Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Fool for Love

Fool for Love
Season 5, Episode 7
Airdate	November 14, 2000
Production Number	5ABB07
Written by	Douglas Petrie
Directed by	Nick Marck
← 5x06 Family	5x08 → Shadow
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season Five

Fool for Love is the seventh episode of the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the eighty-fifth episode overall, and once again goes into the past. When Buffy is staked by a run of the mill vampire, she starts to obsess over the fates of previous slayers. To find closure the only thing she can do is talk to the one vampire she knows who has killed a slayer--Spike.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Marc Blucas (Riley Finn), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike)

and Anthony Stewart Head (Giles)

Guest Starring: David Boreanaz (Angel), Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall), Julie Benz (Darla), Juliet Landau (Drusilla)

and Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers)

Co-Starring: Kali Rocha (Cecily Addams), Edward Fletcher (Male Partygoer), Katharine Leonard (Female Partygoer), Matthew Lang (2nd Male Partygoer), Chris Daniels (Stabbing Vampire), Kenneth Feinberg (Chaos Demon), Steve Heinze (Vampire #1), Ming Liu (Chinese Slayer), April Wheedon-Washington (Subway Slayer)

Plot Overview

After being overpowered and nearly killed by a common vampire, Buffy sets out to learn what mistakes past Slayers made that costs them their lives. For her to learn the secret, Spike takes her through his transformation and his fights with the two Slayers he killed.

Notes

Monster of the Week

• No monster of the week as this episode is centric on Spike's flashbacks.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Chinese Slayer	Spike	Neck Bite	China, 1900
2	Vampire	Riley	Staked	Crypt
3/4/5/6	Vampires	Riley	Explosion	Crypt
7	Subway Slayer	Spike	Snapped Neck	New York City, 1977

Music

• Avenue A - "Run Cold"

• Crushing Velvet - "XXX"

• Felix Mendelssohn - "A Midsummer Night's Dream "

• Johann S. Bach - "Partita #3 in E Major"

• The Killingtons - "Balladovie"

• Virgil - "Heal Yourself"

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Spike: It is revealed that the scar over Spike's left eye was from his battle with the Chinese slayer and the jacket that he wears was taken from his battle with the black slayer in New York City.

• Buffy: Buffy learns that the reason why slayers eventually die is because they want to.

• Joyce: Joyce tells Buffy that her illness might be caused by something more and is going into the hospital for observation.

Referbacks

• Never Kill a Boy on the First Date: Spike ends his speech the same way that the Master did in the referenced episode.

• School Hard: Spike first references his last encounter with a slayer in this episode.

Trivia

The Show

• Angel Crossover: Although not exactly a continuation of the story from this episode, several of the flashbacks in this episode are shown from the perspective of Darla and Angel in the Angel episode "Darla".

Behind the Scenes

• Fast Track: The script to this episode had to be written and delivered in four days.

• Alternative Title: This episode was originally going to be titled "Love's Bitch."

• How It Really Happened: James Marsters actually got his scar from a New York City mugging.

Allusions and References

• Anglican Service: The phrase said by Spike at the end of his speech to Buffy is a phrase used by the Anglican church in their church services to end a sermon. The meaning of the phrase is irrelevant, the deeper meaning behind it is the implication that the lesson is comparable to the word of God.

Spike: Here endeth the lesson.

Memorable Moments

• Riley throwing a grenade into the crypt to kill all of the vampires.

• Cutting between Spike explaining the fatal flaw of Slayers to Buffy and his fight in 1977.

• The explanation for why Spike and Drusilla split up.

Quotes

• Buffy: Well, at least no major organs got kebabed.

• Dawn: Did I just pull a Slayer-related mom cover-up thing? Come on. Who's the man?

Buffy: You are. A very short, annoying man.

• Dawn: When do I get to patrol?

Buffy: Not until you're never.

• Xander: What's with the hand move? You see that? Does that, like, mean something?

Willow: It's code. I think it breaks down to "choo-choo!"

