Best Quotes From "Pangs" - A Buffy Thanksgiving

"Pangs" is one of my favorite episodes. The writers and actors had a great time exploring all the various pros and cons of celebrating Thanksgiving Day, and we get to see Buffy showing that she can also Slay the Culinary Arts in the kitchen. Angel makes a cameo, unbeknownst to Buffy, and Spike has to be tied to a chair in order to behave, but gets to eat some gravy as a reward. Xander contracts syphilis as Native American revenge, but then finds a cure. There's a LOT to be thankful for!

Read the complete script Here on Buffyworld

Some of the best quotes:

BUFFY: You know what I should do? I should have my own Thanksgiving.Invite all you guys, cook the whole meal just ike Mom always does. It'll be great!
WILLOW: Buffy, earlier you agreed with me about Thanksgiving. It's a sham! It's all about death!
BUFFY: It's a sham, but it's a sham with yams. A yam sham.
WILLOW: You're not going to jokey-rhyme your way out of this one.

GILES: Tell me again why we're not doing this at your house.
BUFFY: Giles, if you want to get by in American society you have to learn our traditions. You're the patriarch. You have to host the festivities or it's all meaningless.
GILES: And this is in no way an elaborate scheme to stick me with the clean up.

Spike peers through a dusty window into a dilapidated building. Inside, in a pool of golden lamp-light, a small nest of vampires is settling down with a dazed human victim. An older vampire is about to bite. Then he pauses and holds the whimpering victim out to a younger vampire. A heart-warming domestic scene. Spike watches, his breath frosting the window, a picture of misery and longing.

RILEY (Talking about his home in Iowa) ... After dinner, we all go for a walk down by the river with the dogs. And there's... trees, and I know what you're thinking, it's like I grew up in a Grant Wood painting.
BUFFY Exactly. If I knew who that was.
RILEY Just a guy who painted stuff that looked like what I grew up in.
BUFFY: Ah. Well, have fun at the homestead.
RILEY: Always do. What's the line -- "Home's the place that, when you have to go there --"
BUFFY: "-- they have to take you in." That's what they say.

BUFFY: We don't say Indian.
GILES: Yes! Right. Always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as 'bloody colonials'.
BUFFY: The thing is, I like my evil like my men: evil. You know, straight up, black hat, tie you to the railroad tracks, soon my electroray will destroy metropolis BAD. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture.

BUFFY: What happened to the Chumash?
WILLOW: How about imprisonment? Forced labor? Herded like animals into a mission full of bad European diseases?
BUFFY: Boy, the Cultural Partnership center really didn't stress any of that stuff.

XANDER: Can we come rocketing back to the part about me and my new syphilis?
ANYA: Oh, that'll make you blind and insane, but it won't kill you. The smallpox will.
XANDER: Sweetie... not helping.

GILES: Buffy, Xander is in real danger. Are you sure the solution is pie?
BUFFY: Over bickering and confusion? I'll take pie.

GILES: We will find a solution --
BUFFY: And we will have a nice dinner. Okay? Both. End of story. I'm having a Thanksgiving. It's going to be perfect.

SPIKE: Help me...
Buffy slams a palm to his chest, sends him flying back on his ass. He scrambles out of the direct sunlight, his blanket beginning to smoke.
SPIKE: What part of "help me" did you not understand?
BUFFY: The part where I help you.
SPIKE: Come on! I'm parboiling out here!

SPIKE: I'm saying Spike had a little trip to the vet and now he doesn't chase the other puppies anymore. I can't bite anything. I can't even hit people.

Spike is being tied to a chair. Buffy finishes the last knot as he complains:
SPIKE: Bloody hell, woman! You're cutting off my circulation.
BUFFY: You don't have any circulation.
SPIKE: Well it pinches.

SPIKE: Oh, someone put a stake in me!
XANDER: You got a lot of volunteers in here...

