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1. Thursday Night Kitten Poker by Thedabaracds A game of kitten poker at Willy's leads to a friendship with Spike,which eventually deepens into true love and lots of hot kinky sex To Be Beneath You by Tienco Spike's having issues. Xander offers to help. Tonight's Different by Flufshepherd Spike wants something, and maybe tonight's the night.
2. He slowly turned his head and took a cautious look at the gray fur ball, then pinned Spike and Clem, who both looked guilty, with incredulous eyes. “A kitten?” he accused. “What are you doing with a kitten?” “Nothing.” “Poker.” Spike rolled his eyes when Clem caved and told the truth. “Poker?” Xander questioned.
3. Spike Wins the Soul in Kitten Poker: the fridge poem (and banner) Sunday, 29 November 2020 00:53. Title: Spike Wins the Soul in Kitten Poker Creator: thenewbuzwuzz Setting: 'Life Serial' Rating: G Notes: Whoops, it's late! I started posting this on the LJ.
4. 35) 6.5 – “Life Serial” – Another “aw” moment: kitten poker! 36) 6.7 – “Once More With Feeling” – Spike tells Buffy (in song) to let him rest in peace.

'Life Serial'
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 5
Directed by	Nick Marck
Written by	David Fury Jane Espenson
Production code	6ABB05
Original air date	October 23, 2001
Guest appearance(s)
Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson Adam Busch as Warren Mears Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells Amber Benson as Tara Maclay Paul Gutrecht as Tony Noel Albert Guglielmi as Vince Enrique Almeida as Marco Jonathan Goldstein as Mike Winsome Brown as Woman Customer Christopher May as Male Customer David J. Miller as Rat-Faced Demon Andrew Cooper Wasser as Slime-Cover Demon Richard Beatty as Small Demon James C. Leary as Clem Jennifer Shon as Rachel Jabari Hearn as Steve Derrick McMillon as Ron Clint Culp as Bartender Mark Ginther as Horned Demon Alice Dinnean Vernon as Mummy Hand
Episode chronology
← Previous 'Flooded' Next → 'All the Way'
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 6)
List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

'Life Serial' is the fifth episode of season 6 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot[edit]

Buffy returns from her visit with Angel, but doesn't want to talk about it. Instead, the Scoobies discuss Buffy's future plans. Not knowing what she wants to do in life, Buffy agrees to audit the classes Willow and Tara are taking until the next semester starts.

The Trio prepares for its competition to test Buffy, setting up their van with high-tech monitoring equipment.

At school, Buffy finds herself overwhelmed by a class she takes with Willow. Buffy later meets up with Tara for Art History, but before class begins Warren tags her with a tiny device that causes time to fast-forward. Buffy is dazed as the world whizzes around her; when she finally notices the device Warren planted on her, it self-destructs and puts Buffy back in normal time.

Buffy works with Xander at his construction job, telling him about the time situation at school before she is introduced to Tony, the boss. Andrew summons demons from the van, which trash the construction site before Buffy kills them. Unfortunately, Buffy knocks Tony unconscious and the construction men she saves refuse to admit they were saved by a girl. Xander gets mad at Buffy for bringing slaying to his work place but understands that something is happening. However, he is still forced to fire her.

Buffy learns about working at The Magic Box from Giles and Anya as Jonathan begins a spell to loop time until Buffy satisfies a customer. Buffy assists a man with a candle sale and then goes downstairs to fetch a live mummy hand for a female customer, but the hand attacks her and she is forced to kill it, which also kills the sale. Events start to repeat as Buffy must help the customers and fight the mummy hand over and over again, being reduced to tears out of frustration. She is stuck in an unsolved dilemma, but soon Buffy is able to end the spell by telling the woman she will order the hand instead of going downstairs to fight with the one they already have. Stressed out by the repeating time and the job itself, Buffy walks out. All the while, the three villains keep scores on their Buffy attacks.

