History Recap / BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E15IWasMadeToLoveYou

Buffy returns home to find that Joyce has been sent flowers from the man she recently had a date with, and calls upstairs to see if Dawn needs picking up. Receiving no answer, Buffy heads into the sitting room to see her mother sprawled across the couch, with opened eyes and pale skin, not breathing. Buffy soon realizes something is wrong...

* DownerEnding: Buffy comes home to find her mother dead.

** Warren is dismissive of Katrina and sics his malfunctioning robot onto Buffy, hinting at the amoral nature that leads to him crossing the MoralEventHorizon the following year.

* GroinAttack: Buffy is '''SLAMMING''' on some training pads, like she did when Scott broke up with her, UpToEleven which even hurt Faith, where she finishes with one of these because of her disgust at Spike's attraction. Turns out it was on Xander wearing a giant padded suit and even with this he's lucky to still have a groin, and Buffy is so apologetic to how crippling her overreaction was.

* PapaWolf: Giles lets out his Ripper menace to [[TwerpSweating warn off Spike]].

* WhamEpisode: In the closing minutes of the episode, Buffy stumbles across her mom's corpse.

* WindowPain: Fortunately there's now a carpenter on hand, with the Xander Man.

* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: April is programmed with great strength and a combat mode. Given that Warren is portrayed as something of a nerd, it's possible he made April that way simply because RidiculouslyHumanRobots ''always'' [[RuleOfCool have these abilities in TV and movies]].

* TraumaSwing: April 'dies' on a swing.

* SunnydaleSyndrome: Averted. Warren attended Sunnydale High. When Buffy shows up at his door and asks, "Do you know who I am?" he knows shit just got real. This would fit the events of "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E20TheProm The Prom]]" where it's shown the students do in fact know weird things are going on, and that Buffy is involved in fighting them. Warren also seems to know who and what Spike is--perhaps he saw him during the events of "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E3SchoolHard School Hard]]".

%%* TraumaSwing

%%* BuffySpeak: Xander.

* BlatantLies: When Spike drops by the Magic Box, he attempts to win some favor from the gang this way by giving an embellished version of what happened with Drusilla, claiming that he and Buffy actually worked together to fight Drusilla back and anything he said to hint at an attraction to Buffy was accidental. None of the Scoobies by it for a second.

* MustBeInvited: Warren wants to know how Spike got into his house. Spike replies that [[BasementDweller Warren's mother invited him in]].

* OperationJealousy: Spike chats up April to make Buffy jealous.

-->'''Giles:''' ''[[[TranquilFury softly]]]'' We are not your friends. We are not your way to Buffy. There is no way to Buffy.

%%* WhamEpisode: The end.

* PapaBear: Giles lets out his Ripper menace to [[TwerpSweating warn off Spike]].

->'''Driver:''' ''"What do you expect to find here in Sunnydale?"''
->'''April:''' ''"True love."''

Buffy rants about her problems with Spike while pounding away at Xander who is wearing a sumo-sized bodysuit. Xander consoles the Slayer about her love life, blaming the Hellmouth for her not being able to find a decent guy. A young woman arrives in Sunnydale, searching for her boyfriend. Joyce nervously prepares for a date with a man named Brian with the help of her daughters.

Anya and Tara discuss the Internet and Anya's knowledge of online stock trading and websites. April approaches them, asking if they know where Warren is, but when the girls can't help her, April moves on to another person and asks the same question. Buffy and Xander dance at a campus party while Anya, Tara and Willow watch. After dancing, Buffy locates Ben at the party and casually catches his attention. They chat briefly but awkwardly, and Buffy asks Ben to dance.

April goes door to door searching for Warren's residence. Willow finds Warren Mears on her computer and the house where he could be living. The gang talks about Warren and how he made April to fill a void in his life. Buffy finally gets up the nerve to call Ben, but the phone rings at Glory's place. She morphs into Ben to answer the phone, and a date is made for coffee.

Warren rushes to get packed and move away with his current girlfriend, Katrina, but she doesn't understand why. Buffy shows up at Warren's in search of answers relating to April, while Katrina finally walks out, upset about being kept in the dark. Warren reveals to Buffy that he made April to be the perfect girlfriend, however rather than falling in love with her as expected, he instead grew bored with how predictable she was easy things were with her. He then met and fell in love with Katrina, and, instead of "breaking up" with April, cowardly left her in his dorm room to let her batteries run down. Buffy asks if April is dangerous, and Warren tells her that she's only programmed to be in love with him... Which confirms to Buffy she is dangerous.

