Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S7/E02 Beneath You

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From beneath you, it devours.

The Scoobies meet a woman who's being terrified by a worm monster. Spike turns up offering his help.

"Holding myself, spilling useless buckets of salt over your...ending."

Spike: Am I flesh? Am I flesh to you? Feed on flesh. My flesh. Nothing else. Not a spark. (nods) Oh, fine. Flesh then. Solid through. (starts unzipping his pants) Get it hard; service the girl.

Dawn: Spike. You sleep, right? You. Vampires. You sleep.
Spike: Yeah. What's your point, niblet?
Dawn: Well, I can't take you in a fight or anything, even with a chip in your head. But you do sleep. If you hurt my sister at all... touch her... you're gonna wake up on fire.

  • Big Damn Heroes: Buffy comes swinging in on a rope to snatch Nancy from the jaws of the monster. Errol Flynn would be proud.
  • Bilingual Bonus / Suspiciously Apropos Music: Involving a Potential in Germany being chased by assassins near a nightclub. A techno piece by Stillste Stund blares on the score, with the only lyrics being "Von der Tiefe verschlingt es" -- German for "From the depth it devours".
  • Bored with Insanity: Subverted; Spike appears to have reverted to normal, but Buffy doesn't believe his explanation that the zombie ghosts in "Lessons" were responsible for his ravings. She soon discovers his 'sanity' is only a facade.
  • Brick Joke: Wood doesn't eat at the Doublemeat Palace because he's a vegetarian -- the Secret Ingredient of their burgers is soy meat. He also warns Buffy not to befriend the students as they'll "eat you alive."

Buffy: You heard about Principal Flutie, right?

  • Buffy-Speak: Willow is worried she'll go all veiny again. Xander says the Arc Words sound "monsterific".
  • Call Back: After Buffy finds out Angel is a vampire with a soul, they kiss and we see Buffy's cross necklace searing his chest. Here after Buffy realizes Spike has a soul, he drapes his body on a large cross as it burns him. Likewise Angel tells her in that episode, "I wanted to kill you" and Spike uses the words "I dreamt of killing you".
    • Spike's Game Face and Evil Gloating in the Bronze harks back to when he was an unambiguous villain in Season 2.
    • Buffy not telling her friends about Spike's return matches her actions re Angel's return in Season 3.
    • Spike is Reduced to Ratburgers as Angel was after getting his soul (depicted in "Becoming, Part One").
    • "Can we rest, Buffy?" may be a reference to Spike's "Rest in Peace" song in "Once More With Feeling".
  • Continuity Nod: Loads
    • Buffy's prophetic dreams, last seen in Season 4's "Hush".
    • Spike taunting Buffy with "Working out the personal issues, huh?" and "Ooh, up for another round at the balcony then?" refer to Buffy beating Spike and having sex with him on the Bronze balcony in "Dead Things"
    • Dawn smooching a vampire happened in "All The Way".
    • Anya and Spike bring up their one-time Sex for Solace in "Entropy".
    • Spike assuming that Buffy just wants sex when she touches him refers to their Destructive Romance, when Buffy would use Spike for sex and then walk out whenever things got platonic. Buffy's horrified response is due to his Attempted Rape in "Seeing Red".
    • "Do not start by saying you're sorry." The rape attempt happened after Spike went to Buffy's house to apologise for sleeping with Anya.
    • Spike talks of "spilling great buckets of salt over your ending" (Buffy's death in "The Gift").
    • Principal Flutie was eaten by students possessed by hyena spirits in "The Pack".
  • Crash Into Hello: Nancy flees from the worm demon and runs into Xander. Unfortunately it doesn't lead to romance despite Xander's hopes, cause Nancy finds the Scoobies are even crazier than her ex.
  • Create Your Own Villain: Though it wasn't Nancy's fault, as she didn't know she was talking to a vengeance demon with a quota to fill.
  • Double Meaning Title: "Beneath You" refers to both the burrowing Monster of the Week and the Arc Words. It may also refer to "Fool for Love" where Cecily and later Buffy rejected William/Spike's ardor with the flat statement of "You're beneath me."
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Buffy dreams of the murder of a Potential in Frankfurt, and realises there's more deaths to follow.
  • Eureka Moment: Nancy using the word 'wish' makes Xander realise that Anya is responsible for the worm monster. Spike mentioning Angel makes Buffy realise that Spike now has a soul.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Spike's Slicked-Back Hair of Sanity.
  • Eyes Never Lie: Anya looks in Spike's eyes and sees he has a soul.
  • Face Framed in Shadow: Spike in the church. "I dreamt of killing you."
  • Fatal Attractor: Dawn tells Buffy and Xander that they really need to "ease up with the whole dating demons thing."

