Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S7 E7 Conversations With Dead People

Buffy has a heart to heart talk with vamp who used to be her classmate. Willow is visited by the spirit of Cassie. Dawn is terrorized at home by a ghost. Spike chats up a girl at a bar. Andrew and Jonathan return.

"Holden: Buffy, I'm here to kill you, not to judge you."
 * Seventh-Episode Twist:
 * Absentee Actor: Nicholas Brendon and Emma Caulfield.
 * Affably Evil: Holden the Vampire Shrink.

"Dawn: I cast you out with every prayer from every god that walked the Earth and crawled beneath. (thrown across the room, landing on her butt, she continues talking through a bloody mouth) I cast you out with the strength of those who love me. (stands) I cast your out with the strength I have inside me! I cast you out into the void. (throws bowl forward) That's right! Die, you bastard!"
 * A Form You Are Comfortable With: The First Evil appears as Cassie, Warren and Joyce in order to break up the gang -- and it's so good at it that fans are still discussing whether "Joyce" isn't actually Joyce, despite confirmation from Word of God.
 * An Axe to Grind: Dawn
 * Anticlimax Cut: For all Holden's confidence that his martial arts skills and newfound vampire strength will enable him to defeat Buffy, she dusts him easily.
 * Badass Boast: Buffy, Holden, and Dawn's Magical Incantation certainly counts.

"Cassie: (mocking) Oh, baby, you left such a big hole. It hurt so bad. (serious, leans in) You don't know hurt. This last year's gonna seem like cake after what I put you and your friends through, and I am not a fan of easy death. Fact is, the whole good-versus-evil, balancing the scales thing...I'm over it. I'm done with the mortal coil. But believe me, I'm going for a big finish.
 * And Cassie as the First.

Willow: From beneath you, it devours.

Cassie: Oh, not it. Me."

"Buffy: My parents weren't exactly the paragon of stay-togetherey-ness."
 * Blank White Eyes: Corpse!Joyce
 * Blood Magic / Human Sacrifice
 * Buffy-Speak

"Holden: Just answer me this -- whose fault was your parents divorce?
 * Brick Joke: In the 6th-season's "Gone", Warren declares to Buffy that "We are your arch-nemesises...ses." When they fail to open their escape door, Buffy mockingly says to Willow: "I give you my arch-nemesis...ses...ses." Holden marvels that he and Buffy are now enemies, saying, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we became nemeses?", Buffy responds, "Is that how you say the word?"
 * Buffy leaves money for Dawn so she can buy herself something to eat, but the note specifies NO PIZZA. Next time we see Dawn she's eating pizza and singing the praises of anchovies.
 * Can You Hear Me Now: Buffy's mobile falls out of her pocket during her initial fight with Holden. When Dawn tries to call Buffy, she doesn't hear it ringing because she's too busy insisting to Holden that she's connected to a lot of people.
 * The Confidant: Buffy finds herself opening up to Holden Webster.
 * Continuity Nod
 * "That time on the bridge when you sang to each other" was in "Once More With Feeling" when Tara sang "Under Your Spell".
 * Buffy briefly dated Scott Hope at the beginning of Season 3, only for Scott to dump her on the excuse that she seemed too distracted (as she was caring for a recently Back From the Dead Angel). Holden suggests another reason.
 * "Strong like an amazon" is what Willow said in response to Tara saying "We can be strong" (about Joyce Summer's death in "The Body"). Likewise Dawn's "Mom? ...Mommy?" when trying to reach Joyce echoes Buffy's first reaction on seeing her mother dead.
 * Dead Joyce lies on the couch in the same position Buffy found her at the end of "I Was Made To Love You".
 * The music Dawn is listening to while home alone is the same Buffy was listening to while washing dishes in season 5, before breaking down and crying over their mother's sickness ("Listening to Fear").
 * Dawn talks on the phone to an off-screen Kit ("Lessons").
 * Conveniently Precise Translation: Andrew and Jonathan reveal that, while in Mexico, they've had dreams with the refrain "Desde abajo te devora." Andrew translates the phrase as "It eats you, starting with your bottom". The literal translation is "From below, it devours you", but this particular phrase probably would translate fairly closely to Spanish and back. Andrew provides his own lampshade a little earlier in the scene when he complains that Klingon was easier to learn than Spanish because the former "had much clearer rules on transitive and intransitive verbs."
 * Couldn't Find a Pen: "Mother's Milk is RED Today" appears on the wall of the Summers house.
 * Crucified Hero Shot
 * Dead Person Conversation
 * Did I Just Have A Therapy Session With Cthulhu?
 * Distracting Disambiguation
 * Divided We Fall: The First's Evil Plan.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Buffy lying on a sarcophagus as a make-shift Freudian Couch.
 * Dramatic Wind / Dramatic Shattering
 * Episode Title Card: The only regular Buffy episode to get one (the other is the Musical Episode "Once More, With Feeling", which gets completely new credits).
 * Fast Roping: Jonathan rappels down into Sunnydale High, followed by Andrew who loses his grip and crashes into the floor.
 * Foreshadowing: Holden tells Buffy not to beat herself up about her failed relationships as she's too young to settle down with a guy. This sets up her "cookie dough" speech in "Chosen".
 * Dawn playing with Buffy's weapons foreshadows her later belief that she is a Potential.
 * Forgotten Friend, New Foe: Justified as Holden was just another boy in Sunnydale High crushing on the beautiful and mysterious Buffy Summers; he gripes about having to spend 30 minutes reminding Buffy who he was.
 * Freudian Excuse: Buffy admits that her parents divorce might have been due to an affair by her dad. Holden suggests that Buffy's inability to connect with men might be because she subconsciously thinks she's better than them. Buffy promptly threatens to stake him, showing Holden he's hit a nerve.

