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Amendsedit

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season 3, Episode 10
Air date December 15, 1998
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
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"Amends" is the tenth episode of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Angel is haunted by the people he murdered over the years.


Contents

Synopsis

Dublin 1838--Angel is dreaming of his past, where he kills a man that supposedly was indebted to him. When he wakes up, unable to fall asleep again, he walks the streets of Sunnydale and runs into Buffy. They exchange a few words and then Angel becomes frightened, seeing the ghost of the man who he killed in his dream. The next day, Buffy tells her friends about her freaky encounter with Angel. They fill each other in on holiday plans and then Oz shows up, ready to talk to Willow. He tells her how much he misses her and that he's willing to give their relationship another shot.

Buffy and her Mom go shopping for a Christmas tree and decide to invite Faith to Christmas dinner, but not Giles. Angel's nightmares continue to haunt him, and he finally resorts to going to Giles for help. Wary of Angel, Giles keeps a loaded crossbow in hand, but still listens to Angel's explanation and questions of how he is back on Earth. Their conversation is cut short when Angel sees Jenny, and runs off.

In another one of Angel's dreams, he attacks a maid but as he finishes her off, he looks up and sees Buffy there in his dream. They both wake up, realizing that they're in each other's dreams. Buffy goes to Giles and they plan to research so they can find out what force is taking over Angel. Xander offers to help as well since saving Angel is a better option than being at home. Willow having joined in on the research party fills Buffy in on her getting back with Oz.

Angel is still unable to sleep and encounters Jenny's spirit at the mansion. He tries to apologize, but she doesn't want to hear it, she just wants to make him suffer. He is then visited by the many ghosts of his victims, including the man and maid he had killed. Finally, nearly crazy from being reminded of what a monster he was, Angel begs for it to stop. Jenny offers him comfort and tells him to rest. At the library, Buffy also falls asleep and both she and Angel are in the same dream again. This time, the two are making passionate love on Buffy's bed. Looking over his shoulder, Buffy notices a creature with its eyes sewn shut just before Angel vamps out and bites her. They both wake up. Jenny tells Angel he needs to kill Buffy.

Giles has found out that the force that is taking over Angel is called The First. It's very powerful and impossible to kill. However, there are three priests (the creatures with their eyes sewn shut) which Buffy can kill, and hopefully put an end to the mental torment Angel is suffering from. Buffy and Xander visit Willy the Snitch, but he only says that The First may be underground. Oz arrives at Willow's house with videos and finds she has a bit more planned for the night. He tells her he's not ready to take their relationship that far and that she doesn't need to prove herself to him, which she's fine with and they just kiss.

At home, Buffy and her mom are trimming the tree when Faith shows up. She had refused Buffy's previous invitation saying she had a party to go to. However, there was no party. Buffy goes upstairs to her room to find that Angel is there waiting for her. Blind with the need to find peace of mind, he fights the urge to kill Buffy. He jumps out of her window, desperate to not kill Buffy. Buffy leaves Faith in charge of watching her mom while she goes to Giles for immediate help. At the mansion, Jenny tries to convince Angel that he must kill Buffy. When he has made it clear that he can't, he knows that his only other option is to kill himself with the sunlight.

After some more research, Buffy discovers that wherever the priests are, nothing will grow above or below. Buffy remembers a bunch of dead trees at the Christmas tree lot. She goes there and in the middle of a circle of dead trees, she makes a hole in the ground which then leads to the priests. She tears the place and the priests apart, then encounters the First in Jenny's form. They attack each other verbally and then Buffy runs off to the mansion to save Angel from killing himself with the sun.

She finds him atop a hill, the sun only minutes away from rising. He tells her that he loves her and wants her so much that he'd be willing to lose his soul just to be with her. Buffy desperately wants him to come inside but he believes very strongly that he is evil and he's got to be strong for once, and die. They yell, and hit each other, and cry and say how much they love one another. Buffy gives him his last chance to prove how strong he really can be and to come in from the sun. She tells him that if he really doesn't have a place on Earth then he can burn. Then, out of nowhere, snow begins to fall, covering the previously sunny and hot Sunnydale in a beautiful white Christmas.

Willow and Oz wake up on Willow's bed (they were just sleeping) to the snow. Xander wakes up in a sleeping bag in his backyard covered in snow. Giles notices it from his apartment, while Faith and Joyce see it from the Summer's home. Buffy and Angel walk hand in hand together through the snow.

