I Only Have Eyes for You (Buffy episode)
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| “I Only Have Eyes for You” | |
|---|---|
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
 |
|
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 19 |
| Guest stars | James Marsters (Spike) Juliet Landau (Drusilla) Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder) |
| Written by | Marti Noxon |
| Directed by | James Whitmore, Jr. |
| Production no. | 5V19 |
| Original airdate | April 28, 1998 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Killed by Death" | "Go Fish" |
"I Only Have Eyes for You" is episode 19 of season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
A ghost-boy possesses high school boys (and Buffy) while his school teacher-lover possesses high school girls (and Angelus).
[edit] Expanded overview
This ghostly episode starts out at the Bronze where Buffy is approached by a boy named Ben who's looking for a date for the Sadie Hawkins dance. Still severely scarred by her relationship with Angel, Buffy rejects him harshly claiming she not going to be dating ever again. While Willow attempts to heal Buffy's wounds, she finds it is no use and Buffy decides to leave and check in with Giles. In the halls at school, Buffy runs into two students having a fight. The guy pulls out a gun and points it at the girl. Buffy breaks it up in time for the two to remember what happened, but not why and to find the gun missing.
The next day, Principal Snyder has a field day trying to blame Buffy for the incident that happened that night. While waiting in his office, a yearbook from 1955 falls off the shelf. After Willow finishes teaching her class, Giles comes in to check on how she is doing. She gives him a rose quartz that she found in Ms. Calendar's desk. In class later that day, Buffy starts daydreaming about a relationship a student had with his teacher. As she comes back to the present, she finds that the teacher has written "Don't walk away from me, bitch!" on the chalk board. While Buffy tries to explain her concern for the weird activities, Xander finds a monster arm coming out of his locker and grabbing him. Buffy helps him break away but when they reopen the locker, there is no arm to be seen.
Giles is intrigued by the case as usual and looks forward to looking into the possibility of a ghost. Angel, Spike and Dru take up home in a mansion. Angel, being his usual self, flaunts his flirting with Dru in Spike's face. While Giles is studying in his office later that night, he hears an argument between a man and a woman out in the halls. Thinking that he heard Jenny he goes to stop the argument only to find he had arrived too late. The janitor who was arguing with a teacher had shot her and she fell over the balcony of the school. Giles was then convinced that it was Jenny that was haunting the school. Buffy, Xander and Willow couldn't believe how positive he was that it was Jenny.
Buffy, Xander and Willow head off to the computer lab and talk. Willow finds on her laptop information about the killing in 1955. They find that James killed his teacher Grace after they had an affair and people began to talk about it. She tried to break it off but he pulled out a gun in anger and shot her. Xander suggests lunch and they head off to the cafeteria where they are joined by Cordelia who is complaining about the Sadie Hawkins dance. A scream is heard and they find that the food has all been turned to snakes. The room begins to empty quickly and Cordelia is bitten on the face by a snake.
Outside she receives medical attention while professionals gather all of the snakes. Snyder talks to a man about the incident and reveals more of his knowledge that there is a hellmouth beneath them. At Buffy's house that night, Willow devises a plan to contain the spirits. They head off to the school where they prepare. Buffy continues to suffer from flashbacks of the night when the two had the argument while Cordelia finds herself in the girls bathroom examining her bitten face. Xander goes to the cafeteria while Willow walks the halls. Giles startles her when she walks by the library. Giles is trying to summon Jenny's spirit and asks Willow to leave.
Buffy hears music coming from the Music Room and goes to see Grace and James dancing there. James' face suddenly changes to a gory mess, startling Buffy. Cordelia looks in the mirror to find her face has turned a gory red color. On the stairwell, Willow begins to sink into the floor. She cries out for Giles and he rushes to save her. Willow finally convinces him that the spirit is not Jenny. The clock strikes, everyone lights their candle and starts chanting. The candles blow out and a swarm of wasps enter the school. Everyone rushes out to find the school surrounded by wasps.
In the Garden, Dru gets a vision. Angel watches her dance about as she tells the story of Buffy meeting with death. He again flaunts his romantic relationship with Dru in Spike's face. As Angel holds Dru tight against him, tears just about pool up in Spike's eyes. Later at Buffy's house, everyone is recuperating while Buffy continues to show her anger towards James. Giles tries to help, but Buffy's own experiences are making it difficult for her to forgive anyone. She rushes off to the kitchen where she finds a sign for the 1955 Sadie Hawkins dance in her pocket. She heads to the school where the wasps part for her to enter. Back at the Summer's house, Willow finds the ad and everyone rushes after Buffy. They have no way of getting inside so they hope that there is no one who can help her reenact the events.
