Passion (Buffy episode)

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“Passion”
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 17
Written by Ty King
Directed by Michael E. Gershman
Production no. 5V17
Original airdate February 24, 1998
Episode chronology
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"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" "Killed by Death"
List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

"Passion" is episode 17 of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy episodes.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

[edit] Summary

Learning that Angelus, with murderous intent, is circling closer to her friends and family, Buffy feverishly seeks ways to protect them. Though still ostracized, Jenny Calendar gives Giles a spell book containing a ritual to revoke Angel's many invitations into their homes, then continues secretly to work on her "special project"—a computer translation of the ancient Gypsy Ritual of Restoration, the spell which originally gave Angelus his soul back. She succeeds, but Drusilla senses Jenny's efforts and Angelus comes to destroy all her work. He then kills Jenny, and uses his handiwork to viciously torment Giles. Devastated as well by Jenny's demise, Buffy nonetheless stops Giles from getting himself killed seeking revenge on Angel. By the time Jenny is laid to rest, Buffy understands the full consequences of allowing Angelus to continue his reign of terror and finds herself, finally, ready to slay him.

[edit] Expanded overview

At The Bronze, Buffy and Xander blithely dance to the sultry music while Angelus darkly watches from across the room. As the weight of his predatory gaze makes everyone seem to move in dreamlike slow motion, Angel's voice narrates a poetic evocation of "passion." It is Xander who turns his head to look, but Angel is no longer there. When Buffy, Willow, Xander and Cordelia leave The Bronze, they unknowingly pass Angelus miming a passionate embrace in the shadows, his vamp face hidden in the neck of the girl he drains, then drops, before falling in behind them. Back home getting ready for bed, Buffy feels Angel's presence, but she peers out into the darkness in vain. When she turns out the light and slides under the covers, Angelus is outside, watching her through open blinds. After Buffy drifts off, Angel enters her room and softly strokes a lock of hair back from her face. Sitting on the bed beside her to watch his Slayer sleep, Angel's face is in shadow, but his voice continues and completes his "passion" prologue.

The next morning Buffy wakes to find a parchment envelope on her pillow, containing a charcoal drawing of herself, eyes closed, asleep. At the library before class, Buffy tells Giles about the drawing and asks if there's a spell to reverse Angel's invitation into her house, something along the lines of "No shoes, no pulse, no service." Xander teases Cordelia when she overreacts because she invited Angel into her car. Leaving the library when Jonathan and another student dare to request books on Stalin, Buffy and the others continue to discuss Angel's intentions. Because Angel has an "all-access pass" to her house even when she's not there, Buffy wants to tell her mother the truth so she can protect herself until the reversal spell is in place. Giles vetoes this, urging Buffy not to be goaded by any of Angel's ploys because, as The Slayer, she doesn't have "the luxury of being a slave to her passions." In Ms Calendar's computer class, Jenny asks Willow to cover for her if she happens to be late the next morning. Willow is delighted to oblige, and immediately begins to worry at the thought of all that could go wrong. Soon, however, she starts to relish the idea of exercising a borrowed power of authority. There's an awkward moment when Buffy and Giles arrive to fetch Willow, but when the girls leave, Giles and Jenny get a moment alone. Hearing that Angel's "sense of whimsy" has returned and that Giles seeks a spell to revoke the vampire's invitations, Jenny gives him a book she knows he doesn't have. She then takes the opportunity to explain that, as Janna, she was raised by the people Angel hurt most, and lied to Giles and Buffy because she thought it was the right thing to do. She didn't know she would fall in love with Giles. Seeing his startled face soften, Jenny goes on to say she wants to make everything up to him. His eyes filled with kindness, Giles gently replies that he's not the one Jenny needs to make it up to. Over supper that evening, Joyce asks Buffy to tell her what's wrong, and Buffy decides to give her a sanitized version of the Angel saga. Her mom says, "Don't tell me. He's changed. He's not the same guy you fell for," and Buffy brightly replies, "In a nutshell." Buffy further explains that she'll talk to Angel if he shows up, but that Joyce shouldn't invite him in the house.

Later that night, Willow talks on the phone to Buffy as she gets ready for bed. She putters around the room, sprinkles fish food into the large, lighted tank, then notices a parchment envelope on her bed. Falling silent, she picks it up and opens it. The phone drops from her shoulder with a thump as she pulls out a long string—threaded with all her tropical fish. Angelus has been in Willow's bedroom, too. Willow spends the remainder of the night clutching a very sharp stake at Buffy's, with garlic ropes adorning the bedframe. Buffy tells Willow she can't stop wanting to turn to Angel whenever there's a crisis and that this Angel is completely different from the one she knew. Not exactly disagreeing, Willow replies, "Well, sort of. Except you're still the only thing he thinks about."

