Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S6/E09 Smashed

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Buffy: Hi...how have you been?
Amy: Rat. You?
Buffy: Dead.
Amy: Oh.

Willow finally de-rats Amy. Spike's chip has apparently stopped working. The Trio steal a diamond from the museum.

Buffy: You have a lead on this ice monster thingy?

Spike: Something like that, yeah. Thought you might be up for a little grunt-work.

Buffy: "What?!? No! (lowering her voice so the Scoobies can't hear) No grunting!

Spike: I was talking shop, love, but if you've got other ideas... You, me, a cozy little tomb with a view... (Buffy hangs up on him)

  • Bait and Switch: It looks like Spike intends to kill Buffy when he realises his chip has failed. Instead they end up having sex for the first time.
  • Beware the Nice Ones / Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Buffy thinks it's unlikely that Willow ("She Of The Level Head") will get into trouble. Xander and Anya say that responsible types - so concerned with being good all the time - are more likely to go off the rails when they have a taste of Forbidden Fruit. "It's got to be seductive." Buffy doesn't like the sound of the word 'seductive', especially when Spike chooses that moment to call her up on the phone acting all mysterious and...seductive.
  • Blatant Lies: Dawn telling Tara that Willow has cut down on her magic use. Buffy on why she kissed Spike. Buffy on why Spike called her on the phone.
  • Brutal Honesty

Anya: Oh, for crying out loud. This is bizarre. You're all, 'la la la!' with, with the magic, and the not talking, like everything's normal, when we all know that Tara up and left you and now everyone's scared to say anything to you. (pauses, smiles) Except me. (looks at Xander) Is this that thing I do that you were commenting-- (Xander nods)

Spike: I'm in love with you.
Buffy: You're in love with pain! Admit it. You like me, because you enjoy getting beat down. So really, who's screwed up?
Spike: Hello! Vampire! (They exchange punches) I'm supposed to be treading on the Dark Side. (Spike throws Buffy against the wall) What's your excuse?

  • Come Alone: Buffy receives a phone call from Spike as sinister music plays.

Spike: (talking in a low voice) Slayer...
Buffy: Spike?
Spike: Meet me at the cemetery. Twenty minutes. Come alone.
Buffy: Spike?
Spike: Bloody hell (music cuts off and Spike talks normally) Yes, it's me.

Amy: I felt like I was in that cage for weeks. (Willow looks nervous) But it can still be okay ... right? I-I can still get into the swing of things, like ... prom's coming up. I-I'm so hoping Larry would ask me. We would make such a splash at- (sees Willow's expression) Oh. Oh god. (sighs, anxiously) He hasn't asked someone else, has he?
Willow: Uh, Amy ... three things we have to talk about. One, Larry's gay. Two, Larry's dead. And three, high school's ... kinda over.

  • Continuity Nod: Spike can enter the Trio's headquarters without a Vampire Invitation because Warren's mother invited him inside in "I Was Made To Love You."
  • Cliff Hanger: The episode ends on our first Spuffy sex scene, with the day after shown in "Wrecked".
  • Death Glare: By an olive with pimento filling. Well you would too if you were about to be eaten.

Willow: No use looking at me like that. It's the gullet for you, mister.

  • Defrosting Ice Queen
  • Destructo-Nookie
  • Destructive Romance: The self-destructive cycle of the Spuffy relationship is established before it even begins. Buffy's deals with her guilt over her Spike attraction by pigeon-holing him as an evil demon, despite knowing Spike is at his best when treated as an equal. Faced with this attitude, Spike feels the only way he can have Buffy is to drag her down to his level, which only makes Buffy feel even more guilty. And the only way they can communicate without restraint is through sex and violence.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Tara's "divorced parents" discussion with Dawn.
  • Eureka Moment: Spike after Warren tells him his chip appears to be working normally.

Spike: Nothing wrong with me. Something wrong with her.

  • Failsafe Failure: Jonathan's arm freezes up after firing the Freeze Ray.
  • Foe Yay: Taken Up to Eleven -- It's the discovery that Spike can now kill Buffy that is the catalyst for their affair.
  • Foreshadowing
    • When Amy is eating cookies, a commercial for "Doublemeat Palace" can be heard playing on the television.
    • The reason the Trio stole the diamond will be revealed two episodes later in "Gone".
    • Warren's indifference to whether Rusty will survive being frozen shows the amoral nature that will come out fully in "Dead Things".
    • Buffy initiating sex with Spike in the middle of a violent confrontation will have dire consequences in "Seeing Red".
  • Freeze Ray
  • Freud Was Right (In-Universe): While admiring the diamond, the Trio conclude that size is indeed everything.
  • Funny Background Event: Buffy jumping up and down to see over the crowd at the museum.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: The (rather loud) sound of Buffy undoing Spike's trouser zipper.
  • Gigantic Gulp

Tara: Good God, that's a lot of shake. (Dawn nods) I mean, I know, part of our ... big ... Movie & Milkshake Fun Day, but ... good God, that's a lot of shake.

