Giles goes off to meet the Watcher’s Council to find out more about Glory. He’s safe in the knowledge that The Magic Box is being well-looked after by Willow and Anya. Wrong. The girls begin bickering over various issues, and accidentally summon a troll. His name is Olaf, and he wants ale to drink, babies to feed on and Xander ripped in half. Olaf tries to force Xander to choose between Willow and Anya, and the girls finally make up, realising that neither is a threat to each other or Xander. Meanwhile, Buffy tries to be brave now she’s single again and Spike tries to impress the Slayer.
| Airdate: | 9 January 2001 |
| Writer: | Jane Espenson |
| Director: | Christopher Hibler |
| Cast: |
Anya: "I mean, after you smite a few of 'em you start going, "My goodness, young lady... maybe you're doing something wrong here too.""
Behind the Scenes Trivia
Bye, Marc
Marc Blucas’s name was taken out of the opening credits from the episode Triangle.
Cast and Crew Trivia
Abraham Benrubi
Abraham played Olaf the troll in Triangle and Selfless. Abraham is best known as Jerry Markovic in ER and he played Larry Kubiac in Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. He appeared in Twister, a movie which was script-doctored by Joss Whedon. Abraham played ‘Young Man’ in the Coen Brothers’ movie The Man Who Wasn’t There, and appeared in Sleepwalkers, Dark Angel, The X-Files, Wings, Grace Under Fire, Married…with Children, Roseanne (as Teenage Dan), and Blossom. Abraham Rubin Hercules Benrubi is 2.01 metres tall and is an avid collector of comic books and CDs.
Christopher Hibler
Christopher Hibler directed the episode Triangle. he has also directed episodes of Weird Science, Diagnosis Murder, Beverly Hills, 90210, Quantum Leap, Father Dowling Mysteries, Jake and the Fatman, A Different World, Matlock, Moonlighting and Remington Steele.
Character Trivia
Olaf the Troll
Olaf was an ex-boyfriend of Anya, whom she turned into a troll, bagging herself a job as a vengeance demon at the same time. This was seen via flashback in Selfless. He was accidentally released by Willow and Anya in a spell in Triangle and wreaked havoc on Sunnydale before being magicked away again by Willow.
Continuity
Back to the council
Giles goes to England to talk to the Watcher’s Council about Glory in Triangle, which leads to a visit by them in Checkpoint. Giles was sacked by the Council in Helpless, and Buffy resigned from working for them in Graduation Day (Part 2).
Breakable Xander
Xander’s wrist is broken by Olaf in Triangle and he wears a sling in Checkpoint. It was previously broken in Becoming (Part 1). His girlfriend Anya’s shoulder was dislocated in Real Me and she wore a sling in The Replacement. Olaf also continuously beat Xander with his hammer, which was supposed to be extremely powerful - enough to beat the god Glory to a bloody pulp in The Gift. So if the hammer was able to hurt Glory to the point of helplessness, how was it that Xander, an ordinary human, was able to get right back up from multiple hits (including the head) from the hammer?
De-ratting
In Triangle, Willow mentions she’s still trying to “de-rat Amy”. Amy was a witch who turned herself into a rat to escape persecution in Gingerbread. Amy finally becomes human again in Smashed.
Floating pencils
In Gingerbread, Willow says she can make pencils float, seen later in Doppelgängland and Choices. In Triangle, Willow tries to persuade Anya to join her in doing spells by saying, “You could be floating pencils by the end of the day”. In Hush, Willow says she’d like to “float something bigger than a pencil one day”. By the end of the episode, she meets Tara and together they magically move a vending machine.
Magic Box
Giles opened the new Magic Box shop in No Place Like Home and took on a new member of staff - Anya. He first eyed up the prospect of opening a magic shop in Real Me, after the previous owner was found dead. Giles dressed as a wizard for the grand opening but Buffy told him, without words, how very silly he looked.