Later that night, Buffy gets drunk with Spike at his crypt. Completely hammered, Buffy goes with Spike to a bar where he plays poker (using kittens as currency) and searches for information. After the poker game ends badly, Buffy rants to Spike about the new low her life has reached with her inability to understand school or get a decent job. Buffy and Spike notice a black van; the Trio notices Buffy approaching with alarm.

A fake demon appears from behind the van and threatens Buffy, but it is beaten down while the van drives away. With the use of smoke to confuse the slayer and vampire, the demon (Jonathan in disguise) runs away and complains to the Trio who realize they now have much information on Buffy's fighting style that can be used against her. Buffy begins to recover from her drunken state and complains to Giles about her life. He consoles her and offers her a cheque to help pay for all the expenses. Buffy says she is happy that Giles will always be there, but the look on Giles's face suggests that he might not always be.

Cultural references[edit]

• The title of the episode is a pun on the breakfast cereal Life.
• Logan's Run: When Warren plants the time dilation device on Buffy, he uses the codename 'Logan 5' and refers to Buffy as 'the runner.'
• Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch: During the time loop sequence, the Trio references the famous sketch with 'This mummy hand has ceased to be!' 'This is an ex-mummy hand!' This same sketch is also referenced when Buffy attempts to sell the stabbed mummy hand to the woman. The woman says the hand is now dead, only for Buffy to respond that it's just 'playing dead,' mimicking the shopkeeper's insistence to the customer in the Parrot Sketch that the parrot is still alive.
• Groundhog Day: The sequence in the Magic Box is similar to the film's main plot.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Andrew describes the time loop they have put Buffy into as being 'like that episode of TNG' in which the Enterprise-D continually explodes ('Cause and Effect').
• X-Files: Warren responds, 'Or Mulder, in that X-Files where the bank kept exploding' (Season 6 episode 'Monday').
• James Bond: The Trio has a protracted argument over actors who have played James Bond: Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton. Warren insists that Moonraker was inexcusable. Dr. No, the first film of the Bond series, is also mentioned.
• Star Wars: Andrew spray paints a mural of the Death Star from Return of the Jedi on the side of the Trio's van, and the van's horn plays the Star Wars main theme.
• Tara makes reference to watching SpongeBob SquarePants with Willow to Buffy during Buffy's speed problems at college.
• The sculpture shown in the pages of Tara's 'Renaissance book' before her art appreciation class is called the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, and is more accurately described as Baroque.
• Black vans similar to the one used by The Trio were used in Joss Whedon's other project Dollhouse.

Continuity[edit]

Arc significance[edit]

• Crossover with Angel: A meeting between Buffy and Angel takes place immediately before this episode (between the corresponding Angel episodes 'Carpe Noctem' and 'Fredless'). It is the subject of Jane Espenson's Buffy/Angel comic, Reunion.
• The good demon Clem, who will later befriend Buffy and the other Scoobies, appears for the first time playing kitten poker. He is credited as 'Loose Skinned Demon'.
• Buffy shows how she would rather hang out with Spike than the other Scoobies. The two now share common interests which will lead to their physical relationship later in the season.
• Though it could have been inferred from previous episodes, the specialties of all of the Trio members are established; Warren's is technology, Andrew's is demon summoning, and Jonathan's is magic.
• Although Buffy is back with the Watchers' Council, which pays its Watchers (including Giles) and appears to have financially supported other Slayers such as Kendra, no one appears to think of asking them to put Buffy on their payroll. This may be because Kendra was a one-off, or the show's creators wanted Buffy more grounded; to face financial crisis with no true 'happy ending'.

Reception[edit]

The Futon Critic named it the 15th best episode of 2001.^[1]

References[edit]

1. ^Brian Ford Sullivan (January 4, 2002). 'The 50 Best Episodes of 2001 - #20-11'. The Futon Critic. Retrieved August 2, 2010.

