Killed by Death

"Killed by Death" is episode 18 of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

After flu lands Buffy in the hospital, she rescues fevered children from Der Kindestod, a demon that turned out to have killed her cousin when she was younger and which gave her a phobia of hospitals.

Quotes and trivia

 * "Der Kindestod" literally means "the child's death" in German, but Giles is the only one to pronounce it with the correct accent. Cordelia is mistaken when she claims it means "child death."
 * It has been conjectured that Der Kindestod ("Killed By Death") may have been inspired by Freddy Krueger, the antagonist of A Nightmare on Elm Street . However, Whedon says that this character was "based on a 'this thing creeped me out as a kid' thing," as did many of the monsters on the Buffy series. In general, Buffy monsters were suggested by the vague boogeyman figures that bedevil many children (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Monster Book). "The guys with weird flesh over their eyes" in the third season's "Amends" episode," Whedon explains, represented "some sort of creepy, kind of Jacob's Ladder-y thing," adding that "a deformed human is scarier than a big reptile with fangs."