Anya’s helpful advice

The following scene was deleted from the episode Help:

Cassie’s website

Cassie Newton was a character in the season seven episode Help. The Buffy production team created a Geocities website in the guise of Cassie. The episode’s writer, Rebecca Rand Kirshner, composed the poetry and created the art that appeared on the site, based on her own teenage journals. Buffy fans flooded the website’s guestbook several times after the episode was shown. Christopher Buchanan (president of Mutant Enemy) said of the site:

The whois information for the website was:

The zip code 94086 is, in reality, the zip code for Sunnyvale, California. Notice also that Cassie’s phone number begins with the demonic 666!
The website is no longer available but many thanks to vickyclare who pointed out that some of the page can still be accessed via the wonderful Wayback Machine website. You can read some of the poems and see the guestbook, though a lot of images are missing from the site.

Azura Skye

Azura played the enigmatic Cassie Newton in season seven’s Help and Conversations with Dead People. She is named after the gemstone Azurite. Azura means Blue, so her name can be read as “Blue Skye”. She was nominated for ‘Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Comedy TV Series’ for her role as Jane in Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane (1999) at the Young Star Awards. Azura has also been in 28 Days, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister , CSI: Miami, Judging Amy, Smallville, Chicago Hope, Touched by an Angel and John Doe. She was “Interview Teenager” in the movie EdTV.

Glenn Morshower

Glenn Morshower, who played Cassie’s father in Help, has also been in Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Godzilla, Air Force One, JAG, Star Trek: Generations, The River Wild, Under Siege, Tango & Cash, Enterprise, Alias, CSI, Millennium, The West Wing and Dead & Buried. He played Agent Pierce in 24 alongside D.B. Woodside (Principal Wood).

Jarrett Lennon

Jarrett Lennon, who played Martin in Help, has also been in Solitaire, Not Another Teen Movie, She’s All That and City Guys. He was the voice of Eugene in Hey Arnold!, and played Billy Logan in ER. Jarrett appeared in a couple of episodes of Freaks and Geeks, which starred Sarah Hagan, who played Amanda in season seven.

Kevin Christy

Kevin Christy, who played Josh in Help, has appeared in Love Don’t Cost a Thing, Neverland and Dude, Where’s My Car?

Rick Gonzalez

Rick Gonzalez, who played the tough kid in Help, has also been in Old School, Biker Boyz, The Rookie, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Mambo Café and Boston Public (as Juan Figgis).

Sarah Hagan

Sarah Hagan played the potential Slayer Amanda in season seven. Sarah has also been in Boston Public (in which Indigo, who played Rona, guest-starred in a few episodes), Orange County, Freaks and Geeks (as Millie Kentner) and Ally McBeal. Her sister Katie is also an actress, and has appeared in Deep Impact. Sarah is currently (August 2005) filming Odd Girl Out with Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn).

Troy Brenna

Troy Brenna, who played the Nezzla demon in Seeing Red, was a regular Buffy and Angel stuntman. He played the Avilas demon in Help and the “Plated Demon” in the Angel episode ‘Ground State‘. Troy has also done stunts for Hulk, Cradle 2 the Grave, The Scorpion King and X-Men.

Zachery Ty Bryan

Zachery Ty Bryan played Peter in Help. Most recognisable as Brad Taylor in Tim Allen’s TV show Home Improvement. Zachery has been in many TV shows, including Smallville, Boston Public, ER, Touched by an Angel, Family Law, Opposite Sex, Chicken Soup For The Soul, Teen Angel, Picket Fences, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air and Outer Limits. Zachery was the youth spokesman for World Cup ‘94 Soccer.

Amanda

Amanda was a tall, thin, dark haired school mate of Dawn’s who first appeared in Help when she asked Buffy’s advice as a school counsellor. Amanda was revealed to be a potential Slayer (discovered in the episode Potential), and she joined the other Slayers-in-training. She was killed in the final fight between the First’s Army and the Slayers in Chosen.

Cassie Newton

Cassie Newton was a Sunnydale High student who predicted her own death in Help. Despite Buffy’s attempts to save her, she died of a heart abnormality. The First Evil later assumed her shape to visit Willow in Conversations with Dead People. The production team at Buffy created a website in the guise of Cassie.

Peter

Peter was a student at the new Sunnydale High school who, along with a group of other students, attempted to worship the demon Avilas to gain infinite wealth in the episode Help. The boy’s plan was scuppered by Buffy and Spike, who helped to rescue Cassie Newton, who was to be a sacrifice for the demon.

Beverley Robin

Principal Robin Wood reveals to Buffy in Help that he grew up in Beverly Hills. He also lived in New York, which is discovered later in season seven.

Buffy’s working week

Principal Wood originally said in Lessons that Buffy would work two or three days per week. In Help we see that she has she worked at least four days in a week, but she had a tough case so I guess that fits in. Buffy’s office hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

Buffy is called ‘Buffy, the Vampire Slayer’ twice in the show. In Anne, she introduces herself to the demon as “I’m Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, and you are?” In Help, she goes to Cassie’s father’s house and says to Xander, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer would break down this door.”

