BBC rescheduling

The BBC almost got it right - they planned to show the episode Pangs on Thanksgiving day but a last minute football match was thought to be more important so it was rescheduled.

Ex-vengenace

The following line was cut from the episode Pangs:

Xander: “I didn’t mean – you’re an EX-vengeance demon. It’s totally different.”
Anya: “Sure. It’s okay.”

Italy or Illinois?

Joyce spends Thanksgiving in Illinois with Buffy’s Aunt Arlene in the episode Pangs. Kristine Sutherland, who played Joyce, was actually living in Italy for a great deal of season four which is why she’s conveniently not in the episode.

Remembering you

When originally shown, the Buffy episode Pangs was immediately followed by an episode of Angel called ‘I Will Remember You‘, where Buffy shows up in LA, angry at Angel for not telling her he’d come back to town. In Something Blue, Buffy mentions having seen Angel in L.A. for five minutes (seen in ‘I Will Remember You‘) though fans will remember that she actually saw him for much longer. Angel became human again, and he and Buffy became a couple, realising they had everything they wanted. When Angel realised the consequences (he wouldn’t be able to brood as much) he asked the Powers That Be to make him a vampire again. They reversed time so that only Angel would remember the events of that day.

Margaret Easley

Margaret Easley, who played the Curator in Pangs, has also appeared in Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool, Slackers, Gilmore Girls, Passions, Charmed and Sunset Beach.

Mark Ankeny

Mark Ankeny, who played Dean Guerrero in Pangs, was in Carnivále playing the ‘Announcer’. He has also been in Trash, Freaky Links, Will & Grace, 3rd Rock from the Sun, That ’70s Show, Ally McBeal and Suddenly Susan.

Tod Thawley

Tod Thawley, who played the Chumash Hus in Pangs, played Tera in The Lone Ranger (2003). He played Smith in ER, and has been in Nash Bridges, Roswell, Baywatch and Walker, Texas Ranger.

Aunt Arlene

Aunt Arlene was Buffy’s aunt, and presumably Joyce’s sister. She lived in Illinois. Arlene was mentioned a couple of times but never seen on screen. In Choices, Joyce called Arlene to tell her that Buffy was accepted to Northwestern University and in Pangs, Joyce stayed with Arlene for Thanksgiving.

Father Gabriel

Father Gabriel was a clergyman in Sunnydale whose family dated back to the early 1800s. He knew a lot about the history of Sunnydale, leading to him being hanged by Hus in Pangs.

Professor Gerhard

Professor Gerhard was head of the anthropology department at Sunnydale’s Cultural History Centre. Hus cut her throat and removed her ear in revenge for crimes against his people in Pangs.

Avoiding the family

In Pangs, Buffy says, “And Xander always tries to avoid all of his family gatherings.” We saw this for the first time in Amends, when Xander slept outside at Christmas to avoid his family’s arguments.

Channeling Sheila

Willow’s views on Thanksgiving (seen in Pangs) seem to come directly from her mother, Sheila, who we met in Gingerbread. Buffy even says, “Okay. Now for some of that you were channeling your mother?”

Chumash again

In the Angel episode ‘Calvary‘, when Gunn and Connor have to visit a piece of sacred ground to dig up a soul eater, Gunn says the following line:

The Chumash also featured in the Buffy episode Pangs when Hus targetted Buffy for vengeance and Angel returned to Sunnydale to help Buffy after Doyle got a vision of her in trouble.

Construction

In Pangs, Xander is working for a construction company, a job he eventually finds his ‘niche in’ though he has a few more crappy jobs before returning to the trade in season five.

Cowgirl

Buffy wears a black stetson hat at the beginning of Pangs. This is most likely a joke about “Cowboys and Indians”, the morals of which is the hot topic of discussion between the Scoobies in the episode.

Hot Dog

In Dead Man’s Party, Principal Snyder sarcastically suggests Buffy go work for Hot Dog on a Stick: “In fact, I noticed as I came in this morning that Hot Dog on a Stick is hiring. You will look so cute in that hat.” In Pangs we find out Xander worked there briefly when Willow says, “I miss the free hot dogs on sticks.”

Huxley

We discover in Pangs that Riley is from a farm outside of Huxley, Iowa.