Buffy returns home to find that Joyce has been sent flowers from the man she recently had a date with, and calls upstairs to see if Dawn needs picking up. Receiving no answer, Buffy heads into the sitting room to see her mother sprawled across the couch, paled-skin, with opened eyes, and not breathing. Buffy soon realizes something is wrong...

!Tropes:

%%* AIIsACrapshoot

-->'''Buffy:''' She devoted everything to making this one person happy. And then it was like, with him gone, there was just ... no reason for her to exist any more. [snip] I mean, look at me obsessing about being with someone. It's like ... I don't need a guy right now. I need me. I need to get comfortable being alone with Buffy.\\
'''Xander:''' [[FriendshipMoment Well, I'll say this, she's a pretty cool person to be alone with]].\\
'''Buffy:''' ''(smiles)'' Thank you.

-->'''Buffy:''' Maybe I could change. I could work harder. I could spend less time slaying, I could laugh at his jokes; I mean, men like that, right, the, the joke-laughing-at?
-->'''Xander:''' Or maybe you could just be Buffy, he'll see your amazing heart, and he'll fall in love with you.

-->'''Buffy''': She growls? You made her so she ''growls''?
* ChekhovsGunman: Warren returns as a BigBad in Season 6. Katrina returns in the Season 6 episode "Dead Things".

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Buffy comes home to find her mother dead.]]

-->'''Warren:''' Uh, there's something you need to know about her.
-->'''Buffy:''' I know.
-->'''Warren:''' No, wait, this is important.
-->'''Buffy:''' Believe me, I, I worked it out.
-->'''Warren:''' No, this is something, uh, that you can't possibly know.
-->''(Buffy folds her arms and nods to him to continue. Zoom in dramatically on Warren taking a deep breath.)''
-->'''Warren:''' She's a robot.
-->'''Buffy:''' Uh-huh.

** Also, April's last words "Things are always darkest before..." is a nice nod to the upcoming season finale.
** Warren is [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere packing to get out of Sunnydale]] when Spike turns up with a box of stuff from his StalkerShrine and demands Warren build him another SexBot to Buffy's specs. This sets up "Intervention".

-->'''Xander:''' I think I've actually turned into someone you want around after a crazed robot attack.
-->'''Buffy:''' And if you ever start your own business, you have your slogan right there.

* HugAndComment: Xander gives his BeautifulAllAlong speech to Buffy which earns him a hug -- unfortunately Xander is strapped into a huge padded suit which makes him totally immobile, causing him to moan, "Great, today's the day you chose to hug me."

-->'''Buffy:''' Okay. We'll track down Warren tomorrow. Tonight I better go rescue Giles. He's been watching Dawn while my mom's out on her date, and I have a feeling there's only so much he can take.
-->'''Tara:''' Oh, Giles and Dawnie? I bet they ended up having a blast.
-->Cut to '''Giles:''' Dear god, Buffy, there's only so much I can take.

* MoodWhiplash: [[spoiler:Buffy shares a FriendshipMoment with Xander, comes home and smiles at the bouquet of flowers sent by Joyce's date, walks into the living room... and finds her mother's pale, unmoving body on the couch.]]

* ObliviousMockery: Buffy tells Xander that she dancing with him is much more fun than trying to hook up with some good-looking guy.

-->'''Joyce:''' Oh dear. [[FindingABraInYourCar I left my bra in his car.]]
-->'''Buffy:''' ''MOTHER!''
-->'''Joyce:''' I'm joking.
-->'''Buffy:''' (sighs) Good God, that's horrible. Don't do that.
-->'''Joyce:''' I left it in the restaurant.
-->''(Buffy puts her hands over her ears and starts running up the stairs)''
-->'''Buffy:''' No more! No more! No more!
-->'''Joyce:''' (yelling up the stairs at her) On the dessert cart!
-->'''Buffy:''' (OS, faintly) I can't hear you!

-->''([[TranquilFury softly]])'' "We are not your friends. We are not your way to Buffy. There is no way to Buffy."

-->'''Giles:''' Buffy, I think you should perhaps calm down.
-->'''Xander:''' Me too.
-->'''Buffy:''' Oh! Puffy!Xander, uh, I'm sorry, I got ... guess I got carried away. Are you okay?
-->'''Xander:''' I'm alive. I can tell 'cause of the pain.

-->'''Tara:''' She practically had 'Genuine Molded Plastic' stamped on her ass.
-->''(Everyone gives her very odd looks)''
-->'''Tara:''' Just ... tryin' a little spicy talk.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Buffy to Spike: "Get...away...from me".
* PygmalionPlot: Averted; Warren thought he'd fall in love with his creation, but [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction she turned out to be boring as opposed to his real life unpredictable girlfriend]].

