Pangs

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"Pangs" is the eighth episode of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the sixty-fourth episode altogether. It was written by Jane Espenson and directed by Michael Lange. It originally broadcast on November 23, 1999.

As Buffy attempts to put together a perfect Thanksgiving, Xander accidentally releases Hus, a Native American vengeance spirit. Angel secretly comes to Sunnydale to protect her from the spirit.

Synopsis

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Xander trapped in the old mission.

Buffy tracks and kills a vampire while Angel watches her from behind some bushes. The college has a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Cultural Center building, and Xander is one of the construction workers. Buffy, Willow, and Anya watch, and while Anya imagines sex with Xander, Buffy and Willow talk about the meaning of Thanksgiving. Xander begins to dig, the ground suddenly caves out under him and he drops into an old abandoned building, which turns out to be the Old Sunnydale Mission. Buffy is upset that her mother is going to be out of town for Thanksgiving, but then decides to cook her own Thanksgiving dinner and invite all their friends. Covered in a blanket and in terrible shape, Spike runs through the woods, trying to escape Riley and his team as they look for him. Anya arrives at Xander's to find him incredibly sick, and right away starts taking care of him. A green haze comes up from the old Mission and goes to the Cultural Center where some weapons are being kept. After the haze comes in contact with a spear, it turns into a large Native American man and kills Professor Gerhardt. Buffy and Willow later secretly investigate the murder, and wonder why the curator's body was missing an ear. They discover that a Chumash knife is missing. Buffy tells Giles about the murder while planning to have Thanksgiving at his place.

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Hus kills Professor Gerhardt.

After Giles agrees to look up information on the Chumash Indians, and Buffy leaves, Angel appears from the back room, having travelled to Sunnydale due to his friend's vision of Buffy in danger. He and Giles talk about watching over Buffy. Angel tells him he doesn't want Buffy to know, though keeping a secret from Buffy is hard for both of them. Buffy and Willow talk about preparations for Thanksgiving and then Riley shows up. Buffy invites Riley to her Thanksgiving dinner, but he already has plans to visit family in Iowa. Willow goes to get coffee and runs into Angel. He tells her he's not evil, and that he's just looking out for Buffy because she might be in trouble. He quickly explains he's not here for personal reasons and only to keep Buffy safe, though contradicts that sentence when he asks who's that guy talking to Buffy, seemingly showing suspicion and slight jealousy.

Starving, Spike tries to get food from Harmony, but she threatens him with a stake and he leaves. Buffy goes to find Father Gabriel, a priest who may have information for them, but finds that a returning Chumash spirit has killed him. After the mission was uncovered, his spirit was released to reenact the wrongs that were done to his people. Buffy and Giles talk about it, while working on dinner and then Willow shows up with a stack of books on the Chumash. She explains that while they once were peaceful, the people of Sunnydale horribly mistreated them. Cutting off a victim's ear is a way to prove that the kill was successful. Willow and Giles argue about what happened between the Native Americans and the people who took their land and their lives. When Buffy goes to the kitchen, the two talk secretly about Angel's reappearance.

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Angel approaches Willow about protecting Buffy.

Anya practically carries Xander to Giles's place, and after some research, they determine that he probably has malaria, smallpox, and syphilis — some of the diseases that took a terrible toll when brought from Europe to a population without resistance.

With only a blanket to protect him from the sun, Spike shows up at Giles's place asking for help. Buffy is reluctant to give it, but after he offers inside information on the Initiative, and Willow helps him explain that he can't bite anyone anymore, they bring him inside and tie him to a chair.Everyone begins to argue about what they're going to do to stop the spirit. Willow doesn't want to kill him, but everyone else argues that that's the only way. While Willow, Anya and a weakened Xander go to find the Dean and warn him his life may be in danger, the spirit calls forth more spirits to help him get revenge for their people.

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Xander: Yeah, especially with Angel being here and everything.

