Crush

"Crush" is the fourteenth episode of the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the ninety-second episode altogether. It was written by David Fury and directed by Daniel Attias. It originally broadcast on February 13, 2001.

Drusilla returns to Sunnydale and walks back into Spike's life, causing Spike to re-examine his relationships with the three women in his life: Drusilla, Harmony, and Buffy.

Synopsis


The Bronze re-opens after its repairs and refurbishment following the damage caused by Olaf the Troll and Buffy watches as her friends dance. Spike shows up and starts discussing the bar menu with Buffy, who is confused at the fact he seems to be attempting to carry on a regular conversation with her. Willow reveals that she is suffering from headaches and nosebleeds as a result of her teleportation spell. Buffy spots Ben and offers her thanks to him for looking after Dawn. A train pulls into Sunnydale Station but when no one gets off the porter boards the train and finds all the passengers dead before he too is attacked.

Buffy returns home and Giles suggests that Dawn be treated normally. Harmony, trying to get Spike sexually aroused, engages in a game in which she pretends to be Buffy. Buffy reads about the train murders and concludes that it's a vampire and not Glory. Buffy searches for Dawn and finds her with Spike, listening to one of his scary stories. Dawn admits to her own crush on Spike, but really shocks her sister when she says that Spike has a crush on Buffy, making Dawn's interest irrelevant.



Buffy and Xander investigate the train and Buffy confesses the possibility of Spike loving her, though Xander finds it very funny and is more concerned with Dawn's crush no longer being on him. Buffy finds her mother and sister talking in the kitchen with Spike; Joyce subsequently explains that Spike arrived to apologize for the situation with Dawn. Spike tells Buffy that he believes that the vamps from the train are.

On a stakeout in Spike's car, Buffy is unnerved by some of Spike's behavior, such as offering her bourbon, asking her what kind of music she likes, and the fact that he is doing this for free. Buffy and Spike enter the vampires' lair, but the vampires immediately run off at the sight of the Slayer. Buffy realizes that the warehouse is a vampire nest, and thus they couldn't have been involved in the train massacre. When Spike goes so far as to unwittingly hold the door open for her, Buffy finally demands to know why he is acting like this and if everything that just happened was Spike's version of a date. At first, Spike loudly denies it, but then asks, in a hopeful manner, "Do you want it to be?" Buffy is immediately disgusted. Despite Spike's pleas and confessions, Buffy refuses to listen to him and denies that there is something between them, insisting that Spike is still a dangerous villain and, being soulless, is incapable of such emotion. Having completely and brutally rejected Spike, Buffy departs the warehouse in horror and disgust. Despondently returning to his crypt, Spike is greeted by his sire and longtime love, Drusilla.



Drusilla tells him of the events in Los Angeles and tries to convince him to return with her. She's already aware of the chip in his head and tries to convince him he can be evil, even with the chip. Harmony arrives and yells at Drusilla for hurting Spike, however Spike quickly kicks Harmony to the kerb, announcing that not only is Drusilla back - he's back. Joyce and Willow talk to Buffy about the problem with Spike and tell her she has to make it clear to Spike that there is nothing between them. Buffy agrees, but tells Willow to do "something" for her while she is out...

Spike and Drusilla dance at The Bronze before Dru spots a couple on the catwalk for them to feed on. She snaps the neck of the girl, offering her to Spike before taking the guy for herself.

Spike hesitates initially but soon vamps and bites. Buffy discovers the extension of Spike's lair underground and a shrine dedicated to herself. As she returns to the surface, Buffy finds Spike and Drusilla waiting for her. Spike watches Drusilla shock Buffy with a cattle prod. After the Slayer collapses, Drusilla turns to Spike, only to be shocked herself as he seizes the cattle prod and uses it on her.



Buffy awakens to find herself chained up in the underground space below Spike's crypt, Drusilla tied to a pole across from her. Spike professes his love and offers to kill Drusilla to convince Buffy of his love. He threatens that if Buffy does not return his love, he'll untie Drusilla and let her kill Buffy. Spike asks for only a small sign that Buffy could love him. Buffy rejects Spike again and he goes into a rage about women being so difficult. Harmony arrives and shoots Spike with a crossbow bolt. While Harmony and Spike fight, Drusilla breaks free and goes after Buffy while the Slayer is still chained up. Spike saves Buffy. Realizing that the Spike she once loved is gone forever, Drusilla leaves Sunnydale heartbroken. Harmony leaves Spike, telling him it's completely over between the two of them. The minute she leaves, Buffy physically attacks Spike and storms off.

Spike quickly tracks Buffy down and desperately attempts to get her to talk things over with him, but Buffy makes it very clear that he is no longer a part of her life, and he is to stay away from her and her family and friends from now on. Undeterred, Spike attempts to follow her into her house, but discovers that she has had his invitation revoked. As he spends time recovering from this, Buffy merely glares at him with disdain before shutting the door in his face.

Continuity

 * Willow and Tara's discussion of The Hunchback of Notre Dame foreshadows the nature of Buffy and Spike's relationship throughout Seasons Five and Six: "...it can't end (happily), 'cause all of Quasimodo's actions were selfishly motivated. He had no moral compass, no understanding of right. Everything he did, he did out of love for a woman who would never be able to love him back. Also, you can tell it's not gonna have a happy ending when the main guy's all bumpy." Despite this parallel, however, Spike often acts toward Buffy in ways that are arguably not selfishly motivated, or at least not purely selfish (for example in protecting the identity of the Key under torture).


