Anya’s luck

Joss Whedon teased fans at the Nocturnal N3K Buffy convention by claiming that he’d planned to kill Anya during The Gift. He said the only reason she survived was that Emma Caulfield kept moving in all the footage he shot of Nicholas Brendon holding her at the end.

Bring back the dragon!

David Fury mentioned in his commentary for Grave that he wanted to bring back the dragon that came out of the portal in The Gift for Buffy to fight. However, the season’s budget had been blown on Once More, With Feeling and Gone. Because CGI dragons are expensive they had to settle with Buffy fighting zombies underground.

Bye Sunnydale

It was rumoured that the entire town of Sunnydale would be sucked into the Hellmouth in the episode The Gift. This actually occurred in the show’s final episode, Chosen. Marti Noxon revealed in an interview with the BBC that:

Bye, WB

The Gift was the last original Buffy episode to air on the WB, and it was promoted as the “series finale” and not the “season finale”. The final two seasons of Buffy aired on UPN.

Filming Glory’s tower

Gareth Davies, a Buffy producer, revealed to the BBC that Glory’s tower at the end of season five (seen in The Gift) nearly became a hazard. He said:

“We found a company which had what looked like a huge oil derrick in its front yard… The Art Department went down and covered this thing with the rubbish and stuff that [the crazies] were building this out of and then we had a platform at the end of it. [Dawn] has to be marooned on a diving board which comes right from the top of this thing, but we were down on the ground and we had to shoot up and so we made a model [of Dawn].
“She had a long skirt on, and when we put it up there, we put it up there days before we had to shoot it. It sat up there for days and of course, when you’re on the ground and you just happen to look up, you see a plank with this girl marooned on the end of it. Because the wind was blowing her dress, she looked like, not only was she up there, [but] she was moving! We called the local Vernon police department, who were quite casual about the whole thing and said “Look, if you get complaints about a lady…”
“Also, we were concerned about traffic, [drivers] suddenly being distracted by seeing that thing up there, but they were quite casual about it. They said “Okay, fine, fine, fine” and they never told us they had any complaints or anything, but when I went out there, and was miles away, I looked up and I saw this poor woman up there billowing in the breeze and thought “We are so lucky it hasn’t caused accidents or something”.

Gift rumours

When Buffy’s 100th episode approached, fans knew something big was going to happen as it coincided with the final episode of season five. Rumours abounded on the internet, including: Xander being Glory’s other half instead of Ben; the entire cast of Angel to be in the episode; and Willow becoming evil after Tara’s death, joining forces with Glory, and bleeding Dawn.

Joss on the 100th episode

Joss Whedon said about the season five finale: “The Gift was our 100th episode and just a monster shoot and had to be big. We had to kill Buffy….” On Sarah Michelle Gellar’s reaction to Buffy’s death, he says, “they just sort of take the scripts, they go “Gulp” and learn the words. I did tell her somewhat beforehand, so she wasn’t like “huh?”, but she had a 7 year contract, she knew she wasn’t going anywhere and she’d died once already, so I think she felt fairly safe.”

Sarah on Buffy’s death

Sarah Michelle Gellar told the BBC about when she found out that her character would die (in The Gift):

Spoiler city

Buffy fans who hate spoilers found it hard to escape details of the episode The Gift before it aired. In the UK, a national newspaper ran a Buffy Dies article, and Sky One, the channel which airs the show first in the UK, kept showing shots of Buffy’s grave. I personally found out about Buffy’s death from Teletext, long before the episode aired in the UK. Grrrr.

Josh Jacobson

Josh Jacobson, played the teenager saved by Buffy in The Gift. He has also been in Who’s Your Daddy?, MTV’s Undressed, Not Another Teen Movie, Malcolm in the Middle, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Gilmore Girls.

Tom Kiesche

Tom Kiesche, who played the vampire at the beginning of the episode The Gift, played Detective Broomfield in the Angel episode ‘The Shroud of Rahmon‘.

Ben

Ben was the hospital intern who cared for Joyce when she first went to the hospital suffering from headaches in Out of My Mind. Ben was a mortal who shared his body with hellgod, Glory, through no fault of his own. Ben at first he tried to protect Dawn from Glory, but he ultimately turned on her, and delivered her to Glory to be sacrificed. Giles suffocated him in order to kill Glory in The Gift.

