Spotlight: I Robot, You Jane

Episode No.	Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1, Episode 8
Directed by	Stephen Posey
Written by	Ashley Gable & Thomas A. Swyden

Episode Entry

0:11 : The series uses a flashback for the first time…

0:12 : …this one set in Cortona, Italy, in the year 1418, to be precise.

0:30 : Moloch is voiced by Mark Deakins, a prolific voice actor with a large body of work, including some Star Trek roles in live-action.

0:52 : The monk, named as Thelonious in the script and the credits, is played by actor Pierrino Mascarino, who had bit parts across American television until his death in 2017.

2:44 : Unfortunate Dave is played by Chad Lindberg, perhaps best known for his recurring role as Ash in Supernatural.

2:49: Robia LaMorte makes her first appearance as future Scooby Gang member Jenny Calendar. Originally called Nikki, the character’s name was changed to avoid confusion with actor Nicholas Brendon. LaMorte, better known now as Robia Scott, was a dancer for Prince on his smash hit Diamond and Pearl tour and went on to recur on Buffy through to the end of Season 2.

2:50 : This is the first time Rupert is revealed to be Giles’ first name. And Jenny says it.

3:17 : Fritz is played by actor Jamison Ryan, who seems to have left acting shortly afterward.

5:40 : Charisma Carpenter doesn’t appear in this episode.

6:22 : Willow has a picture of her with Giles in her locker, which may seem odd, but, in Where the Wild Things Are, Willow admits that at one point she had a crush on Giles, hence the pic in the locker.

7:00 : This is the first time we see Jenny’s computer classroom, which is now a part of the permanent Mutant Enemy high school set. Note the double entrances to the room, which will be important in Passion. It’s seemingly a different computer lab than the one Cordelia and Willow were in during The Harvest.

8:35 : This file gives Buffy’s birthday as 24th October 1980. She has a 3.4 GPA…

8:39 : …except when Fritz opens the file, it’s changed. It now shows her birthday as 6th May 1979 – which would make her a Senior! – and her GPA is 2.8.

8:40 : Astoundingly, both of those birthdates are wrong! While we don’t know her exact birthday, her birthday episodes aired on the same date for three seasons, marking it as 19th January 1981. This matches her gravestone in The Gift, as well as her claim that she’s ‘Capricorn, on the cusp of Aquarius,’ which she tells Riley in Doomed.

9:50 : Yes, youngsters, you’re eyes are not deceiving you. That is a laptop from the mid-Nineties.

14:13 : A personal Buffy moment here: the cheery look of surprise and self-congratulations: “Whoa, I have knowledge!” Also, Dave’s cute smile response.

16:03 : The CRD, or the Calex Research & Development facility, was filmed on location at the Stoner Recreation Center in Los Angeles, California.

30:30 : The news reporter on the radio in Giles’ office is voiced by series creator Joss Whedon.

31:12 : This is the only time we see Willow’s home on location. Every other time we visit the house, it’s from the inside, and then it’s usually only Willow’s room or the front room in studio. Neither of her parents ever seem to be home: we never meet her father Ira and her mum Sheila makes one appearance in Gingerbread.

31:31 : Willow’s bedroom in this episode is clearly not the same as the one we see in Season 2.

32:18 : Jenny isn’t lying here: she really is a technopagan, computer science teacher at the local high school. It’s the lie of omission that’s going to trip her up: she neglects to tell Giles that she’s a Kalderash gypsy here, but is there any reason she would think he was connected to Angel at this point? What does she know?

33:20 : Or rather, how much? She doesn’t seem surprised when Buffy calls the library just before they start the binding spell. Does Giles not tell her the truth in this moment? Jenny doesn’t find out Buffy’s the Slayer, it seems, until Prophecy Girl.

36:48 : Another personal favourite: when Moloch tells Willow that a man in Beijing is wiring money to put a hit on his mother in law: “Good for him.”

43:10 : We’re not brave enough to assume where a woman wears her jewellery because of this line.