"Smashed" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 109th episode in the series. Written by Drew Z. Greenberg and directed by Turi Meyer, it was originally broadcast on November 20, 2001, on the UPN network.
Synopsis
- Buffy's rejection of his amorous advances gives Spike a headache that renews his primal impulses; Willow reverts a former classmate to her old self; Jonathan, Warren and Andrew pull a heist with the help of supercool new weapon.[1]
Summary
During patrol, Buffy comes to the rescue of a couple and is surprised to discover it's a simple mugging. Spike tries to help her, but the muggers are human so his chip is triggered, allowing the muggers to run away. After the pain is relieved, Buffy and Spike argue briefly about their kisses, until Buffy blows him off.
At the Summers' home, Willow finds herself lonely without Tara and starts talking to Amy the rat, only to realize that she now has the knowledge to turn her back into a human. Summoning a scroll containing the correct spell words, she reverses the transformation and Amy is human again. At the Sunnydale Natural History Museum, the Trio steal a diamond and freeze Rusty, the security guard, with their freeze ray.
Back at home, Amy and Willow catch up. Amy starts talking about prom, but she soon finds out that she has been a rat for almost three years. Buffy returns home and intends to tell Willow about her situation with Spike, but the shock of seeing Amy derails the conversation.
After seeing the frozen man on the news, Buffy rushes to investigate. She finds Spike once again, who wants to talk about the kisses, but Buffy claims that she was just depressed about Giles leaving. Spike is not convinced and tries to show Buffy he's changed, but Buffy ends up slugging him. Spike hits her back and braces himself for the pain, but the chip does not activate. Although surprised, he quickly pretends to be in pain and Buffy hits him again before leaving. Believing that the chip has malfunctioned and shut down, Spike then takes to the streets alone looking for a victim. Cornering a girl in an alley, he attempts to bite her but the chip activates, allowing her to get away and leaving Spike really confused.
The next day, Tara takes Dawn to drink a milkshake after a movie. Tara tells Dawn that her moving out won't mean that she won't be there for her. Dawn mentions the possibility of Willow and Tara reconciling, so Tara explains that she still loves Willow, but right now, it's not possible.
Meanwhile, at the Magic Box, Buffy, Anya, Willow, and Xander research the stolen diamond. Willow takes out a computer to look up information and everyone is happy to see her doing things without the use of magic. Their happiness is short-lived, however, as she uses a spell to connect with the computer. As the Trio prepare to begin the next phase of their plan, Spike arrives, looking for Warren, and coerces him into looking at his chip by threatening a vintage Boba Fett action figure. Warren examines the chip, while Spike endures the company of Jonathan and Andrew. Warren then tells Spike that the chip is still working fine. Spike realizes that the chip has stopped activating for Buffy and leaves happily.
Bored, Amy convinces Willow to go do something fun out on the town. At the Bronze, Willow continues to bring Amy up to date. When two boys ask them to dance, Amy is only too happy to accept. Later, when the two college guys forcibly try to get Amy back on the dance floor, Willow and Amy magically trap the two into go-go cages and skimpy outfits.
At the Magic Box, Xander, Anya, and Buffy continue their research looking for a demon that eats diamonds. Discouraged by their lack of progress, they talk about Willow. Xander and Anya tell Buffy that they share Tara's concern that she is abusing magic. Anya warns that once someone good gets a taste of "bad" that it's difficult to bring them back. Spike then calls the Magic Box, inviting Buffy to the cemetery, but she declines and hangs up. After Xander and Anya head home for the night, Spike appears as Buffy is leaving the shop alone. He stands in front of Buffy, not letting her pass. She smacks him, but she's surprised when Spike hits her back. Unaffected by the chip, Spike tells her she "came back wrong."
At the Bronze, Willow and Amy continue magically changing everything around them. As Willow turns a boy band into a girl band, people are dancing aimlessly in elaborate outfits and mutate. Dawn and Tara return to the empty Summers' residence, so Tara agrees to wait for Buffy or Willow to return so Dawn won't be alone.
Spike and Buffy get into a huge fight as he reveals that the chip has stopped activating only for her meaning that she wasn't brought back from the dead fully human. The two continue their brawl which takes them inside a condemned house. The Slayer and the vampire are knocking walls and pillars, as well as each other. While they insult each other, Buffy suddenly pins Spike against a wall and begins to kiss him. She jumps onto him and they begin to have sex. They move around the house and fall through the floor into a basement. They continue to have sex as the house crumbles around them.
