Just the meat

The following lines were cut from the episode Never Leave Me:

Camden Toy

Camden Toy played one of the Gentlemen in Hush, Gnarl in Same Time, Same Place and a Turok-Han in season seven. Camden also played a character called The Prince of Lies in the Angel episode ‘Why We Fight‘. Camden has also been in Irascible (which he also produced and edited), The Works, My Chorus, Deja Vu, The Devil May Care and Faith. His resume website lists his special skills as “Physical Comedy, Street Performance, Juggling, Coin Roll, Dialects, Cooking”. Camden enjoys meeting fans at various Buffy and Angel conventions around the world.

Cynthia Lamontagne

Cynthia Lamontagne, who played the Watcher Lydia in Checkpoint and Never Leave Me, played a Fembot in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, which also starred Seth Green. She has also appeared in The Drew Carey Show, That ’70s Show (as Rhonda), Crossing Jordan, Frasier, Dharma & Greg, Mad About You, ER, Ellen, Carlito’s Way, The Cable Guy, Flirting with Disaster and Would I Lie to You?

Donald Bishop

Donald Bishop, who played the Matrix-loving butcher in Never Leave Me, also played the Grandfather in the movie Bye, Bye, Love, which starred Buffy’s Amber Benson and Eliza Dushku as well as Lindsay Crouse (Professor Walsh). He has also been in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Seinfeld, Manimal, Remington Steele, Wonder Woman, Hawaii Five-O and Dallas.

Harris Yulin

Harris Yulin played Quentin Travers, the head of the Watcher’s Council in Helpless, Checkpoint and Never Leave Me. Harris is actually Californian, not English. He also played Roger Stanton in 24, and has been in The X Files, Frasier, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, How the West Was Won, Wonder Woman and Little House on the Prairie. Harris has also had parts in several movies, including Bean, Clear and Present Danger, Ghostbusters II, Multiplicity and Scarface.

Oliver Muirhead

Oliver Muirhead, who played the Watcher Phillip in Checkpoint and Never Leave Me, has also appeared in Friends (as the Jeweller in ‘The One With The Ring‘), Seinfeld (as Lubeck in ‘The Frogger’), Suddenly Susan, Unhappily Ever After, Step by Step, Smart Guy, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Married…with Children, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper and Jake and the Fatman. Oliver appeared as a British Colonel in the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me which also starred Seth Green.

Lydia

Lydia was a female Watcher who questioned Spike when the Council were testing Buffy in Checkpoint. She wrote her thesis on him. Lydia was blown up in Never Leave Me along with the Watcher’s Council Headquarters. Her name is not mentioned on-screen but it in the script.

Quentin Travers

Head of the Watcher’s Council in England. Quentin attempted to impose an age-old a secret test on Buffy where her Slayer powers were removed and she was left to fight an insane vampire without them. The test went wrong, as Giles eventually told Buffy why her powers had gone. Buffy fought the vampire and passed the test but Quentin fired Giles, saying his fatherly feelings towards Buffy made him an unsuitable Watcher. Annoyed that Buffy had quit the Watcher’s Council, he later brought a team of Watchers to Sunnydale to observe - and intimidate - the Slayer in Checkpoint. After worrying about the tests, Buffy eventually realised that Quentin was actually on a power trip and forced him to give her the information she needed on Glory, as well as give Giles his job back. The last we saw of Quentin, he was blown to smithereens along with the rest of the Council in a bomb blast, initiated by Caleb in Never Leave Me.

Alexandra again

When Buffy looks at the family photograph of her as a little girl in Normal Again, it is the same child (Alexandra Lee) who portrayed young Buffy in season five’s episode The Weight of the World. The photo can also be seen in Never Leave Me.

Andrew’s stronghold

Tom Lenk, who played Andrew, appeared in every episode in season seven after he was captured by Willow in Never Leave Me.

Bye, Quentin

The Watcher’s Council Headquarters in London, including the head, Quentin Travers, and many other staff members, is blown up in Never Leave Me.

I learned from my dog

Dawn doesn’t own a dog, yet despite this she still has an ‘Everything I Need To Know, I Learned From My Dog’ poster on the back of her door (seen in Never Leave Me).

Razors

In Never Leave Me, you can see that Dawn has a Sunnydale Razorbacks flag on her wall. They are the school sports teams, first seen in season one, and also in the episode Him.

Robin or Jonathon?

