As Buffy claws her way out of her grave, her friends are struggling to escape from the demon biker gang. It is finally Dawn who encounters the animal-like Buffy and manages to get her home to safety. Spike realises that there’s something Willow isn’t telling them about the spell and he gets angry that no one told him what they planned to do.
| Airdate: | 2 October 2001 |
| Writer: | Marti Noxon |
| Director: | David Grossman |
| Cast: |
Xander: "There's something you don't see every day. Unless you're us."
Behind the Scenes Trivia
Bargaining in the UK
The U.K. video boxsets split the episode Bargaining into its two separate parts. Each one had a set of credits at the beginning of the episode. The DVD release then combined the two episodes together again.
Cast and Crew Trivia
Franc Ross
Franc Ross, who played the lead hellion demon Razor in Bargaining, played ‘Monty Reynolds’ in Joss Whedon’s Firefly episode ‘Trash’.
Character Trivia
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:
Xander: friend; carpenter; dates Anya.
Anya: dates Xander; likes money; ex-demon.
Willow: best friend; gay (1999-present); witch; good with computers.
Razor
Razor was the aggressive leader of the Hellion biker demons. He had retractable blades on the end of each finger, and red eyes. Tara killed him with an axe in the back after he tried to hurt Willow in Bargaining (Part 2).
Continuity
Buffy’s coffin hair
There’s been a lot of debate about Buffy’s hair when she emerges from her coffin in Bargaining (Part 2). It’s much longer and darker than when she died in The Gift - is it a goof or not?
True, there is no sunlight in a coffin so Buffy’s hair would have become darker in her grave - but we all know that Buffy’s golden locks aren’t just bleached only by the sun. On the other hand, it’s apparently a grisly urban legend that hair and nails continue to grow after death, so Buffy’s hair wouldn’t have grown.
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.
Buried alive
In Nightmares, Buffy has a nightmare of being buried and crawling out of her grave, which actually happens to her in season six’s Bargaining.
Espresso2U
One of the demons in Bargaining (Part 2), smashes a car with the logo ‘Espresso2U.com’ on it. This may be related to the Espresso Pump coffee shop in Sunnydale’s main street, seen in many episodes.
Football helmet
The football helmet that Dawn wears on Spike’s motorcycle in Bargaining (Part 2), is seen being worn by Andrew in season seven’s Empty Places. Andrew can be seen carrying the helmet in Touched.
Male buddies
In Bargaining (Part 2), Xander moans about his lack of male friends. Since Oz and Riley left he hasn’t really had any, but he mentions that he gets on well with a guy called Tito at work. We meet Tito in Flooded - he comes to fix Buffy’s plumbing system. Xander mentioned in I Was Made to Love You that he missed Oz as he’d understand his male-orientated jokes.
Nobody messes with…
In Bargaining (Part 2), Tara says of Willow, “Nobody messes with my girl”. This could be a reference to season two’s What’s My Line? (Part 2), in which Buffy says of Angel, “Spike is going down. You can attack me, you can send assassins after me, that’s fine. But nobody messes with my boyfriend.” Additionally, Xander says, “Hey! Nobody messes with my Willow” in The Pack.
Something you don’t see
In Choices, Buffy says, “There’s something you don’t see every day. Unless, of course, you’re me.” This line is echoed in Bargaining (Part 2), when Xander says, “Theres something you dont see every day, unless you’re us.”
Spike’s bike
Spike takes one of the hellions motorbikes in Bargaining (Part 2). He can be seen riding it again in After Life, Seeing Red and Empty Places.
Tara’s kill
Tara killed her first demon in Bargaining (Part 2), using an axe.
Music Trivia
Mythology Trivia
Aradia
Aradia is the Goddess of the Lost. She appears as a small light to guide those who are lost. In Fear Itself, Willow called upon Aradia using a guiding spell to get her friends out of the bewitched frat house: “Aradia, Goddess of the lost, the path is murky, the woods are dense, darkness pervades, I beseech thee, bring the light.” The spell went wrong and Willow was surrounded by hundreds of green lights.
In Bargaining (Part 2), Tara successfully helped Willow and Xander out of the woods by sending Aradia to guide them.
Hellions
The biker demons in Bargaining were called Hellions. They invaded Sunnydale after discovering that the Slayer was really a malfunctioning robot. Drove into town on their bikes, setting fires and causing general biker-demon naughtiness. Their leader was called Razor.
Warlocks
In the Buffyverse, a warlock is a male witch. Xander confirmed this with Willow in Bargaining (Part 2). We saw two warlocks on the show - Michael in Gingerbread and season six’s Rack. Though he doesn’t define himself as such, Ethan Rayne could be seen as a warlock.
References
DefCon and NORAD
Faith says in Faith, Hope and Trick, “The vamps, they better get their asses to DefCon One.” This term derives from ‘Defense Condition’ which has a rating level of 5 - DefCon Five is peace time and DefCon One is all out war. In Bargaining (Part 2), Xander says, “this place is NORAD, and we’re at DefCon One.”
NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) protects the airspace of the US and Canada.
Peter Pan
When Tara’s little light comes to guide Willow in Bargaining (Part 2), Xander asks the witch how long Tara has been Tinkerbell. This is a reference to the fairy in J. M. Barrie’s novel Peter Pan.
The Wild Bunch
The 1969 film The Wild Bunch by Sam Peckinpah is one of Joss Whedon’s favourites. It is mentioned twice in Buffy. In The Harvest, Buffy advised her friends, “Don’t go wild bunch on me” before they entered the Bronze. In Bargaining (Part 2), Xander called the demons who raided Sunnydale the “wild bunch”.
Lyle and Techtor Gorch, who appeared in Bad Eggs, are named after characters from The Wild Bunch. In that movie, the Gorches were brothers in William Holden’s gang, played by Warren Oates and Ben Johnson. Pike from the Buffy movie was named after William Holden’s character in The Wild Bunch and Angel was another character from the film.
Goofs
Seen at 48.30 minutes:
The Scoobies must have realised that they’d need to dig Buffy out of her grave. Why did they not bring any tools to dig her out? And why didn’t they dig up the grave before doing the spell so Buffy wouldn’t suffocate? Finally, why didn’t they even check to see if their spell worked? They could easily have gone back to the grave after being interrupted by the demons.
Seen at 52.16 minutes:
Though we know the police in Sunnydale are pretty dumb, why did none of them seem to show up when the bikers destroyed Sunnydale?
Seen at 52.33 minutes:
Spike moans about the lack of weapons in the Summers’ house. Where did all the weapons (last seen in The Gift) from the trunk go?
Seen at 54.04 minutes:
Buffy seems to be very clean for someone who’s just crawled through six feet of earth. Just a leaf in her hair for all that effort?
Seen at 75.43 minutes:
When the Scoobies first see the newly resurrected Buffy, she runs away down an alley. As the Scoobies are watching her go, you can see the demon called Razor get up behind them. In the next shot we see Razor open his eyes whilst lying the floor, then standing up, so he is seen getting up twice.
Seen at 83.12 minutes:
When Buffy and Dawn are on top of the unsteady tower, Buffy goes to save Dawn twice. We hear Dawn scream, see Buffy turn to look, and then Dawn falls over and screams again for Buffy. You can then see part of Buffy’s black dress as she goes running to the rescue in the left of the shot. We then see Buffy back where she was previously before she starts to run and save Dawn for a second time. It looks like the same rescue from different camera angles.
Quotes
Xander: "There's something you don't see every day. Unless you're us."
Buffy: "Is this Hell?"
Xander: "I happen to be a very powerful man-witch myself."