The Magic Box is located at 5124 Maple Court in downtown Sunnydale. The phone number there is 803-555-8966. Their slogan is “Your one-stop spot to shop for all your occult needs. Let us make it easy”, which Tara says in Shadow is great in a hard-to-read way.
A sign at the Magic Box warns customers that “Shoplifters will be transfigured”.
The magic box was trashed by Olaf the Troll in Triangle, but miraculously restored by the next episode, Checkpoint. It was finally destroyed completely by Willow in Grave after she consumed dark magics and fought Giles there. We see in Same Time, Same Place that the Magic Box has an “Unsafe” sign on the outside, presumably because the building was structurally damaged.
Magic Box magazines
In Triangle, when Olaf’s hammer is thrown into the magazine rack in the Magic Box, the magazines UFO, Green Egg, Nexus, Shaman’s Drum and Massage Bodywork are visible.
Mannequin
Spike gets a mannequin from the Sunnydale rubbish dump in The Replacement and later pretends it’s Buffy, a sure sign of his obsession with her. In Triangle he practises giving a speech and some chocolates to Buffy using the mannequin, to apologise for taking Buffy to see Riley at the vampire den.
My old job
In Triangle, Anya reminds Willow that D’Hoffryn offered her a job as a vengeance demon, which occurred in Something Blue.
No warning
In Triangle, Anya told Xander that if he ever decided to leave her she wanted a warning (such as a big bomb-clock) and some way of preventing it (such as cutting the right wire). When he did leave her, in Hell’s Bells, he had obviously forgotten this conversation. Anya got no warning, and had no way of preventing Xander from leaving, which was exactly what she’d feared.
Onion flower
Spike is obsessed with an onion flower served at the Bronze, which he mentions on several occasions. In Triangle, he says to Xander, “They have chicken wings, too. Also, a sort of a flower-shaped thing they make from an onion. It’s brilliant.” In Crush, he says to Buffy, “Especially since the flowering onion got remodeled off the sodding menu. It’s the only thing this place had going for it.” In Empty Places, Spike and Andrew have the following conversation about the onion flower:
Spike: “Not as good as those onion blossom things.”
Andrew: “Oh, I love those.”
Spike: “Yeah, me, too.”
Andrew: “It’s an onion and it’s a flower. I don’t understand how such a thing is possible.”
Spike: “See, the genius of it is you soak it in ice water for an hour so it holds its shape. Then you deep-fry it root-side up for about 5 minutes.”
Andrew: “Masterful.”
Spike: “Yeah… Tell anyone we had this conversation, I’ll bite you.”
Shrimp
Shrimp have been a referenced many times in the show: In Spiral, Anya says that Xander doesn’t travel well, like fine shrimp; in Graduation Day (Part 1), Willow finds a spell to “communicate with shrimp”; in Superstar, Anya compares a parallel universe with shrimp; and in Triangle, Anya mentions a ‘world without shrimp’, to which Tara replies that she’s allergic to them. In the Angel episode ‘Underneath’, Illyria says she once visited a world populated with nothing but shrimp.
Troll logic
In Triangle, Xander said to Olaf the troll, “You are one crazy troll. I’m not choosing between my girlfriend and my best friend. That’s insane troll logic!”
Olaf said to Anya in Selfless, “Your logic is insane and happenstance, like that of a troll. It is no wonder the bar matrons talk of you.” In Conversations with Dead People, Buffy said to Holden, “OK, you know, this is beyond evil. This is insane troll logic.”
What’re you doing
In Triangle, Dawn asks Buffy what she’s doing and the Slayer replies, “playing soccer”. When Dawn asked Buffy what she is doing in Real Me, she got the answer “my boyfriend”.
You and your lips
In Triangle, Anya mentions that she knows Willow broke up Xander and Cordelia by kissing Xander (in Lover’s Walk). It was this act which summoned Anya as a vengeance demon to Sunnydale, and which led to her being made mortal again.