SPIKE: I just can't take this mamby-pamby boo-hooing over the bloody Indians!
WILLOW: The preferred term is --
SPIKE: You won! All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do! That's what Caesar did, he's not going around saying "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it"! The history of the world is not people making friends. You had better weapons, you massacred them, end of story!

XANDER: Maybe it's the syphilis talking, but some of that made sense.

SPIKE: Do you know what happens to a vampire that doesn't get to feed?
GILES: Actually, I've always wondered.
SPIKE: Living skeletons, mate. Like famine pictures from those dusty countries, only not half as funny.

BUFFY: You can have gravy. Gravy has blood in it, right?
SPIKE: You know what else has blood in it? Blood!

(After the Chumash Warrior turns into a bear)
SPIKE: You made a bear!
BUFFY: I didn't mean to!
SPIKE: Undo it! Undo it!

XANDER: Hey! Gentle Ben! Over here!
Not getting a reaction, Xander grabs a bag of raw, unpeeled potatoes. He starts lobbing them at the bear.
XANDER: (to the bear)That's for giving me syphilis!

WILLOW: ... did you see me? Two seconds of conflict with an indigenous person and I turn into General Custer.

BUFFY: It wasn't exactly a perfect Thanksgiving.
XANDER: I don't know. It kinda seemed right to me. A bunch of anticipation, a big fight and now we're all sleepy.

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Gingersol

Gingersol's "Never Noticed" plays at the end of the "The Wish," season 3, episode 9. Cordelia is angry at Xander and makes a wish in front of Anyanka the Vengeance Demon, who later become Anya, Xander's girlfriend. But in this episode Anya is still rocking the vengeance, and goes all out to give Cordelia some revenge by creating a Sunnydale where Buffy has never existed. This episode is famous for the alternate universe in which Vampire Willow and Vampire Xander are creepy lovers who torture Angel and stalk teenagers.

This is an ironically upbeat song to end such a dark episode.





Never Noticed:

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Bif Naked

Bif Naked's name is a play on her name Beth and the phrase "buff naked," which fits right into Buffy the Vampire Slayer canon. She is a Canadian/American singer with a soulful voice and an interesting goth background. Her videos remind me of Pink's later work - clearly an influence!

Via Canadian Expat on Wordpress:

For anyone who doesn’t know Bif she was born in New Delhi, India to two teenage Americans attending a private school there which resulted in her being adopted by missionaries and being brought back to the US. From elementary age on she lived in The Pas, Dauphin, and finally Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has a bit of a gothic look, lots of tattoos and an amazing voice. She’s been called Gwen Stefani’s evil twin which I’m sure she hates because she’s unique in her own right, and well, much more awesome.
Since I heard her last she’s released 2 more albums, acted in various shows and movies, continued to write poetry, and has done motivational speaking.

From Huffington Post

...Bif Naked has made a career out of being a badass chick. Initially, it was by way of the late-'90s CanRock boys club, prowling Edgefest stages, infiltrating rock radio and even performing at the Hellmouth-adjacent all-ages club on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
More recently, the heavily tattooed singer has become known as a badass chick in another venue -- the B.C. Cancer Agency's Vancouver Centre, where she successfully beat breast cancer with a lumpectomy and chemo back in 2008-2009. She now returns regularly, boldly confronting her own fragile mortality to encourage those women still fighting for their lives.

Lucky:



Moment of Weakness:



Bif Naked's songs appear in the fourth season of Buffy, episode 3 "The Harsh Light of Day," all from the album with a great title "I Bificus" - a reference to "I Spartacus," from the Kirk Douglas movie. The three songs are "Lucky," "Moment of Weakness," and "Anything" (which unfortunately has no video I can find). The song "Lucky" is included on "Buffy: The Album."




In this episode, Spike uses the fabled Gem of Amarra ring to make himself invincible to sunlight. Eventually Buffy defeats him and decides to give the ring to Angel in Los Angeles. This is the reverse of what happens at the end of the series, when Buffy rejects Angel and gives the "champion" medallion to Spike, who by that time has proven his love and loyalty, and won back his soul. And of course, in the "harsh light" of that rare gem he fries himself to kill the demons underground and save the world.