Buffy: Uh, hello, I'm sorry. Wasn't that you having the smooch-a-thon with Teen Vampire last Halloween?

  • Foreshadowing: Anya warns there will be consequences of her cancelling the spell on Ronnie.
  • Flashback Echo: Spike hands Buffy a torch and their fingers touch -- the body contact causes Buffy to flash back to Spike's Attempted Rape.
  • Ghost Butler: On her first day as school counsellor, Buffy slips down to the Creepy Basement to check on Spike. She can't find him, but a door slams elsewhere, implying Spike slipped out to avoid her.
  • Good Costume Switch: Spike's blue shirt. After his breakdown he takes it off, saying, "It didn't work. Costume. Didn't help. Couldn't hide."
  • Heroic BSOD: Spike after he impales a human (Ronnie who'd just been changed back from a worm demon).
  • Ho Yay (In-Universe): The intertwined sexual history of Buffy, Spike, Xander and Anya is explained to Nancy. In exasperation she asks if any of them haven't slept together -- Xander and Spike share an awkward look.
  • Holy Burns Evil / Macho Masochism / Crucified Hero Shot: The episode ends with Ensouled!Spike draping himself over the church cross.
  • Mission Control: Dawn appoints herself this. When Buffy gives her a look, she says she'll actually be doing her homework, "but the other one sounded cooler."
  • Monster of the Week
  • I'm Having Soul Pains: "They put the spark in me, and all it does...is burn."
  • Leitmotif: The Season 7 Spuffy theme is heard for the first time.
  • Literal Genie: Subverted as Anya - feeling the pressure from her fellow demons - is embellishing the wishes. Nancy just wished her ex-boyfriend Ronnie was a worm, not that he'd turn into a giant Sluggoth demon.
  • Love Martyr: Buffy is shocked that Spike would damage himself like this by getting a soul.

Buffy: Why? Why would you do that--
Spike: Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn't? For her. To be hers.

  • Meaningful Echo: When Buffy hears Spike repeat the Arc Words during his raving.
  • Moral Myopia: Anya being upset over the dog being eaten.
  • Musicalis Interruptus: The techno-beat music stops when the Frankfurt Potential is killed.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Principal Wood jokes that kids only understand "the boot, the bat and the bastinada." When Buffy just stares, Wood mutters that the joke never works because no-one knows what a bastinada is.

Buffy: Wooden rod to slap the soles of the feet in Turkish prisons, but if made with the correct wood makes an awesome Billy club?
Wood: I think you're going to fit in just fine.

  • Poor Communication Kills: The Scoobies call Buffy on the fact that she's still holding back important information from them. Averted when Buffy has the patience to sort through all Spike's evasions and mad babbling to find out what's really the problem.
  • Red Herring: The Scoobies assume that "From beneath you it devours" refers to the burrowing Monster of the Week.
  • Roof Hopping: Buffy and Spike chasing the worm demon.
  • Unusual Euphemism: Again subverted.

Anya: Oh, penis!

Nancy: Is your girlfriend always this... commanding?
Xander: Who? Buffy? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. See, uh, I mean, she's a girl, and she's a friend, but she's not my girlfriend.
Dawn: Xander... a little drool.

Spike: And now everybody's in here, talking. [snip] They all just tell me go... go... to Hell.

Nancy: You hear things in this town, living here in Sunnydale, but nobody actually believes them.

Buffy: Spike, have you completely lost your mind?
Spike: Well, yes. Where've you been all night?

Buffy: The only thing that I need is a little--
Spike: (from the door) What you need is help. Fortunately, you've got me.

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