History Recap / BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E3TheHarshLightOfDay

* PlotHole: How Harmony became a vampire; we saw her get bitten in "Graduation Day", but did any vamp have the chance to bring her across?
** Considering how chaotic everything was, it safe to assume they were trying to create more vamps as they went along.
*** Or maybe she actually survived and it just happened later.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* RomanticFalseLead: Spike is sleeping with Harmony to get over Drusilla; [[spoiler:he will eventually fall in love with Buffy]]. Buffy is sleeping with Parker to get over Angel; [[spoiler:she then gets together with Riley Finn]]. [spoiler:Anya sleeps with Xander to get over him but the two end up falling in love]].

* RomanticFalseLead: Spike is sleeping with Harmony to get over Drusilla; [[spoiler:he will eventually fall in love with Buffy]]. Buffy is sleeping with Parker to get over Angel; [[spoiler:she then hooks up with Riley Finn]]. Xander sleeps with Anya to get over Faith, [[spoiler:while Anya sleeps with Xander to get over him and the two end up falling in love]].

* FaceRevealingTurn: Harmony at the beginning as she's talking to Willow. The meeting starts out as two friends just catching up... then Harmony reveals she's been undead for quite some time.

* FetishizedAbuser: Xander constantly makes Anya feel like dirt, yet the latter imagines being in a relationship with the former.

* BastardBoyfriend: Spike is one to Harmony; he keeps her around for sex but finds her personality incorrigible. Downplayed with Xander, whose "relationship" with Anya exists mostly in her head, but he nonetheless makes her feel like dirt. And played straight with Parker, who after endearing himself to Buffy as a serious guy with whom she thought she'd connected, discards her the morning after they sleep together to pursue another girl with the exact same sort of seduction tactic.

* DownerEnding: Buffy, Anya and Harmony walking alone, regretting having sex the night before.

* NippleAndDimed: SMG had [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence visible nips during the fight]] [[FoeYay with Spike]].

* EverybodyLives: There are no deaths in this episode.

** Harmony complains about the guy she and Spike have chained in their lair, whining that she wants to go out to eat. The guy looks to be wearing army apparel, hinting towards the existence of The Initiative a good couple episodes before they're formally introduced. Harmony's comment that the guy "tastes funny" also foreshadows the later reveal that the soldiers are being pumped with a cocktail of performance-enhancing drugs.
** Spike and Buffy's SnarkToSnarkCombat is a whole lot more [[FoeRomanceSubtext sexually-charged and suggestive]] than it had been in previous encounters, laying the groundwork for Spike's later infatuation that will develop in season 5.

* HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: Parker asks Buffy if Spike is her ex-boyfriend. [[TemptingFate Buffy bursts into laughter]].

* RomanticFalseLead: Spike is sleeping with Harmony to get over Drusilla; he will eventually fall in love with Buffy. Buffy is sleeping with Parker to get over Angel; she then hooks up with Riley Finn. Xander sleeps with Anya to get over Faith, while Anya sleeps with Xander to get over him and the two end up falling in love.

* TemptingFate: When Parker asks if Buffy had ever dated Spike, Buffy bursts out laughing at the idea. That response will ''not'' age well.

* WhatAnIdiot: Spike could have easily worn a ring on each finger and continue to be invulnerable, but that would be a StoryBreakerPower.

* SomethingElseAlsoRises: Xander turns around to offer Anya (whom he only knows as a weird ex-demon girl who makes a lousy prom date) a juice box, to find Anya has [[DressHitsFloor dropped her dress]]. Xander reacts by squeezing the carton he's currently holding, [[JizzInMyPants causing juice to spurt in the air]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
-->'''Anya''': (DING) Fabric softener.
** Harmony complaining about Spike NotStayingForBreakfast because of he needs to get back to tunnelling for the gem.
--> '''Harmony:''' You love [[DoubleEntendre that tunnel]] more than me!

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Spike and Buffy's CasualDangerDialogue is a whole lot more [[FoeRomanceSubtext sexually-charged and suggestive]] than it had been in previous encounters, laying the groundwork for Spike's later infatuation that will develop in season 5.