The metal sign on Principal Wood’s desk says ‘Jonathon M. Wood. Principal’, so Robin may be a pet name. The actor who played Holden in Conversations with Dead People is called Jonathon M. Woodward.

Soldier Boy

A large part of the episodes Innocence and Graduation Day (Part 2) rely on Xander’s recollection of the events of Halloween, when he became a soldier for a short time. In Innocence he says he still has all his memories of being a soldier, including “procedure, ordnance, access codes, everything.” Xander’s military knowledge was a great plot device help to Buffy writers when they needed lots of gun power easily. We discover in the episode The Harsh Light of Day that Xander has lost his power when he has a girly scrap with Harmony, though in The I in Team, he says “My pseudo-soldier memory bank tells me that’s a tracer.” In Goodbye, Iowa, Anya says, “It’s not like he was in the ‘Nam. He was G.I. Joe for one night.”
In Never Leave Me, Xander realises that Spike has a “trigger”, to which Willow replies, “Is this left over from your days in the Army?” He admits that knowledge comes from Army movies. In Potential, Dawn says to Xander, “Well, you had that sexy Army training for a while.”

Spike at the Prom?

In Never Leave Me, Spike doesn’t know who Andrew is, though seems to realise when Buffy says he’s “Tucker’s brother”. This is a bit confusing as Spike wasn’t around when we met Tucker in The Prom.

This one time…

In Never Leave Me, Andrew says of Anya, “This one time I saw her having sex with Spike.” He’s referring to the events of Entropy, when he saw the two making love via camera.

Tucker’s brother

Tom Lenk played two characters in Buffy - Cyrus in Real Me and Andrew Wells in seasons six and seven. A small piece of continuity for these two characters is that others find it hard to remember who they are. In Real Me, when Harmony is talking to her minions about “the plan”, she can’t remember Cyrus’s name, and asks him what it is.
In Flooded, Warren confuses Andrew with his brother Tucker (seen in The Prom):

Additionally, in Gone, Doublemeat Palace and Never Leave Me, Buffy, Xander and Spike all say they have no idea who Andrew is.

What Spike does best

In Get It Done, Kennedy asks if what Spike does best is get thrown through ceilings. Destroying the Summers house might actually be what he does best, since six episodes prior, in Never Leave Me, he rips Andrew through a wall in Dawn’s bedroom, leaving a massive hole. In the same episode, the Bringers go afer him and destroy the window that Xander just finished replacing and a couple of the other windows too.

First Evil

The first, original evil had no physical shape, but could take on the form of dead people, including those who had been dead, such as Buffy. It couldn’t touch anything so couldn’t be fought physically, but it’s power lay in the way it could take on a form and persuade people to do what it wanted. The First came to Sunnydale in Amends to persuade Angel to kill Buffy. He was so horrified that he tried to kill himself, but was saved by Buffy and a handy snowfall.
The First was able to enter this dimension due to a fault in the Slayer line, which Anya worked out in Showtime must have been when the Scoobies brought Buffy back to life in season six. It began to torment the Scoobies with visions of dead people, and Buffy realised in Never Leave Me what she was facing. The First’s plan was to build up an army of Turok-Han, who would kill humans and when the balance had shifted the First could then take on a physical form and rule the world. Buffy defeated the First’s army by giving all potential Slayers their power, and using an amulet given to her by Angel. This destroyed Sunnydale in the process, but not the First which can never be killed.

Seal of Danthalzar

The Seal of Danthazar is a circular metal object which covers a portal over the Hellmouth, located under Sunnydale High. It is activated by a ritual involving blood letting and a knife inscribed with Tuaric: “The blood which I spill, I consecrate to the oldest evil.” Andrew stabbed and killed Jonathan over the Seal in Conversations with Dead People, though his blood had no effect on it, because he was anaemic.
In Never Leave Me, Spike was tied to a wooden wheel, mystical symbols were cut into his chest, and his blood opened the Seal. When the Seal is opened, Turok-Han (ancient vampires) are able to enter the world.
Lyssa attempted to open the seal using Xander’s blood in First Date, but Buffy saved him. The Seal was closed using Andrew’s tears in Storyteller, but in Chosen, Buffy and the potential Slayers opened the wheel using their blood, and entered the Hellmouth below.

Babe

When Andrew is stealing himself to kill a piglet in Never Leave Me, he keeps thinking of Babe, the cute pig from the movie Babe and it’s sequel Pig in the City (”Babe 2: Pig in the City was really underrated”). He later says, “That’ll do, pig”, which the farmer in the movies said to Babe when he was pleased with him.

