Season 4, Episode 17
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by David Grossman
Original Airdate: 3 April 2000
"I don't care if it is an orgy of death, there's
still such a thing as a napkin."
Willow
REGULAR CAST
GUEST CAST
CO-STARRING
-
Erica Lutrell as Karen
-
Adam Clark as Cop
-
Chanie Costello as Inga
-
Julie Costello as Ilsa
SYNOPSIS
-
Buffy and the gang slay vampires in the graveyard,
but when they discover a nest of vampires that is too much for them all
to fight, they go to Jonathan for help. At Giles's place, Jonathan
checks out weapons and even practices hand-to-hand with Buffy. Willow
uses her computer to try and find a way to attack the vampire nest, but
Jonathan quickly finds a better way to enter. With a plan in mind,
Jonathan passes out weapons and tells everyone where to go. In the
crypt, Jonathan slays the majority of the vampires, leaving Buffy to
feel inadequate, as she allows one vampire to get by her.
As they leave the crypt, Jonathan poses for some pictures. He senses
Spike hiding in the shadows and the two go face-to-face. Buffy's at a
lack for her usual puns, but Jonathan steps in to knock Spike's
confidence down. While putting pictures of Jonathan up on a wall, Willow
and Tara talk about the fight earlier that night and Buffy's
relationship with Riley. At Riley's dorm room, Buffy tries to play
basketball, but she is too uncomfortable being around Riley to let him
get close.
Jonathan comforts Buffy and he tells her that she's really just mad at
Riley because he doesn't know her as well as she'd like him to. He tries
to convince him to forgive Riley because deep down, her expectations are
too high. All the while, Jonathan is encountered by overzealous fans,
and signing autographs for them. Colonel George Haviland is the new
commander at the Initiative, but Jonathan takes over and explains the
plans to find and destroy Adam. One fan, Karen is spying on Jonathan's
house, but is attacked by a demon and barely manages to run away.
Jonathan talks to Riley about his relationship with Buffy, and then he
shoots at apples atop of the heads of Initiative operatives, while
blindfolded. When Jonathan takes centre stage singing at the Bronze,
Buffy and Riley take the dance floor. Xander and Anya are inspired to go
somewhere to have sex when he starts to play the trumpet. Buffy lets
Riley know that she forgives him and wants to move on with their
relationship. Karen goes to the Bronze looking for Jonathan, and when
she is taken back to his place, Karen describes the demon's appearance
to them all. Jonathan seems to act weird when she draws a symbol she saw
on the demon, but he dismisses it as a harmless monster that he'll take
care of.
Adam realizes right away that something is wrong with the world, and
that Jonathan isn't supposed to be as popular as he currently is. When
twin blonde girls call for Jonathan to come to bed, he drops his robe to
reveal a symbol on his shoulder that is just like the symbol Karen drew.
On her way to her dorm room, the demon attacks Tara. She chants a spell
and manages to escape with her life. The next morning, Tara identifies
the demon by the symbol on its head, and Buffy suddenly has even more
reason to question Jonathan.
Buffy stops by Xander's, and only finds Anya and plenty of things on
Jonathan. Buffy questions how Jonathan could be so perfect. He is
credited for all the great things that have happened in the world, when
it seems pretty impossible for him to do them all. Riley encourages
everyone to follow Buffy's lead. They look at Jonathan's swimsuit
calendar to see the monster's mark on Jonathan's shoulder. He arrives
and explains to everyone that he has a history with the monster and
every time he faces it, he is overcome by a great deal of confusion.
Buffy and Jonathan go look for the demon, and get some information on
the demon's location from Spike. Willow discovers that Jonathan did an
augmentation spell that would make him everyone's target of adoration.
The downside is that a demon is created that would be everyone's worst
nightmare and if it is destroyed, the spell is reversed. The gang has a
hard time dealing with the prospect of a world without Jonathan.
In a cave, Jonathan tries to push Buffy into a deep pit, but the demon
interrupts them. Jonathan leaves it up to Buffy to fight the demon. Her
fighting skills improve greatly as the fight goes on, and then Jonathan
pushes the demon into the pit and his own life is saved by Buffy. After
the demon falls into the pit, everything goes back to normal and
Jonathan is back to being ignored. Buffy talks with Jonathan and asks
him how he did what he did. At counselling, after his attempted suicide,
another guy informed Jonathan about the augmentation spell, but he
unfortunately skipped the demon part. Later on, happy again, Buffy and
Riley are kissing on his bed... until she moans "Jonathan."
TRIVIA
-
Jane Espenson, the writer of this episode,
also wrote Earshot, which was the
first to feature Jonathan as a key character. She and Danny Strong have
since become good friends.
-
Jonathan's singing voice is provided by
Brad Kane - who was the voice of Aladdin in the Disney films. He also
appeared as Tucker in The Prom. When
Danny Strong performed the scene in the Bronze, he was apparently very
sick with the flu.
-
Jonathan items include Jonathan-Os
cereal, basketball posters, a variety of other posters, I Heart
Jonathan t-shirt, an autobiography (Oh, Jonathan), an
advertisement for training shoes, trading cards, comic books, and a
swimsuit calendar. A lot of items are referred to but not seen: at least
one CD, two movies (Being Jonathan Levinson and The Matrix).
Jane Espenson says she collected as much of these products as she could,
to keep as a memento. The Jonathan comic books are made by Dark
Horse comics, the same company that made the Buffy and Angel
comics.
-
The opening credits were redone,
temporarily, to include lots of Bond-style shots of Jonathan
interspersed with those of the regulars. One shot, of Jonathan disabling
a bomb, could be considered a parody of Xander's bomb scene in
The Zeppo. A few days before
filming, Danny Strong was brought into the studio to film all these
shots, as well as having photos taken of him playing basketball etc.
Apparently he had no idea what was going on. Jonathan walking towards
the camera with his billowing coat is an obvious nod towards Angel.
CONTINUITY
-
Numerous events that have occurred in the
show have been altered by Jonathan's spell, or at least certain memories
of those events have. It seems that in the altered reality, it was Buffy
who gave Jonathan the Class Protector Award at
The Prom. Jonathan also blew up the
Mayor and also smashed the bones of the Master. There's also a reference
to Jonathan's suicide attempt, which was thwarted by Buffy in
Earshot.
-
Anya's time as a vengeance demon is
referred to, as well as worlds with or without shrimp, which later be
mentioned by Tara, and at some point is also visited by Illyria.
-
Buffy is still upset about Riley having sex
with Faith, which happened in the previous episode.
GOOFS
-
When Buffy gives the yellow cup to
Jonathan, it is turned in a different direction than the shot in which
we see him receive it.
-
The same shot of Buffy and Riley dancing is
used twice.
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
|