Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S7/E06 Him
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Welcome to the Hellmouth, where even outerwear isn't safe. |
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The Scoobie girls fall for Dawn's classmate RJ, thanks to his magical letterman jacket.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders / All Men Are Perverts: RJ's friend hears about the cheerleader tryouts and asks if the girls are going to be jumping up and down a lot. And later...
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Buffy: You shredded my outfit. |
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- An Axe to Grind: Buffy vs. the demon that D'Hoffryn sent to kill Anya.
- Bare Your Midriff: Dawn, the Pushy Queen of Slut Town.
- Blatant Lies: Anya claiming she wrote an epic poem for BJ, when actually she robbed several banks to get him money.
- Buffy-Speak: Soul-having. Rant Girl. No more with the talky.
- Xander re Spike: "Crazy-Basement-Guy is better than Stalking-Buffy-Guy."
- Breather Episode
- Call Back
- Dawn asks Buffy if she loves Spike, just as Tara did in "Dead Things". This time Buffy is able to answer the question -- no, but she does have feelings for him.
- Dawn fears she can't compete with her cooler, more assertive, and sexually-experienced sister, just as teenaged Buffy once worried about losing Angel to girls like Cordelia or Faith.
- Xander walking in on Buffy straddling RJ is like when he came across the Buffybot straddling Spike in "Intervention".
- Spike turning the angel statuettes so they couldn't face him, like Drusilla bandaging the eyes of her dolls.
- Spike moving in with Xander, and Lance living in his mother's basement and working dead-end jobs, is a call back to Xander in Season 4.
- Willow trying to sort out a relationship problem by immediately resorting to magic.
- Cat Fight: Dawn and another of RJ's paramours get into a hair-pulling contest outside the Bronze.
- Chekhovs's Bazooka: The rocket launcher Buffy used to dust The Judge is used again to try and kill Wood.
- Also the cheerleader outfit that Buffy last wore in Season One ("The Wish").
- Coincidental Broadcast: Quickly turned off by Anya when the radio starts talking about the masked gunman who held up a number of businesses--
- Continuity Nod
- Buffy follows up on her insistence that Spike move out of the Sunnydale High basement, making him room with a reluctant Xander.
- Buffy startles when Spike touches her unexpectedly; his attempted rape still leaves its scars.
- Buffy's poor driving skills in her mother's SUV, as seen in "Band Candy".
- Buffy insisting everyone but her is affected by the spell, as she did in "Somthing Blue".
- Dawn brings up Buffy's taste for rough sex -- according to a deleted line on the shooting script, she found this out from Anya who would have got the information during her drinking session with Spike in "Entropy".
- Xander identifying the effects of a love spell is due to his experiences in "Something Blue" and "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" -- the latter also showed how the spell can affect a person's sense of right and wrong, with the affected girls all trying to murder Xander as shown in the flashback.
- Dawson Casting: Thad Luckinbill, who portrays RJ is actually TEN years older than Michelle Trachtenberg and two years older than Sarah Michelle Gellar.
- Department of Redundancy Department
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Willow: Damn love spell. I have tried every anti-love spell spell I could find. |
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- Distracted by the Sexy: Dawn slides along the bleachers to keep RJ in sight until she falls off the end.
- Foreshadowing: Anya discusses the feelings a gay Willow has for RJ.
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Anya: His physical form has a penis! |
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- Don't Sneak Up On Me Like That: After saying Spike is OK now he's got a soul, Buffy jumps a mile when he touches her unexpectedly.
- Driven to Suicide: Dawn lies across the railway tracks, and is only saved at the last minute by her sister.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Xander and Willow checking out Dawn, before they realise who she is.
- Flashback Echo: To "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered".
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Xander: Good times... |
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- Funny Background Event: Buffy trying to kill Wood with a rocket launcher, and Spike stopping her, is turned into a Crowning Moment of Funny due to taking place entirely in the background while Wood remains oblivious.
