The stuffy old Watcher’s Council arrive in Sunnydale to ‘help’ Buffy find out more about Glory. They start calling all the shots: they close down the Magic Box; threaten Giles with deportation and force Buffy to perform tests they know she will fail. After a visit from Glory and some attacking Knights, Buffy realises that she’s the one in charge and forces the Council to tell her the real deal with Glory - only to find out that she’s a God.
| Airdate: | 23 January 2001 |
| Writer: | Jane Espenson and Doug Petrie |
| Director: | Nick Marck |
| Cast: |
Ben: "Don't touch me - you're crusty!"
Behind the Scenes Trivia
Fury on Harris
David Fury said that when Harris Yulin returned to play Quentin Travers in Checkpoint, he had a goatee beard. Buffy producers felt that the beard wasn’t really something that Quentin would have, but they were too intimidated by the famous actor to ask him to shave it off.
Knights of Byzantium nickname
Doug Petrie initially called the Knights of Byzantium ‘The Order of the Cruciform Sword’. Marti Noxon jokingly turned the name into the ‘Order of the Cruciform Ducks’, then the ‘Crucified Ducks’. This became the writers’ name for the Knights from then on. They had to be renamed as the writers stopped taking them seriously. In the same interview, Doug mentions that the Knights:
“Were very deliberately masked [so] when Buffy unmasks one, it’s this really good looking guy. Having monsters to be revealed to be really good looking people is good for our ratings.”
Cast and Crew Trivia
Cynthia Lamontagne
Cynthia Lamontagne, who played the Watcher Lydia in Checkpoint and Never Leave Me, played a Fembot in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, which also starred Seth Green. She has also appeared in The Drew Carey Show, That ’70s Show (as Rhonda), Crossing Jordan, Frasier, Dharma & Greg, Mad About You, ER, Ellen, Carlito’s Way, The Cable Guy, Flirting with Disaster and Would I Lie to You?
Harris Yulin
Harris Yulin played Quentin Travers, the head of the Watcher’s Council in Helpless, Checkpoint and Never Leave Me. Harris is actually Californian, not English. He also played Roger Stanton in 24, and has been in The X Files, Frasier, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, How the West Was Won, Wonder Woman and Little House on the Prairie. Harris has also had parts in several movies, including Bean, Clear and Present Danger, Ghostbusters II, Multiplicity and Scarface.
John O’Leary
John O’Leary, who played one of the Watchers in Checkpoint, also appeared as ‘Kaltenbach’ in the season six Buffy episode All the Way.
Justin Gorrence
Justin Gorrence played the Knight of Byzantium Orlando in Checkpoint, Blood Ties and Spiral. He played Peter Garrett in The Young and the Restless and has also been in Shut Up and Kiss Me!, From Justin to Kelly and Puzzled.
Kris Iyer
Kris Iyer, who played Watcher Nigel in Checkpoint, has been in The West Wing, CSI, Philly, Becker, Boy Meets World, Diagnosis Murder, NYPD Blue, JAG, Babylon 5 and Sliders.
Oliver Muirhead
Oliver Muirhead, who played the Watcher Phillip in Checkpoint and Never Leave Me, has also appeared in Friends (as the Jeweller in ‘The One With The Ring‘), Seinfeld (as Lubeck in ‘The Frogger’), Suddenly Susan, Unhappily Ever After, Step by Step, Smart Guy, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Married…with Children, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper and Jake and the Fatman. Oliver appeared as a British Colonel in the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me which also starred Seth Green.
Character Trivia
Jinx
Jinx was one of Glory’s faithful minions. He revealed to Ben in Checkpoint that Buffy was the Slayer. Ben beat Jinx up so he couldn’t reveal information on Buffy and the Key to Glory.
Lydia
Lydia was a female Watcher who questioned Spike when the Council were testing Buffy in Checkpoint. She wrote her thesis on him. Lydia was blown up in Never Leave Me along with the Watcher’s Council Headquarters. Her name is not mentioned on-screen but it in the script.
