Season 6, Episode 16

Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner

Directed by David Solomon

Original Airdate: 4 March 2002

"I'm not sure you should say 'sex poodle' in your vows."

Tara

REGULAR CAST

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

• Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

• Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins

• Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers

• James Marsters as Spike

• Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

GUEST CAST

• Casey Sander as Tony Harris

• Kali Rocha as Halfrek

• Andy Umberger as D'Hoffryn

• Lee Garlington as Jessica Harris

• Jan Hoag as Carol Harris

• George D. Wallace as Stuart Burns

• Amber Benson as Tara Maclay

• Steve Gilborn as Rory Harris

CO-STARRING

• James C. Leary as Clem

• Daniel McFeeley as Warty Demon

• Rebecca Jackson as Tarantula

• Mel Fair as Tentacle Demon

• Nick Kokich as Demon Teen

• Robert Noble as Night Manager

• Julian Franco as Young Bartender

• Susannah L. Brown as Caterer Girl

• Joey Hiott as Josh Age 10

• Abigail Mavity as Sara Age 8

• Chris Emerson as Josh Age 21

• Ashleigh Ann Wood as Sara Age 18

• Megan Vint as Karen

SYNOPSIS

• Buffy and Willow criticize their bright green dresses and talk about the rehearsal dinner from the night before. It was explained that Anya's friends are circus people, which explains their very odd appearances and surprisingly, the Harris family bought it. Willow has the honour of best man and Buffy is one of the bridesmaids along with Dawn and Tara. Anya hugs both girls in excitement about their gowns, which she of course loves.
  
  Xander tries to get dressed with his family and Anya's demon friends invading his apartment. Xander's parents arrive and Mrs. Harris rants about not being in the wedding pictures and Mr. Harris bluntly expresses his distaste for the circus people on Anya's side. Xander's cousin Carol asks Xander about one of Anya's demon friends, Krevlin, and whether he'd be interested in dating her. Outside on the streets of Sunnydale, an old man appears out of thin air and walks off, a purpose in mind.
  
  Buffy forces Xander into his cummerbund and works on his bow tie while offering her happy wishes to Xander on his special day. Tara and Willow button Anya into her dress while the bride-to-be rehearses her vows. When the buttoning is complete, Anya shows off her dress and goes on excitedly about how happy she is. Xander's Uncle Rory shows off his date to Dawn, but his date is actually just one of the caterers. D'Hoffryn arrives, as does Halfrek, and Dawn greets them at the door. D'Hoffryn offers his very alive wedding gift in a box to Dawn.
  
  Dawn continues to mingle through the crowd and encounters Spike with a Goth date. Finally ready, Buffy and Xander proceed toward the crowd of mingling guests while reviewing the tasks necessary to keep Xander's parents out of trouble. Xander greets people and is suddenly assaulted by people complaining about problems. The old man in a trench coat drags Xander away from the others and explains that he is Xander Harris, from the future and the wedding cannot take place. As proof, he shows the younger Xander a crystal ball that will show Xander what his future is like.
  
  Xander's drunken father offers a toast to the waiting attendees of the wedding and insults the demons on Anya's side of the "family." Clem and another demon talk about how annoying the man is, but before a fight can break out between Mr. Harris and one of the demons, Buffy pulls the drunk man away. In a view of the future, Xander sits watching TV and yells at Anya while his son runs around teasing Anya's part-demon daughter. Anya explains that she's going to make money while he sits around wounded and worthless. An argument breaks out as they talk about how he got injured helping Buffy, although that didn't save her life.
  
  In a later scene, Xander, Anya and their two now-teenage kids eat at a restaurant while the teens fight and Anya comments about Xander's drinking. Again years later, in their kitchen, Anya yells at Xander for ruining her life and blames him for her misery. He gets angry, yells back and raises a frying pan to hit her with, but the vision of the future is cut off before anything happens. Xander is shocked by the visions and the old man warns him not to marry Anya. Buffy finds Spike alone and the two talk about the wedding and Spike's attempt to make her jealous with his date. After he finds that his efforts worked, Spike realizes it's best to just leave and takes his date away.
  
