Intervention (Buffy episode)
Encyclopedia
"Intervention" is the eighteenth episode in the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
that she's worried about her ability to love. Giles suggests he and Buffy go to a sacred location in the desert so that she can undergo a vision quest. When they arrive, Giles performs a ritual to create Buffy's guide. A mountain lion appears and directs Buffy into an open desert that reminds her of her dream from "Restless
."
Glory orders her minions to watch the Slayer and see who is new and special in her life, as that person is likely to be the Key. That night, one of the minions watches the group through a window at Xander's apartment; Dawn secretly takes Anya's earrings from a table.
Spike receives his Buffybot from Warren
, commissioned in "I Was Made to Love You
". Spike and his Buffybot pretend to fight, which inevitably leads to sex. While Spike is sleeping it off, the Buffybot heads out to patrol for vampires. She runs into Xander and Anya in a graveyard and successfully masquerades as Buffy. Later, Xander and Anya oversee Spike and the Buffybot having sex in the cemetery, and shocked, Xander goes to confront them. However, Glory's minions assume Spike is the Key, and knock Xander unconscious and take Spike. Glory is upset when she sees Spike, as she knows a vampire cannot be the Key. Nevertheless, she decides to torture him in hopes that he knows where the Key is.
Buffy wakes to find the First Slayer on the opposite side of a large fire. The First Slayer advises Buffy that love is at the center of all Slayers and that love will bring Buffy to her gift. When Buffy asks "What gift?", the First Slayer tells her death is her gift.
Worried about Spike, the Buffybot leaves Xander unconscious at the crypt and goes to Xander's apartment for help. Willow
sternly talks to the Buffybot (whom she mistakes for Buffy) about her sexual relationship with Spike, until Xander comes home and fills everyone in about Spike being taken by Glory's minions. Realizing Glory has a captive who knows that Dawn is the Key, Willow, Xander, and the Buffybot head to the Summers' residence for weapons so they can either rescue Spike before he can reveal Dawn's secret, or do what must be done to keep him from talking. Tara stays behind with Dawn, who is asleep in another room. When the Buffybot goes upstairs to change, the real Buffy enters, which clears up all the confusion and leaves the gang disgusted at the thought of why Spike had Warren build the Buffybot. The real Buffy tells the gang to grab their weapons, she knows where to start looking for Spike and Glory, and is ready to kill him. Meanwhile, Glory is brutally torturing Spike, who refuses to tell her the Key's location and subjects Glory to a symphony of verbal abuse. Spike manages to escape through the elevator. When the elevator lands at the lobby, Spike collapses in relief when he sees Buffy and Xander rush in. They are soon joined by Giles and the Buffybot, who gets injured in the fight. Two of Glory's minions run away, and confess to Glory that the Slayer and her friends rescued Spike. The Hell-God is not pleased and responds violently, causing the two of them to scream out in pain.
At the Magic Box, Willow examines the Buffybot, and determines that she'd easily be able to fix it, but sheepishly says she won't when she sees the look on Buffy's face. Xander, though disgusted by the purpose of the Buffybot, expresses a sort of sympathy for Spike, having seen the extent of his injuries when he (Xander) and Giles brought him back to his crypt, during which they were unable to discover whether or not Spike sold Dawn out. While Spike, beaten and bloody, rests, Buffy enters the crypt pretending to be the Buffybot. When Spike explains Glory wanted to know who the Key was, Buffy, mimicking the Buffybot's directness, offers to tell her, but Spike, upset, warns her that no one must know. Spike says if anything happened to Dawn, it would destroy the real Buffy, and he would rather die than let that happen. Touched, Buffy kisses him. Spike pulls back as he realizes it is actually Buffy; though disgusted by the robot, Buffy says she'll never forget what he did for her and Dawn, and departs, leaving a speechless Spike staring after her.
explains the Buffybot was introduced out of "the necessity of story", as it was "interesting to see what Spike would do with this bot... to see how those personalities affect each other." Providing Sarah Michelle Gellar
with the chance for comic relief during a period of particular grimness for her character was a "bonus... an extra scoop of ice-cream," says Espenson.
In the fight scenes in "Intervention", Xander was played by Nicholas Brendon's identical twin, Kelly Donovan
, because Nicholas suffered from pneumonia
at the time.
