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Season 4, Episode 10
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 13 December 1999
"Sometimes I like to crumble the Weetabix in the
blood. Gives it a little texture."
Spike
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
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Doug Jones as
Gentleman #1
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Camden Toy as
Gentleman #2
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Don W. Lewis as
Gentleman #3
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Charlie Brumbly as
Gentleman #4
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Carlos Amezcua as
Newscaster
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Elizabeth Truax as
Little Girl
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Wayne Sable as
Freshman
SYNOPSIS
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Professor Walsh talks about communication in class
and then asks Buffy to come and lie on her desk for a demonstration.
Riley steps forward and kisses Buffy, then the sun goes down and its
night. Buffy then hears a young girl's voice and walks out of the
classroom and into the halls where a girl stands chanting and holding a
small box. Buffy wakes up to see she was dreaming in class. As they're
leaving, Riley overhears Buffy and Willow talking about the dream then
Willow leaves them to talk. Riley inquires about Buffy's dream and then
they talk about their plans for the night. Both make up excuses for
their real plans.
Giles tries to research the information Buffy got from her dream about
something called 'the Gentlemen.' Spike makes himself very comfortable
at Giles' place and complains about there not being anymore Weetabix.
Xander and Anya arrive where Giles informs Xander that he has to keep
Spike with him for a few days. Willow goes to her Wicca meeting but
finds that all the girls in it are just wannabe Wiccas with no knowledge
of the real magic. One girl, Tara, seems to be interested in magic, but
she's shy and very quiet. After the meeting, Buffy and Willow chat about
how things are going slowly with Riley.
While he's sleeping, Xander ties Spike down to a chair and Spike talks
continually to annoy Xander. Olivia shows up at Giles' apartment and
after some brief talking, they get right to kissing. That night, at the
clock tower, one of the demon Gentlemen opens a box, and the voices of
all the people in Sunnydale are taken from them and put into the box.
When Buffy and Willow wake up the next morning and find they have no
voices, they panic and then see that everyone else in the dorms also
don't have their voices. Riley and Forrest try to enter the underground
lab, but without his voice, Riley cannot activate the voice command.
Professor Walsh however opens the elevator and they see a sign that says
they should have used the stairs.
Buffy and Willow walk through the town, seeing that everything is closed
down. Armed with dry-erase boards to write down their words, Buffy and
Willow show up at Giles' and meet with everyone else. The news states
that everyone in Sunnydale has come down with a case of laryngitis and
the town has been quarantined. The threat of chaos that night, Buffy
goes out to patrol, and Professor Walsh sends Riley and his team out.
Riley and Buffy meet while walking out on the streets and as Riley is
about to leave, he turns and kisses Buffy. The Gentlemen travel,
floating a foot up into the air with their demon assistants following
with them on the ground. Olivia wakes up in the middle of the night, and
through the window she spies one of the Gentlemen.
A couple of the Gentlemen travel through the dorms until they find a
freshman boy. The demon assistants hold the boy down while they cut out
his heart. The next morning, Olivia draws a picture of the creature she
saw, and when Giles recognizes it, he gets out a book of Fairy Tales. In
one of the lecture rooms at the college, Giles tells the story of the
Gentlemen through drawings and text on an overhead projector. The sound
of a real human voice - not recorded - can kill them, so they took
everyone's voices so that they could get the seven human hearts they
need. Riley suits up and then goes out to patrol, while Buffy is doing
the same thing.
Tara, from the Wicca group, tries to get to Willow while the Gentlemen
chase after her. She finally makes it to Willow's dorm and the two girls
make a run for it. Riley is attacked by several of the Gentlemen's demon
assistants in the clock tower, until Buffy shows up and starts fighting
alongside him. The two are first shocked to see each other, but have no
time, let alone ability to speak. Spike gets a mug of blood out of the
fridge at Giles' apartment and vamps out in the process of drinking it.
As he's bending down to pick up some dropped books, Xander sees this
from a different angle and thinks that Spike is biting Anya. Xander
attacks Spike and punches him several times before Anya and Giles stop
him.
