Fool for Love (14 Nov. 2000)

After being bested in a fight by an ordinary vampire, Buffy asks Spike to explain how he killed two Slayers many years earlier.

Director:

Nick Marck

Writers:

Joss Whedon (creator), Douglas Petrie

Stars:

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
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
Anthony Head	...	Rupert Giles (as Anthony Stewart Head)
David Boreanaz	...	Angel
Mercedes McNab	...	Harmony Kendall
Julie Benz	...	Darla
Juliet Landau	...	Drusilla
Kristine Sutherland	...	Joyce Summers
Kali Rocha	...	Cecily Addams
Edward Fletcher	...	Male Partygoer

Storyline

While patrolling the cemetery, the self-confident Buffy fights against a vampire, is stabbed with her stake and saved by Riley. She tells the incident to Giles and decides to research how the previous Slayers were killed. She does not find any information in the watcher's journals and decides to seek the information from Spike. He tells that in 1880, in London, he was a bad poet and a shy good man in a non-corresponded love with Cecily. When he meets Drusilla, she bites and converts him in the evil vampire. Later, in the same year in Yorkshire, he meets Angel and Darla and is challenged to defeat a slayer. In 1900, in China, he is well-succeeded and kills his first slayer. In 1977, in the subway of New York City, he kills his second slayer. He advises Buffy that she must never be reckless and keep her death wish to survive.

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Plot Keywords:

heroine | woman's neck broken | lesbian | female protagonist | sister sister relationship

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 November 2000 (USA)

Filming Locations:

1800 Stewart St., Santa Monica, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mutant Enemy, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On the DVD commentary, episode writer Douglas Petrie says that the scene in which Spike and Angelus are fighting and trying to stake each other while Darla and Drusilla look on with glee is a not-very-subtle allegory for female enjoyment of male homoeroticism.

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Goofs

In season 2, Spike reveals that Angel sired him. In this episode, however, it is Drusilla who turned Spike into a vampire.

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Quotes

Dawn Summers: When do I get to patrol?
Buffy: Not until you're never.

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Connections

Referenced in Angel: Darla (2000)

User Reviews

Best of the season, for Spike fans-Best of the series!!

Any fan of Spike and the mythology of the slayer will love this episode. The story opens with the Slayer doing what she does best, kicking and quipping as she performs her nightly duty, another vampire set to be "dusted". The twist? She slips up, The Vamp gets the upper hand and shes wounded with her own stake, almost killed and Riley has to come to her rescue. What follows is a multi-layered story of Buffy trying to discover how this happened when shes at her best and at the top of her game and a detailed look into the past of Spike and how he bested the slayers he did and how he came to be what he is. Beautifully written and James marsters steals the show. Buffy learns a hard lesson that she may have suspected and Spike knows all along....Slayer=Killer,death is part of their life and ultimately that takes a toll.Sooner or later, the Slayer will embrace death and want it for herself. This will come to pass by the end of the season and ring true throughout the series. Only Buffys willingness to break free of the usual Slayer constraints(one slayer fighting alone) will be her salvation.