Bye, nerds

Storyteller is the final episode for Danny Strong (Jonathan) and Adam Busch (Warren).

Pep talks

Buffy writers realised that Buffy’s inspirational speeches in season seven were becoming annoying for fans. They began to make fun of her pep talks. In Storyteller, Andrew indicated that he felt they were dull, and once Buffy started she’d only stop when she had to go to work. He also made fun of them saying Willow had a high threshold for speech-making, but even she looked bored. In Lies My Parents Told Me, Buffy says, “Have you heard my speeches?” and “The other day I gave an inspirational speech to the telephone repair man”, showing again that Buffy writers can parody themselves - and that they pay attention to what the fans think.

School issues

The following two exchanges were deleted from the episode Storyteller:

and

Tom Lenk’s favourites

Tom Lenk mentioned in an interview which his favourite Buffy episodes were:

“I’d have to say, out of respect for my character, Storyteller. I just got to make such an ass out of myself. It was so much fun. Dancing in a toga on a hillside singing with unicorns was pretty embarrassing. I don’t do that sort of thing ever in my down time. So, I just had so much fun doing it, but I loved Emma’s history episode this year [Selfless]. It was really funny. And I’m a huge fan of The Body. The most devastating hour of television I’ve ever seen and I loved that.”

We are Gods

The Mutant Enemy monster says “We are Gods” at the end of the episode Storyteller.

Tom Lenk

Tom Lenk played Andrew Wells and Cyrus, one of Harmony’s minions, in Real Me. Tom was born in Westlake Village, California, on June 16th, 1976. His full name is Thomas Loren Lenk. He attended Moorepark College and later UCLA’s theatre programme. In 1997, Tom won the Carol Burnett Award and Scholarship before touring with the European cast of Grease playing the role of Doody. Tom has written three plays. Tom’s father Fred is a computer programmer, and his mother Pam is a teacher in the Pleasant Valley School District. Tom can be seen in Bandwagon (a movie starring Emma Caulfield), Window Theory, Straight-Jacket, And Then Came Summer, Boy Next Door, Boogie Nights (as Uncle Floyd’s Kid), Popular, Joey and Judging Amy. The character of Andrew became popular and was brought back as part of the Scoobies in season seven. Tom can also be seen as Andrew in the Angel episode ‘Damage’.
In January 2005, Tom wrote and starred in Will You Be My Special Friend?, which featured various special guests including Emma Caulfield, Danny Strong and Adam Busch.
Tom appeared as Lord of the Rings character Frodo in Alyson Hannigan’s 2006 movie Date Movie.

A year on

In Storyteller, Andrew mentions that Xander broke up with Anya on their wedding day (seen in Hell’s Bells) and he reveals that a year has passed since then. This coincides with the fact that both episodes were the 16th episodes of their season, though Storyteller aired in February and Hell’s Bells in March. Xander and Anya sleep together again but realise they’re finally over.

Andrew’s favourite gag

In three different episodes in a span of eight, Andrew is given the same joke. Someone tells him to show him something, and he rattles off several different, unrelated items:

In First Date, he tells The First what was in Buffy’s underwear drawer, instead of showing it the gun). In Storyteller, he tells The First what weapons someone was selling, instead of showing it the knife and in End of Days, he tells Anya what his rash looked like, instead of showing her the medical supplies.

Interestingly, all three were written or co-written by Jane Espenson, so she must be quite a fan of this joke.

Angelic faces

In the episode Angel, Giles reads from a book that Angel is the “one with the angelic face.” In Storyteller, as Andrew is introducing Spike, Buffy, and Anya in their sexy poses, he describes Buffy as having an “angelic face”.

