Joyce’s funeral

The following is a stage direction for Forever:

Alan Henry Brown

Alan Henry Brown, who played the funeral director in Forever, also played the demon bartender who talked to Warren in Villains, and ‘Lead Nahdrah’ in the Angel episode ‘Provider‘. He has also appeared in The X Files.

Annie Talbot

Annie Talbot, who played the lady with a baby in the episode Forever, appeared as Mother #2 in the Angel episode ‘Loyalty‘.

Joel Grey

Joel Grey played Doc in season five. Joel won an Oscar for his role as the Master of Ceremonies in the 1972 movie Cabaret. He was a dancer and choreographer on Broadway who also turned his hand to movies. He played the ghost who convinced JR to shoot himself in the final episode of Dallas. Joel has appeared in Oz as Lemuel Idzik, Dancer in the Dark (as Oldrich Novy), Venus Rising, The Dangerous, Touched by an Angel, The Outer Limits, Star Trek: Voyager and much more. Joel is the father of Jennifer Grey of Dirty Dancing fame.

Todd Duffey

Todd Duffey, who played Glory’s minion Murk, has been in Burning Annie, The Black Rose, Office Space, Charmed, The Drew Carey Show, ER and Walker, Texas Ranger. He appeared in six episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer during season five.

Doc

Doc was a demon who looked human but had a long tail, blue blood, black eyes and a lizard-like tongue. He aided Dawn to try and ressurect her mother (Forever) but later turned on the girl when he discovered she was the Key. Doc worshipped Glorificus. Spike and Xander fought him to retrieve a box he was hiding in The Weight of the World, in which Giles found more information on Glory and the Key. They left Doc for dead but he came back in The Gift and cut Dawn so her blood would open the portal. Buffy killed Doc when she pushed him off the platform.

Brown Brothers Mortuary

The funeral of Joyce Summers was held in the episode Forever. It was organised by The Brown Brothers Mortuary.

Chicken feet

Chicken feet are a staple ingredient in witchcraft. They’re mentioned a few times in Buffy. In Doppelgängland, Willow says angrily to Anya, “I believe these chicken feet are mine.” In Forever, Anya says to Dawn, “We have some very amusing chicken feet you can play with.” In Into the Woods there’s the following scene:

Giles’s place

The first time we see Giles’s home is in The Dark Age. In Band Candy, a courtyard outside Giles’s apartment can be seen where there once were stairs. His place became the focal point for the Scoobies in season four. The final time we see Giles’ apartment in the series is in the episode Forever.

If something goes wrong

In Forever, Buffy says she and her mother discussed what would happen if Joyce died during her surgery. This was probably in Listening to Fear before Joyce told Buffy she knew Dawn wasn’t real.

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”.

More Angel

Angel arrives back in Sunnydale for the first time since The Yoko Factor. He comes to comfort Buffy after her mother’s funeral.

Spike and Joyce

Spike takes flowers to the Summers’ house in Forever in memory of Joyce. He says he liked Joyce as she didn’t treat him like a freak and she always had a “nice cuppa” for him. We saw Joyce and Spike have hot chocolate together in Lover’s Walk, and chatting together in Crush.

Where’s Hank?

Hank Summers, an already absent father, reaches new bad-father heights in the episode Forever by not showing up to his ex-wife’s funeral. Buffy says she’s not been able to contact him as he is in Spain (which we learnt about in Family).
In Bargaining (Part 1), Dawn says that her father “said he’d call today” which is the first time we’re told he has been in touch with his daughter since Joyce Summers died. He has no idea that Buffy has also died.

Cream

Giles and Joyce listened to Cream’s “Tales of Brave Ulysses” together in Band Candy. In season five’s Forever, the episode after Joyce’s death, we see Giles silently listening to this song again in a tribute to his dead friend, and the memories he had of her.

Splendid

Splendid play their track “Charge” in the Bronze in I Only Have Eyes For You. In The Freshman Splendid perform “You and Me” in the Bronze. Their unreleased song “Tomorrow We’ll Awake” plays during Xander and Anya’s bedroom scene in Forever.
Angie Hart, the lead singer of Splendid, co-wrote the song “Blue” with Joss Whedon. This song played at the beginning of the episode Conversations with Dead People.
Angie’s ex-husband Jesse Tobias, who was also in Splendid, helped Joss and Christophe Beck to arrange Joss’s songs for the musical episode Once More, With Feeling.

Gorrah demon

The Gorrah demon was a large, three-headed demon which lived near the Hellmouth. Dawn needed the demon’s eggs to perform a resurrection spell on Joyce so Spike battled the demon to distract it in Forever.

Osiris

In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was a god who became Lord of the Dead and Resurrection after his brother killed him and he was resurrected. In the Buffyverse, Osiris is summoned to perform resurrection spells on Joyce (by Dawn in Forever), Buffy (by Willow in Bargaining (Part 1)) and Tara (by Willow in Villains).