Buffybot

The Buffybot was a life-like, cheerful, robot version of Buffy, made by Warren Meers as a sex toy for Spike in Intervention. Buffy was disgusted when she discovered what Spike had done but kept the robot in the basement at the Magic Box and later used it to defeat Glory in The Gift. Buffybot carried out Buffy’s duties when the Slayer died but was later torn apart by demon bikers in Bargaining (Part 2).
Buffybot’s robot-vision includes the files Locate Spike, Make Spike Happy, kissing01, kissing02, position01-position05. Her information on her friends includes:

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.

Glory

Glory was one of three hellgods who ruled over a demon dimension. Her power started to outstrip that of the other two and they expelled her from their dimension, by trapping her inside a human body. The idea was that she would die when the man in which she was trapped (Ben) died. Glory’s power was so great that occasionally she could take over his body, forming him to look like herself. When this happened, neither had any memory of each other’s actions. Glory’s power was limited by being in human form but she was still extremely strong. Her sanity was deteriorating from being in a new dimension, and she would ’suck’ people’s sanity from them, by plunging her hands into their head. This would leave the victim insane. Glory’s mission was to obtain the Key, in the form of Dawn, and use it to get back to her own dimension. This would involve the material of the universe being broken down and all dimensions merging into one. Buffy defeated Glory using a heavy troll’s hammer, thus weakening her to the point that Ben’s form emerged again. Giles then killed Ben, killing Glory with him.

Apocalypse plural

In The Gift, Buffy asks how many apocalypses (apocalypsi?) this makes, to which Giles replies “Six, at least”. They were in: Prophecy Girl, Becoming (Part 2), The Zeppo, Graduation Day, Doomed, and The Gift. The events of season finale Primeval did not include an apocalypse. Buffy mentions killing Angel in Becoming (Part 2).

Buffy’s grave

The inscription on Buffy’s grave stone after she died in The Gift reads:
Buffy Anne Summers; 1981 - 2001; Beloved Sister; Devoted Friend; She saved the world; A lot.

Bunnies

Anya has a fear of bunnies, first referenced in Fear, Itself when she wore a bunny costume to a Halloween party, with the simple explanation: “bunnies frighten me”. This fear is shown in Shadow, The Gift, Once More, With Feeling, Tabula Rasa, Smashed, Selfless and in Chosen. In Bargaining (Part 2), Razor asks Willow what she’s going to do, “pull a rabbit out of a hat?” Anya turns to Tara to be reassured that she won’t. Anya’s final words on the show are about bunnies. She thinks of them whilst preparing for the huge battle - “Bunnies. Floppy, hoppy, bunnies.” Anya’s bunny suit in Fear, Itself became so popular that modelmakers Clayburn Moore created a figure of the character.

Foreshadowing the Dawn arc

There are two significant references to the character of Dawn before she first appeared in Buffy vs Dracula:
In This Year’s Girl, Buffy and Faith are making a bed in Faith’s dream. They have the following conversation:

Buffy: “I wish I could stay, but…”
Faith: “Oh, you have to go.”
Buffy: “That’s just what…”
Faith: “Little sis coming. I know.”
Buffy: “So much to do before she gets here.”

As well as referencing Dawn verbally, the two Slayers are making the bed in Dawn’s future room.
The second reference occurs in the episode Restless. Tara says to Buffy, “Be back before Dawn”.
There is also a couple more, slightly cryptic, references: In Graduation Day (Part 1), Buffy walks into Faith’s apartment and Faith says, “Look at you, all dressed up in big sister’s clothes.” In Restless. In Giles’ dream, Olivia is pregnant, which may signify the coming of Dawn as Giles became a father figure to her after Joyce died.
In Graduation Day (Part 2), Buffy dreams that she and Faith are making a bed together (again!). Faith says, “Miles to go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0″. Faith’s riddle is explained later in the series. “730″ is a forshadowing of Buffy’s own death (Buffy dies to save Dawn). It means 365 multiplied by 2, meaning in two year’s time. This date coincides with the episode The Gift where Buffy dies. The number crops up again in season four’s finale Restless, where Buffy sees a clock saying 7:30 and Tara tells her the clock is wrong. It is: there are no longer 730 days before Buffy’s death, there are 365.

