Guest Starring: 
     
 Abraham Benrubi: 
 (Olaf) 
   
 Kali Rocha: 
 (Halfrek) 
   
 Andy Umberger: 
 (D’Hoffryn) 
   
 
 
  5. Selfless.  
   
  Responsible for a spate of recent killings, Anya muses her life as a vengeance demon.  
   
  Great quotes:  
   
 
Anya muses her life.
  • Dawn: "My advice is, do exactly what everyone else does all the time. Do what everyone else does, wear whatever they wear, say what they say. People may say something to you don't understand, just don't be afraid to keep your mouth shut and pretend like you know what they're saying... just nod and smile."
  • Villager: "Run! Hide your babies and your beadwork!" "Hit him [Olaf] with fruits and various breads!"
  • Anya: “I have a new boyfriend, he lives here now.” Willow: “That’s great.” Anya: “Yeah, we just had lots and lots of sex.” Willow: “Ok...”
  • Xander: “When our friends go crazy and start killing people we help them.” Willow: “Sitting right here!”
  • Anya to Buffy: “Are there any friends of yours left you haven’t tried to kill?”
  • Anya calls herself: “Mrs Anya lame-ass made up maiden name Harris”
  
  Fantastic moments:  
   
 
  • Anya’s life in Scandinavia before she became a demon is marvellously told in the form of homage to badly translated European films. With slightly graining film and subtitles that seem either far too long or far too short for the words being said, we get an insight into Anya’s first incarnation as Aud, wife to Olaf (soon to be a troll) and social outcast in her village. The best bit is when we cut to a close up on Olaf and he laughs – translation: “Ha ha ha!”
  • There's a great moment when Willow calls D'Hoffryn using a mystical ceremony. The demon appears in a could of smoke and darkness: "Behold D'Hoffryn... he who turns the air to blood and rains..." before he spots Willow, "Miss Rosenberg. How lovely to see you again. Have you done something with your hair?"
  • Anya's views on the proletarian revolution (while in Russia at the start of the twentieth centuary) contrast interestingly against her more familiar pro-capitalist rantings. More evidence of her fickle attachment to whatever comes along at the latest point in her life.
  • Anya gets a sword through the chest from Buffy. That was a very unexpected moment, the shock of which is reprised when we cut from Anya's singing back to her lifeless body.
  • In an unexpected nod to the series' mythology, Buffy mentions the 'message' that Xander made up and atributed to Willow regarding her battle with Angel at the end of season 2.
  
  Duff Bits:  
   
 
  • Willow’s red tights should have a public health warning.
  • The spider isn’t the best piece of CGI they’ve ever done.
  • When Buffy declares: “I have to kill Anya” it is an oddly undramatic moment only just on the right side of ‘cheese’.
  
  Dean's comments:  
   
 
There's blood on Anya's hands.
“I’ve boned a troll I’ve wreaked some wrath, but on the whole I’ve had no path...” Anya is a woman who has always lived her life through others and clung to whatever has come along (she admits this at the end of the episode); be it pleasing Xander, caring for Olaf, doing work for D’Hoffryn or alternating between beliefs in Communism or Capitalism, she has spent her whole life being ‘Selfless’. She finally decides that her life has been pointless, and that the only thing left to do is to seek out punishment for her ills by goading Buffy into ending her life - she even tells Xander to stop trying to save her. In this rather touching episode – the first to focus on Anya – we get an insight into this character and get the Scoobies back together solving problems just like the olden days. Anya is stifled by the people around her despite seeming only being able to express herself through them, by the end of the episode she has rejected and been rejected by all of the people who she has held on to all these years. Ultimately she is left only with herself, a prospect that she doesn't seem to relish in the slightest. The episode forms a reasonably good character study for Anya, a character who has often served as little more than comic relief over the last 4 seasons. Despite a couple of slightly cheesy moments, such as the CGI spider, 'Selfless' is the probably the best episode of the first half of season7.		 
   
 8/10 
 
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