  • Held Gaze: The mutual "Oh-my-God-I-Can't-Believe-We're-Actually-Doing-It" look between Buffy and Spike when they start, umm, doing it.
  • Hell-Bent for Leather: Buffy wears the Leather Skirt of Forbidden Lust during her fateful fight with Spike.
  • Ho Yay: The two men wearing gold lame bikini briefs dancing in cages at the Bronze. Also with Spike/Warren.

Warren: It'll be a deal. We scratch your back, you scratch--
Spike: I'm not scratching your anything.

Rusty: What are you boys doing?
Warren: Um, we're with a tour group. (pauses) The Get-The-Freeze-Ray tour group. (Andrew and Warren don't move) Musta gotten separated.
Rusty: Museum closed five hours ago.
Warren: Really?
Rusty: Uh-huh.
Warren: Huh! Guess we just lost track of time, we should probably get the freeze ray out of here now.
(Death Glare at the others who finally get the point and start rummaging in their bag for the freeze ray)

Spike: You're a tease, you know that, Slayer? Get a fellow's motor revving, let the tension marinate a couple-a days, then bam! Crown yourself the ice queen.
Buffy: Need a few more metaphors for that little mix?

  • Mundane Utility: Using magic for Hollywood Hacking and playing pool.
  • Naked on Arrival: Amy
  • Never My Fault: Willow keeps insisting that Tara left her over 'minor' issues that got blown out of proportion.
  • The Nicknamer: Xander refers to Spike as "Captain Peroxide."
  • Note to Self:: Willow offers to help Amy with a forgetting spell, but given what happened in the previous episode suggests she sew nametags into her clothes first.
  • Oh Crap: The Trio when Spike bursts in on them. Buffy when Spike hits her without any sign of pain.
  • Parent Trap Plot: Dawn is trying to get her two mommies back together.
  • Relationship Upgrade
  • Rule of Symbolism: The house collapsing around them as Buffy and Spike begin their Destructive Romance.
  • Shapeshifting: Willow and Amy transform the dancers at the Bronze into sheep, giant strawberry people, cage dancers, and various other things just for the Hecate of it.
  • Slap Slap Kiss: More like Bash-Insult-Kiss-Rough Sex as the House Falls Down.
  • Slasher Smile: Spike when he first realises his chip isn't working.
  • Suspiciously Apropos Music: The ending sequence cuts back and forth between the scene of Spike and Buffy fighting in the abandoned house, and Willow and Amy doing magic for fun at the Bronze. An all-male band called Virgil is playing their song Here, with the chorus: "What is wrong here?/What is wrong with you?/What is wrong here?/Where is your head?" Willow and Amy decide they dislike the music, so they turn them into the all-female band Halo Friendlies, performing their song Run Away: "I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be alone/I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go it alone/Every time I see you/I just can't find words to say/I just want to turn and run away/I can't find the time and place to say what I need to say..." Eventually Willow and Amy decide that they've had their fun and turn everything back as it was, including turning the band back into Virgil performing Here.
  • Special Effect Failure: During the magic-fest at the Bronze, a hand can be seen pushing the floating man on the catwalk behind Willow and Amy.
  • Talking to Himself: Spike working himself up to bite the girl in the alley.
  • That Came Out Wrong

Buffy: When I kissed you? You know I was thinking about Giles, right?
Spike: (Double Take) You know, I always wondered about you two.

    • Spike gripes about how the chip prevented him from hurting the muggers.

Buffy: Just have to get your rocks off fightin' demons.
Spike: (suggestively) There are other ways.
Buffy: And to that, an extreme 'see you later.'

  • Tempting Fate: Buffy says, "We can't assume that everybody's getting seduced, you know." Next moment Seductive Spike calls Buffy to set up their fateful meeting.
    • "What are you gonna do, walk behind me to death?" As Spike says in reply, Buffy ought to be careful; things might be different.
  • Then Let Me Be Evil: Buffy rejects Spike's advances as he's "an evil twisted thing". It's at this point Spike discovers the chip doesn't work, so Spike's first act is to find a female victim and try to feed on her.
  • "Shut Up" Kiss: Buffy to Spike

Spike: I wasn't planning on hurting you. (smirks) Much.

Buffy: (sneering) You haven't even come close to hurting me.

Spike: Afraid to give me the chance? (Buffy throws him up against the wall) You afraid I'm gonna-- (Buffy kisses him)

Husband: (nervous) I'm sure we can work something out.
Wife: A deal of some sort. Anything you want.
Buffy: (off-screen) I always wanted a pony. (everyone turns to look at her) Oh. You weren't really speaking to me, were you? My bad.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer/Recap/S6/E09_Smashed?oldid=1209078"