I have to…

In The Gift, when Buffy realises she has to jump of the tower, she says “Dawny I have to…” This line is echoed in Dead Things when Buffy realises she needs to go to the police after she thinks she has killed Katrina. While in Dawn’s room she says “Dawny I have to…”

It’s Buffy

Willow appears in L.A. at the end of the Angel episode There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb to inform Angel that Buffy had died - seen in The Gift. Angel realises why she’s there as soon as he says her, saying, “It’s Buffy”.

Jewellery

Xander likes to give girls he likes jewellery. In Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, he gave Cordelia a necklace; in The Witch, he gave Buffy a bracelet saying ‘Yours Always’, and he bought Anya an engagement ring in The Gift.

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

At the beginning of most Buffy episodes, we see a recap of previous events. To celebrate it being the 100th episode, The Gift begins with a montage of at least one clip from each of the previous 99 episodes.

Same vamp

In First Date, when Buffy and Wood are fighting the vampires in the alley, a vampire walks round a corner. This is a re-used shot from The Gift. It is the same vampire that Buffy killed at the start of The Gift when the vampire followed the teenager into the alley.

Suffocation: The in way to kill?

In Graduation Day (Part 2), Mayor Wilkins attempts to suffocate Buffy using his hand in the Sunnydale hospital after he learns that Buffy nearly killed Faith putting her into a coma; however Angel stops him. After Buffy defeats Glory, Giles suffocates Ben (Glory’s human side) in The Gift in the same manner that the Mayor used.

The hardest thing

In The Gift, Buffy tells Dawn, “the hardest thing in this world is to live in it.” Dawn repeats this to her sister in Once More, With Feeling, after Buffy nearly dances herself to death.

Useful items

In The Gift, Anya suggest that Buffy use the Dagon sphere, found by Buffy in No Place Like Home, and Olaf’s troll hammer from Triangle to defeat Glory. Olaf is called a “troll god”, though it was never mentioned in Triangle that he was a god. Later, Anya and Xander find the Buffybot from Intervention, and the gang use this to fool Glory.

Welcoming Spike

Spike is invited back into Buffy’s house in The Gift, after his first invitation was revoked in Crush.

Sacrifice

The music from Buffy’s death scene in The Gift is called ‘Sacrifice‘. It was written by Christophe Beck, and appeared on the soundtrack CD to Once More, With Feeling.

Black magic effects

In Two to Go, Willow’s eyes and hair went black from the dark power she had gained. She also gets weird veiny skin. The first time we saw a witch draw on dark powers was in The Witch when Catherine Madison’s eyes also went black. Catherine’s daughter Amy introduced Willow to Rack, from whom Willow gets power in this episode. Willow’s eyes previously turned black in Tough Love and The Gift when she used powerful magics on Glory after she brain-sucked Tara.

Dagon Sphere

This was an orb used to ward off ancient primordial evil. It was used by the monks of Dagon to repel Glorificus, and by the Buffybot in The Gift to weaken Glory’s power.

Cannibal! The Musical

When the Scoobies approach Glory’s tower in The Gift, they look up, and Xander exclaims “Shpadoinkle!”. This is a reference to a line in Trey ‘South Park’ Parker’s movie Cannibal! The Musical. One of the first songs in the movie contains the verse ‘We think we know exactly what we mean, when we say it’s a shpadoinkle day’.

Henry V

In The Gift, Giles says, “We few… we happy few…” to which Spike replies, “We band ‘o buggered”, paraphrasing the famous “St. Crispin’s Day” speech in Shakespeare’s Henry V. The actual quote is, “We few, we happy few. We band of brothers.” In All the Way, Xander misquotes Henry V, “So, one more into the breach?” The line is actually “Once more unto the breach”.

Seen at 28.15 minutes:

When Murk says “This will be our day of Glory!” You can see the padding on his chest, ready for when he gets shot with a crossbow.

Seen at 34.53 minutes:

When Spike’s stuntman (Steve Tartalia) falls from the tower, his shoes are white, but Spike’s shoes are black. The stuntman also wore blue jeans, but Spike’s jeans are black. His outfit is all black when he lands on the bricks.

Seen at 39.42 minutes:

When the camera pulls away from Buffy and Dawn, we can see that Dawn’s feet have no blood on them, though there was blood all over them earlier.

Seen at 41.37 minutes:

Why do the Scoobies provide a gravestone for Buffy if they wanted her death kept quiet? (This information is discovered in the episode Bargaining).