Angel appears in the halls as Buffy, now possessed by James talks to him as if he were Grace. Angel finds her behavior freaky until the spirit is able to get a hold of his body. She takes on the role of James and he takes on the role of Grace. They argue again and Buffy pulls out a gun and shoots Angel. He falls off the balcony dead. James in Buffy's body rushes off to the music room where he plans to kill himself. Angel, unable to be killed by bullets wakes up and makes his way to the music room just in time to stop Buffy from pulling the trigger. They exchange apologies and kiss. The spirits, now able to pass on leave their bodies. Buffy and Angel break away from the kiss and Angel realizes what he has been doing. Throwing Buffy aside he rushes off. Buffy copes with what happened while Xander, Willow and Cordelia check the school for any remains of snakes or wasps.
At the garden Angel scrubs furiously at his body, knowing how close he had been with Buffy. He then invites Dru and Spike out to feed, knowing that Spike is wheelchair-bound. Angel and Dru go out together, leaving Spike alone and livid. Then Spike gets out of his chair and kicks it aside, healed from his spinal injury and whispering threats at Angel.
[edit] Writing and acting
The viewer is invited to learn to forgive along with Buffy and the ghost in her bittersweet re-enactment of a murder-suicide.
Joss Whedon has said that it was this episode that convinced him that David Boreanaz was an actor strong enough to have his own series. In one scene, Angel is possessed by the ghost of a female English teacher who is confronted and murdered by her student/lover.
The scene of the lovers' confrontation is poignant in its relevance to Buffy and Angel's relationship.
[edit] Production details
[edit] Music
- Christophe Beck - "Love is Forever"
- The Flamingos - "I Only Have Eyes for You"
- Splendid - "Charge"
[edit] Quotes and trivia
- The title refers to the song of the same name. One sequence in the episode relies upon the song, which was written in the 1930s. The version used was recorded years after the events of the episode in an anachronism. (Another episode from this series named after a song is "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"; also written by Marti Noxon.)
- Noxon, author of the “I Only Have Eyes For You” episode, admits that she is haunted, as it were, by the idea of ghosts, which, for her, are figurative expressions of the need for “repentance and second chances” that she perceived as being necessary thanks to “a difficult family situation”: “I realize that I was constantly telling the story of my family and fears,” and, she says, she was influenced in her storytelling by the movies Poltergeist and Truly, Madly, Deeply, which featured a widow who was unable to “move on” after the loss of her husband (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Monster Book).
- Willow says she found lesson plans on Ms. Calendar's computer, but we saw Angelus destroy Ms. Calendar's computer in "Passion", 2 episodes ago.'
- Night-blooming jasmine flower appears in this episode and is compared to vampires. This comparison will be made again in the Angel episodes "The Trial" and "Shiny Happy People". In the later it will become the name of a fallen member of the Powers That Be.
- We learn for the first time Slayers are vulnerable to ghostly possession. In season 4's "Living Conditions" we learn they can also be possessed by demons as well.
[edit] Translations
- Italian title: "Per sempre" ("Forever")
- German title: "Ein Dämon namens Liebe" ("A demon called Love")
- Japanese title: "恋人たちの亡霊" ("Koibito-Tachi no Shiryō" - "Ghosts of Lovers")
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: Fall 1997 - Spring 1998 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, fall 1997 | B2.01 When She Was Bad |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Tales of the Slayers: Broken Bottle of Djinn, 1997 |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.02 Some Assembly Required |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Tales of the Vampires: The Problem with Vampires |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Buffy graphic novel: Spike & Dru: The Queen of Hearts |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.03 School Hard |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.04 Inca Mummy Girl |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.05 Reptile Boy |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Buffy graphic novel: Dust Waltz |
| Sunnydale, October 1997 | B2.06 Halloween |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.07 Lie to Me |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Buffy book: Keep Me In Mind |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Buffy book: The Suicide King |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Buffy book: Colony |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Buffy book: Night Terrors |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.08 The Dark Age |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.09 What's My Line, Part One |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.10 What's My Line, Part Two |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Buffy book: After Image |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | Buffy book: Carnival of Souls |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.11 Ted |
| Sunnydale, 1997 | B2.12 Bad Eggs |
| Boston, December 1997 - June 1998 | Buffy book: Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary |
| Sunnydale, 1997/8 | Buffy book: Blooded |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | B2.13 Surprise |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | B2.14 Innocence |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | B2.15 Phases |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | B2.16 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | B2.17 Passion |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | Buffy graphic novel: Ring of Fire |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | B2.18 Killed by Death |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | B2.19 I Only Have Eyes for You |
| Sunnydale, 1998 | B2.20 Go Fish |
| Sunnydale, spring 1998 | B2.21 Becoming, Part One |
| Sunnydale, spring 1998 | B2.22 Becoming, Part Two |
| Sunnydale, spring 1998 | Buffy graphic novel: Spike & Dru: Paint the Town Red |
[edit] External links
- I Only Have Eyes for You at the Internet Movie Database
- Soulful Spike Society analysis of I Only Have Eyes for You
