Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S7 E17 Lies My Parents Told Me

Spike explores his past for the way the First is controlling him, and Principal Wood seeks his chance to

"Robin Wood: Oh, I know more about you than you think, Spike. See, I've been searching for you for a very, very long time. Ever since you killed my mother.
 * Always Save the Girl: Averted
 * Bait and Switch: Spike doesn't kill Wood.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Averted -- Buffy runs to save Spike, but he's already got the situation under control, and Buffy isn't even needed to save Wood.
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday: A subversion where the murdered family member actually isn't just another victim.

Spike: I've killed a lot of people's mothers.

Robin Wood: Yeah. You'd remember mine. She was a Slayer."

"Giles: Well, uh, it's a ... long story.
 * Call Back: To "Helpless" (Giles betraying Buffy), and "The Gift" (Giles being willing to kill people that Buffy isn't, for the greater good).
 * Casual Danger Dialogue: Buffy and Robert the vampire.
 * Continuity Cavalcade / It's a Long Story: Buffy and Giles attempt to explain Spike's various Restraining Bolts to newcomer Robin Wood.

Buffy: The military put a chip in Spike's head so he couldn't hurt anyone.

Giles: And that would be the abridged version.

Buffy: But he wouldn't hurt anyone anymore because he has a soul now.

Giles: Unless the First triggers him again.

Robin: Triggers the chip?

Buffy: No, the trigger's a post-hypnotic thing. The First put it in his head. It was ... made him ... He was killing again.

Robin: So, he has a trigger, a soul, and a chip?

Giles: Not anymore!

Buffy: It was killing him, Giles!

Robin: The trigger?

Buffy: No, the chip. The trigger's not active anymore.

Robin: Because the military gave him a soul?"

"Drusilla: To eat, you mean?"
 * Continuity Nod: Spike's attraction to Nikki Wood, which he mentioned to Buffy in "Fool for Love". Spike also twirls his shovel in the alley fight, as he did when pole-fighting Nikki Wood on the subway train.
 * Spike refers to his mother as "glowing" and reads her (bad) poetry he's dedicated to Cecily ("Fool for Love").
 * Giles mentioned how Buffy wasn't willing to sacrifice Dawn to save the world ("The Gift") and Angel deciding to leave Buffy for her own good ("The Prom").
 * Xander gripes about the chains not being there a week earlier.
 * Giles complaining about there being computers rather than books in the library harks back to his Season 2 arguments with computer teacher Jenny Calender.
 * Spike calling Dawn "niblet" and expressing concern for her refers to their Morality Pet relationship in Season 5.
 * Comically Missing the Point: Drusilla can't understand why Spike wants to bring his mother with them as they rampage across Europe.

"Buffy: I'm in the fight of my life here!
 * Buffy is fighting with a vampire called Richard while arguing with Giles.

Vampire: (pleased) Really?

Buffy: Not you, Richard."

"Spike: "All the rubbish people keep sticking in my head, there's a wonder there's any room for my brain."
 * Conveniently-Timed Attack From Behind / Improvised Weapon / Off with His Head: Spike saving Wood in the alley.
 * Crossover: Willow receives a call from someone called Fred and tells Buffy she has to go to Los Angeles. She shows up in the Angel episode "Orpheus", where the Fang Gang use her magic skills to restore Angel's soul. Willow is vague as to her reasons for leaving, indicating that Buffy is being kept in the dark about the return of Angelus.
 * Cruel to Be Kind
 * Deadpan Snarker

Giles: "I don't think it takes up that much room, do you?""

"Buffy: (to Giles) It was boring, old, and English. Just like you...ul. Yul Brenner. A British Yul Brenner."
 * Description Cut: Buffy saying Dawn is tough, to Dawn wincing as Willow patches her up.
 * Distant Prologue / Battle in the Rain
 * Downer Ending: "You've taught me everything I need to know."
 * Dying as Yourself
 * Epiphany Therapy: Spike gets better re his mom, and even comes to an acceptance re the Spuffy relationship.
 * Eye Scream
 * Foreshadowing
 * Willow talks of bringing back some good news -- that would be another Slayer to fight alongside them (given Buffy's grudge against Faith, it's hardly surprising that Willow keeps 'that' news to herself).
 * The Scoobies and Potentials complain that Spike is getting a free pass from Buffy because of his not-a-relationship with her.
 * Fool for Love: Lampshaded re William, and finally averted by Spike.
 * Freudian Excuse
 * Half Truth: Wood doesn't try to hide from Giles that he's motivated by revenge, but doesn't mention that the First is the one who tipped him off about Spike, so killing Spike (not triggering him at an opportune moment) is the First's goal.
 * Vampire!William's mother brings up William's weaknesses after being turned into a vampire; it's Spike realisation that she was only telling half the truth that allows him to get past it.
 * Hannibal Lecture
 * He's Back: Applies even more than "Get It Done" because Spike doesn't just go back to being pre-souled Spike, he finally becomes comfortable with Ensouled!Spike.
 * Holy Burns Evil
 * Hypocritical Humor
 * I Did What I Had to Do
 * I'll Kill You!
 * Incurable Cough of Death / Blood From the Mouth
 * I Work Alone: Lampshaded by Spike re Slayers.
 * Last-Second Word Swap

"Buffy: Have you seen me with those girls? The way I treated my friends, and my family, and Andrew."
 * Macho Masochism: Wood squeezing his stake until his hand bleeds after Spike saves his life.
 * Meaningful Echo: "The mission is what matters."
 * Nikki Wood objecting to Spike calling her "luv", just as Buffy did in Season 6.
 * Momma's Boy
 * My Friends and Zoidberg


 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Buffy's split with Wood and Giles culminates in their lack of support in "Empty Places".
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Wood cures Spike, and Giles forces Buffy to act like a General.
 * Nothing Personal: Spike re killing Wood's mother.
 * Oedipus Complex: William and her mother, and the platonic version with Buffy and her 'father'.
 * Origins Episode
 * Pet the Dawn
 * Poisonous Friend
 * Power Fist
 * Punctuated for Emphasis: "I-AM-CALM!"
 * Room Full of Crazy: A subtle version of this trope in the Room Full of Crosses built by Wood to trap Spike, hinting at his obsession with revenge.
 * Rousing Speech
 * Rule of Symbolism: Spike and Buffy both cut loose their parents.
 * Single Tear
 * Staking the Loved One / Apologetic Attacker
 * Stylistic Suck: "Her eyes, balls of honey". No wonder Cecily told William to take a hike.
 * Surpassed the Teacher
 * Terms of Endangerment
 * Trigger Phrase
 * Stake Catch
 * Verbal Backspace
 * "You need a place to cut loose, let your hair down—so to speak."
 * I hate to be cruel— No, I don't. I used to hate to be cruel in life. Now, I find it rather freeing.
 * Walk in Chime In / Not So Dire / Good Old Ways: Giles bursting in to Wood's office to complain about the library.
 * We Need a Distraction: Robin knocking over the trash bin to save his mother, and Giles taking Buffy out for some training so he can kill Spike in the present.
 * You Killed My Mother
 * You Fight Like a Cow: Once again this appears to be an innate trait of Slayers.
 * You Remind Me of X