Trivia
Eat your heart out Willis: The title and some plot elements of this episode are taken from the action thriller Die Hard, thought by many to be the blueprint for a great action film. Willis' character, hard-man cop John McClane, defeats a group of terrorists holding a building to ransom in a frenzy of action, gunfire and action.
Introducing for the first time: This episode marks the debut of the Spike and Drusilla mean team. That's not James Marsters' real voice, by the way. He's actually a Californian.
Counting Down According to the sign Spike passes on the way into Sunnydale, the town's population is 38,500. Keep an eye on that figure in future episodes - the trend is unlikely to be up.
Heavy, man: Spike mentions being at Woodstock, the celebrated hippie festival held in 1969. It featured great music from bands including Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and The Who, and wild dancing by women wearing nothing but body paint.
From Spike's description, it sounds like the "flower person" he snacked on had obviously had something a little stronger than herbal tea.
Seedy Sunnydale: It turns out that there is a rival to the Bronze in Sunnydale - the rank "Fish Tank" bar. Teenage delinquent Sheila goes there, so they're obviously not too hot on checking ID there.
Sainted mercilessness: According to Giles and Jenny Calendar the coming Saturday is St Vigeous day. This entirely fabricated saint apparently led a crusade of vampires who "swept through Edessa, Harran and points east". And didn't leave a lot behind.
How old? Giles says Spike is "barely two hundred", according to his books. This time his books must be a little out, because later episodes make it clear that Spike is actually just nudging 120 at this time.
Rice to see you: "People still fall for that old Anne Rice routine?" laughs Spike when Angel claims he's been using the tortured soul act to keep the Slayer off his back. Anne Rice wrote a massively bestselling series of vampire novels, including Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned, which have subsequently been filmed.
Hallo Dad, er, Gramps: "You were my sire, man!" Spike shouts at Angel. Oddly, it later turns out that actually Angelus sired Drusilla, who then sired Spike. So that would make Angel Spike's grand-sire, surely? To clear up the confusion, Joss Whedon has gone on record to say that both come to the same thing, and he always intended that Drusilla be Spike's sire.
Uncle Angel's Cabin: Spike also accuses Angel of being an Uncle Tom. Referring to the 1852 book by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, the term is usually used to mean a black person who sucks up to whites. In a vampire context it presumably means someone who's fangy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Feel the Force : Angelus was Yoda to Spike's Skywalker it seems. Rather than being a muppety sage in The Empire Strikes Back, he no doubt acted as a mentor in mayhem back when Spike was but a wee vamp.
The truth? Pah! Snyder appears to know that something odd is going on in Sunnydale by the time of this episode. When talking to the police after escaping the school, he scoffs at telling the truth, deciding to go with the old "gangs on PCP" story instead.
