User Reviews

A Thanksgiving spirit accidentally released by Xander is trying to kill the leaders of Sunnydale and is still gunning for Buffy. This spirit has also given Xander syphilis. Angel returns to Sunnydale after Doyle's vision that Buffy is in danger but he hides from her.

Why It's So Good - Part 1 of the Buffy/Angel crossover with 'I Will Remember You.' Spike provides many brilliant moments, and Buffy's desire to have a normal thanksgiving.

Watch Out For - A bear!

Quote - "It is a sham, but it's a sham with yams. It's a yam sham." - Buffy.

The Good; The siege of Fort Giles and Buffy's cooking preparations are both excellent. Love Buffy's stetson hat (foreshadowing?) and the Xander digging scene plus the Angel lurking scenes. Favourite though has to be the Scooby cavalry riding to the rescue.

The Bad; In all the dodgy lessons I've learnt from Buffy perhaps the most disturbing is the idea that when threatened by the vengeful spirit of a wronged Native American tribe the solution is to wipe them out entirely so you don't have to worry about them any more.

Best line; Spike; "You won, alright? You came in and killed them and took their land....The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons and you massacred them. End of story". Of course Spike is a Victorian, the days when (as Blackadder the 4th put it) "You saw a bloke in a grass skirt you shot him and nicked his country"

Character death; The priest, the professor, the poor guy captured by the vamps. Buffy kills Hus.

Shot; Buffy hit by an arrow as is Spike

Tied up; Spike to the chair

Women good/men bad; Harmony smartens herself up and kicks Spike out, about time too! Whenever you get the die-hard Spikettes I always think they resemble Harmony a lot more than Buffy or Dru.

Jeez!; The poor priest! Hung and has his ear cut off not to mention the professor having her throat slit. Spike considers pictures of famine victims funny, not surprising from a soulless vamp but amazed they left it in. Angel snapping the warrior's neck is also pretty cringeworthy.

Kinky dinky; Anya get's turned on by Xander performing manual labour. Buffy comments that imaginary Xander is 'quite the machine' (she should talk!). Anya also likes the idea of playing nurse for Xander as indeed does Buffy for Riley later and for Angel in both seasons 2 and 3. Xander proposes sex with Anya at the end of the ep by commenting that his syphilis has cleared up. Buffy says she likes her men 'evil', in Get It Done we find out why.

Calling Captain Subtext; Spike compares his inability to kill as akin to being neutered, do we need any more evidence that to vamps biting equals sex? Buffy observes that Xander looks quite Village People. Well, he's been a soldier, construction worker, cowboy, leather clad vamp and this ep is filled with native Americans. Just sailor and cop to go really?

Guantanamo Bay; The Scoobies are quite prepared to let Spike broil

Scoobies to the ER; Poor Xander getting syphilis amongst other diseases

Where's Dawn? Presumably gone to Aunt Arlenes with Joyce. Arlene must be Joyce's sister rather than Hanks?

Questions and observations; Xander has previously been working at Hot-Dog-on-a stick which is where Snyder suggested Buffy work in season 3. He gives the rest of the Scoobs freebies as will Buff at the DMP. Giles and Angel have put their differences behind them. Anya doesn't seem to have met Angel before despite them having been in the same room together in Dopplegangland and The Prom. Buffy seems to have inkling that Angel is near, her vamp sense or something stronger? Buffy comments how one person can make a difference, certainly Dopplegangland proves that. Asian Joe has obviously survived the events of Harsh Light of Day and is in the stands at the ceremony. Sunnydale has been around since 1812 so before the Mayor was around. Still plenty of Anya and Will tension. Why does Riley cam-up his face but not his neck? Xander refers to Anya as his girlfriend. Note the sign saying US Army over Angel's head when Riley is talking to Buffy. Hus rather reminds me of an old ep of the TV series Kolchak;The Night Stalker which apparently inspired the X-files. In fairness to Custer he was actually a lot more sympathetic to the Native Americans than most.

Marks out of 10; 9/10 I really like this one, perhaps one of the strongest of season 4

Sometimes I think the show is trying to kill me. In the episode we have Spike, Buffy and Angel all in the same spot... But they don't have scene together. Buffy doesn't even know that Angel has come to town. (Although she does go to LA to see him in the corresponding "Angel" episode "I Will Remember You.") Angel doesn't get to see Spike tied up in Giles' living room. Spike doesn't get to ask Angel about the fate of the Ring of Amara. It's such a missed opportunity. That said, "Pangs" is still a lot of fun. It's BTVS's only Thanksgiving episode. It tosses Spike in with Scoobies for the first time. And it raises some really interesting questions by debating the political correctness of the holiday. If you're watching on DVD, don't skip this episode.

The title "Pangs" is referring to more than just hunger. This episode has pangs of guilt, conscious and pity, too. UC Sunnydale is being attacked by a restless Chomush spirit. He was released as they dug the foundation to the new Cultural Center. Angry, he sets out to avenge the wrongs done to his people and the Scoobies actually feel some pangs of guilt about the treatment he endured. Willow is especially horrified by the plight of the indigenous people and refuses to try and kill the spirit. In the meantime, Xander contracts mystical syphilis, people are turning up dead and Angel arrives in town to on a tip that Buffy may be in danger.

