Flooded

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“So. We meet at last, Mister Drippy.”

―Buffy

"Flooded" is the fourth episode of the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the one hundred fourth episode altogether. It was written by Jane Espenson and Douglas Petrie and directed by Douglas Petrie. It originally broadcast on October 16, 2001.

Still adjusting to being raised from the dead, Buffy must also deal with a mountain of unpaid bills and a flood in the basement. However the Slayer's spirits are raised slightly as Giles returns to Sunnydale. Meanwhile, Warren, Andrew, and Jonathan have teamed up with the goal of taking over Sunnydale. Giles confronts Willow over her decision to bring back Buffy from the dead.

Synopsis

Buffy attempts to repair a leaky pipe in her basement only to have it burst and flood the basement. At breakfast, the gang discusses the damage while Xander and a plumber examine the damage caused by the pipes. The plumber advises Buffy that a full re-piping is necessary and hands her a very large invoice. The size of the cost leads to Buffy finding out that, with the hospital bills and the costs of the funeral for their mother (along with the costs of living in the home), the Summers girls are pretty much broke. Anya suggests charging for slaying which leads to an argument with Xander about telling the others that they are engaged, but Buffy manages to keep her cool and is determined to find a way around the problem.

Buffy goes to a bank to consult with a loan director, which is hardly a positive experience as Buffy finds that without a job and no real collateral, she can't get a loan. A demon breaks through the office window, interrupting the meeting and Buffy fights it, despite her conservative clothing. While money is stolen from the bank, a security guard tries to intervene in the fight, but is unable to help the situation. The demon escapes and Buffy returns to the loan officer to discuss the possibility of getting paid for saving his life.

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Buffy: I'm not saying I'm charging you for saving your life or anything, but... let's talk rates.

Later that night, Willow tries to upset Buffy purposely in order to get her to express some real anger but Buffy doesn't fall for it. Anya continues to try and force Xander to announce their engagement and he's ready to but not until everyone has arrived. Dawn wants to help with research, but Tara thinks she's too young and that fact is proven when Dawn looks at a picture in one of the books. Buffy isn't pleased that Dawn is researching with the gang, but Dawn is able to identify the bank-robbing demon Buffy encountered earlier. Giles returns to have a happy reunion and intense discussion with Buffy before meeting up with the rest of the gang.

The bank robbing demon, a M'Fashnik, throws a fit in front of his "controllers," Jonathan, Warren, and Andrew (brother of Tucker) complaining that the Slayer still lives even though they got the money from the bank. The three guys argue both with the demon and each other, then Jonathan, Warren, and Andrew think up a way to accommodate the demon without killing Buffy. Giles takes the couch at the Summers' home and talks with Buffy, telling her he'll help her take care of the financial problems in the morning. The three nerds discuss their mission—taking over Sunnydale—and somewhat agree unanimously that none of them want to kill Buffy, but Warren secretly provides Buffy's address to the M'Fashnik demon and sends him after her anyway.

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Jonathan: Okay. Who's for not killing Buffy?

Later that night, Giles asks Willow for specifics regarding the spell she cast to bring Buffy back to life. Willow, eager to impress Giles, begins to boast about how scary the spell was, but Giles quickly takes the wind out of her sails by reminding her why such spells aren't practiced, including the possible consequences, noting that he left her in charge of the group because he thought she was the most responsible, which he now sees is clearly not the case. Although he tries to keep calm throughout the discussion, Giles ultimately loses control when Willow continues to boast of her performance and demands praise, and thunders that she is lucky to be alive after casting such a spell, calling her a "rank, arrogant amateur." Willow's tone of voice suddenly turns dangerous, as she warns Giles that she's powerful and pissing her off might not be such a good idea, before regaining her normal composure and telling him to just focus on the fact Buffy is back. Giles, however, reminds her that the gang still have no idea where Buffy has been or what she has been through.

Spike finds Buffy on the back porch, and the two exchange small talk about life and money. Giles and Dawn both have trouble sleeping and go for a snack. The M'Fashnik crashes their late night cereal party, but Buffy catches him. A fight ensues, with Buffy and Spike working together against the M'Fashnik.

The fight ends up in the basement where the demon latches on to one of the pipes and Buffy immediately attacks as the expensive pipes are threatened. The nerds consider their future plans and agree that hypnotizing and making Buffy their willing love slave is a priority.

