Here for sex

The following line was in the original script for the episode Sleeper:

London, England

Here is a stage direction from the script for Sleeper:

Alan Levi

Alan Levi, who directed the episode Sleeper, has had a varied career. He was a director on The Fugitive TV series, JAG, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, ER, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Columbo, Quantum Leap, Miami Vice, Fame and The Invisible Man.

Kevin Daniels

Kevin Daniels, who played the bouncer who Buffy speaks to in Sleeper, has also been in Frasier, JAG, Law & Order and the movie Kate & Leopold.

Rob Nagle

Rob Nagle, who played the Watcher in London in Sleeper, appeared in American Pie: The Wedding, which starred Alyson Hannigan. He played the ‘Floral Assistant’.

And on to…

The episode Sleeper starts exactly where Conversations with Dead People finished. Everyone is in the same clothes, and we find out the reason why Xander wasn’t in the last episode (he says he sometimes sleeps at night). Meanwhile, Spike buries the woman he killed at the end of that episode.

Comforting

In the season four episode Where the Wild Things Are, Spike and Anya talked about getting revenge on Drusilla and Xander. They also bonded over the loss of their respective powers. They abandoned the ‘revenge’ idea and instead Anya took Spike to a party. Spike “comforted” Anya again in Entropy after her break-up with Xander. They mention the event again in Sleeper and Get It Done.

Doubles

There have been a number of episodes with two of the same character in one shot. Willow met her vampire self in Doppelgängland, Xander had a double in The Replacement, we see two Spikes in Sleeper and the First takes on Buffy’s form in numerous episodes, including Chosen.

Give it away

In Showtime, Anya says, “You’re rejecting my offer of sexual bribery? What am I, a leper in this town? I can’t even give it away.” Even though she is talking to Torg, the trash-taking-out demon, she is also referencing Sleeper. In that episode, when she was trying not make Spike suspicious of her snoopng through his room, she said that she was there to have sex with him but he refused her.

Unsuspicious Spike

It seems strange that Spike doesn’t comment on why Anya is in Xander’s apartment on her own in Sleeper. After he ‘turns her down’ in the bedroom, she goes into the living room and seemingly spends the rest of the day in there. Why didn’t Spike ask why she was still there?

Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann performs two songs from her 2002 album ‘Lost in Space’ in the Bronze in the episode Sleeper: ‘This Is How It Goes’, and ‘Pavlov’s Bell’ (as Spike and the female vampire fight). Aimee also has a line in the show, “Man, I hate playing vampire towns”. No other musical guest has spoken on the show before.

Early One Morning

Early One Morning is the song which the First uses to trigger evil Spike in season seven. It is an old folk song famously sung by Sarah Brightman, who released it on her album ‘The Trees They Grow So High’ (Released in 1988, 1995 and 1998). The song was also used as the theme song to a Canadian kid’s TV show called The Friendly Giant that ran from 1958-1985. The original lyrics of Early One Morning are:

Early one morning,
Just as the sun was rising,
I heard a maid sing,
In the valley below.

O, don’t deceive me,
O, never leave me,
How could you use
A poor maiden so?

(Chorus)

Remember the vows,
That you made to your Mary,
Remember the bower,
Where you vowed to be true,

(Chorus)

Thus sang the poor maiden,
Her sorrows bewailing,
Thus sang the poor maid,
In the valley below.

(Chorus)

Billy Idol

In Sleeper, Buffy asks a bouncer at a club if he’s seen Spike. The Bouncer says, “Yeah I know the guy, Billy Idol wannabe.” Billy Idol was a punk with distinctive bleached blonde hair in the 1980s. Buffy mutters something about Billy actually stealing his look from Spike.

CSI

In Sleeper, Xander says, “OK, let’s look at this objectively. Figure it out in a cold, impersonal, CSI-like manner ‘cause we’re a couple of carpet fibres away from a case.” He’s referring to the CBS TV show CSI or Crime Scene Investigation, which is based on forensic investigation.

Seen at 09.42 minutes:

In the episode Sleeper, when Xander is asking Anya to look over Spike in his apartment, Anya’s arms are by her side. Then, in a shot from her front, they’re on her hips. They then change back in a different shot without her moving them.

Seen at 10.30 minutes:

When Willow says to Buffy, “But Dawn actually saw your mother”, Buffy suddenly moves from standing to leaning on a wall.

Seen at 34.00 minutes:

Why did all the new vampires rise at the exact same time? They were sired over a period of several days.

Seen at 35.41 minutes:

As Buffy is fighting the newly-risen vampires in the basement, she stakes the vamp in the blue shirt on the wrong side of his chest.