Anya: It probably means to follow him. That, or wait here for him.

Willow: (whispers) Ask.

Xander: (yelling) Hey, Riley? What's the, uh (gestures) all about?

Riley: It means "Yell real loud so the vampires who don't know we're coming will have a sporting chance."

Xander: See? Now he's all mad and sarcastic.

Willow: It's because you were doing all that yelling, Mr Stealthy-pants.

• Giles: What does it say?

Buffy: Same as all the others. "Slayer called, blah, blah. Great protector, blah, blah. Scary battles, blah, blah. Oops! She's dead."

• Buffy: Why didn't the Watchers keep fuller accounts of it? The journals just stop.

Giles: Well, I suppose if they're anything like me, they just find the whole subject too --

Buffy: Unseemly? Damn. Love ya, but you Watchers are such prigs sometimes.

Giles: Painful, I was going to say.

• Spike: Since I agreed to your little proposition, we can do this my way. Wings.

Buffy: What?

Spike: Spicy buffalo wings. Order me up a plate. I'm feeling peckish.

• Buffy: Were you born this big a pain in the ass?

Spike: What can I tell you, baby? I've always been bad.

• Female Partygoer: Have you heard? They call him "William the Bloody" because of his bloody awful poetry.

2nd Male Partygoer: It suits him. I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff!

• Buffy: So you traded up on the food chain. Then what?

Spike: No, please! Don't make it sound like something you'd flip past on the Discovery Channel.

• Spike: Becoming a vampire is a profound and powerful experience. I could feel this new strength coursing through me. Getting killed made me feel alive for the very first time.

• Angelus: You've got me and my women hiding in the luxury of a mine shaft, all because William the Bloody likes the attention. This is not a reputation we need.

Spike: Oh, I'm sorry. Did I sully our good name? We're vampires.

Angelus: All the more reason to use a certain amount of finesse.

Spike: Bollocks! That stuff's for the frilly cuffs-and-collars crowd. I'll take a good brawl any day.

• Darla: (singsong) I think our boys are going to fight.

Drusilla: The King of Cups expects a picnic, but this is not his birthday.

Darla: Good point.

• Spike: When was the last time you unleashed it? All out fight in a mob, back against the wall, nothing but fists and fangs? Don't you ever get tired of fights you know you're going to win?

Angelus: No. A real kill, a good kill - it takes pure artistry. Without that, we're just animals.

Spike: Poofter!

• Angelus: You can't keep this up forever. If I can't teach you, maybe someday an angry crowd will. That or the Slayer.

Spike: What's a Slayer?

• Spike: The first one was all business, but the second, she had a touch of your style. She was cunning, resourceful - oh, and did I mention... hot? I could have danced all night with that one.

Buffy: You think we're dancing?

Spike: That's all we've ever done.

• Spike: Death is your art. You make it with your hands day after day. That final gasp, that look of peace. And part of you is desperate to know: What's it like? Where does it lead you? And now you see, that's the secret. Not the punch you didn't throw or the kicks you didn't land. She really wanted it. Every Slayer has a death wish. Even you.

• Spike: Come on, I can feel it, Slayer. You know you want to dance.

Buffy: Say it's true. Say I do want to. It wouldn't be you, Spike. It would never be you. You're beneath me.

• Spike: Beneath me. I'll show her. Put her six bloody feet beneath me. Hasn't got a death wish. Bitch won't need one.

• Harmony: Okay, I'm trying to be supportive here, so don't drive a stake through my heart like last time. But you can't kill Buffy. She's the Slayer. She is so gonna kick your ass.

Spike: I've got two barrels here that'll prove you wrong.

Harmony: I knew you'd take this personally. You're so sensitive! How are you gonna kill her? Think! The second you even point that thing at her, you're gonna be all "Aaagh!" And then you'll get bitch-slapped up and down Main Street, unless she's had enough and just stakes you.

Spike: Sure, it'll hurt like Hell for about 2 hours, but she'll be dead just a little longer than that.