Conan

When he’s trying to get Andrew to kill the pig in Never Leave Me, Warren/The First says, “You’re Conan. You’re the destroyer. It’s you against nature.” This is a reference to the 1984 movie Conan the Destroyer, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movie was the sequel to Conan the Barbarian (1982).
In Deep Down, Gunn says of Connor, “His nickname back in Quor-toth was ‘The Destroyer,’ and unless you put ‘Conan’ in front of that I’m guessing it’s not a good sign.”

Ghost

In Never Leave Me, Andrew compares Warren/The First to Patrick Swayze. Swayze starred in the 1990 movie Ghost in which his non-corporeal ghost attempts to avenge his own murder. In Rm W/A View, Cordelia mentions the same movie when she says, “Old lady ghost. How come Patrick Swayze’s never dead when you need him?”
In Just Rewards, Harmony says to the now non-corporeal Spike, “Why should now be any diff’? Just ‘cause you’ve gone all Patrick Swayze?”

Invictus

In Never Leave Me, just before the council is blown up, Quentin Travers says “We are still masters of our fates, Still captains of our souls”. This is a reference to Invictus by W.E. Henley - the lines are “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” The whole poem is actually extremely relevant for the whole of season seven, especially the lines: ”Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years/ Finds and shall find me unafraid.”

Iron Fist

In Never Leave Me, Warren says to Andrew, “You can do this. You’re my Iron Fist.” Iron Fist is a Marvel Comics character.

Roy Rogers and Trigger

Xander realises Spike has a trigger in Never Leave Me, which Anya thinks is “the horse”. She’s referring to cowboy Roy Rogers’s horse Trigger, who was considered to be “the smartest horse in the movies”. After his death in 1965, Trigger was mounted and placed in the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in California.

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 Bible

The Bible is referenced a few times in the Buffyverse. In the episode Angel, the Master says, “out of the mouths of babes”, which is from Psalms 8:2. Absalom, the religious vampire in When She Was Bad, was named after a character in the Bible. Absalom was the third son of King David. He turned against his father and challenged him for the kingdom of Israel. The story is told in the second book of Samuel (2 Samuel 13:20 - 19:10).
The title of the episode Faith, Hope and Trick is from the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 13:13: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Love has been replaced by Trick.
In Hush, as Buffy and Willow are first walking through town after their voices have been stolen, they walk past a group of Christians reading from the bible. The verse they’re reading is Revelations 15:1: “Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and wonderful: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for in them the wrath of God is ended.”
In Never Leave Me, Quentin Travers quotes Proverbs 24:6: “Proverbs 24:6. O, by wise council, you shall make your war”.
In Dirty Girls, Caleb says to Faith, “Well you’re the other one. The Cain to her Abel. No offence to Cain, of course.” In the Bible, Cain and Abel were the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain murdered Abel out of jealousy.

The Matrix

Joss Whedon is a big fan of the movie The Matrix, and it’s been referenced in Buffy a few times. In Superstar, Jonathan claims to have starred in The Matrix. In Never Leave Me, the butcher calls Andrew “Neo” because of the long, black leather coat he’s wearing (Keanu Reeves’s character Neo wore a similar coat in The Matrix). The final fight between Buffy and Adam in Primeval was clearly inspired by the movie too.

Seen at 11.44 minutes:

When Willow drags Andrew out of the butcher shop he drops his bag of blood on the floor. When she is pulls him out of the alley to go to Buffy’s house she pulls him in the direction away from the butchers but when they arrive at Buffy’s Andrew has his bag of blood in his arms.

Seen at 11.58 minutes:

When Willow confronts Andrew, her hair at the back of her head moves in different shots, without her touching it.

Seen at 32.14 minutes:

In Never Leave Me, Principal Wood dumps Jonathan’s dead body in a shallow grave. When Wood starts shoveling dirt back in, Jonathan’s eyelids flutter.

Seen at 35.17 minutes:

We see the Watcher’s Council Headquarters twice in Never Leave Me, but the two shots show what seem to be completely different buildings.

Seen at 38.37 minutes:

At the end when the First is bleeding Spike to open the Seal, there is a lot of blood dripping from the wounds in his chest. We can see this in all the shots looking up at Spike, but in the shots where we are looking down on the seal, we can see no blood dripping where it was earlier, Also, the Turok-Han comes out of the seal, so, if Spike is still dripping blood, the blood should be dripping onto the Turok-Han’s head.