Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5 Episode 16

This episode is number four in Joss Whedon's list of his top ten favorite episodes according to The Last Sundown featurette in the season seven DVD box set.

In a 2003 interview with Entertainment Weekly shortly after announcing her decision to leave the show, Sarah Michelle Gellar said that this episode was "pretty amazing" and said that it was one of her favorites.

This is one of the few episodes that begins where the previous one left off, with out being a two parter (a "to be continued...").

In a situation like this, the first person you want to call (excluding 911) is your other parent. Buffy, however, calls Giles, her closest father-figure. As we later see in season six, Buffy finds it hard to deal with things without Giles.

This episode is the opposite to the season 4 episode Hush in which there are few spoken words and more music. In this episode, there is the absence of music through out the episode, and most is spoken word. Joss Whedon explained that music comforts the audience, and he wanted this episode to be touching and horrifying at the same time.

This is one of Alyson Hannigan's favorite episodes of the show, according to an October, 2005 interview with PopWatch.

Although listed in the opening credits, James Marsters does not appear in this episode.

The toy which Anya throws away from underneath her in the chair in Willow's room is a Japanese character called 'Burnt Bunboy'. Joss and his wife are big fans of him and Joss couldn't resist putting him in his show.

Anya reveals in the opening sequence the true nature of Santa Claus. She says he was a creature from the 16th century who would disembowel children. However, the parts about the chimneys and the reindeer are apparently true.

Buffy makes reference to the episode 'Band Candy' when she says "As long as you two stay away from the band candy..." to Joyce and Giles. In the Season 3 episode, the two had sex.

According to Joss's DVD commentarry he wishes that he had included Joyce in the scene at the table, and not have her seperated from the scoobies in the kitchen.

There was no "Previously on Buffy" teaser at the beginning of this episode and there was no music, incidental or otherwise at all. Joss Whedon told the BBC Buffy website: "The lack of music, the no cutting, every act in one scene... it was all supposed to be relentless, almost a kind of boredom to create what I wanted to capture".

This episode reveals that Tara's mother died when Tara was 17.

Willow's dorm room is number 213. She shared a dorm with Buffy last year which was number 214, so this is probably next door.

Joss wanted Willow and Tara's kiss to be natural, and not to be the main focus of the episode so he included it in this episode.

Alyson Hannigan was allergic to the plaster dust from the scene when Xander punches his hand through the wall. Her right eye and face swelled up during the filming of that scene and she had to be taken to hospital.

Kristine Sutherland has said in interviews that Joss told her at the start of season 4 that Joyce was going to die in season 5.

It is said that if you have a dream of an open grave, while it is raining, someone you know will die within a year. (Faith awoke from a dream such as this last season in 'This Year's Girl'.)

According to Joss Whedon's DVD commentary, the episode begins with the flashback of the gang's Christmas dinner because Joss didn't want the cast and crew credits to appear over the main scene of Buffy finding her mom.

This episode is the most vampire/monster-light episode of the series, being completely free of any vampires or supernatural beings until the vampire that appears in the last few minutes.