Cassie’s foreshadowing

In Help, Cassie Newton is gifted with a second sight. She foresees several future events in that episode. She tells Buffy, “I know that you’ll go someplace dark underground”. She’s referring to Bring on the Night (where Buffy falls underground and first meets the Turok-Han) and Chosen (where Buffy goes into the Hellmouth).
Cassie says to Spike, “She’ll tell you… one day, she’ll tell you”. She’s referring to the episode Chosen in which Buffy tells Spike she loves him.
Buffy says, “See? You can make a difference” to which Cassie replies, “And you will.” This is probably a reference to Chosen in which Buffy changes Slayer lore forever.
Cassie says to Dawn, “Listen, Dawn, whatever happens now, it’s not your fault, OK?”, which could be a reference to Empty Places in which Dawn tells Buffy to leave.

Tara’s grave

On Tara’s headstone, seen in the episode Help, her date of death is shown as May 7, 2002, the date that Seeing Red aired. Her birthdate is shown as October 16, 1980. This puts her birthday about three weeks before Family, the season five episode showing Tara’s 20th birthday aired. Help aired in the week of Tara’s birthday so it’s suggested that Willow visited the grave in memory of Tara’s 22nd birthday. Willow places stones on Tara’s grave. This is a common Jewish practice: the stones are a way of honouring the deceased and of showing that the grave has been visited.

Willow’s jacket

In Help, Xander takes Willow to the cemetary to see Tara’s grave. While they’re there, Willow is wearing the same dark denim jacket she wore in Villians, Two To Go and Grave, after Tara died and she went evil.

Adventures of Pete & Pete

In Help, Cassie references the kids TV show The Adventures of Pete & Pete when she says, “Or a sexy hula girl who wiggles when you flex?”. Michelle Trachtenberg was a regular character on The Adventures of Pete & Pete, called Nona Mecklenbergon.

Blue Oyster Cult

In Help, Buffy says, “Blue Clam Cult”, but she means Blue Oyster Cult, who were a rock band with hit songs such as “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

Cassandra

The name Cassie (in Help) could be short for Cassandra, who was a figure in Greek myth. She was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, who wished to seduce her. She accepted his gift but refused his sexual advances, so he cursed her so that no one would believe her (accurate) prophecies. She foresaw her murder but could do nothing to prevent it.

Devil Doll

The Devil Doll song ‘Faith in Love’ played in the episode The Harsh Light of Day as Harmony tempted Spike into bed. Oz looks at a campus board which advertises the band in the episode New Moon Rising. In Help, we see that the locker to the left of Dawn’s has a Devil Doll sticker on the door.

Doogie Howser

In Help, Willow admits to having written love poems about Xander and posted Doogie Howser fanfic on the internet when she was younger. Doogie Howser was a TV show starring Neil Patrick Harris about a teenage genius who is a doctor.

Google

Willow uses the internet search engine Google to find out more about Cassie Newton in Help (Willow: “Have you googled her yet?”, Xander: “Willow… she’s 17″). We see in that episode that the Sunnydale Police Department keeps personal criminal record files online, which seems to be available to anyone with access to Google. In First Date, Willow checks out Principal Wood on the search engine and says, “I’ve Googled ’til I just can’t Google no more. He’s not in there.”

I like Ike

“I like Ike” (referenced by Xander in Help) was the slogan for Eisenhower’s presidential campaign in September 1952.

Milk

“Milk, it does a body good”, referenced by Xander in Help, was the slogan of America’s National Dairy Board in the 1980s.

Minority Report

In Help, Willow asks, “Do you really think she’s some kind of pre-cog?”. This could be a reference to the 2002 movie Minority Report starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie features three “pre-cogs” who help the police force by telepathically predicting murders before they happen.

NYPD Blue

In Help, Dawn says, “Guys, I’m telling you, I’m liking Mike Helgenberg for the perp. Let’s collar him before he lawyers up.” This is a reference to the cop drama NYPD Blue in which expressions like “collar him” and “lawyer up” are commonplace. Dawn is clearly a fan of the show.

Slaughterhouse Five

Cassie is seen reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five in Help. This is Vonnegut’s best-known work and could be (very simply) described as an ‘anti-war’ novel. It deals with a young American POW (Billy Pilgrim, loosely based on Vonnegut himself) who survives the appalling WW2 fire-bombing of Dresden by the allies. The character of Billy subsequently finds himself “lost in time”, flitting between 1960s America, 1940s Germany, and the planet Tralfamadore.

Seen at 14.04 minutes:

When Buffy talks to the Principal after meeting Cassie, her neckline or necklace changes length and then changes back while she’s talking about getting a “heads up” when someone dies. The shirt also suddenly looks loose and baggy before quickly being tight again.

Seen at 38.00 minutes:

The booby trap was designed so that if someone opened the left hand door, an arrow would shoot at the right hand door, which seems pretty stupid.

Seen at 38.22 minutes:

When Cassie falls down after her heart stops, her head is upright, looking up at the ceiling. In the next shot her head is towards Buffy and then up again towards the ceiling.