Starring

Guest Starring

Co Starring

Trivia

  • Joss Whedon has cited many times Buffy and Angel's fight on the hilltop as one of the best things he has ever written, especially the line, "It's not the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy. It's the man."
  • There has been a lot of discussion about the "miraculous" Christmas snowfall that prevents the Sun from rising and killing Angel. The official answer was made by the shows creator himself Joss Whedon who confirmed that the snow may have been the work of The Powers That Be, the supernatural forces that guided Angel's destiny in his spin-off series. This is told by Joss Whedon himself: "The snow [in Amends] was good... was it God? Well, I'm an atheist, but it's hard to ignore the idea of a "Christmas miracle" here... The fact is, the Christian mythos has a powerful fascination to me, and it bleeds into my storytelling. Redemption, hope, purpose, Santa, these all are important to me, whether I believe in an afterlife or some universal structure or not. I certainly don't mind a strictly Christian interpretation being placed on this ep by those who believe that -- I just hope it's not limited to that" (Joss Whedon, Dec 15 22:17 1998).
  • "The guys with weird flesh over their eyes" in this episode, Whedon explains, represented "some sort of creepy, kind of Jacob's Ladder-y thing," adding that "a deformed human is scarier than a big reptile with fangs" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Monster Book).
  • Buffy reads from a prophetic textbook: "No wonder you like reading this stuff. It's like reading The Sun." While it's possible this is a reference to the British tabloid, which Joss Whedon learnt of during his time in England it is more likely to be a reference to the American tabloid of the same name. The American Sun is more comparable to the National Enquirer but with an incredibly Christian slant, often including wholly unbelievable stories of a religious nature, such as an article in late 2007 that suggested troops in Iraq had shot down an angel on the battlefield.
  • Evil Dead: The First Evil shouts "Dead by Sunrise" before it disappears, similar to the demonic taunts of "dead by dawn" which feature throughout the Evil Dead film series.
  • The Mutant Enemy monster in the end credits wears a Santa hat and chimes are heard when he says "Grrr Arrgh."

Quotes

The First - "You think, you can fight me? I'm not a demon, little girl, I'm something that you can't even concieve, The First
Evil, beyond sin, beyond death, I am the thing that darkness fears, you'll never see me but I am everywhere, in every being,
every though, every drop of hate."
Buffy - "Alright, I get it, you're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?"

Continuity

  • While the characters talk about how warm it is they're wearing heavy winter clothing.
  • Although Joyce suggests that Faith spend Christmas dinner with her and Buffy, she quickly shoots down Buffy's suggestion that Giles join them. Apparently she is still feeling awkward following their "involvement" in "Band Candy".
  • While it is later made clear in Season Seven that The First cannot touch anything, The First as Jenny Calendar touches Angel and, while the touch is brief, his hair visibly moves.She also touches Giles, though he doesn't notice her at the time.
  • The final appearance of Jenny Calendar.
  • When Buffy encounters Angel in downtown Sunnydale she says she's on her way to buy a holiday gift for Willow from the magic shop, but she's walking away from the magic shop.
  • Buffy states that there are 14 million sq miles of sewer, although this may have been a comical exaggeration.
  • Oz refusing to sleep with Willow in this episode recalls his declining her offer to make out in "Innocence". Oz demonstrates again that he does not like doing things that he may want to do for the wrong reason. In this episode, Oz understands that Willow offers to sleep with him to show him that she is invested in their newly reestablished relationship, whereas in "Innocence", he believes she asks him to kiss her (largely) to make Xander jealous.
  • Oz asks Willow has she ever had the dream "where you're in a play, and you're right in the middle of it and you kinda don't know your lines or the plot?" Willow has had this dream, or rather nightmare, as seen the episode "Nightmares", which then became a reality for her in the episode "The Puppet Show". Willow would have this nightmare again during the episode "Restless".
  • When Cordelia mentions Xander's family's "drunken Christmas fights", this is the first real hint in the series of Xander's unhappy home life, which is something that will be expanded on later in the series and become very significant in Season Six. Furthermore, Xander is explaining his "Christmas Tradition" to Willow, and it is Cordelia who remarks about his family's "drunken Christmas fights." Whedon himself claimed this to be an error in writing, as Willow and Xander have been best friends since childhood, and she already knows all about the Harris family.

Music

  • Barry White - "Cant Get Enough of Your Love, Babe"
  • Christophe Beck - "Dreaming Of"
  • Christophe Beck - "Dublin"
  • Christophe Beck - "Magic Snow Music"
  • The Crystals - "He's a Rebel"
  • Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D (before Angelus kills Margaret in 1883 in England)
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