Nigel
Nigel was a Watcher who questioned Willow and Tara about their magical proficiency in Checkpoint.
Orlando
Orlando was the Knight of Byzantium who attacked Buffy in Checkpoint and told her more would come. He ended up in the mental ward after being brain sucked by Glory. When Dawn went there in Blood Ties he told her she needed to be killed. Orlando was freed from the mental ward by two other knights, but was later stabbed to death by Dante Chevalier when he realised the extent of the damage done to him.
Philip
Philip was a Watcher who talked to Anya and Xander about how they helped Buffy in Checkpoint. Anya made him some muffins.
Quentin Travers
Head of the Watcher’s Council in England. Quentin attempted to impose an age-old a secret test on Buffy where her Slayer powers were removed and she was left to fight an insane vampire without them. The test went wrong, as Giles eventually told Buffy why her powers had gone. Buffy fought the vampire and passed the test but Quentin fired Giles, saying his fatherly feelings towards Buffy made him an unsuitable Watcher. Annoyed that Buffy had quit the Watcher’s Council, he later brought a team of Watchers to Sunnydale to observe - and intimidate - the Slayer in Checkpoint. After worrying about the tests, Buffy eventually realised that Quentin was actually on a power trip and forced him to give her the information she needed on Glory, as well as give Giles his job back. The last we saw of Quentin, he was blown to smithereens along with the rest of the Council in a bomb blast, initiated by Caleb in Never Leave Me.
Continuity
All in the past
In Checkpoint, the Scoobies reference several previous episodes. Willow and Tara tell Phillip about the “ball of sunshine” spell they were working on in Triangle. Giles mentions the Council’s “arcane ritual”, which is a reference to the test administered to Buffy on her eighteenth birthday in Helpless. Giles was fired by the Council in that episode.
Buffy refers to when the Watchers Council kidnapped her in Who Are You?, as they thought she was Faith because the two had switched bodies. Buffy says to Giles that she has twice been “within slaying distance of Glory” and got beaten, this was in No Place Like Home and Shadow. Xander refers to the spell the gang did in Primeval to create an Uber-Buffy. The Scoobies combined their essences, of which Xander was the heart part.
Anya’s made-up life
Anya tells the Watcher’s Council in Checkpoint a made-up story about her life to cover up her ex-demonyness. She says that she grew up in South East Indiana, her full name is Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins, and her birthdate as July 4th, 1980. In Selfless, whilst singing ‘Mrs’, Anya mentions her name again before singing “Anya Lame-Ass-Made-Up- Maiden-Name Harris.”
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?
Buffy’s t-shirt
Buffy has a brown t-shirt with split sleeves, which she wears in the episodes Checkpoint and Intervention.
Injured Jinx
Ben beat up Glory’s minion Jinx in Checkpoint as a message to the hellgod that he wouldn’t co-operate with her. In Blood Ties, Jinx’s face was still injured from this, and Ben reminded him why. In Forever, Ben told Jinx, “you’re more fun when I hit you”.
Music Trivia
Mythology Trivia
Female Watchers
There have been several female Watchers seen on screen and mentioned on the show. Faith’s Watcher was a woman and Giles’ grandmother (mentioned in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date) was one. In Revelations we met a rogue female Watcher - Gwendolyn Post, and in Checkpoint we meet another female Watcher called Lydia. All this shows that though they’re stuffy in every way possible, the Watcher’s Council aren’t sexist at all.
Knights of Byzantium
The Knights made their first appearance in Sunnydale in Checkpoint. They seemed to be human and had a tattooed symbol on their foreheads. They used swords and wore chain mail armour. They believed that the Key and its protector should be destroyed as they did not want the Key to fall into the hands of their enemy, Glory. The Knights held the Scoobies under seige in Spiral but many of them were killed by Glory.
Magic Box products
The Magic Box has the following items, according to the Watchers in Checkpoint: focusing crystals, runic artefacts, an amulet of Cauldis and a Burmese statue which can melt eyeballs. In Life Serial, we see that they also sell ‘Lemon Seduction’ and ‘Essence of Slug’ candles, Eyeballs in Honey, Mummy Hands and the Dagger of Lex.
