Kristine’s final bow

Kristine Sutherland is credited as a special guest star in the episode Bring on the Night, in which Buffy dreams that she sees her mother. This is her final appearance in the series.

No cuddling

A stage direction in the script for Bring on the Night was:

Touchy Feely

Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) is well known for using props whilst acting (such as cleaning his glasses or eating an apple) so it must have been hard for him not to be able to touch anything when he arrived back in Sunnydale in season seven (he couldn’t touch anything to make us think he may be the First). In an interview with the BBC, he said:

Clara Bryant

Clara Bryant played the potential Slayer Molly. She played Annie, the daughter of Billy Connolly, in the ABC series Billy. She has guest-starred on shows such as Roseanne, Fastlane and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She has also starred in various other TV shows, and acted on stage. Clara has been nominated three times by the Youth in Film/Young Artist Awards.

Courtnee Draper

Courtnee played the English potential Slayer Annabelle in Bring on the Night. She played Erica in The Bold and the Beautiful and has also been in Home Improvement. She appeared in an episode of Tru Calling (which stars Eliza Dushku). Courtnee has a half-sister named Willow.

Iyari Limon

Iyari Limon, who played the potential Slayer Kennedy, was born in 1978 in Guadalajara, Mexico, but soon moved to South California. She speaks both English and Spanish. Iyari played Cindy for three episodes of Undressed. She is also sometimes credited as Lyrri Perez-Limon or Yari Limon. Iyari appeared in twelve episodes of Buffy in season seven.

Annabelle

Annabelle was an English potential Slayer who arrived in Sunnydale with Molly and Kennedy and Giles in Bring on the Night. She was a vegetarian and (according to Kennedy) a snorer. Annabelle was seemingly ‘together’ but she panicked and ran away from the Summer’s home. This led to her being killed by a Turok-Han.

Kennedy

Kennedy was a forthright and spoilt potential Slayer who fell for Willow. She arrived in Sunnydale with Giles in Bring on the Night. Kennedy helped Willow when Amy’s spell turned her into Warren in The Killer in Me and the two became a couple. She became a Slayer along with the rest of the potentials and survived the massive fight against the Turok-Han army in Chosen.

Molly

Molly was the potential Slayer who seems to have attended the Dick Van Dyke School for Extraordinarily Bad English Accents. She arrived in Sunnydale with Giles in Bring on the Night, and kindly told Buffy her house was a “bit of a mess”. Molly was killed by Caleb in Dirty Girls.

Anya’s glasses

Anya wears reading glasses for the first time in the episode Bring on the Night.

Evil search

The search engine Buffy uses to find out more about the First Evil in Bring on the Night is called ‘people.places.things’. Willow uses the same search engine in Chosen. Buffy searches for the word “evil” and gets 900,517 results. The search results on her screen include:

It’s a loop

In All the Way, Buffy says, “Don’t blame me if we keep having this conversation over and over…” she’s referring to Life Serial in which she was placed in a time flux by the nerds. In Bring on the Night, Xander says, “It’s a loop… like the Mummy hand.”

Put off magic

In Bring on the Night, Willow tries to find the First with a locator spell. It backfires and the evil possesses her briefly, exploding out of her and terrifying everyone in the process. When it’s gone, Willow is devastated, realising that any time she uses her power; she is liable to hurt someone. This relates back to Conversations with Dead People when the First told her she’d kill everyone with her magic.

Under the trees

In Bring on the Night, Giles and Buffy visit the Christmas tree lot where Buffy first encountered the Bringers and the First Evil in Amends.

First exposition

Giles arrives back in Sunnydale with three potential Slayers in Bring on the Night. He explains the current situation to the Scoobies: the Watcher’s Council has been destroyed, and most of the potential Slayers have been killed over the past few months (we’ve seen these in various episodes during season seven). The First’s plan is to kill off all the future Slayers and their Watchers, then annihilate the current ones, leaving nothing to fight the coming evil. The only plus is that Giles was able to save a few Council records by stealing them prior to the explosion.

Need a bigger stake

In Bring on the Night, Buffy stakes the Turok-Han but it doesn’t dust, though we learn in Empty Places and Chosen that the Turok-Han can be staked. In Faith, Hope and Trick, Buffy staked Kakistos, which was also ineffective. It took Faith with a massive beam to finally dust Kakistos.

