The Zeppo

Season 3, Episode 13, Aired

Trivia

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  • Trivia

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    • In one scene during the fight in the basement between Xander and Jack, you can see the bomb timer tick to 10 seconds, but when the scene changes from out of the close-up, the time is back up to 12 seconds.
    • Obviously Xander wants to get away from Jack and the others, yet he blows a perfectly good opportunity when the group breaks into the hardware store leaving Xander alone in his car.
    • When Faith makes her first appearance in the series, she tells the Scooby Gang that slaying can really turn a slayer on. In this episode, Faith proves this when she first tells Xander that she's "all wound up" from fighting, and then proceeds to have her way with him in bed.
    • Throughout the scene where the bomb is counting down its last minute, we see several shots of the timer. When the shots change, you can still hear the timer beeping once per second. If you count the number of beeps compared to the visuals of the timer, they don't match up at all throughout the scene.
    • In the last few minutes of this episode, when Xander and Jack are in the basement, at the very beginning of the fight, after Xander says, "I'm not leaving until this thing's disarmed," in both the long shots and the subsequent closeups, you can clearly see that it's not the actors themselves fighting.
    • When Jack raises Bob from the grave Jack claims Bob's been gone for eight months when it is clear that the grass (being a brighter green than the surrounding) was newly lain turf, nowhere near eight months old.
    • When the dead guys are chasing Xander in the school and they split up...it looks like they are in the cafeteria, but the guy in the letterman's jacket goes down a flight of stairs to get the axe and then proceeded into the cafeteria. Not possible.
    • The shot of outside the high school right after the opening credits is the same one from when Owen is walking away from Buffy in "Never Kill A Boy On The First Date"...you can see Owen (in the purple shirt) walking away.
    • Immediately before arriving at the hardware store, both Xander and the driver behind him run--as in, they don't do a California roll through, but they totally blow--a clearly marked stop sign. For Xander, this behavor makes some sense, given the company he's keeping, but the other car?
    • When Jack is threatening Xander with his knife after the car accident, in side shots the point of the knife is under Xander's left ear but when the shot switches to the front, the knife's point is under Xander's chin.
    • The establishing shot of the cafeteria lunch line at the start of Xander's coolness chat with Oz is footage from season 2's 'I Only Have Eyes For You'. Watch closely and you can see Buffy, Willow and Xander sitting at a table in the background.
    • Boom Mic is visible briefly when Giles is talking in the library, just before he says that he's going to try to contact the spirit guides.

  • Quotes

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    • Xander: (imitation whine) But, gee, Mr. White, if Clark and Lois get all the good stories, I'll never be a good reporter!
      Giles: Hmm?
      Xander: Jimmy Olsen jokes are pretty much going to be lost on you, huh?
      Giles: Sorry, afraid so.
    • Bob: How long I been down? Jack: Eight months. I had to wait till the stars aligned. Bob: Oh, eight months. I got some catching up to do. Whoa! Walker, Texas Ranger. You been taping 'em? Jack: Every ep.
    • Xander: You're in a band! That's like a business class ticket to cool with complementary mojo after takeoff! I gotta learn an instrument. Is it hard to play guitar? Oz: Not the way I play it.
    • Lysette: Is that your car? Xander: Why, uh... Yes! It is! Lysette: '57 Chevy Bel Air... 283 CID... Solid lifter... Fuel-injected V-8... Xander: Uh... very possibly. Lysette: How does she handle? Xander: Like a dream about warm, sticky things.
    • Buffy: "Sisterhood of Jhe, race of female demons, fierce warriors.." Ew. "..celebrate victory in battle by eating their foes." They couldn't just pour Gatorade on each other?
    • Willow: Are you okay? Xander: Tip-top, really. If anyone sees my spine laying around, just try not to step on it.
    • Buffy: And, you know, with the pain and the death, maybe you shouldn't be leaping into the fray like that. Maybe you should be... fray adjacent. Xander: Excuse me? Who, at a crucial moment, distracted the lead demon by allowing her to pummel him about the head? Faith: Yeah, that was real manly how you shrieked and all. Xander: I think you'll find that was a bellow.
    • Faith: Relax. Take your pants off. Xander: Those two concepts are a bit antithetical.
    • Xander: You gave your knife a girls name, how very serial killer of you!
    • Cordelia: Ooo, look, it's Mr. Excitement. On another life-or-death doughnut mission, or are we just cruising for bimbos again, giving them lessons in lack of cool?
    • Willow: Xander. Boy, you're lucky you weren't at school last night. It was crazed. Xander: Well, uh, gimme the quiet life. I'm gonna grab a snack. Anyone want? Giles: No, thank you. Xander: Oz? Oz: No. I'm oddly full today.
    • Cordelia: Ooh, is some evil going on? Must be big for them to trust you with this daredevil mission. Xander: Cordelia. Feel free to drop dead of a wasting disease in the next twenty seconds. Cordelia: Oh, again I strike the nerve. I am the surgeon of mean.
    • Buffy: What is this? Xander: What do you mean, what is this? It's my thing. Willow: Your thing? Xander: My thing. Buffy: Is this a penis metaphor?
    • Buffy: Should I burn them? Willow: I brought marshmallows! ... Occasionally, I'm callous and strange.
    • Jack: What are you, retarded? Xander: No. No, I had to take that test when I was seven. A little slow in some stuff, mostly math and spatial relations, but certainly not challenged or anything.
    • Buffy: Willow, you okay? Willow: Yeah, I'm fine. The shaking is a side effect of the fear.
    • Buffy: Remember the demon that almost got out the night I died? Willow: Every nightmare I have that doesn't revolve around academic failure or public nudity is about that thing. In fact, once I dreamt that it attacked me while I was late for a test and naked.
    • Cordelia: 'Cool.' Look it up. It's something that a sub-literate that's repeated twelfth grade three times has, and you don't.
    • Xander: I happen to be an integral part of that group. I happen to have a lot to offer. Cordelia: Oh, please. Xander: I do! Cordelia: 'Integral part' of the group? Xander, you're the, the useless part of the group. You're the Zeppo.
    • Cordelia: It must be really hard when all your friends have, like, superpowers -- Slayer, werewolf, witches, vampires -- and you're, like, this little nothing. You must feel like Jimmy Olsen.
    • Xander: I need a thing, something no one else has. What do I have? Oz: An exciting new obsession. Which I feel makes you very special.
    • Xander: Why is it that I've come face-to-face with vampires, demons, the most hideous creatures hell ever spit out, and I'm still afraid of a little bully like Jack O'Toole? Cordelia: Because, unlike all those other creatures that you've come face-to-face with, Jack actually noticed you were there.

