Trivia
Beach bummer: We learnt that Sunnydale had docks in Surprise, but here we discover that it's a coastal town too. So, how come it took thirty-two episodes before there was a scene on the beach!?
All the small things: Perennial victim Jonathan is back again - being bullied by the swim team in the teaser, and admitting, under harsh interrogation from Willow, that he took his revenge by peeing in the pool. How very mature.
Corruption begins at school: Shady Principal Snyder puts pressure on Willow to pass Gage just because of his sporting ability, even though he's a terrible student. Surely this sort of academic corruption can't be an accurate reflection of the US teaching system?
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water: "In other words, this was no boating accident," comments Xander on the mysterious disappearance of Dodd's innards. He's quoting Richard Dreyfuss in shark thriller Jaws.
Squishy on the inside: For Willow, Dodd's fate is, "like an Oreo cookie, except for, you know, without the chocolaty cookie goodness". Oreos are American cream-filled biscuits, occasionally found in the UK. What you might not know is that Alyson Hannigan (Willow) once appeared in an advert for Oreos...
Low fat diet: Wondering why the unknown monster didn't eat Dodd's skin? Buffy suggests that it had high cholesterol. She's quite right - the skin (of chicken or similar - Cult don't condone cannibalism) may be the best part, as Xander says, but it's chock-full of naughty saturated fats.
Lagooning around: The monsters the swim team turn into look as if their design was influenced by 1954 horror The Creature from the Black Lagoon. The movie is about an Amazonian expedition menaced by a half-man, half-fish creature.
A little homage is paid to the film when Cordelia complains that she doesn't want to end up dating the "Creature from the Blue Lagoon." As Xander points out, she means Black Lagoon - the creature from the Blue Lagoon was the far nicer Brooke Shields.
Naming names: "Who does she think she is? The Chosen One?" says Angelus to Gage outside the Bronze, talking about Buffy of course. Little does Gage know... Strangely, his blood doesn't seem to be to Angelus' taste. Perhaps it needs a little tartare sauce.
Burning beats: The music heard in the Bronze is If You'd Listen, by Nero's Rome. There's also a reference to The Commodore's Three Times a Lady, only Xander's version is Three Times a Fish Guy.
That's cheating!: Coach Marin's secret recipe for success is based on Russian experiments with fish DNA, designed to boost their Olympic swimmers. There's no evidence, though, that any Communist country ever really gave their athletes a kipper injection.
A disgraceful doping scandal involving the East German women's swimming team did come to light after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Swimmers as young as ten were force fed masses of steroids, pushing the East German team to astounding sucess in the 1976 Olympics.
Another piece of suspected jigger-pokery in the cause of racking up the gold medals involved Russian athletes Tamara and Iryna Press. Between them, they won five golds and set 26 world records in the early sixties. The rather butch sisters suddenly retired on the introduction of mandatory sex-testing for athletes.
Coachload of roles: Charles Cyphers has a long and distinguished cult screen CV. He's appeared in many John Carpenter films such as Escape from New York, Halloween and The Fog. On TV he's been in shows including The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, Charlie's Angels, and leaving the woman theme, The Dukes of Hazzard, Airwolf, and The New Adventures of Superman.
