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Smashed (Buffy episode)
Encyclopedia
"Smashed" is the 9th episode of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
, sad and lonely without Tara
, figures out a way to turn the metamorphosed Amy
from a rat
back into human
. Feeling newly liberated, they decide to go out and have some fun. At The Bronze
, a couple of guys try to intimidate them. They perform a spell on the boys to make fun of them, but soon they begin to perform more and more complex spells, filling the Bronze with strangely dressed people, sheep, mutations and so on. Willow is beginning to have a taste of her real power and she likes it.
Warren
, Jonathan
and Andrew
steal a large diamond from a museum, in a comical scene resembling a famous sequence from the Mission: Impossible
films, leaving its sole guard frozen by their freeze-ray.
Spike
discovers that the chip in his head gives him no pain when he punches Buffy
. After verifying, with Warren's help, that the chip appears undamaged and still causes him agony when he harms humans, Spike tells Buffy that she "came back wrong" and that she "has a little demon" in her. In furious disbelief, Buffy assaults Spike and they battle until Buffy unleashes her desire and kisses him, initiating such passionate sex that the abandoned house in which they were fighting collapses around them.
A longer, more intense lovemaking scene was originally filmed for the finale of the episode, but was cut out.
s for drunkenness
or being under the influence of narcotics in American English
: "Smashed", "Wrecked
", and "Gone
". Willow's descent into her addiction to magic becomes dizzying and frightening.
Plot synopsis
WillowWillow 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...
, sad and lonely without Tara
Tara Maclay
Tara Maclay is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed by Amber Benson from the fourth to the sixth season until the character's death. Tara is a shy young woman with magical talents who falls in love...
, figures out a way to turn the metamorphosed Amy
Amy Madison
Amy Madison is a fictional character, a witch played by Elizabeth Anne Allen in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and by Shay Astar in the Season 8 motion comics. She made appearances in every season of Buffy except Seasons Five .Amy is a witch...
from a rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
back into human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
. Feeling newly liberated, they decide to go out and have some fun. At The Bronze
The Bronze
The Bronze is a fictional nightclub in Sunnydale, the fictional setting for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of 144 episodes of the series, 66 have at least one scene at the Bronze, not including its appearance in the unaired pilot....
, a couple of guys try to intimidate them. They perform a spell on the boys to make fun of them, but soon they begin to perform more and more complex spells, filling the Bronze with strangely dressed people, sheep, mutations and so on. Willow is beginning to have a taste of her real power and she likes it.
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:...
, Jonathan
Jonathan Levinson
Jonathan Levinson is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Danny Strong.-Character history:Jonathan was born in 1981 and raised in Sunnydale, California...
and Andrew
Andrew Wells
Andrew Wells is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, played by Tom Lenk. The character also appears in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, the canonical continuation of the series....
steal a large diamond from a museum, in a comical scene resembling a famous sequence from the Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible (film)
Mission: Impossible is a 1996 action thriller directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise. Following on from the television series of the same name, the plot follows a new agent, Ethan Hunt and his mission to uncover the mole within the CIA who has framed him for the murders of his entire...
films, leaving its sole guard frozen by their freeze-ray.
Spike
Spike (Buffyverse)
Spike, played by James Marsters, is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Spike is a vampire and played various roles on the shows, ranging from villain to anti-hero. For Marsters, the role as Spike began a career in science...
discovers that the chip in his head gives him no pain when he punches Buffy
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
. After verifying, with Warren's help, that the chip appears undamaged and still causes him agony when he harms humans, Spike tells Buffy that she "came back wrong" and that she "has a little demon" in her. In furious disbelief, Buffy assaults Spike and they battle until Buffy unleashes her desire and kisses him, initiating such passionate sex that the abandoned house in which they were fighting collapses around them.