Buffy: (rolls eyes) OK, you know, this is beyond evil. This is Insane Troll Logic."

"Buffy: I feel like I'm worse than anyone. Honestly, I'm beneath them. My friends, my boyfriends. I feel like I'm not worthy of their love. 'Cause even though they love me, it doesn't mean anything 'cause their opinions don't matter. They don't know. They haven't been through what I've been through. They're not the Slayer. I am. Sometimes I feel... (sighs) this is awful -- I feel like I'm better than them. Superior.
 * Get Out!: The poltergiest to Dawn, who instead slams the door and declares she's staying to protect her mother.
 * Have You Seen My God?: Holden asks Buffy if there really is a God. "What's the word on that, by the way?" Her own experiences in the afterlife not withstanding, Buffy has to admit there's "nothing solid".
 * Heel Face Door Slam:
 * Heel Realisation

Holden: Until you can't win. And I thought I was diabolical -- or, at least I plan to be. You do have a superiority complex. And you've got an inferiority complex about it."

"Buffy: The last guy I was with, it got really-- I behaved like a monster, treated him like... But at the same time, I-I let him completely take me over. Do things to me that-- (starts to cry)."
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Jonathan M. Woodward, who plays Holden Webster, has also appeared in two other Joss Whedon series: as Knox in Season 5 of Angel, and as Tracey in the Firefly episode "The Message".
 * Hugo Award
 * I Am a Monster: Buffy re her Destructive Romance with Spike.

"Andrew: Check communications?
 * I Am the Noun: Willow says, "I am the power."
 * Interplay of Sex and Violence: Holden is exhilarated to be fighting to the death with the girl he once had a crush on in school. When he fantasises that a 'biteable' girl he knew might have shown up for his funeral, Buffy starts venting how "sex and death and love and pain" are all the same to vampires, giving Holden a Eureka Moment that Buffy has had a relationship with one.
 * It Won't Turn Off: The horror movie keeps playing on the television even after Dawn mutes, turns it off and unplugs the TV. She then nearly electrocutes herself smashing up the television, CD player and microwave with an axe. She's about to do the same to the radio when Dawn hears Joyce talking to her over it.
 * Killed Off for Real
 * Lotus Position / Magical Incantation
 * Meaningful Background Event: As Dawn tries to figure out what's happening, the camera suddenly shifts angle and we see her mother's corpse in the background. Cue Scare Chord as she suddenly realizes what's behind her, and turns to see nothing.
 * Meaningful Echo: In "Fool for Love" Buffy turned down Spike's advances with the words, "You're beneath me." Here Buffy says "I'm beneath them" in reference to her family and friends because she's ashamed of her superiority complex.
 * Mysterious Protector: Buffy is quite pleased to find that people at school thought she was mysterious, but can't help smiling wryly when Holden says they thought it was because she was having an affair with a much older guy.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: We never get a clear look at the demon holding down Dead!Joyce.
 * Nothing Personal: Holden and Buffy re killing each other.
 * Not Quite Dead / Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: What the First!Warren convinces Andrew has happened to him.
 * Once For Yes, Twice For No: Dawn thinks Joyce is trying to communicate with her this way.
 * Out-of-Genre Experience: Buffy = comedy, Willow = drama, Dawn = horror.
 * Overly Long Gag

(Still standing beside each other, they both reach into the pockets of their cargo pants and pull out walkie-talkie radios.)