Plot synopsis
At the Summers's home after dinner, Buffy confesses to GilesRupert Giles
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure...
that she's worried about her ability to love. Giles suggests he and Buffy go to a sacred location in the desert so that she can undergo a vision quest. When they arrive, Giles performs a ritual to create Buffy's guide. A mountain lion appears and directs Buffy into an open desert that reminds her of her dream from "Restless
Restless (Buffy episode)
"Restless" is the 22nd episode and season finale of season four of the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and the 78th episode of the series overall...
."
Glory orders her minions to watch the Slayer and see who is new and special in her life, as that person is likely to be the Key. That night, one of the minions watches the group through a window at Xander's apartment; Dawn secretly takes Anya's earrings from a table.
Spike receives his Buffybot from Warren
Warren Mears
Warren Mears is a fictional character portrayed by Adam Busch in the American television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as its canonical comic book series continuation.-Television:...
, commissioned in "I Was Made to Love You
I Was Made to Love You (Buffy episode)
"I Was Made to Love You" is the 15th episode of season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:Buffy rants about her problems with Spike to Giles while pounding away at Xander who is wearing a sumo-sized bodysuit. Xander consoles the Slayer about her love life, blaming the...
". Spike and his Buffybot pretend to fight, which inevitably leads to sex. While Spike is sleeping it off, the Buffybot heads out to patrol for vampires. She runs into Xander and Anya in a graveyard and successfully masquerades as Buffy. Later, Xander and Anya oversee Spike and the Buffybot having sex in the cemetery, and shocked, Xander goes to confront them. However, Glory's minions assume Spike is the Key, and knock Xander unconscious and take Spike. Glory is upset when she sees Spike, as she knows a vampire cannot be the Key. Nevertheless, she decides to torture him in hopes that he knows where the Key is.
Buffy wakes to find the First Slayer on the opposite side of a large fire. The First Slayer advises Buffy that love is at the center of all Slayers and that love will bring Buffy to her gift. When Buffy asks "What gift?", the First Slayer tells her death is her gift.
Worried about Spike, the Buffybot leaves Xander unconscious at the crypt and goes to Xander's apartment for help. Willow
Willow Rosenberg
Willow Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan...
sternly talks to the Buffybot (whom she mistakes for Buffy) about her sexual relationship with Spike, until Xander comes home and fills everyone in about Spike being taken by Glory's minions. Realizing Glory has a captive who knows that Dawn is the Key, Willow, Xander, and the Buffybot head to the Summers' residence for weapons so they can either rescue Spike before he can reveal Dawn's secret, or do what must be done to keep him from talking. Tara stays behind with Dawn, who is asleep in another room. When the Buffybot goes upstairs to change, the real Buffy enters, which clears up all the confusion and leaves the gang disgusted at the thought of why Spike had Warren build the Buffybot. The real Buffy tells the gang to grab their weapons, she knows where to start looking for Spike and Glory, and is ready to kill him. Meanwhile, Glory is brutally torturing Spike, who refuses to tell her the Key's location and subjects Glory to a symphony of verbal abuse. Spike manages to escape through the elevator. When the elevator lands at the lobby, Spike collapses in relief when he sees Buffy and Xander rush in. They are soon joined by Giles and the Buffybot, who gets injured in the fight. Two of Glory's minions run away, and confess to Glory that the Slayer and her friends rescued Spike. The Hell-God is not pleased and responds violently, causing the two of them to scream out in pain.
At the Magic Box, Willow examines the Buffybot, and determines that she'd easily be able to fix it, but sheepishly says she won't when she sees the look on Buffy's face. Xander, though disgusted by the purpose of the Buffybot, expresses a sort of sympathy for Spike, having seen the extent of his injuries when he (Xander) and Giles brought him back to his crypt, during which they were unable to discover whether or not Spike sold Dawn out. While Spike, beaten and bloody, rests, Buffy enters the crypt pretending to be the Buffybot. When Spike explains Glory wanted to know who the Key was, Buffy, mimicking the Buffybot's directness, offers to tell her, but Spike, upset, warns her that no one must know. Spike says if anything happened to Dawn, it would destroy the real Buffy, and he would rather die than let that happen. Touched, Buffy kisses him. Spike pulls back as he realizes it is actually Buffy; though disgusted by the robot, Buffy says she'll never forget what he did for her and Dawn, and departs, leaving a speechless Spike staring after her.