The Watcher’s Codex

In Bring on the Night, the Scoobies research the First Evil in The Watcher’s Codex.

Batman

The comic Batman, by DC Comics, is mentioned several times in Buffy.

• In Some Assembly Required, Buffy says to Willow, “Sorry to interrupt, Willow, but it’s the Bat-Signal.” She’s alluding to the ‘Bat-Signal’ in Gotham city which is used to alert Batman that he is needed.
• In Halloween, Xander says to Cordelia, “Catwoman, you’re with me.” In the Batman comics, Catwoman is a cat-burglar, and the alter ego of Selina Kyle.
• In The Yoko Factor, Xander says, “You and Willow go do the superpower thing, I’ll stay behind and putt around the Batcave with crusty old Alfred here.” The Batcave was Batman’s high-tech base and Alfred was his loyal butler.
• The nerds’ freeze ray gun in Smashed may have been inspired by Batman’s Mr Freeze, who used a similar device.
• In Beneath You, Spike says, “A little touchy-feely, and you’re off to the Batpoles?” He’s referring to the 1960s TV show Batman in which Batman and Robin would slide down poles to the Batcave when they were needed.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew mentions Batman’s foe The Riddler.
• Vincent Schiavelli, who played Jenny’s uncle in Surprise and Innocence played the Organ Grinder in the movie Batman Returns.
• In the Angel episode Lonely Hearts, Doyle says, “It’s not like you have a signal folks can shine in the sky whenever they need help, you know?”, referring to the Batsignal.
• In ‘In the Dark‘, Spike says of Angel, “quickly to the Angelmobile, away” - another Batman reference.
• In Benediction, Lilah says of Connor,”Who’s the boy wonder?” This is the name often given to Batman’s sidekick, Robin.

Fantastic Four

The Marvel comic Fantastic Four is referenced a few times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. In The Witch, Xander says about Amber’s burning hands, “Like the Human Torch, only it hurts.” This is a reference to Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, a character in the Fantastic Four. In the Angel episode ‘In the Dark‘, Cordelia says “It’s daylight, you’re ringless, and unless you changing the act to Human Torch, I don’t think so”.
In Lessons, Willow’s Wicca teacher is named Miss Harkness. There was a witch named Miss Harkness in the Fantastic Four. In Bring on the Night, Andrew mentions the supervillain Dr. Doom from the comic.

Harry Potter

The popular book series Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is referenced a few times in Buffy. In Real Me, Dawn says, “I’m not going to Hogwarts”. This is a reference to Hogwarts is the school for wizards that Harry attends.
In Lessons, Willow wonders why Giles went “all Dumbledore on me”, referring to the Head Master at Hogwarts school. In Bring on the Night, Andrew says, “An evil name should be something like Lex or Voldemort.” He’s referring to Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor and Voldmort, who appears in the Harry Potter books.
In Potential, Andrew plays with the snakeskin for the spell, and says “at your ssservice, Missss Rosenberg, sssir”. This is also a reference to Harry Potter - Harry can speak to snakes, and does so in film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is when the snake says “at your ssservice, Mister Potter, sssir”.
In Empty Places, while Anya is giving her talk about the Turok-Han in the basement, Kennedy goes up to the kitchen where Faith asks, “Shouldn’t you be at Hogwarts?”
In Belonging, Lorne says “This reading room - to die for. Raked stage, rocking chair, fabulous colours. I’m tempted to just show up tomorrow morning with Harry Potter”.

Redbull and Jackass

In Bring on the Night, Dawn tells a suspicious Principal Wood that the reason she and Buffy are in the basement with a shovel is because they were burying a time capsule as a science project. Dawn says their capsule will contain the message: “Hello people of the future, kids today like Redbull and..er..Jackass!” She’s referring to the energy drink Red Bull and MTV show Jackass.

Signs

In Bring on the Night, Xander suggests they lock the Turok-Han in the pantry, and later says, “Are you saying M. Night Shamalayan lied to us?” He’s referring to the 2002 movie Signs, directed by M. Night Shamalayan. In that movie, an alien is locked in a pantry.