Early that morning at their factory lair, Drusilla brings the still-invalid Spike a puppy to eat. Increasingly cranky with his long recovery, he objects to being treated like a child. Angelus arrives with the dawn and spends a few enjoyable minutes mortifying Spike before Dru has a vision that an old enemy seeks help to destroy their "happy home."

Before school, Jenny goes to a Gypsy novelty shop where she buys an Orb of Thesulah, a spirit-vault for rituals of the undead, from a well-meaning proprietor who recognizes her as Janna and offers condolences for her Uncle Enyos. He politely tells her that without a translation of the Ritual of Restoration, the Orb is useless for its intended purpose—and that the store has a no-refunds policy. Jenny says she understands, and that she hopes soon to have a computer translation of the ancient Romanian liturgy. The Orb glows when she tells the shopkeeper she plans to give a friend his soul back. At school, Willow and Buffy meet up with Xander, who gets a little excited about their slumber party the night before. Willow leaves to teach class, but is disappointed to catch sight of Ms Calendar arriving on time after all. Taking leave of Xander as well, Buffy hurries to confront Jenny with an agenda of her own. Jenny starts to apologize, but Buffy, not ready for that step yet, abruptly stops her. Stiltedly explaining that she doesn't want him to be lonely, Buffy tells Jenny that Giles misses her, then rushes inside where she finds Giles himself, passing out flyers in the lounge area. Cordy joins them, and both girls are relieved to hear that Buffy's Watcher has found a simple spell with common ingredients that will revoke a Vampire's invitation into any house (or car) where it is performed. After school, Buffy and Cordelia help perform the protection spell in Willow's room, and not a moment too soon. First asking if Willow knows there are no fish in her aquarium, Cordy next finds another parchment envelope on Willow's bed. Willow opens it apprehensively, then hands the charcoal drawing of Joyce—eyes closed, asleep—to a suddenly panicking Buffy.

At the Summers residence, Joyce pulls into the driveway to find Angelus waiting for her in the front yard. Impersonating a distinctly deranged Angel, he scares Joyce with his intensity and tells her he can't forget Buffy, Joyce has to talk to her for him, he can't live without her. Noting with evil satisfaction that Joyce's hands shake uncontrollably as she tries to get her key in the front door, Angel oozes sly candor and confesses, "I haven't been able to sleep since the night we made love." As Buffy's mother stares up at him in shock, the door opens and she rushes inside. Smiling in anticipation, Angel starts to follow but pulls up short, unable to cross the threshold. Buffy and Willow have gotten there first and Willow is just chanting the reversal spell's final words. "Sorry, Angel. Changed the locks," the Slayer says acidly, then slams the door in his face.

When Giles finds Jenny staying late at the school, she hastily clears her computer screen before he can see that her "special project" is the translation program for the Ritual of Restoration to bring back Angel's soul. Slightly smug, Jenny tells Giles what Buffy said to her earlier that day. Embarrassed but unable to deny it, Giles, in a tone of flustered, affectionate exasperation, deems Buffy a "meddlesome girl." When Jenny explains she needs to work a little while longer, but that she may have good news later, Giles warmly invites her over to his place after she's finished. After sunset, Drusilla (still carrying the puppy, Sunshine) pays a visit to the Gypsy shopkeeper to ask what he and "the mean teacher talked about." Jenny keeps working to translate the ritual's text into English. At last she is successful and quickly saves the program to disk, then prints it out. Having ejected and set aside the backup disk, Jenny moves her chair so she can scan the printout. After a moment, her gaze refocuses beyond the scrolling paper and she jumps to see Angelus sitting in the dark at the back of her classroom, as if he'd been silently watching her for a long while. Getting to his feet, Angel approaches her desk with mock cheer. He picks up the Orb of Thesulah, ruminates a bit about its purpose, then pitches it against the chalkboard so hard it smashes to dust. Musing next about the advances in technology over the past two and a half centuries, Angelus pulls her computer crashing to the floor, then rips the printout from the printer, tears the Ritual of Restoration text in two and burns the pieces in the small electrical fire that has sprung up. Finding the door behind her desk inexplicably locked, Jenny tries to dart past Angelus to the room's other door, but he catches her and throws her through it. When she scrambles up and runs, he mocks, "Oh, good. I need to work up an appetite first." Searching for a way out, Jenny finds all the doors in this wing locked and is forced to flee down long passages while Angelus lopes after her. Near the end of her strength, she slams a door in his snarling face, then rams him with a cleaning cart and runs frantically up the stairs. On the floor above, Jenny looks so intently for her pursuer to come up behind her that she runs straight into his grasp when he circles around. Chortling, Angelus softly holds her head in his hands and tells her, "Sorry, Jenny. This is where you get off," then snaps her neck with a flourish.

