0:01 : This is the last time the ‘Into Every Generation there is a Chosen One’ intro features at the start of the episode, which is good, because now it’s ever-so-slightly out of date.

0:15 : Sunnydale Beach. Buffy and co will revisit the beach in Buffy vs. Dracula.

0:56 : Dodd McAlvy is briefly played by Jake Patellis before he transforms. He apparently did not remain in the industry after this.

1:31 : Actor Jeremy Garrett would have been a familiar face to teens at the time – he had just appeared as Todd Wilkins in teenage drama Sweet Valley High.

2:34 : Danny Strong, in this episode firmly established from this point by name as Jonathan, is the unfortunate victim of the swim team. This puts him on course for his major season three episode Earshot.

2:55 : Years before escaping custody in Prison Break, or saving the universe as Leonard Snart, unlikely hero in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Wentworth Miller makes his television acting debut here as Gage Petronzi.

6:10 : Snyder at least seems to like Willow, somewhat. Well, as much as he likes anything. He appreciates that she’s a team player, but then chastises her and suggests she change Gage’s grade. It seems Snyder really does love order – especially when they’re his own.

8:15 : Cordelia gives her views on the class system in America and is surprisingly on the nose. And of course, she’s not-unbiased, since she comes from a wealthy family: of course, she believes she’s entitled to it! Naturally, by the end of Season 3, Cordy will discover her father’s long-overdue tax return and is left penniless. Her commentary here foreshadows her later empathy arc in Angel, where she becomes the one helping the powerless.

8:52 : Gertrude Ederle made the history books for being the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926.

10:00 : Do not get us started on this scene: we know it’s done deliberately, but the illogical thinking of the Principal, the Coach and the Nurse (who doesn’t question it) when condoning Walker’s behaviour is so anger-inducing upon re-watch. This is one of the earliest examples of the show’s “adults are useless or corrupt” motifs, which peaks in Season 4 with Professor Walsh.

10:02 : Nurse Greenliegh is played by Conchata Ferrell, who is better known for her long-time role in Two and A Half Men. She passed in 2020.

10:25 : Coach Carl Marin is played by Charles Cyphers, a veteran of stage and screen. He appeared in the original Halloween movie and reprised the role decades later in Halloween Kills. He passed away in 2024.

11:34 : “Thank you for taking an interest…” – This seems particularly harsh here, considering (a) Buffy is in the right and (b) they’re her friends!

12:22 : “Any demons with high cholesterol?” – Buffy, thinking outside the box.

15:16 : Cordelia attempts to draw Xander’s description of the creature. She doesn’t do that badly a job, which can’t be said for her unidentifiable blob in Parting Gifts.

16:29 : “From whence it came?” Buffy really has been hanging around with Giles for too long.

17:14 : Buffy is, of course, holding the magazine upside down – she sucks at undercover work, by her own admission, as seen in I Robot, You Jane and later in Anne.

17:37 : Jonathan, poor thing, is asthmatic and has anaemia, which we learn in Conversations With Dead People. From this point on, the audience becomes even more aware of the character and he begins to perform bigger roles in episodes. Willow accuses him of using black magic to target the swim team, or conjuring a creature to destroy them – considering his actions in Season Six, perhaps she should not have planted that particular idea in his head. She’ll also interrogate him again in Earshot.

19:00 : The song playing in the Bronze when Buffy is spying (badly) on Gage is Nero’s Rome‘s “If You’d Listen”.

20:40 : Presumably, since he’s only heard half the conversation, Angelus must smell Buffy on Gage here. That, or he’s been following her following Gage. Angelus also notes he’s recruiting – for the finale?

12:23 : Angelus spits out Gage’s blood due to the chemicals in it. Along with Spike’s line in School Hard about ‘feeding from a flower person’ at Woodstock, this is confirmation that chemical changes in human blood are detectable to vampires simply by taste.

22:22 : In reality, the pool scenes were filmed at the Physical Education Building at the University of Southern California. 

23:20 : Xander enters in a speedo, having joined the swim team. He clearly has nothing to be embarrassed about. Nicholas Brendon is clearly older than Xander, obviously more notable here.

23:50 : Cordelia, along with Buffy and Willow, seems rather impressed by said physique. Buffy pretends to not notice!

28:57 : Buffy claims that her French teacher (previously called Mr. DeJean in School Hard) doesn’t even know her name. Well, maybe if she went to class more often… Willow is still tutoring her in the subject and will continue to do so in the next episode.

29:18 : Buffy mentions that Giles has brought out the tranquiliser dart gun, which was first seen in Phases.

30:40 : Future ER regular Shane West makes his television debut here as Sean.

31:53 : Coach Marin throws Nurse Greenliegh down into the pool with the fish creatures. It raises an interesting question: what exactly does Marin intend to do next? They can’t compete in school sports… Why is he keeping them? As pets?

31:53 : The episode never answers this, but the episode’s writers admitted in interviews that the plot was rushed and the ending rewritten, which could explain it.

34:28 : Marin tells Buffy about the chemicals used to enhance humans with fish DNA in Russia, which stinks of the sort of thing the Initiative would try to do.

35:12 : Again, for the second episode in a row, someone aims and directs a gun at someone’s head. This time Buffy is having it pointed at her, rather than wielding it as she did in the previous episode.

35:55 : Coach Marin’s ‘Boys have other needs’. Ah, gentleman, thy name is Marin.

36:40 : Cordelia, in a rare moment of guilt and concern, shares her direct feelings about Xander. She’s remarkably sweet about it, even offering to care for her partner, even if it means buying him a fish tank. The point is, she finally drops the act for a moment here and admits to having actual feelings!

40:42 : Xander’s face when Buffy says that the boys ‘sure do love their coach,’ add it with the line about ‘other needs’ earlier, and this one doesn’t bear thinking about.

41:22 : And that’s the second time in two episodes that animal control is called to Sunnydale High school regarding a problem. Last week, it was snakes.

42:10 : The final shot of the episode has the fish creatures swim out to explore the ocean. But, there’s only three of them: Dodd, Cameron, Gage and Sean were all transformed, so there seems to be one missing…