The spirits attack Buffy, Giles and Spike with arrows. Helplessly tied to a chair, all Spike can do is try to move out of the way as he gets hit with arrows. Willow, Xander and Anya encounter Angel on their way back and they determine that the Chumash went after Buffy. Buffy tries to go for more weapons, but gets an arrow in the arm. After riding over on bicycles, the Scooby Gang tries to attack the Chumash spirits as best they can with shovels. Angel shows up and helps them out. Buffy cuts one of the Chumash with his own knife and discovers that their own weapons can kill them. The spirit turns into a large black bear, which Spike desperately tries to get away from and ends up knocking the chair over. Buffy struggles with the bear and then stabs it. All the spirits disappear.

Angel walks away without being seen by Buffy, and later, the gang sits down to Thanksgiving dinner. Still tied to a chair, Spike sits with them and whines that he still hasn't been fed. Xander accidentally lets it slip that Angel was in town.Template:Clear

Continuity

• This episode is immediately preceded by Doyle receiving a vision of Buffy in trouble. Buffy then followed Angel back to Los Angeles.

• After his job at the campus pub in "Beer Bad", Xander worked at Hot Dog on a Stick according to a comment by Willow at the beginning of the episode, leading to his taking a construction job just before this episode. Construction would be a career path he would stick with for the rest of the series. He is seen with more and more responsibility through the show to the point where in "Lessons" Xander would wear a suit and later indicate that he is in charge of several projects at once.

• Xander now refers to Anya as his girlfriend. Riley and Buffy are establishing a relationship as well.
• Joyce is referred to as being out of town visiting Aunt Arlene and her family for Thanksgiving. This suggests that Arlene is Joyce's rather than Hank's sister.

• Willow makes mention to what else could be buried in Sunnydale, foreshadowing her raising the buried Temple of Proserpexa.
• Harmony threatened to kill Spike with a stake, reminding him that he had done the same to her in "The Harsh Light of Day".
• Willow asks Angel about Cordelia working for him.
• It is confirmed that 'Asian Joe', a recurring extra from Sunnydale High survived the events of 'The Harsh Light of Day', we see him sitting in the stands at the opening ceremony.
• Xander will refer to his affliction in this episode during "Buffy vs. Dracula".
• This is the last time Angel would appear in Giles' house, and the first since the episode "Amends".
• Anya later refers to Xander's mystical illness in Once More, with Feeling, during the song "I'll Never Tell."

Body Count

• One vampire, dusted by Buffy
• unidentified man, drained by a vampire group
• Professor Gerhardt, killed by Hus with a knife
• Father Gabriel, hanged and his ear cut off by Hus.
• Hus, destroyed in the form of a black bear when Buffy stabbed him in the neck with his own knife
• Seven Chumash Warriors, automatically destroyed after

Behind the Scenes

• This is the first episode of either series in which Angel appears, but Cordelia does not.

Production

• Writer Jane Espenson did a fair amount of research on the actual Chumash Indian tribe, which was entrenched along the California Central Coast - including around modern Santa Barbara, the probable real-life counterpart to Sunnydale - and numbered as many as 20,000 people before contact with Europeans. The tribe survives today as the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash, which has U.S. recognition as a Native American tribe and controls a reservation and casino in Santa Ynez, California.
• In an early draft of the script, Spike was invited into Giles's apartment by Buffy. However the scene didn't make it to air and the invitation occurs between acts. This was a year before it was established in "Real Me" that only an actual resident could invite a vampire into a domicile.

Deleted Scenes

• This exchange was cut due to length:

Xander: "I didn't mean - you're an EX-vengeance demon. It's totally different."

Anya: "Sure. It's okay."

Pop Culture Reference

• Willow made a connection between ear-cutting and Vincent van Gogh.
• Riley mentions Grant Wood, an American painter, when talking about where he grew up.
• Buffy references Metropolis, the city from the DC Universe and where Superman lives and comments that she likes her enemies as she likes her men, evil. James Marsters, who plays Spike, would later go on to play Superman's enemies Brainiac and Lex Luthor.

