"Pangs" is the eighth episode of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer television show, and is the sixty-fourth episode in the series. Written by Jane Espenson and directed by Michael Lange, it originally broadcast on November 23, 1999 on The WB network.
Synopsis
A DRAMATIC "BUFFY"/"ANGEL" TWO-HOUR EVENT — Unbeknownst to Buffy, Angel lurks in the shadows of Sunnydale trying to protect her and keep her safe, while her perfect Thanksgiving feast is disrupted by an army of Chumash Indians, the original inhabitants of Sunnydale, whose spirits have come alive to recreate the wrongs that were done to their people.[1]
Summary
Buffy tracks and kills a vampire while Angel watches her from behind some bushes. In the next day, UC Sunnydale 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, Joyce, 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.
After Giles agrees to look up information on the Chumash Indians, and Buffy leaves, Angel appears from the back room, having traveled to Sunnydale due to his friend's visions 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 the 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.
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.
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.
Continuity
- This episode is preceded by the Angel episode "The Bachelor Party," in which Doyle received a vision of Buffy in trouble. Later, Buffy follows Angel back to Los Angeles, as seen in "I Will Remember You."
- 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 Darlene and her family for Thanksgiving. This suggests that Darlene is Joyce's rather than Hank's sister.
- Willow makes mention to what else could be buried in Sunnydale, like the church where the Master was trapped, foreshadowing her raising the buried Temple of Proserpexa ("Grave").
- Harmony threatens 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, which she's been doing since episode "Lonely Heart." She probably knows about it due to Oz's visit at the Angel Investigations ("In the Dark").
- It is confirmed that Joe survived the events of "The Harsh Light of Day," as he's sitting in the stands at the opening ceremony.
- Xander will refer to his affliction in this episode during "Buffy vs. Dracula." Anya later refers to the syphilis as well during a song in "Once More, with Feeling."
- This is the last time Angel would appear in Giles's house, the first time since the reinvite in "Amends."
- Angel says he had forgotten how bad it feels to watch over Buffy without being able to help her; it was revealed, he did so since she was called as a Slayer ("Becoming, Part One") and would continue keeping tabs on her even from afar ("The Girl in Question").
- Angel reminds Giles that watching over Buffy isn't his job either, since he was fired from the Watchers Council in "Helpless." He asks if this would make him walk away from her, which Giles will consider in "Buffy vs. Dracula" and eventually do so in "Tabula Rasa."
- Buffy goes Father Gabriel in an unidentified monastery; in "Empty Places," it's determined that it takes place in Gilroy and has a secret room with a message about the Slayer.
- This episode is the first time Angel sees Riley, seemingly suspicious of him talking to Buffy. After learning about their relationship in "Sanctuary," Angel recognizes Riley as Buffy's boyfriend in "The Yoko Factor."
- Anya acts as if she met Angel for the first time; they had, however, briefly met during the rite to send back Vamp Willow to the Wishverse in "Doppelgängland."
- Additionally, Anya meets Spike for the first time.
Appearances
Individuals
- Angel
- Cordelia Chase (Only mentioned)
- Darlene (Only mentioned)
- Allen Francis Doyle (Only mentioned)
- Riley Finn
- Gabriel
- Forrest Gates
- Gerhardt
- Rupert Giles
- Mrs. Guerrero
- Matthew Guerrero
- Alexander Harris
- Hus
- Jamie
- Anya Jenkins
- Joe
- Harmony Kendall
- Graham Miller
- Willow Rosenberg
- Spike
- Buffy Summers
- Joyce Summers (Only mentioned)
Organizations and titles
- Chumash Warriors
- Initiative
- Scooby Gang
- Slayer
Species
- Human
- Spirit
- Vampire
- Vengeance demon (Only mentioned)
Locations
- Gilroy
- Sunnydale
Objects
Death count
- Jamie, dusted by Buffy Summers.
- An unidentified man, drained by a vampire group.
- Professor Gerhardt, killed by Hus with his 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 Hun's defeat.
Behind the scenes
Production
- The actual Chumash people was entrenched along the California Central Coast — including around modern Santa Barbara, a 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.
- The establishing shot of the monastery is from the Mission San Juan Bautista, in San Juan Bautista. The interior scenes were filmed in the Mission San Fernando Rey de España, in Los Angeles.
Deleted scenes
- This exchange was cut:
- Xander: "I didn't mean — you're an EX-vengeance demon. It's totally different."
- Anya: "Sure. It's okay."
Pop culture references
- Willow made a connection between ear-cutting and the painter Vincent van Gogh, known for having cut his own ear.
- Riley compares where he grew up to Grant Wood's paintings, which often depicted the rural American Midwest.
- Buffy mentions the fictional city Metropolis.
Music
- Christophe Beck — original score
International titles
- Armenian: "Տանջանքներ" (Tortures)
- Czech: "Staré křivdy" (Old Wrongs)
- Finnish: "Lemmentuskia" (Pangs of Love)
- French: "L'Esprit vengeur" (The Avenging Spirit)
- German: "Der Geist der Qumash" (The Ghost of the Chumash)
- Hungarian: "Kínok" (Agony)
- Italian: "Crampi" (Cramps)
- Japanese: "良心の呵責" (Pangs of of Conscience)
- Polish: "Wyrzuty sumienia" (Pangs of Conscience)
- Portuguese (Brazil): "Agonia" (Agony)
- Romanian: "Junghi" (Pang)
- Russian: "Страдания" (Suffering)
- Spanish (Latin America): "Angustia" (Angst)
- Spanish (Spain): "Remordimientos" (Regrets)
Other
- This is the first of only two episodes of the show to feature Buffy's three primary love interests (Angel, Spike, and Riley). The other is "The Yoko Factor." Whilst all three also appear in "Fool for Love" Angel/Angelus does not appear in person but only in Spike's flashbacks.
- All of the female characters on the show (Willow, Anya, and Buffy) have sympathy for and empathize with Hus about the suffering he and his tribe have endured. All of the males (Giles, Xander, and Angel) simply wish to destroy him in true cowboy tradition, in part due to the traditional Wild West trope of protecting their womenfolk.
Gallery
Promotional stills
Behind the scenes
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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: "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." |
| Spike: "A bear! You made a bear!" |
| Buffy: "I didn't mean to." |
| Spike: "Undo it! Undo it!" |
| Willow: But at least we all worked together. It was like old times. |
| Xander: Yeah, especially with Angel being here and everything. Oops! |
References
- ↑ "The Mortuary". Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Archived from the original May 10, 2000.