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Tropes

• The Bluebeard
• Catch Phrase: Ted has a couple: "Beg to differ" and "I'm not wired that way". Both of them take on far darker meanings as the episode goes on.
• Clothing Reflects Personality: Buffy wears the Dungarees of Depression to school after killing Ted.
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: Buffy goes hunting for something to take out her frustrations on, but she's too depressed to make an effort; we see her sitting on a Trauma Swing saying "Vampires? Heeeere vampires..."
• Deadpan Snarker: Angel gets a rare opportunity here, when Buffy keeps complaining to him about Ted being all anyone can ever talk about.
  So you going to talk about something else at some point?
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Children refusing to accept their separated parent's new love interest.
• Emotionally Tongue Tied
• Everybody Must Get Stoned: Ted's cooking contains sedatives and other drugs, and Buffy is the only person who never eats any of it.
• Facial Horror
• The Fettered
  Cordelia: "I don't get it. Buffy's the Slayer, shouldn't she have—"
  Xander: "What, a license to kill?"
  Cordelia: "Well, not for fun, but she's like this Superman. Shouldn't there be different rules for her?"
  Willow: "Sure, in a fascist society."
  Cordelia: "Right! Why can't we have one of those?"
• Florence Nightingale Effect: Buffy quite enjoys nursing Angel back to health.
• Foreshadowing: "Nobody beats the machine".
  • Willow saving some of Ted's parts foreshadows her interest in the Buffybot.
• Friend or Foe: Jenny shoots Giles with a crossbow while he's struggling with a vampire.
• Frying Pan of Doom: How Buffy takes down Ted, which is Laser-Guided Karma given his oft-praised cooking.
• Getting Smilies Painted On Your Soul: The result of Ted's cooking.
• How Did You Know? I Didn't
• How Unscientific: The series brings in sci-fi elements, but without much comment from the characters. Arguable this was already done in "I Robot, You Jane" but that also involved a demon. Continuity is maintained however in that we see Ridiculously Human Robots in later seasons as well.
• Hypocritical Humor
  Xander: You wanna go in the utility closet and make out?
  Cordelia: God! Is that all you ever think about? [beat] Okay.
• Karma Houdini: A line at the beginning implies the Order Of Taraka (from the previous episode) simply backed off (three were killed over the previous two episodes, but most are presumably still out there).
  • Because Spike is (temporarily) out of the picture, presumably they're no longer getting paid. According to Angel the "contract is off".
• Meaningful Name: Ted is clearly based off serial killer Ted Bundy. The office whiteboard with the sales count even says "Ted B.".
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Ted's reflection in the window behind Buffy tells the audience he's not a vampire.
• Metaphorgotten
  Buffy: Vampires are creeps.
  Giles: Yes, that's why one slays them.
  Buffy: I mean, people are perfectly happy getting along, and then vampires come, and they run around and they kill people, and they take over your whole house, they start making these stupid little mini pizzas, and everyone's like, 'I like your mini pizzas,' but I'm telling you, I am...
  Giles: Uh, uh, Buffy! I-I believe the... subtext here is, is, rapidly becoming, uh, uh, text.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Buffy is delighted when Ted gives her an excuse to beat him up, until she knocks him down the stairs and breaks his neck.
• Not Even Human
• Only Sane Man: No one except Buffy suspects Ted's motives, and while at first it just seems like she's upset about her mother getting a boyfriend, it turns out that Ted laces his cooking with drugs to prevent people from catching on to his scheme.
• Parent With New Paramour: A very, very dark take on this trope.
• Peek-A-Boo Corpse: Although we don't see them, the (literal) skeletons Xander finds in the closet.
• Percussive Therapy: Buffy says she's OK about her mother taking up with a new man. Gilligan Cut to a shocked Giles watching Buffy beating the crap out of a vampire with a dustbin lid.
  Giles: It, it's, it's staking time, really. Don't you think?
• Pocket Protector: Giles after getting hit by a crossbow bolt.
  Giles: No, no, really, I, uh, I don't think it went in too deep. The... advantages of layers of tweed. Better than kevlar.
• Playing Possum: The vampire is laughing over how Giles got shot with his friend's crossbow, when Giles yanks out the bolt and stakes him with it.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Giles has apparently learned some lessons from Buffy, as Jenny complains about him doing this.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Especially for one built in The Fifties.
• Right Behind Me
  Buffy: I'm pretty good at sensing what's going on around me, and there is definitely something wrong with this... Ted.
  Xander: Ted!
  Buffy: Of course, Ted. Who'd you think I was talking about?
  Xander: Hi, Ted! Ted, who's here.
  Ted: Hello, kids!
• Robotic Reveal
• Secret Diary: Ted reading Buffy's diary sparks off their first 'fatal' confrontation.
• Secret Relationship: Cordelia overreacts to Xander giving her a compliment, because they want to keep their affair secret and the Scoobies will be tipped off if they stop snarking at each other.
• Shout Out: To The Stepford Wives (or perhaps one of the B-Movie sequels The Stepford Husbands).
• Sorry To Interrupt / Book Ends: At the start of the episode Buffy walks in on her mother kissing Ted. At the end of the episode, Buffy walks in on Giles and Jenny kissing.
  Buffy: Okay! That's it! I give up! Do I have to sound an air horn every time I walk into a room? What is it with grown-ups these days?
• Squee: Willow's reaction to Ted saying he can get her a free computer upgrade.
• Staircase Tumble
• Standard '50s Father: Ted
• Tempting Fate: Lampshaded again.
  Xander: Yeah, with Spike and Drusilla out of the way, we've really been ridin' the mellow, and I am really jinxing the hell out of us by saying that?
  Buffy: Yeah, but we'll let you off this time.
• Unexplained Recovery: Ted is deliberately nonchalant about his reappearance after leaving Buffy's home in a body bag.
  Ted: I'm a salesman! That's what you should have remembered. No matter how you put him down, a good salesman always bounces back.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers For Good
  Buffy: Willow, tell me you didn't keep any parts.
  Willow: Not any big ones.
  Buffy: Oh, Will, you're supposed to use your powers for good!