Production details
Writer Jane EspensonJane Espenson
Jane Espenson is an American script writer and television producer who has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode "Conversations with Dead People"...
explains the Buffybot was introduced out of "the necessity of story", as it was "interesting to see what Spike would do with this bot... to see how those personalities affect each other." Providing Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...
with the chance for comic relief during a period of particular grimness for her character was a "bonus... an extra scoop of ice-cream," says Espenson.
In the fight scenes in "Intervention", Xander was played by Nicholas Brendon's identical twin, Kelly Donovan
Kelly Donovan
Kelly Donovan , is an American actor. He is best known for his work as the stand-in for character Xander Harris, the role portrayed by his identical twin brother, Nicholas Brendon, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
, because Nicholas suffered from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at the time.
Cultural references
- The Price Is RightThe Price Is RightThe Price Is Right is a television game show franchise originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and created by Bob Stewart, and is currently produced and owned by FremantleMedia. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also includes merchandise such as video games, printed...
– Spike mockingly tells Glory that Bob BarkerBob BarkerRobert William "Bob" Barker is a former American television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS's The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history, and for hosting Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1975.Born...
is the key. - The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
– Xander describes Glory's minions as hobbitHobbitHobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
s with leprosyLeprosyLeprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
. - Buffy asks if the quest is for finding a grailHoly GrailThe Holy Grail is a sacred object figuring in literature and certain Christian traditions, most often identified with the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper and said to possess miraculous powers...
. - Giles's ritual for the vision quest resembles the Hokey-Pokey.
- Dawn is seen reading TwistTwist (magazine)Twist Magazine is a teenage magazine printed monthly. It is published by Bauer Publishing, the United States division of the German firm Bauer Verlagsgruppe. Like the majority of teenage magazines, it contains common features like teen gossip, quizzes, fashion, popular celebrity couples, posters...
magazine.
Continuity
- In the season four finale, "RestlessRestless (Buffy episode)"Restless" is the 22nd episode and season finale of season four of the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer , and the 78th episode of the series overall...
", which also had a psychological bent, the First Slayer made an appearance but did not speak except for the words "No... friends...just...the kill." Here she speaks fluently because she is actually a spirit guide in the form of the First Slayer there to tell Buffy things about being a Slayer, and three episodes laterThe Weight of the World (Buffy episode)"The Weight of the World" is the 21st episode of season 5 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.In the episode, Willow tries to reach the Slayer, who has been rendered catatonic by Dawn's abduction...
this conversation with the spirit guide will lead Buffy to believe that she is just a killer, as the First Slayer was. - Xander says of Buffy and the Buffybot, "They're both Buffy". This is a reference to "The ReplacementThe Replacement (Buffy episode)"The Replacement" is the third episode of season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:Xander and Anya watch a movie with Buffy and Riley while listening to the background noise of Xander's drunken parents fighting and yelling upstairs. The next day, the gang looks at a...
", also written by Jane EspensonJane EspensonJane Espenson is an American script writer and television producer who has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode "Conversations with Dead People"...
who said on multiple occasions she enjoys adding references to episodes she wrote. - Spike's dislike of Angel manifests itself in Buffybot's programmed opinion of Angel. The other vampire is "lame. His hair grows straight up and he's bloody stupid."
- Buffy remembers the desert from her dream in "Restless". She will send the potential slayers to the same desert in "The Killer in Me".
Arc significance
- The Buffybot, introduced in this episode, plays a crucial role in "The Gift" and "Bargaining".
- Dawn is shown to steal Anya's earrings; her increasing kleptomaniaKleptomaniaKleptomania is an irresistible urge to steal items of trivial value. People with this disorder are compelled to steal things, generally, but not limited to, objects of little or no significant value, such as pens, paper clips, paper and tape...
is eventually discovered in "Older and Far Away". - Buffy loses her anger towards Spike and welcomes him back into the fold.
- In this episode, Buffy finds out that "death is [her] gift", which leads to her decision to die to save the world in "The Gift".
- This episode, like "Something Blue", foreshadows the romance between Buffy and Spike.
- Warren leaves town after delivering the Buffybot to Spike. This is his last appearance until Season Six's " Flooded".
External links
- "Intervention" at BuffyGuide.com