Guest Starring: 
     
 Kristine Sutherland: 
 (Joyce) 
   
 Abraham Benrubi: 
 (Olaf the Troll) 
   
 Amber Benson: 
 (Tara) 
   
 Ranjani Brow: 
 (Nun) 
   
 
 
  11. Triangle.  
   
  With Giles out of the country, Anya is in charge of the shop and Willow accidentally summons a troll. Both squabble over Xander's attention.  
   
  Great quotes:  
   
 
Anya and Willow bickering.
  • Anya: "I have finesse coming out of my bottom!"
  • Willow: "Between classes... usually I use that time to go over my notes with a series of different coloured pens. But it's been pointed out to me that that's kind of insane."
  • Buffy tells Dawn: "Stop being insightful, it's creepy"
  • Willow: "Hello, gay now!"
  • Buffy: "I killed something in a convent last night, I met a nun and she let me try on her wimple."
  • Anya is driving a car: "I've just figured out what the left pedal does. It makes it stop!"
  • Xander: "That's insane troll-logic!"
  • Olaf to Anya: "My god woman; it's been a thousand years and you are as annoying and as emasculating as ever!"
  • Willow: "It's like trying to hit a puppy by throwing a bee..."
  
  Fantastic moments:  
   
 
  • Olaf the Troll is great,
    Olaf the troll.
    he gets some wonderfully pompous medieval style lines ("Ha ha! Puny receptacle!" "Sweet fragrant ale!" and "Where are babies?") and generally goes around destroying everything in sight. He describes Xander as "... ludicrous and far too breakable" and a "... tiny man."
  • Willow and Anya's constant bickering is a source of immense comedy, especially Willow's impression of the ex-demon "I prefer money to people, people can so rarely be exchanges for goods and services."
  • There's a great moment when Buffy falls on to Spike in the Bronze. He grabs her lightly around the waist to prevent her from getting up (and to cop a feel), in the confusion of the fight she doesn't realise what he is doing. The look of dirty pleasure on Spike's face is just priceless.
  
  Duff Bits:  
   
 
  • Xander gets hit several times by Olaf's hammer. This is the same hammer that destroys a rig at the Bronze and most of 'The Magic Box', yet Xander's only major injury is suffered when Olaf breaks his wrist.
  
  Dean's comments:  
   
 After a couple of really depressing episodes, it was about time we had some comedy, and Jane Espenson duly provides (I presume there is a number of weeks between Riley's departure and this episode). Spike's obsession with Buffy is getting weird, but is deliciously funny at the same time. In his argument with a blond-wig-wearing mannequin in his lair he first practices chatting Buffy up before getting annoyed by her imagined responses and begins to hit it over the head with a box of chocolates. Buffy's continued emotional fragility is used several times in the episode to different effects, she starts crying when Tara innocently mentions Xander 'leaving' Anya and finds the strength to beat Olaf only after he says that Xander and Anya's love will never last ("They have a miraculous love!" she sobs). The main body of the episode revolves around Xander being torn between Anya, his girlfriend, and Willow, his best friend. They pull at his shirtsleeves while arguing with each other and vying for his approval, ultimately he lets them get on with it but is dragged back in when Olaf the Troll decides to kill them. Thoroughly silly, brilliantly funny, sharply witty, this is comic BtVS at its best. 
   
 8/10 
 
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