External links[edit]

Spike Kitten Poker Game

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Life Serial

• 'Life Serial' on IMDb
• 'Life Serial' at TV.com

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Buffy or the franchise. I just mess with the other rabid fans' heads with my stories.

Warning!!: MaleXMale pairing, swearing in American English and in British English. And, no, they aren't the same. Do you ever hear Americans use 'bloody hell!' Wait, some of us do but it's still different! LOL!

A/N: This story takes place during the sixth season but the whole Buffy/Spike thing NEVER happened. In fact, she came back without remembering Heaven at all. Just...go with it. Also, Xander has been assigned Spike babysitting due to the fact that Spike's back in the Scooby group.

Xander sat down next to Spike as he quietly scanned the poker room curiously. Xander snickered quietly when after a few rounds Spike still wasn't doing so hot. Suddenly, Xander felt his little lightbulb go off. Yes, Alexander Harris has a lightbulb that he is incredibly proud of because it is no longer a clapper. He leaned his head on Spike's shoulder and sighed, ignoring Spike's slight wince from Xander touching his shoulder. 'You aren't gonna win with that,' he said just loud enough for the other demons to hear him.

Spike glared at him and shrugged him off as he held his cards to his chest defiantly. 'What the bloody hell would you know about this?' he said angrily. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed the other four demons go all in. He smirked slightly at Xander before pretending to sulk as he slouched down in his chair.

Spike watched as everyone revealed their hands before he set his royal flush down, kicking all their asses with one hand.

Spike Kitten Poker Games

Spike collected his winnings and led Xander out of the bar as the other demons began to stand up so they could physically beat him. As he passed random children while walking towards Xander's apartment, he handed one to each of them. 'How'd you know?' he asked curiousity finally winning him over.

'I saw it on a movie once,' Xander said with a shrug.

'Really? Well, here's your cut, luv,' he said as he handed Xander a dark brown kitten. Spike winked at him before leaving the astonished brunette standing outside his apartment building not knowing how he had even gotten there.

Over the course of the next week, Xander found himself taking the long way to work through the graveyard where Spike's crypt happened to be located. He kept telling himself that it was for the good of the gang that all of Spike's actions were documented but Xander knew better. Only problem was he didn't know what it was that he knew.

Xander sighed as he walked up to the crypt door for the sixth time that week. 'Oi, Spike!' the brunette yelled out as annoyingly as he could as he made an entrance.

'Go away!' Spike hollared from his bedroom down the ladder.

'But, I brought blood!' Xander said, pouting. With a sigh, the human set down the blood on top of a brown recliner.

'Just leave it on the chair!'

Xander chuckled at the blond's antics. 'Don't you wanna come taste test it? Just to be sure I didn't poison it?' he taunted.

'I don't want to!' Spike whined. 'Just go away!'

Pouting even more, Xander finally did as he was asked and went to work. Spike sighed as he slowly slipped upstairs. Xander had gone all out and gotten O negative, the kind Spike enjoyed more than any other. That boy was gonna be the death of him. Well, the undeath of him. Before Spike could stop himself, he leaned down and inhaled the brown jacket the human had left next to the blood. Xander had a unique scent and for some reason, that's all Spike craved lately. Pausing in his actions, Spike growled and threw the jacket across the crypt. 'Bloody hell, Harris. What've you done to me?'

A movement in the corner of his crypt caught his eye. Going all bumpy faced, Spike dove at the creature. Spike sighed as he slipped out of his game face when he picked up the brown kitten that he had given Xander because he had run out of kids. 'What the hell?' he muttered. On the kitten's neck hung a dark red collar with a tag. 'William?' Spike beamed at the kitten.

A few hours later, Spike and William were cuddled in front of the beloved Vampire's favorite show in the history of television. Passions.

A/N: Okay, not as good as I usually do but hey, I'm trying a chapter thing. Feel free to review if you want but I can't guarantee updates really fast. I'll do my best, though!

Rocki