Re-watching Buffy for the millionth time, and just noticed the scene between Spike and Halfreck at Buffy’s birthday party (Season 6), when they’re all trapped in the house by Dawn’s wish.
HALFRECK: William?
SPIKE (Recognition dawning): Wait–
[SOMEONE ELSE … BUFFY?]: Do you guys know each other?
HALFRECK AND SPIKE: No. No.
Now, I know that the same actress played Cecily–William the Bloody’s unrequited love–as played Halfreck. Is this just the writers’ nod to that (i.e., the fans are going to notice it’s the same actress…), or did Cecily become a vengeance demon sometime after she spurned William? Thinking back on later episodes with her, we know Halfreck was around during the Russian Revolution … but I thought Anya mentioned that she and Halfreck had a little thing during the Crimean war … which predates William by a good 40-50 years. So either Cecily was ALREADY a vengeance demon, on the DL, or the two women have no relation to each other, and this is just a writerly in-joke. Anyone know?
Ah, nicely spotted, hadn’t noticed. Then again, there’s still a sizeable part of the DVD set that I’ve seen only once.
What do you mean with on the DL? It could be that she was temporarily relieved of duty, similar to Anya, who did also return to become a vengeance demon for a while, and so proves temporarily not being one is a possibility. William has some very good reasons for not wanting to talk about this period, and that could hold equally well for her, temporarily not being a vengeance demon.
There’s this episode where Anyanka temporarily becomes a vengeance demon again, has all these people killed and then finally realises her mistake and wants to resign again, accepting the penance, which she expects is being killed. But then instead another vengeance demon is killed, was that also Halfreck, or another one?
This was actually answered in an interview with Kali Roche. She said she was led to believe that they were the same person, and “Cecily” was just Halfrek in disguise, trying to get some poor gal to curse her male. Not unlike Anya going “undercover” at the high school in “The Wish.” I’ll see if I can did up the cite.
In the commentary for Selfless, the Anya episode of S7, we see Anya and Hallie enjoying a glass of wine during the Russian Revolution while St. Petersburg burns. (As does some guy who runs through the room.) On the commentary track, writer Drew Z. Greenberg notes that this scene was originally set in an earlier war (I don’t recall which) and was specifically changed because they wanted to preserve the possibility that Halfrek was Cecily, and she wouldn’t yet have been a demon in the earlier time period.
Marti Noxon was the showrunner for S6 and is on record saying that it’s the same actress, different characters, and the small exchange is just an in-joke.
shrug
I don’t think that woman knows what she’s talking about nine times out of ten, but I think she’s the highest ranking “official” to comment on it. I don’t think Joss has ever said anything.
