YMMV / Buffy the Vampire Slayer S4 E10 "Hush"

• Ensemble Dark Horse: This was the only episode the Gentlemen ever appeared in, but they're widely considered to be among the scariest and most iconic monsters in Buffy history.
• Fight Scene Failure: Lampshaded by Joss Whedon in his DVD Commentary: "Look! Buffy's strapped on her fighting boobs!" (Sophia Crawford, who was Sarah Michelle Gellar's stunt double for the first four seasons, is much bustier than the small-breasted Gellar. Costuming and camera angles usually managed to downplay the difference, but the close quarters of the fights in this episode rendered the regular techniques ineffective.)
• Genius Bonus: A clue to why the Gentlemen require seven hearts may be in Revelations 15:1, the verse being read in the silent prayer meeting held on the streets of Sunnydale.
  Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The state of California thoroughly locks down Sunnydale seemingly overnight, in response to what is thought by the public through their ever-present Weirdness Censor to be a community-wide "outbreak of laryngitis" — a far more comprehensive measure than those taken against the COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020s.
• Les Yay: Buffy and Willow are seen holding hands while walking down the street.
• Magnificent Bastard: The Gentlemen are a group of monsters whose politeness is only matched by their horrifying nature. Originating from a fairy tale, the Gentlemen arrive in Sunnydale and remove the voices from everyone in the town, descending it into chaos overnight. Waiting until sundown to strike, the Gentlemen then go on the hunt for seven human hearts, taking advantage of the silence to ensure the victims cannot scream or call for help. When two of them pursue Willow and Tara across campus, they prove to be relentless foes, only giving up when they both combine their powers to drive them away; additionally, when Buffy arrives in their headquarters, one of them quickly stabs her from behind, taking her out of the fight entirely. Although theatrical and polite with one another, the Gentlemen prove themselves to be intelligent and dangerous foes who remain some of the most terrifying monsters ever encountered in the franchise.
• Retroactive Recognition: That's legendary prosthetics and monster actor Doug Jones behind the makeup of the lead Gentleman.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: A journalist once told Joss Whedon that the thing he liked most about the show was the dialogue. Thus he created an episode with almost no dialogue.
• Strawman Has a Point: The Wiccans dismiss Willow for suggesting they try actual magic, as they would do in any real life school. They're portrayed as being close-minded posers, despite the masquerade being in effect and as far as they're concerned, Willow's suggestion is no more valid than it would be in real life. Also worth noting that Wicca is a real life religion. And while they do believe in magic as part of their faith, expecting them to be magic practitioners because of that is ... potentially offensive.

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