 * When discussing crushing on vampires with Buffy, Dawn states that Buffy dated Angel for three years. This is somewhat inaccurate; Buffy and Angel's formal dating relationship actually began during Season Two's "Reptile Boy", and ended abruptly when Angel lost his soul and was sent into Acathla's hell. Upon his return, they did not resume dating until "Amends," and broke up in "The Prom." In reality, Buffy and Angel only dated for a little over a year.
 * Buffy was confirmed to be utterly unaware of Spike's romantically-centered obsession with her. Ironically, Buffy later assumed that Spike was no longer in love with her and expressed surprise that he still was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine's "On Your Own, Part Two".


 * This episode marks the final "real" appearance of Drusilla in the TV show as all her future appearances are either in the forms of illusions or flashbacks. She later appears in the canonical comics.


 * This episode marks the final appearance of Harmony on Buffy. However, she will later appear as a recurring character and finally a regular cast member on Angel, becoming Angel's secretary at Wolfram & Hart.


 * This is the Bronze's first appearance since "Triangle", in which it was badly damaged by Olaf. Its new look remains for the rest of the series.


 * Drusilla's arrival in Sunnydale follows the events of Angel's eleventh Season Two episode "Redefinition". And after breaking up with Spike, Harmony is next seen in Angel's seventeenth Season Two episode "Disharmony".


 * Several of the pictures in the shrine that Spike made for Buffy were pictures drawn by Angelus.


 * During this episode Buffy has the invitation she extended to Spike in Becoming, Part 1 revoked.
 * Spike's de-invite lasts only a few episodes: Buffy re-invites him by the end of the season. She never de-invites him again, not even following his attempted rape.


 * Spike's feelings for Buffy become known to the Scooby Gang at large.


 * Buffy says she wants Spike "out of [her] life" in this episode, and uses the same line later in "Wrecked". Both times the rejection is very short; this time it lasts almost four episodes, before (at the end of "Intervention") Buffy learns that Spike is capable of great personal sacrifice on her behalf. Soon after she seeks out his help protecting Dawn ("Spiral").


 * Drusilla mentioned Angel setting her on fire and still had scars from the incident.


 * When Spike attempts to woo Buffy at The Bronze, he changes from his traditional black leather coat (which is a trophy he took from a Slayer he killed) into a jacket and tie.


 * In a way, this episode is antithesis to another episode, "Angel" in the first season. Buffy was surprised to constat that Angel the man she love was a vampire and fight voluntary against Darla who want to retablish a love relation with Angel. Darla was finally dusted by her ex-lover and Buffy invite him in her house. Here, Buffy is revulsed to constat that Spike the vampire she hate is obssessly and desperatly in love for her and fight unvoluntary against Drusilla who want retablish her relation with Spike. Spike tried vainly to dusted her for to demonstrate her love to the Slayer. Finally, Drusilla escaped from Sunnydale and Buffy erase invitation to her home concerning Spike who was invited long time ago.

Body Count

 * Five train passengers and a porter train, killed by Drusilla
 * One young man, drained by Drusilla at the Bronze
 * One young girl, neck snapped by Drusilla and drained by Spike at the Bronze

Production

 * David Fury, asked to do an episode that took the Buffy/Spike relationship to the next level, decided that it was time for the audience to discover that Spike was in love with Buffy. He says, "...and it then progressed into Buffy finding out, which was something we were saving for later. It turned out to be a good play because we were able to take them to interesting places throughout the rest of the season." According to Fury, the resurrection of Spike and Drusilla's relationship "was really significant in terms of what love means to Spike."


 * James Marsters found the scene where Spike tied Buffy up and used a taser on her humorous, stating that "it was supposed to be an act of love?"


 * The pink dress that Anya wears in the scene at the Bronze is later worn by Harmony in the Angel episode "Life of the Party".

Pop Culture References

 * Xander referred to Spike as Evil Dead, a reference to the film of the same name.
 * Willow and Tara read the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which draws parallels between Quasimodo and Spike. Buffy mentions renting the movie, however it is implied with her mention of "singing gargoyles" that she didn't rent the 1939 movie but the Disney version.


 * Harmony refer to Drusilla as "Morticia", a reference to Morticia Addams of The Addams Family. McNab, who plays Harmony, had a small role in the 1991 film adaption of The Addams Family.
 * Drusilla's "We can love quite well, if not wisely" is paraphrased from Shakespeare's Othello.

International titles

 * French: La déclaration (The declaration)

Music

 * Johannes Brahms - "Hungarian Dance No 5"
 * Devics - "Key"
 * Ramones - "I Wanna Be Sedated"
 * Summercamp - "Happy"
 * Summercamp - "Play It By Ear"
 * Thomas Wanker - original score

Other

 * This episode is Spike-centric.
 * This is the only episode where Buffy and Drusilla fight.
 * This episode is in a way, Angel's review, Spike version.
 * When Buffy accuses Spike of being like a 'serial killer in prison' he retorts 'women marry them all the time'. In 2008 James Marsters portrayed notorious murderer Ted Bundy in 'The Hunt for the Green River Killer', a serial killer with a large female fan following who did indeed marry one of his groupies whilst in prison.