- Gender Bender: Willow's solution to RJ is to turn him into a girl, thus eliminating her competition so she can him...err, her all to herself. It's the less extreme of the bids for his attention.
- Hot for Teacher
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RJ: (after Buffy's "Shut Up" Kiss) You're like a teacher. |
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- I Believe That You Believe It: Buffy trying to convince Dawn that her crush on RJ isn't real.
- Incest Is Relative: Willow and Xander ogling a girl, who turns out to be their surrogate little sister Dawn.
- Insane Troll Logic: Plenty of this as each love-struck Scooby tries to explain why their love is the real deal.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Xander walks in on a half-(un)dressed Buffy in a plaid skirt, making-out cowgirl-position with RJ on a school desk.
- Kill It with Fire: The letterman jacket is burnt.
- If You Know What I Mean: Buffy tells RJ that she's pretty much the same age as him, "but with the sexual experience and stuff."
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RJ: I think I hear what you're saying. |
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- Leitmotif: "Theme From A Summer Place" by Percy Faith is heard every time someone falls in love with RJ.
- Love Makes You Crazy: At the end Dawn is moaning how stupid she acted over a love spell. Buffy tells her to prepare to feel even stupider when it's the real thing.
- Love Potion / Love At First Sight / Kissing Under the Influence
- Love Makes You Evil: When another jock gets RJ's position on the football team, Dawn pushes him down the stairs.
- Manipulative Bitch: Buffy tells Dawn that RJ likes her, but thought she was coming on too strong. Buffy The Vamp then swoops in on RJ while little sis is taking it slow.
- Mating Dance: Dawn in her very tight jeans and painted-on shirt wildly gyrating with RJ on the Bronze dance floor.
- Meaningful Echo: When Willow and Anya fall in love with RJ too, they start mimicing the words of the Dawn/Buffy spat.
- Mood Whiplash: Buffy is Twerp Sweating RJ when he slips into his jacket -- suddenly it's The Return of Puppy Dog Eyes!
- Mundane Solution: Xander and Spike's 'plan' consists of them running up to RJ, ripping off his letterman jacket and fleeing with it.
- Never Say That Again: Dawn is crying after seeing RJ making out with her sister.
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Xander: Dawn? What's wrong? Is this... Did that guy in the jacket-- |
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Dawn: Last night, you said you weren't helping Spike out of pity. What is it [if not that]? |
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- Oblivious Mockery: Spike gives Lance a dirty look when he starts ragging RJ's poetry-writing.
- Putting a Hand Over His Mouth: Xander to Willow just as she's about to complete her spell.
- Songs of Solace: After her tryout disaster Dawn lies on her bed listening to "School Blood" by King Black Acid.
- Split Screen
- Suspiciously Specific Denial
- Anya: "It was a spell. We're not responsible for anything we did morally or, you know, legally..."
- Buffy asks Xander if he thought of trying on the jacket.
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Xander: I refuse to answer that on the grounds that it didn't fit. |
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- Relative Button: Dawn trying to kill herself shocks Buffy out of the effects of the spell. Mostly.
- Riddle for the Ages: Where did RJ's father get the magic jacket?
- Rule of Three / The Last of These Is Not Like the Others
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Buffy: (to Slut!Dawn) Where do I start with the bad? First, you told me you were going to the library. Second, you do not go out on a date without informing me first. Third, Anna Nicole Smith thinks you look tacky. |
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- Running Gag: Buffy insisting she's just slightly older than RJ.
- Slow Motion
- Serious Business
- She's All Grown Up: Xander became way too aware of this when they see Dawn dancing with RJ. Willow...well let's use her words.
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Willow: "Right there with ya". |
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- Tantrum Throwing: Dawn shredding the cheerleader outfit after her disastrous tryout.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch
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Lori: I'll never let you have him, bitch. R.J. is mine. I mean it! Stay away from him! |
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Buffy: You've been out of the basement for half an hour, and you've already stopped talking to invisible people. |
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