Resurrection

Dawn performed a resurrection spell after her mother died in Forever, taught to her by Doc. She needed dirt from Joyce’s grave, a photo of her mother and the egg of a Gorrah demon. She cancelled the spell when she realised it would be too painful for herself and her sister if their mother came back ‘wrong’.
Buffy died a supernatural death so her friends were able to perform a ritual to resurrect her (Bargaining (Part 1)). To do this, the Scoobies formed a sacred circle around Buffy’s grave, each holding a black candle. Willow anointed herself with Vino de Madre (the blood of a baby deer) from the Urn of Osiris, and poured the rest onto Buffy’s grave. She asked Osiris to return Buffy, and was tested by having her arms slashed by invisible knives, and being forced to vomit snakes. Buffy came to life in her coffin and had to dig her way out.

The History of Witchcraft

The book that Willow singles out for Dawn in Forever is called The History of Witchcraft. It’s chapters include “Age of Levitation”, “The War of the Warlocks” and “Resurrection: a Controversy Born”.

Zombie influences

In its portrayal of zombies Buffy the Vampire Slayer draws on a wealth of (predominantly) cinematic material. Essentially, the cinematic zombie falls into three categories:

1) The Haitian Zombie: The classic depiction. The Haitian Zombie is an individual who has either been brought back from the dead or revived from a drug-induced death-like trance by a Voodoo priest. The revived individual lacks free-will and is used by the priest as a slave. This traditional type was pretty much the standard in early cinematic depictions of zombification, and was (perhaps) best used in Val Lewton / Jacques Tourneur’s excellent I Walked with a Zombie (1943). Though the zombies of The Zeppo (and Buffy herself) may initially seem to fit the bill (they were all revived by occult means) they are quite distinct, as they obviously have free will, a sense of self and do not have a ‘Master’. The (never seen) ‘Zombie Joyce’ from Forever may be closer to the mark, as it was suggested that she would be a mindless shell. I guess the lumbering, subservient zombies of Dead Man’s Party are the closest we get to Haitian lore in Buffy. They respond to their master and are clearly little more then slaves. Having said that, they owe much (at least visually) to the ‘Romero Zombie’ (see below).

2) The ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ Zombie: Obviously this type of zombie share’s little with its Haitian variant as it is a product of science/medicine and not magic. In addition, since it is a composite (made up of parts from different individuals, beings etc), its identity is necessarily a bit muddled. Depictions of such creatures therefore tend to focus on its quest for a sense of self. Adam is an obvious enough Buffyverse example, and (as is common for such creatures) was concerned with understanding himself and the world around him. The ‘bride’ that was being built for Daryl in Some Assembly Required, is typically ‘Frankensteinian’ and is a clear nod to James Whale’s seminal Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

3) The ‘Romero Zombie’: While it may be a simplification to credit George Romero with the (sole) creation of the stereotypical modern cinematic zombie, using his name is a handy way of explaining the type, and Night of the Living Dead (1968) may be the first depiction of the kind . This type gets reanimated through a variety of (often ludicrous) means and is the one we are probably most familiar as we’ve seen it everywhere from Dawn of the Dead (1978) to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. They lumber about, they wear the torn outfits they were buried in, they are often badly decomposed, they travel in packs, they eat human flesh or brains, they seem to have only rudimentary cognitive skills etc. I think the wanting Braaaaaaaiiiinnnnsss thing originated with Dan O’Bannon’s hilarious 1985 effort Return of the Living Dead, but it’s become an accepted zombie characteristic by now. In terms of the overall aesthetic of the zombies, nearly all of the Buffy examples owe a debt to this type (Forrest and Walsh, the Dead Man’s Party gang, Jack O’Toole’s buddies etc). None wanted brains though, how disappointing.

Zombies

Zombies have been seen several times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The loosest explanation of a zombie is a corpse which has been reanimated in some way - mainly through magic. Examples of zombies seen on the show include those in Dead Man’s Party (who were revived by a magical Nigerian Ovu Mobani mask); Forrest and Maggie Walsh in Primeval (brought back to “life” by Adam); Joyce (resurrected by a spell by Dawn in Forever); and Jack O’Toole and his pals in The Zeppo. With the exception of The Zeppo zombies, most zombies have no free will and are essentially automatons. Click here for a full explanation of different types of zombie.

Peter and the Wolf

Doc hums the tune from “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokovief when searching for the spell for Dawn in Forever.

Star Wars

George Lucas’s Star Wars films are a cult phenomenon. They are referenced numerous times in the Buffyverse. The original trilogy included the movies Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return Of The Jedi (1983) and the movies The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) were made later on.