  Willow runs into Xander in the kitchen and offers the final "best man" talk and then leaves him to practice his vows a little bit longer. Anya continues to go over her vows in front of Tara, who offers a little advice about words not to use in the vows. The music begins and Buffy shows up to get Anya, but Willow pulls her out of the room and breaks the news that Xander is gone. Stalling while Willow looks for Xander, Buffy uses the excuse that the minister is also a doctor and had to perform an emergency c-section, so there will be a delay.
  
  Anya tries her vows one more time while elsewhere, Xander walks away in the rain. The guests wait for the wedding to begin while Buffy informs the minister of the delay. Mr. Harris heads back to the bar with Mrs. Harris following and the two complain about Anya ruining the wedding. Buffy begins to stall the crowd with charades and juggling as Dawn chats outside with a teenage demon and both compare their embarrassing family and friends. Impatient, Anya heads out towards the wedding crowd, determined to get on with the wedding. The news that Xander is gone is accidentally spilled to Anya as Dawn talks to the demon teen and Anya freaks out.
  
  Mr. Harris and other demons begin to argue and then a huge fight breaks out between the two sides of the wedding guests. Tara gets caught up in the battle, but Willow rescues her. Cousin Carol directs Anya to the man in the trench coat and Anya talks to him about what he did to scare Xander off. She finds that the man is really a demon she cursed many years ago who seeks revenge against her. He showed Xander false images about his future to ruin Anya's wedding.
  
  She begins to cry and the demon strikes out at her, prompting Buffy to get involved. Buffy starts to attack the demon and Xander arrives to help save Anya. Anya explains to Xander that he saw only lies in those visions, but Xander isn't exactly relieved. Buffy and Xander finish the demon off and the crowd cheers. The fighting continues, but Anya breaks it up and everyone returns to their seats. Xander and Anya talk privately before the ceremony and Xander explains that he can't marry her. Motivated by the fear of turning into an abusive drunk like his father, Xander refuses to allow himself the opportunity to marry Anya and ever hurt her in that way. Anya tries to convince him otherwise, but can't and sadly, the two part ways.
  
  Buffy, Willow and Dawn sit around at the house and talk about what happened with Xander and Anya. They feel sorry for both of them and wonder where Xander is. Meanwhile, Xander checks into a motel by himself. Sad and depressed, Anya sits alone until D'Hoffryn offers her sympathy, comfort and her job as a vengeance demon back.

TRIVIA

• Willow is Xander's best "man". Buffy, Dawn, Halfrek and Tara are bridesmaids, wearing hideous green dresses. Xander and Anya hold their wedding at the Sunnydale Bison's Lodge. Buffy fans were disappointed that Giles, Cordelia, Angel, Oz, or anyone else from Xander's past weren't at the wedding. No mention is made of them in the episode, but an early draft of the script, Giles absence was explained as he was busy fighting demons. As a compensation, he had paid for the flowers.

CONTINUITY

• Willow mentions that formal wear being worn by her and Xander previous caused their feelings to emerge in Homecoming.

• Anya expressed concern in As You Were that Xander wouldn't fit in his cummerbund. He has that problem in this episode.

• Anya's wedding dress was bought way before hand, as it's seen in Selfless during a flashback set during Once More, With Feeling.

• At the wedding, Halfrek tries to get another wish out of Dawn, who was responsible for the wish Halfrek granted in Older and Far Away.

GOOFS

• The false Xander said that he was a victim of one of Anyanka's spells many years ago. In The Wish, when Giles destroys Anyanka's power centre necklace, he said it would return her to human form and reverse all the spells she has granted - so the spell on false Xander should have been reversed too.

• It's very bright outside, considering that it's raining so heavily all day.

Bargaining (Part 1) | Bargaining (Part 2) | Afterlife | Flooded | Life Serial

All the Way | Once More, With Feeling | Tabula Rasa | Smashed | Wrecked | Gone

Doublemeat Palace | Dead Things | Older and Far Away | As You Were | Hell's Bells | Normal Again

Entropy | Seeing Red | Villains | Two to Go | Grave