Magic Proficiency Level
In Checkpoint, Nigel from the Watcher’s Council mentions to Willow and Tara that there is an accredited institution for witches, which he says all witches should be registered with. He mentions a “Magical Proficiency Level” which Willow and Tara have never heard of.
Time’s nearly up
In Checkpoint, we discover that Glory has a time limit for using the Key. Her minion Dreg tells her, “We have found that the signs of the alignment are moving faster than expected… If you are to use the Key, you must act quickly.”
References
Masterpiece Theatre
In Checkpoint, Buffy tells the Watchers that without her they’re just watching Masterpiece Theatre. This is a reference to a long running prime-time drama series shown on American television. It shows productions of plays and works of literature.
Passions
In Something Blue, Spike reveals himself to be a fan of the NBC supernatural soap Passions (”Passions is on! Timmy’s down the bloody well and if you make me miss it, I’ll…”). He has a discussion with Joyce about it in season five’s Checkpoint, and in Real Me, Giles says, “I watched Passions with Spike. Let us never speak of it”. Passions returned the favour and referenced Buffy in an episode - Hecuba: “I wonder what else is on the Mirror Channel…ooh…Fang! oh- unsuspecting victim. Go you bloodsuckers! Go! Oh! Oh, damn that Buffy! I don’t know what Spike sees in that girl!”
Goofs
Seen at 01.11 minutes:
When the Scoobies hold a meeting, the sleeves on Buffy’s t-shirt change in different shots without her touching them.
Seen at 07.58 minutes:
The Watcher called Nigel says “dime store trinkets”, which is something an English person would never say.
Seen at 22.56 minutes:
The council member asks Xander if he has any special skills to help Buffy and Xander replies “no”. What about the soldier skills he obtained in Halloween which helped Buffy to defeat the Judge and the Mayor?
Seen at 08.46 minutes:
In Checkpoint, when the Watcher’s Council ask all shoppers to leave the Magic Box, a female extra with black hair, a brown bag and a handbag can be seen twice in different places. She is first seen near the Watcher called Nigel towards the front of the shop, and then (at 8.50 minutes) walking near Giles at the back of the shop.
Quotes
Xander's English accent: "Allo, Buffy! Here's some stuff we know! Pip pip!"
Tara: "Aren't they good guys? I mean, Watchers, that's just like other Gileses, right?"
Buffy: "Yeah, they're scary and horrible!"
Anya: "I don't like the sound of this. They don't sound very ex-demon compatible."
Tara: "Are you sure they're English? I thought English people were, um, gentler than uh... normal people."
Willow: "I mean, is she really gonna set the junior high school buzzing with, "Oooh! There's a delegation a-comin'!""
Glory: "Sunnydale's got too many demons and not enough retail outlets."
Glory: "Baby, if that girl's the only thing between me and my key, I don't need much time."
Anya: "Ever since I moved here from South Eastern Indiana, where I was raised by both a mother and a father."
Giles: "You all stand around and look somber... Good job."
Ben: "Don't touch me - you're crusty!"
Jinx: "She's short, symmetrical, hair on top. Buffy something."
Buffy: "They picked the perfect thing. I can't lose you."
Anya: "When I was younger and therefore smaller and shorter than I am now."
Anya: "Just enthusiasm for killing the demons. Go deadness for the demons!"
Glory: "Buffy! If I wanted to fight, you could tell by the being dead already."
Spike: "They didn't put a chip in your head, did they?"
Buffy: "No."
Spike: "Be funny if they did."
Joyce: "I love what you've, um... neglected to do with the place."
Xander: "They're not just destroying his career - they're condemning the man to a lifetime diet of blood sausage, bangers and mash."
Buffy: "I'm fairly certain I said no interruptions."
Buffy: "We're talking about two very powerful witches and a thousand-year-old ex-demon."
Anya: "Willow's a demon?!"
Quentin: "She's a god."
Buffy: "Oh."