The Scooby Gang regroups after the demon is taken care of and hopelessly attempts to save the furniture that was destroyed in battle. As Buffy and Giles prepare to start working through the bills, Buffy suddenly receives a phone call from Angel, who knows she's alive and wants to meet with her. Buffy heads out immediately to meet Angel at a point between Sunnydale and Los Angeles, dumping all the financial issues on Giles to sort out much to his concern.

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Continuity

• This is the first appearance of The Trio. Adam Busch has appeared as Warren Mears and Danny Strong has appeared as Jonathan Levinson in previous episodes but this is the first appearance of Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells.

• The Trio attempt to bribe the M'Fashnik demon by offering to repeat some of their exploits from previous seasons:
  • Warren Mears offers to build him a robot sex slave, as he did in "I Was Made to Love You" and "Intervention".
  • Jonathan Levinson offers to cast a spell to make the demon "seem cool", like he did for himself in "Superstar".
  • Warren taunts Andrew Wells about the hellhounds that attacked the Sunnydale High prom in "The Prom". Andrew points out that his older brother Tucker Wells was actually responsible for that.
  • Andrew recounts his summoning of monkey demons to ruin the school play, an incident which happened off-screen (and which, we find out later, none of the Scooby Gang remember).

• Jonathan resists killing Buffy because she has saved his life "a bunch of times". The two incidents involving Jonathan personally are "Earshot" and "Superstar", but he is likely including cases where Buffy saved the whole school ("Bad Eggs", "Dead Man's Party", "Graduation Day, Part Two", etc.)

• While arguing with Willow, Giles says that a possible consequence of Buffy's resurrection could have been "unleashing hell on Earth". This turns out to be true when, in Season 7, it is revealed that Buffy's revivification violated the balance between good and evil and allowed The First to take action against humanity.

• Giles calls Willow a "rank, arrogant amateur" during their argument in this episode, something Dark Willow will reference when they fight in "Grave."

• After Giles' harsh words to Willow, she threatens him, telling him that given her power, he shouldn't make her into an enemy. This represents a further step on Willow's path to misuse of magic.

• Anya's suggestion for Buffy to cash in on slaying vampires is something that Angel battles with and eventually accepts with his business Angel Investigations in L.A. While Buffy tries that idea at one point, she is unsuccessful and will eventually find herself a fry-cook job to pay the bills. In the canonical comics that occur after the destruction of the original Watchers Council and the activation of all Potential Slayers, Buffy funds the Slayer Organization through theft.

• Buffy received a phone call from Angel. Having learned about her resurrection, he wished to speak with her, so Buffy left to meet up with him. This meeting was the subject of Jane Espenson's comic Reunion.

• After receiving the phone call from Angel, Buffy turns down Giles' request that they look over the bills before she goes, beginning the process of Buffy continually pushing more of her adult responsibility onto Giles through Season Six. Ultimately, this will lead to Giles's departure later on in the season, although other Watchers have been implied to have supported their Slayers so that they would not need to deal with financial issues.

• While having an important conversation with Giles, Buffy doesn't tell him she was in Heaven, or something similar, even though she had the chance to tell Giles the truth. At that point, only Spike knows it.
• Buffy’s line about being "really good" at the end of the world refers to the Apocalypses she prevented.
• When talking about neither of them being much for crowds, Spike says to Buffy "That works out nicely then." Anya says those exact words to Xander in "As You Were". Both episodes were written by Douglas Petrie.
• The beginnings of Buffy's financial issues and the sole responsibility of providing for everyone in the house being laid on her shoulders instead of everyone pitching in.
• When a security guard shoots a gun at M'Fashnik at the bank and fails, Buffy tells him, "These things? Never useful." This ideology against using guns that Buffy holds persists even until the comics.

Body Count

• M'Fashnik demon, bludgeoned to death by Buffy

Behind the Scenes

Production

• The scene with Dawn getting flooded by a burst pipe was originally intended for Spike in Xander's basement in "Doomed" but was not used for that episode.

• The periscope in Warren's basement has Russian lettering on it :ГЫЫК. When read phonetically, it says "geek". This however might be just a coincidence, since "ГЫЫК" is what comes up if one changes their keyboard layout to Russian and types "USSR".
• The Trio was originally supposed to include Tucker Wells, another Sunnydale High student who had previously caused trouble for Buffy and who was originally meant to be the leader. Since Brad Kane was unavailable, the character of Andrew Wells was created instead and Warren was made the leader of the trio instead.
• This is not Tom Lenk's first appearance; he also played the vampire Cyrus in the Season 5 episode "Real Me".

