Hell's Bells (Buffy episode)
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| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
|---|---|
| “Hell's Bells” | |
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| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 16 |
| Guest star(s) | Casey Sander (Tony Harris) Kali Rocha (Halfrek) Andy Umberger (D'Hoffryn) Lee Garlington (Jessica Harris) Jan Hoag (Cousin Carol) George D. Wallace (Old Xander Harris) Amber Benson (Tara) Steven Gilborn (Uncle Rory) |
| Writer(s) | Rebecca Rand Kirshner |
| Director | David Soloman |
| Production no. | 6ABB16 |
| Original airdate | 5 March 2002 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "As You Were" | "Normal Again" |
"Hell's Bells" is the 16th episode of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Xander and Anya are finally about to get married. But an old man materializes and begins looking for Xander. When he finds him, he introduces himself as Xander Harris' future self and warns young Xander with a vision that his marriage to Anya will be nothing but the beginning of a life of disgrace and pain. Xander returns from his vision and flees the wedding, leaving Anya standing alone at the beginning of the long walk.
After a while, they discover that Future Xander is nothing but a former victim of Anyanka's revenges. He had planned to destroy Anya's life, but Buffy defeats him. Xander returns during that fight and helps in killing the thing. Then they tell him what happened, but he's still afraid that he might be wrong in marrying her anyway. Having seen his father's problems with drinking (and what the vision hinted about them) makes him afraid that he might take to drinking too, turn violent and hurt Anya. In the end, Xander leaves and Anya is left alone crying.
[edit] Expanded overview
Buffy and Willow criticize their bright green dresses and talk about the rehearsal dinner from the night before. It was explained that Anya's friends are circus people, which explains their very odd appearances and surprisingly, the Harris family bought it. Willow has the honor of best man and Buffy is one of the bridesmaids along with Dawn and Tara. Anya hugs both girls in excitement about their gowns, which she of course loves.
Xander tries to get dressed with his family and Anya's demon friends invading his apartment. Xander's parents arrive and Mrs. Harris rants about not being in the wedding pictures and Mr. Harris bluntly expresses his distaste for the circus people on Anya's side. Xander's cousin Carol asks Xander about one of Anya's demon friends, Krevlin and whether he'd be interested in dating her. Outside on the streets of Sunnydale, an old man appears out of thin air and walks off, a purpose in mind.
Buffy forces Xander into his cummerbund and works on his bow tie while offering her happy wishes to Xander on his special day. Tara and Willow button Anya into her dress while the bride-to-be rehearses her vows. When the buttoning is complete, Anya shows off her dress and goes on excitedly about how happy she is. Xander's Uncle Rory shows off his date to Dawn, but his date is actually just one of the caterers. D'Hoffryn arrives as does Halfrek and Dawn greets them at the door. D'Hoffryn offers his very alive wedding gift in a box to Dawn.
Dawn continues to mingle through the crowd and encounters Spike with a goth date. Finally ready, Buffy and Xander proceed toward the crowd of mingling guests while reviewing the tasks necessary to keep Xander's parents out of trouble. Xander greets people and is suddenly assaulted by people complaining about problems. The old man in a trench coat drags Xander away from the others and explains that he is Xander Harris, from the future and the wedding cannot take place. As proof, he shows the younger Xander a crystal ball that will show Xander what his future is like.
Xander's drunken father offers a toast to the waiting attendees of the wedding and insults the demons on Anya's side of the "family." Clem and another demon talk about how annoying the man is, but before a fight can break out between Mr. Harris and one of the demons, Buffy pulls the drunk man away. In a view of the future, Xander sits watching TV and yells at Anya while his son runs around teasing Anya's part-demon daughter. Anya explains that she's going to make money while he sits around wounded and worthless. An argument breaks out as they talk about how he got injured helping Buffy, although that didn't save her life.
In a later scene, Xander, Anya and their two now-teenage kids eat at a restaurant while the teens fight and Anya comments about Xander's drinking. Again years later, in their kitchen, Anya yells at Xander for ruining her life and blames him for her misery. He gets angry, yells back and raises a frying pan to hit her with, but the vision of the future is cut off before anything happens. Xander is shocked by the visions and the old man warns him not to marry Anya. Buffy finds Spike alone and the two talk about the wedding and Spike's attempt to make her jealous with his date. After he finds that his efforts worked, Spike realizes it's best to just leave and takes his date away.
