The Dark Age

"The Dark Age" is episode 8 of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

An old childhood friend of Giles appears, only to die. It is revealed that an old demon from Giles' shady teenage past is haunting him and Ethan Rayne. The demon possesses Ms. Calendar, and is defeated by Angel.

Quotes and trivia

 * Xander's comment, ""No one can be wound as straight and narrow as Giles without a dark side erupting," is also interesting applied to Willow Rosenberg, regarding later episodes such as "Grave".
 * Giles says, "And the rest is silence". This line is from Shakespeare's Hamlet, and is also spoken in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film) by Buffy's previous Watcher Merrick, and at the end of the film by Buffy herself.
 * In this episode Giles slams a door in Buffy's face. The favour is returned four years later at the end of "Lies My Parents Told Me".
 * While playing, Anywhere but Here (Sunnydale High), Xander said he wanted to go to the waterslide park with Amy Yip.


 * E. M. Forster - Giles lends Jenny Calendar a first edition novel by British author E.M. Forster (1879-1970). Forster's most famous works are A Room With A View, Howard's End and A Passage To India.


 * Bay City Rollers - Giles mentions that he's a fan of The Bay City Rollers. They were a band in the 1970s. Their best-selling record was 'Saturday Night'.


 * The Lost Weekend - Buffy says to Giles in The Dark Age, "I care from you Lost Weekend-ing in your apartment!". The Lost Weekend (1945) is a movie about the effects of alcoholism on a man's life. The film was based on the novel by Charles R. Jackson. The movie won a number of Academy Awards for; best picture, best actor (Ray Milland), best director (Billy Wilder) and best screenplay (Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett).


 * The Prisoner - In "Halloween", Ethan had left behind a note on the counter of the costume shop which had said, "Be seeing you." Eyghon leaves Giles' apartment after possessing Ms. Calendar and also leaves a note saying, "Be seeing you." The phrase is likely a reference to 1960s cult paranoia TV-drama, The Prisoner.


 * The Sound of Music - After recovering from her possession, Jenny tells Giles "I mean, I'm not running around, wind in my hair, 'The hills are alive with the sound of music' fine, but... I'm coping." She is referencing the title song of The Sound of Music (1959) written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. The movie starred Julie Andrews in 1965.