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a popular Marvel comic starring Peter Parker, who leads a double life as superhero Spider-Man. Made into two successful movies starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. There are many similarities between Peter and Buffy, as she too is trying to lead a normal life, and (occasionally) make a living, whilst saving the world. Spider-Man has been mentioned in numerous Buffy and Angel episodes, including:

• Angel - The Master says, “With power comes responsibility”, which is the motto of the Spider-Man comics and movie.
• I Robot, You Jane - Buffy says, “My spider-sense is tingling”.
• A New Man - Riley says to Buffy, “You’re strong. Like Spider-Man strong”.
• No Place Like Home - Ben suggests Buffy’s strength comes from a “Radioactive spider bite”.
• Flooded - Anya and Dawn argue over if Spider-Man charges for helping people - Xander reminds them that “Action is his reward”.
• Two To Go - Andrew says, “Lex Luthor had a false epidermis escape kit in Superman Versus the Amazing Spider-Man Treasury edition”
• Selfless - Xander says, “This isn’t springy high-flying fun!”
• Bring on the Night - Andrew says “My spider-sense is tingling”.
• Inside Out - Cordy says “That’s it? I get away with bringing the world down around you and two eensy words tingle your spider sense?”
• Additionally, Buffy stuntman Erik Betts was director Sam Raimi’s choice for doubling actor Tobey Maquire for the movie Spider-Man, but was told by the costume designer that his shoulders were too large. Nicholas Brendon auditioned for the role of Spider-Man in the movie.

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.”

Sting

The episode Bring on the Night gets it’s title from a 1985 documentary (a ‘rockumentary’, if you will) starring Sting.

Superman

Comicbook hero Superman has been epitomised in many comics (by DC Comics), movies (starring the late Christopher Reeve), TV shows (eg. Lois and Clarke, Smallville), cartoons (eg. The Adventures of Superman) and even a musical. He and the world he lives in have been referenced many times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel:

• In Never Kill a Boy on the First Date, Buffy says, “even Clark Kent has a job”, alluding to Superman’s alter-ego.
• In Reptile Boy, Xander’s chances of ever belonging to a fraternity of rich and powerful men are rubbished by Cordy as likely only “in the Bizarro world.” The Bizarro world is a weird, back-to-front version of the real world in Superman.
• In the episode Ted, Cordelia says of Buffy, “But she’s like this Superman.”
• In The Wish, Cordelia says to vamps Willow and Xander, “No. No! No way! I wish us into Bizarro Land, and you guys are still together?! I cannot win!”
• In Helpless, Oz and Xander discuss which colour Kryptonite hurts Superman. Writer David Fury said in his DVD commentary for the episode that he wasn’t sure which Kryptonite was which so wrote this scene as such.
• In The Zeppo, there area few references to Superman: Xander’s line, “But, gee, Mr White, if Clark and Lois get all the good stories I’ll never be a good reporter”, which he acknowledges as a “Jimmy Olsen joke”. He also name-checks the Daily Planet’s editor Perry White, Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent, and his colleague Lois Lane. Cordelia’s jibe “You must feel like Jimmy Olsen” is another reference to the Daily Planet’s youngest photographer.
• In Doomed, Forrest says to Riley, “Granted they’re a little rarer than the one’s you grew up with on that little farm in Smallville.” Smallville, Kansas, was the small town where Clark Kent (Superman) grew up.
• In Superstar, Xander mentions Kryptonite again.
• In Real Me, Xander says, “She can turn this place into the fortress of solitude again”. Superman built the Fortress of Solitude in the North Pole as a place where he could relax and keep his souvenirs.
• In Gone, Andrew mentions Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor. Buffy also mentions Bizarro World again.
• In Two To Go, Andrew says, “Lex Luthor had a false epidermis escape kit in Superman Versus the Amazing Spider-Man Treasury edition”.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew says, “An evil name should be something like Lex” He’s referring to Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor.
• In the Angel episode Blind Date, Wesley says, “The human eye is only capable of registering a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. But if Brewer were somehow equipped to see outside that range…” to which Cordelia replies, “She’d be Superman.”
• In You’re Welcome, Cordelia ends her seeming obsession with the Bizarro world when she says, “What Bizarro-world did I wake up in?”

