A girl named April wanders around Sunnydale looking for a boy named Warren. Spike hits on her at a party and, offended, she throws him through a window. The gang quickly figure out April is a robot. Buffy finds Warren, who admits he created April to be his loyal girlfriend, but then found a real girl that he liked and left April without telling her. They find April, who can’t understand why Warren doesn’t love her. Warren panics and lies to April, telling her that he doesn’t love her because he loves Buffy. April attacks Buffy but her batteries soon run down. April can’t understand what she did wrong, as she was the perfect girlfriend. Buffy comes home to find Joyce’s lifeless body on the couch.
| Airdate: | 20 February 2001 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer: | Jane Espenson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Director: | James A. Contner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cast: |
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Giles looks after Dawn: "We listened to aggressively cheerful music sung by people chosen for their ability to dance. Then we ate cookie dough, and talked about boys."
Behind the Scenes Trivia
Britney Spears
Pop starlet Britney was supposedly due to play April the robot in I Was Made to Love You. She backed out at the last minute. Adam Busch (Warren) told Zap2it, “But then Britney backed out in the last minute and they got this other actress.” Coincidentally, Shonda Farr, who ended up playing April, appeared in the movie Crossroads, which starred Britney Spears.
There were rumours again that Britney was due to play another character in season seven, but Sarah Michelle Gellar apparently said no, as she felt the show wouldn’t benefit from the kind of publicity which follows Spears.
Britney is referenced in Life Serial, when the construction site foreman calls Buffy “Britney”. In Lessons, Dawn tells her class, “I love to dance. I like music. I’m very into Britney Spears’ early work before she sold out, so mostly her finger painting and macaroni art. Very underrated.”
In Sleep Tight, Angel says, “Yeah, and you look like hell. Not the fun one where they burn you with hot pokers for all eternity, but the hard core one. You know, Nixon and Britney Spears.”
Cast and Crew Trivia
Adam Busch
Adam Busch played Warren Meers in seasons five to seven. Adam previously appeared in Magic Rock, Sugar & Spice and Leon (as Manolo). He sings in a band called Common Rotation, the other members of which are Eric Kufs (singer/guitarist), Mike Uhler (bassist) and Ken Beck (drummer). Adam plays alto sax, harmonica, guitar, drums and the piano. The band’s second album, ‘The Big Fear’, was released in February 2003. Adam was born in Long Island on 6th July, 1978. Adam originally auditioned for a role on Angel which led to him getting the part of Warren. He is friends with his fellow onscreen ‘nerds’, Danny Strong and Tom Lenk. Since leaving Buffy he has appeared in Point Pleasant and The Jury.
Amelinda Smith
Amelinda played Warren’s girlfriend Katrina. Amelinda has also been in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Scrubs, Freaky Links and Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. She has a son (born in December 1999) called Cogeian Sky Embry with her (now ex) husband, actor Ethan Embry (Can’t Hardly Wait, Sweet Home Alabama). The two divorced in 2002. Amelinda appeared in three episodes of Buffy in total - I Was Made to Love You, Dead Things and Villains.
Shonda Farr
Shonda Farr played April the Robot in I Was Made to Love You. The role was originally designed for Britney Spears. In another link with Britney, Shonda provided voices on the pop star’s video game Britney’s Dance Beat. She has also been in Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, Grind, Crossroads, Planet of the Apes, That ’70s Show, Smallville, Maybe It’s Me and Beverly Hills, 90210.
Character Trivia
April the Robot
April was a beautiful, life-like robot created by Warren Meers, who had programmed her to love him unconditionally. Warren abandoned her when he fell in love with a real girl called Katrina. April managed to track him to Sunnydale before her batteries ran down and she ‘died’. April’s visual display revealed several files or programs installed by Warren. These included: kissing_01.gfd, kissing_02.gfd, lstn_sympthtc.gfd, gv_hm_presnts.gfd, praise.gfd, neckrubs.gfd, three fetish files, four sex files and six position files. April appeared in the episode I Was Made to Love You.
Brian
Brian went on a date with Joyce in I Was Made to Love You, though he was never seen on screen. He sent Joyce flowers the next day, which Buffy found, shortly before discovering her mother had died. All we know of Brian is that he worked in publishing and met Joyce at the gallery.
Katrina
Katrina was Warren’s girlfriend who dumped him when she discovered he had a robot sex toy in I Was Made to Love You. She built monorails that move magnetically, which is one of the things that attracted Warren to her (it takes all kinds). Katrina and Warren met again in Dead Things and Warren accidentally killed her, after performing a spell on her to make her his slave. Willow showed a vision of Katrin to Warren in Villains.
