In The Witch, Amy said her mother’s nickname was ‘Catherine the Great’. This is a reference to the real Catherine the Great, who was Empress of Russia from 1762-1796.

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 …

In The Witch, Amy said about cheerleading tryouts, “How do I hate this? Let me count the ways.” This is a misquote from a love poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning titled Sonnets from the Portuguese. The real quote is, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
In …

In The Witch, Buffy said, “That’s our Sabrina”, and in Two To Go, Andrew said, “Do we sit around waiting for Sabrina to disembowel us?” They are both referring to Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, which has been a comic, cartoon and TV show, about a teenage girl who’s, yes you …

Buffy says in The Witch, “So mommie dearest is really… Mommie Dearest.” In Inca Mummy Girl, Buffy says, “Ok, I’ll still get Xander before he gets smoochy with Mummy Dearest.” Mommie Dearest was an autobiography by Christina Crawford about her abusive mother, the movie actress Joan Crawford. It was made …

Xander said to Willow in The Witch, “That is the point, you don’t have to drive it through my head like a railroad spike.” The character of Spike (introduced in season two’s School Hard) was said to have got his name by murdering people using railroad spikes. In a flashback …

Catherine Madison was trapped inside a cheerleading statue at Sunnydale High at the end of The Witch. In Phases, Oz noticed the cheerleading statue’s moving eyes and thought it was cool. This was an in-joke to fans, as well as to prepare us for the return of Amy Madison in …

Giles casts a spell against Catherine Madison in The Witch. He says this is his first but we discover in The Dark Age that he has a history using magic. It’s the first time we see him using witchcraft.

Check out the notice board in the first scene of The Witch. It reads “1996 Cheerleading Tryouts,” despite the episode being screened in 1997 in America. This is because Buffy was held back and used as a mid-season replacement show rather than starting as intended in the autumn of 1996. …

In The Witch, Willow called herself, Xander and Giles the ‘Slayerettes’. This term wasn’t used again until the episode The I in Team.

The band Dashboard Prophets can be heard in the Bronze in The Harvest. We hear their tracks “Ballad For Dead Friends” (as the vampires approach the Bronze) and “Wearing Me Down” (Cordelia says she loves the song). Both songs are from their album Burning Out The Inside.
We also hear …

After listening to the Scoobies talking teenage nonsense in The Harvest, Giles says, “The Earth is doomed.” He says almost the same thing in Chosen - “The Earth is definitely doomed.”

In The Harvest, Giles says that the next threat they face may be something quite different from vampires. This foreshadows the events of the very next episode, in which the Scoobies are faced with a powerful witch.

Angel gave Buffy a cross necklace when he first met her in Welcome to the Hellmouth. She can be seen wearing the necklace in The Harvest and Prophecy Girl.

Buffy used a cymbal as a Frisbee to behead a vampire in The Harvest. This scene was edited out when first shown on the BBC.