Production details
Steve Tartalia, James Marsters' stunt double, says he knocked himself out during the last scene, in which Buffy and Spike fall through the ceiling. "On that fall," he says, "our legs got tangled in the breakaway ceiling, and it caused us to tilt at an angle so that my head would be the first thing to hit the ground. And it did, and it knocked me out. Basically, I came to with some flashlights and smelling salts." Stunt coordinator John Medlen also hurt himself during this episode, while demonstrating how Spike should swing from the chandelier. The chandelier broke, he fell 7 feet, and the chandelier landed on his face, breaking his nose.A longer, more intense lovemaking scene was originally filmed for the finale of the episode, but was cut out.
Writing
In his DVD commentary, writer Drew Z. Greenberg says that in his original conception of Willow's confrontation with the homophobic men at The Bronze, he intended for Willow to cast a spell on the men so that they couldn't stop kissing each other. Joss Whedon vetoed the idea because he did not want to portray people's sexual orientation as changing in an instant and he did not want to portray same-sex kissing as a punishment.Euphemisms
Three consecutive episode titles in the sixth season are euphemismEuphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
s for drunkenness
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
or being under the influence of narcotics in American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
: "Smashed", "Wrecked
Wrecked (Buffy episode)
"Wrecked" is the 10th episode of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:Tara and Dawn wake on the couch and find that neither Buffy nor Willow returned home the night before. Buffy wakes up naked with Spike to find that the building around them fell down as she...
", and "Gone
Gone (Buffy episode)
"Gone" is the 11th episode of season 6 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:Buffy feels life spinning out of control. In the previous episode, Willow got high on the magic and crashed a car, breaking Dawn's arm. Willow is still distraught. Dawn is ignoring Buffy...
". Willow's descent into her addiction to magic becomes dizzying and frightening.
Cultural references
- Star WarsStar WarsStar Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
: Spike forces the Trio to help him by threatening to break their Boba FettBoba FettBoba Fett is a character in Star Wars. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to find the Millennium Falcon, he is a minor villain in both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi....
action figureAction figureAn action figure is a posable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed towards boys and male collectors...
. - Star TrekStar TrekStar Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
: Spike tells Warren that he can "play HolodeckHolodeckA holodeck, in the fictional Star Trek universe, is a simulated reality facility located on starships and starbases. The first use of a "holodeck" by that name in the Star Trek universe was in the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint", although a conceptually...
another time.", He also says to Warren "Help me out here, SpockSpockSpock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
, I don't speak loser" - Murder, She WroteMurder, She WroteMurder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
: When Spike tries to attack the muggers, Buffy calls him Jessica Fletcher. - Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and Red DwarfRed DwarfRed Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
: When commenting on Spike's English nationality, Andrew remarks that he has seen every episode of Doctor Who, but none of the episodes of Red Dwarf because the latter has not been released on DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
yet. These references ellict little response from the confused Spike. - In a list events that Amy mentions that have passed since she had been turned into a rat she mentions the 2001 divorce of Tom CruiseTom CruiseThomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
and Nicole KidmanNicole KidmanNicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
. "Snyder got eaten by a snake, high school got destroyed...people getting frozen, Willow's dating girls and did you hear about Tom and Nicole?" - Batman and Robin - Anya comments there is no such thing as a man who freezes people and eats (or needs) diamonds. Mr Freeze does however and it ties with the other sci-fi and fantasy aspects of the episode
Continuity
- Willow's comment to Amy about sewing her name in her clothes before doing any forgetting spells references the previous episode, where ID and clothing labels told most of the gang who they were.
Arc significance
- This episode marks the beginning of Spike and Buffy's sexual relationship.
- Amy is returned to being human after being a rat since the middle of the third season.
- Spike learns that he can hit Buffy without his chip activating.
- In a sign of foreshadowing, when Amy is watching television downstairs, a commercial talking about a doublemeat medley can be heard. Buffy winds up working at "Doublemeat Palace" a few episodes later.
- After Willow and Tara's breakup, Tara's conversation with Dawn echoes many typical conversations between a divorced parent and their child. Willow and Tara's quasi-parental relationship with Dawn will later be mentioned in Buffy Season Eight when Dawn says that "Willow is like a mom (to her)."
- Buffy finally figures out that she is attracted to Spike.