This is considered a "cross-over" episode because action continues on the show "Angel," episode "In the Dark," when Spike goes to LA to get the Gem of Amarra back from Angel, torturing him with exposure to light. Nice contrast with the episode titles - "Harsh Light" versus "In the Dark."



The title also refers to disillusionment with relationships, as Buffy wakes up to regrets for sleeping with Parker (see this previous post about "Beer Bad"), and Anya strips down to throw herself at Xander, with unsatisfactory results. Another disillusioned woman is the vampiress Harmony, who realizes that Spike doesn't love her but merely uses her for sex. The point of all three stories is that it's easy to confuse sex with love, and that feelings often aren't mutual.

Sarah Michelle Geller Loves Some HGTV

Who knew? "Crazy Ones" star Sarah Michelle Geller has a favorite show and it has nothing to do with vampires, and everything to do with the home-selling Canadian show "Love it or List it." It's rather hilarious that she expresses such a liking for HGTV, the home-improvement cable channel, since a running joke on Buffy was that the Summers house was constantly being destroyed by demons, to the point that Xander had to learn to be a construction worker so the house could be fixed before the next episode.

The Loop Canada

Spying this reporter’s press badge, Gellar’s eyes opened wide. “Wait, are you TV Guide Canada?” she asked excitedly. “Can we discuss my obsession with Love It or List It?!?”

“It’s like my favourite show!” she continued. “And I love Love It or List It too with the girl from The Bachelorette!”

By Love It or List It Too Gellar was referring to Love It or List It Vancouver, the spinoff series that pairs one-time reality star Jillian Harris with Todd Talbot (picture above). Apparently that’s what the show — which returns to Canada’s W Network on Monday — is called in the States, where it airs on HGTV.

Gellar described herself as an “HGTV addict,” with Canadian import Love It or List It being one of her main fixes. She apparently encourages her friends and co-workers to watch it constantly. She explained, laughing, “I’m like, ‘You have to see what happens! They’re either going to love it or they’re going to list it!’”

. . . “I only know Vancouver. I only know Kitsilano,” she explained, before launching into an impression of her future, house-showing self. “Like, ‘Here’s a really nice house in Kitsilano!’”

Slayer Sountrack Sunday ~ "The Sun Keeps Shining" By Fonda

Fonda appeared in the Buffy episode "All the Way" from Season 6. The title is an obvious reference to teen sexual activity, and Dawn thinks she is ready for that . . . until her date turns out to be a vampire! And Dawn gets her first kiss on Halloween, which seems totally appropriate for a rather supernatural girl.

Also in this episode, Tara is getting fed up with Willow's magicks, and Xander announces his engagement to Anya while wearing a pirate costume and eye-patch - foreshadowing his "accident" in Season 7.

Although the action takes place on Halloween night, this is actually a breezy summer song.



From YouTube

Los Angeles based indie-pop band, Fonda perform "The Sun Keeps Shining On Me" live. The song was originally released on Fonda's 2001 CD, "The Strange and the Familiar" and is now available on the original motion picture soundtrack for "Remember Me."

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ The Triangle

"The Triangle" is an episode from Season 5 in which a Troll who was once involved with Anya appears to wreak havoc on Sunnydale. The title of the episode applies not just to Xander-Anya and the Troll, but to Buffy mourning the absence of Riley while Spike is falling in love with her.

The Troll is mostly a humorous charactor, but the giant Troll Hammer which he leaves behind plays an important part later when Buffy fights the goddess Glory at the end of Season 5.

There are two songs played in this episode.

The first is "There's no Other Way" by Blur which plays at the Bronze. The song is included on the album Independent Stuff (CD Compilation, 20 Tracks, Various, Diverse Artists)




The second is The Dandy Warhols "Bohemian Like You" from their album Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia.
It's included on both the American and UK versions of Radio Sunnydale. Click the pictures to buy either album.