1:37 : Presumably the actor in shadows here is Elizabeth Anne Allen as Catherine Riker, since later in the episode its established that the body swap happened ‘months ago’.

2:42 : Cordelia takes jabs at Amber, asking who she thinks she is, ‘a Laker Girl.’ Ironically, Charisma Carpenter served with the San Diego Chargers Cheerleader Squad in 1991.

2:50 : Joy, the head cheerleader with a bad attitude, is played by Amanda Wilmshurst. She’ll reappear as Joy in Inca Mummy Girl.

2:51 : Elizabeth Anne Allen makes her first appearance as ‘Amy Madison’ here. She goes on to become the first high school student to recur, appearing in a further 6 episodes. She began her career with a guest spot on Saved by the Bell and secured a recurring role on TNT’S Bull with Angel star Elisabeth Rohm and fellow Buffy guest Christopher Wiehl. She retired from acting in 2007.

3:25 : This is the first instance of the Sunnydale High sports teams being named the Razorbacks. This seems to be whatever the sport.

5:30 : Buffy is identified as 16. She tells the group that she’s been ‘Slaying vampires for well over a year now,’ a claim that’s back-upped in Becoming (Part 1).

6:48 : Willow coins the term ‘Slayerettes’. While this became a fan term for what became the Scooby Gang, it’s not said again onscreen until Season 4, when Spike calls the group by the term.

8:36 : Joyce takes one look at the fertility statue and then declares Buffy is too young to see it. We never do either, but in Season Six’s Gone, Dawn is distraught that they have to rid themselves of the statue, named Kokopelli after the real deity. Obviously the Summers’ women became quite fond of it…

9:52 : Robin Riker supplied photographs of her youth for the cheerleading photos. The interesting thing of note is the Madison surname. Amy says her parents got married straight after high school. So either both her parents were Madison and then they married, or Amy’s going by her mother’s maiden name. Anyone know the likelihood of marrying someone from high school with the same surname as you, please raise your hand.

11:27 : This scene, apart from giving back story on Catherine Madison, also introduces the notion that Amy and Willow have been friends since junior high. The same presumably applies to Xander and Cordelia as well.

15:15 : The director is still trying to keep the identity of the witch under wraps in the shadows. However, the subtitles for the episode, reveal ‘Amy’ is the person speaking, despite the reveal being ahead.

17:21 : Xander asks to have a railroad spike shoved through him. Little does he know, he’s just described the main method of killing used by the vampire he’ll one day be rooming with.

18:44 : Driver’s Ed tutor Mr. Pool claims that Cordelia has flunked Driver’s Ed twice. She doesn’t pass here, but must before Prophecy Girl, when she uses her car as a battering ram.

21:47 : Willow checks the library databases to find the student taking witchcraft books out and, inadvertently, gives us first confirmation that Xander is short for ‘Alexander’.

22:30 : William Monaghan makes a brief debut as Doctor Stephen Gregory in this episode. He’ll play a larger, and much more final role, in the next episode.

22:31 : Despite the spell calling for ‘Eye of Newt’ as per Giles, Xander and Willow go for a frog instead.

24:18 : Lishanne’s mouth disappears in the middle of class, and the group decide that Amy is their witch – despite her shock at Lishanne’s trouble. Clearly this is an act here, designed to throw Buffy off the scent.

25:06 : Robin Riker had plentiful guest spots on almost every show going: NCIS, Six Feet Under, Boston Legal, as well as a lengthy role as Beth Logan in The Bold and the Beautiful. Her likeness was used for Catherine in Season Eight.

27:02 : Buffy mentioning being a Vampire Slayer casually to Joyce here creates a bit of a problem. Buffy was institutionalised for talking about vampires at some point in 1996, but was released when she stopped talking about vampires. When Joyce hears this here, she doesn’t find it that strange, shrugging it off as teenage babble. If you were Joyce, wouldn’t you be worried? (Of course, the truth of the matter is that the institution storyline wouldn’t be introduced until later).

30:55 : Giles’ car, his eternally adored Citroen DS from 1963, is seen for the first time.

31:07 : ‘Catherine’ is eating brownies, the first clue to the audience that she’s Amy. Buffy gets it straight away…

32:22 : …and this therefore is the first meeting between Buffy and Amy, and presumably Amy and Giles as well, since she’s been in the body for months.

39:48 : This is the first instance of Giles being knocked unconscious in the series. It will not be the last.

41:27 : Giles claims this was his first casting, which we find out later is an omission on his part – or an outright lie, as we’ll discover in The Dark Age.

42:27 : Joyce is asked whether she would like to be 16 again. She will, in mind at least, in Band Candy.

43:00 : This sets up a friendship between Amy and the Scoobies that will last until Doublemeat Palace, where Willow ends their friendship. Amy survives the destruction of Sunnydale and is a villain in later seasons. Amy next appears in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

44:04 : Amy hopes her mother will never return from wherever she went. Amy will always remain scared of her mother, a fear which Buffy uses against her in The Long Way Home.

44:22 : And the reveal that Catherine is stuck in the cheerleading trophy! Oz notices it’s eyes moving in Phases and a script note in Doomed specifically mentioned that the statue had survived the destruction of the High School in Graduation Day.