Writer:

Joss Whedon

Director:

Joss Whedon

Regulars:

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase

David Boreanaz as Angel

Seth Green as Oz

Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Stars:

Eliza Dushku as Faith

Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins III

Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

Emma Caulfield as Anya

Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder

Cast:

Jason Hall as Devon

Ethan Erickson as Percy West

Andy Umberger as D'Hoffryn

Corey Michael Blake as Bartender

Megan Gray as Sandy

Michael Nagy as Alfonse

Norma Michael as Older woman

Jennifer Nicole as Willow's body double

A doppelgänger is defined by dictionary.com as a "spiritual or ghostly double or counterpart; esp. an apparitional double of a living person; a cowalker." The idea of evil twins, doppelgängers, and/or alternate universes have been used in many different media forms. Among them: "Star Trek," "Superman," and "Hercules."

Sandy

Bitten by Vamp Willow at the Bronze.

Anonymous Vampire

Staked by Buffy outside the Bronze.

Anonymous Vampire

Staked by Giles at the Bronze.

Anonymous Vampire

Staked by Buffy (with a pool stick) at the Bronze.

Vamp Willow

Shoved into a wooden protrusion (again) in the alternate universe.

Total: Five

Willow: "Buff. I'm storming off. It doesn't really work if you come with me."

Willow: "Well did you try looking inside the sofa in Hell?"

Willow: "Say! You all didn't happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?"

Vamp Willow (meeting the real Willow): "Well, look at me. I'm all fuzzy."

Willow: "That's me as a vampire? I'm so evil. And skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay!"

Willow (looking down at her cleavage): "Gosh, look at those!"

More quotes from this episode...

• Buffy: "The Watcher Council shrink is heavy into tests. He's got tests for everything. T.A.T.s, Rorschach, associative logic." — The T.A.T. is the Thematic Apperception Test, developed by the American psychologist Henry A. Murray, which uses a standard series of provocative yet ambiguous pictures about which the client must tell a story. Each story is carefully analyzed to uncover underlying needs, attitudes, and patterns of reaction. The Rorschach test was developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (1884–1922), who used a group of standardized inkblots and asked the client to relate what the pictures brought to mind. We believe associative logic to be those word associations tests, where the shrink says a word and you say the first word to come into your head.

• Buffy: "I know Faith's not gonna be on the cover of 'Sanity Fair,' but she had it rough." — This is a play on the magazine title, "Vanity Fair," which focuses on literature, art, fashion, politics and "the unusual personality."

• Faith (after a workout with Wesley): "Princess Margaret here had a little trouble keeping up." — Princess Margaret, the Countess of Snowdon, is the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth. She was born in 1930 as Margaret Rose to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The princess was a heavy smoker for many years (some sources say she smoked up to three packs a day), but reportedly quit finally after having had a stroke, a heart attack, and lung surgery.

• Faith: "Thanks, sugar daddy!" — Sugar daddy is a term used to describe a wealthy, middle-aged man who spends money freely on a young woman in return for her companionship or intimacy.

  

• The Mayor: "If I'm not mistaken, some lucky girl has herself a PlayStation." — The PlayStation game console, in case you haven't heard, is a home video game system, made by Sony. More than 30 million PlayStation game consoles have shipped worldwide, making it one of the most successful game consoles ever.

• Oz: "The band. We had a gig in Monterey Sunday night." — Monterey is a city in California roughly 250 miles north of Santa Barbara, which Joss has said is where Sunnydale would be if it were real.

• Xander: "Did you remember to tape Biography last Friday?" — Biography is the trademark show on A&E, the Arts and Entertainment cable network. It focuses on the life story of a different person every day.

• Xander: "You're like a regular geyser of fun that goes off at regular intervals."
  Willow: "That's Old Faithful." — Old Faithful is a well known geyser at Yellowstone National Park, which erupts at an average interval of 64.5 minutes.

• Xander: "Isn't that where the guy had to shoot —"
  Willow: "That's Old Yeller." — Old Yeller is a 1957 Disney movie, based on the novel by Fred Gipson, about a stray dog and the family that takes him in. If we remember correctly, Old Yeller gets rabies from a mad wolf and therefore has to be shot.

