Season 5, Episode 11 | Aired: 9 January 2001 | Written by: Jane Espenson | Directed by: Christopher Hibler
Willow and Anya are left in charge of the Magic Box while Giles is in England. A troll named Olaf — who is, it emerges, Anya’s ex-boyfriend from the ninth century, turned into a troll by Anya herself when she was a vengeance demon — arrives and causes structural damage to Sunnydale. The episode is the season’s lightest entry and is primarily an excuse for Willow and Anya to argue and eventually come to a provisional understanding. It works.
What Happens
Olaf (Abraham Benrubi) wants mead and babies. He destroys the Bronze. Xander has to choose between Willow and Anya — Olaf offers to spare one of them — and he says he can’t choose, because choosing either means losing something he loves. Buffy defeats Olaf with a large hammer. Anya collects the hammer. Olaf is sent to a troll dimension.
Key Moments
Anya and Willow discovering, in the middle of a crisis, that they have more in common than they thought — specifically, that they’re both terrified of losing Xander in different ways, and that this fear is something they can share rather than compete over.
Monster / Villain
Olaf — enthusiastic, large, not especially malicious for a troll. His relationship to Anya’s past is the episode’s interesting element.
Notable Quote
“He was supposed to be there for me — he was supposed to love me… and he left me!” — Anya, about Olaf, in a speech that is also about Xander and also about nothing she can say directly.
Where It Fits
Triangle is the mid-season breather the show allows itself before the Joyce arc reaches its conclusion. It advances Willow/Anya’s relationship and gives Anya backstory. Light but well-made.