Halloween

"Halloween" is episode 6 of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sunnydale teens are turned into their costume personas on Halloween night after patronizing a store run by the insidious Ethan Rayne, who has a dark history with Giles. Willow becomes a ghost, Xander a soldier and Buffy a helpless 17th-century noblewoman. Spike cannot be more pleased.

Quotes and trivia

 * The costume designer responsible for Buffy's dress picked it as her favorite piece of the series.


 * The two faced statue Janus used by Ethan Rayne in this episode is later seen in "Tabula Rasa" behind Giles when he finds his airline ticket in his pocket. In ancient Roman mythology, Janus was the (literally) two-faced god of gates, of doors, and of beginnings and endings, and was worshipped at harvests, marriages, births, and other kinds of beginnings. (The month January is named after him, as it is the "door" into the new year.) It might be speculated the statue in "Tabula Rasa" symbolises Giles leaving Sunnydale and going to England.


 * There is a black and white oval sticker labelled by the letters "WP". The letters stand for the southern jam/rock band, "Widespread Panic." It can be seen in number of places in this episode; on Oz's locker door (near Cordelia when she's dressed as a cat and talking to Oz), on a bulletin board (on Willow's right when she walks into the library as a ghost), on the bathroom wall (behind Buffy's right shoulder when she and Willow are looking at the book). The same sticker appears in a number of episodes; "Inca Mummy Girl", "Bad Eggs", "Surprise", "Phases", "Bewitched", "Bothered and Bewildered", "Becoming (Part 2)", "Dead Man's Party", "A New Man", "Wild at Heart", "The Yoko Factor", and "The Replacement".


 * Willow's line, "Wild on me equals spaz" was cut when the episode was shown on the BBC; because in the UK, "spaz" is an extremely offensive term often used to desribe a handicapped or disabled person.


 * Larry's chooses to be a pirate for Halloween. A cliche in pirate stories has them looking for 'booty'. Larry will come out as gay later in the season...