Breaking the fourth wall

The fourth wall is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of a stage or camera, through which the audience sees the action playing out. The fourth wall is “broken” in Buffy and Angel - in the musical Once More. With Feeling, Buffy, Xander and Anya sing whilst looking at the camera. Anya also says to Giles in that episode, after her duet with Xander that, “It was weird. It was like there was a wall missing from our apartment. Like there was only three walls and not a fourth one…”
In Angel’s Spin the Bottle, in which Lorne acts as a host, explaining the story to the audience. There is also a great moment in Spin the Bottle, in which Lorne says after a commercial break: “Well, those were some exciting products. Am I right? Mmm. Let’s all think about buying some of those.”
Andrew also breaks the fourth wall in Storyteller - whilst talking to his camera about what’s going on in the Summer’s house.

Cheese again

In Storyteller, we see the Cheese man from Restless briefly during the dream scene in Mexico.

Collapsible sword

In Andrew’s flashback in Storyteller he tells Warren/the First about a demon selling bizarre weapons. He mentions a “collapsible sword.” In the Angel episode ‘Spin The Bottle’, Wesley buys a collapsible sword. This is also mentioned in the Angel episode ‘Lineage‘.

Little pig

We see in Storyteller that the piglet which Andrew tried to sacrifice in Never Leave Me is still in the school basement.

Past shenanigans

Many past episodes are referenced in Storyteller: Buffy sees a girl start to become invisible in the school, an obvious reference to Marcie Ross in Out of Mind, Out of Sight; The Prom (”Killer Prom dogs”); The Witch (”Everybody hates the cheerleaders”); Go Fish (”Swim team monsters”).
We also see a flashback to Two to Go, when Willow attacked Jonathan and Andrew. This time Andrew’s telling the story so he becomes the hero and distorts what really happened.

Spike the poser

In Giles’s dream in Restless, he sees Spike having his picture taken in different intimidating poses. In Storyteller, when Andrew is recording Spike for his documentary, Spike is seen being filmed (”Sod off before I rip your throat out and eat it”), and is willing to repeat the recording when Andrew tells him that the light was in the wrong place. He is acting intimidating and scary for the Andrew’s camera, just as he was acting for the cameras in Restless.

Vampire army

In Storyteller, Buffy tells the Scoobies and potentials of her vision of the massive Turok-Han army. She saw this in the previous episode, Get It Done.

What’s a Key?

Andrew mentions Dawn’s past (covered in season five) in Storyteller when he says, “Dawn used to be a key. I don’t really know what that means.”

Bach

In the episode Storyteller, the classical piece playing at the beginning of the episode, in Andrew’s fantasy, is Brandenburg Concerto 3, Movement 1, by Johann Sebastian Bach. The same piece can be heard in Hell’s Bells, being played by the quartet at Anya’s wedding.
In Out of Mind, Out of Sight, Marcie repeatedly plays Bach’s “Siciliano” on her flute.

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.

Vamps on tape

Seeing as they have no reflection, one might assume that vampires would be a bit tricky to capture on film (or video). Yet, it appears to be perfectly possible. We first discovered this in Halloween when Spike watched Buffy’s fighting technique via video tape, and Andrew later videos Spike in Storyteller. Likewise, in Helpless, Zachary Kralik was able to photograph himself.

Forrest Gump

In the season seven episode Storyteller, Principal Robin says, “Evil is what evil does”, when he’s being controlled. This is a famous quote from the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, in which the main character says, “Stupid is what stupid does.”

Silver Surfer

There is a Silver Surfer comic near Andrew at the beginning of the episode Storyteller. The Silver Surfer was a Marvel comic book character.

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.”

Seen at 09.34 minutes:

In Storyteller, when Andrew walks away from the kitchen to talk to the camera, you see his shadow on the wall with an empty hand where the camera should be. His hand then meets up with the camera to look as if he had been holding it the whole time.

Seen at 13.40 minutes:

Buffy and Principal Wood discuss the Hellmouth very loudly and unsubtly in front of another member of staff.

Seen at 27.15 minutes:

If Andrew can read the writing on the blade, why did he just think it was symbols before? That’s like thinking “DOG” is a load of weird symbols.

Seen at 35.31 minutes:

Buffy fights the students and we see there are at least four dead/unconscious bodies laying around the Seal. When the camera pans out after the Seal has been closed (at 39.11), the bodies have gone.