Continuity
- Willow finds a way to turn Amy back into a human after almost three years, since "Gingerbread", when Amy transformed into a rat with a self-cast spell. She was briefly turned human then back into a rat in "Something Blue" and will once again be turned into a rat in Lost and Found, Part Five.
- Amy says she wants to ask Larry to the prom ("The Prom"), only to be informed by Willow of his death ("Graduation Day, Part Two") and that he was gay ("Phases").
- Buffy approaches Willow to talk about her relationship with Spike, but Amy's presence throws her off. Willow will only discover about Buffy and Spike in "Entropy," and it's not until "Same Time, Same Place" that the two best friends will be close again.
- Amy asks Buffy about cookies of any kind except cheese; in The Long Way Home, Part One, one of her demands will be "a lot of cheese."
- Spike reminds Buffy that they twice kissed each other, in "Once More, with Feeling" and "Tabula Rasa." They have also kissed in two more occasions before those: while under the influence of a spell, in "Something Blue," and as a gesture of gratitude from Buffy, in "Intervention."
- In reference to events from "Tabula Rasa," Buffy tells Spike she kissed him because she was depressed thinking about Giles leaving the country.
- When Amy is watching television, a commercial talks about the Doublemeat Medley. Buffy will begin working at Doublemeat Palace in the episode "Doublemeat Palace."
- Amy tells Buffy she's sorry about her mom, in reference to Joyce's death ("The Body").
- Amy lists Willow dating girls as one of the changes since she became a rat, as first revealed in "New Moon Rising," as well as Snyder getting eaten by a "snake" ("Graduation Day, Part Two").
- Tara talks with Dawn about moving out ("Tabula Rasa") not meaning she won't be there for her; Dawn will talk about feelings on people always leaving in "Older and Far Away."
- Dawn asks Tara if she'll ever get back together with Willow, which will happen in the episode "Entropy."
- Anya complains about Giles owning something from the Magic Box and taking it with him, a discussion they had in "Bargaining, Part One."
- Xander observes that Willow hasn't used her hacking skills (instead of magic) for a long time, which last happened more than a year before, in "Primeval."
- Spike calls Warren "robot boy," in reference to him having created April ("I Was Made to Love You") and the Buffybot ("Intervention").
- Warren tells Andrew and Jonathan it's time for "phase two," in reference to them using the stolen diamond to create a invisibility ray in "Gone."
- Willow advises Amy to sew her name in her clothes in case of casting a memory spell, in reference to the Scoobies trying to find out their own forgotten names in "Tabula Rasa."
- Willow talks with Amy about Xander being engaged, as announced in "All the Way."
- Anya warns that "responsible types" can't get enough of being bad when they finally taste it; in addition to Amy getting Willow to go out with her after teasing her about her high school years, this episode sets up Willow's descent into darkness, as she'll talk about in "Two to Go."
- The Scoobies list the recent "lame" activities of the current Big Bad, including the bank robbery in "Flooded" and the "exploding lint" in "Life Serial." They'll face the Trio for the first time in the episode "Gone."
- In this episode, Buffy has sex with Spike after fighting and, the next night, in "Wrecked," Dawn will comment that her sister always goes straight to the refrigerator after Slayer patrol. This bears out Faith's assertion in "Faith, Hope & Trick" that slaying "makes you hungry and horny."
- This episode marks the beginning of Spike and Buffy's sexual relationship, which will continue until "As You Were."
- Spike learns that he can hit Buffy without his chip activating, which he accuses of being due to Buffy coming back "wrong." In "Dead Things," Tara will find out that there was nothing wrong with Buffy, her difference existing only on a basic molecular level.