  • Notes

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    • This episode is sixth in Joss Whedon's list of his top ten favorite episodes according to his personal letter included in the Australian Chosen Collection Box-set. The episodes on this top ten list are not ranked, but are put in order of which episode aired first.
    • Music: While Xander is driving his uncle's car -- "Dodgems" by Sound Stage Ltd Xander and Lysette are at the bronze -- "G Song" by Supergrass Xander is driving the zombies around town -- "Easy" by Tricky Woo At the end of the episode -- "For the Glory" by Extreme Music
    • Sunnydale apparently does have gangs (not just made-up "gangs on PCP," which is a popular excuse for the tragedies in Sunnydale). One of them is the Jackals.
    • Xander has an Uncle Rory who seems to have a drinking problem. He owns a 57 Chevy Bel Air, which he rented to Xander since he stacked up so many DUI's (for those of you outside the USA a DUI is a ticket for Driving Under the Influence of alcohol). This Uncle Rory is briefly shown somewhere in the season 6 episode "Hell's Bells".
    • In addition to having frog fear, Willow also has nightmares about public nudity, academic failure, and the demon that came out of The Hellmouth.
    • According to Nicholas Brendon this is the episode that changed Xander's character.
    • In this episode, Xander loses his virginity to Faith.
    • Xander's exploits in this episode are reminiscent of some of the events in the film "American Graffiti".
    • Channon Roe is no stranger to playing an undead gang leader. He was Cash, head of the Gangrel clan of vampires in the 1996 TV series Kindred: The Embraced.
    • Channon Roe worked with Seth Green in the 1998 movie Can't Hardly Wait, and will work with Nicholas Brendon again in the 2000 movie Psycho Beach Party.

  • Allusions

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    • Xander: Hello, nasty!
      This is what Xander says when he goes down to the school basement and discovers the bomb. "Hello Nasty" is the title of a 1998 album by the Beastie Boys.
    • Bob: Walker Texas Ranger. You been tapin' 'em?
      "Walker Texas Ranger" was a popular CBS drama starring Chuck Norris as the Texas Ranger, Cordell Walker, who fought numerous criminals throughout the show's eight-year run, from 1993 to 2001.
    • Xander: I've never been up with people before.
      It's not clear if Xander made the reference intentionally but Up With People is a youth organization that performs traveling shows to "build understanding and cooperation among people of different cultures". Faith is in a way introducing Xander to a whole new world
    • Buffy: They couldn't just pour gatorade on each other?
      Gatorade is a popular sports drink and it is traditional to pour jugs of it over your teammates after a win. Buffy suggests the demon sisterhood could emulate athletes in celebrating victory by pouring gatorade on each other rather than eating their foes.
    • Cordelia: You're the Zeppo.
      A reference to Herbert "Zeppo" Marx, the youngest of the five Marx Brothers. Zeppo was certainly the least memorable of the comedy troupe, having always been in the shadow of his more famous brothers Harpo, Chico and Groucho.
      Though some will certainly argue that he wasn't useless as Cordelia contends Xander is to the Buffy-gang.
    • Jack O'Toole: You wanna be startin' somethin'?
      As Xander's response indicates, the line is also a Michael Jackson song.
    • Xander: But gee Mr. White, if Clark and Lois get all the good stories, I'll never be a good reporter. ... Jimmy Olson jokes are pretty much gonna be lost on you, aren't they?
      Mr. White, Clark, Lois and Jimmy Olson are all character's from the Superman comics. Xander compares himself to Jimmy Olson when it is suggested that he hang back from the battles. Jimmy Olson was a cub reporter at the paper and often worried about getting experience when all the best stories went to Clark and Lois.

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