• In When She Was Bad, when Xander and Willow play Guess the Movie from the tag line (Willow: “Use the Force, Luke.”,
  Xander: “Do I even have to dignify that with a guess?”)
• In School Hard, Spike told Angel that, “You were my Yoda!” Yoda was the ancient Jedi master who became the mentor and teacher for both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker.
• A visual reference to Star Wars can be seen in The Zeppo, when Xander runs into the corridor and runs back out with the gang members chasing him. Han Solo does the same thing in Star Wars.
• In Choices, Buffy says that Faith has turned to ‘the dark side’.
• In The Freshman, Xander confuses the Star Wars Jedi code quoted by Yoda in The Phantom Menace. (”Hate leads to anger…no wait…Fear leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side”). Also in that episode, the old frat house that the vampires are holed up in is the Psi Theta house. If you write those two greek letters together, and pronounce them together, you get Sith.
• In Fear, Itself, Xander says to Oz, “Sensing a disturbance in the Force, Master?”
• Buffy using the chain to choke Sobek the snake-demon in Shadow is reminiscent of Princess Leia killing Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi.
• In Forever, Ben calls Glory’s minions “Jawa rejects” after the small hooded and robed creatures in Star Wars.
• In Life Serial, Andrew paints a Death Star from Star Wars on the side of the gang’s van. It’s the Empire’s revised design from Return of the Jedi, which Jonathan says is flawed.
• In the episode Two To Go, Andrew says, “We’ve got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds us all into to Jawa burgers and not one of you bunch has the Midichlorians to stop her.” These are all Star Wars references: Darth is a title given to a Sith Warrior (such as Darth Vader); Jawas are the hooded creatures who live on Tatooine, and Midichlorians are micro-organisms which exist in all living things. Andrew says, “Laugh it up, Fuzzball” which is a quote from Star Wars. Andrew also later says in Two To Go, “…in a galaxy far, far away” - yet another Star Wars reference.
• In All the Way, Tara and Willow see a couple dressed as Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker kissing in the Bronze. Willow asks, “Do they know they’re brother and sister?”
• In Smashed, we see that the three nerds own a mint condition (though out of its packaging) 1979 Boba Fett action figure. Though Boba Fett was first introduced in The Empire Strikes Back (made in 1980), the earliest Boba Fett figure was made in 1979, before the film was released.
• In Dead Things, Jonathan and Andrew play fight with green light sabres.
• In Entropy, Warren calls Jonathan “Padawan”.
• In Conversations with Dead People, Jonathan and Warren have the following conversation: Warren: “Come on, “If you strike me down…” Andrew: “I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine…That boy is our last hope.” Warren: “No, there is another.” These are all quotes from Star Wars.
• In Potential, Xander says to Andrew, “Say Skywalker, and I smack you.” He is, of course, referring to Star Wars‘ Luke Skywalker.
• In Showtime, Andrew says, “I’m bored. Episode I bored.” He’s referring to George Lucas’s disappointing movie Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
• In Never Leave Me, Warren/The First says, “I’m like Obi Wan”. He also says to Andrew, “We’re right in the trench, and the exhaust port’s in sight.” This is a reference to the scene in Star Wars in which the Death Star is under attack.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew says, “I’m like Vader in the last 5 minutes of Jedi with redemptive powers minus a redemptive struggle of epic redemption which chronicles…” He’s referring to the last scenes of the final Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi.
• In Storyteller, there are two framed Star Wars comics on the wall in Andrew’s opening scene.
• In Dirty Girls, Andrew says, “But like so many tragic heroes, Faith was seduced by the lure of the dark side.”

The Monkey’s Paw

The end sequence of Forever is very similar to W.W. Jacobs’s short story The Monkey’s Paw. In the story, the wife (Dawn) wishes (casts a spell to bring) her son (mother) back from the dead, he (she) appeares at the door, wife (Buffy) rushes down and throws open the door, just as husband (Dawn) makes a third wish (rips the photo in half) and the son (Joyce) vanishes.

Seen at 07.17 minutes:

When the camera pans past Buffy’s bedroom before the funeral, you can see that there’s no ceiling in her room.

Seen at 15.49 minutes:

When Buffy tells Angel about whether she could have saved her mother if she’d been there at the time, she says, “They said ‘probably’ wouldn’t have made a difference. The exact thing they said was ‘probably’.” The doctor’s exact words were actually, “It’s doubtful that this could have been dealt with in time.” The paramedic just said, “There’s nothing you could have done.”

Seen at 20.31 minutes:

The day after Joyce’s funeral, Willow, Tara and Dawn are in the girls’ dorm room. In the long shot of the scene, there seems to be a man sat in the left-hand corner of the room. The perspective is all wrong, as he looks the size of a ventriloquist’s dummy, but after very close inspection, we think he might be sat in a room behind the dorm room. Take a look for yourself.