International titles 

• French: L'esprit vengeur (The avenging spirit)
• Portuguese: Agonia (Agony)
• German: Der Geist der Chumash(The Ghost of the Chumash)

Music

• Christophe Beck - original score

Goofs, Bloopers & Continuity Errors

• Anya acted as if she met Angel for the first time. However, they were both present during the rite to send back Vamp Willow to the Wishverse.

Other

• This is the first of only three episodes of the show to feature Buffy's three primary love interests (Angel, Spike, and Riley). The other two are "The Yoko Factor" and "Fool for Love".
• This episode is the first time Angel sees Riley, seemingly suspicious of him talking to Buffy.

Quotes

Spike: "I'm saying that Spike had a little trip to the vet, and now he doesn't chase the other puppies any more."

Anya: "Soon he'll be sweating. I'm imagining having sex with him again."

Buffy: "Imaginary Xander is quite the machine."

Anya: "I love a ritual sacrifice."

Buffy: "Not really a one of those."

Anya: "To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It's a ritual sacrifice. With pie."

Giles: "...It's very common for Indian spirits to change to animal form."

Buffy: "Yeah, well it's plenty uncommon for me to freeze up during a fight. I mean, I had the guy, I was ready for the takedown and I stopped. And 'Native American'."

Giles: "Sorry?"

Buffy: "We don't say 'Indian'."

Giles: "Oh, right. Yes, yes. Um, always behind on the terms. Still trying not to refer to you lot as 'Bloody Colonials'."

Buffy: "And the thing is, I like my evil like I like my men. Evil. You know, 'straight up, black hat, tied to the train tracks, soon my electro-ray will destroy Metropolis' bad. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture."

Buffy: "Will, you know how bad I feel about this. Okay? It's eating me up..." [to Anya]-"A quarter cup of brandy and let is simmer." [to Willow]-"But even though it's hard, we have to end this. Yes, he's been wronged and I personally would be ready to apologize, but I..."

Spike: "Oh, someone put a stake in me."

Xander: "You got a lot of volunteers in here."

Spike: "I just can't take all this namby-pamby boo-hooing about the bloody Indians."

Willow: "Um, the preferred term is..."

Spike: "You won. All right? You came in and you killed them and took their land. That's what conquering nations do. That's what Caesar did, and he's not goin' around saying, 'I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it.' The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons and you massacred them. End of story."

Buffy: "Well, I think the Spaniards actually did a lot of- Not that I dont like Spaniards."

Spike: "Listen to you. How you gonna fight anyone with that attitude?"

Willow: "We don't wanna fight anyone."

Buffy: "I just wanna have Thanksgiving."

Spike: "Heh heh. Yeah... Good luck."

Willow: "Well, if we could talk to him ..."

Spike: "You exterminated his race. What could you possibly say that would make him feel better? It's kill or be killed here. Take your bloody pick."

Xander: "Maybe it's the syphilis talking, but... Some of that made sense."

Spike: "(after watching Hus turn into a bear) A bear! You made a bear!"

Buffy: "I didn't mean to."

Spike: "Undo it! Undo it!"

Angel: "My friend had a vision. Buffy's in danger."

Willow: "So tell her. Help her."

Angel: "If she sees me, it'll be worse."

Willow: "See, I don't get that, all this 'leaving for her own good' garbage. Because that's what it is! You can't just give up because there's obstacles. What kind ..."

Angel: "Willow."

Willow: "Sorry. My stuff..."

Angel: "You know how I feel about her. If there was any way..."

Willow: "Yeah. I know."

Angel: "It's just... everything's different now."

Xander: "Can we come rocketing back to the part about me and my new syphilis?"

Giles: "H-hello? Yes... Yes, w-w-we're well aware of that... We-we're under siege now, actually. Thank you."

Willow: (about the battle) But at least we all worked together. It was like old times.

Xander: Yeah, especially with Angel being here and everything. (looks at Buffy as the revelation sinks in) Oops!

References

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