Meanwhile at the Summers residence, Giles stops by to get the spell book to protect his own apartment and learns from Willow that Buffy is upstairs with her mom, discussing the news (which is news only to Joyce) that Angel and Buffy have slept together. Giles wonders if he should intervene on Buffy's behalf. Not exactly disagreeing, Willow says, "Sure! Like, what would you say?" As Giles thinks about that for a second, Willow matter-of-factly opens the front door for him and he takes his leave. In Buffy's room, Joyce is not entirely successful at remaining calm while trying to figure out just what is going on with her daughter and this "too old," "obviously not very stable" Angel. Buffy reassures her mom that Angel was her first and only, but doesn't open up as much as her mother would like. Still, at the end of "the talk," Joyce tells Buffy that she loves her "more than anything in the world," and they regain a degree of their normal ease with each other.

Giles arrives at his apartment to see one red rose on the front door and to hear strains of opera music drifting from inside. Opening his own door as if he were the visitor, he finds an ice bucket on the desk, complete with chilling champagne and a folded piece of parchment paper bearing one word in flowing script: "Upstairs." Carrying the champagne, Giles follows a path of votive candles and roses to the top of the stairs while the music swells below. At his first glimpse of Jenny on the bed, the music crescendos and the heavy bottle of champagne smashes unheeded to the floor. Jenny's staring eyes and lividly striated neck belie the relaxed pose of her limbs. Nearly catatonic with shock and grief, Giles remains silent and motionless until the police officer, following the coroner's people wheeling a laden stretcher, asks him to come in for questioning. Giles abstractedly complies, but asks to make a phone call first. At Buffy's house, Angel lurks outside, his voice coming out of the darkness to whisper another verse in his ode to "passion." As the phone rings, he stops his pacing to peer intently through sheer lace curtains at the lighted scene within. Angelus watches the Slayer answer, watches her face fall, watches her sink to the floor in a grief-stricken crouch. He watches Willow take the phone, listen, and burst into such wild sobs that Joyce rushes into the room to hold her. Smiling with profound pleasure, Angelus turns and slips back into the night. Having missed Giles at the police station, Cordelia and Xander drive to Buffy's house, where Buffy and Willow wait outside for them. Worried, the four of them drive to Giles' apartment to try to make contact. Meanwhile, Giles has gone back to his apartment to arm for battle, but before the others can get there, he is out and away, leaving behind Angel's charcoal sketch of Jenny, eyes open, asleep forever. Piecing together evidence of Angel's set-up and Giles' intent, the four friends argue about what to do. Xander strongly endorses Giles' plan to follow Angel to the factory, but Buffy knows seeking revenge will only get Giles killed.

At the factory, Spike—knowing the "incredibly brassed off" Slayer will soon hunt them down—is furious with a strangely subdued Angelus. Reminding Spike that Jenny was trying to restore Angel's soul, Dru tries to defend Angel's actions, but Spike claims he actually prefers the old "Buffy-whipped Angelus." Just as Angelus finishes sneering, "Don't worry, Roller Boy. I've got everything under control," there's an explosive crash and the long dining table erupts in flame. The three vamps instantly recoil and move to escape the roaring fire. At the foot of the catwalk stairs, Angelus suddenly jerks in surprise and tears a crossbow bolt from his shoulder. Tossing his now empty crossbow aside, Giles stalks the length of the room, lights a heavy torch as he passes the flaming table and, while Spike and Dru look on, uses it to deliver several stunning blows before the vampire can recover his balance. When Giles raises the torch for a savage overhand chop, however, Angelus grabs him by the throat and lifts him clear of the floor. At that moment, Buffy enters the fray. Her first rush breaks Giles free of Angel's grasp and sends the vampire crashing backwards. Dru and Spike make a strategic exit. Chasing a battered Angelus up onto the catwalk, the Slayer thrashes him nearly to pieces, until he begins to cackle and asks if she's just going to let her "old man" burn. Buffy looks down in horror at the unconscious Giles, now completely surrounded by flames. As Angelus boosts her over the rail and makes his own escape, Buffy jumps down, brings her Watcher to, and half-carries him from the building. Together, they stumble into the dark and Giles shouts in grief-stricken fury, "Why did you come here? This wasn't your fight." The Slayer hauls back and punches him full in the face, shouting back "Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Then Buffy follows him down to kneel on the ground and hold him in her arms, and Giles sobs as if his heart would break. "You can't leave me," she whispers to him. "I can't do this alone."