%%* SexBot: April.

-->'''Buffy:''' (pounding on Puffy!Xander) I feel gross, you know, like, like, dirty.
-->'''Giles:''' That's ridiculous, you can't be responsible for what Spike thinks or, feels.
-->'''Buffy:''' (stops punching) Well, [[ItsAllMyFault aren't I responsible]]? I mean, something about me had to make him feel that, right? Something that made him say, "woof, that's the one for me!"

* SunnydaleSyndrome: Averted. Warren attended Sunnydale High. When Buffy shows up at his door and asks "Do you know who I am?" he knows shit just got real. This would fit the events of "The Prom" where it's shown the students do in fact know weird things are going on, and that Buffy is involved in fighting them. Warren also seems to know who and what Spike is -- perhaps he saw him during the events of "School Hard".

* TakingTheBullet / IKnowKungFu: [[FreezeFrameBonus Some of the actions programmed into April's combat mode.]]

* WallGlower: The Scoobies are unanimous in showing their distaste for Spike after the events of "Crush".

-->'''Warren:''' I made it so that if she heard me and she didn't answer, it causes this kind of feedback.
-->'''Buffy:''' Wait, if you call her and she doesn't answer, it hurts her? ''(he looks embarrassed)'' You're one creepy little dweeb, Warren.

Warren rushes to get packed and move away with his current girlfriend, Katrina, but she doesn't understand why. Buffy shows up at Warren's in search of answers relating to April, while Katrina finally walks out, upset about being kept in the dark. Warren reveals to Buffy that he made April to be the perfect girlfriend, however rather than falling in love with her as expected, he instead grew bored with how predictable she was easy things were with her. He then met and fell in love with Katrina, and, instead of "breaking up" with April, cowardly left her in his dorm room to let her batteries run down. Buffy asks if Katrina is dangerous, and Warren tells her that she's only programmed to be in love with him... Which confirms to Buffy she is dangerous.

* AIIsACrapshoot

'''Buffy:''' (smiles) Thank you.

* BuffySpeak: Puffy!Xander

* EverybodyKnewAlready

* {{Foreshadowing}}

* FriendshipMoment: Between Xander and Buffy.
* GoodNameForARockBand

* IronicEchoCut

* KissMeIAmVirtual: April.

* NoExceptYes: Warren didn't dump April, he just walked off and left her, figuring her batteries would run down.

-->([[TranquilFury softly]]) "We are not your friends. We are not your way to Buffy. There is no way to Buffy."

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Buffy to Spike: "Get...away...from me."

* SexBot: April

* TraumaSwing

* WhamEpisode: The end.

* KissMeIAmVirtual

* ParentalSexualitySquick: Buffy kids her mum about the lack of apparent passion between Joyce and her date. But Joyce has the last laugh.

** Unfortunately, Jane Espenson notes in her DVDCommentary that the joke is ruined by Joyce wearing a strapless dress.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Subverted in that the Scoobies realise quite quickly that she's a robot.

* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Glory morphs into Ben, who belatedly realises he's wearing a red silk dress.

* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: April is programmed with great strength and a combat mode. Given that Warren is portrayed as something of a nerd in Season 6, it's possible he made April that way simply because RidiculouslyHumanRobots ''always'' [[RuleOfCool have these abilities in TV and movies]].

A RobotGirl is wandering around town looking for her maker. First appearance of Warren. Also contains a ''very good'' example of MoodWhiplash in the closing minutes...

->'''Driver''': What do you expect to find here in Sunnydale?
->'''April''': True love.

* VampireInvitation: Warren wants to know how Spike got into his house. Spike replies that [[BasementDweller Warren's mother invited him in]].

* CallBack: Dawn mentions the [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E11Ted Ted affair]] and how she always said there could have been more than one of him. [[FalseMemories Wait a minute...]]

* HilariousInHindsight: Giles mentions a cookie dough conversation, in an episode where Buffy has the same Aesop re boyfriends she does in "Chosen".

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: April was originally to have been played by Music/BritneySpears.

A RobotGirl is wandering around town looking for her maker. First appearance of Warren.

Also contains a ''very good'' example of MoodWhiplash in [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E16TheBody the closing minutes]]...

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: April was originally to have been played by BritneySpears.

* {{Yandere}}: April is a surprisingly sympathetic and tragic one, considering the way this trope usually goes.

* CallBack: Dawn mentions the Ted affair and how she always said there could have been more than one of him. [[FalseMemories Wait a minute...]]

* CodeRed: Willow says that April is dangerous but doesn't appear to be out to kill anyone. "Is there a Code Pink?"