in Surprise, at Buffy’s birthday party.

Giles the animal

In Wild at Heart, Oz says that he has seen Giles’ record collection, “Don’t scoff, gang. I’ve seen Giles’ collection. He was an animal in his day.” This occured in The Harsh Light of Day. The TV Giles watches in Wild at Heart was first discovered in the same scene.

I remember

Oz tells Willow he knows how she feels after seeing him with Veruca. He’s referring to Lover’s Walk, when he saw Willow kissing Xander.

Military man

In Wild at Heart, Buffy and Giles talk about the soldiers she saw in Fear Itself, “The thing is, I saw some guys dressed exactly like him on Halloween night. I just assumed they were in costume but maybe they were working.”

Oz’s cage

As the school library was blown up in Graduation Day, Oz’s new wolf-cage, seen in Wild at Heart, is in an underground crypt in one of the local cemeteries.

Role model

When discussing how Willow will deal with Oz’s betrayal in Wild at Heart, Buffy says, “Yeah. I ran away and went to Hell and then got through it. I’m kind of hoping she doesn’t use me as a model.” She’s referring to when she ran away from Sunnydale in Becoming (Part 2) and went to a hell dimension in Anne.

WP (Widespread Panic)

A black and white oval sticker with the letters “WP” can often be seen in Sunnydale. The sticker is for a band called Widespread Panic. Examples of episodes in which this is seen include:
Inca Mummy Girl: behind Xander when he says to Ampata, “Why’d you run away?”.
Halloween: next to Cordelia when she’s dressed as a cat and talking to Oz (on Oz’s locker door), and when Willow walks into the library when she’s a ghost, there is one on the bulletin board to her right. There is also a sticker on the bathroom wall, seen behind Buffy’s right shoulder when she an Willow look through the book.
Reptile Boy: at the beginning of the episode, behind Xander’s left shoulder in Buffy’s room.
Bad Eggs: behind Jonathon’s right shoulder on the locker when he is being attacked.
Surprise: on the locker behind Cordelia when she is talking to Xander and behind Xander when he calls Giles a party weasel. A colourful Widespread Panic poster can also be seen behind Joyce in Buffy’s dream.
Phases: when Buffy is in the Bronze looking for the werewolf, a WP sticker can be seen on a pillar behind her right shoulder.
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered: poster in Xander’s room and behind Xander when Harmony tells him he should learn a second language so more girls can reject him. A sticker can also be seen on the locker behind Cordelia when Harmony is telling her off for breaking up with Xander.
Becoming (Part 2): at the beginning of the episode, when the cop is arresting Buffy in the hall, you can see a WP sticker on the lockers behind her.
Dead Man’s Party: on a guitar case behind the drums during the party.
A New Man: behind Giles when he’s at Buffy’s party.
Wild at Heart: a colourful WP poster (not the sticker) can be seen to the right of Oz’s bedroom door.
The Yoko Factor: in Buffy and Willow’s dorm room.
The Replacement: on the payphone that Xander uses to call Buffy.

Eight Stops Seven

Eight Stops Seven’s song “Good Enough” (from the album In Moderation) plays in The Bronze at the start of the episode Wild at Heart.

THC

The name of Veruca’s band is Shy, but the music is actually perfomed by the real band THC. They play the song ‘Overfire’ in Beer Bad. George Sarah, who can be seen on the piano in Shy’s performances, is actually THC’s songwriter. He collaborated with Anthony Stewart Head on his album ‘Music For Elevators’. Shy play ‘Dip’ and ‘Need to Destroy’ in Wild at Heart.
In the Angel episode ‘Lonely Hearts‘, when team Angel arrives at the club we hear “Girlflesh” by THC.

Wolf memories

Veruca implies in Wild at Heart that when a werwolf is in human form it eventually begins to have memories of its time spent as a wolf, though Oz hasn’t reached that phase yet.

David Lynch

In Dead Things, Buffy says, “So that’s why time went all David Lynch?” Lynch is the director of many films including Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, The Straight Story and, my personal favourite, Mullholland Drive. He also created the cult TV show Twin Peaks. Lynch has a very distinctive style. He has an unusual way of portraying time, framing shots and using sound.
The season four episode Wild at Heart is the same name as another Lynch movie.

Elvis Presley

In Wild at Heart, Willow mentions she’s a big Elvis Presley fan, and loves the song ‘Hound Dog’. Cordelia references the king of Rock ‘n’ Roll when she says to Xander in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, “Damn it Xander what’s going on? Who died and made you Elvis?”

Habitrail

In Graduation Day (Part 1), Willow worried that she couldn’t turn Amy the rat back into a human. Oz assured her that, “you got the swinging Habitrail going. I think Amy is in a good place emotionally”. Habitrail is a company who specialise in different designs of rodent cages, including the Habitrail Home (”A comfortable Home Sweet Home offering spacious living quarters and play activities for your hamster”), Habitrail Park, Habitrail Safari (”The new Safari range features a radically new design and colour-scheme, bring a fully themed adventure to your hamster’s life”) and for the more refined hamster - the Habitrail Villa.
In Wild at Heart, Veruca calls Oz’s wolf-cage a “Habitrail”.

Jerry Garcia

Oz says about his wolf-look to Willow in Wild at Heart: “I don’t know about tonight, unless the extreme Jerry Garcia look turns you on.” Jerry Garcia was the hairy lead singer of the Grateful Dead.

Tender Sarah McLachlan love

In Wild at Heart, Xander describes sex as “tender Sarah McLachlan love”. Sarah McLachlan’s songs have been used on the show in a couple of season finales: Becoming (Part 2) and Grave.

The Rolling Stones

In Wild at Heart, Buffy says, “if the Stones are still rolling, why can’t Giles?”, referring to aging rock band The Rolling Stones, who are still touring. In Once More, With Feeling, Spike says “Get your kumbya-yas out”, referring to both the popular hymn ‘Kumbya’ and the Rolling Stone’s ‘Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out’.

Seen at 27.30 minutes:

When Willow goes to Oz’s cage to wake him with breakfast, she finds Veruca in the cage with him. If you look closely while they’re still asleep, you can see the flesh-coloured underwear on both Oz and Veruca. When Veruca awakes, she is wearing pants and a bra, but when she stands up the bra disappears. It reappears when she walks out the cage door, then goes again when she puts her jacket on.