Later that night, as Angel's hypnotic voice imparts the epilogue of his "passion" drama, Giles comes home to a very normal-seeming, brightly lit apartment building. Reaching his front door, however, instead of a rose he finds yellow crime scene tape. Now silent and dark, his apartment only seems emptier. As the scene changes to a daytime view of grass, shrubs, a small leaf-strewn pond, Angel's narration comes to an end with Giles and Buffy standing beside a new grave. Its simple headstone reads "Jennifer Calendar" in elegant brass letters. Laying down a sheaf of flowers, Giles murmurs a few simple words and Buffy's eyes fill with tears. She apologizes aloud for not being able to kill Angelus when she had the chance. A moment later, we hear her quiet voice say, "I wasn't ready." The scene changes again, and as Willow comes to stand in front of Jenny's desk, Buffy's voice says, "But I think I finally am." Holding an armload of books and printout, Willow gravely announces that, in Ms Calendar's absence, she has been temporarily assigned to teach the class. As Willow moves around behind Jenny's desk, we again hear Buffy's quiet voice. "I can't hold onto the past anymore," she explains. "Angel is gone. Nothing's ever going to bring him back." As Willow sets her books on the desk, the backup disk Jenny created slides inconspicuously from a stack of papers and, with a nearly inaudible click, falls into the narrow darkness between desk and filing cabinet.

[edit] Acting

[edit] Starring

[edit] Guest starring

[edit] Co-starring

[edit] Writing

[edit] Arc significance

  • Ms Calendar's homework instruction to her class to provide "both paper printout and a copy on disk" foreshadows a significant plot point of this episode. Angelus, destroying all of Jenny's work on the Ritual of Restoration, is unaware that Jenny follows the same backup protocol she teaches. This gap in Angel's awareness is crucial in the season finale ("Becoming, Part One"), where, despite Angel's precautions, Buffy finds the disk Jenny made as her dying legacy. Ironically, after some indecision, Buffy finally asks Willow to perform the Ritual as a "backup" plan in case she fails to kill Angelus.
  • The Shopkeeper's off-hand remark about selling a couple of Orbs of Thesula as paperweights also sets up an important plot detail in the season two finale ("Becoming, Part Two"). Willow doesn't know that Angelus smashes Jenny's Orb in this episode, but when she discovers she'll need a spirit-vault to perform The Ritual of Restoration, Giles brings her the one he'd purchased the year before—which he has been using as a paperweight in the meantime.
  • Buffy's mother first becomes aware of Buffy's relationship with Angel and her loss of virginity.
  • This episode marks the beginning of what will become a running joke in the series, concerning the fact that they are very few 'normal' books in the library, and nobody except Buffy and the gang ever seem to go in there.

[edit] Continuity

  • Angel is able to enter Willow's house/room due to her invitation to him in "Lie to Me".
  • Giles says in the episode that "I guess I should do my apartment tonight" referring to the spell to keep vampires out after they have been invited in before. Although Angel is never seen visiting Giles' home before this in any previous onscreen Buffy episode, their shared interests in protecting Sunnydale and in Buffy makes it probable enough that he has done so. The (noncanon) short story "Absalom Rising," from the collection, How I Survived My Summer Vacation, references Giles inviting Angel into his home. Presumably after Jenny's death, Giles does perform the spell to keep Angel away, because Giles invites the vampire in once again in the third season episode, "Amends."