The Blair Witch Project

Buffy name checks the scary movie The Blair Witch Project when she’s talking to Principal Wood in Bring on the Night.

The Exorcist

The 1973 movie The Exorcist starred Linda Blair as a child named Regan who becomes possessed by a demon. The film was adapted from the horror novel by William Peter Blatty, and banned in the UK for more than fifteen years. It is referenced a few times in Buffy and Angel:

• In Teacher’s Pet, Buffy says that Miss French’s head did a “full-on Exorcist twist”, referring to a famous scene in the movie.
• In I Only Have Eyes For You, When Willow suggests an exorcism, Cordelia replies “Are you crazy? I saw that movie: even the priests died!”
• In Lover’s Walk, Buffy says of her mother, “her head spun round and exploded” (to which Giles replies, “I’ve been on the Hellmouth too long. That was metaphorical, yes?”).
• In Living Conditions, Xander says, “Are you saying that Buffy’s been doing a Linda Blair on us because Kathy’s been sucking her soul?” At the beginning of her possession in The Exorcist, Regan showed dramatic changes in her behaviour, just as Buffy did in Living Conditions.
• Buffy name-checks The Excorcist in Bring on the Night.
• In the Angel episode I’ve Got You Under My Skin, Cordelia says, “I’m wondering if I should put plastic down. Angel, are you expecting any big vomiting here? Because I saw the movie.” Large parts of this episode are a nod to The Exorcist - in the book and movie, a Catholic priest dies in much the same way as Angel’s Father Fredricks.

Wonder Woman

In Bring on the Night, Xander and Andrew compare the school basement to issues 297-299 of the Wonder Woman comic ‘Catacombs’. Joss Whedon has been chosen to direct the 2006 movie version of Wonder Woman.
Cordelia’s birthday cake in the episode Birthday is decorated with an image of Wonder Woman. Charisma Carpenter, who plays Cordelia, has openly said she would like to star in Joss Whedon’s movie version of Wonder Woman.
In The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco, Lorne says to Fred, “Oh, you’re all woman. You’re everywoman. You’re Wonder Woman!”

X-Men

Buffy creator Joss Whedon is a huge comics fan, particularly the Marvel comic X-Men. His dream came true when, post-Buffy, Joss wrote the Astonishing X-Men comics. The comic has been referenced numerous times in Buffy:

• In No Place Like Home, Riley says, “Giles, you got that Danger Room set up out back?” The Danger Room was a training room in the X-Men.
• In Tough Love, Xander reads an X-Men comic while in the Magic Box.
• In Two to Go, Jonathan says Willow is like the “Dark Phoenix” who was a character in the X-Men comics.
• In Him, Xander calls Spike a “nimrod”. Xander himself was called this by a soldier in Innocence, and Spike called Warren a nimrod in Smashed. Nimrod was a figure in ancient Babylon, and was also an X-Men character.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew mentions Apocalypse, who was also an X-Men character (”Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Andrew, bad guy. You think I’m a super-villain like Dr. Doom or Apocalypse or The Riddler.”)
• Gwen Raiden in Angel’s season four appears to have been inspired by Rogue from the X Men - the two had great powers which could harm other humans by touch, and had to wear gloves to protect others.
• Joss Whedon has said that the X-Men character Kitty Pryde (AKA Shadowcat) was a large influence for the character of Buffy.

Seen at 07.23 minutes:

When the Scoobies first see the Seal, Dawn’s hair suddenly goes from being straight to curly when she says, “There’s blood on this… lots.”

Seen at 17.46 minutes:

Buffy mentions in Bring On the Night that it is December. If this is true, the time frame between Conversations with Dead People (which was set on November 12th) and this episode would be at least 18 days. We know, though, that hardly any time has passed since Conversations with Dead People, so this is a goof.

Seen at 29.57 minutes:

Xander spends ages making the house safe by boarding up the window in the living room - but the other windows and doors in the house clearly haven’t been boarded up.

Seen at 34.00 minutes:

Annabelle’s dead body moves positions in different shots after Buffy fights the Turok-Han.