Jonathan: (to radio) Check. Check.

Andrew: (to radio) Check. Check.

Jonathan: Check.

Andrew: Check. Check.

Jonathan: Check. Check.

Andrew: Check. Check. Check.

Jonathan: Check."

"Buffy: I think I'm gonna kill you just a little bit more than usual.
 * Percussive Therapy

Holden: (later) OK. But are you killing me 'cause I'm evil or because you opened up?"

"Buffy: I commit! I'm committed. I'm a committee."
 * Prop Recycling: The monster appearing to strangle Joyce is actually the Gnarl costume from "Same Time, Same Place", shot from the back and spray-painted black.
 * Sickly Neurotic Geek: After his Pratfall while trying to rappel inside Sunnydale High, Andrew blames his shin splints -- this starts a Running Gag throughout the season of him complaining of various prior injuries.
 * Relative Button: Dawn gets Wicca on the poltergiest's ass.
 * Rule of Three: Holden says Buffy is afraid of commitment.

"Buffy: I'm the Slayer. It's sort of a thing.
 * Ship Tease: Buffy acknowledges that Spike's love for her was real, in contrast to the previous season where such statements would be met with denial, patronisation or a punch in the face.
 * Slasher Smile: First!Warren and First!Cassie -- the latter taken Up to Eleven when her head splits open and she turns inside out.
 * Something She Would Never Say: Willow is tipped that Cassie (supposedly channeling a message from Tara) is not who she appears when she suggests Willow kill herself so she can be with her dead lover.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: A devastated Willow and Dawn,, all set to whimsical, beautiful "Blue" by Angie Hart.
 * Spell My Name with a "The": Buffy explaining to Holden why she's in the cemetery trying to dust him.

Holden: "The" like as in "The only one?"

Buffy: Pretty much."

"Holden: Oh, my God!
 * Stake The Messenger: Buffy kills Holden Due to a scene cut we don't see if it was because Holden attacked or in a violent response to what he said, but Buffy's position as Holden's dust swirls around her is the same, implying that it happened immediately afterwards.
 * Super Window Jump: While fighting Buffy and Holden go crashing through a stained glass window into a crypt.
 * Suspiciously Apropos Music: Hardly surprising as the lyrics were written by Joss Whedon for the episode.
 * Sword Over Head: Buffy doesn't stake Holden when she has the chance, because she finds she likes talking to him.
 * The Team Wannabe: Jonathan wants to hook up with the Scoobies, and thinks they're gathering information on the Seal of Danthazar they can present to Buffy as an olive branch.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Holden Webster puts up a good fight for a newly-sired vampire because he got into Tae Kwon Do after leaving school.
 * Verbal Backspace: A Running Gag with Holden.

Buffy: Oh, your God what?

Holden: Oh, well, you know, not my God, because I defy him and all of his works..."


 * Warrior Therapist: Buffy tangles with a rather literal version of the trope -- a vampire who had been a Psychology major prior to being sired. He was at least as, if not more, interested in analyzing Buffy as in fighting her.
 * Wham! Line:
 * What Could Have Been: Originally, was supposed to return as , but declined because she knew the episode was going to be Nightmare Fuel and thought neither the characters nor the fans deserved just how bad she knew Joss Whedon would try and torture both.
 * Also, it was originally intended for Xander to have his own experience in which appears as  and call him out for making a Forgotten Fallen Friend out him. A combination of  being unavailable and the episode already having too much story led the writers to scrap this plotline.
 * Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Dawn is playing about with Buffy's weapons when she has an accidental crossbow discharge. She tries to yank the quarrel out of the wall only for a large lump of plaster to come out as well, which she tries to conceal with a potted plant. She also gets pizza sauce on Buffy's dress, which she doesn't worry about as she figures Buffy will assume it's blood (this sets up a Brick Joke in "First Date).