Appearances
Individuals
- Larry Blaisdell (Only mentioned)
- Robert Boyer (Only mentioned)
- Brie
- Rupert Giles (Only mentioned)
- Alexander Harris
- Jonathan Levinson
- Tara Maclay
- Amy Madison
- Warren Mears
- Ryan Morris
- Olvikan (Only mentioned)
- Willow Rosenberg
- Rusty
- Ryan
- Simon
- Snyder (Only mentioned)
- Spike
- Buffy Summers
- Dawn Summers
- Joyce Summers (Only mentioned)
- Andrew Wells
- Amy Madison's father (Only mentioned)
- Brie's girlfriend
- Unidentified mugger II
- Unidentified mugger I
- Unidentified girl (Smashed)
Organizations and titles
- Halo Friendlies
- Key
- Scooby Gang
- Slayer
- Sunnydale Police Department
- Trio
- United States Government (Only mentioned)
- Virgil
- Warlock
- Watcher (Only mentioned)
- Witch
Species
Events
Locations
- England (Only mentioned)
- Sunnydale, United States
- Bronze
- Doublemeat Palace (Only mentioned)
- Maple Court
- Mears residence
- Restfield Cemetery (Only mentioned)
- Revello Drive
- Sunnydale Natural History Museum
- Sunnydale High School (Only mentioned)
Objects
- 526UNH (Only mentioned)
- Behavior-modification circuitry (Only mentioned)
- Doublemeat Medley (Only mentioned)
- Freeze ray
- Illuminata
- Kokopelli statue
- Spike's duster
- Sunnydale Press
Rituals and spells
Death count
None.
Behind the scenes
Production
- It had a production number of 6ABB09.
- Three consecutive episode titles in the sixth season are euphemisms for drunkenness or being under the influence of narcotics: "Smashed," "Wrecked," and "Gone."
- Willow's spells were "Rivlil!" then "Cio che fu non e piu. Cio che fu fatto, disfa. Passato e il pericolo, finita e la prova. Metti le cose a posto," which are Italian for "Reveal!" and "What was is no longer. What was done, undo. The danger passed, the trial no more, set it right."[2]
- 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.[3]
- 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.[4]
Broadcast
- "Smashed" had an audience of 3.4 million households upon its original airing.[5]
Deleted scenes
- Spike would prepare his crypt before calling Buffy:[2]
- Spike moves about the room. Organized. Preparing. From a chest of drawers, he pulls out a stun gun, fires it a couple times to make sure it works. Sets in on a table. From a trunk at the foot of the bed, he brings out a coil of rope, pulling it tight. Puts it on the table, too. He rustles some more in the trunk, reveals a set of chains. And a handful of padlocks. And a pair of handcuffs. On the table. He rummages through a stack of records, finds just what he's looking for: an LP of Roxy Music's Avalon. He pops it on a dusty old turntable. He lights some candles, sets a bouquet of flowers in a vase, sprinkles rose petals on the bed. He looks around, taking in his handiwork, then lets out a long, contented sigh.
- Spike: "There. All ready."
- He lets his eyes sweep the room once more, a final look, then Spike runs from his crypt, excited, determined focused. Spike running much slower, winded. He eases up, starts walking. Spike gets to a pay phone, exhausted but still determined.
- Spike: "Now at last, Buffy, you will come to me, and your destiny wi— wait."
- He searches his pockets — all of them.
- Spike: "Coulda sworn I brought change."
- He keeps searching. Nothing. He checks the coin return slot on the phone. Empty.
- Spike: "Oh, balls."
- And he runs back from whence he came, frustrated.
- A longer, more intense lovemaking scene was originally filmed for the finale of the episode, but it was ultimately cut out.[6]
Pop culture references
- In reference to Spike's deduction, Buffy calls him Jessica Fletcher, the mystery writer and amateur detective from Murder, She Wrote television series.
- Andrew unnecessarily descends from the domed ceiling on a thin wire wearing all black as an imitation of a scene from the 1996 film Mission: Impossible.
- Warren compares Sunnydale's level of security with NASA's Langley Research Center.
- Warren mentions the attraction The Hall of Presidents from the Walt Disney World resort.
- Buffy informs Amy about Gatorade sports drinks having a new "blue" flavor.
- Amy marvels about what happened to "Tom and Nicole," referencing Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's divorce in 2001.
- Dawn mentions having eaten Raisinets, Nestlé's brand of chocolate-covered raisins.
- Willow's laptop is an iBook, a line Apple sold from 1999 to 2006.
- The Illuminata diamond is in Sunnydale on a loan from the British Museum.
- Spike makes two references to the Star Trek franchise: saying the Trio can play Holodeck another time then referring to Warren as "Spock."
- Spike threatens to break, according to Andrew, "a limited edition, 1979 mint condition Boba Fett" action figure. The 1979 Boba Fett figure was originally available through a mail-in promotion for buying four other Star Wars figures.