Willow and Tara combine their powers to move a vending machine in front
of a door and protect them from the Gentlemen. Buffy gets caught by the
Igor-like assistants and the Gentlemen are about to cut into her when
Riley shoots them with bolts of electricity. They fight and one of the
demons grabs onto Buffy as she spots a box on the table and recognizes
it from her dream. She points it out to Riley and after one false try he
smashes the box and everyone's voices are returned to them. Buffy lets
out a loud and long scream, which causes the Gentlemen to explode into a
green slime. The following morning, Willow and Tara talk about being a
Wicca, while Giles and Olivia talk about how many scary things are
really out there. Riley goes to Buffy's dorm to talk, but neither knows
what to say.
TRIVIA
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Joss Whedon wrote this episode as a
challenge to himself. He felt his directing skills had become boring
stylistically and that TV was limiting as to the kind of shots you can
use. He therefore wanted to create an episode which was completely
different to his usual work. He was convinced that he would fail and
that people would get bored or confused.
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In his DVD commentary, Joss says that if
you look closely during the opening scene, Andy Hallett (who played
Lorne on Angel) can be seen in the top left corner of Professor
Walsh's lecture hall. He wanted the lecture hall to look as full as
possible so he got everyone who was on set or in the production office
that day to sit in the hall. He even sat people in the aisles to fill up
the space.
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Amber Benson, who plays Tara, makes her
first appearance in this episode. She said one of the scariest things
about her first day on Buffy was going to the canteen for lunch
and seeing the Gentlemen - with full make-up on - eating their lunch.
Amber previously worked with Lindsay Crouse in the 1995 movie Bye,
Bye Love. She played the best friend of a character played by Eliza
Dushku, who also appeared in the film. Joss Whedon discusses in his
commentary for this episode how the casting of Tara went: He was
originally looking for someone like 'old Willow' - before Willow became
as confident as she is now. Visually he wanted someone who was small and
thin. Amber Benson read for the role and it was Marti Noxon who saw her
vulnerability beyond her body shape and convinced Joss to get Amber back
to read again.
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In his DVD commentary, Joss states that he
expected to have Riley and Buffy make love for the first time in this
episode, but it seemed too soon in the development of their
relationship.
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Joss Whedon received an Emmy nomination for
his work on this episode, in the category of 'Outstanding Writing in a
Drama Series', in the 52nd Annual Emmy Awards. The episode also received
a nomination for 'Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera
Series'.
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When shown on the BBC, this episode was cut
in some parts. Anya's gesture to Xander for them to go and have sex was
cut, as was Buffy's rapid "staking" movement in the lecture hall scene.
Another scene cut was where Tara opens a door in the college to see a
Gentleman holding a heart. The BBC cut it in a way that the door was
opened by Willow.
CONTINUITY
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Willow has joined the Wicca Group that she
was looking into during Wild at Heart.
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Willow makes a reference to her floating
pencils, which we saw last in Choices.
GOOFS
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As the gang watch TV, Olivia's drink
appears to change from whiskey to water.
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When we first see a shot of the clock
tower, the time is almost one o'clock. The camera cuts to a shot from
inside, looking out at the clock, and the minute hand is pointing at the
40 minute mark. Back outside, it's one o'clock again.
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In the lecture hall, Anya sits down empty
handed. A moment later, she holds a bag of popcorn.
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As Buffy holds her message board up to ask
how she gets her voice back, she first holds it up and the marker is in
her right hand. The shot cuts away and when we go back, the marker is in
a slot on the message board.
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When Riley smashes the bottle, a chunk of
glass lands on top of the box. In the next shot, the glass has gone.
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When Spike opens the fridge, his cup of
blood is full almost to the brim. When he starts to drink he tips it so
far that if it were that full, it would have spilled onto him before it
even got to his mouth.
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When Riley and Walsh have a 'conversation'
via the computer, the text on Walsh's screen changes for no apparent
reason.
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In one shot, when the Gentlemen are
wandering around the U.C. Sunnydale campus at night, you can see a bit
of the dolly (which was used to make them seem like they're floating) in
the bottom left hand corner of the screen for just a second.
The Freshman |
Living Conditions |
The Harsh Light of Day |
Fear, Itself |
Beer Bad
Wild at Heart |
The Initiative |
Pangs |
Something Blue |
Hush |
Doomed
A New Man |
The I in Team |
Goodbye Iowa |
This Year's Girl |
Who Are You |
Superstar
Where the Wild
Things Are |
New Moon Rising |
The Yoko Factor |
Primeval |
Restless
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