Buffy is set on cooking a big Thanksgiving meal at Giles house. She feels pangs of conscious about the spirit. But she knows that she has to do something to stop him... Right after dinner. Spike, still unable to feed thanks to the chip in his head, finally makes his way to Giles' front door. Desperate, he offers to tell the Scoobies everything he knows about the Initative in exchange for sanctuary. The Scoobies feel a pang of pity for Spike and his raggedy, "Little Match Girl" style blankey. They let him in. Then Xander, Willow and Anya go to warn the dean about the attacks and the Spirit begins bombarding Giles's apartment with arrows. Buffy has to stop the Spirit before her entire celebration is ruined.

There are a lot of good parts to this episode. I love Anya and she's especially funny in "Pangs." From demanding that Xander dig so she can watch him "ripple" to consoling him over his new diseases ("Syphilis won't kill you... It'll just make you blind and insane") you just gotta laugh. And Giles and Willow are great as they argue about the best way to defeat the Chomush spirit. She's determined to be sensitive to the spirit's grievances. Giles doesn't care about past wrongs, he just wants spirit to disappear. And for once Spike agrees with him. Having Spike run to Giles' house for help is just brilliant. He winds up tied to a chair, lecturing Willow and Buffy about the flaws in their "namby-pampy" political correctness. "You annihilated his race, what can you possibly say that will make him feel better?" (And to understand just how ineffective that rope and chair would be if Spike tried to escape, see season seven's "Don't Ever Leave Me." He's sitting in Giles' living room because he WANTS to be there. He has no place else to go.) And you just don't get many lines funnier than, "You made a bear. Undo it! Undo it!" Also, I like that Buffy is wearing a black cowboy hat at the beginning of the episode. The bad guys in Sunnydale are of often called "black hats." And "cowboys" are the symbolic enemies of "Indians." I think the hat is the show's way of saying that there are no easy answers to Giles and Willow's fight. No more heroes and villains. Everyone's a little bit wrong.

"Pangs" is about family and home, which is only fitting since it's a Thanksgiving episode. The Scoobies have gathered with their "real" family (Each other) in the home of their patriarch (Giles). Riley is going back to Iowa to be with his family. Spike tries desperately to find a place to belong, but all his evil haunts are closed to him now. He can't feed with the other vampires and even Harmony kicks him out. He finally winds up on Giles' door step where he is taken in. None of them realize it yet, but this is Spike's new "family," his new group, and the place he now belongs. Meanwhile, Angel comes back to town, but Sunnydale is not home anymore. He is apart from the group, not quite fitting in. Spike is now sitting at the table and Angel is the standing on the outside. Angel's "family" is back in LA with Cordy, Doyle and (soon) Wes. The episode ends with everyone being at, or heading for, their homes.

On the downside, I really do feel bad for the Spirit. Like Willow, I wish that there could have been a way to make things right with him. Also, why would Joyce leave town over Thanksgiving and not include Buffy?

My favorite part of the episode: Xander's reaction to his new syhpilis. "That's no fair."

I really like this episode. I like that they finally did a Thanksgiving episode. I love how Buffy tries to get everyone to say, Native American, instead of Indian.

In this episode, it's Thanksgiving and Buffy is all excited about cooking her first meal for everyone. That is, until a spirit of a Native American is released from a tomb/grave, and starts killing people. Buffy is also worried when all the food isn't cooked perfectly. Everyone tries to figure out what the strange man wants, and it turns out that he just wants revenge, for everything the American's did to his tribe. At the end, when Spike is all tied up, the Native American comes and is fighting Buffy, Buffy stabs him with his own knife, and then he transforms into a grizzly bear. Spike says, "You made a bear!", Buffy replies, "I didn't mean to", and then Spike shouts, "Undo it! Undo it!". It just makes me laugh. Eventually, they defeat the men. Also, Angel comes to visit and talks to everyone except Buffy. And at the end, someone spits out, "Plus, Angel was here", and Buffy just looks so confused.

Overall, I give this episode a 7 out of 10.

The first thanksgiving has Xander at yet another job in construction as he digs on a site and falls through a hole into an ancient burial ground. Releasing a native American spirit setting out to avenge his people. For me the episode tries to plan on guilt for wrongs done in the past as Buffy & Willow grieve for the lost tribe not able to accept it lead to a better country today. Yet as it was stated by Spike it's the natural order of the universe where the stronger wipes out the weaker and establishes an empire. Now the spirit may feel justifiable in his actions but he chose to keep the wounds unhealed and murder innocent people who had nothing to do with a crime committed centuries ago. Angel is back hiding in the shadows watching his beloved without letting her know leaving in doubt his motivations. Did he hear word she was in danger from the Indian ghosts or that she would be outnumbered and came to lend a hand is anyone's guess.

Another aspect is it plays for humor as Spike is riddled with arrow, criticized their defense and tries to scoot is chair out of danger. I nearly lost it as he appeared as a poor begged in robe to watch his homies feasting on a victim and thinking of his glory days. While it's all for laughs I hope it isn't a trend as I like my spike served evil.