• Vamp Willow (to Oz): "I know you. You're a white hat." — "White hat" is a term for a good guy that comes from old cowboy movies, from the costumes that the heroes wore, as opposed to the black hats (referenced last week in "Consequences"), which the bad guys wore.

  

• Xander: "So we charge in, much in the style of John Wayne?" — John Wayne is probably the most famous movie cowboy ever. His real name was Marion Morrison, and his nickname was the "Duke." He is perhaps best remembered for his parts in the cavalry trilogy -- Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950). Semi-interesting fact: the airport in Orange County, CA (where we live) is named after him. Wayne was also referenced in "What's My Line, Part Two."

• Anya (about Willow): "If she's a vampire, then I'm the creature from the Black Lagoon!" — Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 horror movie about a prehistoric Gill-Man in the legendary Black Lagoon. Explorers capture the mysterious creature, but it breaks free. The Gill-Man returns to kidnap the lovely Kay, fiancee of one of the expedition, with whom it has fallen in love. This was also referenced in "Go Fish."

• The Wish — This episode is one big reference to "The Wish," the episode in which Anya granted Cordelia's wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. An alternate universe existed, in which Xander and Willow were vampires, the Master had risen to power, and vampires completely ruled Sunnydale.

• Go Fish — Principal Snyder feels that the basketball team need a winning year, "especially after last year's debacle with the swim team." In "Go Fish," the coach of the swim team used fish DNA to improve the team, but it turned some of them into fish-men.

• Passion — Snyder knows that Willow likes teaching, since she temporarily took over Jenny Calendar's teaching job after her death in "Passion."

• Lovers Walk — When Vamp Willow hugs Xander (while he still thinks she's the real Willow), she verges on "naughty touching," and he reminds her that they don't want to fall back on bad habits. This actually references a few episodes; they first kissed in "Homecoming," and kept it up until they were caught in "Lover's Walk" and ended it.

• Helpless — When Giles doesn't know what to make of the Vamp Willow situation, Xander asks, "Can you believe the Watchers Council let this guy go?" This refers to "Helpless," in which Quentin Travers fired Giles because his fatherly love for Buffy supposedly interfered with his job as Watcher.

• How (and why) did Wesley get into the bathroom before Cordelia and Vamp Willow? He was running towards them in the hallway, but somehow got in there first and came from behind Cordelia.

• Willow once wanted to be a florist.

• The coffee/donut shop downtown is called the Espresso Pump.

• In the Bronze when Willow is pretending to be Vamp Willow, she runs her hand through a girl's hair. Some people have wondered if that girl was Amber Benson (who plays Tara in later seasons). Sorry guys, but it's not her.

• K's Choice - "Virgin State of Mind" (From the BtVS Soundtrack, TVT Records, 1999)
  This band is performing this song onstage when Vamp Willow first goes to the Bronze.
  Official Site
  
  
• Spectator Pump - "Priced 2 Move" (From Styrofoam Archives, Trik Magic Records, 1998)
  This song plays faintly in the background at the Bronze.
  Official Site

Jeremy:

I loved this episode, but most of you could have guessed that, since I am in love with Willow (don't tell Jamie that, though). I thought the Xander episode was good ("The Zeppo"), but this was even better. I wish we could see Alyson Hannigan in some starring movie roles soon, because she definitely has the talent. But enough character episodes for a while, let us have some good "mythology" episodes. Give us some more sneak peeks into what Faith is up to, and what exactly the mayor is. Also I'm still waiting for some insight as to how they are going to set up Angel, Faith, and Cordelia going to LA to be in "Angel." But this was a great episode, keep it up. (9/10)

Jamie Marie:

Now this is good stuff! This is definitely the best episode so far this season, or at least the most fun. I am very, very sad that they killed Vamp Willow, because I would have loved to see future cameos of the character. Alyson Hannigan is an even better actress than I realized; her differentiation between the two characters was amazing — almost four characters: Good Willow, Vamp Willow, Good Willow pretending to be Vamp Willow, and Vamp Willow pretending to be Good Willow (confused much?). Oh, and for the record, I wouldn't make too much of the sexuality subtext. I think Joss just likes to play with us (and the characters) a bit, nothing more. Anyhow, I loved pretty much every aspect of this show — except for Good Willow's last two outfits — and there's no need to say much more than that. (9.5/10)