[edit] Cultural references

  • Pointed-tooth Fairy: Xander's mocking reference to Angelus seems to make the demon both more and less scary. It also recalls the scene in "Lie to Me" where Chanterelle indicates that members of The Sunset Club refer to vampires as "The Lonely Ones." Xander's rejoinder: "Oh. We usually call them the nasty, pointy, bitey ones."
  • Stalin: Jonathan and another student actually want to use the library for its intended purpose—reference.
  • Barnes & Noble: Not only does Xander apparently forget the library's function, he also seems to have forgotten the concepts of 'lend' and 'borrow.'
  • Ouija boards: The shopkeeper at the Dragon's Cove clearly considers the game nonsense fit only for tourists, not something he'd expect to sell to someone "in the trade," like Jenny.
  • Rabbits' feet: The magic shop's proprietor seems slighly abashed to carry such items in stock, but claims they keep the rent paid.
  • New Age: Apparenly, there are several Orbs of Thessulah in circulation, some of which are in the possession of "New Agers" likely to be unaware of the Orb's true purpose.
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965): Ira Rosenberg's only daughter, Willow, treasures her secret annual ritual with her best friend Xander. In fact, Xander desperately dances the Snoopy dance in the season five episode, "The Replacement", in a needless attempt to convince her he's himself.

[edit] Production details

[edit] Music

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • According to Joss Whedon, Jenny Calendar's death serves notice to fans, first, that no one is safe, death is scary and real, and second, that Angel is not "just a little evil," he's not "grouchy," he's truly evil and Buffy needs to address the situation. The series creator also jokes that the episode is a message to the actors: "Be very good, or I'll kill you."[1]
  • In an interview with the BBC, Anthony Stewart Head says this is his favorite episode, "because it was a beautifully shot episode and a beautifully written one."[2]
  • Although Jenny is killed off in this episode, the actress makes two further guest appearances: in the second part of the season finale where Drusilla hypnotises Giles into thinking she's Jenny and again in the season 3 episode Amends as a manifestation of the First Evil, intending to turn Angel evil again.
  • The episode title appears as "Old Passion" on ITunes.

[edit] Translations

  • French title: "La Boule de Thesulah" ("The Thesulah Orb")
  • Italian title: "Passioni" ("Passions")
  • German title: "Das Jenseits Lässt Grüßen" ("Greetings from the Nether World")
  • Japanese title: "受難" ("Junan" - "Agony")

[edit] Timing

  • Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
Location, time
(if known)		 Buffyverse chronology: Fall 1997 - Spring 1998
(non-canon = italic)
Sunnydale, fall 1997 B2.01 When She Was Bad
Sunnydale, 1997 Tales of the Slayers: Broken Bottle of Djinn, 1997
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.02 Some Assembly Required
Sunnydale, 1997 Tales of the Vampires: The Problem with Vampires
Sunnydale, 1997 Buffy graphic novel: Spike & Dru: The Queen of Hearts
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.03 School Hard
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.04 Inca Mummy Girl
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.05 Reptile Boy
Sunnydale, 1997 Buffy graphic novel: Dust Waltz
Sunnydale, October 1997 B2.06 Halloween
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.07 Lie to Me
Sunnydale, 1997 Buffy book: Keep Me In Mind
Sunnydale, 1997 Buffy book: The Suicide King
Sunnydale, 1997 Buffy book: Colony
Sunnydale, 1997 Buffy book: Night Terrors
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.08 The Dark Age
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.09 What's My Line, Part One
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.10 What's My Line, Part Two
Sunnydale, 1997 Buffy book: After Image
Sunnydale, 1997 Buffy book: Carnival of Souls
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.11 Ted
Sunnydale, 1997 B2.12 Bad Eggs
Boston, December 1997 - June 1998 Buffy book: Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary
Sunnydale, 1997/8 Buffy book: Blooded
Sunnydale, 1998 B2.13 Surprise
Sunnydale, 1998 B2.14 Innocence
Sunnydale, 1998 B2.15 Phases
Sunnydale, 1998 B2.16 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Sunnydale, 1998 B2.17 Passion
Sunnydale, 1998 Buffy graphic novel: Ring of Fire
Sunnydale, 1998 B2.18 Killed by Death
Sunnydale, 1998 B2.19 I Only Have Eyes for You
Sunnydale, 1998 B2.20 Go Fish
Sunnydale, spring 1998 B2.21 Becoming, Part One
Sunnydale, spring 1998 B2.22 Becoming, Part Two
Sunnydale, spring 1998 Buffy graphic novel: Spike & Dru: Paint the Town Red

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Chosen Collection DVD Set, Season Two, Episode 17, "Passion", 'Interview with Joss Whedon'.
  2. ^ “Anthony Stewart Head Interview: Our favourite Librarian tells all”, BBC, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/interviews/tony/01.shtml>. Retrieved on 9 December 2007 

[edit] External links

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