Lies My Parents Told Me

"Lies My Parents Told Me" is the seventeenth episode of the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the one hundred thirty-ninth episode altogether. It was written by David Fury and Drew Goddard and directed by David Fury. It originally broadcast on March 25, 2003.

The Scooby Gang investigates Spike's trigger. Robin Wood and Giles team up behind Buffy's back.

Synopsis
New York, 1977: Spike is fighting Nikki Wood (a Slayer also seen in the fifth season episode "Fool for Love") in a park at night in pouring rain while her son watches from his hiding place behind a bench. Spike has the opportunity to kill her but the kid distracts him and he lets her go with the promise that they'll meet again. "Love the coat," he adds with a smile, before he leaves. When he's gone, a clearly troubled Nikki finds her son and calms his fears by telling him, "The mission is what matters."

The scene switches to an alley in present-day Sunnydale. Buffy, Robin Wood, and Spike are fighting a bunch of vampires. Buffy and Spike manage to kill their quarry, but a vampire has knocked Wood to the ground, and is about to kill him. Spike saves Wood by killing the vampire from behind, then helps him up. Wood thanks him, but the camera zooms in on the stake he's holding and we see blood dripping from his hand. He still seems determined to have his revenge, only not just now....

Previously, the First Evil had programmed Spike with a post-hypnotic suggestion in his mind that allows it to turn Spike violent using an old song, "Early One Morning", as a trigger. This way the First was able to command him to kill again. Buffy wants to find out how to turn it off so that she can fully trust Spike against the First, but Giles opposes Buffy. In his opinion, Spike is dangerous and must be contained (IOW, disposed of).

With all that happening the Scoobies go to the basement of Buffy's house, where Willow makes a spell with the Prokaryote stone, a magical artifact that penetrates Spike's mind and makes him more conscious of how the trigger works. In this way, we learn about his past, his sick mother, and how he turned her into a vampire only to be cruelly rejected by her newly vampiric self. The song that his mother used to sing makes him relive the whole episode and switch into his evil, soulless self. He unwillingly hurts Dawn in the process and scares them all, except Buffy. Meanwhile, Willow receives a phone call from a girl named Fred and quickly leaves for Los Angeles. She apologises to Buffy for her quick departure, but promises to be back as soon as she can, and she may even return with good news.

After the previous incident, Wood privately convinces Giles that Spike must die. Giles learns that Wood is the son of Nikki, a Slayer now dead, and that Spike murdered her. After a brief chat they make a plan. Giles is to distract Buffy while Wood takes care of Spike. Giles takes Buffy on patrol and begins asking her indirect questions and making obscure references to her role against the First.

In the meantime, Wood takes Spike to his hideout with the promise to protect him, but this feeling is clearly undermined as soon as they enter and it is revealed that the walls are covered with crosses. Wood reveals to Spike that he knows he murdered his mother and that he's going to kill the monster inside him. Spike says he has no remorse over killing his mother, and that it was "all part of the game". Wood then goes to his computer and starts "Early One Morning". This triggers Spike's violent, monstrous self and the two fight.

As the fight progresses, Spike continues to relive the events that transpired between himself and his mother on a more conscious level, due to the Prokaryote Stone. Wood takes advantage of Spike's flashbacks, and using weapons, knocks Spike around until he cannot stand, when he then attempts to stake him. Spike regains control of his own mind, having faced his own anger and regret on turning his mother into a vampire and then being forced to kill her. Spike then easily defeats Wood, and demonstrates that the song has no more power over him, and tells Wood that the difference between his mother and Wood's mother, is that Spike's mother actually loved him back (referring to a previous comment he made that Wood's mother did not love him enough to give up her Slayer duties.)

All the while, Buffy had been fighting a vampire at the cemetery and talking to Giles, when she suddenly realizes that Giles is trying to distract her while Wood kills Spike. She kills the vampire, leaves Giles and rushes to Wood's place. Buffy finds Spike at Wood's place, with Wood badly beaten, but alive. Spike says, 'I gave him a pass. Let him live. On account of the fact I killed his mother." Spike then adds that if Wood tries anything again, he'll kill Wood. Buffy goes inside, and tells him that she needs Spike alive and that she has no time for personal vendettas. She promises him that if he tries anything like this again, she'll let Spike kill him. "The mission is what matters," she says firmly, and Wood winces to hear his mother's words repeated all over again, by a different Slayer.

Once at home, Buffy tells Giles that his and Wood's plan failed. In spite of that, he tries to pick up from where they left off earlier, and continue the interrupted lesson. But Buffy says icily that she already knows everything he can teach her. And with that, she closes the door in his face.

Starring

 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
 * Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
 * Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
 * Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
 * James Marsters as Spike/William
 * Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

Special Guest Star

 * Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

 * Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells
 * Iyari Limon as Kennedy
 * Indigo as Rona
 * Caroline Lagerfelt as Anne
 * K. D. Aubert as Nikki Wood
 * Juliet Landau as Drusilla
 * D. B. Woodside as Principal Robin Wood

Co Starring

 * Damani Roberts as Young Robin
 * Ira Steck as New Vamp

Trivia

 * Spike's brainwashing trigger, based on a troubled relationship with his mother, is reminiscent of the brainwashing trigger used in The Manchurian Candidate. In the John Frankenheimer film, Raymond Shaw is triggered to kill by the Queen of Hearts, which he associates with his mother.  Both "Lies My Parents Told Me" and The Manchurian Candidate hinted at mother-son incestuous desires.


 * The song played to trigger Spike is familiar to Canadians. It was used as the theme song to the Canadian children's show "The Friendly Giant".


 * Spike asks his mother if he should call for Dr. Gull. This appears to be a reference to Sir William Gull, a physician who tended the family of Queen Victoria and one of several prominent Jack the Ripper suspects.


 * The DVD commentary notes that they totally messed up on William's wig since it doesn't match his hairstyle in "Fool For Love".


 * In the episode commentary David Fury notes that a major reason Caroline Lagerfelt was cast as Anne was due to her notable physical resemblance to Sarah Michelle Gellar. Also the name Anne was used because it is Buffy's middle name, although the name is never mentioned onscreen during the episode.

Continuity

 * In the graveyard where Buffy is fighting a vampire while discussing Spike, Giles admits that he has killed a human before. Giles killed Ben in the Season Five Finale, "The Gift", so that Glory could not return. However, his confession was cut from the episode.


 * In arguing against Buffy's preferential treatment of Spike, Anya says, "[Spike] could slaughter a hundred frat boys," referencing the episode "Selfless" in which Buffy tries to kill Anya after she summons a demon to kill several frat boys.


 * The title, "Lies My Parents Told Me", also refers to the lies that Giles tells to arrange for Robin Wood to kill Spike. This episode ends, once and for all, any deference Buffy gave to Giles as a mentor and parental figure.


 * Spike's trigger is "deactivated" due to the events in this episode.


 * Spike later refers to the events of the flashbacks shown here in Lineage when attempting to 'comfort' Wesley after shooting a cyborg that appeared to be his father, telling Wesley "I killed my mum. Well, actually I'd already killed her, and then she tried to shag me, so-" only for Wesley to cut him off before he can go any further.


 * Crossover with Angel: During this episode Willow receives a telephone call from Winifred Burkle, causing her to go to Los Angeles in "Orpheus".