Guinness Book people

A line of Kennedy’s, referring to the large number of people in the kitchen, was deleted from the episode Potential:

Missing episode

When the season seven video box set was released in the UK, the episode Showtime was missing. In its place was the next episode Potential. Showtime was added as an extra episode on the second season seven box set that was released on 8th September 2003.

Principal Flutie sighting?

In the episode Potential, just as Amanda enters Buffy’s cubicle at the high school, look in the background, and you’ll see a man in a jacket and tie standing at a table talking to someone. It looks very much like Ken Lerner who portrayed Principal Flutie in season one of Buffy.

Derek Anthony

Derek Anthony, who played the ‘Imposing Demon’ in the episode Potential, has also been in two episodes of Angel: as a hotel security guard in ‘Dear Boy‘ and “Dying Black Man” in ‘Blind Date‘. He’s also been in Frasier, The Drew Carey Show and The Practice.

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).

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.

Clem

Clem was a friendly, baggy-skinned demon who loved kitten poker, TV, movies and tasting food. He was first seen in Life Serial, at a poker game with Spike. Buffy entrusted him to look after Dawn when Willow went evil. In season seven’s Potential, Buffy took the potential Slayers to a demon bar where she got Clem to scare them.

Hard to kill pigs

In Potential, Andrew says that it’s hard to kill a pig, a reference to Never Leave Me, when he tried to open the Seal by stabbing a pig over it.

Kennedy’s view

Kennedy confirms (sort of) that she is gay in the episode Potential. Rona says, “I’ve gotta go with the stake. It’s a classic. I love the feel of wood in my hands” to which Kennedy replies, “You lost me.”

Microwave

In Potential, Andrew asks if they’re going to get the microwave fixed, a reference to Conversations with Dead People when Dawn smashed the microwave after it went all evil. In First Date, we see Andrew setting up the new microwave and reading the instruction manual: “‘Getting the most out of your new microwave.’ Oh, nice. ‘Clock, comma, setting the’ … page 3.”

Never got that

Willow says in Potential that Dawn is made from Buffy’s blood, to which Anya replies, “Yeah, I never got that”. The Summer’s blood connection was previously mentioned in Blood Ties and The Gift. This is also an in-joke to the fact that this mythology was quite confusing and a bit too convenient.

No Giles

Giles is not in the episode Potential as he is in Shanghai picking up Chao-Ahn, a new potential Slayer. Also missing is the potential Slayer Chloe, though no explanation is given for this.

Not happy for me

In Potential, Dawn reminds the Scoobies that she saw her mother in Conversations with Dead People, and reveals that she’s privately still concerned about what her mother said to her:

Out the window

In Potential, Dawn climbs out of her bedroom window, which we last saw her do in Blood Ties. That was Buffy’s way of escape too, in numerous episodes.

Powerless test

In Potential, Buffy traps the power-less potential Slayers in a crypt with a vampire, despite the fact that she strongly disapproved when the Watcher’s Council performed a similar test on her in Helpless.

Seeing. Knowing.

After Xander accurately realises how she’s feeling in Potential, Dawn says to him, “Maybe that’s your power… Seeing. Knowing.” Coincidentally, Xander is blinded in one eye by Caleb in Dirty Girls. Nice one, Dawn.
Shortly before thumbing his eye out, Caleb refers to Xander as “the one who sees things”. Before the fight, Xander says , “Everything’s got eyes” when he talks to the potentials.

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.”

Tiny Oz

In Potential, Xander name-check’s Willow’s old boyfriend Oz to Dawn, “Hell, I could fit Oz in my shaving kit but come a full moon he had a wolfy mojo not to be messed with.”

Willow’s coven

In Potential, Willow gets a phone call from Althanea in the English coven, who helped her after she went evil in season six. The coven has been mentioned previously in Grave, Lessons, Beneath You and Showtime.

Special locator spell

We see in Potential that Willow is able to perform a spell which pinpoints any potential Slayers in the vicinity. The ingredients include snake skin, boiled eggs, chrysalis and tumbleweed. It emits a bright light (and a strong smell of egg) which rushes towards any potential in the area.

Chaka Khan

In Potential, Buffy mistakenly calls the Turok-Han “Chaka Khan”, referring to the singer who has had hit songs such as ‘Sweet Thing’, ‘Tell Me Something Good’, ‘Once You Get Started’, ‘Everlasting Love’, and ‘Ain’t Nobody’.

Dragonball Z

In Potential, Andrew says, “But I’m reformed! I’m like Vegeta on Dragonball Z. I used to be a pure Saiyan and now I fight on the side of Goku” and later, “Do you want to play Dragonball Z?” He’s referring to the Japanese anime TV series.

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”.

Orville Redenbacher

Andrew mentions Orville Redenbacher pop corn in Potential (”Are we going to replace the microwave? ‘Cause I was thinking some Orville Redenbacher with some fresh butter flavour.”)

Snausages

In The Prom, Xander refers to the dog treat “snausages”. Buffy mentions them again in Potential when she says to Andrew, “You’re like a small dog dancing for Snausages.”

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.”

TiVO

In Potential, Clem says to Buffy, “something went all flooey with my TiVo.” TiVO is a digital video recorder, which can record up to 140 hours of television on a hard disk. It also enables the user to control live TV - with pause, rewind, slow-motion and instant replay functions.

Seen at 10.36 minutes:

Buffy arrives home in full daylight and Willow says, “Buffy, we just got news”. They go into the dining room where Willow explains about the new potential - but it’s suddenly night time in there.

Seen at 16.49 minutes:

Both Dawn and Buffy say that Buffy would have to die to activate the next Slayer, but we know that the Slayer line has now been passed to Faith, so Buffy’s death wouldn’t create a new Slayer.

Seen at 38.33 minutes:

At the end of the episode Potential, Dawn is studying a book whilst talking to Xander. The book has a picture in the middle of the page - the scene then cuts to Xander, and quickly back to Dawn again, and the picture is missing, without her turning the page.