- Andrew claims to have seen every episode of Doctor Who television series, but not all of the Red Dwarf as this series isn't out on DVD yet.
- Ryan calls Willow "Ellen," a reference to Ellen Degeneres, the comedian and television host who famously came out as a lesbian in 1997.
- Xander researches demons on a manual of the fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, in actuality he is reading Dragons of a Fallen Sun, a novel from the Dragonlance series.
Music
- Virgil — "Vermillion Borders"
- Virgil — "Parachute"
- Virgil — "Here"
- Halo Friendlies — "Run Away"
- Thomas Wanker — original score
International titles
- Armenian: "Անսարքություն" (Malfunctioning)
- Czech: "Sjetá" (Snubbed)
- Finnish: "Rakkaus tekee kipeää" (Love Hurts)
- French: "Ecarts de conduite" (Misconducts)
- German: "Alte Feinde, neue Freunde?" (Old Enemies, New Friends?)
- Hungarian: "Szétzúzott" (Smashed)
- Italian: "Diamante ghiacciato" (Frozen Diamond)
- Japanese: "一線を越えるとき" (When Crossing the Line)
- Polish: "Do bólu" (Till It Hurts)
- Portuguese (Brazil): "Arruinado" (Ruined)
- Romanian: "Izbit" (Smashed)
- Russian: "Неисправность" (Malfunction)
- Spanish (Latin America): "Destrozos" ("Smashes")
- Spanish (Spain): "Estrellada" (Starry)
Adaptations
- Drew Z. Greenberg provided the audio commentaries for the episode.
Gallery
Promotional stills
Advertisement
Quotes
| Amy: "I felt like I was in that cage for weeks. But it can still be okay, right? I can still get into the swing of things. Like, prom's coming up. I was so hoping Larry would ask me. We would make such a splash at... Oh. Oh, god. He hasn't asked someone else, has he?" |
| Willow: "Uh, Amy, three things we have to talk about. One, Larry's gay. Two, Larry's dead. And three, high school's kinda over." |
| Amy: "How long was I in the cage? How long!?" |
| Buffy: "Look. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry if you thought that it meant more." |
| Spike: "But..." |
| Buffy: "But, when I kissed you... You know I was thinking about Giles, right?" |
| Spike: "You know, I always wondered about you two." |
| Buffy: "Oh, Tara, hey... Amy?" |
| Amy: "The whole school. By a giant snake thing. Okay, still adjusting. Hi, Buffy." |
| Buffy: "Hi. How've ya been?" |
| Amy: "Rat. You?" |
| Buffy: "Dead." |
| Amy: "Oh." |
| Buffy: "Spike... It's late, okay, can we just finish this another time?" |
| Spike: "So you wanna jump right to the kissing, then, eh?" |
| Buffy: "I am not kissing you, Spike. Once was—" |
| Spike: "Twice." |
| Buffy: "But not again." |
| Spike: "You're a tease, you know that, Slayer? Get a fellow's motor revving, let the tension marinate a couple-a days, then bam! Crown yourself the ice queen." |
| Buffy: "Need a few more metaphors for that little mix?" |
| Buffy: "I'm telling you, I, I think there's something about this thing." |
| Xander: "Well, I don't know, Buff. It seems like we've been through every book." |
| Anya: "Yeah, even the ones that weren't so boring you wanted to kill yourself." |
| Xander: "We have those?" |
| Buffy: "I'm just saying, all the things that have happened lately? Okay, the bank robbery, the jewelry heist..." |
| Xander: "The exploding lint." |
| Buffy: "Is it me, or do these things seem really..." |
| Anya: "Lame?" |
References
- ↑ "Buffy Season 6." Craig's BuffyVERSE 4ever. Retrieved on October 29, 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Smashed." BuffyWorld. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018.
- ↑ Drew Z. Greenberg. The Complete Sixth Season on DVD; audio commentaries for the episode "Smashed." [DVD]. 20th Century Studios, May 25, 2004.
- ↑ "The Job – This Month’s Victim: Steve Tartalia (James Marsters' Stunt Double)." Six Degrees of Geek, July 18, 2007.
- ↑ "Nielsen Ratings for Buffy's Sixth Season." Nielsen Ratings for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, & Firefly. Archived from the original on July 6, 2008.
- ↑ Jaime Bee, "Spike/Buffy Smashed Dailies." YouTube, October 18, 2012.