Not seeing each other

In I Will Remember You, Buffy says to Angel, “What is it? You can see me, but I can’t see you? What are we playing here?” This is similar to what Giles says to Angel in Pangs when he tells him, “It’s not fair. You know that’s what she’d say. You can see her and she can’t see you”.

Pang boy

In Pangs, Angel returns to Sunnydale for the first time since Graduation Day (Part 2).

Prisoner Spike

In Pangs, Spike goes to the Scoobies for help after the Initiative chipped him. They tie him up and later question him as to what he knows about the Initiative (seen in Something Blue). Spike then lives with Giles for some time, and stays with Xander (Hush, Doomed) before moving into his own place in A New Man. It’s all very buddy-movie-tastic.

Sunnydale Mission

An earthquake in 1812 caused the Sunnydale Mission to sink below ground. Xander accidentally unearthed it, causing the spirit of Chumash Native Indian Hus to be released upon the community, and Xander to get syphilis in Pangs.

Syphilis

Xander’s bout of syphilis in Pangs is mentioned again in Once More, With Feeling when Anya sings, “His penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe” in the song ‘I’ll Never Tell’. In Buffy vs Dracula, Xander says that he’s is tired of being “the guy who gets the funny syphilis.”

Hus (Chumash spirit)

During Pangs, Buffy and her friends were held under siege by the vengeful spirits of some Chumash Indians, forcing them to rethink the real meaning of Thanksgiving. Chumash was a real Indian tribe (though the tribe in Buffy is spelt Shumach in the script). The Chumash Indian homeland lay along the coast of California, between Malibu and Paso Robles.

E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial

In Pangs, the Scoobies leap on bicycles to go and help Buffy and Giles, which is a visual reference to the famous scenes from the movie E.T. when the kids ride their bikes to help E.T. the alien get back to his ship.

Gentle Ben

In Blood Ties, Glory calls Ben “Gentle Ben”. This is a reference to a TV show of the same name made in the 1960s about a kid who has a tame bear called Ben. It starred Ron Howard’s brother, Clint Howard. In Pangs, the Chumash spirit Hus turned into a bear, which Xander called “Gentle Ben”. In Sense and Sensitivity, the Wolfram and Hart lawyer, Mercer says, “… look like Gentle Ben.”

Grant Wood

In Pangs, Riley mentions artist Grant Wood (1891-1942), who famously painted Iowa landscapes.

Julius Caesar

In Pangs, Spike tells the Scoobies:

“You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That’s what conquering nations do. It’s what Caesar did and he’s not going around saying, “I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it.”

Spike is referring to the Roman military and political leader Gaius Julius Caesar (c.100 BC-44 BC). The words “Veni Vidi Vici” (”I came, I saw, I conquered”) are often attributed to him.
Caesar is also referenced in Fear, Itself, when Willow says, “Okay, Brutus” (off Oz’s confused look) “Brutus? Caesar?… Betrayal? Trusted friend? Back-stabby?” In his play Julius Caesar, Shakespeare wrote Caesar’s final words as “Et tu, Brute?” after he was stabbed to death by a group of senators including his trusted friend Marcus Brutus.

Van Gogh

In Pangs, Willow says, “We’re just assuming someone else cut off the ear. What if it was self- inflicted like van Gogh?” Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch painter, whose paintings include Sunflowers, Irises and Portrait of Doctor Gachet. Van Gogh famously suffered a mental breakdown after an argument with artist Paul Gauguin and cut off part of his own left ear. He committed suicide in 1890.

Village People

Xander’s construction work clothes in Pangs are described as “not at all Village People” by Buffy. The Village People are a camp band who dressed in various costumes, including a construction worker. They formed in the 1970s, and famously sang ‘Y.M.C.A.’ and ‘Macho Man’, which Buffy sang while under Catherine’s spell in The Witch.

Seen at 16.02 minutes:

While he is watching the vampire feeding in their lair, Spike’s face is seen reflected in the window during one shot.

Seen at 35.07 minutes:

Anya says “So this is Angel? He’s large and glowery, isn’t he?” Anya actually met Angel in Doppelgängland

Seen at 40.24 minutes:

When the Chumash spirits disappear, Spike is lying on the floor, with the arrows still in him. Three of the four arrows he was shot with should definitely have been visible in the shot, but one is missing.

Seen at 40.47 minutes:

At dinner, Spike’s shirt has no holes or tears in it from the arrows.