Willow runs into Xander in the kitchen and offers the final "best man" talk then leaves him to practice his vows a little bit longer. Anya continues to go over her vows in front of Tara, who offers a little advice about words not to use in the vows. The music begins and Buffy shows up to get Anya, but Willow pulls her out of the room and breaks the news that Xander is gone. Stalling while Willow looks for Xander, Buffy uses the excuse that the minister is also a doctor and had to perform an emergency c-section, so there will be a delay.
Anya tries her vows one more time while elsewhere, Xander walks away in the rain. The guests wait for the wedding to begin while Buffy informs the minister of the delay. Mr. Harris heads back to the bar with Mrs. Harris following and the two complain about Anya ruining the wedding. Buffy begins to stall the crowd with charades and juggling as Dawn chats outside with a teenage demon and both compare their embarrassing family and friends. Impatient, Anya heads out towards the wedding crowd, determined to get on with the wedding. The news that Xander is gone is accidentally spilled to Anya as Dawn talks to the demon teen and Anya freaks out.
Mr. Harris and other demons begin to argue and then a huge fight breaks out between the two sides of the wedding guests. Tara gets caught up in the battle, but Willow rescues her. Cousin Carol directs Anya to the man in the trench coat and Anya talks to him about what he did to scare Xander off. She finds that the man is really a demon she cursed many years ago who seeks revenge against her. He showed Xander false images about his future to ruin Anya's wedding.
She begins to cry and the demon strikes out at her, prompting Buffy to get involved. Buffy starts to attack the demon and Xander arrives to help save Anya. Anya explains to Xander that he saw only lies in those visions, but Xander isn't exactly relieved. Buffy and Xander finish the demon off and the crowd cheers. Fighting continues, but Anya breaks it up and everyone returns to his or her seats. Xander and Anya talk privately before the ceremony and Xander explains that he can't marry her. Motivated by the fear of turning into an abusive drunk like his father, Xander refuses to allow himself the opportunity to marry Anya and ever hurt her in that way. Anya tries to convince him otherwise, but can't and sadly, the two part ways.
Buffy, Willow and Dawn sit around at the house and talk about what happened with Xander and Anya. They feel sorry for both of them and wonder where Xander is. Meanwhile, Xander checks into a motel by himself. Sad and depressed, Anya sits alone until D'Hoffryn offers her sympathy, comfort and her job as a vengeance demon back.
[edit] Writing and acting
- Rebecca Rand Kirshner reveals in her DVD commentary of this episode that Anya's reference to herself as a 'sex poodle' was a reference to colleague Jane Espenson who had been using the name herself.
- Amber Benson said in an interview to Buffy magazine that "I’m the biggest klutz on the set. Remember Emma in that wedding dress? I got that dress off of her at least four times, because I’d be following her and I’d step on the dress and she’d be pulling it back up. But she looked gorgeous in that dress.”
[edit] Quotes and trivia
- This episode was nominated for three (3) Emmy Awards. The most for a year in the show's history:
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- Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series
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- Outstanding Makeup Series (Prosthetic)
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- Outstanding Makeup for a Series (Non-prosthetic)
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- The Watcher's Guide 3 reveals cut dialogue which explains Giles' absence:
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- Dawn: “I thought Xander and Anya couldn’t afford flowers.”
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- Willow: “Giles sent ‘em. Aren’t they gorgeous?”
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- Dawn: “Yeah. I wish Giles was here.”
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- Willow: “Me too. And I’m sure he’d much rather be here than fighting that nasty demon-”
- The title, Hells Bells is also an AC/DC song from their album ‘Back in Black’.
- In the wedding, the demon Clem is sitting among Xanders family and friends.
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Arc significance (Contains Spoilers)
- While this wraps up the will-they-or-won't they questions about Xander and Anya's marriage, it has implications which continue for the rest of the series. Anya later becomes a vengeance demon again, wreaking havoc and nearly being slain by Buffy. Still in love with Xander (and horrified by a particularly gruesome revenge in "Selfless"), Anya becomes human once again... which doesn't serve her well in the series finale.
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: January 2002 - Spring 2002 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.13 Dead Things |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel book: Fearless |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.13 Waiting in the Wings |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.14 Older and Far Away |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.14 Couplet |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.15 As You Were |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.15 Loyalty |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.16 Hell's Bells |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.16 Sleep Tight |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.17 Normal Again |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.17 Forgiving |
| L.A., 2002 | Angel comic: Spike: Old Times |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.18 Entropy |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.18 Double or Nothing |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.19 Seeing Red |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.19 The Price |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.20 Villains |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | Buffy books: Wicked Willow |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.20 A New World |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.21 Two to Go |
| Sunnydale, 2002 | B6.22 Grave |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.21 Benediction |
| L.A., 2002 | A3.22 Tomorrow |
