YMMV / Buffy the Vampire Slayer S 4 E 3 "The Harsh Light of Day"

• Anvilicious: The episode's message about the downsides of sex, particularly casual sex, are quite heavy-handed, with the three female characters who engaged in it walking alone regretfully at the end of the episode. Anya is also shown rather than Xander despite him being the one in the pair who is a main cast member.
  • Looked at in another light, the episode isn't so much about sex as it is about unequal emotional attachment. All three female characters are clearly far more into their partners than their partners were into them. Neither Anya nor Harmony is depicted as upset about the sex itself; they're upset about being rejected. Since it's all the male characters being "detached" and all the female characters being "hurt" this can be taken as a pretty heavy-handed view on gender relations.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Buffy laughs when Parker asks her if she and Spike used to date. Come season six and the idea of Buffy and Spike being in a relationship doesn't seem so ridiculous.
  • Buffy comments that, as a vampire, Harmony "must be dying without a reflection". We see in "Harm's Way" how Harmony eventually copes without a reflection.
• Spoiled by the Format: Spike's Dramatic Unmask is spoiled by the credits having already announced a few minutes prior that "James Marsters as Spike" was going to appear in the episode, leaving little doubt who Harmony's vampiric boyfriend would turn out to be.

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