Music Trivia
Blur
We hear ‘There’s No Other Way’ by Blur in the Bronze in Triangle, as Xander and Spike are talking.
The Dandy Warhols
We hear ‘Bohemian Like You’ by The Dandy Warhols in Triangle, as Olaf arrives at The Bronze.
Mythology Trivia
Alternative universes
Anya mentions some alternative universes in Triangle, including the Land of Trolls, the land of perpetual Wednesday and the world without shrimp.
Salamander Eyes
In Triangle, Willow uses salamander eyes in her ball of sunshine spell, which cost $10 for twelve. These were last mentioned in Out of My Mind, when Giles said, “No, these are salamander eyes, it’s the cataracts which give them their newt-like appearance. They’re really equally effective, though, it’s just a matter of overcoming snobberies.”
References
The Cat in the Hat
In Triangle, Willow and Tara tell Anya about Dr. Seuss’s 1957 book The Cat in the Hat. The book was made into a film in 2003. It starred Mike Myers, who appeared with Seth Green (Oz) in the Austin Powers movies.
Goofs
Seen at 20.34 minutes:
How do the gang know that Riley was headed for the Central American jungle? He didn’t tell any of them last week.
Seen at 22.40 minutes:
Anya says that she has never driven before, yet in Graduation Day (Part 1) she told Xander that her car was outside and she was ready to leave Sunnydale before the Ascension.
Seen at 26.53 minutes:
When Olaf threatens the Scoobies in the Bronze, most of the people in the background just stand around normally, as though they see huge trolls every day. Maybe they do, what with it being Sunnydale and all.
Seen at 28.28 minutes:
Olaf calls Anya Anyanka, but he knew her as Aud (seen in Selfless).
Seen at 39.03 minutes:
There is a person wearing white seen in the Magic Box, after Olaf has been defeated, but who is it? The only people in the shop are Buffy, Tara, Willow, Anya and Xander. None of them is wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt. But there’s someone in a white shirt seen standing to the right of Anya. Whoever it is, he/she is between Anya and Buffy when Buffy puts the hammer on the glass case, and turns round when it smashes the glass. When Buffy gets a tissue the person is seen to her left.
Quotes
Xander: "It's like, "Where's Riley? Oh wait, the Central Republic of Where-in-the-hell.""
Anya: "I mean, after you smite a few of 'em you start going, "My goodness, young lady... maybe you're doing something wrong here too.""
Buffy: "It's just I trust these Watchers about as far as... you could throw them."
Anya: "You're going away for a week? That's great!"
Anya: "I have finesse! I have finesse coming out of my bottom!"
Buffy: "I killed something in a convent last night."
Xander: "In any other room, a frightening declaration. Here, a welcome distraction."
Buffy: "Stop being insightful. It's creepy."
Anya: "You're referencing literature I have no way to be familiar with."
Willow: "I'm not stealing. I-I'm just taking things without paying for them. In what twisted dictionary is that stealing?"
Willow: "He's not a ball of sunshine!"
Anya: "Now hold on, I'm gonna press the right pedal harder. I expect us to accelerate."
Olaf: "Bar maid! Bring me stronger ale! And some plump, succulent babies to eat!"
Spike: "Yeah, I could do that, but I'm paralyzed with not caring very much."
Olaf: "You there! Do you know where there are babies?"
Spike (to Xander): "What do ya think, the hospital?"
Willow: "I wish Buffy was here!"
Buffy: "I'm here!"
Willow: "I wish I had a million dollars!"
Buffy: "You want credit for not feeding on bleeding disaster victims?"
Olaf: "Ha ha! You fight well, although you are a tiny man."
Xander: "You are one crazy troll. I'm not choosing between my girlfriend and my best friend. That's insane troll logic!"
Willow: "Anya, I have faith in you. There is no one you cannot piss off."
Anya: "It's possible that he's in the land of perpetual Wednesday, or the crazy melty land, or you know, the world without shrimp."