When a released mental patient is killed by an alien which came to earth via a meteor, the Scooby Gang investigates and Riley secretly calls the military for help. The gang discovers that the alien is a Queller demon, which kills crazy people, and must have been summoned (they assume by Glory). Meanwhile, Joyce - whose condition is causing her to have momentary periods of incoherence - goes home rather than wait in the hospital for her surgery. When the Queller follows Joyce home, Riley rushes to save her, but misses the action. Buffy, with Spike’s help, has already killed it. Elsewhere, Ben explains to Dreg that he summoned the Queller to clean up Glory’s mess, as he’s done all his life.
| Airdate: | 28 November 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer: | Rebecca Rand Kirshner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Director: | David Soloman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cast: |
|
Willow: "You know what's weird?"
Tara: "Japanese commercials are weird."
Behind the Scenes Trivia
Wigged
The following is a stage direction from the script for Listening to Fear after Joyce says something weird:
“The girls are a bit wigged. Joyce smiles at them and nestles into her pillow, closing her eyes. Dawn and Willow look to Buffy: What the hell?”
Cast and Crew Trivia
Debbie Lee Carrington
Debbie Lee Carrington, who played the Queller demon in Listening to Fear, has also played an Emperor Penguin in Batman Returns, and an Ewok in Return of the Jedi. She has made appearances in Seed of Chucky, Austin Powers in Goldmember, She’s All That, Mighty Joe Young, Men in Black, Total Recall and Harry and the Hendersons. Debbie has done stunts for Bride of Chucky, Titanic, Spawn, Dumb & Dumber and A Nightmare On Elm Street 7. She has a degree in Child Psychology.
Nick Chinlund
Nick Chinlund, who played Major Ellis in Listening to Fear and Into the Woods, has appeared in Tears of the Sun, Once in the Life, Mr. Magoo, Con Air, Eraser and Lethal Weapon 3. He played Donald Addie Pfaster in The X Files.
Character Trivia
Major Ellis
Major Ellis was an army man in charge of the special ops unit that tried to track the Queller demon in Listening to Fear. He recruited Riley to go to Belize on a demon-hunting mission, on the recommendation of Graham in Into the Woods.
Continuity
Back to college
The Scoobies do research in the UC Sunnydale library in Listening to Fear, which we saw first in The Freshman.
Buffy memorabilia
We see Spike stealing some of Buffy’s underwear in the episode Shadow and in Listening to Fear Spike steals photographs of the Slayer. In Crush, we see he has a whole collection of Buffy-related articles, including photos, clothing and drawings of the Slayer. Buffy blames Dawn in Crush for her missing blue cashmere sweater, but we discover that Spike has stolen it. Harmony wears the sweater when pretending to be the Slayer.
Don’t want to find bodies
In Listening to Fear, Willow says, “I don’t want to be the one who finds the bodies anymore”, referring to the episodes Real Me (when she tripped over the body of Mr. Bogedy, the magic shop owner) and Doomed (when she found a dead student in a bed).
Joyce knows about Dawn
Joyce reveals to Buffy in the episode Listening to Fear that she knows Dawn is not her daughter. She asks Buffy to take care of her, no matter what, which leads to Buffy’s determination at the end of season five that nothing should happen to her sister:
Joyce: “That Dawn… she’s not mine, is she?”
Buffy: “…No.”
Joyce: “She does belong to us, though.”
Buffy: “Yes, she does.”
Joyce: “And she’s important. To the world. Precious. As precious as you are to me… Then we have to take care of her. Buffy, promise me. If anything happens, if I don’t come through this…”
Buffy: “Mom…”
Joyce: “No, listen to me. No matter what she is, she still feels like my daughter. I have to know that you’ll take care of her, that you’ll keep her safe. That you’ll love her like I love you.”
Past and future
The titles of both the preceding and the following episode are referenced in Listening to Fear. When the body is found at the crash site, Giles suggests exploring further - going “into the woods”. Later on, Joyce tells Dawn she’s nothing but a “shadow”.
Riley’s decision
Riley lies to the Scoobies in Listening to Fear and calls the military for help with the Queller demon. He eventually decides to join the military in Into the Woods.
Sucker
The mental patient who is attacked by the Queller demon at the crash site in Listening to Fear is the night watchman who was brain-sucked by Glory in No Place Like Home.
Summers taste
The music Dawn plays in the kitchen when she is alone at home in Conversations with Dead People is similar to the music Buffy played while washing dishes in Listening to Fear.
Tara’s constellations
Tara makes up her own star constellations in Listening to Fear including the Big Pineapple, Short Man Looking Uncomfortable, Moose Getting A Sponge Bath and Little Pile’O'Crackers.
Willow the Slayer
Willow stakes two vampires in Listening to Fear, making Buffy’s role as the one and only vampire Slayer a little more obsolete.
Music Trivia
Mythology Trivia
Queller demon
The Queller demon was called to Earth to quell plagues of madness. Ben summoned the demon to clean up the crazy people left in Glory’s wake in Listening to Fear. It suffocated it’s victims by vomiting a protein alkaloid into their face. The demon looks like a slug with a long hard shell. It slithers across ceilings and walls, looking for victims. Buffy stabbed it to death after it tried to kill her mother.
According to Xander’s research, primitive people used to believe that the moon was a cause of insanity. Mental illness has long been associated with the Moon (lunatic is a derivative of lunar). Sometimes they would pray to the moon to send a special meteor to fix the problem the moon had caused. These meteors were expected to quell the madmen, which they did, due to the Queller Demon which arrived inside them.
References
Gelatine
In Listening to Fear, Dawn says “There’s a girl at school told me that gelatine is made from ground-up cow’s feet, and that if you eat Jell-O, there’s some cow out there limping with no feet.” She’s not far from the truth. Gelatine is obtained from collagen, which is usually cows’ bones and skin.
Piñata
In Listening to Fear, Xander jokes about the meteorite being a “festive piñata”. Piñatas are a tradition often found at children’s birthday parties. They are papier-mache figures filled with sweets. Children are blindfolded and given a stick to hit the piñata, to try and break it open to get at the sweety goodness inside. Nicholas Brendon (Xander) appeared in a movie called Demon Island in 2002, in which a demon is hidden in a piñata and is let loose.
In Blood Ties, Buffy says, “I just don’t think this is the best time to break out the party piñata”.
Goofs
Seen at 01.31 minutes:
When Dawn is talking about jello, we see a shot of Joyce reacting to this. To her left we see Dawn, but her lips aren’t moving in time to what we hear her saying.
Seen at 28.26 minutes:
Willow mentions the Tunguska meteor explosion in Russia, and says the year was 1917. It was actually in 1908.
Quotes
Willow: "Oh, I feel just like Santa Claus... except thinner, and younger, and... female. And, well... Jewish."
Willow: "You know what's weird?"
Tara: "Japanese commercials are weird."
Xander: "Oh yeah, touching it was my first impulse. Luckily I've moved on to my second, which involves dry-heaving, and running like hell."
Giles: "Because it's a killer snot monster from outer space... I did not say that."
Joyce: "Dawn... she's not mine, is she?"