Pop Culture References

• When Willow is telling Giles about the spell she performed she said "even the Blair Witch would be scared."
• Spider-Man (1967) (TV Series): When discussing Spider-Man, Xander quotes from theme song ("Action is his reward").
• Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope - "Are you like a jedi or something?"
• At the trio's place the video game The Operative: No One Lives Forever is being played on the television in the background, though no-one is seen playing it.

International titles

• French: La tête sous l'eau (The head under the water) 
• Portuguese: A Inundação (The Flood)
• German: Geld und andere Sorgen (Money and other Worries) 

Music

• Thomas Wanker - original score

Quotes

Warren: "Well, between the three of us, we can pretty much do anything."

Jonathan: "Like, you want a spell to make you look super-cool to the other demons?" (grins) "I'm all over that action, my friend."

Warren: "Or, just throwing it out there, robot girlfriend. Huh? For those long, lonely nights after a hard day's slaughter?"

M'Fashnik Demon: (interested) "You can do this?" (Jonathan and Warren nod)

Andrew: "Don't trust him. Robo-pimp daddy's all mouth."

Warren: "Shut up, Andrew! You're just mad I wouldn't build you Christina Ricci."

Andrew: "You owe me, man."

Warren: "Oh, or else what? You'll train another pack of devil-dogs to ruin my prom? Ha! Graduated!"

Andrew: "That wasn't me! How many times do I have to say it? The prom thing was my lame-o brother, Tucker."

Jonathan: "Yeah, well tell him I was at that prom."

Andrew: "Hello! Screen-wipe, new scene." (makes screen-wipe gesture) "I had nothing to do with the devil dogs. I trained flying demon monkeys to attack the school play. School play, dude!" (Beat; Warren and Jonathan hold their angry looks for a moment, then break and grin at each other, nodding)

Warren: (grinning) "That was cool. That was kinda cool."

Jonathan: (laughs) "Remember, everyone was like, ‘Run, Juliet!’" (They all grin, nod at each other, and laugh their dorky laughs again)

Buffy: (phone rings) "Who's calling me? Everybody I know lives here. I'll be back." (leaves to answer phone)

Dawn: (to Giles) "I bet it's creditors. The hounding's begun. I read about it. So you think we'll starve?"

Giles: "I very much doubt it."

Dawn: "No chance I'd have to quit school to work assembling cheap toys in a poorly ventilated sweatshop?"

Giles: "Poorly ventilated—what have you been reading?"

Buffy: "It's pieces of paper sent by bureaucrats we've never even met. It's not like it's the end of the world. Which is too bad, you know, 'cause that I'm really good at."

Buffy: "Are you in the wrong line? That's for deposits, that's for withdrawals, and this one... Is for getting kicked in the face."

Willow: "Ok, let me make you mad again. Uh, ready? Um, last semester, I slept with Riley!"

Buffy: "And you know I really doubt it."

Willow: "Caught me, big fib... To cover-up the sleazy affair I had with Angel."

Buffy: "Will... What the hell are you doing?"

Willow: "Pissing you off."

Buffy: "Yes, true."

Xander: "Score one for Captain Logic."

Anya: "Captain Logic is not steering this tugboat. I smell Captain Fear at the wheel. God! I hate this! This tone in my voice? I dislike it more than you do-and I'm closer to it(!)"

Xander: "You know, I still don't get it. What kind of a demon would rob a bank?"

Anya: "The kind that wants money."

Dawn: "I'm guessing on how you say it. It's got an apostrophe. I think it's 'Mmm-Fashnik'. Like 'Mmm... Cookies!'."

Anya: "Giles! We're so glad to see you. We missed you. You can't have the store back-"

Giles: "I know."

Anya: "-you signed papers."

M'Fashnik Demon: "Which one of you is the leader?"

Jonathan & Andrew & Warren: "I am."

M'Fashnik Demon: "I will kill the leader."

Jonathan & Andrew & Warren: "He is."

M'Fashnik Demon: "I will kill you all."

Jonathan: "Wait! Uh! No fair!"

Spike: "You want me to take them out? Give me a hell of a headache, but I could probably thin the herd a little."

References

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