Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S7/E03 Same Time, Same Place

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Scooby Gang finds flayed corpses and believe it may have been done by Willow, who has just returned from England. Unknown to all concerned, Willow has become invisible to her friends, and vice versa.

Dawn: We can develop a database of tooth impressions and demon skin samples, and I could wear high heels more often.
Buffy: Wow, that was so close to being empowered.
Dawn: Everybody loves a slender ankle.

Anya: Oh, wouldn't it be tragic if you were here being kinda silly with your comically-paralyzed sister while Willow was dying?

  • Buffy-Speak: Shock Face. Wiggins with extra wig. Helmouthy. Poseable.
  • Clear My Name
  • Continuity Nod
    • Xander writes his WELCOME BACK WILLOW sign in yellow crayon, in a deliberate homage to his Talking the Monster to Death speech in "Grave".
    • The flayed body is of course similar to how Willow killed Warren in "Villains".
    • The Magic Box is boarded up after it got destroyed in the fight between Giles and Dark!Willow.
    • On seeing Buffy, Spike tries to think up a word that rhymes with 'glowing'. This refers to the love poem William wrote for Cecily in "Fool For Love".
    • Dawn does research on the "Demons, Demons, Demons" website seen on Angel.
    • Anya's teleporting rights have been removed in punishment for her reversing the vengeance spell in the previous episode.
    • The demon location spell was first seen in Season 4's "Goodbye Iowa".
    • Anya asks if her spell-casting session with Willow will "get all sexy", a wink at how 'casting spells' was used as a Getting Crap Past the Radar way of portraying Willow and Tara's lesbian relationship in Season 4.
    • Willow avoids mentioning bunnies around Anya, who has a phobia about them.
    • Xander suggests asking questions about the demon at Willy's.
  • Deadpan Snarker

Willow: I found a dead body near the school.
Anya: Yes, that can happen.

"Gnarl loves spells. He keeps them as pets. They love him, and they leave him alone."

Buffy: Spike follows the exciting smell of blood, and we follow the fairly ripe smell of Spike.
Dawn: It's smellementary.

Willow: Well, that's why you teleport over there real quick like a bunn-- (Death Glare from Anya) real quick and, uh, see if I'm right.

  • Les Yay: Buffy and Willow holding hands on the bed? Willow and Anya doing spells together?

Anya: It did get a little sexy, didn't it?

Xander: We can't use the blueprints to find our way around down here. It's like the walls move or something.

Buffy: Dawn! Are you OK?
Dawn: I guess so... (looks down to see cut across belly)

Dawn: OK, so I looked up demons that skin their victims and demons that flay their victims 'cause, you know, same thing. There's a ton of prospects. Anything else gone? Uh, eyeballs, toenails or viscera? That's guts.
Buffy: She knows about viscera. Makes you proud.

Anya: Buffy's got some kind of job there helping junior deviants, Spike's insane in the basement, Xander's there doing construction on the new gym-—
Willow: Wait, Spike's what in the what-ment?
Anya: Insane, base.

Xander: Well, give him a break, Buffy. Maybe it's a vicious skin-eating rock cliff.
Spike: There's a cave in it. Look. (pushes the bush aside) I'm insane. What's his excuse?

Anya: Uh, it's not "The Gnarl", just "Gnarl".

Willow: Something horrible killed a boy. Took his skin right off.
Willow & Anya: (suspicious) Was it you?
Willow & Anya: (defensive) No!

Xander: I saved the world with talking from my mouth. My mouth saved the world.

  • Two Scenes, One Dialogue / Switching POV: Willow goes down to the Sunnydale High basement to see Spike. Suffering from a slight case of crazy at the time, Spike carries on a disjointed dialogue with Willow, at times speaking to an invisible person who we assume is the First. Minutes later, the scene shifts to Buffy (who can't see Willow) asking questions in the exact same room, with Spike repeating the exact same responses as before, only now the "blanks" from the audience's point of view are filled in.
  • Victim of the Week: The graffiti artist, who of course wears a Red Shirt.
  • Verbal Backspace

Buffy: It says the paralysis is permanent.
Dawn: Sht!
Buffy: No. Oh, wait. My bad. Um, permanent until the creature dies. Sorry.

  • Your Mind Makes It Real / Self-Inflicted Hell: Willow accidentally makes herself and the Scoobies invisible to each other simply by convincing herself that she couldn't face them after what she did
    • And may have accidentally summoned the Gnarl the same way because she felt Giles and the Coven weren't punishing her the way she deserved for flaying Warren
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