Warren Meers
Warren was a nerd who was able to create perfect human-like robots, including one which was an exact likeness of Buffy. He hooked up with Jonathan and Andrew to ‘take over Sunnydale’. The three devised mad James Bond-style gadgets and robbed banks and museums as well as confounding Buffy using magic. Warren became the leader of the three nerds and started to feel more and more power. He accidentally killed his ex-girlfriend Katrina and blamed it on Buffy. Warren went out of control and left his friends behind. He eventually got a gun and shot Buffy blaming her for messing up his latest plan. He shot and killed Tara, which made Willow ’see red’ and, summoning all the dark magics she could, she killed Warren by flaying him alive. The First took the form of Warren in season seven to try and trick Andrew into helping it.
Continuity
Coffee
In Reptile Boy, Buffy and Angel agree to go for coffee, and attempt to do this in Halloween. Buffy makes a big show that going for coffee is an important date-like event in season five’s I Was Made to Love You when she meets Ben and they have a painfully boring conversation using coffee as an analogy for their feelings for each other.
Joyce for the final time
Joyce is seen alive for the last time in I Was Made to Love You (not including flashbacks in other episodes). She dies of a brain aneurysm when Buffy is talking to April and Dawn is at school. The aftermath of her death is dealt with in The Body.
Not blue pyjamas
Buffy says to Ben at the Spring Break party in I Was Made to Love You that she’s seen him in “non-medical clothing” before. She did:at the re-opening of the Bronze in Crush.
Remembering robots
In I Was Made To Love You, Dawn mentions Joyce’s ex-boyfriend Ted, who turned out to be a homicidal robot. It must be a coincidence that there’s another robot in town when Joyce is going on her first date since Ted.
Tara’s jealousy
Tara gets jealous of Willow’s attraction to April in I Was Made to Love You. In Buffy vs Dracula, Tara was also jealous of Willow’s comments about Dracula.
Threatening Spike
In I Was Made to Love You, Spike goes to the Magic Box to try and get Buffy’s friends on his side after she discovered he loved her in Crush. Giles lets Spike know his feelings on the matter by threatening him: “We are not your friends. We are not your way to Buffy. There is no way to Buffy… Clear out of here. And Spike… this thing? Get over it.”
In her commentary for I Was Made to Love You, Jane Espenson wonders whether Giles ever thought about this threat after it emerged that Buffy and Spike were sleeping together in season six.
Music Trivia
Caviar
In I Was Made to Love You, when Buffy first sees Ben at the party, ‘OK Nightmare’ by Caviar is playing.
Los Straitjackets
In I Was Made to Love You, when Spike walks away from Buffy at the party, we hear ‘Kawanga!’ by Los Straitjackets.
Mythology Trivia
Robots
Robots in Buffy have been seen in several episodes: Ted Buchanan in Ted, April in I Was Made to Love You, Buffybot (first seen in Intervention and seen in several episodes after that) and the Warrenbot in Villains. They are all extrememly life-like. Another robot seen on the show included the physical form provided to Moloch the Corrupter - a demon who took over the internet in I Robot, You Jane.
References
Lutherans
Anya says in I Was Made to Love You, “I had trouble adjusting to the idea of Lutherans” which is a reference to the first wave of Protestantism in Europe, founded by Martin Luther in the sixteenth century.
Goofs
Seen at 26.28 minutes:
When Giles threatens Spike in the Magic Box, the vampire’s reflection can be seen in the glass of the cabinet.
Seen at 32.09 minutes:
In the scene where Buffy takes the ‘unconscious’ Katrina from April, Katrina clearly steps off of the platform that she was standing on and walks over to the bench.
Seen at 40.20 minutes:
Considering how long it took April to find Warren, it only takes Spike a short amount of time to find out where he lives.
Seen at 40.50 minutes:
When Buffy picks up the card attached to Joyce’s card, you can see there is a band aid on her right middle finger. There’s a cut to a close-up of Joyce’s card that Buffy’s has opened and is holding with her right hand, and the band aid is now missing. Then there is a return to the previous shot, and the band aid is back.
Quotes
Buffy: "I don't know about you guys, but I've had it with super-strong little women who aren't me."
Tara: "I go online sometimes, but everyone's spelling is really bad. It's... depressing."
Buffy: "And the minute after that I can terrify him with my alarming strength and remarkable self-involvement."
Giles looks after Dawn: "We listened to aggressively cheerful music sung by people chosen for their ability to dance. Then we ate cookie dough, and talked about boys."