Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Pangs

Pangs
Season 4, Episode 8
Airdate	November 23, 1999
Production Number	4ABB08
Written by	Jane Espenson
Directed by	Michael Lange
← 4x07 The Initiative	4x09 → Something Blue
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season Four

Pangs is the eighth episode of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the sixty-fourth episode overall.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), James Marsters (Spike)

and Anthony Stewart Head (Giles)

Guest Starring: Marc Blucas (Riley Finn), Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Leonard Roberts (Forrest Gates), Bailey Chase (Graham Miller), Tod Thawley (Hus)

and David Boreanaz (Angel)

Co-Starring: Margaret Easley (Curator), William Vogt (Jamie), Mark Ankeny (Dean Guerrero)

Plot Overview

Buffy tries to enjoy her first Thanksgiving away from home, but her hopes are hampered by a Native American spirit awoken to bring vengeance for the atrocities brought upon his people. Little does she know that she is being helped by an Angel in the shadows.

Notes

Monster of the Week

When Xander falls into the old Sunnydale mission, he accidentally releases Hus, the avenging spirit of the Chumash people. The Chumash were a peaceful indigenous tribe that populated Sunnydale until colonists found their way to California. The Europeans committed a variety of atrocities which ended in total genocide.

Hus's powers are all connected to the atrocities committed against his people. He gives Xander a cocktail of disease which includes syphilis, malaria and smallpox (just as the natives were given in a European mission), he cuts off the anthropology professor's ear and hangs a man whose family dates back to the Chumash's time. He also takes the form of animals, a common ability among Native American spirits.

When he and the other spirits attack, the only thing that stops them is attacking with their own weapons. When Hus is killed, the others disappear.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Vampire	Buffy	Staked	UC Sunnydale
2	Curator	Hus	Throat Cut	Her Office
3	Person	Vampire	Bitten	Warehouse
4	Father Gabriel	Hus	Hanged	Church
5	Chumash Spirit	Angel	Neck Snapped	Giles' House
6	Chumash Spirit	Angel	Axed	Giles' House
7	Hus	Buffy	Stabbed	Giles' House

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Vampire Lore: Spike explains that when a vampire doesn't feed, they become walking skeletons. They apparently can't die from hunger, but Spike indicates that it is very unpleasant.

Referbacks

• 3x22 - Graduation Day (2): Angel decided that it was in everyone's best interests if he left Sunnydale for good. He feared that his relationship with Buffy would inevitably lead to him turning evil again (something which he vehemently denies he has become in this episode). He has since set up shop as a private investigator in Los Angeles.

Willow: All this "leaving for her own good garbage."

• Angel 1x01 - City Of: Angel unexpectedly ran into Cordelia at a party and wound up saving her from a vampire who prays on young would-be actresses and models looking for a big break. Since then, she's been employed as his secretary for the detective business.

Trivia

The Show

• Crossover: Angel's appearance in this episode follows a vision that Doyle received which he interpreted as Buffy being in trouble in "Bachelor Party". The story continues to spill over into "I Will Remember You", which followed this episode in its original airing.

Behind the Scenes

• International: Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been dubbed into many different languages and the title translated for each different international version. Some international translations of this episode's title are:
  • French: "L'esprit vengeur" ("The Vengeful Spirit")
  • Italian: "Crampi" ("Cramps")
  • German: "Der Geist der Chumash" ("The Spirit of the Chumash")
  • Spanish: "Angustia" ("Anguish")

Goofs

• When Anya begins undressing Xander and lifts up his shirt, it shifts around between shots.

Quotes

• Anya: Look at him.

Willow: Very... diggy.

Anya: Soon he'll be sweating. I'm imagining having sex with him again.

Buffy: Imaginary Xander is quite the machine.

• Giles: Always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as "bloody colonials."

• Giles: This is why I think we should all keep a level head in this.

Willow: And I happen to think that mine is the level head and yours is the one things would roll off of.

• Xander: Hey, can we come rocketing back to the part about me and my new syphilis.

Anya: It'll make you blind and insane, but it won't kill you. The smallpox will.

• Spike: I'm saying that Spike had a little trip to the vet, and now he doesn't chase the other puppies anymore.

• Spike: Oh, someone put a stake in me.

Xander: You've got a lot of volunteers in here.

Spike: I just can't take all this mamby pamby boo-hooing about the bloody Indians.

Willow: Uh, 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. It's what Caesar did, and he's not going around saying, "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it." The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons, and you massacred them. End of story.

• Spike: How are you gonna fight anyone with that attitude?

Willow: We don't want to fight anyone.

Buffy: I just want to have Thanksgiving

Spike: (laughs) Yeah. Good luck.

Willow: Well, if we could talk to him.

Spike: You exterminated his race! What could you possibly say that would make him feel better? It's kill or be killed here. Take your bloody pick.

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

• Buffy: Sure you're up to it?

Spike: Oh, leave that one. He looks like he's ready to drop any minute and I think I can eat someone if he's already dead.

Xander: I'm up to it.

• Spike: A bear! You made a bear!

Buffy: I didn't mean to.

Spike: Undo it! Undo it!